ayden / gust

Bee Fly

Skylock / Weisa

TheElementalSalad

Mudskip / TacoSmasher67

GreaterMilk / m4rio main

Smash at Berkeley Ultimate PR - Fall 2025 #10 - Fizx (Fizx Building) There goes a story about a magical item, a monkey’s paw. It was enchanted by a holy man to grant any wish. One night, a player tired of going 1-2 discovered the talisman and said the following words: “I wish for a bracket path where my opponents only play mid-tiers that I know I can beat.” The monkey’s paw curled… and launched forth!.. and thus, the player was vanquished by Fizx’s Giant Punch at 30%. Fizx, indeed, can be beaten. Coming off of a sky-high placement of 4th on our Spring 2025 PR, Fizx had a pretty quiet season, never going down early but also lacking the deep runs that we know he’s capable of making. His best run this season at BUS #36, beating BeeVee, paperTechnician and investigasean before falling at 5th. But Fizx can also beat anyone. His losses don’t tell the whole story - this season, he went last game with M4, investigasean, Weisa, and even Gust. I heard Gust admit it was a tough set after he reported the score. And can we talk about Fizx’s incredible run to 2nd at BUS #30 in Spring 2025, where he won five sets straight in losers, including multiple Game 5s and a win on the aforementioned M4? He’s gonna keep getting better, and I wouldn’t wish him in anyone’s bracket path. #9 - Cochino (Ecochinoverry Hall) Cochino has had a lot of ups and downs since dropping Zelda for Roy, and no semester represents both of those extremes quite like this one. At his first event of the semester he picked up a win on GreaterMilk, the gatekeeper of top cut for off-campus hopefuls to make a promising Berkeley run. His final event of the semester, by contrast, had him making an early exit to a Mega Man running hot, so much so that Roy’s flame-imbued sword just couldn’t keep up. The difficulty of competition for Cochino comes in the form of consistency; he boasts gameplay that has impressed the greater NorCal scene on his best days while simultaneously sputtering out against those he would otherwise be projected to beat on his worst days. Keep your wits (and potentially a thermometer) about you when Cochino is in your bracket path, if he catches you with the momentum behind him, he’s gonna go undefeated. #8 - investigasean (Cal Esports Seanter) Since I’m doing my own writeup, I’d like to boast about my greatest win this fall - getting one singular game win on Ampha with my pocket Bowser. NO ONE BEATS INVESTIGASEAN 21 TIMES IN A ROW GRAHHHH!!! (Don’t worry about what happened for the rest of the set) This season was a strange one for me in that my performances were unusually consistent. If I had a nickel for every time I beat Fizx and then immediately lost versus Mudskip and Spenji, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t that much but you get the idea. Still, I got my ones this season. I took a game off Ampha, Spenji, and Rish’s Ridley for the first time each. I went last hit with Hyro. It might be the last season as a student for this TO, but don’t count me out yet. It ain’t over ’till the round lady sings. #7 - TheElementalCow (Evans Hall) While some people on this PR spent more time behind the TO desk than in bracket, others spent time behind the actual Cal Esports desk. Between responsibilities like school, work, and Cal band, TheElementalCow didn’t have as much time to compete as he might’ve liked to have. But for the few brackets he could attend, he absolutely made some noise. BUS #37 was a solid warm-up, beating Fizx, Indig0, and Ike Pie, none of which are easy draws. But he truly brought the (Guild)house down in the very last run of the season, avenging investigasean’s loss to FrostyFreeze and taking down Gorm in a nailbiter 2-1. And can we talk about how he’s the only Berkeley player to take a game off MkLeo himself in money matches? I’m not sure anyone knows TheElementalCow’s true potential, including himself, but no one can count him out for Spring 2026. #6 - GreaterMilk (GreaterMLK Student Union) Congrats to GreaterMilk for winning Finals Destination 17, beating E, Ayden, and going last stock with Word Salad… with Mii Brawler? I think I got my notes mixed up, apologies. But if FD’s Mii Brawler Crews didn’t clue you in, GreaterMilk is more than capable of taking on the best. Though he’s been busy, he was able to take a set off both Fizx and Gorm, both talented players that pilot characters who’ve given him trouble in the past (Oakland’s supersven and our very own M4, respectively). He’s also the only person on this PR not named Mudskip to take a game off Ayden. And if I’m allowed to be biased, he’s just really fun to root for. I can’t think of any other player that people would shout “MILK HIM!” for. We’re happy to see him graduate and sad to see him go, but while he’s waiting for his lease to be up, we’re hoping for just a few more tournaments where he can prove that Yoshi is top 1 to everyone. #5 - Gorm (Gorman Hall) Hailing from France, Gorm made his presence felt in the Berkeley smash scene the moment he landed in the states. To start the semester