Axe: The View from The Summit

i really enjoy the show high q because it depicts the struggles of plateauing in a plain and relatable way through the wall by definition a plateau is reaching a state of little or no change after a time of activity or progress these can feel like a physical or mental struggle a concept technique or ability that one can't seem to get the hang of it's a barrier that someone must devote time to in order to break through the wall in haikyuu is quite literally a block that discourages the story's protagonist shoyo hinata from evolving as a player but it also serves as a mental obstacle which prevents the story's other characters from evolving as well the image of victory is often rooted in the desire to pursue your passion the thrill of the game and the joy found in succeeding it's human nature to seek a path that leads to winning and competition isn't an inherently bad thing for these reasons since it's the accomplishment which creates context hinata has a true love for volleyball and it's a contagious passion that spreads to the show's other characters he plays the sport because he enjoys it and he sticks with it because he has a drive to get better i think melee players can relate to this show because they understand what it means to love something so much that it spreads to other aspects of your life this passion for the game is so inviting and genuine it gets people interested in something they may otherwise not care about and those people get even more people involved and so on it doesn't matter if there's one wall or one thousand walls standing in their path in the same way volleyball brings an excitement to the characters of haikyuu melee expresses a passion from its players that is truly unmatched it's pretty great and if i had to name a single person in the melee community who epitomizes the pure absolute and unadulterated joy that the game brings it would have to be this guy [Laughter] this is jeffrey williamson but many of you probably know him as axe in super smash bros melee axe plays pikachu a not so popular competitive character but over the course of his competitive career axe has made a name for himself as the best pikachu player in the world axe is about to play against justin hallett but many of you probably know him as wizrobe he plays captain falcon a more popular character than pikachu but one that hadn't won a major tournament since isaiah in 2005. until wizrobe did literally two weeks before this event that's [Applause] these two are sitting next to each other in an isolated room at a very selective invitational tournament called smash summit eight including a couch full of casters and a house full of some of the best players in the world watching very intently oh did i forget to mention that this is grand finals this is grand finals by the way when the last official melee tier list looked like this you probably wouldn't think that these two sort of middle of the pack characters would be facing off in grand finals of a very important tournament but here they are and they definitely have a lot to prove i mean with cash and pride on the line the accomplishment of a major tournament win and i'm telling the story out of order let's start from the beginning um name is jeffrey williamson although most people know me as axe and i play pikachu in super smash brothers melee [Music] jeffrey axe williamson was born on april 7 1991. he was previously ranked first on the arizona melee power rankings and third on the summer 2019 mpgr as of the official 2019 mpgr he only moved down a single spot to global rank 4 and he's largely credited for pikachu's rise in usage and popularity to understand a bit more about why this even matters we should probably talk about the harsh world of character inequality in fighting games super smash bros melee has an interesting character composition relative to the rest of the series in later installments like brawl and smash wii u a handful of characters dominated the meta but melee is unique in that the debate of which character was the best was never quite resolved looking at characters in a vacuum is hard so tier list helped to define a character's quote-unquote goodness in gaming and commonly in competitive fighting games tier list would rank the playable characters based on their perceived strengths matchups versus other characters and ability to win in a tournament setting the last official melee tier list was released on december 10 2015 and to put it simply it divides the cast into a few sections tournament playable kind of average and hot garbage the tournament playable bunch were all characters deemed capable of winning or at the very least performing well at a high stakes event these included the ever popular space animals fox and falco with their fast movement and technical skill sealing marth with his disjointed sword and long range captain falcon with his exciting and hard-hitting combos even jigglypuff for her incredibly strong punish game and pikachu it's pikachu on 2015's tier list pikachu was the 9th best character which falls into the mid-tier range while a number of other players have shown off their skills with pikachu in years past axe was at the top of the game for a character most notably recognized for well not being recognized in competitive play and this was the tier list in 2015. now don't get me wrong 2015 was still a great year for melee just like 20x6 but the tier list might have been getting a bit dated way back in 2002 pikachu saw ranking