Smasher:Leffen

Leffen
Character info
Melee main	Fox
Other Melee characters	Falco, Mewtwo, Marth, Yoshi
Brawl main	Diddy Kong
Smash 4 mains	Diddy Kong, Pikachu
Ultimate mains	Roy, Pokémon Trainer
Other Ultimate characters	Chrom, Wolf, Pichu
Project M mains	Captain Falcon, Fox, Zero Suit Samus
Other Project M character	Mewtwo
Team info
Sponsor(s)	Team SoloMid, Red Bull
Rankings and results info
Most recent ranking	2018 MPGR: 3rd
Winnings	~$125,021.09
Personal and other info
Real name	William Hjelte
Birth date	October 16, 1994
Location	Stockholm
Miscellaneous info
Skill	Top professional Professional (retired) Top professional Top professional (retired)

Leffen is a professional smasher from Stockholm, Sweden. He is currently considered to be one of the best Melee players in the world along with Hungrybox, Armada, Mango, Mew2King, and Plup. He started off as a Falco main, but later switched to Fox, and is now known as one of the most technical Fox players in the world and the best Fox player in the world. He is the first of only two players in competitive Melee history to have taken a set off of each of the Five Gods (the other being Plup), and has often been called a god himself since his ascent in 2014. Leffen is ranked 2nd on the European Melee Power Rankings and 3rd on the 2018 MPGR.

Tournament history

Early career

Leffen's introduction to Smash was through Brawl, which he played online in 2009.

In 2010, he started attending tournaments for Melee. He mained Falco and also trained a Yoshi secondary, which he used to great success at Stockholm locals and at Danish events.

Leffen's first stateside outing was at GENESIS 2. After defeating SFAT in pools, he went on to lose to SFAT and S2J in bracket to place 17th.

Apex 2012 was Leffen's first serious event as a Fox main. Leffen reached bracket, then lost a last-hit set to Mew2King in winners. He went on to lose his next set to Teczer0.

Throughout the course of 2012, Leffen established himself as Europe's second strongest player, with key results at Smashers' Reunion: Melee Grande and at hf.lan 4. He sparred often with Armada, making headway but never taking a set. He came closest at an unrecorded local in December, where he was leading winners' finals 3-2 (in a best-of-7) and brought the sixth game to last stock before Armada clutched out the victory, going on to win the set 4-3.

At Apex 2013, Leffen defeated MacD and Cactuar in winners to meet Hungrybox. He made a splash by bringing Hungrybox to last hit, but would lose this set as well. This close loss would go on to inspire a Salty Suite rematch the following year. In losers, Leffen immediately lost another last-hit set, this time to JAVI, who himself had dropped into losers early due to a pools loss to ESAM.

Soon thereafter, Leffen was banned from many European tournaments by a group of organizers and Smashers, largely led by Armada (discussed in greater detail here). He attended only three more events for the rest of the year. He traveled to Evo 2013, defeating PewPewU before losing again to Hungrybox, this time without taking a game, and to Shroomed in losers to place 9th. He and Ice scored an upset victory in doubles against eventual victors Mew2King and Hungrybox; the European team would go on to place 5th.

Leffen also attended a NYC local in September called CFST: Warzone 2 where he suffered unusual losses to MattDotZeb and G$, perhaps due to lack of practice. He finished out the year at the French hf.lan 6 where he placed second, defeating Baxon and Salepate convincingly before losing two close sets to Ice. Given his powerful play despite his scarce results, Leffen was ranked 14th on the 2013 SSBMRank.

Leffen's ban ended early in 2014, allowing him to compete in Europe again.

Emergence as a top 6 player

On day 1 at Apex 2014, Leffen and Hungrybox played in a Salty Suite set, which Hungrybox won 3-1. In bracket, Leffen defeated Darrell, Scar, and Axe before finally taking revenge on Hungrybox 2-1 in winners' quarters to reach top 8 and earn his first win over one of "the Five Gods". He went on to lose to Mew2King 1-3 in winners' semis. He eliminated Colbol 2-0 in losers' quarters, and then had a close and intense set with Mango in losers' semis, but was ultimately eliminated 2-3. This 4th place showing immediately confirmed Leffen as a player to watch for the rest of the year and would presage his ascent to godhood.

