Following an unprecedented major slump, several struggles against the top echelon, and even a brief flirtation with retirement, Hungrybox finally took home the gold at Genesis X2, winning his first Genesis in six years. Though he dropped a set to Wizzrobe to start Sunday, Hungrybox went on to defeat Salt, Mang0, Wizzrobe in the runback, and the event’s breakout star Trif in two grueling sets of grand finals to win his first major since Riptide 2022.
To his credit, Trif had one of the most legendary runs to second place in Genesis history. Coming into the event as a 12 seed, he proceeded to then defeat each of S2J, Aklo, SDJ, and Mang0 – all opponents who had won their last respective sets with Trif – before then beating Wizzrobe to make it to grand finals from the winners side. By doing so, Trif became the first person since Armada at Evo 2017 to make grand finals at a major with all Peach. He also is the first Spanish person to ever make grand finals at a major.
Beyond Hungrybox’s return to glory and Trif’s breakout, Genesis X2 had several other crazy storylines to begin this year of Melee. In today’s column, I’m going to be reviewing as many of them as I can, one by one, and what personally stood out to me while watching this tournament from afar. Full disclaimer: I will not be reviewing every single result of the event, so if I don’t mention something here, that’s just because I have limited time; not because I didn’t notice or care.
Pre-Top 64 results
Before Top 64 had even begun, Genesis X2 already had the makings of a historic tournament – and no, I’m not going to let Zain’s DQ spoil what was still a crazy tournament. As early as round one pools, the major’s 14 seed, Krudo, lost to SaltInYourEye, a teenage Ice Climbers player who entered the event as the 243 seed. Before Genesis X2, I wrote a column recapping the largest Genesis upsets of all-time – by my same methodology, this one had an Upset Factor of 8, putting in the same category of upsets as Magi over Mang0 at Genesis 6 and Axe’s legendary defeat of Jman at the original Genesis.
Little did I know that this result wouldn’t even be the most shocking one of the weekend. That title would go to Branted’s round one victory over Khalid – a nearly unfathomable 987 seed over 38 seed result that has an Upset Factor of 9. For context, this ties it with 2saint over aMSa at Genesis 9 and Panda over Axe at Genesis 7 for roughly the fourth-biggest upsets in Genesis history. What makes this result even more ridiculous is the fact that because it was so unexpected, the two actually had to play again to make it out of pools, a match that Khalid eventually won.
The upsets continued to pour in later on R2 Pools. A quietly shocking one came in the form of unranked SoCal Fox Iggy (seed 195) 3-2’ing Fro116 (seed 35, who had just lost to dz in winners bracket), while another wild result happened with Rocket (seed 97), the only Young Link solo main to ever finish in the Top 100, defeating Ben (seed 32). And yet somehow, all of these results were just scratching the surface for what came in the form of an absolutely wild Top 64 – one with a very clear “hero” figure of the West Coast.
The legend of Aura
Aura’s 2024 was marked by consistent regional excellence, and, as I seemingly write about in this column every time I have to talk about him, his destruction of Fox players. However, a deep major run was just not in the cards for him. Ironically, one of the best paths he’s had – Don’t Park on the Grass 2024 – ended early at the hands of Nicki, who went on to become the breakout star of that tournament. At the same time though, I always believed Aura was due for a huge performance at a major.
That finally came at Genesis X2, where Aura barely escaped a potential upset from United Kingdom Jigglypuff Jamie, beat Chickenman400 in a tight set, and then proceeded to destroy Cody Schwab in one of the largest upsets (Upset Factor of 8) in Genesis history. Not merely content with that, he then beat Soonsay in a tight game-five set before finally falling vs. Wizzrobe in another barnburner and running out of gas against moky for ninth place. Although Aura didn’t technically leave the event with a top eight performance, his incredible gameplay – as well as streamed sets – put the Pacific Northwest on the map and proved that he could hang with anyone in the world.
The silent killer in Top 64
When top players lose sets in pools, it’s not uncommon to see them immediately DQ afterwards, especially at an event like Genesis. Even Mang0, the greatest player of all-time, is not immune to dropping a set in winners bracket, looking at the rest of his opponents in losers bracket, and going, “nah, I’m good.” All this is to say that Krudo had a pretty long journey ahead of him following an unexpected loss before best-of-five.
Instead of DQ’ing though, Krudo ended up going on a massive tear through losers – one that involved him winning a mind-boggling nine straight sets. In order, Krudo beat Ehnk, Dirtboy, Omar, Luigi Ka-Master, cliche, Bbatts, Lucky, Fiction, and lloD before finally losing to Cody for 13th place, finishing exactly to his seed. While the placement may not look as impressive, on a cumulative head-to-head basis, this is one of the most stunning losers bracket runs at an event this stacked in talent.
A successful brand change
At a tournament featuring wild results like Maher over SFAT, Junebug upsetting Jmook, SDJ beating moky, or lloD coming out of a long break to defeat aMSa, it can be difficult to find a coherent narrative that combines a bunch of stray results. But one of the more interesting storylines of Top 64 came by virtue of Chickenman400, the artist formerly known as bobby big ballz.
Genesis X2 was Chickenman’s first major appearance since his brand change, and it was one of his best performances ever. After losing to Aura before Top 64, he then beat DannyPhantom before beating each of Ben, S2J, and Panda on the way to 17th place, his best performance at Genesis ever. It’s a particularly important result for Chickenman given that he struggled in his last two iterations of Genesis, but it’s also pretty rare to see him at a major nowadays in general. This was his first major since Tipped Off 15 last year.
