Fans of the Ice Climbers are jumping for joy right now in the competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee scene. Hugh “SluG” Hegarty, the No. 9 ranked player in the world on the 2022 rankings, is returning to the spotlight by attending a stacked event after a year-long hiatus.
After Ludwig’s Smash Invitational in late October 2022 where SluG went on a monstrous run and placed fourth, the Ice Climbers player had almost completely disappeared from the competitive scene. On Jan. 1, he posted this cryptic gif on Twitter, hinting to everyone that he was stepping away from the competitive scene. With the exception of just two tournament appearances since the Invitational, SluG removed himself from the spotlight.
That is, until he announced on Oct. 2 that he will be attending The Function 3 @ BrookLan, a Brooklyn tournament on Nov. 11 that features several top 10 players in the world, including Cody Schwab and Jmook. It’s unclear whether this is the start of a comeback or if it’s back to the shadows after the event, but the return of this legendary Ice Climber is amazing, nonetheless.
After the wobbling bans that started in 2019, Ice Climbers significantly dropped in the rankings, with some players switching off the character or stepping away from competing entirely. That is, until SluG rose to prominence in 2022, taking sets off of many top-level Melee players and achieving the first top 10 ranking for an Ice Climbers player in five years.
SluG’s play demonstrated not only how much of a force the mountain-climbing duo could still be under the current meta, but also how cool they could look doing it. He will certainly have many players in his corner rooting for his success. Hopefully this inspires another wave of Ice Climbers mastery to show off just how much this bizarre character can do.
