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Zain “Zain” Naghmi won 3-0 against Juan “Mang0″ Marquez in the Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 4 (LACS 4) final bracket Sunday afternoon. Both were fan-favored contestants and monoliths in the Smash Melee scene, with Zain holding the strongest record throughout and only losing two rounds during the entire tournament.
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Zain and Mang0 have frequently played against one another— as they are widely considered the best Smash players and often meet during tournaments. Their most notable matchup took place in the final of Smash Summit 11 on July 18, 2021. Mang0 forced a bracket reset by beating Zain after getting through the loser’s bracket and then won another set. This earned him his first-ever Smash Summit win and $46,611.60—the largest first-place prize of any Smash Melee tournament.
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The online tournament, held by popular YouTuber Ludwig Ahgren, was reportedly the largest Smash tournament ever–with over 2400 entrants. This beat the previous first-place holder, Evolution Championship Series 2016 (EVO), which had 2,372. In contrast to EVO 2016, LACS 4 had no entree fees and took place online. However, Ludwig claimed there were hundreds of disqualifications due to players not showing up in the first round, which dropped the tournament to one of the top three.
The total winnings of $30,001 also placed the LACS 4 in the top ten biggest Smash Melee tournaments ever held in terms of prize pool size. LACS 4 currently holds the ninth spot, beating DreamHack Winter 2016 and GameTyrant Expo 2017′s prize pool by one dollar.
The tournament consisted of the classic rules of multiple sets of best of five matches with four stocks.
The absence of many players, including William “Leffen” Hjelte and Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett, left many fans disappointed.
Genesis 8, one of the biggest and most prestigious Smash events, was supposed to be held Jan. 28-30 but announced a delay due to COVID-19—shifting its date from the end of January to the middle of April. This reportedly cost the organizers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ludwig organized his tournament as a method to fundraise for Genesis 8 and help make up for the incurred losses. This was the fourth tournament organized by him, with the previous three all being invitationals instead of open tournaments.
In an interview last December with Twitch streamer, Nathan Stanz, Ludwig announced that he would “make the biggest Smash tournament of all time in prize pool for Melee and Ultimate” in 2022, which he projected would cost him around 1 million dollars.
With many tournaments and a potential record-breaking event coming later in the year, 2022 seems to promise an exciting time for Smash fans and players.