as low as 19th keep in mind melee has maintained a competitive scene with zero balance patches so a lot of a character's rise through the tier list would be molded by the tournament results of players using those characters with that being said pikachu is still a mid-tier and though he might have been in the pile of tournament viable characters many wrote the electric mouse off as one that could never stand at the top of the competitive scene players are really discouraged of playing pikachu because he's really difficult to win with as you get better at the game it's just way more straightforward and easier to win with a lot of the higher tier characters up until you practice at a certain point but it takes a long time to get there with pikachu i feel like so a lot of people just don't get it and there's so many examples of top level play with so many other characters pikachu is extremely underrepresented you know it's when people look at tournaments top tournament play they see top 64 top 32 top eight whatever uh they just see one pikachu and that's it but they see like a billion foxes so many mars even a handful of ice climbers you know those kind of characters that's usually what they want to pick up because it's just easier that way you really need to learn how to fight in the game with a set of tools that you're most comfortable with meaning a character a character is much more than the sum of their perceived in-game strengths though they are a part of a player's identity and no player identified more with pikachu than axe to beat his opponents with this character he would need to figure out a new approach to melee and that all started in 2006 with a young axe competing in his first ever high stakes melee tournament at his high school i can't imagine growing up in any other scene there's something special about being here that really makes me feel like i'm at home and with family growing up in arizona is [ __ ] weird like most new smash players axe went into his first tournament overconfident as the rest of us and got completely bodied and like most current smash players that was all it took to get him hooked after that i learned that there was going to be another tournament the following year after my school tournament so i went online to look up some advanced techniques and stuff and i found that there's tournaments everywhere and when i found that out i just wanted to go to the mall and i started practicing and that's where axe would begin to climb to the top of his high school scene alongside timothy wilson who went under the alias vector man the two ended up becoming close friends and they would eventually travel outside the local bubble to more regional events where they would learn of big players in arizona like forward wobbles and taj their first foray into a regional event was at arizona t5 which took place on april 14th 2007. vectorman would do alright getting 17th in singles but it was axe who made a much more standout performance with a seventh place finish being outplaced by the aforementioned forward and taj who ended up taking first and second respectively in doubles he teamed with vector man and got a respectable 9th place arizona t5 was also apparently the first recorded tournament axe had ever played in which axe had blithely pointed out in this smash board's post but seventh place at his first real tournament was a big deal the crazy part is that wasn't even scratching the surface of axe's melee talon by the end of 2007 axe was already the seventh best player in his home state of arizona fast forward a couple years to july of 2009 and we'd be seeing axe kick off his melee career with a bang at genesis with one of the highest stakes matches he would play that year in round two of genesis axe already had a tough wall to climb in jman who was considered one of the best players in the united states at the time with wins over the already well-known mango mewtwo king and chudat as well as an entire tournament win at apex 2009 j-man wasn't just a tournament threat he was easily a top 10 player in the world an upset here would be a colossal win for axe and pikachu at large as the character had not been represented all that prominently since the days of players like coffin luck a starcraft 2 and heroes of the storm player who fun fact was also one of the first notable pikachu mains melee had ever seen the other pikachu player you might have thought of there was anther who axe regards as the best pikachu in the world before his own rise to stardom anther is one that's been around for a long time anther was actually the best pikachu before i came around that name may also sound familiar because of anther's latter you see around 2010 anther had given up on playing smash competitively in pursuit of a career in programming it would be through this career path that he would develop anther's latter or smash ladder around march of 2014 which was an online matchmaking and ranking site for all of the smash games this would ultimately become the first stepping stone for an online melee community where nowadays thanks to the onset of rollback netcode in the game virtually lagless online play is feasible but i digress ax certainly knew who j-man was but to j-man axe could have just been a random pikachu who squeaked a couple wins off alex 19 and everlasting yay to get to round two if j-man didn't know who axe was the growing crowd behind him would make sure he learned real quick both players go stock for stock in the first three minutes