William “Glutonny” Belaid won Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Singles at Albion 4 in London, England on July 7. Albion 4 was an A-tier event, making it the most prestigious European Smash Ultimate tournament to date. It was also the final major tournament of the first PGRU season.
Glutonny’s road to top 8 of Albion 4 Smash Ultimate was fairly smooth. He advanced into top 32 with a 3-1 victory over Ismaël “Otakuni” Diakite and a 3-0 victory over Germaine “CurryGovernor” Hatton. Glutonny beat Gia “LoNg0uw” Hoang 3-1 in the first round of top 32. Then in winners quarters, he scored a 3-0 victory over Mehrdad “Meru” Mehrafar.
Glutonny scored another 3-0 in winners semis, beating Sam “Scr7” Jones. He then earned a 3-1 victory over Ishiguro “Raito” Tetsuya in winners finals. Glutonny faced his greatest challenge in grand finals, where he dropped a 3-1 set to Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby. However, Glutonny won the second set of grands 3-1 over Dabuz. None of Glutonny’s sets went to game five throughout the entire Albion 4 Smash Ultimate bracket.
French Wario main Glutonny has won a handful of tournaments before. However, many of his previous 1st place finishes were at C-tier tournaments. Albion 4 is Glutonny’s best Smash Ultimate victory by far. As a result, this tournament win will likely boost Glutonny up a good bit on the Summer 2019 PGRU. In this first season, Glutonny has beaten players like Tyler “Marss” Martins, Shuto “Shuton” Moriya, Paris “Light” Ramirez”, Sota “Zackray” Okada, and Brian “Cosmos” Kalu.
Other results from Albion 4 Smash Ultimate
Raito had a solid run to 3rd place at the Albion 4 Smash Ultimate event. He defeated Dany “Griffith” Mellia, Khang “Tru4” Tran, Ramin “Mr. R” Delshad, and Dabuz. Despite his initial inconsistencies, Raito has been one of the most prominent Japanese players internationally. Albion 4 was a good finish to a strong season for Raito.
Scr7’s run to 4th was perhaps the most surprising and impressive performance of the tournament. Scr7 scored an early upset over Jestise “MVD” Negron. From there, he advanced into top 8 on winners side by defeating Dylan “Jeda” A and Yves “Young Eevey” du Long. After losing to Glutonny, Scr7 scored one more upset over Mr. R. He then lost to Dabuz in losers semis. Scr7 was the highest-placing European in Albion 4 Smash Ultimate Singles besides Glutonny.
Another shocking top 8 appearance was that of Young Eevey. Young Eevey mains Bowser Jr., considered by many to be one of the worst characters in the game. Nevertheless, he placed 7th at Albion 4. Young Eevey defeated Mehdi “Flow” Z, Alain “Space” B, and “Oryon” along the way.
The Spanish duo of Marc “Marcbri” Briansó & Gerard “Greward” Masip won Albion 4 Smash Ultimate Doubles. Marcbri & Greward used a mix of Smash Ultimate’s DLC characters. Marcbri took the better character in Joker, while Greward used the low-tier Piranha Plant. This pair defeated teams like Marcus “Vreyvus” Petersson & Robin “Suntherion” Hammarström, Glutonny & Nassim “Leon” Laib, and Bart “S1” Ploegmakers & Soner “Azrael” Morina.
