Skip to content

Monday Morning Marth: July 22

Edwin Budding
Published July 22, 2024

One cool January afternoon, Tennessee Melee made history with the launch of Warehouse War. With 127 attendees, it was one of the biggest one-day events in the state’s history, and it was only fitting that the event’s champion was the local scene No. 1 man himself, Mr. Dillon “Grab” Draper, a player quite near dear to me.

Although few things ever personally top Grab winning a tournament, the next two installments of Warehouse War were pretty tight too. Colbol won Warehouse War 2 in dominant fashion, though the event also marked a huge return to form for Logan, whose epic loser’s run to second place made for a fun storyline of the tournament. Then, in the 2023 edition of Warehouse War, Magi would steal the show, defeating each of SFOP and bobby big ballz to take home the gold.

All this is to state that Warehouse War 4 is going to be the most prestigious installment yet. With 488 people, as of right now, set to attend this event, it’s going to be historic. Along with practically the entire Midwest (EDIT: AND SOUTHEAST, WHICH APPARENTLY TENNESSEE IS MORE CONSIDERED THAN MIDWEST) showing up, you have three titans here: Cody Schwab, Jmook, and Hungrybox, vying for a chance to win the tournament. Is it a major? Is it not? Who cares; as long as it’s exciting, I’m going to talk about it.

Because we don’t have the final bracket for Warehouse War, I won’t be simulating the event in the same way I did for Tipped Off. But what I can do is examine the potential fates of players who could stand to gain quite a bit from performing well here. So, in this column, I’m going to break down all the people you need to know, talk about what’s on the line for them, recap their results this year, and predict how they could do here.

Top 100 Potential

Let’s begin with the players who we can almost certainly say are not Top 50, yet are currently close to contention for a chance at Top 100. I know this is cliche as far as talking about stakes; at the same time, it’s just an easy way to explain who someone is, what their results are, and in which direction they could be heading in for this particular event.

The first player I want to bring up is POG Epic Gamer. Yes, that is his real tag. The one he had before that was Pokimanefan, and he’s also gone by multiple other tags too. I don’t remember the order. Anyway, he’s the best player in Alabama – though, interestingly, he’s not very active in-region. He beat Unsure, OG Kid and Gahtzu earlier this year, and late in 2023, he actually took a set from Krudo at DreamHack Atlanta 2023. All signs point to him being a player that could make Top 100 with another win or two vs. the current or contending field.

Another enigmatic Sheik player that fits a similar vibe is Louisiana’s very own JSalt, who you might remember for winning the most recent National Melee Arcadian. Although he isn’t nearly as regionally dominant as the legendary Hanky Panky, JSalt fits a similar category when it comes to being someone who totally trounces a very specific group of players (non-Top 100 smashers). During the pandemic, he grew in notoriety for basically only entering small online tournaments and almost always winning them. Strangely enough, he hasn’t done much this year. He went to Genesis and beat McCloud, who seems like a Top 100 ballot-contending player in terms of skill, but other than that, he’s been quiet. JSalt’s like a gatekeeper to the Top 100 – not within it, but right outside of it, perpetually giving reality checks to hopefuls.

We then get into the infamous OG Kid, a player whose rise has long been talked about, yet somehow remains surprising to witness. While he struggled with consistency issues for a while, he’s lately taken his results to a new level, in part also thanks to KirbyKaze coaching. His recent runs at CEO 2024 and Gridiron Gateway brought him wins over Balloon Day, Preeminent, and prof. As an aside, Melee has a history of young prodigies breaking out, and yet every time it happens, it still feels as shocking and interesting as ever.

Staying with Jigglypuff players, we get to Georgia’s Panko. He had his breakout performance at Shine a couple years ago and then spent most of 2023 under the radar before a monster showing at Santa Paws put him back in the spotlight. In this year though, he just hasn’t been too active, nor has he had the results, with his only notable out-of-region win coming vs. JJM at Tipped Off. At the same time, he’s no stranger to lulls and brief drop offs; historically speaking, it’s only a matter of time before he does some insane nonsense, like upsetting two Top 20 players to make winners quarterfinals. Maybe that happens here.

The last player I want to bring up in this section is Bambi, who has had one of the most unexpected national surges in prominence this year. After years of being a classic mid-level NJ SSBM ‘stalwart’ of sorts, he’s lately emerged as this unholy Young Link/Falco/Marth tri-main. In the first six months of the year, he’s beaten each of mvlvchi, Beezy, and bonfire10. It’s very quietly been one of the most interesting annual breakouts; to see this guy who has long been at a consistent, yet somewhat limited, level of player in Tristate suddenly rise to a new level.