of the game leaving the two at their last stock of game one it was clear jaymen was inexperienced in the match-up but it was also clear that j-man was the better of the two players this set would come down to a contest of j-man's fundamentals to take stocks efficiently against ax's tricks to take stocks quickly and in the end axe somehow steals game one away something really good that pikachu has that other characters aren't as good with usually is his quick kill potential both off the sides and at the top game 2 served as a wake-up call j-man quickly deflated axe's confidence and reminded him that this set was far from over the crowd watches as j-man completely takes over with a three stock evening the set one to one and forcing a tiebreaker it felt like axe had run out of tricks and with everything on the line the two players would queue up for their third and final game of the set [Music] [Music] yes [Applause] somehow yet again axe took everyone's breath away his bag of tricks went just a little bit deeper and it turned out to be enough to take out one of melee's greats taj a friend and mentor to axe ran through the crowd to congratulate axe and lifted him high it was a huge victory [Applause] his run would later be halted by rastalin and linguine leaving him with a 33rd place finish but axe had already made his mark his win over j-man was arguably one of the biggest moments of his career so far and it served as the first domino to the rest of axe's life a few months later axe would compete in pat's house a regional socal tournament where he would place ninth [Music] as 2010 began axe would find himself as the second best player in arizona at the start of the year axe attended pound 4 and exited at a much more impressive 17th place including a notable win against the soon-to-be god ppmd in just a very short period his high placements would catapult axe into the melee spotlight along with his improved in-state ranking ax's performance at pound had people watching it was clear that he was a very capable competitor at not only local events but also out-of-state majors and regionals this improvement would be put on display with a 5th place finish at apex 2010 where axe took impressive wins versus rainex cyrene deshizwiz and jayman yet again he was ultimately double eliminated by armada but even in one of their encounters he took the european god to the brink axe would find himself beating tougher and tougher competition and by this time he had surprised a lot of people with some of these wins and that's the thing axe was beating all of these top players with pikachu a character considered by many to be a mid to low tier at the time after a handful of more than solid tournament placements for the year it seemed that axe had opened many players eyes to pikachu's potential in the competitive scene he summed up his feelings on the character best in a 2016 interview with event hub saying when the time came to play in tournament though my pikachu always performed the best out of them i didn't practice him as much as some of my other characters but he's always given me the best results even to this day i think i just have a natural feel for the character and his mechanics in a game that felt rigid in its pool of viable characters axe somehow struck a balance between picking a character he enjoys with one that gave him consistent performance these characters that i play for fun become some of my best characters but none of them have been able to top my pikachu no matter how much i play them so i'm a pikachu made at heart and his character choice wasn't just a gimmick even back in 2010 axe's skill was undeniable his opponents didn't need to prepare to play against pikachu they needed to prepare to play against axe the first domino knocked over a second and it was only a matter of time until axe would reach the very top of the competitive scene with his trademark character by his side a lot of people as i was getting better and better would call pikachu a gimmick and i'm only doing well because people don't know how to fight pikachu as long as i can know what my opponent's going to do and i'm able to counter it then it doesn't really matter what character i'm playing with pikachu i feel like i control him the best so i'm able to do this the best with pikachu and at the end of the day it's not about figuring out pikachu it's about figuring out me as a player and why i'm hitting you and why i'm taking your stocks and when i'm going in and what i am adapting to and it's not just you know pikachu uses skull bash and it's not like how are you going to stop skull bash it's not that it's on a much deeper mental level where you have to know why you are losing to that player and not necessarily the character 2011 to 2013 were about the same for axe on his come up but there was one event in particular which served as yet another landmark in the pikachu player's career he placed fourth at pound five with some solid wins over kobol remin captoir and hax but perhaps more important than that was his third place finish at zenith 2011. at zenith axe would receive a massive win against one of the five gods of melee in mew2king the five gods refers to five players who are the highest ranked and most skilled players on the planet the players armada hungrybox mango mew2king and ppmd ushered in an era of competition where they won nearly every tournament where at least two of them were in attendance from 2008 to 2015. and aside from that completely absurd statistic