During the weekend of June 19-20, the GOML team returned with their second online Super Smash Bros. Melee event, Get On My Line 2021. Unlike last year, this event featured tournaments for both North America and Europe.
Here are three major takeaways from both the North American and European Melee brackets at GOML 2021.
N0ne wins back-to-back GOMLs under very different circumstances
While Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby managed to secure his second consecutive Get On My Line victory, his circumstances surrounding the two tournaments were quite different. Last year, he was just beginning to establish himself as one of the best online Melee players. This year, he was coming off of a streak of underperforming that had caused him to fall out of the conversation for the top five in North America.
In 2020, n0ne made it to the winners side of grand finals. This year, he fell into the losers bracket before top 16, losing 3-2 to Toussaint “2saint” Turnier after getting three-stocked in Game 5. Despite this early setback, n0ne’s aggressive playstyle with Captain Falcon served him well in the losers bracket. He eliminated Timothy “Jamrun” Kocik 3-1, Theodore “squible” Landegger 3-0, Eduardo “Eddy Mexico” Lucatero Rincón 3-0 and Isaac “bobby big ballz” P. 3-0.
In losers quarters, n0ne rematched Jigglypuff main 2saint. This time, he managed to find his own combos and early kills more efficiently than 2saint could find Rests and edgeguards. This resulted in a 3-1 win for n0ne. From there, he defeated Avery “Ginger” Wilson 3-1 and Dawud “Aklo” Rahman 3-2 to reach grand finals.
Finally, n0ne faced fellow Canadian Kurtis “moky” Pratt. Not only did moky have the head-to-head advantage going into the set against n0ne, but he also boasted far better performances at online tournaments through this year. Nevertheless, n0ne turned moky’s Fox into combo food, winning 3-1 in Set 1 and 3-0 in Set 2 in order to win the North American bracket at Get On My Line 2021.
Father's day n0ne
back2back GOML champ
thanks for hosting @EvenMatchupGGs all@GoldenGuardians
— n0ne (@n0ned) June 21, 2021
East Coast dominates the NA bracket at Get On My Line 2021
Like most other major online Melee tournaments, Get On My Line 2021 had separate pools for East Coast and West Coast players. This led into a combined top 16 with eight players from each region. And, like most other major online Melee tournaments, the players from the East Coast clearly outperformed those from the West Coast at this event.
Before top 16 even began, the West Coast was already at a severe disadvantage. The region’s top two seeds, John “KoDoRiN” Ko and Miles “Soonsay” Foster, both dropped out of the event. In addition, top five offline player and Pikachu main Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson opted to play as his secondary Marth.
These disadvantages, along with the overall strength of the East Coast, translated to a top eight with seven East Coast competitors. The West Coast’s lone representative in top eight, Dat “Dacky” Vo, placed fifth. Dacky earned wins over Simon “Polo” F., Andrew “DD” Lopez, Isaac “NOOT” Blake and Malachi “MoG” Markos.
GGs out at 5th at GOML. I love how slippi enables me to play with people like Ginger and Moky. Hopefully I'll get to play them again once LAN returns… maybe at summit??? 👀👀👀Happy fathers day!
— Dat Vo (@DackyVo) June 21, 2021
Pipsqueak can beat Europe even with an unfamiliar controller
Linus “Pipsqueak” Nordin was the first seed for the European bracket at Get On My Line 2021. Still, he had low expectations going into the event. An update to his Frame1 box controller undid a previous change he made, forcing him to play out the tournament with an unfamiliar button layout.
However, the change to his controller proved to have a far less significant impact than Pipsqueak anticipated. He placed first at GOML while only dropping two games. In the process, the Swedish Fox main defeated Charles “Fuzzyness” Kimmelman 3-1, Georg “Rikzz” T. 3-0 and Yann “Jah Ridin’” Jirardin 3-0. In addition, he double eliminated Mustafa “Ice” Akçakaya, winning 3-1 in winners finals and 3-0 in grand finals.
Next month, Pipsqueak will represent Europe, along with William “Leffen” Hjelte, at Smash Summit 11. It will mark the first instance of Europeans and North Americans competing against each other at a Melee tournament since Smash Summit 9 in February of 2020.
I can't stress enough how happy I am that I won the last event i'll likely be able to enter before the summit trip
Didn't expect it at all and while I definitely can't get complacent (many things I should do better) I would feel so bad if I placed like 7th
Feeling confident
— Pipsqueak (@Pipsqueak_TV) June 21, 2021
