From March 17th - March 19th, twenty of Melee's best will face off in the most exciting invitational the game has ever seen: Battle of the Five Gods. Taking place at the world famous South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas, gods and god-slayers alike will be competing for $25,000 in prize money. Here is everything you need to know about Battle of the Five Gods.
Top (left to right): Mew2King, PPMD, Hungrybox, Mango, and Armada
Second row (left to right): MacD, Ice, Silent Wolf, DruggedFox, HugS, and Westballz
Third row (left to right): Nintendude, Plup, SFAT, PewPewU, and Shroomed
Bottom (left to right) Axe, Lucky, Wobbles, and S2J
Stream and Schedule
All the action at Battle of the Gods will be streamed on
twitch.tv/sxswgamingesports starting this Thursday. Additionally, top casters such as D1, Scar, Toph, TKbreezy, and more will be holding it down on the mic on commentary. Brackets and the fantasy draft can be found on the official
smashgg page. Here is the full schedule with the matches and the corresponding times:
Pools Analysis
Battle of the Five Gods will begin with five of the most stacked round-robin pools in Melee history, handpicked to ensure maximum hype. The winner of each pool will go to the final top 8 bracket, while 2nd place of each pool will go to a playoff group to qualify for top 8, as shown above.
Armada is the clear favorite in this pool, but that does not mean it will all be smooth sailing for him. Both Silent Wolf and HugS have taken a game each from the Swedish champion in 2015, and SFAT had some close games against Armada at The Big House 5. The #2 to get out will be a tossup, as SFAT and HugS are the only two that have faced off in 2015-2016 out of the bottom three seeds (Silent Wolf and SFAT played at The Foundry), with SFAT taking the win both times over HugS. The last time SFAT and Silent Wolf played was DYFWI in late 2014, where Silent Wolf double eliminated SFAT. With all this in mind, be sure to look forward to Silent Wolf vs. SFAT as the pivotal set of this group.
Group B is arguably the most challenging pool, with Westballz, PewPewU, and Ice all having a shot of making it out alongside PPMD. The likely favorite is PPMD, but a determined Westballz will be seeking revenge after losing a very close set with PPMD at Smash Summit. However, PewPewU could very likely take down Westballz with his excellent 3-1 record in 2015-2016 against the Red Falco. Ice has not faced off against PPMD or PewPewU recently, but his incredible Genesis 3 performance coupled with his recent close sets against Westballz gives him a chance of advancing to the playoff stage.
Group C is perhaps the most interesting pool, as all the players in the pool have beaten each other in 2015-2016 except for Axe and DruggedFox who have not played each other yet. Mango could very well go all Fox in this pool, seeing as how he beat Axe at Genesis 3 with Fox and DruggedFox has switched to Falco. Axe will have a tough matchup in MacD, a player he recently traded sets with at Rubicon 7. MacD has a chance at making it out of pools, although DruggedFox's new Falco managed to beat him at Genesis 3. For DruggedFox, solid Falco play and the possibility of his Sheik and Marth coming out could help him advance to the playoffs.
Mew2King got possibly the best pool he could have asked for, making him the clear favorite. Although Nintendude could give him some trouble with his Ice Climbers as shown at Genesis 3, Mew2King has consistently been dominant against Plup and S2J. For S2J to get out of pools, he will have to overcome the very difficult Sheik matchup against Mew2King and/or Plup. Nintendude will be looking to replicate his Genesis 3 success, although Plup's Samus and S2J could give him a challenge.
The favorite in Group E is Hungrybox, seeing as how he has not dropped a set to a non-god since Paragon LA last year. However, Shroomed, Lucky, and Wobbles have given Hungrybox a scare in the past, with Lucky taking a set from Hungrybox in 2015. Realistically, all three of the non-gods in this pool have a chance of making it out. Wobbles has a positive record against Shroomed and Lucky in 2015-2016, although Shroomed's Marth was very close to edging it out against Wobbles at PAX Arena. Shroomed vs. Lucky could be the deciding set of this group, with the odds slightly being in Lucky's favor with his set count of 1-0 against Shroomed in 2015-2016.
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