After Conner "Cal" Daughtery torched the competition in the Forsaken Bracket on Saturday night, there was only one thing left to do on the final day of Red Bull Smash Gods and Gatekeepers. That's right, it was crew battle time. After eight teams filled with some of the best Melee players in the game battled it out on another sweltering day in Los Angeles, Team Mew2King came out on top.
While the team meticulously compiled by Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman eventually brought home the title, it wasn't all roses and rainbows for them. They opened up the day against Team Wizzrobe in a highly contested match that came down to the absolute wire. With Game 5s in this format featuring 2-vs-2 battles of each team's choosing, the day was ripe for plenty of exciting moments. In this Game 5, Mew2King and Dajuan "Shroomed" Jefferson McDaniel paired up to take on Sami "DruggedFox" Muhanna and McCain "MacD" LaVelle. Things went down to the wire, but in the end, DruggedFox and MacD came out on top, knocking Team Mew2King into the lower bracket.
Once in the lower bracket, Team Me2King absolutely went off. From the first round all the way to their eventual victory, they only lost two games across six best-of-five matches. That's a ridiculous 90 percent clip for their championship performance here. It was top-level Melee at its finest.
Of particular note, Mew2King didn't actually pick up a controller during the grand final. He simply let his players do their thing to bring home the win. "I tried my hardest to win and I'm glad we were able to come out on top," said Jason 'Mew2King' Zimmerman."I picked all the underrated players and I'm really happy with how everything turned out." With such a strong showing from the team in the last few matches of the day, it's hard to argue with his statement.
I'd also be remiss to move on without acknowledging the stellar play of Julian "Zhu" Zhu from Team Mew2King in this tournament. He didn't get picked until the very end of the draft on Saturday night, but he definitely didn't play like a last pick. He was putting on a show in the grand finals, winning a match against Ryan For to reset the bracket before putting his team up 2-0 in the final set with a big win over Armand "Army" Del Duca.
