Mainstage was Beyond the Summit's first Smash Melee event and it ran successfully and our very own Lucky placed in the top 8 for Singles, finishing at 7th place. Additionally, he also finished within the top 8 for Doubles with n0ne, finishing also at 7th place. With two Top 8 placings at the event, Lucky gives his view on his upsets, his losses, and the event from his perspective.

Mainstage was Beyond The Summit’s first Smash major. Many attendees praised the event online. Did you enjoy the event and what were the best and worst parts of the event for you?

Lucky: As far as Mainstage goes as an event, I think it was a really big mix of 'tournaments go bad' way too often as opposed to Mainstage being good for me. It felt like a good event, but it felt kind of small and smaller events tend to be easier to handle. Paired with really good staff, it was a no brainer that the event would be good. I know everyone was loving it but I didn't see anything crazy about it, in terms of how it was run. I think I would definitely give credit to is the production, the stream being on point and stuff like that. The scheduling was cool, but I think that usually comes down to how many people have entered and how well they can handle it. I think for now, Mainstage is being run by a great group of people and hopefully they get a shot at running a bigger event so we can see how they do under pressure.

You placed 7th in both Melee Singles and Doubles! You defeated TG|Ginger earlier in the bracket but sadly, he eliminated you later on in the loser’s bracket. How do you feel about fighting Ginger and what do you think changed in the tournament for him to turn it around? Let’s talk about fighting Ginger.

Lucky: Ginger was funny because, whether he admits it or not, I don't know if he feels this way, but for me, it's personal beef with the character. I grew up playing Mango, he's one of my training buddies, even though we don't play that often, I still pride myself on the matchup with Falco. So when I play a Falco, and a good Falco at that, I'm always just really driving for the win. In winners, when I played him, I didn't want to lose to him whatsoever. It was probably one of the worst game ones I've ever seen played between two professional players. We were both full hopping, getting two hits and then running away from each other. It was a god awful match.

Game two came and I was like: "Look, he's playing bad too, for whatever reason, maybe he doesn't want to lose to you too so just step it up, just a slight bit and destroy this kid!". That's what I did. I stepped it up and I murdered him. When it came to losers, I probably played the best I played all year. I'm very particular for how I warm up for a tournament set. I don't like over warming up because I can get into my own head. I was under the impression, for whatever reason, that the Roast of Scar would be thirty minutes so when it ended up taking two hours, I was warming up the entire time. I was checking constantly to see if I would have to play. Literally, I felt so drained so when I eventually played Ginger, it felt like a waste of how good I was playing that day. I look forward to playing him again.

Sometimes, I need to let go of that pride against Falco and just play the match out. For now, I'm not content at all with how I played that set and I don't think anyone else should be either. Just wait until the next one!

You also had a fantastic set against Tempo|Axe! He took the win eventually, but it was a game five match. Axe, of course, is the best Pikachu main and there’s not another player to take Pikachu’s potential as a character that high. Talk us through what it was like to play against Axe. With Axe’s skill taken into account, is the matchup hard because it’s less practiced amongst competitors or do you feel Pikachu’s weakness as a low tier helps higher tiers take Axe to the edge? What was your experience fighting Axe?

Lucky: I think it's a mix of things. I have a lot of respect for Axe as a player. I don't have a lot of respect for Pikachu. I think that character is pretty wack. I do think Axe is fantastic and any character that he does play, he's going to do amazing things with. It just sucks that he plays Pikachu because at the end of the day, it's like Hungrybox playing Jigglypuff. You can only take so much credit away from them but there is still that thought in the back of your head that knows they've played nine million Foxes compared to Jigglypuffs, Yoshis or Pikachus that you've played against. Especially at a really high level. For me, it's always a little annoying when I play him but this time I felt really good about it because iBDW gave me one tip. Well, it was a couple of tips, but I broke it down into one tip: 'Play the matchup like a Project M matchup". After doing that, I felt like the matchup was so doable. I'm looking forward to playing him again and seeing if I can do it.

In addition to these great sets, you also eliminated C9|Mang0. Mang0 is a player that you have been playing for a long time and grew up playing together. You 3-1’d him in the losers bracket. Talk us through the match and how you were both playing? What gave you the edge?

