The Rundown (10/12/21)

Whether traveling to Raleigh or staying right here in Chapel Hill, UNC’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players have stayed busy with competitions over the past two weeks. Since the beginning of the month, three different Tar Heels have won tournaments in the Triangle area.

It began with Arctinox, who won Empty Pockets 2 on Oct. 3. On his way to first place, Arctinox claimed victories over both ForFor and Grubbin for the very first time. In addition, he defeated CameroN, Alex and Bumm. 

One week later, Sugarland bounced back from a disappointing ninth-place finish at Smash @ State 32 to win Spare Change. His flawless run included wins over NecroAviator, bussin, dumbryujifan69 and Zehvor. In addition, Sugarland double-eliminated Grubbin in a pair of sets that both went to game five. 

Finally, Spandex won the Smash Sans Frontières weekly on Oct. 11, just one day after he placed fourth at the Sans monthly. In the process, Spandex beat Crzy, Suddy, Boodabam, Bananime and ForFor. Alongside Spandex, the rest of the four horsemen — Sugarland, ForFor and Arctinox — also attended the Sans weekly, where they all placed in the top six. Notably, ForFor earned his first win over Sugarland on his path to second place.

Some of UNC’s other breakout players from the past couple of weeks include c4zywinz, bussin, NC Sam and cyan. C4zywinz finished just behind three of UNC’s top five players at Empty Pockets, defeating ZR, bussin, geezer and NC Sam en route to fourth place. Meanwhile, bussin made his first appearance in top eight at Empty Pockets, earning wins over ratsack, wasp, cyan and Bumm to finish in seventh place.

After a series of underperformances at the start of the semester, NC Sam has bounced back with top eight finishes at UNC’s past two tournaments. Between these two events, he has racked up wins over the likes of Dill, Punx, bussin, Dilly-Jo, Jeff and KONDE. 

Finally, cyan piloted his Pikachu to new heights at Spare Change, making it all the way to winners side of top eight. In the process, he beat Matthew, CthuluKarioa (who had just upset NC Sam) and JazzyFruit (who had just upset Arctinox). Cyan even took game one in his set against Grubbin before ultimately falling to Grubbin and ForFor for fifth place.