we hosted a non-tournament smashfest to warm back up after a two month break, and it was immediately clear that Gorm demanded respect from our highest echelon of players. Taking advantage of the round robin format, Gorm took notice with his unexpected wins over Ayden and Mudskip, the two consensus strongest players in the university at the time. With his hyper-advantage Mii Brawler and sneaky Pikachu to catch his unwitting opponents off guard, Gorm would stack up a very impressive yet humble semester with wins on Fizx, Ampha, M4, and Mudskip yet again (for real this time). At Finals Destination, Gorm led the G-Force to nearly overcome a massive stock deficit against the M4rce, clawing the crew battle back within just a single stock at its conclusion, only being taken down by the leader of the other crew starting the final game down a stock. For how short his tenure was at Berkeley, Gorm made a massive splash in our scene and we will miss him as he makes his way back across the ocean. See you around Gorm, the next Berkeley raid will have to be in your country instead of Guildhouse. #4 - Ampha (Amphlumni House) As powerful as she might be, Bayonetta is a volatile character. She can steal stocks like they were never there. She can turn your advantage state into hers before you can blink. But she dies early, and any execution error could cost you a game. That being said, for Ampha’s Fall 2025 season, that volatility was only going one way. He punched up with MULTIPLE wins on M4, a player who’s had his number in previous seasons, as well as getting a stellar win on Weisa during FD. And as for his losses? Players that have snuck sets off him before, such as Cochino, were stonewalled. He was upset literally zero times in the entire season while also never missing a top 8. Everyone knows that Ampha playing at his peak is a scary player. But being able to pull those peaks off every time? The world’s not ready. #3 - M4 (M4ffit Library) Looking at M4’s performances for the first five tournaments of the semester, you might be surprised to find they’re relatively humble. Sure, he has wins on players like echo and TheElementalCow, but where’s the player that the NorCal PR fears? The one that takes down the likes of Shrutik and Alsoda like it’s another day in the office? But M4 is nothing if not clutch. And if there was any time to clutch up, it was Finals Destination 17. Last stock for Team M4rce versus Gorm, one Brawler confirm away from throwing away the entire crew battle, and he sinks the final upsmash… Wait, I have the wrong notes again… But he’d ride that momentum from crews to go 5-2, taking down an Ellidae who’d just gotten a game off Gorm, a Menace who’d beaten Mudskip earlier that season, GreaterMilk fresh off a Gorm win, Ampha who was 2-0 on him for Fall 2025, and Twan himself in an incredible run to 4th. A puzzled Brawler main once asked, “Why does M4 have so many fans?” I think the response to that should be, “Why aren’t you one of them?” #2 - Mudskip (Mudford Hall) Mudskip was a poor boy / but he had a gift to give. / He could make you see how Mewtwo could be / in spite of the low-tier he is. Such goes the lyrics in a famous musical involving ancient Mudthology. Something something Haydenstown? I’ll stop the bit. But even if I’m not tying it to a hero’s journey, Mudskip’s season has been nothing short of inspirational. Skylock wrote a great piece for Mudskip’s placement in the Norcal 2025 Q4 PR already about how he overcame his demons, so I’ll try not to repeat that article too much. All I’ll say is it’s awesome for me to see how Mudskip’s tournaments got better and better as the season went on. 7th with a Fizx win, to 5th with an echo win, to 2nd with a Gorm win, to 2nd with an M4 and an Ampha win, to 2nd with an M4, Gorm, AND a Zeldafan win, topping it off with Finals Destination, where he took down Freedom, Hyro, Twan, and Ayden twice to take home his first tournament of the season. And it isn’t counted here, but did I mention he got a Ling win at LMBM? At times, it seems that the only person who doesn’t believe in Mudskip is himself. But he’ll be the only one surprised when he’s taking down the best players this game has to offer. #1 - Ayden (Aydenthropology and Art Practice Building) It can be a little boring to just mention the stats in these writeups, but for a player like Ayden, I think they merit some attention. How many Berkeley events did Ayden miss top 8 for? None? Well, that’s not unexpected. How about top 6? Still none. Top 4? Top 3? Try top 1. Ayden missed only a single first place finish for the entire season, and that was with threats like Hyro, Mudskip, Twan, Gust and Skylock sharking his brackets. The only one he missed was a humble 2nd to the aforementioned Mudskip. Coincidentally, that was the only tournament where he dropped even a single set. When we heard that this season would mark Ayden’s first year as a Berkeley student, we all knew that he would make it to the top. We just didn’t know quite how fast this princess would take the crown. Smash at Berkeley is proud to welcome Ayden as the #1 on the PR for his very first season!