Smasher:Leffen
| Leffen | |
|---|---|
| leffen.jpg | |
| Character info | |
| Smash 64 main | Yoshi |
| Melee main | Fox |
| Other Melee characters | Falco, Yoshi, Marth |
| Brawl main | Lucario |
| Project M mains | Fox, Zero Suit Samus |
| Other Project M character | Falco |
| Personal and other info | |
| Real name | William Hjelte |
| Birth date | |
| Location | Stockholm 
|
| Miscellaneous info | |
| Skill |  Top professional  |
Leffen is a professional Smasher from Stockholm, Sweden. He started off as a Yoshi main, but later switched to Fox, and is now known as one of the most technical and powerful Fox mains in Sweden, and even in the world. He has managed to place very well in tournaments; he took 17th at Apex 2013, 9th place out of 709 entrants at EVO 2013 (currently the largest Melee tournament in the world), and 4th place at Apex 2014. At Apex 2014, Leffen defeated renowned smashers such as Hungrybox and Colbol before being eliminated by Mango in Losers' Semis. He is currently considered to be among the best European Melee players, along with Armada and Ice, and is commonly cited as the sixth best player in the world behind Armada and the four top players in the United States: PPMD, Mango, Mew2King, and Hungrybox.
Leffen won his first national at B.E.A.S.T 4, where he defeated Ice in losers' finals and Armada in two sets of grand finals after being knocked out of winners' bracket by Ice. Later, Leffen won Republic of Fighters 3, once again defeating Armada in two sets of grand finals. Leffen notably beat Armada 6-0 in grand finals, after previously being knocked out in winners' finals 3-0 by Armada.
Notable tournament placings
Melee
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 Placement | 2v2 Placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B.E.A.S.T | January 7th-9th, 2011 | 9th | 13th | AJP |
| B.E.A.S.T II | August 10th-14th, 2011 | 4th | 5th | AJP |
| Apex 2012 | January 6th-8th, 2012 | 33rd | 25th | Zoler |
| Epita Smash Arena 5 | April 20th-23rd, 2012 | 5th | 2nd | Fuzzyness |
| 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 | 1st | 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 |
Project M
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 Placement | 2v2 Placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | — | — |
Controversy
Despite being considered one of the best professional smashers in Melee, Leffen has led a controversial career as a smasher, stemming from his reportedly rude conduct during and outside of tournaments. When Leffen began playing Smash, many Smashers, especially those who were new to the scene, stated that Leffen deliberately sandbagged in tournaments by playing low tier characters (such as Yoshi and Pichu) against less-experienced players, but still often won, then insulted or berated the opponent for losing. Leffen also spread exaggerated rumors about other players, attempting to make other players question the competence of such opponents and make himself look better in comparison. He had also made rude and acerbic comments on friendly discussions in SmashBoards which further decreased his popularity amongst the competitive Melee community. Through this, a large amount of upstart Smashers in the Swedish scene wanted to quit almost immediately after their first tournament; many of these victims reported that they would have done so if not for the actions of friendlier professionals, such as Armada, who encouraged them to stay.
Leffen has also been controversial with veteran smashers. In a doubles match against Scar and SFAT in Apex 2013, he forced Scar to throw his last stock following two accidental pauses, resulting in outrage amongst the crowd. All of this controversy ultimately culminated in a significant outburst against him in the aforementioned tournament, where the American crowd infamously chanted "Leffen sucks!" during the USA versus The World crew battle, with the crowd also loudly cheering whenever he lost a stock against his opponent.
"Evidence.zip"
Leffen often evaded punishment for his actions by using his status as a top professional player to manipulate other players of his caliber into going easy on him. However, this behavior soon caught on, and Swedish tournament organizers and Melee professionals gave him a serious warning in August 2012, threatening to ban him from tournaments. Leffen did not take this seriously, claiming that it was "bullshit" that "would never go through in a million years"; after his public denouncement of the warning, some people said he had improved slightly, while many others claimed that he had actually worsened, continuing and expanding his negative behavior. On February 9th, 2013, after a lengthy online discussion about his poor behavior within the Melee community, Leffen was nationally banned from Swedish tournaments, and was later internationally banned in Finland. The collaborators put together a large list of unacceptable behaviors he was guilty of, including the aforementioned defamation and sandbagging, as proof for his ban, compiling many testimonies from the victims of his bullying and several of his acerbic Smashboards posts into a downloadable archive infamously known as "Evidence.zip." They stated that the only way Leffen's ban would be lifted was for him to create a lengthy apology stating everything he has done wrong in the past and how he will change the behavior in the future. On March 21st, 2013, shortly before B.E.A.S.T 3 (the first major tournament he was banned from), he did indeed make a public statement asking for forgiveness. Despite this, he was not immediately unbanned and ended up missing several months' worth of tournaments in his region.
On January 24th, 2014, it was announced by Armada that the Swedish ban on Leffen was no longer in place [1]. However, Leffen still remains a relatively controversial figure in the community, especially on social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
