This Saturday, November 19th, catch the action at Europe’s biggest monthly tournament on SmashHouseUK. With a very special guest, this event will serve as prime warm-up time for next weekend’s DreamHack Winter. Located in London, this Kickstart will be the largest yet and the fourth in the series over 100 entrants.
Lead organiser Vincent “BrTarolg” Tam has been committed to bringing high level Melee to London regularly. Over the past 15 months of Kickstarts, the series has drawn names like Adam “Armada” Lindgren, William “Leffen” Hjelte, Mustafa “Ice” Akcakaya, Weston “Westballz” Dennis, Justin “Plup” McGrath, Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson and many more.
Along with guests from abroad, Saturday’s event will feature 13 of the UK Melee PR as well as returning absentees. However, we will unfortunately not be seeing Aaron “Professor Pro” Thomas due to a date clash with Wisconsin’s Kings of the North V, nor Zac “SFAT” Cordoni who had to pull out of Kickstart last week.
Competitors
Invaders
Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma 
- Making his first appearance in the UK and only his second in Europe, the win here should be safely in the bag without SFAT and even Professor Pro in contention. While it remains to be seen just how badly the UK will get whooped, the real story for Hungrybox is warming up to PAL for next weekend’s DreamHack Winter. There he will look to defend one of his biggest titles against three other “Big 6” members and more.Luis “Crunch” Rosias
- European Melee often begs the question of relative skill when compared with the US scene. 2016 has been something of a disappointing one for EU fans in that regard with the exception of the outstanding Armada, Leffen, Ice and, to a degree, Professor Pro. For that reason it will be interesting to see how a player of Crunch’s calibre stacks up across the pond.Ryota “CaptainJack” Yoshida
- After a successful first tournament back in European Melee at Eclipse 2, beating two players around the top 100 in Europe, the legendary Japanese player continues his comeback in London. With more practice under his belt we could be in for yet more upsets.Nicolas “beLia” Mouzet
- A player particularly worth highlighting for being having had significant opportunity to play against Europe’s premier Jigglypuff, Victor “Tekk” Abd. This year their set record is 3-2 in Tekk's favour. Potential outside chance extreme underdog upset on the cards if he matches up against Hungrybox? No, probably not, but what if...Also look out for Stijn “$tijn” Berents
of the Netherlands and Dennis “MISTRRLOVE” Ferdinand of Germany.England
Robby “Vanity Angel” Gee
- After losing yet more final game sets to strong Americans at The Big House 6, VA would love to put up a good fight against the visitors here. In the absence of Hungrybox he would likely be the favourite for the tournament and so remains favoured to be facing off against him in grand finals. However, we have seen Hungrybox force the incontestably best Peach of all time off his character in this matchup before.Alex “R23” Watson
- Ranked 6th in the UK and one of the players on the frontline of "the gap" but comprehensively dealt with by number 5 at Big Battlefield Glasgow: Autumn earlier this month and a 5-4 set record with number 7 this year has him in a somewhat precarious position.Elliot “Frenzy” Grossman
- Still a teenager and ranked 7th in the UK despite a losing record with seven players ranked below him in 2016 thanks in part due to how steep his recent rise has been. He will be looking to make up for a somewhat disappointing outing at Eclipse 2.Dujuan “Alpha Dash” Planter
- After strong performances at SmashBox and Kickstart 12, Alpha Dash is poised for a good placing here but may run into a board stacked heavily against him with VA projected in his path at winners quarters.Adrian “Deathgazer” Tam
- The technical Falco can go a long way to reclaiming the title of best (non-Swedish) Falco in the UK with a good placing and wins here.Plus more UK power ranked players, Ryan “Ryan S” Speechley
, Tristan “X1” Bunyan , Raphael “23” McGee . As well as former ranked players in varying degrees of inactivity, Alex “Jolteon” Bowden , Jordy “Kipkosky” Savill , Will “Willz” Savage , Adam “ModestMajor” Burrington and Joel “JoMo” Galley .Northern Ireland
Christopher “Mint” Montgomery - Ranked 5th in the UK and comfortably Ireland’s best player. It is hard to estimate his precise skill since he has only recently started travelling and has yet to play any of the top 4 in tournament. However, convincing wins over many others and some good Europeans including 3-0 over Mahieddine "Mahie" Tsouria in The Contract at Heir 3 suggest he is at least close to bridging the infamous gap in UK Melee.A potential collision with VA in winners semis might be the set of the tournament. If he finds Hungrybox in bracket he may be the Floridian’s sternest opposition, since he is no stranger to the Jigglypuff matchup with Conor “maXy” Mavwell one of his most frequent whipping boys in Irish tournaments.
Additionally look out for fellow countrymen Wayne “Way” Montgomery
and Jonathon “Craft” Hill .Scotland
Fraser “TimeMuffin” Cunningham - A fast improving, very active Fox main and one of the top 3 Scots. Kickstart 13 will be another chance to progress his upward trajectory.Lee “Phade” Thomson
- Another member of Scotland’s top 3 and after a reasonably successful international outing at Eclipse 2, he will be looking to increase his stock further in the UK.As will fellow scotsmen Dylan “Maskless” Clark
, Alexander “Duckslayer” Glasgow and Gregor “Glaikit” Beatson .Wales
The Welsh effort is headed up by number 1 Adam “Setchi” Farmer and Matthew “Liberz” Liberson . These guys will be looking to take names and in the process raise the profile of Welsh Melee, currently only well known for that one evisceration.Stream & Schedule
Catch the stream on SmashHouseUK.
Schedule (all times GMT/UTC):
11:00 am - Venue opens
12:00 pm - Doubles
14:00 pm - Singles Pools wave 1
16:00 pm - Singles Pools wave 2
18:00 pm - Bracket
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