Leffen won his first European national at B.E.A.S.T 4, which was also his first European tournament after his ban was lifted. He lost to Ice 2-3 in winners' semis, but then eliminated Fuzzyness 3-0 in losers' quarters, Overtriforce 3-1 in losers' semis, and Ice 3-2 in a rematch in losers' finals. In grand finals, he managed to win two sets against Armada, 3-0 and 3-1, respectively. This marked his second "god" victory. Later, Leffen won Republic of Fighters 3, qualifying for the MLG Anaheim 2014 championship bracket. He defeated Ice 3-1 in winners' semis, but lost to Armada 0-3 in winners' finals. After eliminating aMSa 3-2 in losers' finals, he came back and won 6-0 against Armada in two best of 5 sets.

In his pool at MLG Anaheim 2014, Leffen defeated PPMD 3-2 (the third "god" he had beaten), Axe 3-1, Colbol 3-1, s0ft 3-0, and Remen 3-0, but lost to Mew2King 1-3 and Hax 2-3. Seeded in losers' bracket in the championship bracket, he defeated both Westballz and Hax 3-2, before losing to PPMD 1-3 in losers' quarters, placing 5th overall. At EVO 2014, Leffen defeated Lambchops 2-1, OkamiBW 2-0, and S2J 2-0 in the winners' quarters pools, but lost to Mew2King 0-2. In losers' bracket, he was eliminated by Silent Wolf 1-2, finishing off at an underwhelming 9th place overall.

At COMEBACK I, Leffen defeated Android 3-0 in winners' semis to make it to winners' finals against Armada, in which he lost 1-3. After defeating Android 3-1 in losers' finals, he lost again to Armada in grand finals, this time 2-3, placing 2nd in Melee singles. Leffen also won Melee doubles with Beat, defeating Dev and Kuja 3-1 in winners' semis, Android and Zoler 3-1 in winners' finals, and Armada and C 3-1 in grand finals.

At The Big House 4, Leffen defeated Hungrybox 3-2 in winners' quarters to advance to winners' semis. He then faced off against Armada in another close set, ultimately managing to clench out a victory 3-2 and advance to winners' finals for the first time at an American national. However, he lost 0-3 to Mew2King in winners' finals and 1-3 to Mango in losers' finals, with a 4-stock by Mango to close out the set.

At B.E.A.S.T 5, Leffen managed to solidly defeat Armada 3-1 in winners' semis to advance to winners' finals. He managed to take his first victory over Mango in a 3-2 set to advance to grand finals, where he would once again face Armada. Despite a closely fought set from both players (with Armada notably 4-stocking Leffen in game 4), Leffen managed to win grand finals 3-2, earning his first national victory with at least two of the "gods" present.

After this 1st place finish at a major, there was one achievement left before Leffen could indisputably be considered in the same tier as the "gods": defeating Mew2King, the only one he had not beaten.

This set the stage for Apex 2015, the largest Melee tournament in history at the time, where all five "gods" were present, and where Leffen and Mew2King were seeded to play in winners' quarterfinals. After beating Larry Lurr and aMSa in top 48, Leffen made it to Mew2King. In a momentous 2-1 victory, including a dominant 3-stock on game 3, Leffen defeated Mew2King, becoming the first player to take a tournament set from all five "gods" of Melee. He then went on to face Mango in winners' semifinals; Leffen beat Mango once again, 3-1, to advance to winners' finals and prove that his previous victory was no fluke. Looking poised to take the tournament, Leffen then fell to PPMD 2-3 and Armada 1-3, earning 3rd place. He outplaced three of the five "gods" and cemented himself as one of what was now the "top six," a player able to beat any other Melee player and take major tournaments. As the "Five Gods" is a historical term, the community gave Leffen the title of "Godslayer."

Leffen continued to develop as a top-level threat. At CEO 2015, Leffen earned 1st in singles--his first American national victory. He had a close set with Plup in winners' quarters but ultimately won 2-1, and proceeded to sweep the rest of the tournament, beating Shroomed 3-0 and Armada twice in winners' finals and grand finals; each set was 3-0 and 3-1, respectively. In doubles, Leffen teamed with Hungrybox, placing 2nd; they had managed to trade sets with PewPewU and SFAT and take a set off of Armada and Shroomed, but they ultimately lost a close second set 2-3.

At FC Smash 15XR: Return, Leffen earned 1st in singles. He defeated Swedish Delight 3-0 in winners' quarters, he then beat Hungrybox 3-1 in winners' semis and Armada 3-1 in winners' finals, including a 4-stock in game 1 on Final Destination. In grand finals; he met Hungrybox once again and beat him 3-1.

