IBUSHIGIN’s Kakeru won the Capcom Cup 11 over the weekend, taking home the $1m (£775,730) grand prize. He should probably split the prize with his wife, the one who told him to use JP for the duration of the tournament.

The Capcom Cup 11 was the culmination of the 2024 Capcom Pro Tour, which featured the best Street Fighter 6 players from around the world competing in Japan on March 8-9th after qualifying at events throughout the year.

Kakeru has been steadily playing JP since 2024 after a Street Fighter 6 patch made the character viable once more. However, Kakeru admitted in an interview with Walker Plus that he had wanted to play Mai Shiranui at Capcom Cup 11.

Mai Shiranui is the newest playable character in Street Fighter 6, implementing Shiranui-ryuu style of ninjutsu into her moveset — a blend of ninja techniques and traditional dance. The Street Fighter 6 community has applauded Mai so far thanks to her competitive viability and design. In fact, some even believe she could be OP at this time.

Despite the community’s praise, Mai was not seen in the Top 8 at Capcom Cup 11. However, Xiahai, OilKing and Nephew had used Mai during the tournament, showing off her capabilities until Mai was never seen again after Top 16.

Kakeru had debated it but told Walker Plus that this caused a fight between him and his wife. He said: “I wanted to use Mai and that’s actually the reason me and my wife were fighting. In the end, we decided together ‘JP is going to work better’ so I stuck with JP only for the event.”

This decision paid off big time.

Kakeru climbed to the Grand Finals, competing against formidable opponent Blaz, who chose to use Ryu. This is a matchup that Kakeru knows all too well and he was able to stop Blaz’ momentum and win the whole thing. Who knows if he would have won with Mai, but it seems like his wife made the right call.

The Capcom Pro Tour (CPT) has announced a partnership with the Esports World Cup, a multi-title esports event organised by the Esports World Cup Foundation.

As a result of the deal, Street Fighter 6 will feature at the tournament from this year until 2027.

In addition to Street Fighter 6 featuring at the Esports World Cup, the partnership has overhauled the FGC ecosystem’s format.

Forty-eight players will secure their place at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with 30 of them qualifying from Capcom Cup 11, the Street Fighter League, and the five Premier events taking place in 2025.

The winner of the Esports World Cup will also book their place at the 12th edition of the Capcom Cup, which will take place in March 2026.

Twenty-one of the 48 players have already secured their place at the Esports World Cup, with participants from tournaments such as Combo Breaker, EVO, and the last chance qualifier yet to be decided.

Prior to the partnership, the FGC highlighted the unusual prize distribution for Capcom Cup 11, where Japanese player ‘Kakeru’ took victory.

Instead of the prize pool being distributed equally across all participants, the winner took home $1m (~£774,287) while the remaining $282,000 (~£218,431) was split among the rest of the players.

Information on the prize pool for Street Fighter 6’s Esports World Cup tournament hasn’t been revealed but its boasting $60m in total prizing across all titles. The 2024 event saw players compete for $1m (~£774,287) in prize money.

Capcom is one of several game publishers that have collaborated with the Esports World Cup Foundation. In addition to the Capcom Pro Tour organisers, Riot Games has also partnered with the organiser to add League of Legends, VALORANT, and Teamfight Tactics to the tournament.

Street Fighter 6 is one of two fighting games that will be featured at this year’s competition. FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves will also hold a competition after the Esports World Cup Foundation signed a three-year partnership with developer SNK Corporation.

Top Street Fighter 6 pro Saul Leonardo ‘MenaRD‘ Mena II has been signed to Weibo Gaming ahead of Capcom Cup 11.

With the main event starting in just a few days, MenaRD is looking to win his third Capcom Cup. And this time, he will be doing it in honour of Weibo Gaming, a Chinese esports organisation largely known for its League of Legends team.

On X, MenaRD exclaimed: “I’m excited to announce i’m joining Weibo Gaming as my next team. Looking forward to creating unforgettable moments together and making this a partnership to remember. To everyone that made this possible and all of my supporters, thank you.”

Being signed to another big esports team has most definitely been earned. MenaRD is considered one of the best Street Fighter 6 players in the world, winning big tournaments throughout his career like EVO Japan 2024 and Capcom Cup in both 2017 and 2023.

During his impressive career, MenaRD has played for Bandits Gaming and Team Falcons. He is also represented by Red Bull eSports.

