VGBootCamp hosted The Comeback, its biggest in-person tournament since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, on July 31. The event featured some of the best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players from Maryland and Virginia, as well as a few high-level competitors from other regions.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest takeaways from this offline Smash Ultimate regional.
The top three show off their quarantine characters
Multiple competitors debuted the new characters they picked up over quarantine at The Comeback. Notably, all of the top three finishers used different characters than the ones they typically would have relied on before the pandemic.
Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey won the tournament using Diddy Kong, a character he found success with at multiple online tournaments. This marked his second major offline victory with Diddy Kong, following his win at the Momentous invitational. With his solid punish game and masterful control of Diddy Kong’s banana peels, Tweek beat Lorenzo “Disgaea” de Ocampo 2-0, “Mj” 2-0, Aaron “BONK!” Markovitz 2-1 and Troy “Puppeh” Wells 3-0. In addition, he defeated Brian “Cosmos” Kalu 3-2 in winners finals and 3-0 in grand finals.
THE COMEBACK CHAMPION 🏆@TweekSsb completes a FLAWLESS grand final on LAN to take home the tournament dub! #TSMWIN pic.twitter.com/L5eLFMPUH6
— TSM Report (@tsmreport) August 1, 2021
Cosmos came into the quarantine era looking for a new character to replace his signature Inkling. While he initially tried out the likes of Pikachu and Corrin, but has since been practicing Pyra and Mythra. He masterfully made use of Mythra to quickly rack up damage and find edgeguards, while switching to Pyra to land powerful hits at kill percents. Cosmos was able to defeat Jason “Wal00igi” Lilly 2-0, Andrew “enhancedpv” Davis 2-1 and Marcus “Pink Fresh” Wilson 2-1. He also took two sets off of Chris “WaDi” Boston, winning 3-1 in winners semis and 3-2 in losers finals.
2nd at comeback losing to tweek twice.
Almost beat him, I think I played pretty well, so I'm excited to keep getting better 🥳 was really really fun
— Cosmos (@CosmosZR) August 1, 2021
For most of The Comeback, WaDi piloted Mewtwo, his main from Smash 4. In the process, he beat Benjamin “Barking_Frog” K. 2-0, Noah “naitosharp” McCulley 2-0 and Christopher “TheMightyDialga” Arias 3-0. In Losers Semis, WaDi used Wii Fit Trainer to take Game 1 off of Michael “Riddles” Kim. After losing Game 2, he then used R.O.B. to close out the set against Riddles 3-1.
Ay man at least I put on a show LOL, 3rd at the comeback!! Feeling pretty good about my performance
— WaDi (@WaDiRob) August 1, 2021
Riddles leans on his tried-and-true Terry during a deep losers run
Riddles started off The Comeback by playing the recently-released Kazuya. However, his new character failed him in his second match of the tournament, where he lost 2-1 to TheMightyDialga. From there, Riddles decided to bring back his more practiced Terry.
The decision paid off. Riddles went on a deep losers run in order to finish in fourth place, eliminating many high-level opponents in the process. Among his victims were Jerry “Jerry” Powell, Sean “Fang” O., Jason “Wal00igi” Lilly, naitosharp, Pink Fresh and Puppeh.
4th/258 at the comeback after losing round 2 beating pink fresh, puppeh, sharp, jerry and more
Ggs pic.twitter.com/khaHEqteFE
— Liquid | Riddles (@RiddlesMK) August 1, 2021
TheMightyDialga has his offline breakout at The Comeback
Prior to this event, TheMightyDialga was best-known as a Wi-Fi warrior. One of the few solo Bayonetta mains in the world, he previously ranked 50th on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v6. But, at The Comeback, TheMightyDialga put on his best in-person tournament performance to date.
TheMightyDialga’s breakout run began in pools, where his impressive control of Bayonetta’s combos scored him an upset over Riddles. However, he fell into the losers bracket not long after, as he dropped a set to Little Mac main and fellow Wi-Fi warrior Ethan “Peanut” Masterman.
Despite this setback, TheMightyDialga had an impressive losers run of his own. Along the way, he eliminated Barking_Frog, Caleb “smub” I., BONK! and Alexander “Iota” Diaz, with all of those sets going to the final game. Ultimately, TheMightyDialga finished in fifth place after his loss to WaDi.
5th at the Comeback with Solo Bayonetta with wins over Riddles, Clovers, Barking Frog, Smub, Bonk, and Iota. Thanks for the support, overwhelming appreciation and kind words, i gotta keep moving forward to make more shit like this possible. Remember to always Keep Moving Forward pic.twitter.com/JJaRYmCXzd
— TheMightyDialga (@TheMightyDialga) August 1, 2021
