Super Smash Bros. Melee champion Adam “Armada” Lindgren lost his first tournament this year against crowd favorite Joseph “Mango” Marquez at yesterday’s Royal Flush tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey. After it looked like Lindgren would take home #1, Marquez made an adrenaline-fueled comeback that made the audience go wild.
Leaving few openings for Marquez’s Fox, Lindgren, playing Peach, was up 2-1 for the first three matches. A few times, he tossed Marquez across the air like a rag doll. Here was how the first match ended:
The crowd still rooted for Marquez. He plays a bit more freestyle—a fan recently wrote a jazz piece inspired by it—and made the most out of what openings the more conservative Lindgren offered. In the second set, Marquez nails a crazy, split-decision up-smash, capitalizing on a vulnerability that is nearly impossible to spot:
Lindgren could have claimed victory on the Fountain of Dreams when the score was 2-2. But he got a little cocky. Marquez was down to one stock. Lindgren had two. He tried to close the deal off the map’s deep end. Marquez kept his cool (his face barely moves) and punished him:
Marquez came back with this wild play:
On the second grand finals set, with Marquez and Lindgren tied 2-2, a commentator says, “There are kids crying, grown men are crying, holding each other . . . Is it going to be the reality check we all need or can Mango make us believe in dreams again?” And, yeah, he did. Marquez was all momentum by the end of the last set, and although Lindgren aggressively fought against it, he was eventually overwhelmed:
It was a phenomenal match. Here’s the whole set. Over Twitter, Lindgren said, “Was not nearly as clutch I needed to be, it happens. Still very solid game play overall, know what I need to work on.” So humble!