Perhaps most importantly, MenaRD is credited with supporting the local scene back in the Dominican Republic. He has often used his prize money to sponsor local players, fund his own esports team and improve local events. The scene often calls him the ‘President of the Dominican Republic.’

Now, MenaRD is looking to take on the best of the best over in Japan at the Capcom Cup 11. This includes trash talker Noah ‘NoahtheProdigy‘ Solis, Du ‘NuckleDo‘ Dang, champion Zeng ‘Xiao Hai‘ Zhuojun, Victor ‘PunkDaGod‘ Woodley.

Ahead of Capcom Cup 11 later this weekend, FGC has drawn attention to the league’s unusual prize pool.

Several professional players across the FGC scene have voiced their outrage online, questioning whether it could be called ‘the worst esports prize distribution of all time.’

The upcoming Capcom Cup 11 in Japan has $1,282,000 (£995,300) in prize money to be shared amongst winners and losers this year.

A post on X by Andrew Nestico, a Melee content creator, showcased a graph illustrating with an uneven distribution between first place and the other placements. The first-place prize was comically skyrocketing upward above the other placements.

Here are all the placements and their respective prizing:

On the official Street Fighter esports site, Capcom stated: “The champion will be named the World’s Strongest Street Fighter 6 player and awarded $1 million at the place where Street Fighter originated, Ryogoku Kokugikan!”

That leaves $282,000 up for grabs for the rest of the competitors. Second place will only receive 10% of what first place is set to win, which has invited polarising opinions online.

Some have criticised Capcom, stating that it should’ve created a more balanced prize pool, with users already referring to the upcoming tournament as a ‘money glitch.’ Controversial Melee player turned Guilty Gear -STRIVE- champion William ‘Peter ‘Leffen‘ Hjelte called it the ‘worst’ prize pool distribution he’s seen.

FGC members online have already drawn satirical comparisons to the 2011 StarCraft tournament, which awarded players landing fifth to eighth place 25 BitCoins.

On the other hand, others have welcomed the higher stakes it introduces, noting that several tournaments featuring other games have seen similar prize pools.

Zander Bennett, an American Pokemon TCG player, said: “For what it’s worth, this is almost the exact distribution as Survivor […] and nobody has really fussed about the ‘winner takes all’ nature of that.”

It is worth noting that this distribution mirrors that of Capcom Cup X, where the winner also took home $1,000,000.

Melee God Jason ‘Mew2King‘ Zimmerman recently begged the Super Smash Bros. community to stop pressuring him to play competitive Melee again.

A well-known personality in the Smash scene, Mew2King was a top Melee competitor in the 2000’s and 2010’s. He started showing up to tournaments less frequently later in his career, becoming a coach and dabbling in Ultimate. But his focus on labbing, character depth and mechanics has fans wanting him to step back in to the esports scene.

“Please stop peer pressuring me to enter Melee,” Mew2King tweeted in a (long, long) rant. “People put too much stress and expectations on me when the truth is I played Ultimate way more than Melee the past six years. I lost all my skill, habits, reactions. Switching games is impossible unless I’m Jigglypuff. This makes it un-fun.”

Mew2King went on to say that too many people are ‘entirely negative’ about the competitive Smash scene and they made him feel like his only value as a person to the fanbase is to play Melee. Mew2King said that he previously played for himself but he’s become bogged down with negative messages from Smash players, even picking on his disabilities.

A few years ago, Mew2King opened up about a botched circumcision after getting pulled into some Smash drama. During a time when pro players were being revealed for inappropriate behavior, someone accused Mew2King of indecent exposure. In response, Mew2King felt he had to reveal his personal struggles to avoid the damning accusations.

He said: “Since that video, people have not been very kind to me. And yes, unfortunately a few bad apples do have a large impact — and it’s a large reason why I stopped playing. Mang0’s influence was a major part of this, with how he acts like my entire time period playing Melee doesn’t matter and convinces everyone else of that.”

The bullying from fellow pro Joseph ‘Mang0‘ Marquez is a big reason that Mew2King gave up practicing Melee. His fans on Reddit felt that Mang0 was just joking around when he mocked older Melee for not being as skillful as the newer scene as a jab at Mew2King’s legacy — but some of his more toxic fans could have taken it a bit too far when chiming in.

“This isn’t to say I’ll stop forever, but I did start to HATE the community after I had to make a video that I couldn’t feel pleasure, otherwise people would believe fake screenshots. I started to hate everybody after that moment and my mentality on many things changed from that,” Mew2King said.

