Saleem “Salem” Young won Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Singles at Paradigm Shift in Davenport, Iowa on July 21. It is Salem’s second consecutive tournament victory, as he also won Ultimate Singles at Aurora Blitz 2 one week prior. Interestingly, Paradigm Shift Smash Ultimate runner-up Rasheen “Dark Wizzy” Rose also placed 2nd at Aurora Blitz 2.
Salem cruised through the tournament with little opposition, dropping only two games throughout Paradigm Shift Smash Ultimate. His Winners Quarters opponent, Tanner “SKITTLES!” Jordan, was able to take one game. Omar “Ozone” Qadah took another game off of Salem in Winners Semis. However, Salem ultimately swept through Winners and Grand Finals with 3-0 victories over Yatiyaña “yeti” Schaper and Dark Wizzy.
Salem has found success with a variety of characters in Smash Ultimate, most recently settling on Snake and Shulk. He has placed within the top 8 at several significant tournaments. In addition, Salem has not placed lower than top 24 at a tournament since 2GG: Prime Saga in April. However, the Aurora Blitz 2 and Paradigm Shift Smash Ultimate events are still significant as Salem’s first big tournament victories.
Salem has beaten many of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s best players in 2019. Among these are Leonardo “MkLeo” Perez, Paris “Light” Ramirez, Brian “Cosmos” Kalu, Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby, Jestise “MVD” Negron, Guillermo “Stroder” Martinez Jr., and Eric “Mr E” Weber.
Other results from Paradigm Shift Smash Ultimate
Two Duck Hunt mains made it to top 8 on winners side at the Paradigm Shift Smash Ultimate tournament. Duck Hunt is a rarely used character, with Ishiguro “Raito” Tetsuya as one of the sole high-level Duck Hunt mains. Nevertheless, Ozone and Gavin “Wisdom” Bechtold both placed 5th at this event with Duck Hunt.
Ozone advanced into top 8 by defeating Robert “Myran” Herrin and Justin “Welfare Pickles” Dale. Wisdom’s run included wins over Paul “Cookietic” V, Kenshi “Gomakenpi” Quist, and Dark Wizzy. Both Duck Hunt players ended up losing both of the sets they played in top 8.
Dark Wizzy had a strong run to 2nd place after his early loss to Wisdom. He advanced into top 8 by beating players like Karvin “Comet” White Jr. and Cody “Skilly” Jordan. Dark Wizzy proceeded all the way to Grand Finals by overcoming Gomakenpi, Ozone, Myran, and yeti.
