Event Preview - 2GGT: ZeRo Saga feat. ZeRo, Ally, MK Leo, Abadango, Nairo and more!

On December 16-18, in the Pavilion Ballroom at the Rio Las Vegas Hotel, a score will be settled. Will Super Smash Bros. for Wii U's #1 player manage to add another victory to his ever-expanding resume? Or will one or more of the various challengers vying for his spot prevail against him? With a guaranteed $10,000 pot bonus from Collegiate Colosseum and over 350 confirmed entrants for singles, the time is as good as any for elite competitors to prove themselves at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga.

December marks the one-year anniversary for 2GGaming's 2GGT tournament series. Hosted by venerated veteran TO Champ, 2GGT has quickly become SoCal's most consistent Smash Wii U tournament series. With the help of fans everywhere, 2GG has managed to fly in the strongest and most entertaining players from all over the globe, leading to a series of head-to-head matchups normally only seen at premier international competitions.

Though performing admirably, none of these guests would ultimately win the tournaments dedicated to them. Instead, most 2GGT events would go to former SoCal native Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios. Though originally from Chile and now residing in New Jersey, ZeRo has proven that he can win consistently on any turf, becoming the undisputed best at Smash Wii U in the process. Though there were doubts that he'd be able to keep his title, ZeRo has proven that he still has what it takes by winning an impressive string of events this fall. He's now looking to become the first player to win his own 2GG Saga!

General Information​

In addition to the usual singles and doubles formats, there will be a number of special events at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga. In conjunction with Collegiate Colosseum, Friday will feature a collegiate crew battle featuring teams from UNLV, Utah Valley University, UCSD, Tecnológico de Monterrey and more! There will also be a special exhibition series called "ZeRo's Runback," in which the famed champion will battle against numerous players who've previously managed to beat him in sets. Finally, you'll be able to catch a USA vs. World crew battle Saturday night. Below you can view the finalized event schedule, as well as the current lineup for the special ZeRo's Runback series. Streaming duties will be split between 2GGaming and FADGames, so be sure to tune in to both!

Top Threats

Name & Tag | Team(s) | Character(s) | Recent Win(s) | 2v2 Partner
Gonzalo " ZeRo " Barrios | TSM | | Smash City LA , UGC Smash Open , KTAR XIX , The Big House 6 and 2GGT: Abadango Saga | Nairo
Elliot " Ally " Carroza | C9 | | Rio de Janeiro eGames Showcase and EVO 2016 | Larry Lurr
Yuta " Abadango " Kawamura | LG | | Hirosuma Tokaigi Qualifier , TUS Tournament 6 and Clutch City Clash | Kameme
Nairoby " Nairo " Quezada | NRG | | Super Smash Con 2016 | ZeRo
Samuel " Dabuz " Buzby | RNG | | Aftershock 2016 , WTFox 2 and Apex 2016 | MK Leo
Larry " Larry Lurr " Holland | Elevate FAD | | Hero to ZeRo Offline Qualifier and Rebirth VIII | Ally
Leonardo " MK Leo " Perez | SF HDG | | Showdown: Battle Royale , Canada Cup 2016 and Smash Factor 5 | Dabuz
Saleem " Salem " Young | MVG | | Olympus , Little Big House 2 and Collision XIV | 6WX
Jason " ANTi " Bates | IMT | | CEO 2016 and The Big House 6 (2nd place) | N/A
Ramin " Mr.R " Delshad | free agent | | Eclipse 2 , Syndicate 2016 and Smash Factor Prelude | komorikiri
Julian " Zinoto " Carrington | free agent | | Midwest Mayhem 5 , Rebirth IX and CEO 2016 (2nd place) | Conor " MrConCon " Ghobrial
komorikiri | 2GG | | Smashdown World , Sumabato 12 and Sumabato for TBH | Mr.R
Kameme | DNG | | Umebura 25 and EVO 2016 (2nd place) | Abadango
James " VoiD " Makekau-Tyson | CLG | | 2GG: Pay It Forward | Tyrell " NAKAT " Coleman
Eric " Mr.E " Weber | SS | | Glitch 2 | Vinnie
Marcus " Pink Fresh " Wilson | VGBC | | 2GGT: KTAR Saga | Zack " CaptainZack " Lauth
Jamaal " Samsora " Morris Jr. | free agent | | Clutch City Clash (2nd place) | Rasheen " Dark Wizzy " Rose
Wesley " 6WX " Alexander | Circa | | Midwest Mayhem 4 | Salem
Nietono | DNG | | DNG Invitational and Toryumon 1 | 9B
Austin " Dath " Brown | free agent | | Vitality | JJROCKETS
Corey " False " Shin | free agent | | Midwest Mayhem 3 | Tweek
Shawn " K9sbruce " Bruce | free agent | | Mega Smash Mondays 75 | Shane " SS " Bruce
Eric " Tyrant " Legesse | NME | | Mega Smash Mondays 73 | Rich Brown
Gavin " Tweek " Dempsey | free agent | | Olympus (2nd place) | False
Griffin " Fatality " Miller | FS | | Battlegrounds 3 | ScAtt
Tommy " Ryo " Janky | Noble | | Afterglow Throwdown | Steven " RoguePenguin " Ortiz
Matt " Elegant " Fitzpatrick | eM | | Mega Smash Mondays series | Avery " Aarvark " Kirschbaum
Freddie " FOW " Williams | free agent | | Safe on Shield series | N/A
9B | SHIG | | Dubai Dojo | Nietono
Andrew " ScAtt " Huntley | MVG | | S@X 154 | Fatality
Vincent " Vinnie " Cannino | free agent | | Revelation 2016 | Mr.E
Alexander " Pugwest " Martins | free agent | | GUMS 9 | Dustin " Zenyou " Rice
Benjamin " JJROCKETS " Rowe | free agent | | GameXChange Presents: eXposed | Dath
Thomas " TLTC " Avery | free agent | | Hero to ZeRo Online Qualifier | Chris " Falln " Rugg

