There are plenty of highlights in Melee’s illustrious history: Mang0 and Armada’s Genesis Rivalry, The Return to EVO, The MLG Circuit, and so on. Alongside these big events, there are also some classic underdog sets that have gone down within Melee history. Sets such as Mew2King and Amsa at Kings of Cali 4 and Axe versus Silentwolf at EVO come to mind, but arguably the best one comes from S2J versus Abate at Big House 5. Let’s take a closer look why this set is so legendary and why it still comes to mind three years later.

To give some context, The Big House 5 took place in Dearborn, Michigan in October 2015. Melee was finding its legs again after seeing a new wave of interest that was brought by EVO and the Smash Brothers Documentary. S2J was (and still is), a top Captain Falcon player known for his hype combos (aka “Johnny Stocks”). As for Abate, nobody really knew of him outside of Pittsburgh and some noticeable placements such as a 7th place finish at Zenith 2013. However, S2J and Abate would end up meeting in Top 32, and it made for one hell of a set.

Game 1: Battlefield

The game starts as expected, neutral start and the two are trading hits. What is different about the two is S2J is just spamming neutral-air (a good combo starter), whereas Abate is utilizing Luigi’s wavedash to outmaneuver S2J and using a handful of Luigi’s aerials. A key moment happens pretty early on when S2J manages to link one of his neutral-airs into a small combo, but Abate was able to break out of it due to Luigi’s neutral-air being both fast and a easy combo breaker. Despite breaking one of S2J’s bread and butter combos, S2J keeps trying to utilize it throughout the rest of the game. After they both lose their first stocks, Abate turns up. Abate starts to utilize a variety of wavedash-grab set-ups alongside Luigi’s stellar aerials. When S2J was trying to slow Abate down with his Gentleman Jab or Falcon Kick, Abate kept finding openings and punished him for it. What also did not help S2J is that Luigi is fantastic at edgeguarding opponents, especially if they have recoveries that are as easy to exploit as Captain Falcon’s. Abate showed that edgeguarding in spades, going for wavedash edge-hogs as well as runoff aerials and capping off the first game with a borderline disrespectful down-tilt into runoff down-air.

Looking at the bigger picture, S2J did not play too well. S2J was only able to get two of Abate’s stocks due to simple knee set-ups and had some decent directional influence (DI), but it looked like S2J was playing a bit lazy and he was promptly punished for it. Abate is a different story. Abate utilized just about everything Luigi had and suffocated S2J for a dominant Game 1.

(Footage courtesy of The Big House/VGBootCamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW_m7kvGVXc&t=919s)

Game 2: Pokemon Stadium

Before game two starts, S2J does something unlike him: he switches characters! S2J is known for his Captain Falcon play and has rarely switched off of his main character at tournaments. However, due to how dominant Abate was in game one, S2J goes for a higher-tier matchup with his switch to Falco, a character who had a better chance of keeping up with Luigi’s combo game and could stop Luigi’s wavedash with lasers. It is worth noting that it is extremely rare to see higher caliber players switch from their main characters and it is usually when the player is fearful of losing a game to a lower-tier character. So, with his pocket Falco in hand, S2J counterpicks to Pokemon Stadium.

Once again, neutral start and S2J and Abate start trading hits, except this time S2J’s Falco is starting to hit some small combos and is laser camping Abate. Abate was still able to rack up some small damage, but he had the difficult challenge of playing around Falco’s tools. Despite this newfound challenge, Abate was continuing to put on the pressure, but S2J was also pouring it on as well. Every time Abate was able to land a decent combo, S2J was able to fire back with solid laser pressure into some of Falco’s aerials and combo him back. However, Abate was able to dictate the pace of the game with Luigi’s speed and combo game and was able to close out game two with a killer combo in the rock pit of Pokemon Stadium.

Overall, S2J had a decent improvement on game one, with his DI still doing him favors and higher pressure, but he just couldn’t put enough combos together. Abate still had a chokehold on S2J due to his continued pressure, but he did have some questionable recovery choices. Despite that small chink in his armor, Abate was playing fantastically and S2J needed to step up.

