MLG Finals Smash 4 Preview

MLG Finals is just starting up this weekend and it may be the first time you see Smash Brothers played competitively, or it might just be your 400th tournament watched in the past 3 years. Either way, here is my guide covering what to watch for, the storylines, and the people.

MLG stacked in Smash 4

The newest iteration of Smash Bros for the Wii U has had a great kick off to it’s competitive scene. It has an amazing depth in characters used and players competing at the high level. Most of these players have come from Brawl. As luck would have it, a vast majority of the top players have signed up for this weekend. This makes MLG Finals one of the best tournaments to watch if you want to catch some Smash 4 action.

Here are the people to look out for in the Smash 4 scene:

TSM ZeRo:

ZeRo is fantastic, he is glorious, he is the best there ever was and probably ever will be in Smash 4. He is the villain, the great wall, the unmovable object. He has lost games, sets, but only one tournament at the very beginning of the game. At his last tournament, Big House 5, he wasn’t feeling it and lost to Seagull Joe early on in the bracket. He then fought tooth and nail all the way through the tournament to take first. With almost a year since his last tournament loss, can ZeRo keep it up?

Characters: Sheik, sometimes Diddy Kong

Liquid Nairo:

If it weren’t for ZeRo, Nairo might have been one of the most dominant players to play Smash. He has come in 2nd or 3rd in a crazy amount of tournaments, and placed first at nearly all tournaments ZeRo didn’t attend. If anyone can do it, it is him and his Zero Suit Samus.

Characters: Zero Suit Samus, Meta Knight

Panda Esam:

Esam is the most notable Pikachu player who also plays some unorthodox characters when things just aren’t going his way. He is a crowd favorite and an explosive player. He is also one of the few people that have come close to beating ZeRo. At SmashCon this summer, he put his whole heart into winning a set and ended up barely losing. What I’m looking for him to do is to come out with more pace, he wears himself too thin in some of these tournaments and he is done by the time he gets to top 8.

Characters: Pikachu, Yoshi, Samus

LLL Mr. R:

Probably a top 3-4 player in the game, Mr. R plays calm and collected. He is one of those players that rarely makes the mistake of getting angry and losing control.

Characters: Sheik, Meta Knight

Panda Gaming MVD:

One of the many, many players whose tournament stock was cut short at the Big House 5 when they ran into Zero at the Big House 5. He lost outside of the top 32 for the first time all year. He is one of the few people that didn’t ditch Diddy Kong when the character was nerfed. He is probably the premier Diddy player now.

Boreal Esports Ally:

I would put him on par with Esam as one of the best in the game, but not quite at the peak of players. He is the best Mario player in the game and can take games from any player in the world. I expect him to be in the top 8 of the tournament.

Characters: Mostly Mario, sometimes pulling out other top tier characters.

CoG/MVG M2K

Despite really giving up on the game after Diddy Kong was nerfed post Apex, M2K has had great placements at every tournament he played in. This guy is undeniably the best Smash player to play all the games.

Here is a full list of the notable players entering Smash 4 at MLG Finals

Smash 4: ZeRo, Nairo, ESAM, Mr. R, MVD, Ally, M2K, NAKAT, False, Fatality, 6WX, Nick Riddle, Wizzrobe