Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Results – Combo Breaker 2022

Not an official stop for the Smash World Tour, but still a hype competition on the road as many other top players battle it out just south in Atlanta's MomoCon. Even then, MVD, ESAM, WaDi, and many others still made their way to Illinois to put up a fight on the prestigious Combo Breaker Stage.

Top 24 - Day 1 calm before the storm

Coming into the end of Day 1 of the Super Smash Bros Ultimate bracket and after multiple grueling rounds of pools, we had the top 24 heading into Day 2. The upper bracket matches were MVD versus Zinoto, Onin versus Ned, Ikan taking on WaDi, and ATATA versus IceKnight. Notably, ESAM found himself in the lower bracket on account of IceKnight in the top 96 the round prior.

MVD versus Zinoto is actually a long-time rematch! the two had two best of three bouts in Combo Breaker 2019 in the winner's quarterfinals and the loser's semifinals. Both were won by Zinoto with a 2-1 score. Now in 2022 Zinoto could once again play spoiler for the Nevada local and drop him in the path of some poor unfortunate lower bracket runner.

Illinois homegrown talent Ned is also up to bat against Onin, although he likely would have rather faced his local rival SamteaSilver who Onin dispatched just the round before. Against SamteaSilver ned holds a 5-1 record, though their most recent meeting went 3-1 in favor of SamteaSilver. The loser of this series will also be on the path of what could be a charged-up ESAM in the lower bracket.

Like a broken record, Illinois native Ikan is facing off against outside heavy hitter WaDi for the first time in what, once again, could have maybe been a far more advantageous matchup against AnimalKigdom were it not for WaDi's stellar play. Will Ikan's steve be enough to pull through to the top 8 unscathed?

A short bit of history between our last two upper bracket bachelors for the top 8 stop. ATATA has been feeding Ls to IceKnight since 2021 and Backthrow Thursdays 155, winning 2-0, 3-1, and 3-1, that is until a week ago when in Tripoint Smash 144 IceKnight pulled up a 3-1 victory in the loser finals sure, he would go on to lose to SamteaSilver, but still a great performance. Better yet, this time around he got the upset on ESAM earlier on and has been running on that adrenaline since, will he keep it up for Day 2?

Top 24 - Day 2 who is schmoving into the Top 8?

Upperside:

ATATA took the victory over IceKnight with a 3-1 score while WaDi and Ikan went back and forth for a phenomenal game 5 in what has proven to be a very interesting match up of Ice Climbers (WaDi) and Ryu (Ikan), in the end, the Panda member would secure his upper top 8 for Combo Breaker and could rest easy, for now. Thus ATATA and WaDi would meet at the start of Top 8.

The second half saw Onin on the Steve versus Ned on Sephiroth in what started looking a bit like an outclassing of Steve over Sephiroth with Onin going 2-0 with stocks to spare, however, Ned made sure to take that game 3, however messy it seemed, and pushed on to map 4 and continue his momentum with a Cloud switch that nearly secured the game 5 if not for the last stock gambit from Onin that saw him moving on. Closing it out was MVD taking the 3-2 victory over Zinoto in a tense last stock situation.

Lowerside:

Scrapping by in the lower bracket were Ned, Zinoto, Loaf, and SamTeaSilver. Ned took ESAM's brawler to a map 5 where ESAM broke away from his promise and switched to the electrocuted rodent only to later regret that decision as it likely cost him a top 8 spot over the local here. Zinoto was able to secure himself a top 8 finish on the back of some clean gameplay over Arctice and will have to face Ned if he wants to stay alive.

Another 3-2 series was between Ikan and loaf, going down to the very last stock for both players and an intense back and forth that ultimately fell in favor of loaf. IceKnight's Greninja put up a great fight versus SamTeaSilver's Mario and was a tied series at 2-2 going into game 5 ending with Mario stocks cashing in for the SamTeaSilver win.

Winner Semis Finals

WaDi versus ATATA was up first, with WaDi continuing to pull the ice climbers into the stage while ATATA went with Ness. It started well for WaDi as he took the first game of the series, but the following two went the way of ATATA, forcing a switch out of WaDi, who went to R.O.B for game 4, resulting in a 2-2 tie for the game 5 and continued on as WaDi cleaned up with R.O.B for the 3-2.

On the other side, Onin had already been targeted as a menace for his great Steve play, so as he met with MVD, things looked dire for the Snake master as the score sat 2-0 within a few minutes of the series start. Even as MVD seemed to get on top of Onin's game plan, it was too late, and the local Steve secured the 3-0 victory.

