Golden Guardians is expanding its presence in the Super Smash Bros. Melee scene by signing Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby, Kevin “PPMD” Nanney, and Kris “Toph” Aldenderfer, the organization announced today.
The org will also be supporting the Melee community with its newly announced Golden Guardians Smash Grassroots Fund, which will commit $50,000 to grassroots tournament organizers across the U.S.
Golden Guardians originally joined the Smash scene after signing one of the top players in the world, Zain Naghmi, last February. And now, the org is ready to delve deeper into Melee with this new batch of announcements.
“Our original plan did involve signing Zain as a standalone person in Smash, not like necessarily like a deep commitment to the scene in a particular way, just kind of getting our feet wet,” said Hunter Leigh, the head of esports at GG. “In 2021 we (GG) wanted to go deeper on fewer things and Smash proved to be exactly what we hoped it would be. And that ultimately led to us wanting to represent more people who have a varied impact in the scene.”
With these moves, Golden Guardians brings in another top player in n0ne, one of the most legendary players to ever play the game in PPMD, and an iconic commentator and personality within the scene in Toph. All three also have fairly large audiences for their streams on Twitch and create their own content too.
In addition to these signings and the Grassroots Fund, Golden Guardians is planning to host additional events under its “The Octagon” branding. More details about these events will be shared in the future, but the org plans to start with at least one tournament this summer.
“Over the past year we’ve immersed ourselves in Smash’s grassroots community and are eager to continue to be an additive in the scene,” Leigh said. “Growing Smash means investing in the foundation that’s already been created, and we hope our fund provides locals around the country the financial support they need to grow.”
You can learn more about each of the players and all of Golden Guardians’ operations on the team’s website.
