CEO 2014 - Melee and Project M Results and VODs

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

CEO had always been a traditional FGC tournament series, but tournament organizer Alex Jebailey has recently warmed up to the Smash community and was happy to include both Melee and Project M this year. It also featured a unique wrestling theme: the main stage was shaped like a ring, there was a separate enclosed metal cage, and the winner even got to take home a championship belt. The final attendance count, including spectators, was over 2600.

In addition to Super Smash Bros. Melee and Project M, CEO 2014 also featured Ultra Street Fighter 4, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Killer Instinct (Xbox One), Injustice Ultimate, King of Fighters XIII, BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma, DiveKick, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Capcom vs. SNK 2 Legacy, Soul Calibur V and Persona 4 Arena.

Project M Doubles

Jason 'Mew2King' Zimmerman Gonzalo 'ZeRo' Barrios moved through the bracket with little trouble on one side, while Justin 'Wizzrobe' Hallett Justin 'Plup' McGrath are just as dominant on the other, even defeating the somewhat unlikely team of Adam 'Armada' Lindgren Juan 'Hungrybox' Debiedma. When the two meet in Winners Finals, it's Wizzrobe's Sonic and Plup's Metaknight that claim a 3-1 victory for Florida over the master and disciple team. In the Losers bracket, Armada Hungrybox are eliminated by Kashan 'Chillindude' Khan Daniel 'ChuDat' Rodriguez, who then loses 0-3 to Mew2King ZeRo. The Grand Finals rematch goes just as well for Wizzrobe Plup, who take the Project M Doubles tournament 3-1.

Melee Doubles

Melee Doubles progresses in essentially the same way. The two titanic teams in this event are Mew2King Armada and Hungrybox Plup. Hungrybox is also from Florida, so Plup's team is again the local favorite (and Melee is Plup's primary game), but Mew2King Armada defeat them without dropping a single match. ZeRo Eric 'ESAM' Lew impressively make their way to Losers Semifinals (both players having historically focused more on Brawl) and eliminate both Ken 'Ken' Hoang Daniel 'Korean DJ' Jung and Colin 'Colbol' Green Aziz 'Hax' Al-Yami before finally going out to Chillindude and ChuDat. Hungrybox and Plup take Losers Finals without a sweat; Mew2King and Armada 3-0 them in Grand Finals just as easily.

Fightermania II

This special Project M event pitted 16 players (those who got the most Retweets on Twitter) against each other in a series of Free-For-All matches, all played on a custom in-game wrestling ring stage resemblant of the one from the E3 Invitational. 5 stocks; Smash Balls set to Medium; all other items turned off. These are the chosen few:

• ChuDat
• Chibo
• ZeRo
• GIMR
• aMSa
• HungryBox
• UmmBEes
• Chillindude
• Wizzrobe
• Mang0
• Strong Bad
• Ken
• Bryonato
• Reflex
• Syphilis
• Mew2King

Unsurprisingly, the matches mostly come down to the effective use of Final Smashes, and soon there are only four remaining: Wizzrobe, Hendrick 'DJ Nintendo' Pilar, Luis 'Reflex' Torres and Chillindude. The event also showcases the newly revealed "All Star Mode," which allows players to pick a different character for each stock. It's a close final battle, but Reflex narrowly wins with his final (and main) character, Wario. He uses Wario's Final Smash, which makes him faster, stronger and invulnerable, to corner and finish off both DJ Nintendo and Chillindude in one fell swoop.

Project M Top 8

Project M unfortunately starts behind schedule on Day 3 and takes longer than expected to finish. To the surprise of everyone except the loyal Florida crowd, Wizzrobe defeats Mew2King 2-0 in Winners Semifinals. Mew2King's Sheik and Marth are simply too slow to adapt to Sonic's unique combos and Wizzrobe's mastery of the character. Wizzrobe's main has always been Sonic, but an earlier build of Project M made the character too powerful. Now that Sonic is more balanced and Wizzrobe can still handily defeat Mew2King, his skill at the game is undeniable.

ZeRo defeats ChuDat's highly defensive and patient Kirby in the other Winners Semifinals match. Justin 'False Prophet Flareon' Lew (AKA Nick Riddle)'s Bowser defeats Larry 'DEHF' Holland's Falco while Armada's Pit eliminates Reflex's Wario. Armada is arguably the favorite to win the tournament, so it was a shock to see ChuDat send him to Losers Bracket so early on Day 2. And it ends up making a huge difference, since he now has to face Mew2king, whose MewTwo surprisingly knocks Armada out of the tournament. ChuDat defeats Flareon in the same round, but Mew2King takes him out right afterward. In Losers Finals, Mew2King gets his rematch against Wizzrobe—this time he plays MewTwo and takes an early lead, but Wizzrobe eventually figures him out and wins the set 3-2.

