Smasher:Salem
| Salem | |
|---|---|
| Salem.png | |
| Character info | |
| Brawl main | Zero Suit Samus |
| Other Brawl characters | Snake, Marth |
| Smash 4 main | Bayonetta |
| Other Smash 4 characters | Marth, Sheik, Zero Suit Samus, Villager, Robin, Lucina |
| Project M main | Zelda |
| Other Project M character | Zero Suit Samus |
| Team info | |
| Crew(s) | Most Valuable Gaming |
| Former crews | CLASH Tournaments |
| Rankings and results info | |
| Most recent ranking |  2014 SSBBRank: 18th  New Jersey Power Rankings: 5th |
| Winnings | ~$3,749.00 ~$1,172.13 |
| Personal and other info | |
| Real name | Saleem Akiel Young |
| Birth date | |
| Location | Atlantic City, New Jersey 
|
| Miscellaneous info | |
| Skill | Top professional Top professional  Top professional
|
Salem is an American smasher from New Jersey who mains Zero Suit Samus in Brawl, Zelda in Project M, and Bayonetta in Smash 4, and is considered to be the best Brawl Zero Suit Samus in the world, along with Choco from Japan. In Brawl, he became infamous for his incredible usage of Zero Suit Samus's Power Suit Pieces to rack up damage at the beginning of matches, and his surprising victory at Apex 2013, one of the most prestigious Brawl tournaments in the United States.
Salem is currently ranked 5th and 6th on the New Jersey Smash 4 Power Rankings and Tristate Brawl Power Rankings, respectively. Due to his aforementioned dominance at Apex 2013, he was signed in CLASH Tournaments as a top professional player.
He is considered to be the best Bayonetta main in the world, having taken sets off of players such as Nairo, Marss, Hyuga, Tweek, 6WX, Mr.E, Mew2King, Kameme, and Abadango. Salem is also one of the few players in the world to have taken a set off of ZeRo and the first to double eliminate him in tournament outside of Grand Finals.
Tournament history
Brawl
Before playing in the offline scene, he gained fame on the All is Brawl ladder as an incredible Wi-Fi player, dominating the ladder with Zero Suit Samus. When he finally did enter an offline tournament, he made a large splash in his offline debut and got 5th in his first tournament, Concentrate II, where he defeated Nicole, Jbandrew, Will, and Kingtoon. He made more news a few months later at Apex 2012; while he did not advance very far in bracket, placing only 33rd, he managed to take a set off of Nick Riddle, who was then considered to be the best Zero Suit Samus player in the USA.
Throughout 2012, Salem continued to enter tournaments and place well, but never actually won or gathered much public attention until a dominating performance at Apex 2013, where he came out of nowhere to take first place. In his march to victory, he defeated top players such as mikeHAZE, Mr. R, Otori (the Apex 2012 champion), Dojo, Mikeneko, and Mew2King in both winners' and grand finals, the latter of which has been considered to be one of the most intense sets witnessed in Brawl tournament play. In the grand finals set, both players took the other down to the last stock and last match, before Salem eventually won after a long, drawn-out war of attrition. This shocked the world, as he had not only won one of the most prestigious Brawl tournaments ever with a character who wasn't considered top tier, but had done so without winning any local tournaments in his region prior to the event.
At Apex 2014, Salem placed 1st in his pool by defeating Mekos, and defeated fellow Zero Suit Samus main V115 before losing to ESAM in winners'. He proceeded to defeat Pwii and Koolaid before losing to ADHD 1-2 in a close set, placing 9th overall and outplacing Nick Riddle once again.
Project M
Salem has dabbled with Project M maining Zelda. At Apex 2014 he made it into bracket, but lost to Eli right away. He then beat Vectorman before falling to Atomsk getting 33rd place. At SKTAR 3 he made a long run through losers beating Ringworm, NinjaLink, DA Wes, Internet Explorer, MVD, Porkchops, and Larry Lurr before losing to ZeRo to place in the top 16.
Smash 4
When Smash 4 came out Salem started playing Sheik as well as Zero Suit Samus. His first major Smash 4 tournament was at Apex 2015, but he didn't do well failing to get out of pools. After that poor performance he did well at Tri-State regionals getting 9th place at KTAR XII. At EVO 2015 he made it into day 2 on losers side before losing to Tyrant. He also placed 7th at SKTAR 4 and 2nd at KTAR XVII, picking up Bayonetta when she came out. Salem notably won Collision XIV by double-eliminating ZeRo 3-2 in winners quarters and losers semis, then Nairo 3-0 in losers finals, and finally won the tournament by beating Tweek 3-0 and 3-2 in grand finals.