the gods rarely lost tournament sets to players outside of their own so a player like axe taking a set win off of even a single one was huge and it proved that the gods could bleed he did have a bit of a slump through some of the nationals he attended in late 2011 and early 2012 including a 17th place finish at genesis 2 and an at the time career low 33rd at apex 2012 the exception in the year was a third place at kings of cali where he bested lucky fiction s-fat s2j pew pew you and shroomed before taking the eventual winner ppmd to a five-game set in losers finals none of these tournaments were particularly bad for him by any means especially not kings of cali axe was still very clearly a top level player and the only pikachu player up there being the highest placing pikachu at nearly if not every major he went to july 12 2013 would bring melee back into the spotlight for good with evolution 2013 which served as the largest melee tournament of its time as well as a resurgence of the competitive scene axe was placed 13th here but just the fact that the game was even being played at this event was enough to boost melee's numbers considerably eva would become one of melee's landmark events for the next few years and axe got to enjoy the game's explosive rise in popularity and that was great timing too since the end of the year brought about new rankings both locally and worldwide wobbles who was the previous ranked one on the arizona melee power ranking for 2013 would end up retiring and moving back to texas and as a result the state would now recognize axe as the best player in arizona he would remain as the state's number one until fall of 2019 where he became ineligible for consideration due to a lack of local attendance in addition the first iteration of ssbm rank would be released by melee at anme aiming to compile an annual top 100 ranking for its players it was here that axe would be marked as the 11th best player in the world on his first ever global ranking and even though he was now officially known as a really freaking good player it still felt like something was missing for the remainder of his career axe would never dip below top 15 in the rankings but he couldn't quite break through some of melee's elite it felt like he had ran into a wall but that all changed at mlg anaheim 2014. 16 hour days from arizona has worked his way to the open bracket now he's here he's in the championship hole got at least seven games against the champions and then into the bracket and a couple more yeah so he's definitely got a lot of work cut out oh my goodness kind of stack it up is one of the most technical players one of the most creative players that never has ever seen right now he's up right now in a stock count and a second very talented that's gonna do it three stock to one he's got the magic percent as well [Music] again to keep it coming no way get out of stop the here that's what i want to know oh it's racking up here 75 oh it connects if you have smash 1-1 on his back that's it game three goes to arizona's axe playing safe throwing out those thunderbolts one mistake oh my god oh [Applause] placing highly at nationals was nothing new to axe at this point but it took a remarkable performance at mlg anaheim 2014 to get acts on everyone's radar for a second time in the open winners bracket axe would defeat ken to secure a spot in the championship pools there he would beat hax kobold remin soft and mewtwo king and another exciting upset before losing to leffen and ppmd this would seat axe in the loser's side of the championship bracket where he would secure himself a spot in top 8 by winning against lucky but none of these wins were the highlight of the event the most surprising upset to come from axe on the weekend was a three to one set victory over hungrybox crossing out the third member of the gods to fall to his pikachu axe would end his run at fifth place but his performance was downright outrageous and it kind of made sense considering his tournament placements in the years prior right after that tournament on july 9 2014 axe was sponsored by mortality esports and the sponsor came just in time too as the next tournament axe would attend was about to bring melee fans something that was just unbelievable [Music] kind of going on a side note tell me what the feeling was like for the forestock with silent wolf oh man how do i even get into this so if you don't know about melee this set was axe vs silent wolf at evo 2014 but if you do know about melee this set was axe vs silent wolf at evo 2014 and it may very well be one of melee's most memorable pieces of gameplay from 2014 to today after defeating hugs j666 and chudat in the winner's quarterfinals pool axe lost to mango one to two in a last stock set he was able to make it to top eight with a win over plup and his first set of losers top eight would be against otto bisno otherwise known as silent wolf so at evo 2014 i was just extremely excited to make top eight that's all i really wanted like i made top eight at evo and i'm like i can't believe this like i'm in topic of evo and this big screen on this huge stage we've got like thousands of people watching it's ridiculous i never thought i'd be in that position so it was just i was just so excited i was so excited to play whether i won or lost i was just really happy that i made it there at 15th on the 2014 global rankings silent wolf was certainly no slouch and this was especially true at evo after an early loss to darkrain he would