All of last week, the Melee community heard the word “four-peat.” Last Sunday, however, Zain made it a reality, winning Riptide 2025 – his fourth consecutive major – and officially tying Armada for third all-time in career major wins (22). Holding off a bracket reset from Cody Schwab, Zain also became the first player to win four majors in a row in five years. The last player to achieve this feat was Hungrybox, who won five consecutive majors from The Big House 8 to Pound 2019. The current longest major streak holder is Armada, who won six in a row from Canada Cup 2016 to Smash Summit Spring 2017.
Jmook had a resurgent performance as Riptide’s bronze medalist. This event was his best placement at a major since winning the Nounsvitational ten months ago. Following two rough performances at Collision and Supernova, as well as a shocking No. 15 finish on the summer Top 50, Riptide was a great return to form for Jmook, especially because it involved overcoming three personal demons in Aklo, Hungrybox, and Joshman.
One of the most shocking events in top eight, however, wasn’t related to Zain, Cody, or Jmook. After eleven years, three presidential administrations, multiple character switches, a brief period of time transitioning to online play, and 27 sets, Axe finally defeated Hungrybox in losers bracket for seventh place. Simply put, there has never been a top-level head-to-head that’s been as lopsided as this one. Though Axe ended up falling to Joshman for fifth place, beating Hungrybox is arguably the most important set win he’s had in years – practically proof that he’s back in major contention.
Another surprise storyline of Riptide came from the enigmatic, nationally inactive Midwest (or SoCal) player Smash Papi. The former Top 100 Fox player, whose appearance at Riptide marked his first major since The Big House 11, went on a rampage here, defeating top seed SDJ, RapMonster, and Preeminent on the way to seventh place as the 27 seed. While he’d eventually fall to Wizzrobe, it wasn’t before a failed counterpick attempt with Bowser, which is the first documented case of Bowser ever appearing in a singles major top eight.
Stray thoughts on Top 16
I’ll begin with another fun storyline from the Midwest in Preeminent’s amazing run to ninth place. Entering this event with a very tough bracket ahead of him, Preeminent nonetheless defeated coffee, max, Spark, and Ginger in the best major showing of his career. It’s additionally a massive turnaround from Preeminent’s last two majors, in which he ended up finishing in 33rd place.
Staying in the same register, we then get into a surprise thirteenth place showing from Michael, from Chicago. After being sent to losers bracket by MOF – a sentence that may have felt impossible to have anticipated in the year 2019 – Michael ended up going on a tear, surviving game fives from Captain G and Drephen, and then upsetting n0ne to make Top 16. Given Michael’s reluctance to leave the Midwest for any major or national that isn’t Riptide or Full Bloom, this was a pleasant surprise, as well as the best major that Michael has had since his brief time as a Top 50 player.
Funnily enough, one of the more interesting breakouts came from Gahtzu, who eliminated Michael from the tournament. He’s now seemingly in his era of being quiet most of the year before randomly showing up at a major and taking down a bunch of top players. Before top 16 at Riptide, he beat Skerzo, Joey Donuts, and RapMonster in one of the biggest upsets of the tournament.
In yet another edition of “max goes to a North American major,” max made quite the splash. Though he lost in winners bracket early to Blue, he had a neat losers bracket performance in which he beat Just, salami, Pleeba, and Faust: arguably four names that will appear in the end of the year Top 100 ballot, if not potentially the list. Beating Faust was especially impressive, as Faust had just beaten Ben.
Notable Results Outside of Top 16
Of the many upsets to happen at this year’s Riptide, two of them had SDJ on the losing end. Along with their initial loss in winners bracket to Smash Papi, SDJ ended up out of the tournament after a tight game-five set with Joey Donuts, finishing in 33rd place as the fifth seed. In addition to this event marking the first time that SDJ finished out of a major top twelve this year, it’s also the worst performance SDJ has had at an event of this caliber since they finished in 33rd place at The Big House 11.
Blue, the best player of Indiana, top Fox, ex-Summit invitee, and human being I personally adore, ended up doing quite well here. While most of 2025 has been a quiet year from him in terms of national results, this was a neat return to form for him, as it came with victories over dz and max, two players with very high major stock for this year, and a 25th place. Neither of the wins are necessarily that crazy given Blue’s penchant for performing well against Top 100 Midwest talent, but Blue doesn’t go to many majors outside of Full Bloom and Riptide. It’s nice to see him do well.
Speaking of Indiana, Butterdonkey was here, and he played Marth! To those who don’t know, Butterdonkey is a regional hidden boss who used to beat or take sets from everyone in the state, Blue and coffee included, before randomly switching to Sheik and becoming inactive. However, he was here at Riptide, and though he lost to Hungrybox and Pleeba for 49th place it wasn’t without a Top 100 win over Boyd. Hopefully Butterdonkey can come out to more big events, be they majors or Midwest regionals; he’s really good.
Iceking’s been a player I’ve wanted to see breakout for a long time, as he’s been near the top of Cincinnati for quite some time now. While he’s not too nationally active, I thought his win over TheRealThing warranted a brief mention. This is the same guy who beat Plup earlier this year and nearly changed the course of Melee history by coming short of beating Cody Schwab two years ago. I hope Iceking goes to more big events.
Doubles Notes
It has now been six straight majors that Cody/Jmook have won. Forget the four-peat; where is all the hype behind the six-peat that’s happening in doubles? I know that most of you reading this don’t care about this format, so that was more rhetorical than anything substantive. In either case I thought it would be worth exploring the level of dominance that Cody/Jmook have had in their recent run, so I’ve done some research that should be useful for any doubles fans here.
- By winning six doubles majors in a row Cody/Jmook have become the first doubles team to achieve this since Armada/Mew2King, who won seven doubles majors in a row from Genesis 3 to Smash Summit Spring 2017. Before that, Armada/Mew2King won nine doubles majors in a row from Pound V to The Big House 4. Ken/Isai currently holds the record for consecutive majors won, from Tournament Go 5 to MLG Anaheim 2006 (17).
- Out of any doubles team to win at least three majors together, Cody/Jmook have the third highest major win-rate of all-time, winning 77.78 percent of majors together, only under Armada/Mew2King (85 percent) and Ken/Isai (90 percent).
- Only including major events, Cody/Jmook have won 43 sets in a row. Including other events they entered together (Platfight Gaming Championships and Altitude Sickness 2), that number goes up to 55 consecutive sets.
- At fourteen major doubles wins, Cody/Jmook have won the fourth most majors ever together. The only teams above them are Armada/Mew2King (17), Ken/Isai (18), and SFAT/PewPewU (22).
- The last team to defeat Cody/Jmook was Krudo/Panda at Supernova 2024, where they eliminated them.
- Outside of Krudo/Panda, the only other teams this decade to take sets from Cody/Jmook are aMSa/Axe, Zuppy/Mot$, Spark/Zamu, Wally/Polish, Hungrybox/Plup, and Ginger/Zoey. The only one with a positive record in multiple sets is Hungrybox/Plup.
In non-Cody/Jmook news, Zuppy/Artan had a crazy run from the losers bracket. After losing to Drephen/Boyd, they ended up beating each of Smash Papi/Chango, Spark/Preeminent, Wizzrobe/Gahtzu, breakout team Free Palestine/salami, and Axe/Joshman before eventually falling in grand finals. And while they didn’t quite make the top four, Drephen/Boyd did show up in a big way for the Midwest, ending up in fifth place. The Ohio duo lack a top four together, but this marks another top eight for them, as well as the first time they’ve beaten a team of as high of a caliber as Zuppy/Artan, at least in my opinion.