Mew2King said he’s been considering coming back to Melee recently but does have to deal with his deteriorating mental state first. He also admitted he has to brush up on his Melee skills quite a bit after switching to Ultimate the last few years.

The Melee community responded with overall support for Mew2King, telling him that they understood what he was going through and hoping he can feel better. Others felt that Mew2King needs a better therapist. Either way, Melee fans are still hopeful that Mew2King will find it within himself to compete once more.

The amount of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players that used Steve at Cavalier Clash 6 this past weekend has frustrated the esports community.

Some of the best Ultimate players in the world showed up to Cavalier Clash 6, a small tournament held in Charlottesville, Virginia on March 2nd and March 3rd. The tournament caught the attention of the Smash community — but not for the pros who competed, rather the amount of Steves who placed in Top 64.

On X, Melee God Juan ‘Hungrybox‘ DeBiedma pointed out the amount of Steve players that made it to Cavalier Clash 6’s Top 64. In the tweet, Hungrybox said that the difference was so jarring that the preview didn’t even show the discrepancy due to how far Steve and the next character were.

In the Top 64, there were 12 Steves. The next most-used character was Mr. Game & Watch at three players. Most characters in the Top 64 showed up just once or twice.

The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate community responded with frustration. Ever since Steve was introduced as DLC, the Minecraft character has been consistently dominant in the competitive scene. He is currently the undisputable best character in the game, according to an updated official tier list.

With crazy frame data, tons of kill moves and fast, broken combos, many have even called on tournament organisers to ban Steve altogether — but Nintendo has fought against this in some cases.

One major to ban Steve was Let’s Make Big Moves in 2024. The TO’s surveyed the competitive Smash community, which resulted in many competitors and viewers voting for Steve to be removed. Some argued that the ban would impact top player Mashita ‘acola‘ Hayato, but the majority called the decision a W overall.

There have been plenty of majors and other big tournaments where relatively unknown players have made it to the Top 8 (or further) playing Steve, causing many to claim Steve carries whoever plays him. This has made tournaments less fun to watch — and even led to fans boo’ing during one Smash Con Top 8 against Steve and Sonic.

With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate not receiving any more updates, Steve will likely never be patched, leaving the Ultimate esports community to deal with him for now.

Super Smash Bros. Melee player Justin ‘Wizzrobe‘ Hallett has been re-signed by Team Envy.

On X (formerly Twitter), Team Envy announced the signing of Wizzrobe, who was recently a part of fellow North American organisation Luminosity Gaming.

Wizzrobe is currently the 12th best Melee player in the world, but the Captain Falcon main could be climbing up the SSBMRank in 2025 after a 3rd place finish at Genesis X2.

An impressive run was met with an unfortunate end in the Final bracket, with Wizzrobe losing to Peach player Alvaro ‘Trif‘ Garcia Moral and then leaving the tourney after another loss to Juan ‘Hungrybox‘ DeBiedma, who ended up winning the major.

Wizzrobe was previously signed to Team Envy from 2019 to 2022. Two years later, he joined Luminosity Gaming until February this year.

The Super Smash Bros. Melee community responded with excitement at the recent signing, with many expressing hope that esports organisations were seeing the potential of the Smash scene.

Smash esports has long been plagued with a lack of funding and support from Nintendo. Without the same support as other esports scenes, like Bandai Namco’s organised Tekken 8 circuit, Melee and Ultimate have been left to the community to keep alive. The prize pools remain small and many tournament organisers have been forced to pull out of the scene.

Seeing Wizzrobe get signed to Team Envy had fans hopeful, but it likely doesn’t mean much for the rest of the Melee community. Wizzrobe was initially dropped in 2022 after OpTic Gaming merged with Team Envy. With the original branding coming back, it seems that the organisation has decided to sign Wizzrobe back as well.

Either way, the Melee scene is gearing back up for some exciting tournaments in 2025, keeping the hype alive for the scene.

The 2025 season for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate has begun.

Genesis X2 hyped up the hibernating Smash community with unexpected runs, crazy upsets and emotional pop-offs. The top players will most likely see a major shift based on performances throughout the year, but the 2024 SSBMRank and LumiRank currently show the dominant pros from the grassroots scene last year.

The SSBMRank is the official ranking of the top 100 players in the pro-Melee scene while LumiRank is the official ranking of the top 100 players in the Ultimate ecosystem, both calculated by an expert panel that factors 2024 match outcomes, major placements and tournament performances.

These are the rankings that inspire pro players to grind the next year, whether it’s to rise up the ranks or take down opponents in front of them. Here are the current standings and some predictions for 2025.

