Super Smash Bros. Melee fans voted Álvaro “Trif” García Moral into Smash Summit 8 on May 26. Trif is the second of five players fans will have voted into the event, with Te Tuhi “Spud” Kelly being first. Trif was the runner-up to Spud on the first vote-in day for Smash Summit voting. The runner-up on the second vote-in day was Avery “Ginger” Wilson, whom Trif beat by over 7,000 votes.
Trif primarily campaigned for Summit by livestreaming on his own personal stream and advertising himself all over social media. The latter approach included replying to unrelated tweets with #Trif4Summit and showing up in the Twitch chat for the Emerald City 8 tournament stream.
It's poetic really. pic.twitter.com/9b8JnyYKfh
— Dylan Tate (@Dilly_Jo5500) May 22, 2019
Smash Summit 8 is a Melee invitational taking place in Los Angeles, California June 13 – 16. Trif is the 11th person to have a confirmed spot in the 16-man bracket.
Ammon “Ka-Master” Styles and Kevin Maples were eliminated from the Smash Summit voting process on May 26. On May 28, fans will vote in one more player and eliminate two others from the voting process.
Interestingly, the first two vote-ins to Smash Summit 8 were not from the United States. Only one other international player remains in the running: Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby from Nicaragua, who now lives in Canada. Another international player, Jonathan “Bimbo” Rocha from Mexico, has already been eliminated.
Meet the player
Trif is a Spanish Peach main living in Madrid. Though he has been one of Europe’s strongest players for many years, 2019 has been a particularly good year for Trif. He has beaten Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman and Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto, and he is currently the best player in Europe besides William “Leffen” Hjelte. His triumph during Smash Summit voting will allow him to return to North America for the first time since February.
Trif has attended five tournaments this year. All of them took place in Europe, except for GENESIS 6, an Oakland, California tournament. Trif won all of the European tournaments besides Schism 3, where he played secondaries. He placed a respectable 9th at his one North American tournament thus far.
Trif wore a pink dress during his final campaign livestream for Smash Summit voting, a reference to his main character in Melee. Trif took part in a 24-hour livestream leading up to his reaction to getting into Smash Summit 8.
A very Pretty in Pink pop off from @TrifSmash!
WE'RE so excited that YOU'RE so excited, Trif! See you at #SmashSummit 8 🥳 pic.twitter.com/c1hxuT9JBD
— Beyond the Smash (@BTSsmash) May 26, 2019
Beyond the Summit has also confirmed that Joseph “Mang0” Marquez and Alex “Alex19” Ruvalcaba will host a show during the final day of Smash Summit voting. During the show, they will commentate the voting process leading up to the final two vote-ins making it into Summit.
