March Madness is in full swing, and a few surprises have already graced the NCAA men's basketball tournament, like No. 11 Xavier knocking off No. 2 Arizona on Thursday night. In a 64-team bracket, anything can happen, and only four teams will exit the weekend to make their way to Glendale, Arizona, for a chance at a national title.
In esports, brackets come in all forms. You have tournaments that take place on a single day, while others are extended over a month or longer. Some are online, and some are offline. Some taking place in several venues leading up to the final, and there are events that take place within a single studio or arena. Yet, just like March Madness or any other bracket, tournament runs -- from the utter domination of an all-time legendary team to unbelievable runs by unknown Cinderellas -- are no strangers to esports.
Here are some of the greatest and most memorable tournament runs of the past decade in esports across multiple gaming titles.
The miracle in Mandalay
Smash Bros. Melee had never experienced a bigger tournament than Evolution 2016. The game, which needed support through a fan drive to get it back into the Evolution lineup, was front and center on Sunday, the second-to-last game of the night in front of a packed house at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. This represented years of effort and work put into the Melee scene come to fruition, with fans showing up in droves online and in person to make sure tournament organizers knew that Melee belonged with the top titles in the fighting games genre.
The tournament itself couldn't have been better. The main rivalry was between Swedish top player Adam "Armada" Lindgren and American Jigglypuff enthusiast Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma. The pair appeared to be on a collision course for a memorable finals, but one problem arose: Hungrybox lost in the upper bracket semifinals to Justin "Plup" McGrath in a stunning upset.
Armada would go on to dispatch Plup in a quick 3-0 series and awaited whomever would meet him in the final. Hungrybox, now stuck in the lower bracket, had to fight to get back where he once was, defeating Johnny "S2J" Kim and arch rival Cloud9's Joseph "Mango" Marquez to make it back against Plup. Like he did in his previous match against Mango, Hungrybox would drop the first game of the set before battling back to take the series 2-1.
The finals versus Armada would be a roller coaster of emotions. First, Hungrybox would take two games against Armada in the first match of the Grand Finals, needing to win a best-of-five contest to reset the bracket and give himself another best of five to win the entire tournament. But Armada wouldn't make it easy for Hungrybox, pushing the first competition to all five games by winning the next two in the series. Hungrybox would hold on, though, taking the fifth set and resetting the bracket, making it all come down to a final match between the world's two best Melee players.
As with the Mango and Plup matches before, Hungrybox had to battle from behind twice in the final best of five, dropping the first and third sets. He would win the fourth set to tie it up 2-2, and in the final match, he would fight back for a final time, this time winning him the trophy that had been eluding him for years after having been runner-up the previous two years.
The lasting image of Melee's biggest (and possibly greatest) event was Hungrybox, emotional after his win, sprawling to the ground, hands in the air, as an Evolution champion at last.
The Assassins put Taiwan on the map
Going into the 2012 League of Legends World Championships, the talk of which team would prevail circulated around the four major regions of China, North America, Europe and South Korea. Counter Logic Gaming Europe and South Korea's Azubu Frost had just clashed in the final of the OGN Champions, with Frost pulling off a reverse-sweep to take the slimmest of victories, and both clubs were seen as major contenders for the Summoner's Cup. North America had Team SoloMid, and China had World Elite as its designated hero.
Taiwan, on the other hand, the often forgotten fifth major region, had the Taipei Assassins. While the other clubs across the world were sizing each other up, the Taiwanese scene was a mystery. TPA entered the tournament with no fanfare and had no expectations to perform. In the quarterfinals, the Assassins proved how strong the team actually was, knocking South Korean team NaJin Sword out of the tournament. The Assassins followed up that victory with an even bigger upset by eliminating Moscow Five, a team many pundits believed as the best in the world heading into the tournament, and advanced into the Summoner's Cup Final versus Azubu Frost.
This would be the last World Championships in which a South Korean team wouldn't leave as champion (a South Korean team has won the past four titles). In South Korea's first trip to the Summoner's Cup Final, Azubu Frost lost in the final against the mysterious Taiwanese champion 3-1. It was the only major international victory for the Taiwan region in League of Legends until the Flash Wolves broke the drought this year with its conquest of the IEM World Championship in Katowice, Poland.
