Smasher:Salem
| Salem | |
|---|---|
| Salem.png | |
| Character info | |
| Brawl main | Zero Suit Samus |
| Other Brawl characters | Snake, Marth |
| Project M main | Zelda |
| Team info | |
| Crew(s) | CLASH Tournaments |
| Personal and other info | |
| Real name | Akiel Young |
| Birth date | |
| Location | Atlantic City, New Jersey 
|
| Miscellaneous info | |
| Skill |  Professional/Top professional  |
Salem is an American smasher from New Jersey who mains what is considered to be the best Brawl Zero Suit Samus in the world. He has become infamous for his incredible usage of Zero Suit Samus's Power Suit Pieces to rack up damage at the beginning of matches. Before playing in the offline scene, he gained fame on the AiB 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.
Salem continued to enter tournaments and place well, but never actually won until a dominating performance at Apex 2013, where he came out of nowhere to take first place. 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. Since then, however, Salem has not won any major Brawl tournaments, and has even placed lower than Nick Riddle in some of them.
Salem is currently ranked 4th on the Tristate Brawl Power Rankings. Due to his aforementioned dominance in Apex 2013, CLASH Tournaments has recently recruited him into their crew as a top professional player.
Notable tournament records
- Concentrate II: In Salem's debut into the offline tournament scene, he took sets off of notable player such as Nicole, Jbandrew, Will, and Kingtoon, placing 5th overall. This brought him into the attention of the Brawl community.
- Apex 2012: While Salem 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.
- Apex 2013: In his march to victory, he defeated top players such as mikeHAZE, Dojo, Mr. R, Otori (the Apex 2012 champion), Mikeneko, and Mew2King in both Winners' and Grand Finals, the latter of which has been considered 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.
Notable tournament placings
| Tournament | Date | Singles Placement | Doubles Placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concentrate II | October 30, 2011 | 5th | 2nd | Anti |
| Apex 2012 | January 6-8, 2012 | 33rd | 65th | Meekspeedy |
| SKTAR | July 12th, 2012 | 17th | N/A | N/A |
| C5 | September 1, 2012 | 5th | 3rd | Chibo |
| Impact IV | September 6, 2012 | 5th | 2nd | Chibo |
| Apex 2013 | January 13, 2013 | 1st | — | — |
| SKTAR 2 | August 3-4, 2013 | 33rd | 7th | Vex Kasrani |
