Albert Luu won Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at Rona Rumble: LACS Qualifier #1 on July 11, 2020. It was the first of two qualifier events for the upcoming Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 2.
Though he ultimately won the tournament, Luu had a bit of a shaky start. In pools, he dropped games to both Evan “avenu” Ho and Jantz “Thorne” Garza. However, his top 64 performance was much stronger. Luu beat Sufyan “Android 0” Hassan 3-0 and Jonathan “Bimbo” Rocha 3-1.
Luu continued his hot streak in Winners Quarters, defeating Kundan “FRO116” Chintamaneni 3-0 to advance into top 8. While in top 8, he earned 3-0 victories against Juan “Medz” Garcia and Luis “Smashdaddy” Rangel. Luu cemented his LACS Qualifier #1 victory with a close 3-2 win over Steven “FatGoku” Callopy.
Along with Luu, the following players qualified for the Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 2 through the LACS Qualifier #1:
- FatGoku
- Smashdaddy
- Jason “Gahtzu” Diehl
- Medz
- John “KoDoRiN” Ko
- Umar “Umarth” Sohi
- Kevin “Bones” Emm
- Arjun “lloD” Malhotra
- Dawud “Aklo” Rahman
- Noah “Nogh” Sundook
- FRO116
- Miles “Soonsay” Foster
- Hugo “HugS” Gonzalez
- Christian “Kürv” Melendez
- Rishi Malhotra
- Bimbo
- Android 0
- Fernando “Far!” Dorame
- Logan “LSD” Dunn
- “bobby big ballz”
- Austin “Reeve” Reed
- Anthony “Preeminent” Braun
- Joseph “akir” Neidig
Other results from Rona Rumble: LACS Qualifier #1
FatGoku placed 2nd at Rona Rumble: LACS Qualifier #1. Though he reached the top 24 with an impressive 3-0 win over HugS, he lost 2-3 to Gahtzu in Winners Quarters. FatGoku proceeded through the losers bracket with narrow 3-2 victories against Aklo and Bones. He also beat Medz 3-0, Gahtzu 3-1, and Smashdaddy 3-1 before losing to Albert in Grand Finals.
Smashdaddy scored many upsets en route to 3rd place at this event. The upsets began in top 64, where he beat Soonsay 3-1 and KoDoRiN 3-2. Smashdaddy also defeated lloD and Gahtzu in five-game sets to secure his spot in Winners Finals.
Though he fell just shy of top 8, Nogh had perhaps the most unexpected run of the LACS Qualifier #1. He placed 9th using exclusively Donkey Kong, one of Melee’s lower mid-tier characters. Nogh cruised all the way to winners side of top 24, defeating Timmy “MOM!” Finotti, Alexander “Komodo” Neal, and Preeminent. Nogh is best-known for his performances in Project M, and he is ranked No. 26 on the PMRank 2019.
