Smasher:Azen

Azen Zagenite "Azen"
Character info
Melee main	Marth
Other Melee characters	Falco, Sheik, Captain Falcon, Fox, Peach
Brawl main	Lucario
Other Brawl character	Diddy Kong
Smash 4 main	Lucario
Project M mains	Marth, Roy
Other Project M character	Falco
Team info
Former crews	H2YL
Rankings and results info
Winnings	~$18,990.20
Personal and other info
Real name	Christopher McMullen
Birth date	December 20, 1986
Location	Alexandria, Virginia
Miscellaneous info
Skill	Top professional Professional (retired) Professional

Azen Zagenite ("AS"-in- ZAY-"jen"-nite) or just Azen, is an American professional smasher who mains Marth (and formerly Sheik) in Melee and Lucario in both Brawl and SSB4. Although he primarily used Marth and Sheik in Melee tournaments, Azen was known for his ability to use multiple characters at the competitive level, leading some to call him The Master of Diversity and similar nicknames. He is currently ranked 18th on the MD/VA/DE Melee Power Rankings.

Tournament history

2003-2006: Rise to fame

Azen legitimized himself to the community at large by placing fourth at Tournament Go 5 in August 2003. Shortly after, Azen placed 2nd at Game Over, defeating Chillin and Isai to make it to grand finals before losing to Ken in both sets of grand finals, and 2nd at MELEE-FC1, where he once again lost to Ken in grand finals. Azen's first national victory occurred in August 2004 at Tournament Go 6, where he defeated Captain Jack twice to claim victory. Throughout 2005, he placed 3rd at Gettin' Schooled 2, 9th at MELEE-FC3, 2nd at BOMB 4, and 2nd at MLG Atlanta 2005.

Azen placed 4th in singles at MLG Chicago 2006, and managed to win doubles with Chillin, defeating Mew2King and KoreanDJ in winners' finals and then shocking the community by taking out the largely dominant team of Ken and Isai in grand finals. Later, Azen was then victorious at MLG Orlando 2006, where he defeated PC Chris, Drephen, ChuDat, KoreanDJ, and ChuDat again in grand finals to take the tournament without dropping a set. Azen then proceeded to win MLG New York Playoffs 2006, defeating Ken, KoreanDJ, and PC Chris twice, successfully qualifying for the MLG 2006 Championships. He eventually placed 5th at MLG Las Vegas 2006, where he defeated ChuDat in a rematch from MLG Orlando in losers' top 8, but lost to PC Chris in winners' bracket and then to Ken in losers' quarters.

2007-2011: Brawl career and retirement

Throughout 2007-early 2008, Azen continued to place highly at Melee nationals, placing 9th at Super Champ Combo, 1st at Viva La Smashtaclysm, where he defeated KoreanDJ, PC Chris, and ChuDat twice, and 7th at Pound 3. In March 2009, he attended Revival of Melee, and placed 7th.

Azen picked up Brawl on its release and attended several early nationals. He played numerous characters at a high level, but was most well-known for his Lucario. He was considered the top Lucario player in Brawl's early metagame, and it is largely a result of Azen's dominance that Lucario was considered a high tier character in Brawl's early metagame. During his time in Brawl, Azen placed 2nd at Critical Hit 3, defeating DieSuperFly 2-0 before losing to Mew2King in grand finals, 2nd at Cataclysm 4, where he became the first player to knock Ally out of losers' bracket, and 17th at Clash of the Titans IV. He is also the first player to have won a large tournament with Lucario (C3 tournament), where he defeated Korn 3-1 in grand finals.

Azen temporarily retired from competitive Smash in August 2009, claiming that he lost interest due to most of his friends no longer playing the game. He then made his first Smash tournament appearance in over a year at Pound V in February 2011, where he reached 49th place in Melee singles and 9th place in Melee doubles with longtime doubles partner Chillin. Around this time, both Azen and Chillin stated that they had become active in the Melee scene again, though neither was as prolific as prior to their retirements.

2014-2015: Return to the Smash scene and SSB4 career

In April 2014, the trailer for the Melee and Project M event Bar Wars: The Region Strikes Back featured clips of Azen towards the end, with Chillin claiming that Azen would return to the Melee scene at the event. However, Azen did not actually show up at the event. Two months later, Chillin once again stated that Azen would be returning to the Melee scene at the 6/3 weekly edition of the event Smash @ Xanadu. Azen indeed showed up at this event, and won Melee singles in a dominant fashion, defeating Chillin, ChuDat, and DP. He also placed 9th in Project M singles. Azen has since attended a handful of local tournaments in his area, and also placed 5th in Melee singles at the 8/19 weekly edition of Smash @ Xanadu.

On May 28, 2015 Azen announced on Chillindude's twitch stream that he would make another return to the Melee scene. On the stream, it was confirmed that Azen would go to EVO 2015 if a donation goal was met. The following day Azen confirmed with his first post on his twitter account that the goal had been met. Another donation goal was set for Azen to attend CEO 2015, and that donation goal was met as well.

Azen has also entered some SSB4 tournaments as well, where he mantains Lucario like in Brawl. His most notable result is Super Smash Con, where he placed 17th on the fourth largest SSB4 tournament, with 744 entrants.

Playing style

In Melee, Azen mains Marth, and formerly mained Sheik as well; despite this, he can play nearly every character in the game at a high level. In some tournaments, Azen has used Samus, Link, and Pikachu in order to place high, while other characters have been used in lower-stakes matches. In doubles, Azen still often uses Marth and Sheik, though he had been known to use Peach and Falco in some doubles matches.

In Brawl and SSB4, Azen mains Lucario.