claim his own top 8 spot with a loser's run through duck s fat shroomed fiction and leffen but all these accomplishments aside nothing would quite prepare him for this [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] axe ended up eliminating silent wolf from evo with a 2-1 set victory including an absolutely mind-bending game 3 a 56.51 second four stock which left the crowd in complete awe if anyone needed any more proof this moment would cement acts as a top-level competitor who was just as good if not better than anyone he sat down to play against what was perhaps a bit less impressive about their set at evo though was that it wasn't even the first time the two had faced off they first played at a modest event back in 2012 called northwest manifest which was also actually hosted by silent wolf himself and it was surprisingly versus axe where otto would be eliminated from his own tournament losing three to one in their first ever tournament encounter regardless though game three of axe versus silent wolf at evo 2014 would become one of the most talked about moments of axe's competitive history as well as a new career high for the pikachu player he would exit the tournament shortly thereafter with a one to two loss versus armada leaving axe at fifth place i don't know i just made a lot of right guesses in a row and everything just kind of worked out it was amazing and i wish that i could just relive that moment because i just felt like i just felt incredible i was like man this this is everyone's watching this and uh i just can't believe what happened it was mind-blowing and i still can't even believe it to this day i just if i could go back in time to any moment i'd probably just go back to that day and just do that again if i could [Music] for the remainder of 2014 axe would see pretty high results fourth at zenith 2014 fifth had tipped off 10 and an uncharacteristic ninth at the big house four where he was upset just outside of top eight by kells a chicago fox and chic player even after a low result if you can even call it that at the big house with the strong performances at mlg anaheim and evo behind him axe was widely considered a demigod at this point demigod was a title given only to a handful of players during this era of melee which would signify the player's ability to go toe-to-toe with any of the five gods for axe he had already taken sets off of three of these gods ppmd known back then as dr pp hungrybox and mewtwo king as well as individual games from the other two mango and armada basically axe was really freaking good and his ranking reflected that having now made the jump to the seventh best player in the world for 2014's ssbm rank the next year axe would enter paragon orlando 2015 which was an apex 2015 qualifier where he would place 7th losing out to mewtwo king and leffen later at apex 2015 axe placed a somewhat disappointing 13th in singles being double eliminated by a pair of norcal residents as fat then shroomed also at apex was the salty suite hosted by vgbc which was an after hours collection of grudge matches exhibition sets and high stakes gameplay among the list of now famous matches happening there like bizarro flames irl ganon up tilt and the now famous 5-0 set between chill and dude and leffen axe would participate in an evo 2014 grudge match vs silent wolf here axe would win the run-back for a second time now in a best-of-five set three games to one this would also be the last time the two would ever face off in an organized tournament for the rest of both of their careers up until silent wolves retirement in 2018 his stay with mortality would be a short one with acts leaving the team a few months after apex on april 9th 2015. just a week after leaving mortality axe would attend sandstorm where he would place third with very impressive and unexpected wins versus leffen and mango however his sandstorm run would be cut short of first yet again with losses to armada and westballz a couple weeks later he would earn yet another bronze medal at press start a national tournament held at uc irvine and notably one where none of the five gods in attendance made it to top eight on winner's side on july 2nd 2015 axe was picked up by tempo storm giving him a breath of fresh air and a set of new clothes as he moved into eva 2015 where he had hoped to live up to the expectations set for him in the year prior unfortunately axe's bracket didn't cooperate he'd place only a little bit worse than in 2014 at seventh but with a somewhat unexpected winners round one loss to hugs this performance was a bit lackluster near the end of 2015 axe would get another shot at armada in top 8 of a norwegian tournament called eclipse with his previous set at sandstorm being a disappointing 0-3 wash axe surprised a lot of people when he won the first and third game in a best-of-five set but in their final game on their final stock axe would find himself unable to go the distance this would end up becoming the closest set the two would ever play up until armada's retirement in 2018 and a subsequent loss to leffen in losers finals would leave axe at third in what was one of the largest european tournaments of all time from 2016 to 2018 axe would see some similar results he'd placed fourth at the third installment of genesis which saw a bunch of cool things like the salty sweep between abate and s2j following their glitch influence set at the big house 5 as well as mango and armada cementing the genesis tournament series as a symbol of their