Malachi Covington won Project M Singles at Smash’N’Splash 5 on June 2. Though he has attended smaller tournaments, Smash’N’Splash was Malachi’s first major Singles tournament since Low Tier City 6 last July. He used a mix of Sheik and Peach and did not drop a set on his run to 1st place.
Malachi advanced out of Swiss pools without losing a single game. In top 32, he defeated Ivysaur mains Nicholas “Cala” Costa and Evan “Sothe” Cunningham to reach top 8 in winners. Malachi managed to overcome Kyle “Switch” Carlon in a game-five Winners Semis. The last part of Malachi’s run was much smoother, however. He defeated Michael “techboy” Leleniewski in both Winners Finals and Grand Finals without dropping any games.
Multi-game smashers
As the fourth seed for Smash’N’Splash Project M, techboy had to score some upsets in order to finish in 2nd. Like Malachi, techboy did not lose any sets in pools. However, he did go to game three against both Marcelo “Mar” Eisenberg and Vy “Havel” Nguyen.
In top 32, techboy had strong showings against Aleck “Aki” Henderson and Peter “Pikmon” Woodworth. His most impressive wins came in Winners Semis and Losers Finals, where he double eliminated no. 1 seed Xayya “ThundeRzReiGN” Thammavongsa.
Notably, techboy also had a decent performance in Melee Singles. He placed 33rd, defeating both Erik “Rik” Gerlitz and Drew “Drephen” Scoles in Swiss pools and reaching top 64 on winners side.
Arjun “Junebug” Rao, who is known for his success in both Melee and Project M, returned to PM at Smash’N’Splash 5. His last major Project M tournament was The Even Bigger Balc in July 2018. Junebug placed 9th in Smash’N’Splash Project M, defeating Jacob “Dirtboy” Smith and Marshall S.
Other multi-game Project M players include Forrest Griffin and Josh “Morsecode762” Morse. Forrest placed 33rd in Melee and 25th in Project M. (He could have gone further in the PM bracket, but he dropped out of the losers bracket.) He defeated Ruben “Eggy” Morin in Melee and Jose “Scarfy” Rosario in Project M. Morsecode762 had the exact same placings as Forrest. He beat Kristian “Rocky” Cruz in Melee and Chris “ORLY” Brittain in Project M.