Melee has been around for almost 25 years — and its esports scene is well-established at this point.

With plenty of rivalries, emotional storylines and a passionate grassroots community, Melee is an esport full of veterans. Throughout the years, there have been the dominant ‘five gods’ and other long-time staples of the scene as well as new players bringing fresh playstyles to majors. Now, the top players in the world are a blend of both.

FlyQuest’s Jake ‘Jmook‘ DiRado was the only top player to attend every major in 2024, with mixed results. At the start of the year, Jmook showed promise with a second-place finish at Full Bloom 2024 but by mid-year, he was falling off. This includes the time he missed his alarm at Wavelength 2024, ruining his chance of placing in the top eight.

In December, Jmook showcased his dominance at Nounsvitational 2024. He didn’t drop a single set during his epic run to victory. Known for his innovative and exciting playstyle with Shiek, fans just love to watch him play. He placed in the top 16 at Genesis X2, likely gearing up for another impressive season.

Kurtis ‘moky‘ Pratt has become a Melee player to beat at every major he attends — beating his Fox is a sign that you’ve got what it takes. It was indeed moky who cut Derek ‘Aura‘ Olsen’s seemingly unstoppable run at Genesis X2 short this February.

The Moist Esports player spent 2024 grinding, getting in fourth at Collision 2024 and Genesis X, then third place at Nounsvitational 2024. It paid off with a win at Don’t Park on the Grass 2024, with moky getting first place after beating the likes of Cody Schwab, Juan ‘Hungrybox‘ DeBiedma and Dawud ‘Aklo‘ Rahman.

Cody Schwab put a stop to moky’s crazy Genesis X2 run, but the positive pro player said that he plans to ‘come back stronger‘ after the defeat.

It’s always refreshing to see one of the original Melee Gods in the top five. Joseph ‘Mang0‘ Marquez has continued to get the attention of the Melee community year after year — and not just due to his dominance. Mang0 has gone through phases of intense tournament grinding and then disapproving of the state of the game. It’s his refreshing realness and chaotic antics that have made him a fan favourite even when he’s not at his best.

But nobody can say he’s not at his best right now. A seemingly healthier Mang0 emerged in 2024, showcasing exactly what has made him the GOAT at Supernova 2024 and Tipped Off 15. But only time will tell if 2025 is his year. If the Eagles are playing during a major, forget about it — he’s not competing. If they’re not, however, expect big things. His top four placement at Genesis X2 is a sign of what’s to come.

Winning Genesis X without dropping a single set cemented Cody Schwab as one of the best players in the world, no question. To get first at so many big tourneys, including Battle of BC 6, Schwab had to beat a lot of top players, including Hungrybox, Jmook, Zain ‘Zain‘ Naghmi and the feared red Yoshi himself Masaya ‘aMSa‘ Chikamoto.

Cody Schwab is undoubtedly a talented player with a scary Fox that can easily beat Marth after the community considered it a bad matchup. Even Hungrybox once said that Schwab is the best Fox in Melee due to his work ethic and playstyle. However, he can often get easily distracted in and outside of tournaments, making him seem easily shakable under pressure at bigger tournaments. Let’s hope 2025 doesn’t include any nose bleeds, broken controllers or Melee community beefs so we can see more runs like his Top 6 at Genesis X2.

Zain was the most consistent top player of 2024, easily placing him at the top of the pack. While he may not have as many clean runs as Cody, it’s actually his grit, determination and grind that has made him unstoppable. he won Full Bloom 2024 despite coming from Losers and had to reset Grands to win Get On My Level X. His runs may not be perfect, but they simply showcase his unwavering ability to get back to the top and wipe out the best of the best.

Despite his crazy skills at Melee, Zain remains humble and playful throughout the season. He debuted on the rankings in 2016, making him a pretty fresh face in the 20-plus-year scene. He’s been a threat since 2017, and 2025 will likely be no different.

Zain wasn’t at Genesis X2 due to a missed flight but had a top six showing at MDVA Summit 2025. From the sidelines, Zain paid his respects to Mang0 and Hungrybox, saying he’d be “honoured to accomplish” a long-time career at the top of the Melee scene.

The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate scene is just starting to shake up in 2025. Based on the last two months alone, Japanese player Hurt is considered the number one after a victory at Genesis X2. But these top players will be fighting to protect their spot — and move up themselves — throughout this season.

