Remember Voo? That guy was a great Melee player. Playing a very crafty, full hop-heavy style of Falco, Voo was at the top of South Florida for quite some time, and he was notoriously a bit of a thorn in MOF’s side in that region. Although he hasn’t been nationally active in recent times, he made the Top 100 in 2022 and 2023. Unfortunately, within months of making Top 100 for the second time, Voo happened to drown in pools at Collision 2024. Here, he lost to Daniel and Porkers for 129th place. It is perhaps the most screwed up 2-2 I have ever seen.
I would wager that out of every returning major, Collision is the single most stacked pound for pound event. What really makes Collision unique is the fact that in each iteration, seemingly random nobodies can – and will – ruin someone’s day. In just four days, we’re about to see Collision 2025. Who will shock the world and drown a Top 100 player in pools this time? Who will win Collision? Today, I’ll be breaking down what to look out for in this upcoming major weekend.
Giant Melee
I was initially reluctant to write about this, but yes – I am seriously going to break down Giant Melee at Collision. In stark contrast to the image I’ve presented you of this tournament being filled to the brim with sweaty grinders, we’ll now discuss how many of those same sweaty grinders have found another home in a very dumb format. To ensure I did my research, I looked at results from previous Giant Melee brackets and I talked to dear friend (Giant Melee expert) DarkGenex.
Nicki, DarkGenex, and Miffee were the top three of Collision 2024’s Giant Melee bracket in that exact order, and they are returning here. Alongside those three as leading contenders are MOF, who finished in third place at Patchwork 2025’s Giant Melee bracket, and Swedish Delight, who is entering this format for the first time and apparently has been practicing. How meaningful is that? I have no idea, man. Either way, I was told to also look out for S+hiro, a Sheik from New Jersey, as well as mossy mat, a Jigglypuff from New Jersey, and 22K, a Sheik from Massachusetts.
With these players in mind, I should say that it’s possible that none of them will win Giant Melee – one big surprise of this year’s bracket is new top player interest. Hungrybox, moky, SDJ, Jmook, Trif, Aklo, and Wizzrobe have signed up for this year’s Giant Melee and are seeded in the top sixteen. I won’t lie – I expect at least half of them to DQ, but I’d be glad to be proven wrong. If you want to know more about Giant Melee in general, check out last year’s Giant Melee Rank. For now though, we’re going to move on. I’ll predict Nicki to repeat because it’s convenient. I think if I write any more about Giant Melee, my head will explode.
Doubles
We now move from one fake format to an arguably similar level of fake format in Melee doubles. I won’t mince words here: ever since Cody Schwab and Jmook stopped entering doubles events, my interest in following it has significantly fallen off a cliff. With that said, if there’s one East Coast doubles event that features depth, it would be this one. I’ll do my best to make this doubles preview exciting through my cynicism.
Let’s begin with the top seed of this tournament in Hungrybox/moky, the Supernova doubles champions. There’s not much to say here other than that they beat a Top 5 to Top 10 team at Supernova (Krudo/Panda). By default, they’re the favorites to win this tournament. The second seed here, for what it’s worth, is Krudo/Panda again. Those two have honestly been in a bit of a lull for major performances; this is a spot they have from legacy more than recent results.
After these two comes the third seed of the event in Zuppy/Mot$, the best active double Fox team. The fourth seed here is Joshman/Aura, the best active Fox/Peach team. Underneath them in the fifth seed spot is the home region’s defending squad in the Brotherhood (Aklo/Foxy Grandpa). Bare minimum, these are all Top 10 teams. However, the secret boss team may actually be the sixth seed: Swedish Delight/Trif. I mention this because there’s precedent for Swedish Delight winning a major with a first-time Peach player teammate (when he won Shine 2023 with Polish). But if it’s not these two, could it be the ex-Eggdog duo in Zamu/Spark? Those two used to be more active at majors together and finished second to Cody/Jmook not too long ago at Altitude Sickness 2. Or maybe the hidden killer team here is Salt/MOF, a trio with a couple third place performances at big events.
