The magic of upsets continued during the course of a rather unpredictable UGC Smash Open weekend at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, IL. With the number one position on SSBMRank so heavily contested, each match between Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma and Adam "Armada" Lindgren has become much more important. But this time, the grand finals featured Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman.
In the winners' bracket, Edgard "n0ne" Sheleby sent Mew2King to losers' after a close five-game set, while Michael "Mike Haze" Pulido sent Joseph "Mango" Marquez to losers' after a 3-1 victory. The early unpredictable losses meant that Mew2King and Mango would play earlier than normal in the losers' bracket with the loser placing in thirteenth place. The set went to a close game five, but Mew2King managed to outplay Mango in several spots to take the set.
For Armada and Hungrybox, it was business as usual as they went relatively unscathed in their paths to winners' finals. In winners' semis, n0ne started the set strong against Armada, but Armada meticulously put together a comeback to win the first game and, later, the entire set. Hungrybox had little trouble with William "Leffen" Hjelte as he won in four games. It seems like a reoccurring pattern; another tournament, another Armada-Hungrybox finals.
Hungrybox struck early in the winners' finals set by winning the first two games. His level of play started to look like his Evo 2016 performance, but Armada's grit let him take the next three games to win the set and advance into grand finals.
Meanwhile, Mew2King slowly built momentum in Top 8, defeating James "Duck" Ma, Mango, Mustafa "Ice" Akcakaya, Zachary "SFAT" Cordoni, n0ne, and Leffen to advance into losers' finals.
The thorn in Mew2king's side, Hungrybox, was the next roadblock. The set count has been heavily in Hungrybox's favor in 2016, but Mew2King showed smart adaptations this time. Instead of the usual laser-camping style, Mew2King played much more aggressively and invaded Hungrybox's space without making too many mistakes. The strategic adjustments worked out for Mew2King, as he surprised everyone with a win and ticket to the grand finals against Armada.
By far, this has been one of the longest losers' bracket runs of Mew2King's career, but could he take two consecutive sets over Armada?
The odds did not seem to be in Mew2King's favor. In 2016, his set record against Armada was an abysmal 1-7, but that didn't seem to matter to him at UGC. He played the first set masterfully, controlling the pace of the game as he pressured Armada into making tough decision after tough decision. Mew2King managed to reset the bracket after winning the first set in four games, and the momentum seemed to be on his side.
However, beating Armada in two consecutive sets is no easy task and Armada began to hit his stride in the second set. The easy kill setups that Mew2King found in Set 1 were nowhere to be found in the second. Armada won Game 1 decisively on Battlefield, and Mew2King looked to even things up on Final Destination. In a nail-biting Game 2, Armada found the killing blow before Mew2King, to take a 2-0 lead.
With his back against the wall, Mew2king gained some momentum by winning Game 3 on the runback on Final Destination, but Armada now had access to two strong counter-pick stages for the remainder of the set. On Dreamland, Mew2King put together an impressive display of dash-dancing and mixups, but Armada's strong defensive use of turnips and counter-attacks were too much as he clinched the set 3-1 to win UGC.
Despite finishing in second, Mew2King gives his fans something to cheer about as he demonstrated that he can win against anyone in the world. At UGC, he put together an impressive run, and defeated four members of the big 6 in the process. Armada, on the other hand, sealed his second consecutive title as best player of the year over Hungrybox on the annual rankings.