Leffen once again got first place at WTFox singles, including an impressive 3-0 victory over Mang0's Falco in grand finals, making three consecutive first place finishes in singles. At this point, Leffen looked dominant--a favorite to take future major tournaments.

However, he failed to repeat this success at EVO 2015, being sent into losers by Hungrybox, and then eliminated at 5th place by Plup's Samus.

At Super Smash Con 2015, Leffen bounced back and took first place once again in singles, beating Mew2King 6-1 collectively in winners' finals and grand finals. Mew2King answered back in their next meeting at PAX Prime 2015, where Mew2King took the tournament with a collective 6-0 victory over Leffen.

Leffen once again failed to capture first place at Paragon Los Angeles 2015, being sent to losers by Mew2King, and being eliminated by Hungrybox, ending another tournament run at 5th place.

At HTC Throwdown, Leffen made it to Grand Finals from the winners side, where he defeated Hungrybox in grand finals 3-0.

Leffen's reign of dominance was cut short, however. He was unable to enter The Big House 5, Smash Summit, GENESIS 3, Battle of the Five Gods, and Smash Summit 2 due to international visa issues. Furthermore, he was denied a worker's visa from the United States, primarily for reasons that question Melee's legitimacy as a sport. The video showing the rejection letter started a movement to reverse the decision. Eventually, Leffen came to be temporarily allowed into the USA up until and throughout July 2016, tentatively letting him attend EVO 2016.[1] Due to his visa going through additional processing resulting from his deportation from the US however, Leffen was ultimately unable to attend EVO 2016.

During his American visa issues, he notably won Melee singles at Get On My Level 2016, after beating Mew2King 3-2, Armada 3-1, Hungrybox 3-2, and Mango 3-1 without losing a set.

Leffen's visa was finally accepted on October 3rd, 2016, allowing him to compete in the US again. Since then, he has remained a steady top-level threat, but has not reached the same dominance as in 2015 before his visa issues.

After many years of coming close to the top and failing in the Evolution Championship Series, Leffen finally took 1st place in the Grand Finals of EVO 2018 for Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Other Smash games

Leffen also played Project M at a high level for a while, and was known as one of the best players of Captain Falcon, Fox, and Zero Suit Samus.

Leffen has occasionally played Smash 4, and notably pioneered the usage of Diddy Kong's up throw to up air combo.

Leffen often streams Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, pioneering tech for Pokémon Trainer and offering his own opinion on the meta. He himself had also used Pokémon Trainer in a few tournaments, including Valhalla II and GENESIS 6, where he placed 7th and 17th, respectively, and defeated players such as Seagull Joe and WaDi. Despite all of this success, Leffen had since dropped Pokémon Trainer in favor of Roy and Wolf, citing that Pokémon Trainer was not worth the effort.

Playing style

Leffen is the best Fox main in the world. He has solid fundamentals in all aspects of the game, using a methodical and efficient approach, making him a very well-rounded player. Leffen has a great neutral game, as he rarely overextends or overreaches in games, and has excellent movement. He is also known for his heavy combo game, especially on fast fallers, and has one of the most potent Foxes in the Fox ditto and the Falco matchup. Leffen is also very consistent, and rarely drops tech skill inputs. While Leffen is well-rounded, he undoubtedly focuses on the mental game and adaptation more than technical play. Leffen has once stated in an interview that he believes many high-level players are held back by "flowchart" behavior that he is able to exploit. This is clearly exemplified by his ability to clutch out sets; Leffen has made many match-winning reversals from 0-2 deficits. He is very adept at using all of the tools available to him in any given situation. He is also considered a master in the Fox-Peach matchup, as Armada opts to play Leffen in the Fox ditto instead of his optimized Peach.

However, Leffen is known to have slight trouble against punish-heavy players, although this has been dramatically improved over time. Despite his strong fundamentals, he struggles if his opponent can consistently put him in a punish, as his ability to negate the effectiveness of opponents' punish games is not as strong as that of players such as Mango and Hungrybox. Because of this, he has dropped sets to punish-heavy players, such as Silent Wolf, Westballz, and Ice, and for a long time, was unable to defeat Mew2King. Despite his strong mental game, especially in sets where he can secure an early lead, Leffen often struggles in last stock situations especially if he had a large stock lead earlier that game. Leffen was also noted to be fairly poor at the Samus matchup, having, at one point, losing records with HugS and Duck, both of whom are considered far below his skill level. He has also lost three times to Plup in solo Samus sets. However, since 2018, Leffen has not lost a set against solo Samus. Along with Armada, he practices with Snowy for the Jigglypuff matchup, and has flown him out to events such as Summit in order to prepare for facing Hungrybox in bracket.

