Steve from Minecraft was the big winner at Super Smash Con 2022

There were two big storylines this year

Super Smash Con 2022 ended late last night with the Smash Ultimate grand finals, and it was Onin (Steve) vs. Maister (Sora/Game & Watch). The former took it, which could be Smash Bros. history in the making as they continue to enter more tournaments and rack up more wins. But there were a few good storylines and a lot of good matches this year: let’s take a quick look.

Onin 3-0ing MKLeo out of the winner’s bracket, and taking Smash Con 2022

So this is easily the biggest story out of the con, and it involves the main event: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which closed out the con on Sunday night. Onin, a relative newcomer on the scene since the start of 2021, 3-0ed MKLeo out of the winner’s bracket, and quietly kept running with their wins to the point of taking the entire tournament. One commenter noted that this is “probably the worst we’ve seen Leo beaten,” which might be true (Leo chimed in as well).

While Leo continued to weather the storm, swapping between a mean Byleth and Pyra/Mythra, it wasn’t enough to muster a full comeback. Leo eventually squared off against Glutonny (“Gluto”), and Leo went home after giving it up in the loser’s bracket top six matchup.

Instead of a rematch, it was Maister that ended up taking on Onin in the grand finals, and there was no reset involved: Onin took it in 3-1 and everyone got to head home (or go to bed!) early before the 11PM ET cutoff. Maister oscillated between a surprise-pick of Sora as well as his main of Game & Watch, but the mixup wasn’t enough to razz Onin. As a caster pointed out right after the win, Onin has won nearly every tournament they’ve entered with Steve as their main (previously, they also had R.O.B. in the mix).

It’s started an overall conversation about Steve in Smash Ultimate as a whole, resurrecting some old arguments about the character’s inclusion, as well as their power level. We’ll see how tournaments respond in time, but there was a healthy amount of joking and serious discourse about banning Steve. Expect to see Steve in some form in the near future in local and national tournaments.

Mango winning the Melee grand finals for the third time, beating Hungrybox

Of course, Melee was another big moment at Super Smash Con, which featured every game in the series (folding the 3DS version of Smash 4 into Wii U).

Melee actually was the second to last main event, ending right before the grand final set began for Ultimate. The core storylines involved Mango and Hungrybox, who were completely on fire, and giving us some of the best games of their career. The favorite for many was Mango, who was already a two-time Melee champion at Super Smash Con (in 2016 and 2017), and they took it again in 2022, following a Leffen win in 2019. But Mango wasn’t everyone’s choice, as they were ranked #11 before heading into Smash Con 2022, which led to all sorts of memes: which Mango rebuked with a clean win.

Hungrybox played their classic Jigglypuff pick throughout the con, and Mango predictable commanded Fox. While Fox and Sheik had a big presence at Smash Con 2022, as per usual, Zain really put up a fight with Marth and nearly crept out of the loser’s bracket (ending with Hungrybox), and the same goes for Llod: a Peach main. While both of them put up a fight, eventually Hungrybox took the loser’s bracket. Just like Ultimate, no reset was needed, as Mango won it 3-2.