Slhoka
Smash Lord
After only two editions, the HF-Lan series managed to earn itself one of the best reputation among French tournament. Despite being fairly small -the first two events were respectively capped at 32 and 48 players for Melee-, the organization always exceeded the tournaments standards by far : many setups, couches to sit when playing, a dedicated staff, free drinks and hot dogs, and finals played in a conference hall on a movie theatre screen quickly became legendary.
Last weekend, the HF-Lan was back for its third edition : no major changes were added to the recipe, except for a free massage stand and a player cap set to 64 players for Melee. Also, for the first time, foreign players would be attending the event.
The tournament kept its promises, despite a few problems, like the lack of stream and updates. But overall, everything was there, from the hyped games to the relaxed atmosphere so caracteristic of the series.
Various facts (spoilers here, but after all, you're in a results thread)
- Three HF-Lan, nine different players in the top 4 : Tekk, Doraki and Benoit first claimed the podium places in the first edition, followed by Darko, Cyr and Aska in the second one. This time, the finals didn't feature a French player, OverTriforce and Fuzzyness outplacing Baxon.
- Fuzzyness takes the advantage in what could now be considered a rivalry with Baxon : at the last two French tournaments, they played five times, Fuzzyness winning trice.
- For the third time, the winner of the event wasn't known before the last set. Except for the doubles tournament at HF-Lan 2, all the HF-Lan events went to the second set of the grand finals.
- Cyr places 4th, but keeps losing to players of the top 2. Since june 2010, he only lost one set to a player who didn't make the top 3 (Baxon at ESAJ, to whom he lost in winners before winning in losers).
Results
Singles :
46 players : 7 rounds of swiss, then a 32-man bracket
Out of curiosity, I checked who placed significantly better in the bracket than they did in swiss rounds. Those players are listed in green. The ones who placed significantly lower are in red.
Bracket
1. OverTriforce
2. Fuzzyness
3. Baxon
4. Cyr
5. Mahie
5. Charlon
7. LGuy
7. Styx
9. Aska
9. ClemJ
9. Doraki
9. *Zen
13. Avenger Angel
13. Samplay
13. Slhoka
13. X-17
17. Kurogane
17. Bunwa
17. Draxraven
17. Cromat
17. Joanna Dark
17. Omega
17. Jolteon
17. Jam
25. Gorn
25. Waxon
25. Chikusho
25. Alpha Dash
25. Dero
25. Shloub
25. BeliaKING
25. Venom
--- End of the bracket ---
33. Jontravolta92
34. Qual
35. c.love
36. RedjilfoxX
37. Kirikou
38. ForceObscure
39. Eiko
40. MrFreeze
41. Lukahn
42. Shigeru
43. Maynstorm
44. Xeal
45. Seya
46. Ennuxio
Swiss rounds
After the 7 turns of swiss rounds, the ranking was as follows:
- Over
- Fuzzyness
- Cyr
- Baxon
- Avenger Angel
- Omega
- LGuy
- Doraki
- Aska
- Mahie
- Styx
- Charlon
- Jolteon
- Bunwa
- Jam
- Kurogane
- Starfoula28
- Slhoka
- Cromat
- Joanna Dark
- Chikusho
- Shloub
- BeliaKING
- Samplay
- X-17
- Waxon
- *Zen
- Draxraven
- Alpha Dash
- Dero
- Gorn
- Venom
- Jontravolta92
- Qual
- c.love
- RedjilfoxX
- Kirikou
- ForceObscure
- Eiko
- MrFreeze
- Lukahn
- Shigeru
- Maynstorm
- Xeal
- Seya
- Ennuxio
Doubles :
13 teams, no pools
Bracket
1. Baxon + OverTriforce
2. Fuzzyness + Mahie
3. Avenger Angel + Omega
4. Aska + Charlon
5. Samplay + X-17
5. Cyr ///:ganonmelee:// + Slhoka //:ganonmelee:/
7. Alpha Dash /// + Jolteon
7. Benoit / + Doraki
9. Lukahn / + Shigeru
9. Seya / + Jam
9. MrFreeze + Kirikou
9. Draxraven / + Shloub /
13. Dero :ganonmelee: + c.love
Videos
Videos are being uploaded on LeFrenchMelee, France's Melee community Youtube channel, and a Smashboards thread will be available soon.
Photos
Students from ESIEE's photography club have taken many pictures of the event. You can find them here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/esieephoto/sets/72157629813296204/
Some other should be uploaded soon.
Feedback and shoutouts
Any feedback regarding the hosting is welcome! For this reason, the HF-Lan staff created a guestbook.. If you liked the tournament, make sure to leave a comment for them