Ouch

Now that Apex 2015 is over and done with, it can be safely said that it was a pretty big deal. The popular fighting game tournament set a few records, with over 1024 entrants in Super Smash Bros. Melee - beating out the previous record held by EVO at 970 - and over 800 entrants in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, claiming the title for biggest Smash 4 tournament as well. Amidst this craze a huge rivalry was settled and a new one was formed.

After considerable smack talk back and forth, competitive Melee gamers Leffen and Chillindude settled it in Smash as Fox, with the stakes being that the loser could never play as Fox's original colour in any fighting game tournament in the future, ever. Leffen was the underdog and the villain in this situation, with a notorious reputation for extraordinarily bad sportsmanship - in his native Sweden, he was once banned from all Smash events due to his poor behaviour. Chillindude - the good guy of the match-up - had created a "diss video" to counter the negative comments of his cocky rival, the contents of which would come back to haunt him.

Chillindude was the one everyone was rooting for; somewhat of a legend in the community, many combos for Fox have been named after him. The ensuing battle was a high-adrenaline, tense experience as both players were roughly neck and neck for most of the fight. Unfortunately for Chillindude, he cracked under pressure and the "father of Fox" was shamed in front of thousands by his bitter rival, his rights to Fox's original colour forever rescinded. Leffen dominated the last few matches. You can watch the whole sorry contest here:

As Leffen was rubbing it in, another popular player named Mango took the stage to back up Chillindude. Mango challenged Leffen to a duel in an effort to redeem Chillindude's broken pride and put Leffen in his place, adding on a bet of $1,000 to keep things interesting. Leffen accepted his challenge and the big fight happened the next day. This fight was perhaps even closer than the previous one, but in the end Leffen claimed victory once again; kicking Mango out of the running with his tail between his legs. Leffen didn't end up winning the whole tournament, coming in at 3rd place, but his defeat was merely bittersweet after this.

Perhaps it was one of those "you had to be there" moments, but stories such as this highlight just why fighting game tournaments are so much fun. While it's already exciting enough to watch people play games at ridiculously skillful levels that you will never equal, it's the rivalries and drama that happen off-stage that make these things so tense and interesting to watch.

What do you think? Are you a big fighting game enthusiast? Did you want Leffen to sweep the floor at this one? Sound off in the comments below.

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[source kotaku.com]