Lower Bracket Round 1

The first match of the evening for the lower bracket top 8  was Zinoto, on Diddy Kong, versus Ned, on his Sephiroth. Games one and two looked pretty close between them even as Ned started to build up a lead going 2-0, and just as Zinoto looked to put up a point on the scoreboard, Ned finished him off and advanced further in.

Next came an accurate lore fight with Loaf on Wario taking on SamTeaSilver's Mario. after game 2, the score sat 1-1 as both players warmed into the matchup after a handful of mistakes for each of those first 2 games resulted in dumb losses. Games 3 and 4, however, were tight, with both players performing at their maximum going into the final game of the series, where Loaf showed the power of Minnesota's Smash and continued his run.

Lower Bracket Quarterfinals

Coming through the first game was a local usual, ATATA versus Ned. Both players went back and forth, with Ness and Sephiroth exchanging stocks at a rapid pace. After the 1-1, Ned did power up, got his wings out, and pulled through the 2-1 and 3-1 victory.

We then got MVD against Minnesota's rep Loaf. The two exchanged games 1 and 2 to bring the score to 1-1 before MVD showed up in game 33 to pull ahead, but it would turn out to be a faux momentum as Loaf downloaded the firmware update into his Wario game and bodied MVD to take it to game 5 and then finished it off to go to secure at least a top 4.

Winner Finals

Could WaDi be the one to knock out Onin from the Upper bracket? Historical results tell us yes, as the last two times they saw each other in a bracket, Glitch and Let's Make Big Moves, WaDi took them in 2-0 and 3-1 fashion. Game one went to the last stock for both and a well-timed minecart gave the advantage to Onin going to game 2 where he extended his lead. Worth pointing out at this time of the level of physiological warfare Onin was putting WaDi on, as the Panda player would tweet before the event "Onin just asked me if I liked amongus right before we’re about to play in winners finals, I think this is some sort of strategy". Onin got him it seems.

Going into Game 3 WaDi made the switch to Mewtwo to try to secure some sort of tie, but going into his last stock with Onin sitting pretty at 3 + 99%, things looked dire and although WaDi did put up a strong fight last stock could only last for so long and Onin would move on to Grand finals taking a 3-1 victory over WaDi.

Lower Bracket Semifinals

Loaf was able to take the first game off on the back of solid positioning and a stinkingly good fart to finish it off. Ned took the rematch on sephiroth and Battlefield as he did manage to get Loaf to the last stock scenario. But things quickly unraveled with a stock lead in the first few minutes of the second game, which then turned to a last stock versus three for Ned, something the Minnesotian made sure to take advantage of and cleaned it up for a win. Last chance to bring it all back, Ned picked up the runback but nearly found himself getting 0 to KO by the Wario main who pummeled Sephiroth until there was nothing more to smash for the 3-0 victory.

Lower Bracket Finals

WaDi was back, time to see if he could go back up to rematch Onin or if he was going to lose out to an energized Onion coming off hot from his win. Game one was a brawl with stocks going down both sides until the very last where WaDi sat at over 100% for a solid 4 minutes dealing damage to Onin but getting KOed in the end. Game two merited a WaDi swap to R.O.B and a return to Battlefield to scrap together a victory before the lead grew to a 2-0, but guess what, the lead grow to a 2-0 on the back of Loaf's intense no hold back aggressive approach.

In another swap for WaDi, he returned to the character that got him this far in the bracket, the Ice Climbers, who started pulling their weight against Wario rather well, getting a first stock advantage and pulling through a sizeable damage lead going into the half match and securing the last stock to put up points in and bring on game 4. Just as the comeback seemed closer and closer, Loaf picked up a niff of that grand finals match and potential racket reset and secured his path to it.

Grand Finals

Things started spicy for Loaf as Onin picked up Wario, mangled him, put him on a cart, and threw him over the edge to open the score 1-0 in less than 3 minutes. Game two would keep the speed up with Onin once again creating incredible throw setups to get Loaf off the stage not once, not twice, but all three stocks off the same side with a different setup each.

Heading to Game three with Onin still not losing a stock, it was clear that Loaf needed a miracle, and he got a small one with the first stock of the set, then a second one to put the game at a last stock but for all his effort, it was all done, Onin took out Loaf and only gave up two stocks to do it.