Carlos ‘Sonix‘ Pérez has consistently proven he has what it takes to reach the top three at the season’s biggest tournaments. However, he often does this by working his way out of loser brackets. An example is at Supernova 2024, when Sonix had to defeat a handful of top players to get out of the loser bracket and make it to the Grand Finals.

While it shows Sonix is vulnerable to some match upsets, it also shows just how locked in he can be. Nothing can shake him once he’s determined to climb to the top. Using the globally unpopular Sonic, Sonix has taken down Leonardy ‘MkLeo’ Perez, Gavin ‘Tweek‘ Dempsey and other fan favourites on his incredible runs. Genesis X2 wasn’t his best showing, but Sonic is still S+ tier for a reason.

Paris ‘Light‘ Ramirez Garcia is a fan-favourite for his cool attitude and fast-paced Fox. After proving his dominance in New England, the Connecticut local took on the rest of the states with ease. He placed in the top three at Cirque 4, Luminosity Makes Moves Miami 2024, The Throne 2 and LACS Rivals 2024.

These runs saw him take down Tweek, Kolawole ‘Kola‘ Aideyan, Takuma ‘Tea‘ Hirooka and Bharat ‘Lima‘ Chintapalli (twice). He has also proven he has what it takes to beat Hurt, who recently won Genesis X2. Meanwhile, Light’s run was pretty uninspiring at Genesis X2, but he had this to say: “I’ll bounce back from this.”

‍There is no question that Japan is dominating the Ultimate scene. For years, the North American/European and Japanese scenes were completely different, both with their own metas, playstyles and character tier lists. But in the past few years, Japanese players have started travelling to majors all over the world — and it’s their meta now.

Mashita ‘acola‘ Hayato is often seen as the final boss now — if you can beat him, you can beat anybody. He has completely shaped the new Smash meta, which is wild for a player who started as a 16-year-old WiFi warrior in 2020.

The issue is that the Smash community hates to see the character Steve in the top eight. While acola has not fallen off, his competitors have put a ton of effort into figuring out the Steve matchup. But acola isn’t one to give up. He now throws Aegis into the ring when the time calls for it, hungry to keep one step ahead of his competition, including rival Edgar ‘Sparg0’ Valdez.

Miya has brought Mr. Game & Watch to the forefront of the Ultimate meta after players like Enrique ‘Maister‘ Solis paved the way. The 2D character is explosive at its full potential, even beating acola’s Steve and Aegis at big tournaments like Umebura SP #11 and Kowloon #12. He then beat Sparg0 at Litvitational 3.

International events like Supernova and Riptide proved to be a problem for Miya, but he continued to dominate in Japan throughout the 2024 season. But wins against Lima, Light, Tea, Tweek and Hurt show that he has what it takes to shake things up in 2025. Genesis X2 proved just that, with a Top 24 finish. It’s a no-brainer to predict that Miya will remain in the top five if he keeps grinding global tourneys.

‍Sparg0 started out in MkLeo’s shadow at the start of his career but quickly showed that he had what it takes to be the best in the world despite being just a teenager. He was number one in the world for part of 2023 after easily taking down the best players in Grand Finals matches, but his consistency was still being called into question.

FaZe Clan‘s Sparg0 answered it in 2024. This was his most consistent showing yet, with first-place finishes at Don’t Park on the Grass 2024, Riptide 2024, Supernova 2024 and plenty of others. Along the way, Sparg0 took down Hurt, Miya, Sonix and plenty of other international threats. His playstyle seemed to work just about everywhere and against everyone.

Will Sparg0 hold onto this top spot in 2025? Genesis X2 was underwhelming for the prodigy, who couldn’t make it to the top 16. But this hasn’t affected Sparg0 at all. He’s already signing up for tournaments around the world.

The Olympic Council of Asia has announced the games that will feature as part of the esports portion of the 2026 Nachi-nagoya Asian Games.

The esports part of the event will feature several titles spanning multiple genres including sim racing, MOBA, and battle royale

In total, players from across Asia will compete in eleven esports games with the aim of winning an official medal.

In 2023, the Council decided that esports would remain part of its flagship event which will hold its 20th edition in 2026.

The games that have been chosen to form part of the 2026 Nachi-nagoya Asian Games are as follows:

The decision to select these games was made by a dedicated title selection task force with three experts tasked with picking a variety of games across several genres.

The 19th edition of the Asian Games in 2023 saw esports events in EA Sports FC, Dota 2, and Arena of Valor take place. For 2026, the three titles have been replaced with eFootball, NARAKA: Bladepoint, Honor of Kings, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Puyo Puyo Champions.

