Tyler “Marss” Martins has got better of Leonardo “MKLeo” Lopez again in the grand finals of a Major.
This time around, Marss can now confidently say it is not about luck this time after doing it twice after three stocking Leo to win Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at Genesis 7.
With a clinical performance which ended 3-0 in his favour, Marss has put an end to the Joker’s main campaign for a four-peat title run, which began in Smash 4 at Genesis 4.
To progress to the final and met with MKLeo again, the winner had to overcome Enrique “Maister” Hernández Solís and Pedro “Prodigy” Alonso to emerge as one of the top eight players.
With his usual expert Mr. Game & Watch play, Maister took him to a game five, which was his hardest match of the second day, as his path didn’t get too much easier.
Marss was in a clash against his Panda Global teammate, Eric “ESAM” Lew in the next round, but ended up sweeping him with relative ease. The last game, on the other hand, was keenly contested to the last stock as the Zero Suit Samus main pushed on to the winners’ finals.
On his part, Leo went past some of the best players in the world to reach the last eight beating Larry “Larry Lurr” Holland, Jestise “MVD” Negron, and Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby.
He, however, lost 3-2 to Ezra “Samsora” Morris, which dropped him into the losers’ bracket. During this stage, the top player in the world regained his momentum and swept past Maister, and beat ESAM in five games.
He later got his pound of flesh against Samsora by beating him 3-0 to send him packing from the tournament.
Marss also defeated Samsora into the losers’ bracket with a 3-1 win to secure his spot in the grand finals, which was a rematch of Mainstage losers’ finals. Leo had beaten Marss 3-1 while the ZSS main was trying out Mega Man and Captain Falcon against Leo’s Joker.
Both players made a quick start as they didn’t disappoint Esport lovers with one of the highest skill exchanges to be ever seen from two Smash players on display on the first stock of the first match. Marss took the lead by scoring a massive spike as game one came down to a single stock, despite him getting an early kill.
Leo kept his head high and was able to thrive under immense pressure. He played without avoiding risky moves despite being behind. He almost took outy ZSS on multiple occasions through his heavy ledge pressure, but Marss was aggressive each time he got back on stage, winning game one with a nice little whip on one of Leo’s landings.
Marss was playing without any fear with his flips and kicks and played from behind for almost the entire second game. While trying to deal with Arsen, Marss got massively damaged from a hit. He later came back into the game after going down an entire stock, having survived a few big hits. He succeeded somehow by taking almost two full stocks from Leo to reach tournament point.
With the duo looking drained as they head into game three, Marss continued from where he left off as the momentum swung to his favour. He kept Leo on his toes after trading stocks early and got closer to ending the match.
After managing to bring the game down to one last stock, Leo dragged it out as long as he could, but the damage had been done. Marss ran in and threw out a raw Up Smash that caught Leo and won the game.
Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed
