After about 21 months, Jmook finally broke his major slump, winning the Nounsvitational last weekend, his first major victory since Collision 2023. With victories over Zain, Aklo, and Cody Schwab, Jmook not only defeated opponents who had each beaten him at previous events – he also tied aMSa for 13th most major victories of all-time (three). Additionally, the win cemented Jmook as the fifth major winner of this year, following Cody Schwab, Zain, Mang0, and moky.
Jmook’s victory was far from the only notable result at the Nounsvitational. The pools stage of this tournament particularly had some of the craziest results of the year: Donkey Kong BING defeating MOF and aMSa, upstate New York Fox Agent stunning both Aklo and aMSa, and Salt defeating aMSa. It had me thinking of the biggest upsets of this year, so I went through all the 2024 majors, picked out notable upsets featuring top ten seeds, and made a Top 10 list. Before I get into the list itself, I’d like to shout out five results that didn’t make the cut.
- n0ne (27) over Wizzrobe (6) at Riptide 2024. This is a pretty big upset by seed, but the numbers oversell the disparity between the two players, and they also undersell their matchup history, which has swung in n0ne’s direction enough times to make it not too surprising.
- Nicki (25) over Jmook (8) at DPOTG 2024. I’m putting this one here because of the scale of the players involved ;the set itself is not that surprising. I thought it would be a coin flip, given the matchup.
- SDJ (24) over aMSa (3) at DPOTG 2024. It was a little under two years ago since we saw aMSa drop a set to a Jigglypuff that isn’t Hungrybox, but I don’t think it was that surprising.
- MOF (39) over moky (7) at Tipped Off 15. The seeding disparity inherently makes this a big upset, but I think it’s a little misleading. MOF tends to be really up-and-down in her results, and moky’s similarly volatile in this matchup, historically speaking.
- All of the lower seeded players that beat Mang0 at the Nounsvitational. Bless all of these people, whose results definitely “count” for their annual resume, but let’s be real: these sets were basically DQs.
Number 10: Medz (50) over Aklo (10) at Genesis X
Here is a cool upset that’s starting to go under the radar because of how great the “underdog” has played since. It honestly deserves quite a bit more merit as a notable result; entering this event, Medz was coming off a year where he didn’t qualify for the Top 100 by eligibility. Meanwhile, Aklo was a newcomer to the Top 10 itself and had already started finishing deep in major top eights.
By raw seed disparity, this is the second biggest major upset of a top ten seeded player in 2024. I wouldn’t go that far myself, and there will be hipsters who claim that this wasn’t actually too surprising, but that’s bullshit. Unlike his previous wins at the same tournament, which had some type of precedent, Medz took a big step forward by beating Aklo.
Number 9: Nicki (25) over Zain (1) at Don’t Park on the Grass 2024
I might be crazy for putting a Zain upset this low. Obviously, it’s a big deal when a guy who practically never loses to players outside the top five finally loses to someone outside the top five. However, the numbers slightly oversell the nature of this specific matchup. Nicki and Zain had previously played at Collision, where a down-to-the-wire set barely went in Zain’s direction.
Combined with the fact that Nicki’s other results, we had reason to think that a future set between Nicki and Zain could possibly go in Nicki’s favor. It deserves mention because of the loser involved, as well as the sheer value of what it means to beat him on a supermajor stage, but it’s not the craziest Nicki result of 2024.
Number 8: Junebug (20) over Trif (10) at the Eggdog Invitational
Though it isn’t that big of a seeding upset, it’s notable because of the players and characters involved. Trif’s Peach rarely, if ever, loses to mid tier characters, and when it happens, it’s extremely notable. Junebug is pretty experienced against Peach, but even I have to confess that I believed this was genuinely one of the most hopeless draws he could have had this deep into the tournament.
It’s also worth noting that while Junebug had been on a bit of a hot streak heading into the Eggdog Invitational, we had seen previous performances where his character simply got matchup-gapped by ‘worse’ players with far better characters for the matchup. In terms of expectations I had heading into a set, this one really stands out because I thought Trif would both “better-player” and “better-character” Junebug.
Number 7: Nicki (25) over Cody Schwab (2) at DPOTG 2024
I know what you’re thinking. “Edwin, how does this make any sense? Cody is literally a lower seed than Zain.” First off, learn how to read and read what I said above. But also hear me out: Nicki and Cody, unlike Nicki and Zain, hadn’t played this matchup before. All the recent footage we’d seen of Cody vs. Ice Climbers, as rare as it was, seemed to indicate that he would obliterate anyone who played this character against him.
You’ll have to take my word for it because I don’t have a clip, but Cody actually talked a good game at the Eggdog Invitational of liking the Ice Climbers matchup too. The Fox matchup was not one of Nicki’s strongest ones either by results, if his previous losses in the year to Pricent and moky were any indication. God, that seems so ridiculous to say in hindsight. Maybe it was.
