Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada won Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Singles at Mainstage in Ontario, California on Sept. 22. This was Nairo’s first S-tier victory in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was also his first significant tournament victory since Suplex City Smash in April.
Nairo started top 64 convincingly, with a 3-0 over Chris “Legit” Russell. However, he faced more of a challenge as Eric “Pandarian” Lund forced him to game five. Still, Nairo emerged victorious and advanced into Winners Quarters. There, he defeated James “VoiD” Makekau-Tyson in a 3-0 set.
Top 8 of Mainstage Smash Ultimate Singles held many difficult sets for Nairo. He earned 3-2 wins against Paris “Light” Ramirez and Tyler “Marss” Martins, one of his biggest demons in Smash Ultimate. In set one of Grand Finals, Nairo suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Leonardo “MkLeo” Perez. However, Nairo responded with a 3-1 win over MkLeo in the second set to win Mainstage.
Since the beginning of this season, Nairo has only placed outside of top 8 once, finishing in 17th at EVO. In addition, he has finished in the top 4 of his past three tournaments. Nairo is certainly a contender for top 5 in the world for this PGRU season as a result. A major tournament win at Mainstage Smash Ultimate Singles certainly helps his case.
Other results from Mainstage Smash Ultimate
It seems VoiD is truly out of his slump. After multiple poor major performances, VoiD seemed to break out with top 16 finishes at SwitchFest and Glitch 7. However, VoiD placed in the top 8 of Mainstage Smash Ultimate, his first time since Smash’N’Splash 5 in May. Using a mix of Sheik and Pichu, VoiD made it all the way to 5th place. He defeated Jestise “MVD” Negron, Antony “MuteAce” Hoo, Pedro “Prodigy” Alonso, and Saleem “Salem” Young.
Takuma “Tea” Hirooka earned a handful of impressive wins en route to 5th place at Mainstage. He advanced out of top 64 with wins over Spencer “BestNess” Garner and Enrique “Maister” Hernandez. Then he upset Ezra Samsora Morris, eliminating Samsora in 13th. Samsora had been sent to the losers bracket by Guillermo “Stroder” Martinez Jr. Tea finished off his run with wins against William “Glutonny” Belaid and MuteAce.
After a 97th place finish at Glitch 7, MuteAce had a lot to prove coming into Mainstage Smash Ultimate Singles. He defied expectations in order to place 7th at this tournament. MuteAce’s run included wins over Brian “Cosmos” Kalu, Pandarian, and Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby.
More from this event
Six players earned invitations to Smash Ultimate Summit 2 at this event. They were Nairo, Marss, Light, VoiD, Tea, and MuteAce. Because they tied for 7th place, MuteAce and Salem were supposed to play a tiebreaker to see who would get into Summit. However, Salem opted to give the Smash Summit spot to MuteAce.
Two Melee legends, William “Leffen” Hjelte and Adam “Armada” Lindgren, had impressive runs to 17th in Mainstage Smash Ultimate Singles. Despite an early loss to Nick “Nitro” Galvan, Leffen defeated Troy “Puppeh” Wells and Dakota “Dakpo” Goode. Armada was able to upset Taylor “Lemmon” Webb and Santiago “Chag” Perez. Humorously, Salem eliminated Armada and then refused to fist-bump him, as a result of their prior beef on Twitter.
