One of the biggest and most historically significant Super Smash Bros. tournaments is currently underway in San Jose but a surprising piece of news slipped under the radar on opening day. After nine years together, Alliance and legendary Smash Melee player Adam “Armada” Lindgren have parted ways.
Alliance announced the move on X (formerly known as Twitter) right as most prominent figures across the Smash community were traveling to or preparing for Genesis X. As a result, very little talk about Armada being released was passed around despite the significance of the move regarding the timing and implications.
Armada is one of the greatest Smash Melee players of all time, reigning as one of the game’s “Five Gods” during the 2010s with dozens of tournament wins. Despite retiring from competitive singles play in September 2018, he still holds claim to the title of Melee GOAT—an argument that is brought up frequently in the community.
Among those championship trophies littering a cabinet in his home, the Swedish Sniper remains the only player to have ever won three Genesis. Near the peak of his powers, he managed to win G2, G3, and G4, threepeating over Mang0 at a time when the duo were trading blows at the top of the rankings. Since then, only Zain has managed to win multiple Genesis titles, going back-to-back at G7 and G8, falling short of the triple at last year’s event.
Since 2007 Armada never finished below fifth at an event and ranked in the top two for every player ranking between 2013 and 2018. Armada has continued to support Melee with occasional streams, coaching sessions, and commentary blocks at events, though he has mostly moved into streaming speedrun content.
For an esports-centric organization like Alliance, parting ways with a former pro who has been streaming for the better part of five years instead of competing would make sense. It makes less sense to announce it right as Genesis—a tournament Armada has significant ties to—is firing up and just as his steam is hitting its highest numbers in over a year according to streaming stats site Sully Gnome. But even that isn’t where the main confusion for this move lies.
When Twitch spun off Alliance and Evil Geniuses into independent organizations in December 2016, Armada—who joined Alliance in November 2014—was one of several players who received a percentage of ownership alongside the team’s Dota 2 roster at the time. So if he is being released, as Armada phrased it in his statement, this raises the question of if it is also a buyout for whatever ownership he may or may not still have in the org itself.
For his part, Armada seems nonplussed by the move and has plans in place to continue creating content after the split, wishing the team a heartfelt goodbye after nine years.
“While I’m getting released, this is not the end for me in gaming,” Armada said. “I will keep streaming on Twitch and branch out to multi-streaming on YouTube too while also trying to do some more Melee coaching on the side. It’s truly been a good time and I will always look at Alliance as my home and wish them the best of luck moving forward.”
