Super Smash Bros. Melee has such a deep pool of modern talent that it isn’t a guarantee to see names like Leffen at the top of the standings anymore. While TSM’s Swedish star is splitting his focus between multiple games, he overcame his underdog status to pull off a $15,000 Major win after beating Zain twice at the Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 5.
Hosted by Ludwig and his team, LACS5 was the latest in the streamer’s invitational series, featuring many of the top names in Melee like Cody Schwab, Zain, aMSa, and Hungrybox. Leffen came in having only competed in two other Majors this year but walked away with his first title at that level since Battle of BC 4 in June 2023.
Back at that event, Leffen also had to best Zain to raise the trophy, pulling out the Sheik he was working on instead of the signature Fox to take an edge over Marth. History repeated itself at LACS5 with that Shiek making an appearance to take a close 3-2 win in the grand finals as Zain abandoned the pocket Ice Climbers that he threw out in the semifinals.
Leffen also notched big wins over Cody and Hbox during his winner’s run.
Since Smash Summit 9 in February 2020, right before events mostly shifted online due to COVID, Leffen has traveled to 12 Majors and won a National at DreamHack Rotterdam 2022. That is largely because living in Sweden limits his access to the majority of large events and also hampers his ability to get reliable practice against top talent due to spotty netplay.
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Leffen will skip an upcoming Melee Major, GOML, to rest and practice for his FGC competitions, though he doesn’t think he can keep up the balance forever. During his post-game interview, Ludwig asked if Leffen would end up choosing to leave Melee, to which the Swedish player couldn’t commit to answering.
“There are some times you can just perform amazingly despite not doing the right thing,” Leffen said. “Playing three games is not sustainable, and even if it was for me, it wouldn’t be for my girlfriend, my dog, and my actual body. At the end of the day I have to make a decision, and I told myself I wouldn’t until after Evo.”
Leffen joked that there had been “another Swedish guy” who won an event and left Melee, referencing Armada’s retirement, though he did say that he wants to continue building on these clutch wins and come back to win some tournaments as the favorite again, rather than remaining an underdog.
It sounds like Melee is still going to be a priority moving forward for Big Leff, but for now, he will take the next few weeks to focus on GGST heading into Evo—where he also plans to enter what should be the biggest Street Fighter event of all time too.