Tournament placings

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Tournament	Date	1v1 Placement	2v2 Placement	Partner
STIIG	July 13th-20th, 2010	9th	4th	AJP
SKN2	October 8th-10th, 2010	7th	7th	AJP
B.E.A.S.T	January 7th-9th, 2011	9th	13th	AJP
SKN3	February 11th-13th, 2011	3rd	3rd	AJP
Beauty	April 15th-17th, 2011	3rd	5th	AJP
Tampora 2	April 29th-May 1st, 2011	2nd	3rd	AJP
Beauty 2	May 2nd-5th, 2011	2nd	2nd	AJP
GENESIS 2	July 15th-17th, 2011	17th	13th	AJP
B.E.A.S.T II	August 10th-14th, 2011	4th	5th	AJP
Tampora 3	November 25th-27th, 2011	4th	3rd	Zoler
Beauty 3	December 2nd-4th, 2011	2nd	2nd	Zoler
Apex 2012	January 6th-8th, 2012	33rd	25th	Zoler
Gamers Meetup STHLM	February 18th-19th, 2012	2nd	1st	Fuzzyness
Epita Smash Arena 5	April 20th-23rd, 2012	5th	2nd	Fuzzyness
Haags Kwartiertje 6	June 16th, 2012	4th	4th	Beat
Smashers' Reunion: Melee Grande	July 13th-15th, 2012	3rd	2nd	Dr. PeePee
King Funk's Castle II: Måske	October 4th-7th, 2012	3rd	2nd	Ice
hf.lan 4	December 1st-2nd, 2012	2nd	3rd	NMW
Apex 2013	January 11th-13th, 2013	17th	5th	Ice
EVO 2013	July 12th-14th, 2013	9th	5th	Ice
hf.lan 6	December 14th-15th, 2013	2nd	1st	Ice
Apex 2014	January 17th-19th, 2014	4th	9th	Dr. PeePee
B.E.A.S.T 4	February 12th-16th, 2014	1st	2nd	Ice
Republic of Fighters 3	May 17th-18th, 2014	1st	2nd	Fuzzyness
MLG Anaheim 2014	June 20th-22nd, 2014	5th	5th	Hax
EVO 2014	July 11th-13th, 2014	9th	3rd	Ice
COMEBACK I	August 1st-3rd, 2014	2nd	1st	Beat
Hit & Stun Tournament 2	September 6th-7th, 2014	3rd	2nd	Ice
Beauty 8	September 12th-14th, 2014	2nd	1st	Professor Pro
The Big House 4	October 4th-5th, 2014	3rd	3rd	Hax
Smashsätra	October 11th, 2014	1st	—	—
DrømmeLAN 4.0	November 7th-9th, 2014	2nd	2nd	Ice
hf.lan 8	November 22nd-23rd, 2014	1st	1st	Ice
Beauty 9	December 5th-7th, 2014	2nd	2nd	Pop
B.E.A.S.T 5	January 9th-11th, 2015	1st	2nd	Ice
Paragon Orlando 2015	January 17th-18th, 2015	3rd	3rd	MacD
Apex 2015	January 30th-February 1st, 2015	3rd	3rd	Ice
Cannes Winter Clash	February 27th-March 1st, 2015	1st	—	—
NeoNebulous 7	March 28th, 2015	1st	1st	G$
Beauty 10	April 2nd-6th, 2015	2nd	2nd	Professor Pro
I'm Not Yelling!	April 11th-12th, 2015	3rd	1st	MacD
MVG Sandstorm	April 18th-19th, 2015	5th	1st	MacD
DrømmeLAN 4.5	April 24th-26th, 2015	2nd	2nd	Fuzzyness
Press Start	May 9th-10th, 2015	9th	2nd	MacD
Headstomper '15	May 16th, 2015	1st	1st	King Funk
Battle Arena Melbourne 7	May 22nd-24th, 2015	2nd	1st	Blue2ez
CEO 2015	June 26th-28th, 2015	1st	2nd	Hungrybox
FC Smash 15XR: Return	July 4th-5th, 2015	1st	—	—
WTFox	July 10th-11th, 2015	1st	2nd	Mango
EVO 2015	July 17th-19th, 2015	5th	—	—
Super Smash Con	August 6th-9th, 2015	1st	1st	MacD
Heir II the Throne	August 14th-16th, 2015	5th	2nd	Ice
PAX Prime 2015	August 28th-30th, 2015	2nd	1st	MacD
Paragon Los Angeles 2015	September 5th-6th, 2015	5th	—	—
HTC Throwdown	September 19th, 2015	1st	2nd	MacD
The Call of Ragnarok	September 26th-27th, 2015	1st	—	—
Eclipse	November 14th-15th, 2015	2nd	2nd	Ice
DreamHack Winter 2015	November 26th-29th, 2015	9th	5th	Ice
Kickstart 5	January 24th, 2016	1st	2nd	Professor Pro