Salt casually makes Melee history
This is something that I’m somewhat surprised didn’t get more attention when it happened: by defeating Axe for seventh place, Salt officially cemented herself as the highest placing woman at a major in Melee history. She had previously tied it with multiple seventh place performances, as well as matching Magi there, but no other woman had ever made losers quarterfinals.
Earlier this year, I wrote about the really cool trend of more women representation in the scene. If you ignore the really stupid and completely nonsensical discussion that came downstream of that (AKA you have functioning brain cells), you can recognize that Salt achieving yet another first is an unambiguous net positive for the game. Melee has a long way to go before it can ever truly feel like an “equal” place for everyone, but seeing Salt’s success is genuinely inspirational.
Is Hungrybox secretly the GOAT?
A long time ago, I wrote a column comparing each of Armada and Mang0’s cases to be the greatest player of all-time. Shortly after that, I wrote a piece examining Hungrybox’s argument for GOAT, and I found myself surprised at how relatively close it was. Before Genesis X2, I honestly thought it was still a close discussion, but if you asked me how I’d personally order them, I would have said Mang0, Armada, and Hungrybox, in that order. The biggest argument against Hungrybox was his lack of top echelon hardware. While he undeniably has the largest trophy case in Melee history, he is still behind on premier victories, where each of his two peers remain supreme.
That being said, there’s not much that could possibly be a bigger boost to Hungrybox’s legacy than winning a Genesis – literally Melee’s most important tournament. He’s at a stratosphere of greatness where this type of achievement is the only thing short of finishing No. 1 for another year that could significantly move him further in the GOAT discussion. Now, because Liquipedia doesn’t have an entirely complete definition of premier or supermajor, I would respectfully take some of the team’s classifications in this area with a grain of salt. But for what it’s worth, here’s how this team would count each of our three GOAT’s biggest supermajor wins.
| Mang0 | Armada | Hungrybox |
| Pound 3
Genesis Pound 4 Evo 2013 MLG 2014 Evo 2014 The Big House 4 The Big House 6 Super Smash Con 2017 GOML 2019 The Big House 9 Tipped Off 15 |
Genesis 2
Apex 2012 Apex 2013 Evo 2015 The Big House 5 Genesis 3 UGC Smash Open Genesis 4 Evo 2017 Smash ‘N’ Splash 4 Super Smash Con 2018 |
Apex 2010
Evo 2016 Smash ‘N’ Splash 3 Shine 2017 The Big House 7 The Big House 8 Genesis 6 Genesis X2 |
Again, to be fully transparent, I do not think this fully encapsulates the scale of premier wins for either of these three players. In Mang0’s case, I’d include each of Mang0’s wins at Smash Summit 11 Smash Summit 14 wins, Royal Flush, Super Smash Con 2022, and Revival of Melee. For Armada, this list misses each of his first four Smash Summit wins. Lastly, for Hungrybox, you certainly can’t ignore his wins at Paragon Orlando, DreamHack Winter 2015, Battle of Five Gods, GOML 2022, or any of his Summit wins (5, 7, and 9). But the point is that whatever margin exists is close enough to where a single victory at Genesis is actually quite a bit more important to Hungrybox’s legacy than you might imagine.
The Best Part of Genesis X2
I think I speak for many people when I say the best part of watching Genesis was hearing the comforting voices of Scar and Toph at the end of Day 2. Despite how Scar thought Aura’s tag was “Orzo,” I couldn’t help but feel emotional just hearing their voices. Listening to them made me feel like I was staying up in college again for another late night in my dorm room, eating snacks and watching Melee. Now, I’m not saying that nobody will ever match their contributions and I’m not trying to criticize other commentators, but these two really embody how Melee can always be whatever each of us want it to be. There’s something quite beautiful about seeing two married men (and now fathers) still finding a way to make Melee special years after the peak of their involvement.
One of the biggest changes I made in my life over the last eighteen months was dialing back my involvement with Melee. Although I still write about it each week, I’ve had to take a lot of time to focus on my professional career and family obligations. Compared to a couple years ago, when I traveled practically every month and felt like a large chunk of my self-worth was related to Melee, I have a much more healthy perspective on the community and greater distance from it. At the same time though, it still hurts to occasionally see majors from afar and wonder if I’m missing out. Occasionally, I even wonder if anyone even cares that I’m not there, or worse, if I will one day be forgotten about. Seeing Scar and Toph, however, was genuinely cathartic. They are proof that passion doesn’t necessarily have to disappear with time and age. Instead, it can take a different form, and that’s okay.
I was not present at this year’s Genesis, but it’s difficult to not feel moved just talking about it. Although the top eight was objectively wack and filled with results that I certainly was not rooting for, it was still Genesis. With Hungrybox’s grand return, Trif’s sudden breakout, the pride I felt seeing so many of my friends commentate and involve themselves at this tournament, and my favorite commentary duo making a surprise appearance, it simultaneously felt like the start of something new, and yet a return to familiarity.
What Genesis really teaches us is that it’s never too late to care; never too late to either create something beautiful or to rediscover joy in something you once loved. As long as you are alive, you always have an opportunity to share experiences with others, to create lasting memories, and to shape the world the way you want to shape it. No matter how small you may feel in a given moment, you can always choose to live the life you want to live.
SaltInYourEye is from California fyi