eSports
Bill Cozens 7y

Leffen vs. the world at GOML 2017

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Over the weekend, William "Leffen" Hjelte took Toronto by storm. There was no shortage of deafening cheers or shouts from the Canadian crowd as he took first place over Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma to win Get On My Level 2017.

By doing so, Leffen has resealed his fate from GOML 2016, a tournament where he beat four of the game's best players in commanding fashion before taking home gold.

Although most of the top four didn't return for this year's iteration, one of them did: Hungrybox. As he cut through winners like a hot knife through butter, Leffen not only sent Hungrybox to losers but several other notables as well. His win has major implications for the scene, making it one to remember.

Leffen's one fell swoop

Leffen was either angry, determined, indifferent, or a mixture of the three as he maneuvered around the winners bracket with impressive ease. Reaping the souls of his opponents in McCain "MacD" LaVelleĀ and Edgard "n0ne" Sheleby before facing Zach "SFAT" Cordoni in semis, it was already becoming clear that if Leffen continued playing the way he did, the remainder of his tournament would be a breeze.

His set against SFAT was, simply put, murder. As he mercilessly forced him into the losers bracket with a 3-0 sweep and a four-stock to end the third game, Leffen walked off the stage leaving both SFAT and the spectators in awe. His message of dominance was clear.

Leffen was set to fight Hungrybox in winners finals. But before that, we got a chance to see what was going on down in the losers bracket. First, we saw Canada's Sheik main David "KirbyKaze" MacDonald take down DaJuan "Shroomed" McDaniel in what could be considered a surprising upset. The set, however, was intensely close, whittling down to a last-game, last-stock situation. KirbyKaze eliminated Shroomed, and the crowd went wild to see their fellow Toronto countryman proceed further into the bracket.

SFAT would later 3-0 KirbyKaze to venture into losers semis, but he nonetheless retained a great showing for his homeland. Meanwhile, Ryan "The Moon" Coker-Welch was in the midst of a hot losers run worthy of its own section below.

Back on the Leffen side of things, after coming out of the gate strong and taking Game 1, Leffen lost a close second game against Hungrybox. With the set tied 1-1, it was beginning to get harder to call the shots. Leffen promptly reminded us the next game that after three-stocking Hungrybox, he wasn't going to lose this set for the world. And he didn't. One more dominamt game later and Leffen was on his way to the grand finals.

A lunar eclipse

The Moon displayed for us a performance of epic proportions during the losers Top 8. The Marth main from New York has been struggling to break free of his "7th place curse," having finished 7th at the last two major tournaments he's attended (The Evolution Championship Series and Dreamhack Atlanta).

But on Sunday, it was a different story.

After James "Mafia" Lauerman sent him to the losers Top 32, The Moon wrote several names on his "Death Note" before crossing into the Top 8: Stephen "Abate" Abate, Michael "Nintendude" Brancato and James "Duck" Ma,.

The Moon then proceeded to hand out 3-0 sweeps like they were candy. After defeating n0ne and even Westballz in this fashion, he was set to take on SFAT in the losers semis. Needless to say, La Luna was looking fresh and clean. In a wild, back-and-forth set that went to Game 5, The Moon came out the victor, sealing SFAT a 4th place finish and securing himself a one-way ticket to the losers finals.

And although Hungrybox beat The Moon in the losers finals, The Moon had a phenomenal tournament run. Not only did he lift the 7th place curse by finishing third at GOML, but he looked pretty good doing it.

A rewritten narrative

In the grand finals, Leffen eked out a winning set in a rematch with Hungrybox. This is the second time in a row that Hungrybox has lost a tournament against a non-God top five player, having lost at Dreamhack Atlanta last week against Plup. Can Hungrybox bounce back from his lull? Or will the godslayers continue to prevail?

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