rivalry other events in the year didn't go too hot for axe though 14th at battle of the five gods 25th at pound 2016 17th on his return to evo in 2016 even a career low 65th at the big house 6 having been upset by up-and-comer r2dlu in 2017 we'd see some solid marks on ax's tournament record this included a 5th place finish at smash summit 5 a popularized invitational series that had been ongoing since the end of 2015 but this summit in particular would become pretty famous for having the largest singles pot in all of smash history across every smash title worth around 80 thousand dollars hungrybox who ended up winning the event took home a whopping 29 grand that weekend and in 2018 we'd see more of the same consistent 5th 7th and 9th placements with some outliers in either direction 25th at full bloom 4 2nd at flatiron 3 3rd again on my level 17th at evo 49th at the mango homecoming the 3 year span was a period of a few great performances and a few duds but the overall trend would stay relatively consistent seventh place fifth place the occasional fourth third or even second place these slots have become familiar to axe over the years and this would even be reflected in his more or less stagnant global ranking 7th in 2014 9th in 2015 9th and 2016 7th and 2017 and 10th in 2018. these certainly weren't bad placements in rankings by any means axe was obviously a top level competitor and he wasn't slipping but no one wants to settle in the back seat forever axe wanted to take home a win and 2019 was looking more and more like the year he'd get to do it the top of the year would bring axe into the spotlight in more ways than one kicking events off with genesis 6 axe would slide into the losers bracket surprisingly early thanks to s2j in a close 3-2 set which would also be the first time s2j had beaten axe since gtx in 2017. if this was a single elimination event that would be the end of axe's story right here and he would be exiting the tournament in disappointing fashion but thankfully melee tournaments are double elimination brackets axe would have a second chance to prove himself and boy did he turn it up a notch still stands oh my god that was insane whatever yep ah that's gonna do it richie out of the tournament and acts moving on to fight scene he's coming back he's coming back pikachu's recovery is too good but this is a ton of damage what is zach's gonna get back throw scary ford smashes him off could the eye from zane no an axe he goes on stage but he says psych wow i gotcha to confirm off the jab that's it it up gets the full combo to close out that set this yeah that'll do it and axe takes it over pbu 3-1 oh my goodness gracious they're both at 69 and they're both loving it he's now in the lead that's a wrong smash kill off the top at 109. he went up into the ceiling to try to get an extra percentage to knock himself in the 69 for the meme [Music] and that is gonna be game four we're going to another k5 yes he gets him on the way down contacts going to the ledge where he's the most comfortable this is bad double jumping between axe would win his next seven sets almost all of which went to game five to make an incredible loser's bracket run only to finally be eliminated by hungrybox on this route axe had to beat kalamazoo rishi zayn ginger pupuyu amsa and plup all players who ranged from at least the top 40 in 2018's mpgr to players who could make an argument to win the entire event though axe didn't quite make it to his first major win here we got a glimpse of what the pikachu had to offer in 2019 axe was here he was present and he still had plenty of gas left in the tank about half a year would go by before we saw the canadian super major get on my level 2019. here like genesis axe would be knocked into the losers bracket relatively early following a 0-3 sweep against swedish delight with another solid run axe could maybe pull off a 5th or 7th place that he had become so accustomed to but no axe would find himself in grand finals again after defeating westballz mateo s2j zayn s fat wizrobe and leffin there he would face a familiar opponent in mango one of the remaining five gods and a player whom axe had not beaten in the best of five sets since smash rivalries in 2017. surely this would be where he breaks through the wall hey guys i'm here after get on my level 2019 melee top eight with the second placer tempostorm's axe who has had an absolutely monstrous run we'll get into that later but axe i just want to know how are you feeling after that run i had so much fun man like i don't know after that it was it's just great like it's not as uh it could be better if i got first you know that's what i'm aiming for next time but i had a great time and i feel i feel good and i'm ready to just keep climbing up in what felt like a broken record his shot at first place was silenced by mango seeing axe in grand finals for a second time was good enough proof that his first run of genesis was no fluke but damn it had to hurt with a second place finish at two out of three major tournaments for 2019 axe was so close he could taste victory but even now even after he had reached a new level of play he was still just one step behind when it comes to big tournaments i don't win first place that much maybe axe wasn't meant to win after all going back to the beginning of this video june 13th would kick off the eighth iteration of the invitational tournament series smash summit the series felt like a more laid-back type of event taking place at the