The Super Smash Bros. Melee singles bracket, which took place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, wrapped up Sunday with an action-packed afternoon. With only eight of DreamHack Austin's elite players left standing from the initial 438 entrants, the stakes were high as first place offered nearly half of a $10,000 prize pool. After a disappointing third-place finish two weeks prior at CEO Dreamland, Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma managed to secure first place at DreamHack Austin.
Daniel "ChuDat" Rodriguez and his savvy Ice Climbers continued their impressive winners bracket run on Sunday, coming off some strong performances on Saturday. ChuDat faced Joseph "Mang0" Marquez first in the semifinals. Surprisingly, neither Mang0's Fox nor Falco was able to stop Chu's momentum Sunday as he knocked Mang0 into the lower bracket in Game 4 on Final Destination. Competition thickened even further for ChuDat and his Icies as he then met Hungrybox and his Jigglypuff in the winners finals. ChuDat's run through the upper bracket was halted promptly by Hbox in a 0-3 sweep.
In the lower bracket, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman ventured through the treacherous terrain Saturday and Sunday, eradicating the likes of William "Leffen" Hjelte, Justin "Plup" McGrath and Mang0 in his path. However, Mew2King ran into a brick wall in the form of ChuDat in the losers bracket finals. To the surprise of many fans, M2K adopted Peach in his first two matches of the series, a tactic that proved ineffective as ChuDat responded by implementing his Jigglypuff and moving to the Ice Climbers to take a 2-0 lead. M2K's renowned Marth earned him a victory in Game 3 but struggled to hold up in Game 4, giving way to a ChuDat/Hungrybox rematch in the grand finals.
The grand finals featured the high-level spectacle we were hoping for but fizzled out to somewhat of a disappointing technical ending. The second outing between the two was more proportionate as it came down to the last match of the tournament. Hungrybox, up a stock, used the clock to his advantage by floating his Jigglypuff away from the stage, evading ChuDat to win the match in a time scenario, rather than by taking his opponent's stocks straight up. As the game time dwindled down to seconds and timed out, Hbox hit a rest on ChuDat's Ice Climbers. Although he was the clear victor, Hungrybox seemed staggered in his acceptance of the first-place trophy. It wasn't the purge spectators were hoping for, but it was just good enough to earn him the DreamHack Austin title.