The "Azendash"

Despite considerable fame surrounding Azen as a smasher, as well as his ability to use multiple characters, Azen's longest-lasting contribution to the community is the use of his gamertag in the farcical term "Azendash".

The Azendash.

In a match against Captain Jack, Azen (as Marth) held a slight advantage over Captain Jack (as Sheik); both had three stock, but Jack had in excess of 100% damage, while Azen had less than 40% damage. In an attempt to immediately backtrack onto the ledge in response to being thrown off the stage, Azen recovered with Dolphin Slash, then immediately tried to ledgedash, in what could be considered a relatively basic manuver. Azen, however, botched the manuver and ended up airdodging down and away from the ledge, causing him to self-destruct. Following this error, Azen ended up losing to Jack by two stocks. The match was of particular note because of how it was the last match of a set; because of his error, Azen was seen as having blown his only chance at advancing in the tournament.

As a result of Azen's critical error, the act of airdodging off an edge in an attempt to edgehog came to be referred to as an "Azendash".

Notable tournament placings

Melee

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
DCSS #1	July 12th, 2003	1st	—	—
Tournament Go 5	August 2nd-3rd, 2003	4th	—	—
DCSS #2	September 20th, 2003	1st	1st	Anden
Live or Die	August 23rd, 2003	1st	—	—
Game Over	January 10th, 2004	2nd	2nd	Anden
MELEE-FC1	July 10th-11th, 2004	2nd	2nd	Dave
MLG Atlanta 2004	July 24th-25th, 2004	1st	1st	Chillin
Tournament Go 6	August 21st-22nd, 2004	1st	2nd	Wes
DCSS #3	September 25th, 2004	1st	1st	Mild
MLG Boston 2004	October 9th-10th, 2004	1st	1st	Wes
Gettin' Schooled	October 14th, 2004	1st(tie)	1st	Wes
MLG New York 2004	October 24th, 2004	4th	2nd	Wes
Gettin' Schooled 2	June 25th-26th, 2005	3rd	5th	Wes
MELEE-FC3	July 10th-12th, 2005	9th	7th	Caveman
MLG Philadelphia 2005	July 28th-30th, 2005	13th	2nd	Husband
MLG Nashville 2005	August 27th-28th, 2005	4th	1st	Husband
MLG Seattle 2005	September 10th-11th, 2005	1st	2nd	Husband
SMYM 4	September 24th, 2005	1st	—	—
MLG Los Angeles 2005	October 14th-16th, 2005	5th	2nd	ChuDat
BOMB 4	November 12th, 2005	2nd	9th	Anden
MLG Atlanta 2005	November 26th-27th, 2005	2nd	3rd	Oro
MLG New York 2005	February 25th-26th, 2006	9th	2nd	Chillin
MELEE-FC6	July 13th-15th, 2006	13th	2nd	Chillin
MLG Chicago 2006	July 21st-23rd, 2006	4th	1st	Chillin
MLG Orlando 2006	August 25th-27th, 2006	1st	2nd	Chillin
MLG New York Playoffs 2006	October 13th-15th, 2006	1st	1st	Chillin
MLG Las Vegas 2006	November 17th-19th, 2006	5th	5th	Chillin
EGL DC	January 20th, 2007	1st	4th	Kaiser GL
C3 Smash Battle	February 3rd, 2007	2nd	1st	ChuDat
C3 August Adios	August 18th, 2007	2nd	4th	Anden
C3 Smash Attack	September 22nd, 2007	2nd	1st	ChuDat
Super Champ Combo	September 29th-30th, 2007	9th	1st	Chillin
C3 A Tournament In October	October 20th, 2007	5th	1st	ChuDat
Viva La Smashtaclysm	November 10th-11th, 2007	1st	1st	Chillin
Pound 3	February 2nd-3rd, 2008	7th	1st	Mew2King
Revival of Melee	March 7th-8th, 2009	7th	7th	ChuDat
Zenith 2011	May 28th-29th, 2011	9th	5th	Chillin
Pound V	February 19th-21st, 2011	49th	9th	Chillin
Revival of Melee 4	November 19th-20th, 2011	7th	7th	Chillin
Apex 2012	January 6th-8th, 2012	49th	13th	Tope
Smash @ Xanadu Tuesday 6/3	June 3rd, 2014	1st	—	—
Smash @ Xanadu Tuesday 8/19	August 19th, 2014	5th	—	—
Smash @ Clarendon 8/29/14	August 29th, 2014	5th	—	—
Smash @ Xanadu Tuesday 9/2	September 2nd, 2014	7th	—	—
Defend This House	June 13th, 2015	9th	1st	Chillin
CEO 2015	June 26th-28th, 2015	65th	9th	Chillin
EVO 2015	July 16th-18th, 2015	33rd	5th	Chillin
Super Smash Con	August 6th-9th, 2015	49th	9th	Chillin
Paragon Los Angeles 2015	September 5th-6th, 2015	49th	—	—

Brawl

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Critical Hit 3	July 5th, 2008	2nd	1st	Chillin
Critical Hit 4	September 6th, 2008	1st	1st	Mew2King
Cataclysm 4	January 9th-11th, 2009	2nd	1st	Mew2King
Clash of the Titans IV	February 7th-8th, 2009	17th	4th	ChuDat
C3 August Assault	August 15th, 2009	1st	1st	ChuDat

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Xanadu Smash 4 Invitational	November 6th, 2014	13th	—	—

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Super Smash Con	August 8th, 2015	17th	—	—

Trivia

• Azen is one of the four Marth players who has been able to take a set off of Fly Amanita's Ice Climbers, the others being PewPewU, Ken, and The Moon.

External links

• Azen Zagenite SmashBoards public profile