B.E.A.S.T 6	February 19th-21st, 2016	2nd	1st	Ice
Kickstart 7	March 13th, 2016	1st	1st	Lamp
HFLAN 12	April 9th-10th, 2016	1st	2nd	BrTarolg
The Come Up 2016	April 23rd-24th, 2016	1st	—	—
Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo	April 29th-May 1st, 2016	7th	2nd	Hungrybox
Battle of BC	May 14th, 2016	1st	—	—
Get On My Level 2016	May 20th-22nd, 2016	1st	3rd	Hungrybox
Headstomper '16	June 4th-5th, 2016	1st	–	–
DreamHack Summer 2016	June 18th-21st, 2016	1st	—	—
Monthly 6/28	June 28th, 2016	1st	—	—
Stockholm Weekly 8/8	August 8th, 2016	1st	—	—
Stockholm Weekly 9/13	September 13th, 2016	1st	—	—
Heir 3	August 19th-21st, 2016	7th	33rd (DQ)	Yabasta
The Big House 6	October 7th-9th, 2016	17th	—	—
Stockholm Weekly 10/18	October 18th, 2016	1st	—	—
Eclipse 2	October 21st-23rd, 2016	3rd	2nd	Ice
Stockholm Monthly 10/25	October 25th, 2016	1st	—	—
Smash Summit 3	November 3rd-6th, 2016	9th	3rd	Mafia
DreamHack Winter 2016	November 24th-27th, 2016	3rd	—	—
UGC Smash Open	December 2nd-4th, 2016	4th	2nd	Ice
Don't Park on the Grass	December 17th-18th, 2016	1st	2nd	Ice
GENESIS 4	January 20th-22nd, 2017	5th	2nd	Ice
LanETS 2017	February 11th-12th, 2017	1st	1st	KirbyKaze
B.E.A.S.T 7	February 17th-19th, 2017	2nd	2nd	Ice
Smash Summit Spring 2017	March 2nd-5th, 2017	3rd	2nd	Ice
Full Bloom 3	March 25th, 2017	9th	5th	Ice
DreamHack Austin 2017	April 28th-30th, 2017	7th	—	—
Royal Flush	May 12th-14th, 2017	5th	2nd	Ice
Smash 'N' Splash 3	June 2nd-4th, 2017	2nd	—	—
DreamHack Summer 2017	June 17th-18th, 2017	2nd	—	—
Smash @ Power 9 #39	July 6th, 2017	1st	—	—
GENESIS: RED	July 9th, 2017	—	1st	Ice
EVO 2017	July 14th-16th, 2017	9th	—	—
FUSE	July 16th, 2017	—	7th	Ice
Get On My Level 2017	July 30th, 2017	1st	1st	Ice
Super Smash Con 2017	August 10th-13th, 2017	9th	—	—
Heir 4	August 17th-21st, 2017	1st	—	—
Shine 2017	August 25th-27th, 2017	5th	3rd	Ice
GameTyrant Expo 2017	September 29th-October 1st, 2017	13th	—	—
The Big House 7	October 6th-8th, 2017	3rd	—	—
Canada Cup 2017	October 28th-30th, 2017	2nd	1st	Mew2King
Smash Summit 5	November 2nd-5th, 2017	3rd	1st	Armada
DreamHack Winter 2017	December 2nd-3rd, 2017	3rd	—	—
Valhalla	January 4th-8th, 2018	1st	—	—
GENESIS 5	January 19th-21st, 2018	3rd	—	—
Phoenix Blue	February 22nd-24th, 2018	2nd	—	—
The Mango	March 18th, 2018	13th	—	—
Full Bloom 4	March 24th-25th, 2018	3rd	—	—
Ventus	April 14th, 2018	1st	1st	Beat
Flatiron 3	April 21st, 2018	1st	—	—
Smash Summit 6	May 3rd-6th, 2018	5th	1st	Armada
King of Nordic: Super Smash Bros. Melee @ Birdie	May 10th-13th, 2018	1st	1st	Beat
Smash 'N' Splash 4	June 1st-3rd, 2018	3rd	—	—
Low Tier City 6	July 27th-29th, 2018	2nd	—	—
EVO 2018	August 3rd-5th, 2018	1st	—	—
Super Smash Con 2018	August 10th-13th, 2018	65th (DQ)	—	—
Heir 5	August 17th-19th, 2018	1st	—	—
The Big House 8	October 5th-7th, 2018	5th	—	—
Red Bull EWKND	November 1st-3rd, 2018	1st	—	—
The Mang0: Homecoming	November 10th-11th, 2018	1st	—	—
Smash Summit 7	November 15th-18th, 2018	2nd	5th	Mango
DreamHack Winter 2018	December 1st-2nd, 2018	1st	—	—
GENESIS 6	February 1st-3rd, 2019	129th (DQ)	—	—