Potential Risers

In my mind, there’s no question that this group of players will not only make the Top 100 ballot, but they’re overwhelmingly favored to end the year at Top 100 provided they enter enough majors. Think of this group as your “safe picks” for the end-of-the-year ballot; the “your favorite player’s favorite player” archetypes; broadly speaking, the range of players from edge of the Top 50 ballot to right outside of it.

Komodo is a regional legend within Central Florida. Similar to the “Hgod only loses when he chooses” theory, there’s a widespread belief within CFL that “K-dog” is incapable of losing. Anyway, Jigglypuff player theories aside, Komodo has always been a bit of a wild card. He could randomly defeat Plup’s Fox, and nobody would think twice, and the same could be said for him suddenly getting 65th place out-of-region. As far as his best moments of 2024 go, he defeated both Spark and DontTestMe at Ohan’s Birthday Bash, while also grabbing other wins in the year over Preeminent, Voo, and prof. He isn’t a lock for Top 100, but he’s currently in a good position to cement it with a strong performance.

Because it’s timely, we may as well continue with the latest Eggdog Invitational vote-in champion: Lowercase hero, beloved champion of Wisconsin (and local tournament dodger). For all the talk about him being a relatively obscure Fox player, he’s actually had a very strong season. Following him making the Top 100 for the first time in 2023, he’s gone on to nab sets over Slowking, essy, Preeminent, Dawson, and Pipsqueak. A breakout at Warehouse War could certainly be in the cards given his prowess against fast-fallers, as well as this fast-faller-heavy bracket.

Another Fox worth mentioning is Paladin, a Melee Stats Patron, bonafide sick player, and someone whom I’m pretty sure won 50 friendlies against me in a row. I felt less bad about it upon seeing his results; he’s lately defeated each of Beezy and Preeminent, as well as beaten Panko, while going back and forth with POG Epic Gamer (1-2). He’s been near the top of the Tennessee Power Rankings for a while; he tends to do really well in the Fox ditto, vs. each of the midweights, and Jigglypuff.

Dawson has had a year that’s as impressive as it is hard to assess. On one hand, he’s had major consistency issues, but some of his highlights have been great, like splitting sets with SluG, winning a regional over Wally and Logan, and beating essy and MOF at Out of the Blue 3. Furthermore, a strange undercurrent of this season has been Dawson’s full potential being teased in locals before majors and regionals, which are always nebulous to evaluate. What instantly comes to mind is his ridiculous run to fifth place at the Tipped Off pre-local, where he beat OG Kid, POG Epic Gamer, Snap, Egg$, Komodo, and Colbol. If you thought that was crazy, how about taking down Kalvar and Salt to win the Patchwork 2024 pre-local?

More than anyone else, Unsure is the hero of Chicago. He’s had a stretch of Puff-slaying this year, boasting wins over 2saint, Dawson, and Khalid, all while doing quite well regionally. In terms of Melee results, his rise has been great to watch given how kind and earnestly hard-working he is as a community member. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for his qualities as a Fourside Fights pundit, where he has the worst opinions in the whole world, but that’s a story for another time.

Known for being a Smash Summit 13 invitee, Blue is a player you might have recognized but forgotten about. However, any lack of exposure you may have had to Blue since isn’t from weak results. Ask anyone in the Midwest – this guy is the real deal, and they’ve all had to deal with it. This year alone, he’s scored multiple sets over Ben and Zamu, while also defeating each of Wevans, Zealot, Lowercase hero, Unsure, and several other players. In similar fashion to 2023, he would be easily Top 100 and in contention for the ballot if he had more majors. If there’s any regional sponsors, this guy is a must-add.

The queen of Cincinnati herself, essy, warrants mention here. In addition to her continued domination of her local scene, she’s excelled at the regional level within the Midwest. Her best performance came at Combo Breaker, where she made a big losers run to third, beating three Top 100 players (Wevans, KoopaTroopa895, Preeminent) and one player who’d almost certainly be a lock if he was nationally active (Blue). Her majors, to put it nicely, have been unexpected misses though. Perhaps she can hypnotize herself into thinking she’s at Arcade Legacy before she reaches the venue.

Where has CPU0 been? Honestly, mostly in Arizona. However, when he’s shown up at bigger events, he usually just quietly grabs a Top 100 win before disappearing back into the never-ending vortex of fighting BigTimeRush and JWick. It is pretty wild that this player has defeated each of Aura, Lowercase hero, Unsure, and Egg$ – straight up four wins of Top 100-caliber players, with potentially three of them contending for the Top 50 ballot – and yet nobody has talked about it. Honestly, given the rest of Unsure’s resume, that win somehow stands out as the most impressive.