You can find a full list of entrants on Smash.gg here.​

Who Will Win?​

As usual, it's nearly impossible to predict the final results of a Smash Wii U tournament of this caliber. ZeRo is clearly the favorite to win it all, but he has a lot of stiff competition.

There are several players in attendance who've taken multiple sets from ZeRo, including Ally, Larry Lurr, ANTi, Salem and Nairo. However, all of these players lost their most recent rematches against him, some of which ended convincingly in his favor. Part of what makes ZeRo so frightening is that he rarely succumbs to mental blocks against certain players and styles. People who triumph over him later find it more and more difficult to achieve a repeat performance. All that said, these players are still probably the safest picks for pulling the upset.

At UGC Smash Open, Abadango finished 2nd only to ZeRo. While he'd previously never taken a game off of his Diddy Kong, he managed to bring grand finals to game 5. On top of that, Abadango managed to win the fairly stacked Hirosuma Tokaigi Qualifier last weekend. So Abadango has multiple reasons to be confident this weekend. Even so, he'll have to play his absolute best to win, because ZeRo won't be complacent with a 3-2 victory.

Though a 13th place finish at UGC Smash Open was less than some people expected, MK Leo is still very much in contention to defeat ZeRo. His sets against him (both casual and in tournament) are always very close. A player as consistent as Leo is unlikely to be shaken by a single disappointing performance. Rather, he'll come prepared for a wider range of threats. Don't be surprised if Leo manages to redeem himself, perhaps even winning his first US major in the process.

MK Leo showed he's capable of going toe-to-toe with ZeRo at KTAR XIX.​

Kameme (formerly Kamemushi) is one of a few players to hold a 1-0 record over ZeRo. He managed to annihilate him 3-0 in losers' finals at EVO 2016, earning the respect of Smash fans worldwide. Many people are eagerly awaiting a rematch between the two titans. However, they're seeded far apart in the final bracket, so Kameme will have to do well in a number of matchups to even reach ZeRo. How he performs in this matchup during ZeRo's Runback could foreshadow the outcome of an eventual bracket meeting.

Beyond that, there are other consistent performers, such as Mr.R and Dabuz, who have taken a set from ZeRo in the past. Mr.R is seeded on the opposite side of the bracket as ZeRo, but Dabuz could end up playing him as early as winners' quarterfinals. Even a player of ZeRo's caliber would prefer to avoid such a tough matchup early in bracket, but he may not have that luxury. It is worth noting that Dabuz will have to get through Tyrant's Meta Knight in pools if he wants a chance to knock ZeRo into losers' bracket early.

All of this is of course speculative and could easily turn out to be wrong, but that's part of the fun of it. If you think you know who will perform well this weekend, why not create your own Fantasy Smash team and try to win your own custom Smash.gg shirt? Entry is free and simply requires choosing players using a limited budget.

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2GGT: ZeRo Saga will surely be one of the most exciting Smash Wii U majors of 2016. Stay tuned to Smashboards for more 2GG-related content, and be sure to follow them on Twitter to keep up with the 2GGT series.

 

Zero may be the first to take his own tourney

 

I feel like ZeRo is going to lose to ImHip in pools then win the tournament from losers