Moving on to Grand Finals, Wizzrobe and ZeRo begin a long, arduous set. It goes back and forth in nearly every match, but you wouldn't know it from looking at the results. Wizzrobe's slick combos and superior movement game win him a 3-0 win in set 1 over ZeRo's Pit. After losing match 1 of set 2 with Pit, ZeRo switches to Fox (his Melee main) and is finally able to contest Sonic's speed and kill power. He overwhelms Wizzrobe, even 3-stocking his Sonic in game 3, and amazingly takes Grand Finals 3-1. After winning, ZeRo hugs him for about 10 seconds straight.

Melee Singles Top 8

Several players are conspicuously absent from the Melee Top 8. Masaya 'aMSa' Chikamoto was eliminated early on by Wenbo in the Winners Bracket and Porkchops on the Losers side. Aziz 'Hax' Al-Yami also had to drop out due to insomnia issues. DJ Nintendo lost earlier to Arc, Chillin was defeated by Wizzrobe, and Plup took out both Fiction and ChuDat.

Winners Semifinals: Hungrybox (Fox) vs. Armada (Young Link, Peach)

[Watch VOD here]

Their Pools set at MLG Anaheim showed Armada's dominance vs. Jigglypuff, but Hungrybox's character choice is still surprising since he's never played Fox at a major tournament before. Hungrybox's general Melee skill carries his unorthodox Fox through to a 2-stock in game 1 and takes Armada's Peach down to the last stock in game 2 with great defensive full-hopping and creative aerial placement. Having secured the counterpick advantage, Hungrybox is able to force a Young Link vs. Fox rematch, but by now Armada has started to adapt and is no longer dropping combos or edgeguards. It's a 2-stock win for Armada and a 2-1 in the set.

Winners Semifinals: Mang0 (Fox) vs. Mew2King (Sheik)

[Watch VOD here]

As usual, Joseph 'Mang0' Marquez is fast and overwhelming, while Mew2King aims for extended techchases and low% edgeguard kills. Mew2King's Sheik looks a bit under the weather as he uncharacteristically misses a lot of punishes, and Mang0 takes a 3-stock win in the first game on Dreamland. Mew2King counterpicks to Fountain of Dreams with Marth and takes the first two stocks with an Azen-like flurry of Fsmashes. Then, Mang0 goes on a 3-stock rampage, finishing it with a JV 2-stock and sending Mew2King into the Losers bracket.

Winners Finals: Mang0 (Fox) vs. Armada (Peach)

[Watch VOD here]

Armada's Up-air combos are looking even better than normal, and he's not missing any edgeguards like he did at MLG. But Mang0 is playing intelligently, shooting lasers where appropriate to force Armada to approach, then attacking him relentlessly. It's a close set, with every match going down to the last stock, but the final result is 3-1 for Mang0.

Insider sources inform us that the sets played off-stream (due to time constraints) went as follows:

• Losers Bracket (for 7th): Plup (Samus) 2-0 vs. Shephard 'Fiction' Lima (Fox)
• Losers Bracket (for 7th): Wizzrobe (Falcon) 2-1 vs. Colbol (Fox)
• Losers Quarterfinals (for 5th): Hungrybox (Jigglypuff) 2-0 vs. Wizzrobe (Falcon)
• Losers Quarterfinals (for 5th): Mew2King (Sheik) 2-0 vs. Plup (Samus)

Losers Semifinals: Hungrybox (Jigglypuff) vs. Mew2King (Fox)

[Watch VOD here]

Mew2King has been on a win streak against Hungrybox, but Hungrybox finally broke it with their recent set at Get On My Level 2014. Now they're in Hungrybox's home state of Florida, and the crowd is clearly on his side. Mew2King's barrage of lasers and Upthrow to Upair combos isn't enough to equalize with Hungrybox's devastating Bair edgeguards and rest setups. 2-0 for Hungrybox.