Bonafide Top 50 Players

This group of players are people who have outside shots at top eight for this event. I would consider all these players cleanly Top 50. That could mean as high as Top 25 in the world, or as low as the 40s. Regardless; a great performance here for each of them could skyrocket their current trajectory in the scene, not just in terms of their current ranking, but arguably even their legacy as generational talents for their character or region.

To begin this section, no one could be more fitting than the original Warehouse War champion himself in Grab. He hasn’t been active lately due to hand issues, but his 2024 results have led him to entering contention for Top 50. Most notably, he won ETSU-Con over bobby big ballz, beating him twice. Earlier this year, he also defeated Bbatts and Panko at Mountain Mania, then beating KJH and finding himself in Top 8 of Full Bloom 2024.

EDIT: Grab has since announced a brief hiatus due to hand issues. He won’t be competing here.

We’ll continue with KJH, a longtime Top 50 spacies player, Mang0’s training partner and a co-host of Spacie Jam. This year, he’s had great performances vs. each of Ben, Akir, and Bbatts, among many other players. We’ve yet to see an event where both his Fox and Falco are on point, but he’s shown flashes of brilliance with both. An event where both are on fire could be one that brings him unprecedented highs for his career.

bobby big ballz having high highs and low lows stuns no one. But his highs have frankly been unprecedented this year. Along with beating Axe and SFOP at Low Tide City 2024, he recently had a monstrous loser’s run at Tipped Off 15, where he beat each of Panda, KJH, and n0ne on the way to 17th place. I still think about how he brought Zain to game five at Genesis X; nobody ever talks about it for some reason. It is pretty wild; right? Furthermore, with Fiction playing Fox again, as well as Ginger out of competing, bobby big ballz has found himself as a top three solo Falco representative, which is crazy when you think about it.

Speaking of rare solo representatives for relatively struggling characters, MOF has continued to have moments of greatness, starting the year with a win over Krudo. Although she took a bit of a step back in results, this was largely in part due to a concussion and other personal health issues that clearly contributed to her unusually poor performances at other events. In fact, the last stretch of her summer season involved a huge Tipped Off where she beat moky, bobby big ballz, and Drephen, as well as a great top eight run at CEO. While the fact that she plays Ice Climbers does make her an inherent wild card, more often than not, you can expect her to do well.

I previously wrote about Wally’s year in a column where I broke down his case for Top 25. Today, I’m not sure how his resume of wins (KoDoRiN, Chem twice, Lucky, and KJH) stacks up in comparison to every other player currently contending for this range of players. But it’s definitely still very good. Just keep him away from the Jigglypuffs, and it’ll be more likely that the Wally we see is the one that can beat everyone in the world, and not the player who DQs to go hang out with his friends.

Closing out this section, we get into the OG Melee Stats girl herself in Zamu. She hasn’t been to many majors this year, and yet she’s been content to perform well within the Midwest, frequently coming out on top of her battles with Blue, Ben, and Morsecode762. Out of her region, she defeated Spark Fiction at Ghost Town 2, and she even stole a set from Cody Schwab at The Works 2024. If you can beat the reigning No. 1, you can beat anyone.

Top 8 Contenders

At about this point in the bracket you get into the clear no-nonsense Top 25 players. These are the players who not only contend for major top eights at any major they attend; they are likely to win whatever stacked regionals they enter. If you see them at your event, they’re probably going to take home first place. These are the players who don’t – or should not – care about their ranking, because at this point of their career, their long-term goals are about entering the next level of play.

The initial name that comes to mind here is Ossify, darling of Michigan, prodigal son of the Midwest, and the Mang0-slayer who got third place at Full Bloom 2024. His other performances this year have brought him victories over the likes of Salt, Zamu, Morsecode762, Sirmeris, and SFOP too. As a matter of fact, another win that I was quite impressed by was Ossify overcoming a 2-0 deficit to reverse 3-0 BING at Gridiron Gateway.

One of the few people, of course, who have battled Ossify multiple times and not been entirely dismantled, is Ben. He has reached a new level of brilliance this year, not only holding his own in region vs. players like Ossify and Zamu, but also defending the Midwest from invading talent. The highlight of his year absolutely has to be Ben holding down the fort vs. Wizzrobe, going 2-1 in sets to win Invincible VIII. Mind you, Wizzrobe would go on to embarrass Jmook that same month, making Ben’s achievement look even crazier with time.

Sticking with the thread of people who have defeated Ossify, let’s talk about Krudo, the king of one-day regionals this year. It’s actually pretty insane how much he’s won them. In six months, he won Failsafe Winter 2024, Altitude Sickness, Minnesota Monthly Melee, CT GamerCon, and Ohan’s 25th B-day Bash. It’s really only his major performances holding him back.