Outside of the top eight seeds, there are a good number of regional killer duos here. My mind immediately goes to Kevin Maples/eve, who recently finished in fourth place in an extremely scuffed Supernova doubles bracket. I also think Wally/Fable could make a run, if their Tipped Off: 16 top eight showing is any proof. For other Tristate duos, I can’t forget about Artan/TheAsianOne, whom I predicted for a breakout at Nouns Bowl, as well as Tempo/Justus, two doubles specialists. I’ll mention a thirteenth team here that’s seeded outside of the Top 12 (in fact, Top 16), that shouldn’t be slept on either: Kalvar/22K from New England.
Life’s too short to go with a top seed. I’ll go with a fun underdog pick to take home this event in Swedish Delight/Trif. This is kind of insane because they’ve never teamed before, but I feel like these two make an unusually solid duo of compatible teammates. I could see them avoiding upsets in a volatile bracket like this one, and they also are historically strong enough players to hang with the speed of top level opponents.
Sleepers from Tristate
For past majors, I usually talk about specific projected matches here, even with the disclaimer that I expected some of them to change. But for the interest of time, as well as accounting for the fact that set matches often get swapped well after this column is published, I’m going to focus less on the bracket more on the lower seeded players who I believe could take down a top seed or go deeper in the bracket than you’d think. Because it’s Collision, I’ll initially point out dark horses from Tristate.
One solid four seed to watch is PurpleDolphin, a volatile New York City Falco whose results range from random losses to beating people like K8A, Younger, and Epoodle. In similar fashion, I would look out for Fahey, a local Peach player who sponsored SDJ for a while, kdog, a NYC Marth player, and Moburu, another rising Marth player who finished as an honorable mention on the latest NJ PR.
After them, I’ll briefly mention four more players who are technically ranked in their regions, but still fall into the category of notable people for this pool. Let’s begin with Miffee, a long time power ranked New Jersey Jigglypuff player who doesn’t leave his region often, yet is still the state No. 12 and has fully switched to Donkey Kong. Another veteran player here is JKJ, a Fox player from Long Island who’s returned to the region after placing fifth on the most recent Philadelphia power rankings.There are then two Fox players here that warrant quick notes: Bigbuffalo, a power ranked NYC Fox/Puff (No. 13) who is especially strong against Ice Climbers and Captain Falcon, and Hatsune Mitski, who is currently No. 2 in Long Island and was previously No. 14 in NYC.
Sleepers Out of Tristate
After breaking down a select group of secretly strong four seeds of each pool, I’m now going to talk about invading players who are around the same level or slightly stronger. As a thematic twist, I’ll prioritize ‘invading’ players who are entering a pool of sharks and could leave with a big win or two.
I may as well get my Marth main bias out of the way and point out two power ranked New England Marth players in Arn255 (No. 10) and regEx (No. 11). Both were at Supernova, with Arn255 placing his seed and taking Preeminent to game five. regEx did not do nearly as well, but he’s recently taken local sets over GabeGlitches and FliiNcHy, has started taking sets from the top of New England’s PR, and had an alright losers bracket run to 17th place at Unranked after an early loss. On a similar level, I’m interested to see the No. 4 of Austin and Captain Falcon player GUESS MONSTER here. She won the Melee Online expert-only bracket not too long ago and has had a breakout coming for a long time. Heading back to New England players, I am very interested to see how Ember performs on the big stage again. Coming from New Hampshire, this Sheik/Fox player is widely recognized within New England as the best player underneath Kalvar and bonfire10. She’s just never shown it on a national-level in terms of results, but it’s never too late for it to happen.
At the risk of opening up the can of worms that constitutes what’s considered Tristate, I’m going to mention two annoying edge cases: upstate New York hidden boss Marth player Billz and Philadelphia hidden boss Fox player Young Neil. If you’re wondering why I’m counting Young Neil in this section and not the above one, just know I counted JKJ as Tristate because of his Long Island association, while Young Neil, to my knowledge, has been strictly Philadelphia. If you disagree, just know that this is totally part of my master plan. Yep, it’s definitely not me arbitrarily determining the answer to Tristate eligibility on a second-by-second convenience basis.
