Riptide 2022 was a tournament where all the underrated Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players had a chance to play. The previous Riptide, in 2021, was a super-major with 1000+ entrants and top players like MKLeo, Tweek, and Sparg0 in attendance.
However, Riptide 2022 was different. The tournament was demoted from a super-major to a National due to the lack of top Smash players attending it. But this simply meant the players those top stars always overshadowed finally had a chance to prove themselves.
The one to stand at the top at the end of the Smash battle?
Tilde, a Falco player who took the tournament over Peabnut without dropping a single game. He's ranked 33rd in the PGRUv3 NA, which means he's not bad at all, but he just didn't have the chance to shine because of all the top players surrounding him. This tournament was that tournament for him.
Peabnut is a Mega Man player seeded 14th. He ended up pulling off a bunch of minor upsets to take second place. He is currently ranked 45th in the PGRUv3 NA.
Zomba, the first seed coming into the event, actually ran third. Zomba has been ranking high in most of the Smash tournaments he entered even if there are top players present in it, even making major upsets in some of them.
Another notable entrant in this tournament was HungryBox.
HungryBox is a legendary Smash Bros. Melee player who's taken an interest in competing in Ultimate. After losing his first match on the winner's side of the bracket, he won eight straight sets entering the top 25 before losing to a Palutena player called Quinn. After that, he proceeded to win the Melee part of the event.
Riptide has shown us what these players can do and it'll be exciting to see them in their next tournaments when they're up against top Smash stars again.