Number 6: Nicki (13) over Wizzrobe (6) at the Eggdog Invitational
Before this set, the last Ice Climbers player to beat Wizzrobe was dizzkidboogie in late 2016. Wizzrobe presumably knew this, which is why he literally chose Nicki as his opponent for the final bracket of the Eggdog Invitational. We know what happened afterward; Nicki destroyed him. Since then, he’s gone on to join a small group of players who could feasibly win a major in 2025. You could even argue that Nicki effectively took Wizzrobe’s spot in the Top 10 from him.
In my opinion, great upsets aren’t only mere outliers: in many cases, they are moments that make you look at Melee differently. To me, this was the moment where it became very clear that Nicki was way more than your average rising Ice Climbers player.
Number 5: BING (14) over aMSa (5) at Nounsvitational
When aMSa finally lost to Axe at DPOTG 2024, it was the first time in a few years that another mid-tier had beaten him. He had even played Junebug earlier at the Eggdog Invitational and beaten him seemingly on the fly with no real matchup experience. For the last few years, I just assumed aMSa wouldn’t lose to anyone lower than Yoshi on the tier list.
With that said, I was genuinely shocked to see BING defeat aMSa. Although we’d technically seen BING with a Top 5-level result before, usually the people who beat aMSa on their first tries are Fox, Peach or Jigglypuff players. You’d hardly expect a Donkey Kong player with no major matchup experience on his end to literally defeat aMSa on his first attempt. Ironically, it wasn’t even the biggest upset of aMSa this tournament, but we’ll get into that later.
Number 4: Equilateral (30) over Mang0 (3) at LMMM 2024
To be clear, Mang0’s has a history of blowing it vs. egregiously lower seeds. This isn’t the biggest upset within that category of players on an all-time basis. However, it wasn’t a guarantee that Equilateral – the silver medalist at the LMMM “Arcadian” – would make it past JCAM. Funnily too, Equilateral and Mang0 had actually played at Tipped Off in 2023; it isn’t like Equilateral had caught Mang0 totally off guard.
Before his win over Mang0, the best wins he had were over Louis at Tipped Off 15 and a set over Panko in 2023. I understand why people will scoff at this set appearing on an annual highlights list because of the broader context surrounding the loser. It’s not entirely unreasonable, but it also doesn’t feel fair to totally discount its outcome. Unlike the Nounsvitational RR pools, which had a more overarching context to the series of performances, this one felt more unexpected.
Number 3: Agent (16) over aMSa (5) at Nounsivtational
I’ve been a believer in Agent for a long time, but even I have to admit that I did not see this one coming. This is, by far, the biggest upset aMSa has ever had at a major tournament since his rise to being a Top 10 player. Almost all of what I just said that’s related to matchup experience could apply for Agent, and unlike with BING, where maybe aMSa finally got knowledge-checked in an obscure matchup, it’s not like aMSa doesn’t know how to play against Fox. We just saw him win a whole tournament (even one with questionable competitive stakes) over the best Fox in the world.
Agent entered this invitational as a vote-in player whose resume broadly hung around the 90s or just outside Top 100 range. He left it with a win over aMSa, and yet once again, it wasn’t even Agent’s most shocking result at this tournament.
Number 2: Agent (16) over Aklo (5) at Nounsvitational
Although the Fox ditto is quite volatile at a top level, it’s one of the closest things you can find to a pure “skill check” matchup in Melee With all due respect, people like Aklo don’t really lose to people like Agent, who by the set count isn’t even a particularly strong Fox ditto specialist. A little over a month ago, he had lost to SFOP and Adwan for 33rd place at The Function 4. Before that, Agent had been sent to the losers bracket at Riptide by Artan and he got eliminated by Kevin Maples at Collision – neither of which were upsets by seeding.
The last time I could find an upset comparable to Agent over Aklo in this Fox ditto is when Lovage defeated Leffen, 2-1, at GT-X 2017. Let’s not get it twisted: Agent over Aklo is an all-time caliber result. If it were 2023, 2022, or 2021, we’d consider it the biggest upset of the year. Amazingly, in 2024, it’s not even the biggest upset from upstate New York.
Number 1: BING (64) over Cody Schwab (1) at GOML X
Results like BING over Cody are rare in Melee history. When they happen, there’s typically a stipulation. It could be best-of-three, like Fizzwiggle over Mang0, the other 64-over-1-seed result of the 2020s. There may be a difference in rules, like any upsets related to Wobbling. Online upsets, like the whole stretch where Hungrybox seemingly gave free wins to every other opponent, are barely treated with any seriousness in this conversation, and the same could be said for a difference in setups, if Low Tier City 7 was any indication. As we learned from SilentSpectre over Armada, there’s even an instance where the damage ratio put an asterisk on a historic result.
There’s no stipulation here though; this is a good, old-fashioned ass-kicking. BING over Cody completely changed how the community has seen an entire character. And yet rather than tarnishing its inherent shock value, it remained untainted by any nebulous circumstances. It’s not only the upset of the year; it’s the greatest Melee upset of all-time and a landmark moment for our game in two decades.