While I’m at it, I may as well mention Fudge, a Philadelphia Falco player who had a great Supernova and could officially make August the Month of Fudge with another big performance at Collision. For my last player of note, let’s conclude with Quebec’s very own Squid. I’m not sure which character he will play heading into the tournament (Falco or Yoshi). If it’s Falco, I think he will make Top 64 at the very least; if it’s Yoshi, he’ll likely make it to round two pools, but struggle beyond that. If it’s both though, who knows? I expect him to play Yoshi, but we’ll see soon.
Other Notable Tristate Talent
Switching back to Tristate, here’s every other Top 64-seeded (or around that range) player from the region. Each of these people boast the potential to make Top 32 here, with the latter ones even possibly having an outside shot at taking down higher seeds.
- Louis: A Top 100 Falco player from NYC.
- fitzy: Rising star Fox who is No. 11 on the NYC PR.
- K8A: An ex-Top 100 Fox player and current No. 9 of NYC.
- bonn: A Pikachu player who is No. 8 on the NYC PR and beat Jmook earlier this year.
- Daniel: A Yoshi player who is No. 7 on the NYC PR.
- Asidyx: A Marth who is No. 7 on the New Jersey PR.
- Freezus: A Fox who is No. 6 on the NYC PR.
- Fable: A Sheik who was from NJ, is No. 2 on the DFW PR, and recently had a huge second-place run at Unranked.
- E-Tie: An ex-Top 100 Fox player and current No. 4 of NYC.
- Jude: A Top 100 Marth player; current No. 6 in New Jersey.
- Adwan: A Fox player who is currently No. 5 in New Jersey.
We then get into an interesting crop of players after this group. Let’s start with the most likely one to DQ: ex-Top 50 player Bbatts. In the off chance that you, the typical reader of this column have forgotten, Bbatts is a Peach player who has prioritized Rivals of Aether 2 this year over Melee. If he ends up playing, I could see him doing well, but it’s hard to say with any confidence how he will perform. Joining him in the camp of intriguing New Jersey players is returning Top 100 player (and current in-region No. 2) Mot$, as well as longtime New Jersey hidden boss Kywet. The latter had a heartbreaking 65th place at Genesis, with game-five losses to Gahtzu and Kalvar, but not too long after, Kwyet double eliminated Adwan, beat Freezus, and beat GabeGlitches at a smaller event.
In fact, one player who could make a run is the New York No. 5, Captain Falcon player GabeGlitches himself. He curiously doesn’t seem to leave Tristate and will finally have a shot at out-of-region talent at Collision. But if it’s not him, it could be another Captain Falcon here in JoJo, a player I’ve written about favorably multiple times before. He’s made the Top 100 ballot and has essentially been near the top of Tristate for several years now, with good out-of-region performances too. Joining him in the list of “greatest players to warrant national recognition despite never having the luck of finishing in Top 100” group of people here is Long Island Sheik player and Brotherhood member Foxy Grandpa.
There’s now two other people I should take note of here before we get into the big dogs of the tournament. The first one will be quick: returning Top 50 player DarkGenex, who unfortunately is coming off a rough Supernova where he lost to apparent Ice Climbers-destroyer M1fs1re. The second one is ex-Top 25 player Rishi. No matter what year it is, you can’t count him out; see Collision 2023, where he ‘surprised’ everyone by defeating KoDoRiN and Trif.
Possible Breakout/Returning Top 8 Runs
We’ll now get into the active Tristate people we expect to see in Top 32, and boasting an outsider shot at top eight. These are smashers you’ll recognize at any big Northeast event – your Epoodles, Dawsons, Faiths, 404Crays, Chems, SluGs, and Swedish Delights of the world. And before you ask – the answer to your question is no. I don’t have an answer to why I suddenly decided that Philadelphia was Tristate again. Deal with it.
Within the same range of players comes a neat group of invading players here. There’s Zanya, who has been traveling to seemingly every big East Coast event as part of a recent Smash roadtrip, and Kevin Maples, the best active local player within MDVA and someone off his own run to Top 16 at Supernova. You also have Zuppy, who warrants mention for literally defeating Mang0 earlier this year and had his career-best singles performance at Collision 2023.
