Zain Naghmi used Roy to win Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at Rona Rumble: East Coast III on May 16. He accomplished this despite Roy being among the worst characters in the game. Zain used “DontTestMe” as his tag throughout the event.
Even in the earliest stages of the bracket, Zain was faced with very competent opponents. Nevertheless, he advanced out of pools by beating Philippe “Tokage” Monette 2-0 and Jacob “Jflex” Pinto 2-1. Then in Winners Quarters, Zain beat Jigglypuff main Toussaint “2saint” Turnier 3-2 in one of Roy’s toughest matchups in Melee.
Zain seemed to falter in Winners Semis, dropping the first two games in his set against Kalindi “KJH” Henderson. However, he impressively pulled off a reverse 3-0 to advance into Winners Finals. There, Zain defeated “bobby big ballz” 3-1. Avery “Ginger” Wilson proved to be Zain’s biggest challenge, as he beat Zain 3-1 in the first set of Grand Finals. Even so, Zain scored a tight 3-2 victory over Ginger in set two to win Rona Rumble: East Coast III.
Zain is certainly no stranger to winning tournaments with his main character, Marth. However, playing Roy at a high level in Super Smash Bros. Melee is a fairly new venture for Zain. Previously, Zain debuted DontTestMe at a netplay tournament hosted by Ginger, which he also won. Ginger’s tournament was intended for top players using alternate accounts, so viewers could guess who was whom.
Rona Rumble: East Coast III, besides Zain’s Melee Roy
Despite being the tournament’s first seed, Ginger fell into losers early after dropping a set to Austin “Reeve” Reed. On his losers run, Ginger beat Dylan “Dawson” Dougherty, Dawud “Aklo” Rahman, KJH, Reeve, and bobby big ballz. He also took one set from DontTestMe before falling to Zain’s Melee Roy in the second set of Grand Finals.
Jason “Just Jason” DiMicelli lost in round one of the tournament to Matt “Mot$” Gaydos. However, he made a stellar losers run in order to place 7th at Rona Rumble: East Coast III. Along the way Just Jason eliminated Arthur “404Cray” Hernandez, Reece “Golden” Economides, and 2saint before losing to Kevin “Bones” Emm.
Zain’s Roy winning was not the only clue from this event that online Melee is quite different from offline Melee. For example, consider Nico “Ryobeat” Rodriguez. Ryobeat had a breakout performance at Genesis 7, defeating Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett and Kurtis “moky” Pratt en route to 17th place. But at Rona Rumble: East Coast III, Ryobeat went 0-2, suffering upset losses to Golden and Rishi Malhotra’s Young Link.
Results from Rona Rumble around the world
This week, Brandon “homemadewaffles” Collier introduced two new additions to the Rona Rumble series. One was created for Japanese and Korean players, while another was created for European players. Konstantin “Kobobi” Heck won Rona Rumble: Japan & Korea, beating Hideyuki “Plata” O., Tsuyoshi “Donkos” Namba, and Taiki “Sheik” Iwama.
Aaron “Professor Pro” Thomas won Super Smash Bros. Melee Singles at Rona Rumble: Europe. In the process, he defeated Kim “Eekim” Ervasti, Niklas “Kins0” Vogt, Ville “Levingy” Miekk-oja, and Christopher “MINT” Montgomery.
Back in the United States, Johnny “S2J” Kim claimed 1st place at Rona Rumble: West Coast IX. S2J won sets over Jason “CrossFitJesus” Fagundes, Luis “Smashdaddy” Rangel, and Steven “FatGoku” Callopy.
