Smasher:Leffen

Leffen
RB TSM Leffen.jpg
Character info
Melee main	Fox
Other Melee characters	Falco, Mewtwo, Marth, Yoshi
Smash 4 mains	Diddy Kong, Pikachu
Project M mains	Captain Falcon, Fox, Zero Suit Samus
Other Project M character	Mewtwo
Team info
Sponsor(s)	Red Bull
Rankings and results info
Most recent ranking	Summer 2017 SSBMRank: 5th
Winnings	~$64,081.50
Personal and other info
Real name	William Hjelte
Birth date	October 16, 1994
Location	Stockholm
Miscellaneous info
Skill	Top professional Professional Top professional

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 Armada, Hungrybox, Mango, and Mew2King. 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. He is the only player in competitive Melee history to have taken a set off of each of the Five Gods and has often been called a god himself since his ascent in 2014. Leffen is ranked 2nd on the European Melee Power Rankings and 5th on the Summer 2017 SSBMRank.

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 would end early in 2013. Few Smashers knew how quickly he would rise after that.

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. 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 national at B.E.A.S.T 4, also his first 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. 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, 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 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 Game 4), Leffen managed to win grand finals 3-2, earning his first national victory with at least 2 of the "gods" present.

At CEO 2015, Leffen earned 1st in singles, making it 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 Leffen's favor. 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 once again 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.

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

At Super Smash Con, Leffen took first place once again in singles, beating Mew2King 6-1 in Winners Finals and Grand Finals.

However, an "upset" occured at PAX Prime 2015, where Mew2King avenged his loss at Smash Con in a 6-0 victory over Leffen.

Leffen once again failed to capture first place at Paragon Los Angeles 2015, being sent to loser's 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 Winner's side, defeating Hungrybox in Grand Finals 3-0.

Leffen 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 has started a movement to reverse the decision. Eventually, Leffen came to be temporarily allowed into the USA up until and throughout July 2016, letting him attend EVO 2016.[1] Due to his visa going through additional processing resulted from his deportation from the US however, Leffen was unable to attend EVO 2016. However, his visa was finally accepted on October 3rd, allowing him to compete in the US again.

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.

Other Smash games

Leffen also plays Project M at a top level, and is known as one of the best Captain Falcon, Fox, and Zero Suit Samus players.

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

Playing Style

Leffen is one of the top Melee Fox players 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. While he may not be as technical as other players, 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. Leffen is also noted to be fairly poor at the Samus matchup, having a 2-1 record with HugS and a 1-3 record with Duck, both of whom are considered far below his skill level. He has also lost twice to Plup in solo Samus sets.

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
Tampora 2	April 29th-May 1st, 2011	2nd	3rd	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-15th, 2017	9th	—	—
FUSE	July 16th, 2017	—	7th	Ice

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	—	—

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 lengthy online 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]. However, Leffen still remains a relatively controversial figure in the community, especially on social media such as Twitter and Facebook due to his blunt comments.

At European tournament 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.

Trivia

• At Apex 2015, Leffen defeated Mew2King in tournament for the first time in his career, which marked Leffen as the first, and currently only player, to have won at least one tournament set against each of The Five Gods.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

External links

• Twitter account
• Twitch channel
• YouTube channel