Losers Finals: Hungrybox (Fox) vs. Armada (Young Link)

[Watch VOD here]

Ironically, Armada's Young Link is weaving in and out of Fox's range in a manner reminiscent of Hungrybox's Jigglypuff. This time, Armada barely wins the all-important first game with a risky Nair shield poke. At one point in match 2, Armada uses Young Link's very long milk-drinking taunt; Hungrybox responds to his cockiness with a great combo/techchase that finishes off his entire stock. Every match is Fox vs. Young Link and goes down to 1 stock apiece, but Armada takes the set 3-0 and moves on to Grand Finals. (Here's hoping they repeat this matchup in the future.)

Grand Finals (Set 1): Mang0 (Fox) vs. Armada (Peach)

[Watch VOD here]

Will it be MLG Grand Finals all over again, or will Armada be able to show Mang0 his final form? There's an immediately noticeable difference from Winners Finals: Armada is moving faster and doing a better job of reacting to Mang0's attacks, while Mang0 is spending more time in shield and missing Upsmashes.

Game 2 on Yoshi's Story is over in the blink of an eye. Mang0 self-destructs while down 1 stock to 3, conceding a match he sees as hopeless. In the third match, Armada plucks a Stitchface (the strongest turnip) but throws it away—he's stated that he does this to avoid the risk of his opponent catching it. At this point, it's not surprising to see that level of self-confidence. Armada's Peach hits Fox like a truck. A truck loaded with explosives, driven by a very angry person. He wins with a 2-stock to take a quick 3-0 in set 1 of Grand Finals.

Grand Finals (Set 2): Mang0 (Fox) vs. Armada (Peach)

[Watch VOD here]

Match 1 of set 2 immediately starts on Battlefield, suggesting the common exchange of, "Do you want to just start on Battlefield?" "Yeah, sure." Set 2 goes more smoothly for the Fox main as he has a much easier time converting individual hits into KOs, but by this point Armada's Peach is on a roll. Mang0 realizes that he needs to step up his defense. Armada just needs to keep doing his platform chases, going out for deep offstage Fairs, and generally riding his momentum from set 1.

In game 3, Mang0 is inches away from getting 6-0'd but takes the match with an Upthrow to Upair (which actually isn't a true combo against Peach). Armada finally gets to pick a stage—he wisely chooses Dreamland. This match is much closer than the last few, and it looks like Mang0 has caught something of a second wind, but it still isn't enough. With a Nair through the top platform, Armada takes a JV 2-stock to win Grand Finals 6-1 against Mang0.

Results

Melee Singles (262 Entrants)

• 1. Armada (Peach/Young Link)
• 2. Mang0 (Fox)
• 3. Hungrybox (Jigglypuff/Fox)
• 4. Mew2King (Marth/Sheik/Fox)
• 5. Plup (Samus)
• 5. Wizzrobe (Captain Falcon)
• 7. Fiction (Fox)
• 7. Colbol (Fox)
• 9. The Moon (Marth)
• 9. ChuDat (Ice Climbers)
• 9. Beer Master (Lambchops) (Falco)
• 9. Blea Gelo (Luigi)

[Bracket]

Project M Singles (255 Entrants)

• 1. ZeRo (Pit/Fox)
• 2. Wizzrobe (Sonic)
• 3. Mew2King (Mewtwo/Sheik/Marth)
• 4. ChuDat (Kirby)
• 5. Armada (Pit)
• 5. Nick Riddle (Link, Bowser)
• 7. DEHF (Fox/Falco)
• 7. Reflex (Wario/Ivysaur)
• 9. ESAM (Samus/Pikachu)
• 9. Plup (Meta Knight)
• 9. aMSa (Lucario)
• 9. Hungrybox (Mario)

[Bracket]

Melee Doubles (40 Teams)

• 1. Mew2King (Fox) Armada (Peach)
• 2. Hungrybox (Jigglypuff) Plup (Samus)
• 3. Chillindude (Fox) ChuDat (Ice Climbers)
• 4. ZeRo (Fox) ESAM (Samus)

[Bracket]

Project M Doubles (34 Teams)

• 1. Wizzrobe (Sonic) Plup (Metaknight)
• 2. Mew2King (Peach/Mario) ZeRo (Fox, Pit)
• 3. Chillindude (Wolf) ChuDat (Kirby)
• 4. Hungrybox (Mario/ Olimar) Armada (Pit)

[Bracket]

Videos

• VGBootCamp - Day 1 Doubles, Day 2 Doubles Top 3 and Singles up to Top 8
• CEOGaming - Fightermania II Free-For-All Tournament
• CEOGaming - Top 8 Project M
• CEOGaming - Top 8 Melee

Photo Credit: Jacob Praytor