Project M

Tournament	Date	1v1 Placement	2v2 Placement	Partner
GENESIS 2	July 15th-17th, 2011	3rd	—	—
King Funk's Castle II: Måske	October 4th-7th, 2012	2nd	1st	Fuzzyness
Apex 2014	January 17th-19th, 2014	9th	—	—
B.E.A.S.T 4	February 12th-16th, 2014	3rd	—	—
COMEBACK I	August 1st-3rd, 2014	2nd	—	—
Hit & Stun Tournament 2	September 6th-7th, 2014	2nd	—	—
Beauty 8	September 12th-14th, 2014	3rd	—	—
The Big House 4	October 4th-5th, 2014	33rd	—	—
DrømmeLAN 4.0	November 7th-9th, 2014	2nd	—	—
hf.lan 8	November 22nd-23rd, 2014	1st	—	—
B.E.A.S.T 5	January 9th-11th, 2015	4th	—	—
Beauty 10	April 2nd-6th, 2015	1st	—	—
DrømmeLAN 4.5 All-Star	April 24th-26th, 2015	1st	—	—
Paragon Los Angeles 2015	September 5th-6th, 2015	49th (DQ)	17th	Professor Pro

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
DrømmeLAN 4.0	November 7th-9th, 2014	1st	—	—

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Beauty 9	December 5th-7th, 2014	1st	—	—
B.E.A.S.T 5	January 9th-11th, 2015	3rd	—	—
Paragon Orlando 2015	January 17th-18th, 2015	9th	—	—
DrømmeLAN 4.5	April 24th-26th, 2015	1st	—	—

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Valhalla II	January 3rd-7th 2019	7th	—	—
GENESIS 6	February 1st-3rd, 2019	17th	—	—
Ultimate Nimbus	March 3rd, 2019	9th	—	—
Smash Ultimate Summit	March 8th-10th, 2019	9th	—	—
2GG: Prime Saga	April 13th-14th, 2019	49th	—	—

Controversy

Despite being considered one of the best professional smashers in Melee, Leffen has led a controversial career as a smasher, due to his previously rude conduct during and outside of tournaments. Several players, most of which were new smashers to the scene, accused him of:

• deliberately sandbagging in pools by playing low tier characters while insulting his opponent's skill throughout and after the match.
• spreading exaggerated rumors about others, making rude and provocative comments on SmashBoards, and deliberately starting arguments with users.
• further blaming other people when confronted about his actions, using his status as a top professional player to decrease his punishments.

After noticing his poor behavior, Swedish tournament organizers and other Melee professionals of his caliber gave him repeated warnings concerning his attitude. In August 2012, Leffen was eventually threatened with a ban from tournaments if he did not improve his attitude, but he did not take the claim seriously. This led to further discussions among the European Smash community that culminated in his national ban from Swedish tournaments, effective February 9th, 2013.