Lucky: As far as Mang0 goes, I know a lot of people are happy about it. I have this pride where, because I'm a Fox player, I know what it's like to play bad and I know what it's like to miss crucial things. So when I beat Mang0 or anyone in tournament, that's always in the back of my head. When they mess something up, I always feel a little bit bad about it. I'm going to take the win and the punish but it always makes me think that: "if they hadn't of messed it up, would I still have beaten them? Will I beat them next time?". The set with Mang0, I felt like he wasn't playing his best at all. I do feel like I was playing fantastic so it's hard to say that I wouldn't have beaten him, even if he was playing good. For now, I'm really happy about the win, I feel I played really calm and really good. I was doing a bunch of new things that I haven't shown him before that really caught him off guard. Overall, I just can't wait to play him again because now it might show him that, even if he's not playing his best, I can push him a lot harder than I've ever been able to; due to how much i've been grinding this year. I'm excited to play him when he's in better form and hopefully beat him the next time too; to show that I can hang at that level too.

To wrap up Singles and start entering the Doubles territory, you eliminated your teams partner, n0ne, in Singles! Overall, your Singles run was very impressive. How did you feel playing on the day and do you feel your mentality is finally starting to kick into a good place?

Lucky: Overall, I feel like I've been great. Every tournament that goes by, I feel like I'm playing better, if not, I'm feeling better about how I'm playing. There's always things I can change and things I can fix but it's nice to know that there's less to complain about and more to improve on, if that makes sense. It's not so much mistakes but more so things that I can just do better. That's a really good feeling and I feel like looking at Melee that way improves my mentality. Instead of saying, "I messed this up, I suck," it's, "Oh I could have done this a little bit better." Overall, at Mainstage, I played fantastic. To this day, and probably a year later or ten years later, I'm going to say: "If that stupid roast didn't happen, I might have won that tournament". I was playing so on point. Good event though, BTS, good event!

You got 7th in teams with n0ne! This was your second time teaming; the first time being at Low Tier City 7 a few months ago. Did you both talk out a strategy or do you feel your initial way of creating synergy was apt? You played against a very mixed bag of characters in doubles. Talk us through your sets against Hungrybox and ChuDat, Chango and Espi and Axe and aMSa!

Lucky: Teaming with n0ne is cool. I actually want to say it's way different than I imagined. When you see n0ne play in Singles, it looks like this guy who turns off his brain and just plays 100% with his heart. When I ended up teaming with him, I thought he was going to be saying: "Okay good stuff, let's keep playing, do this, whatever", etc. He actually had way more insight when we were playing and way more tips on how we could play better, way more ideas to try things out and more adamant about team strategy than I ever thought he would have been. It was really cool to be able to play with a player that looks like he's a mad man on the inside, but he actually thinks a lot about the game.

It's really cool to have a player that's like that so that we, he can help you make better decisions and you help him out too. It's really fun teaming with him and I think since we are so new, we have a lot to learn against specific characters. Especially the weird ones like Hungrybox and ChuDat. They're not a traditional team; it's a lot of character specific stuff that we were not used to. At least in Doubles. After we lost, we felt like we could do it the next time so hopefully we get another shot. Whereas, with Axe and aMSa, it was almost the same thing, but we could pick up stuff a lot faster since when we lost to ChuDat and Hungrybox, we realised there was a lot more we could do as a team. We applied it mid match and mid set against Axe and aMSa, to the point where we were talking to each other between matches, figuring it out as we went on and it was fun to be able to play that way.

With the exception of yourself, many Southern California players got upset early on. We saw the likes of Franz and Aura reach further in bracket than the usual hometown heroes. Why do you think that is?

Lucky: When you look at any regional or big national, it's always less about who's going on the run but more so about who's playing to their potential. I think we got to see people like Franz step out of their comfort zone and play fantastic and show what they're capable of. I don't think there was anything special to it. He was just feeling it and he showed he could do it and that's it.

What were your favourite matches to play in Singles and why?

Lucky: Favourite match to play in Singles was probably against n0ne. I know he was fresh off of a win, after playing against iBDW and he smoked him. It's cool to know that matchups matter sometimes more than just how good someone is. Playstyle comes to mind and so being able to beat n0ne after he had some good wins was pretty good for me.

What was your favourite sets to watch in Doubles and why?

Lucky: Doubles was definitely the Axe and aMSa set because of the progression we made in mid set. It was awesome!

Big House is just around the corner. What do you expect from yourself for the event and what do you expect the Big House tournament to provide for its competitors and spectators?

Lucky: Big House is just around the corner. I really hope I do amazing. Top 8 is always the initial goal and once I make top 8, I step it up and notch and aim for fifth place, then fourth, then third and so on and try and take the tournament to the bank. We'll see how it goes. Overall, I've been playing great all year. It's a big event, it's the one that everyone tries the hardest at so I'd say making top 8 at this event matters more than any other event. I'll see what I can do.

If you'd like to follow Lucky's daily updates, Melee career and stream schedule, you can follow him on Twitch and Twitter!

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