beyond the summit house in l.a rather than a more official venue this was intended to give fans a more behind the scenes feeling and the ambiance of the tournament was inspired by take tv's home story cup of starcraft 2. for the melee variant of this event a select number of players would attend either by virtue of an invitation from the bts team wild card slots given to the top finishers at specific qualifier events or player driven campaigns with a fan vote in process axe would be one of the eight players invited due to his high overall ranking and he would be divided into pool b where he'd finish with an overall record of two wins and one loss beating moki and s2j and losing to leffen the pool's matches would simply increase or decrease players overall seed in the main bracket and with his positive record axe would be placed in the winner's side of bracket with a bye so he would first face off against zayn unlike genesis or gomel though axe would make it to grand finals from the winner's side this time having beaten zayn manga wisrobe and leffen and wizard would end up returning to grand finals from the losers side the two of these players even sitting here together in the first place was already a first in summit history as the series had never seen a captain falcon or a pikachu competing for first and second place as the two plug into play axe appears to clear his mind of all nerves he's focused this is his time it's all come down to this moment grand finals at smash [Music] this is very tense was he looking very stationary though he doesn't want to get in very very close oh my gosh he's fighting his heart out yeah it's always knowing when your nerve goes up the wrong way you want to oh he was living too crazy oh my gosh the next grab knee will do it but can you get it oh my god he's off back here he's trying to do the get up exactly nice [Music] second set and wizzy wins three to one but he came from loser's side and this meant something because he would need to win two straight sets in order to steal first place from axe so this wasn't the end just a bracket reset with a set of buffer axe had another chance to take the title and still win his first major but after losing the first set it felt like things were slowly slipping out of his control the doubt he spent the beginning of the set casting out began to sneak its way back maybe things would be the same as genesis and gomel maybe he'd fall just short of the finish line and maybe he never deserved a first place victory to begin with the commentators discussed the possibility of acts switching to falco but axe was going to do this his own way here's a question that's crazy i want to put to you guys axe one of ax's best secondaries is a falco and given the fact that he's this close to clinching a major win is there any chance especially on the counter-pick with the fresh mindset axe would go into the next set as sharp as ever winning the first two games of the set and threatening to end the tournament with one last win the wall between his pikachu and victory was just a single game but wizro barely sneaks out the win on their last stock of game three but the good thing about axe being up 2-0 in the set though is that he gets to counter-pick to final destination like that faithful game versus j-man axe and wizzy ride a see-saw of stock exchanges leaving axe up two stocks but at high percent to wizzy's one in truth all acts really needed at this point was a grab or an up air to spell the beginning of the end eight seconds after wizard falls from the respawn platform axe finds the opening now a moment in history [Applause] [Music] he's done it a pikachu has won a major smash summit eighth oh my god after a year of second place victories and almost here forever years and years of being on the verge he did it he is now the champion congratulations to tempo axe the smash summit 8 champion he finally did it axe jumps out of his seat in a display of sheer happiness knowing that this was a long time coming but it didn't take a long time for this accomplishment to finally hit him axe sat back down and reflected on the last 10 years of his melee career all leading up to this moment he was forever known as the guy who almost made it from the day he started playing melee everyone knew he was meant to be great but no one knew or even believed he'd make it to the very top easily a top 10 player from 2014 and on but never quite able to stand above the upper echelon this tournament changed everything it was his first ever major win in his over 10 year career as well as the first ever major won by a pikachu player in melee's history the final domino had fallen as ax sits a familiar face enters the room it's vector man his high school friend from all those years ago he hugs axe and gives him confirmation that this was the culmination of axe's decade-long efforts while the caster's watch ty another long time arizona friend comes onto the mic full of emotion choking back tears we as viewers can only hear he's wanted this for so long [Music] critics may say that this was just a fluke or that ax's bracket was easy but axe couldn't control who was sitting next to him from round to round he could only give it his best effort just like he did at genesis and gomel and he did whether you believe it or not axe finally broke through he beat everyone who stood in his path gods demigods up-and-comers and especially the people who didn't think he'd ever make it big ax one for his friends like vectormen and tai for