Tournament:Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 5

Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 5
Dates	July 7th-9th, 2023
Address/City	unknown Covina, California
Attendance	140
Entry fees	Friday only venue fee: $39 All weekend venue fee: $89 Open Qualifier: $1
Pot size(s)	$50,001
Results
winners	Leffen
Staff
Organizer(s)	Ludwig, Calvin, Slime, Anna Molly

Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 5 was a Super Smash Bros. Melee invitational tournament held from July 7th-9th, 2023 by YouTube streamer Ludwig. It was the first tournament in the series to be held in-person, being held in Covina, California. 12 players were directly invited to the tournament, and 4 more players qualified from the Open Qualifier on July 7th. The prize pool was $50,001, which was the ninth largest prize pool for a Melee tournament.

Format

The main singles event had a total of 16 players, with 12 directly invited players and 4 players qualifying through the Open Qualifier. There were Swiss system pools and a final double-elimination bracket. Swiss pools worked the same way as Ludwig Smash Invitational, but with one pool of all 16 players instead of two pools with 16 players each. In the Swiss pools, each player played until they won 3 sets, where they qualified for the Top 8 final bracket, or until they lost 3 sets, where they were eliminated from the tournament. The 2 players that went 3-0 in sets in Swiss pools were able to draft pick their Winners' Quarters opponent out of the 3 players that went 3-2 in sets. The Top 8 played in the final bracket in a double-elimination format, with everyone starting Winners' side. All sets at the event were best of 5, in both Open Qualifier and main singles. Swiss pools Rounds 1-3 were played on July 8th, and Rounds 4-5 were played on July 9th. The Top 8 final bracket was played to completion on July 9th.

Tournament summary

In the Open Qualifiers, Fiction was seen as a favorite to qualify in the Top 4 as the 2nd seed, but was upset by KJH and mvlvchi to finish 17th place. Zamu was upset in his second match by KoopaTroopa895 2-3, but managed to win seven sets in Losers' side to qualify, racking up wins on Chem, Soonsay, and KJH in his impressive Open Qualifier run.

Swift upset Soonsay and Magi in the Open Qualifiers to qualify for the main event on Winners' side. In Swiss pools, he beat Zamu, Magi, and Joshman to become the second Pikachu player to make Top 8 at a Melee major, after Axe first did so at Apex 2010 13 years prior. Swift was the only qualified player to make Top 8 at Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 5, outplacing Axe as the highest-placing Pikachu player as well. His run to 7th place came as a surprise, given that he was not seeded to make it into Top 8 of either the Open Qualifier or the main event.

In Swiss pools, KoDoRiN faced Axe in Round 3, and became the first Marth player to 3-0 Axe's Pikachu. This was especially notable since it was a matchup that Axe had historically been dominant in, making KoDoRiN's 3-0 a very strong performance.

This tournament marked the debut of Zain's Ice Climbers in tournament as a Sheik counterpick, pulling the character out against Leffen in Winner's Semifinals for two games (successfully on Final Destination, unsuccessfully on Pokémon Stadium). Seeing both top players switching off of their main character was seen as one of the most exciting moments of the tournament, and lead to discussions about the character counterpicking metagame. After Mang0 was beaten by Cody Schwab in Winners' Semifinals, he sandbagged as Dr. Mario against Hungrybox, losing 1-3 and finishing 5th place. Leffen was able to beat both Zain and Cody Schwab 3-2 to reach Grand Finals on Winners' side. After Zain beat Hungrybox and Cody Schwab 3-2 in the Losers' bracket, Leffen won Grand Finals 3-2 with his Sheik.

Players invited/qualified

The following 12 players were invited:

•  Mango
•  Zain
•  Hungrybox
•  Salt
•  Leffen
•  aMSa
•  Cody Schwab
•  Jmook*
•  Joshman
•  moky
•  Trif
•  Axe
•  KoDoRiN

*Jmook dropped out due to a health issue. KoDoRiN was moved from the Open Qualifier to the main singles event as the replacement player.

4 players qualified from the Open Qualifier.

•  Swift
•  Spark
•  Magi
•  Zamu

Results

Super Smash Bros. Melee singles

(16 entrants)
Swiss Pools
Final Bracket

Place	Name	Character(s)	Earnings
1st	Leffen		$15,001
2nd	Zain		$10,000
3rd	Cody Schwab		$5,000
4th	Hungrybox		$4,000
5th	Mang0		$3,000
5th	moky		$3,000
7th	aMSa		$2,000
7th	Swift		$2,000
9th	Trif		$1,125
9th	Joshman		$1,125
9th	KoDoRiN		$1,125
12th	Axe		$625
12th	Magi		$625
12th	Spark		$625
15th	Salt		$375
15th	Zamu		$375

Side events

T.O. Bracket

(13 entrants)
Bracket

Place	Name	Character(s)	Earnings
1st	IggyNieves
2nd	YungWaff
3rd	Calvin
4th	Kevon
5th	s-f
5th	in10city
7th	schmoop
7th	webs
9th	zazamaster27
9th	Papi Chulo
9th	Georgie
9th	Chu12ch
13th	Bingus

Trivia

• Swift became the first player to make Top 8 at any Smash major using a Prism-style controller. The controller's obelisk-shaped design prompted jokes from commentary and social media about Swift making various sacrifices in order to win his sets.
• The tournament was held in the same venue as the Smash Summit tournaments. After winning the tournament, Leffen would note how he had finally won an event in the building, as he had never won a Smash Summit.

External links

• Start.gg page
• Announcement 1, Announcement 2