Another player known for incredible regional performances is Salt, who ironically suffered a rare heartbreak at the hands of Junebug at Patchwork 2024. Nonetheless, she’s been one of the most consistent players in this tier all year, having recently won Out of the Blue 3, House of Paign 24, and several smaller Texas events. Salt still lacks that big, definitive breakout win, but whatever she’s missing in that, she has in sets over her peers, as well as consistently great performances.

Magi, like bobby, suffers from Falco Syndrome – she’s forever cursed with incredible head-to-head records vs. her peers, but also has a penchant for dropping sets to players worse than her. And yet in similar fashion to Salt, she’s done well for herself at the regional level. What stands out to me is her victory at Smash Camp: New Lands, where she beat each of Fiction, Bbatts, and Aura to finish in first place.

For the players who make Top 10 for the first time, there’s a tremendous pressure that follows them – stick to what they know, and risk stagnating in trajectory, or make fundamental changes in gameplay, and potentially suffer short-term setbacks in results. Aklo, to my knowledge, has taken the second approach. From what I know behind the scenes, and from what I can tell from his results, he’s taking a more long-ball approach, and it’s slowly beginning to pay dividends. While he had a tough start to year, Aklo has beaten Ossify multiple times since, as well as made top eight at GOML, beating Trif, Spark, and Ben: three Top 10 to 25 players.

Lastly, I want to talk about Axe. This player needs no real introduction, but it’s worth taking a look at just his Tipped Off performance and seeing what that could point to. En route to top eight, he beat Inky, Krudo, SDJ, Soonsay, and Wizzrobe – a Top 100-contending player, two Top 25 players, and two Top 10 players. This is an insane gauntlet that some major contenders might fail to complete, and we shouldn’t take it for granted. He also recently won a SoCal event over Lucky; this is the sign of a player slowly shaping back into top form for the summer. Were it not for the other three players here, he might have been my pick to take home this event.

The Contenders

This is our final section: where we talk about the people who are, more often than not, going to win events like these. For this part of the column, I’m going to discuss their best and worst case scenarios for Warehouse War, as well as talk about how it could impact their long-term trajectories and potentially even their legacies as all-time legends of the game.

Jmook is an amazing player, but he’s also the shakiest of this group vs. the field. While you can expect him to win, more often than not, vs. the field, there’s still many people who pose a big threat to him at this particular event. We know Axe and Aklo can do it, with Axe especially trending upward. Salt, Krudo, and Ben have taken games as well, with Ben outright winning a tournament over a player not too far from Jmook’s caliber. Meanwhile, MOF completely destroyed Jmook in the two’s last set. Even assuming he makes it by everyone, he’ll have to take on one of his two hardest opponents as of right now (Cody Schwab), and someone whom he used to really struggle with (Hungrybox), but who still, bare minimum, seems like a tough coin flip. I don’t think it’s entirely out of the question that Jmook wins this event, but his stock is very low, and relatively speaking, this bracket pool doesn’t bode well for him.

Smack middle within this tier of players, we have Hungrybox, whose consistency vs. players who aren’t major contenders has long been a running throughline of his career. Versus the players of the last group, he’s frankly back-hand smacked all of them over the last two years in any meaningful setting. Now, keeping that in mind, I actually don’t think it’s too impossible for Hungrybox to potentially be given a scare early on at this event. Remember: he’s had close game-five calls with mgmg, JChu, SDJ, SFAT, Squid, and even Dawson since GOML 2023. All it takes is one game for those to go the other way and for Mr. Clutchbox to find himself in the losers bracket. I wouldn’t expect it necessarily; at the same time, crazier things have happened. Against each of Jmook and Cody, we haven’t seen enough of Hungrybox vs. them this year outside of one event where he double eliminated Cody, and another one where Jmook clutched a set out. My intuition is telling me that Jmook is a coin flip and that Cody will beat the brakes off Hungrybox., but by the numbers, Hungrybox is actually up, 3-2, since last July. Will this hold?

This then brings me to Cody Schwab, my pick to win this tournament (shocker), and the number one seed here. While there are people within this field who have beaten him (Hungrybox, Jmook, and Zamu) or given him close calls in the last year (Magi, Wally, and CPU0), I don’t really see him dropping this tournament. In fields with people more akin to fitting the category of giving Cody unexpected trouble (like Morsecode or BING), Cody might not have a guaranteed shot to Top 12, but in a bracket of Sheiks, fast-fallers, and Marth,  I can’t see Cody Schwab dropping Warehouse War 4. Cody, if you’re reading this, please. It’s your destiny. End the Monday Morning Marth Curse before I start believing in it.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from Melee Stats

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading