Linus “Pipsqueak” Nordin is one of two European Super Smash Bros. Melee players to receive an invite to Beyond the Summit’s Smash Summit 11, earning a spot with a win at SAME 2021.
Leffen was the other EU player that was supposed to attend the event but was scratched on July 3 due to visa issues. And now, Pipsqueak is going to miss the event too because of other travel restrictions that kept him from making the trip to Los Angeles.
At first, Pipsqueak looked like he was going to be fine to attend Summit since he’s spent the last two weeks in Mexico. But when traveling from Tijuana to Mexico City and then preparing to board a plane to California, he ran into some problems.
Despite having everything together for his trip and making sure to leave plenty of time to deal with potential issues, he ended up missing his original flight because of his ESTA application being listed as expired. And once he got that fixed, he was told he’d be unable to fly to L.A. for multiple reasons, including varied date requirements needed to space out travel that pertain to specific countries like Sweden, which is where Pipsqueak is from.
Even after Pipsqueak and BTS spent hours trying to find a solution, he was denied entry multiple times and is going to be returning home.
BTS has confirmed that the final spot at Summit 11 will now be filled by the third-place finisher from Rollback Rumble: THE BIG ONE, John “KoDoRiN” Ko. Pipsqueak received a guaranteed invite to Summit 12 to make up for the issues.
“It has just been confirmed that my spot will be taken by Kodorin, who I respect greatly as a competitor and give my complete support,” Pipsqueak said. “If anyone who wanted me there is considering sending any hate/complaints in either his direction or at BTS in general please reconsider. They have all done as best they can and deserve absolutely no blame in this, if anything I would like to thank them for trying as hard as they did for me.”
Even with multiple travel problems, Smash Summit 11 is the first tournament in Super Smash Bros. history to reach a prize pool over $100,000, finishing with a record mark that’s already over $143,000 for the Melee singles bracket. The entire event will run from July 15 to 18, including side events and other competitions.
Published: Jul 14, 2021 04:48 pm