Tournament placings
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 placement | 2v2 placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concentrate II | October 22nd, 2011 | 5th | 2nd | Anti |
| Apex 2012 | January 6th-8th, 2012 | 33rd | 65th | Meekspeedy |
| Clash of the Titans 6 | June 2nd, 2012 | 5th | 5th | Bizkit |
| SKTAR | July 14th-15th, 2012 | 17th | — | — |
| Impact IV | August 25th, 2012 | 5th | 2nd | Chibo |
| Collision V | September 1st, 2012 | 5th | 3rd | Chibo |
| Apex 2013 | January 11th-13th, 2013 | 1st | — | — |
| Rescue 2 | March 2nd, 2013 | 3rd | — | — |
| SKTAR 2 | August 3rd-4th, 2013 | 33rd | 7th | Vex Kasrani |
| Thanks for Playing 4 | December 21st, 2013 | 2nd | — | — |
| KTAR 8 | December 28th, 2013 | 17th | 3rd | ZeRo |
| Collision 8 | January 11th, 2014 | 3rd | 2nd | Vex Kasrani |
| Apex 2014 | January 17th-19th, 2014 | 9th | 9th | Vex Kasrani |
| SKTAR 3 | May 31st-June 1st, 2014 | 17th | — | — |
| Apex 2015 | January 30th-February 1st, 2015 | 4th | 2nd | Mew2King |
Project M
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 placement | 2v2 placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thanks for Playing 4 | December 21st, 2013 | 3rd | 1st | ZeRo |
| KTAR 8 | December 28th, 2013 | 5th | — | — |
| Collision 8 | January 11th, 2014 | 1st | — | — |
| Apex 2014 | January 17th-19th, 2014 | 33rd | — | — |
| SKTAR 3 | May 31st-June 1st, 2014 | 13th | 13th | Xzax |
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 placement | 2v2 placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sky's Smash 4 Invitational | November 20th-22nd, 2014 | 9th | 5th | K9 |
| Collision X | November 29th, 2014 | 5th | 5th | Chibo |
| Collision XI | January 3rd, 2015 | 9th | 7th | Chibo |
| Apex 2015 | January 30th-February 1st, 2015 | 129th | — | — |
| Tri-Smash #3 | March 7th, 2015 | 1st | — | — |
| KTAR XII | March 21st, 2015 | 9th | 9th | Chibo |
| Smash Forward 03 | April 18th, 2015 | 2nd | 1st | Chibo |
| EVO 2015 | July 17th-19th, 2015 | 25th | 33rd | Chibo |
| The MollyWhop #17 | August 12th, 2015 | 1st | — | — |
| SKTAR 4 | August 22nd-23rd, 2015 | 7th | — | — |
| Smash & Clash 02 | February 12th, 2016 | 1st | 1st | Chibo |
| KTAR XVII | February 13th, 2016 | 2nd | 3rd | Chibo |
| Smash & Clash 03 | February 19th, 2016 | 1st | 5th | Sparky |
| Brotherly Love X | February 20th, 2016 | 1st | 1st | Vex Kasrani |
| Shots Fired 2 | March 5th-6th, 2016 | 9th | 17th | Chibo |
| Do or DI | March 11th-13th, 2016 | 5th | — | — |
| Brotherly Love XIV | June 4th, 2016 | 1st | 2nd | Chibo |
| KTAR XVIII | June 11th, 2016 | 5th | ||
| EVO 2016 | July 15th-17th, 2016 | 33rd | — | — |
| Collision XIV | September 3rd, 2016 | 1st | 13th | Chibo |
| Smashadelphia II | September 11th, 2016 | 1st | — | — |
| Smash Conference LXVII | September 23rd, 2016 | 1st | 1st | Mew2King |
| Little Big House 2 | October 6th, 2016 | 1st | — | — |
| The Big House 6 | October 7th-9th, 2016 | 9th | — | — |
Trivia
- Salem had never won any tournaments, including locals before his Apex 2013 victory. Something similar happened the previous year with Apex 2012 being the first tournament Otori ever won.