The discussion group announcing his ban compiled a significant amount of evidence of his poor behavior into a downloadable archive, and demanded that Leffen create a lengthy apology about all of his wrongdoings and how he would change his behavior in the future, should he return to the community. On March 21st, 2013, Leffen made his public statement asking for forgiveness; despite this, he was not immediately unbanned, and ended up missing almost one year's worth of local tournaments. On January 24th, 2014, it was announced by Armada that the Swedish ban on Leffen was no longer in place [2]. His conduct since then has since improved dramatically, but he still remains a relatively controversial figure in the community, especially on social media sites such as Reddit and Twitter, due to his blunt comments.

At Heir II the Throne, Leffen was banned from commentary on all future European Smash Circuit events for saying that it wasn't a "serious" tournament and players were playing their secondaries and not trying. Leffen notably compared the tournament to The Foundry, a series notorious for its relaxed and non-competitive atmosphere. Many argued that the TOs had overreacted in their decision, and that a full ban was an excessively harsh punishment.

During top 8 of Shine 2017, ChuDat narrowly beat Leffen 3-2 getting a reverse 3-0 on him, ending Leffen's run at 7th. It was later discovered that the set had been played on vanilla Melee instead of with UCF enabled, a mod designed to make shield dropping and dash back consistent rather then RNG based. The set would be controversially replayed, resulting in a 2-3 victory for Leffen, ending ChuDat's run at 7th. Leffen would receive backlash from this, although the decision had been made by the Shine TOs; many agreed that Leffen should not have received such negative attention for the ruling, as the TOs had created the situation by failing to check that UCF was turned on.

Trivia

• Outside of Smash, Leffen formerly was a professional Dragon Ball FighterZ player, being arguably the best DBFZ player in Europe, and is currently ranked 14th on the Panda Global Rankings Z. He frequently streams Dragon Ball FighterZ and entered multiple Dragon Ball tournaments, placing very well. He has retired from competing in the game, citing Toei’s meddling in tournaments, and Arc System Works' way of patching as the two reasons he does not enjoy the game anymore.
  • Leffen is currently the only Smash player to have been invited to a non-Smash-related Summit event (Summit of Power).
• At Apex 2015, Leffen defeated Mew2King in tournament for the first time in his career, which marked Leffen as the first player to have won at least one tournament set against each of The Five Gods. He would remain the only player to hold this distinction until Plup defeated Armada at The Big House 7.
• Leffen has an even record against Mango (11-11).
• At Apex 2015's Salty Suite exhibition, Leffen won a $100 money match 5-0 against Chillin in Fox dittos; Chillin was also forbidden from using Fox's default costume in future tournaments. However, at The Big House 6, Leffen allowed Chillin to use the costume again.
  • After Leffen won EVO 2018, Chillin tweeted out that "Leffen confirmed no longer has to show his elders some respect"
• Leffen is commonly considered a villain in the Smash community due to his reportedly rude behavior and trash-talk. He claimed that he enjoys his given title due to the community's need of someone to root against, although a controversy exists over whether he should embrace it or not.
  • Ironically, his surname is Swedish for "hero".
• At FC Smash 15XR: Return, Leffen became the first player to four stock Armada in bracket, in game 1 of winners finals on Final Destination. He would repeat this feat at Smash 'N' Splash 4 in game 4 of winners semis on Yoshi's Story to close out the set, marking only the second time Armada has been four-stocked in bracket.
• Leffen, along with Tafokints, holds the title of the most money won in a single money match, a title which he earned at Apex 2015 when he defeated Mango in a $1,000 money match. At DreamHack Winter 2015, he defeated SFAT 5-1 in another $1,000 money match.
• Leffen decided not to compete seriously at The Big House 6; he instead used his secondaries Falco and Marth to place 17th, losing to Gahtzu and Swedish Delight.
• Leffen donated the prize money he won at B.E.A.S.T 7 to multiple charities.
• Leffen is infamous for a spate of losses against Samus players HugS, Plup, and Duck in 2015 and 2016 after having mocked Chillin's losses to the same character on Twitter.
• Leffen is sometimes referred to by his nicknames Big Leff or Yung Leff. When he is losing in tournament, he may also, by effect, be referred to as Small Leff or Minuscule Leff.
  • He has also been referred to these names by Dragon Ball FighterZ commentators.

External links

• Twitter account
• Twitch channel
• YouTube channel