The 2020s have been a fun decade to follow Melee. While a lot has changed since the turbulent start of this time period, we’ve still broadly enjoyed consistently returning major tournaments, even as some of them have gone. One such series is Battle of BC, which I attended a couple years ago and look forward to watching this year. Hosted every year in Vancouver, this event typically features the best of the best, but it also typically spotlights the top dogs of the Pacific Northwest, the rising stars West Coast Canada, and quite a few international talents too.
It’s worth noting Battle of BC’s place in the scene too. This year marks the seventh iteration of the event, which started in 2016, as well as the fourth consecutive year in which it’s been featured as a major. Among annual series of the 2020s, Battle of BC is part of a select group of five events that have been majors for every SSBMRank season this decade: Genesis, Get On My Level, Supernova (formerly Super Smash Con), and Riptide. This is a very special event – not only because of what it represents for its region, but also as a definitive leading tournament series within the Melee ecosystem.
With that in mind, today’s column is going to be a basic preview piece about Battle of BC 7. Who should you look out for to make a big upset, who could sneak their way into top eight, who’s on the outskirts of winning this event, and who will take home the gold?
One DQ Or Big Win Away
It seems like every major tournament these days has to feature a top seed DQ or an early upset. Naturally, there’s a small group of players at each event that benefits from or directly causes either outcome. These are the players I envision being involved in some manner at Battle of BC 7.
We’ll start with these six: The Weapon (FKA Elliot), Polo, Espi, Lowercase hero, Graves, and DayDream. With the first three, you have a few of BC’s finest, then you have a Top 100 player, one of the best in Washington, and a quiet rising star of Colorado. Of the members of this group, it’s DayDream who has caught my attention most, especially following a strong Altitude Sickness 2 showing where he beat Nickemwit, salami, and Slowking.
After that, there’s a couple of players whose potential results here range from 97th place” to 13th place. For all we know, this could finally be the big major breakout of OG Kid, a rising star of last year who recently split sets with Agent and beat current No. 100 Holiday at an upstate regional. Something similar could be said for max, who recently won a Dutch regional over Jah Ridin’.
One or Two Big Wins Away
This section of players is basically the dolled up version of the first section. I don’t know why I said the phrase dolled up, but let’s go with it. The best way I’d describe these players: they’re basically either in Top 50 contention if all goes well or fairly safe picks for Top 100 already this year.
I’ll begin with the wild cards of sorts in Goodie, salami, Beezy, and Preeminent. Out of this subgroup, I’m most interested in Goodie, if only for her peaks. Although she tends to have a few stinkers here and there in her performances at bigger events, that’s never stopped me from believing in his potential. She recently came to New England and won smaller tournaments over each of bonfire10 and Kalvar; she furthermore had a great Fight Pitt 10 showing where she beat Khryke and Drephen.
The last four people in this group are an interesting cadre of hit-or-miss players and one of the biggest surprise stories of 2025. Roughly speaking, they are Stiv, Zuppy, Agent, and one of the most insane returnees to top level Melee in Rocket. Yes, it’s the same Chilean Young Link; the one who finished No. 98 on SSBMRank 2022 and is continuing to make waves in 2025. His results have skyrocketed, with a shocking upset over Ben at Genesis, another win over Ben at Altitude Sickness, sets over Goodie and Justus, and a devastating 3-0 over KoDoRiN. And before you ask, no – the pun was unintended.
Top 16 Contenders
Outside of the top brass (which we’ll get to later), these are the players whom we can expect to see deep in the tournament. I would go as far as to argue that a couple of them have a significant non-zero chance of actually winning Battle of BC, although to a much lesser degree than the highest seeds.
KoDoRiN and Fiction are both typically reliable players at bigger events, but each of them have not necessarily had Melee be their primary focus over the last year or so. In KoDoRiN’s case, he recently got married and has to prioritize his job over Melee, while in Fiction’s case, he splits his active Melee involvement with working on his game. I think both of these players can still excel; it’s just a matter of playing well on the right day.
Spark and Axe are pretty interesting too in that both of them are at different transitional points in their relationship to the game. In Spark’s case, I believe he’s now fully switched to playing on the Cubstraption controller since the start of the year, while Axe – a former BOBC champion himself – has lately been extremely motivated to prioritize competing again. Speaking of which, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about new full-time Melee pro Aura, who took his major results to a whole new level by defeating Cody Schwab and Soonsay in a grand run at the most recent Genesis. But what about n0ne, whom we haven’t seen at a major since his underwhelming 33rd at Don’t Park on the Grass? Is it possible that he has a statement performance here?
I did say that there were a couple players here whom I thought had significantly non-zero chances of winning this event, and they are Soonsay and Joshman. They aren’t necessarily impervious to upsets, but they have shown a proficiency for placing deep at majors. Both have “dream paths” that feature different combinations of top seeds at these events, but I would need to see them take a step forward vs. other players (mostly Zain and Mang0) for me to consider them in the same sphere of contention as the top brass.