(Footage courtesy of The Big House/VGBootCamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW_m7kvGVXc&t=919s)

Game 3: Yoshi’s Story

Despite S2J’s Falco putting in work, he switches back to Captain Falcon and counterpicks to Yoshi’s Story. This time, S2J caught up. S2J was able to keep up with Abate through the use of Captain Falcon’s aerials, hitting him with drive-by neutral-airs and going for random stomps and up-airs, applying a lot of shield pressure. Another note is that Abate is starting to show some predictability, trying to go for the same kill setup twice by wavedashing off of one of the lower platforms and going for a down-air, only on the second time S2J punishes it with a edge-hog into up-air, managing to take Abate’s stock in the process.

After that, the game continued to be one giant trade off with S2J and Abate comboing each other like crazy, but Abate can’t get a solid recovery due to how easy it is to exploit misfire. The game goes to last stock, but S2J finally starts to respect Abate’s mobility and play around it a little, going on platforms and spacing him out with neutral-air. Eventually, both Abate and S2J are sitting at high percents, with one good hit sealing the game. However, Abate gets too impatient and tries to go for a wavedash into forward-smash, but S2J saw coming. S2J proceeds to jump over Abate, hit him with a reverse up-air and seal the game off with a knee, keeping him afloat in the set.

Overall, S2J leveled up, he was able to start comboing Abate better and added enough pressure to help him win the game. Abate had another solid game, but he wasn’t able to deal with S2J on such a small stage and kept making small mistakes that were costing him.

(Footage curtesy of The Big House/VGBootCamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW_m7kvGVXc&t=919s)

Game 4: Fountain of Dreams

Abate counterpicks to FoD and it’s a similar story to game three: Abate and S2J trading blows and applying good pressure. This time around, S2J understood what he was dealing with and was starting to go for the safer options that he was using in game three, only with a bit more shielding added into the mix. Abate was not doing as well. Abate was struggling to edgeguard S2J, he wasn’t landing any hard hitting combos and he couldn’t keep up with S2J’s speed. S2J started to pick up on this, going for crazier edge-guards and combos while Abate was stuck playing catch up. Despite this, Abate was keeping it close and once again the game went to last stock, but S2J was able to land a knee and end the game. S2J was finally getting the hang of the Luigi matchup and Abate looked like he could get left in the dust if he didn’t turn on the jets.

(Footage courtesy of The Big House/VGBootCamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW_m7kvGVXc&t=919s)

Game 5: Fountain of Dreams (Again)

Despite losing game four on FoD, Abate decided to run it back and it was quite the slugfest. The first stock was a great example of the entire set, with S2J having solid aerials and spacing while Abate was sliding around everywhere hitting some uncanny combos with his movement, capped off with some solid edge-guards from both. Abate then fires back with a flurry of wavedash-based combos taking S2J’s second stock, but S2J responds with another quick combo. The two keep trading blows until it comes down to last stock for the third game in a row. Abate manages to rack up a bunch of damage and is so close to beating S2J, but what happened next would go down as one of the most bizarre set endings in Melee history.

S2J manages to land a knee in neutral and knocks Abate off stage, trying to make him recover, making him a prime target for a stomp. S2J goes for the stomp, lands it, and instead of Luigi getting stomped into the blast zone, he goes nowhere and S2J falls to his doom. Abate wins 3-2 and the entire tournament goes absolutely ballistic.

(Footage curtesy of The Big House/VGBootCamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW_m7kvGVXc&t=919s)

WHAT WAS THAT???

Due to some of the ongoing shield pressure, Abate managed to trigger the Invisible Ceiling Glitch. The Invisible Ceiling Glitch is when a character hits another character’s shield, they have a chance to have their velocity being reset. When this happens, if the character is hit within a decent amount of time, the character will have irregular knockback and it looks as if it hit an invisible ceiling. The Invisible Ceiling Glitch can be triggered depending on the traction on the character, so this glitch is more likely to affect low traction characters, such as Luigi. While the glitch is unavoidable, it is also incredibly rare.

History

With Abate’s miraculous win over S2J, he would manage to make Top 8 at The Big House 5 and take 7th place with wins over Kira, Axe and Duck. As for S2J, he was sent to losers and wound up taking 9th. Abate’s win would show that characters that are as uncommon and strange such as Luigi could stack up against the competition of meta picks of Fox, Marth, and Captain Falcon. S2J would be made fun of for his loss for a time, but he’s remained as one of the best Captain Falcon players in the world. As for Abate, he still competes in tournaments every now and then, but he will go down as one of the best Luigi players in recent memory. This set shows Melee at its best: filled with cool combos, bizarre character picks, and a bit glitchy. But the best thing about this set? It is the quintessential underdog story and it is one nobody in the Melee community will forget about for a long time.

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