To highlight the popularity of the Asian Games’ esports portion, Esports Charts noted that last edition’s League of Legends and Dota 2 events recorded peak viewing figures of 146,000 and 78,000, not including Chinese viewership.

Taking place in the Nagoya and Aichi Prefecture in Japan across September and October 2026, the 2026 Asian Games will be supported by the Asian Electronic Sports Federation, the esports governing body for the region.

The involvement of esports in Olympic projects has continued to grow in recent years.

In 2027, the International Olympic Committee will host the inaugural edition of the Olympic Esports Games in partnership with the Esports World Cup Foundation, the organisers of the Esports World Cup.

On February 11th, 2025, it was revealed the Olympic Esports Games was pushed back from its initial year of 2025.

While Juan ‘Hungrybox‘ DeBiedma’s emotional curse-breaking win stole the headlines from Genesis X2, Super Smash Bros. Melee player Derek ‘Aura‘ Olsen also documented an incredible run.

Peach main Aura has been the talk of the Super Smash Bros. Melee community with the player placing 9th after beating some of the scene’s top players.

Aura has gone to Genesis every year — the Major is right in his backyard as a Portland native — but this year was different. While already considered Oregon’s number one player, the 33rd player in the official SSBMRank could sense that something special was happening this time after beating Miles ‘Soonsay’ Foster, ranked 13th.

After finishing the five-game set, Aura noticed that it was more than the usual Pacific Northwest crowd forming around the chunky TV as he was asked to pose for Top 16 photos.

“I’ve played Melee for a long time and to be on the run that I have wanted for years… I had to tell production I needed a moment. And that’s when it was really starting to hit me. All these years of hard work were paying off,” Aura recalled to Esports Insider.

Aura is a humble player. When asked about his Peach playstyle he said he sticks to the basics, nothing flashy, nothing out of the ordinary. When asked how he felt about beating so many top players, Aura said he overperformed, and that number two-ranked Cody Schwab was playing bad that set.

But that early moment in Top 64 was a sign of what was to come. The Portland crowd starting to form around the CRT TV noticed that Schwab was taking Aura seriously. He was feeling the pressure, even turning around and telling Aura’s supporters to be quiet, stating: “This is my job.”

It’s not hard to rile up Schwab, even so, there was no denying that Aura was dominating, crowd or no crowd.

Once Aura met Justin ‘Wizzrobe‘ Hallett in the Winners Quarters, however, he couldn’t pretend it was a normal Melee run anymore. While Wizzrobe is known for steamrolling Peach mains, commentators felt Aura was the one to beat.

During the set, Aura couldn’t hold back. The player managed to smack Wizzrobe off the stage to go 2-1. At that point, the stream captured tears in his eyes as he screamed with raw emotion and relief. It was a moment that was later criticised by some in the Melee community since the set wasn’t even done yet, but Aura had become overwhelmed by climbing Top 16 as the PNW Melee crowd cheered him on.

Wizzrobe ended up winning the match in a close 3-2 but most of the comments from the Melee community are focused on Aura’s entertaining performance and the hype of the PNW supporters. It has been cemented as one of the best moments of Genesis X2.

“I love playing Melee and competing in Melee. It’s something I am so passionate about that my emotions get the best of me and I don’t know how to act in every situation,” Aura explained to Esports Insider. “I was just being excited for myself. If people dislike me or find me cringe for crying about the set, then so be it. I’m a nerd who loves Melee.”

In the end, Aura’s run of a lifetime was cut short by Kurtis ‘moky‘ Pratt, just missing the Top 8. But it was something that the PNW Melee crowd — and the Smash community in general — won’t forget. Aura wasn’t upset, he was on cloud nine the rest of the weekend and determined to push himself even further.

Aura has quit his credit union job following the Genesis X2 run and plans to pursue Melee full-time. It was already his main passion, practising two to four hours a day and attending every Portland local (hosted in his friend’s basement every Wednesday with some beers).

His next focus is Altitude Sickness 2, Battle of BC 7 and Fight at the Museum. He hopes to beat top players he hasn’t beaten yet and place Top 8 in a Major.

“Truthfully it’s been awesome,” Aura told Esports Insider of the support he’s gotten since Genesis X2.

“I’ve felt for a long time I’ve been a pretty unrecognizable top 50 player. With this run, the amount of support and fans I’ve gotten since has been unbelievable. People have been super nice and telling me how much they loved watching me play.”