The belt comes off at Evo
The 2011 Evolution Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition Championship was won by Keita "Fuudo" Ai, one of the best Street Fighter players to this day. The Japanese Fei Long player would defeat Saudi Arabia's Abdullatif "Latif" Alhmili and his onslaught-heavy C.Viper in the final. Congratulations to both of those players for their achievement, but the reason why this tournament is on the list is because of one man: South Korea's Gon "Poongko" Lee-chung.
Poongko is not your average professional gamer. He is a showman, his antics resembling more a professional wrestler than a guy who plays video games for a living. At Evolution 2011, Poongko was at his very best, getting all the way into the top four of the tournament with the feast-or-famine character Seth. The final boss of the Street Fighter IV story mode, Seth was the perfect character to represent Poongko's personality; when Seth won, there was nothing prettier, the character able to defeat an enemy in a matter of seconds with a blitz of combos. But when he lost, it was equally as quick -- the character it the definition of a glass cannon.
In the Final Four, Poongko would face "Mr. Street Fighter" himself, Daigo "The Beast" Umehara. The greatest hero the game has ever known, Daigo at that time was actually seen as somewhat as a villain, having ditched his longtime character Ryu in favor of the game's strongest character, Yun. Daigo wanted to show what would happen when the best player in the world picked up the strongest character to make the perfect team.
Before the match between the two men began, Poongko stood up from his seated position on the main stage and ripped off his jacket, pulled off his belt and threw his ID credentials to the wayside. He chugged an energy drink, as the fans, motivated by their charismatic new hero, cheered in unison.
For the match itself, it's better seen than believed. Only one word can describe Poongko's Seth vs. Daigo's Yun: Perfection.
Scarlett's big break in Las Vegas
Almost no one in the StarCraft scene knew who Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn was back at the start of 2012. She had won the Playhem "Sponsor Me!" Tournament, an online StarCraft II tournament that provided a sponsored trip to Las Vegas for IPL4 to any amateur player who won. Scarlett then ventured off to Las Vegas with no one expecting her to do anything of note.
She would go, lose to an actual professional player and then enjoy her free vacation by hanging out with other tournamentgoers and return home having something fun to look back on for the rest of her life.
That's not what happened, however.
Scarlett, to the shock of everyone at the event, defeated South Korean pro Song "Terius" Byung-hak in her first match. To put things into perspective, beating a South Korean pro, even for an elite non-South Korean professional, was a huge deal in the StarCraft community. An amateur, one that had come out of nowhere, defeating a South Korean pro on a strong club such as Prime at the time was believed to be a mistake at first. There was no way this nobody could beat a professional South Korean StarCraft II player. And yet, it turned out to be true, and Scarlett would go on to win her next match, as well, before ultimately being knocked down to the lower bracket by Kim "Oz" Hak-soo with a close scoreline of 2-1.
Although Scarlett was unable to make it out of the Open Bracket, losing to Jo "Golden" Myeong-hwan, she had put herself on the map. She would only build on her momentum after the tournament and eventually become a pro player, now standing as one of the few non-South Korean players who can take games off and beat the better South Korean pros in the world. And it all started with an improbable run in Las Vegas.
'The Pretender'
Park "fOrGG" Ji-soo has bragging rights for life for the most famous tournament run in StarCraft: Brood War history. Back in 2008, fOrGG was a solid Terran player known for his keen eye for attacking timings. A champion, though? Maybe not. But in the 2008 Arena MSL, he would go on to have a run that is still remembered to this day.
He topped his opening round group by going 2-0, and his strong play followed him into the bracket stage, where he defeated his opponents in the Round of 16 and quarterfinals.
This is where his story becomes legendary, as fOrGG would go on to defeat arguably the greatest Terran (and player) of all-time in Lee "Flash" Young-ho in the semifinals, taking the series 3-1. In the final against Lecaf Oz teammate Lee "Jaedong" Jae-dong, it was another match in which he would go toe-to-toe with another legend of Brood War. fOrGG would stomp Jaedong in the finals, beating him in a sweep and pulling off the most impressive back-to-back tournament wins in Brood War history.
Beating Flash or Jaedong in even a single game was considered an accomplishment for most pros. Eliminating either from a tournament was a cause for celebration. fOrGG not only defeated them, but eliminated both in succession, not even needing to go to a fifth and final map in either series, winning the tournament with a 6-1 record against two of the most well-known professional gamers in all of South Korea.
The win was so synonymous with fOrGG that the song played during the tournament's intro, the Foo Fighters' hit "The Pretender," became his nickname from there on out.