Here’s another list of people to watch in this group: Spark, who barely missed top eight at Supernova and beat a personal demon of sorts in Panda. Panda, who despite losing to Spark, upset Nicki at Supernova. Nicki, who despite being upset by Panda at Supernova, is still capable of taking down top seeds. Junebug, who is in a similar position as a slumping mid-tier player that nonetheless has immense peaks like beating Zain and Jmook this year. MOF, who might be the most volatile top player in the whole world. Zamu, who is one of her challengers for that title. Khryke, fresh off his first top eight at the biggest Melee tourney ever.
It’s difficult enough to make sense of how each member of that group will perform. But what about Magi, someone who has beaten Jmook and Plup this year? Speaking of which, I just remembered that neither MOF nor Zamu have the title of most volatile – Jmook does. When did Jmook go from Top 3 to Top 5 to Top 10 to losing to bonn and being mentioned this early? Imagine if he wins this event. Would any of us be surprised? Okay; yes, we would, but it is slightly plausible. Remember when Mang0 finished outside the Top 10 and then immediately won Super Smash Con 2022? Just think about something like that happening again.
To finish off everyone beneath the top eight seeds, we have the three top Peach players right now in lloD, Aura, and Trif. Krudo and Aklo are around that same group as well. Although both have amazing peaks, their lack of consistency halts those two from being a top eight seed here.
Top 8 Storylines
2025 is a strange season for Wizzrobe. He was a set away from being in grand finals at Genesis, has wins over multiple Top 5 players, and yet he’s had some truly disastrous performances this year too. I could see him randomly winning this event as an outsider, but it’s hard to say it will happen when it seems just as possible that a Top 32 seed can take him down before top eight.
One of the more fun surprises of this year has been Salt. But was she really a surprise? In 2022, I described her in this column as Melee’s equivalent to a five-star recruit, and the year after, I said she would be Top 10 by 2025. Well, she’s not only Top 10 now; she’s No. 8 in the world: the highest Captain Falcon, as well as someone who just took her first set over Cody.
SDJ, Aklo’s most recent sparring partner of sorts in Tristate, skyrocketed to No. 6 on Summer SSBMRank. While they’re coming off a relatively weak Supernova, nearly every other event they attended before that pointed to them entering the outskirts of major contention. One pretty fun storyline for SDJ heading into this tourney is that it’s their first Tristate major as a Tristate player since their move to the region.
Can Axe win a major again? I think he needs the right bracket for it to happen. He’s shown the ability to still beat Zain, and with recent wins over Joshman, Magi, and Soonsay, Axe has made much progress in his anti-spacies game too. With that said though, I worry about him any time he plays a Peach, and each of Junebug, MOF, and Nicki seem like unfavorable draws. That’s not even getting into his dead end matchup in Hungrybox either. Still – it is possible, and Axe is trending quite highly.
It is strange to describe the No. 5 player in the world as slumping – but we shouldn’t forget that moky is not that far removed from winning Don’t Park on the Grass. By the extremely thin margin of error he’s set for himself, he is underperforming. I still think he can do quite well here, and I would favor him against most people in the field. It’s just a question of his own motivations and how he’s playing that day.
One of the four players who finished with a higher rank than moky on the Top 50 was Joshman. Although he didn’t attend Supernova, he did defeat Wizzrobe at GOML: Forever and finished in fifth place there. Zain is really the only person in this field whom he’s looked completely lost against, but I think that with enough time, eventually their sets will turn competitive. If he has a path involving a Zain-less combination of players, I’m confident in his ability to contend here.
Surely a notable beneficiary of Cody’s absence at Collision would be Hungrybox, who is in a great position to do well at Collision. While sets dropped to Aklo, Nicki, and Maelstrom obviously show that he’s not invincible, all things considered, this is a good time to expect Hungrybox to perform well. It’s the best he’s looked from a results standpoint in six years, and within this field, his chances are strong. If Zain ends up in the losers bracket early, the path to winning will become significantly more wide open for Hungrybox.
Obviously though, Zain remains the heavy favorite entering Collision, as he just won Supernova. There are people who can beat him here – Nicki, Junebug, Jmook, and Axe – but the likelihood of it happening twice, or for multiple of these people eliminating him seems too low for me to predict. My call for this event is an uneventful Zain W.