pikachu and most importantly for himself as he finally makes his way downstairs ax sits at the mic to make an expectedly emotional victory speech instead he asks for pizza and questions if he really did just win the entire tournament i need some pizza someone give the man a pizza did i really win yeah that's insane what just happened there's one more match actually [Music] i don't know what to say i just uh i've been working really hard for this and uh i don't know it's just a long time coming it's just crazy to me i think this very tournament is the reason axe is so likable as both a player and a person because he is melee the debate on whether smash is a fighting game or a party game will be one that lasts forever across its player base but maybe axe just existing is an answer to that question it's both if you're not having fun with the game you're gonna start just getting really frustrated getting in your own head and not being able to continue so in my opinion to be successful always this is what works for me you just gotta have a good time with it axe is the epitome of a great competitor who understands that his success is directly linked to his happiness in the game this was a historic and long-awaited victory as well as a message to the entire community that anyone can have what it takes to become a champion and he did it all with pikachu axe showed everyone that he has what it takes he proved that he could be the best he shattered the glass ceiling he is melee [Music] [Music] axe is a player who has etched himself into melee's competitive history he took a largely irrelevant character to most and made a name for himself all while overcoming the narrative that pikachu would never be able to go the distance but honestly i don't think this story is all that much about pikachu winning a major this story told over the course of 10 years is about perseverance perseverance so strong that it goes above and beyond what should be normal to a normal human being i really enjoy the show high q because it depicts the struggles of plateauing in a plain and relatable way through the wall but axe may not be the main character in a show like that and maybe that's the reason he resonates so well with melee we're all meant for greatness it's not just for a select few and as we let our talents bloom we unconsciously encourage others to do the same acts overcame at all he faced down the wall and was able to see the other side he's one of the few that can proudly say that the view from the summit is pretty damn good i think some people believe that once you reach the summit once you conquer what was giving you so much struggle for so long that that's it that there's nothing more for you to accomplish and that it's only downhill from here but that's the thing once you finally get that view from the summit you can't help but seek another one and another and another the taste of victory leaves the best competitors wanting more it's intoxicating i guess you could say it wasn't a choice it was just he chose me before going to that high school tournament axe was just a walgreens employee with some serious gaming skills now he's so much more than that he's a top level competitor he's the best pikachu player in the world and he's living proof that hard work eventually breeds success axe's journey is timeless he has one of the most inspiring stories you'll ever find in melee and he'll be remembered as a kind talented and promising individual with a bold approach to the game we all love well um i'm definitely going to continue going to as many tournaments as i can because i want to get like i'm definitely not going to be done for a very long time like i want to get better as fast as i can i don't want this to just be the one you know what i mean i i uh i feel like there's a lot more after this so i'm gonna i'm gonna keep going thank you so much for watching this documentary i hope you enjoyed it and much gratitude goes to my patrons for making videos like these possible especially avishwa stein brian malumphy and connor if you'd like to help support me in making more videos like these possible please feel free to contribute through the link in the description guys this is axe thanks a lot for watching and subscribe for more content

Channel: turndownforwalt

Views: 131,584

Keywords: axe, ssbm axe, super smash bros melee, tempo axe, smash bros, axe pikachu, ssbm pikachu, pikachu, summit, the view from the summit, smash summit, smash summit 8, summit axe, combo video, edit, highlights, melee, melee edit, montage, ssbm, ssbm combo video, ssbm edit, ssbm montage, super smash bros

Id: Jw8rz0_r6fc

Length: 51min 3sec (3063 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

legendary video about a legendary competitor by a legendary content creator

[u/skater687]

Walt is really taking his content to the next level now. What an insane project

[u/IPadowan]

wow what an incredible. you’re a great storyteller walt!

[u/HappyPollen]

"A moment in history" Nice Rewinder shoutout Walt.

But for real, this moved me to tears. Axe truly embodies the game and the competitive scene, taking a character you relate to and love, taking the passion you have for the game and turning it to something truly inspiring. What a fantastic documentary for one of the absolute best. Here's to many many more moments.

[u/PaulyBiccD]

The ending with the haikyuu music put me in tears. Good video. Melee is sick.

[u/nyyymph]

Love when Walts videos are coming out, and I don't even play Melee.