Shephard “Fiction” Lima won Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at DreamHack Anaheim 2020 on Feb. 23. It was his second regional tournament victory of the year, following Saving Mr. Lombardi 2 earlier this month.
Fiction’s run started a little shaky, as he dropped a game to Vincent “Stanky” G. in pools. Even so, he was able to reach top 16 on winners side after defeating Cary “Vro” Zhang. Then in Winners Quarters, Fiction beat Gio “null” Rossi.
To start off top 8, Fiction scored a 3-1 victory over Weston “Westballz” Dennis. After beating Johnny “S2J” Kim, he found himself in Grand Finals on winners side. Though he dropped one set to S2J in Grands, Fiction took the second in order to win DreamHack Anaheim 2020.
Fiction has made a strong case for himself as a top 10 player throughout the first two months of 2020. He has beaten incumbent top 10 players like Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett, Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto, and Cody “iBDW” Schwab. Meanwhile, his worst loss so far this year is Westballz (against whom he still has a winning record).
Other results from DreamHack Anaheim 2020
S2J had a solid run to 2nd place at DreamHack Anaheim 2020. Along the way, he beat Andrew “Tai” Vo, Armand “ARMY” Del Duca, and Westballz. In addition, S2J beat Fiction 3-0 in their first Grand Finals set, even though he went negative against Fiction overall.
Alex “deft” Krafft had perhaps the most surprising run to top 8 at this event. Most notably, he scored a 3-2 win over Joey “Lucky” Aldama in their losers top 8 qualifier set. Deft also beat Michael “Nut” Silver, Roberto “Valk” Matarrita Arce, and Noah “MegaXmas” Mendelsohn en route to 5th place.
DreamHack Anaheim 2020 Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles featured a plethora of significant upsets and surprising outcomes. Albert Luu finished in 9th, losing to null and Tai. Tai also defeated Michael “MikeHaze” Pulido and Joshua “Schythed” Drumm before placing 5th. MegaXmas scored upsets over MikeHaze and null on his path to 7th place. In addition, Schythed upset Jeremy “Squid” Deutsch on his run to 7th.
Melee news aside, Larry “Larry Lurr” Holland won Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Singles at DreamHack Anaheim 2020. In the process, he beat Juan “Lumbre” Castellon and double-eliminated Dakota “Dakpo” Goode.