The Top Brass
And then there were eight – eight people that I would consider lead contenders to win this tournament. For this part, I’m going to dedicate a bit more time to each of these eight players, but with a twist. Instead of necessarily talking about their results, I’m going to bring up which opponents within the group I’m most curious about seeing each of them play. I’ll try my best to avoid repeat matchups.
I may as well begin with Wizzrobe, who is currently a bit under four years removed from the last major he won (Mainstage 2021). If I had to pick just one player for whom to play, I’d honestly go with Mang0. The two haven’t played a set against each other since Smash Summit 12. Now, it’s possible that Mang0 will just beat him, as he’s done for all eighteen of their lifetime sets, and overwhelmingly quite badly. At the same time though, it has been an extremely long time.
You know whom I’d love to see aMSa play again? I’d love to see him play against Hungrybox. The two have had a lot of really interesting, if not unusual, sets since aMSa’s rise to the top echelon. Although aMSa’s typically had the better of the two, it’s fairly competitive, and has even led to one of the most surprising character counter-picks in recent memory. Remember the Falco? It was so unneeded, and so unsuccessful, yet so awesome.
My pick for Jmook is a lot straightforward: it’s clearly Zain. From mid-2023 to the end of 2024, Zain largely had Jmook’s number, but Jmook’s victory over Zain at Nounsvitational was a great sign that he’s starting to turn around their head-to-head. It wasn’t that long ago when we even thought that Jmook was Zain’s toughest opponent; with that in mind, I’m curious to see if Jmook’s recent wins were indicative of something new or if the head-to-head dynamic will shift right back to Zain.
When it comes to picking an opponent for moky, I originally thought of Mang0, but then I remembered I already used him for Wizzrobe. I then realized that a runback with Wizzrobe would be interesting. I thought their Genesis X set was terrible and totally not indicative of what future sets between them would look like. Then again, maybe I’m wrong.
Naturally, I’d like to see Mang0 play a real set against moky. The last two times they played was a ceremonial pools set at Nounsvitational, where Mang0 basically tried to lose as quickly as possible, and before that was a somewhat underwhelming 3-1 win for moky at Collision. I’m interested to see if the rivalry could head closer to moky’s direction and if the two could start having a premier rivalry in Melee, or if Mang0 is just going to go back to running him over like he does to most top-level Fox players.
When you envision a Hungrybox major victory, chances are that you think of something similar to his Zain-dodging and Cody-dodging Genesis X. But if you talk to most people, they’d probably still think that a Hungrybox win would typically involve him beating Jmook. Funnily enough, this hasn’t happened in quite some time. In fact, Jmook’s actually won three consecutive sets against Hungrybox (four, if you count The Off-Season 2). I wonder if this just the new expectation for their future, or if Hungrybox can slowly inch back to his 2022 ways?
Hear me out: I want to see Cody Schwab vs. aMSa. Am I crazy? I know Cody won about 69 sets in a row, but aMSa won the last two at LACS Rivals. Yes, I know those sets are not “official,” and yet at the same time, I can’t help but wonder if they carry any predictive weight at all. Unlike aMSa’s other “unofficial” win over Cody at The Off-Season 2, this one happened under a normal ruleset. Of course, I could just be proven wrong in another 3-0 or 3-1 win for Cody.
That leaves us with Zain, for whom I really just want to see another set with Cody. The two are the decade-defining rivalry and they typically deliver memorable sets, and yet they don’t actually play that much in-tournament. The last time they played was Riptide 2024, six months ago. We’re due for another all-time classic. Maybe I’m really boring, but I don’t really want to see Zain play anyone else.
Prediction
While writing this, I realized I forgot to make a prediction for who will win the event. I feel like Zain is the most reasonable pick, but he also hasn’t attended a major in four months, and it seems unlikely that he’d instantly win after such a long break. I could be wrong here, but when Zain wins majors, it’s usually not when everyone else is active and he isn’t; instead it’s during the middle of the season (like 2024 and 2023) or after he’s already started the year alongside everyone else (2020 and 2022).
If I’m not picking Zain, then Cody seems like a logical alternative. And yet I can’t shake the feeling of this specific field of competitors being difficult for him. Mang0, moky, Joshman, Soonsay, and KoDoRiN all being here is a little scary for Cody’s chances, even if he’s favored or even in the long-run against most of them. If he gets by the field to Zain, Hungrybox, Jmook, or aMSa, I think he’s in the clear, but that’s a big “if.”
You know what? When was the last time I picked Mang0 to win a major? It was Supernova 2024, which he then proceeded to win. Was it fluky? Sure. Am I going to do it again anyway? Why not? I’ve been cold on major predictions since November (Cody for Don’t Park, Cody for Nounsvitational, and Aklo for Genesis X2), and I think this will finally bring me back to the green. For no reason other than a sneaking suspicion, I think Mang0 is going to win Battle of BC 7.