The Philippine All-Stars Tournament #1

The Philippine All-Stars Tournament #1 (start.gg) was an invitational LAN tournament, featuring most of the top players of the Philippines. This was hosted in Playbook, Circuit Makati on July 2, 2022.

Event Summary

Unfortunately for the lowest seeds of the event, hex and Kaiser were unable to secure any set wins. On the bright side, the two vote-in players learned a lot and will definitely be back for more. Both players placed in 9th at the event.

Xian performed surprisingly well, seeded at 10th in the event and placing 9th. After defeating hex in pools, he took a game from iSD and almost took Yetis Exist to game 5. In the final bracket, he also took Taxmaster to Game 5, nearly getting his first PR win. Xian has finally proven himself as a potential threat to PR players and everyone should watch out for him in the future.

Delta was seeded at 5th for this event and placed at 9th. It seems that he underperformed, coming out 5th in his pool and ending up in the losers side of the final bracket. He did have to play xthechar’s Zelda twice which is a tricky matchup for Jigglypuff, especially when the other player has so much more experience in that matchup.

Machina had a tough bracket and placed at 7th. It was a bit of a disappointing run for Machina as he was seeded 1st for the event. The only spacie he played in Kaz made a huge upset on him in winners side of the final bracket and then he lost against the 4th seed (xthechar) in losers. This is Machina’s lowest placing since he came back to Melee in 2020. Definitely an outlier event for him, as we all know that he won’t get eliminated this early at the next event.

Taxmaster came out at 1st in his pool and got 7th overall. He performed surprisingly well when you consider that he was on somewhat of a hiatus. His dominance in his pool shows that you should never count the Taxmaster out.

xthechar is a KING for flying over and attending the event. He performed pretty well in pools, beating everyone except Roya and Machina and had a really close set with Taxmaster that he clutched out in game 5. Achieving 5th at the most stacked Philippine Event ever is not easy. xthechar also consolidated himself as a full-blooded Filipino.

Roya’s run was really good. He placed 5th, garnering huge upsets against Delta and xthechar in pools and a win on Taxmaster in the final bracket. His Captain Falcon is always a treat to see as he is the only one playing Captain Falcon in most tournaments in the Philippines. He definitely did not disappoint us at PAST#1 with his gameplay.

iSD gets 4th again in the second local event of the year. A memorable moment for him was the angry pop-off after SDing in a close game vs Kaz. If only we had that on video! In pools, iSD beat Machu, xian and hex before defeating Taxmaster and xthechar in the final bracket.

Machu has placed 3rd at every event this year and PAST#1 was no different. He always talks about wanting to be the best player in the Philippines but a tournament win is something that seems to be eluding him right now Does he have what it takes? Only time will tell.

In PAST#1, Kaz achieved a second place. Kaz had never beaten Machina in SSBM Philippines history. Until now, that is. His first time ever win on Machina could mean the start of a new era. Is this Kaz’s time to shine? Pun intended.

Yetis Exist solidified his no. 1 spot at the start of the new season, winning potentially the most stacked tournament that we’ve ever had in the Philippines. He did not drop a single set, although he did have some close Game 5 sets with Machu and Kaz. For example, grand finals was a reverse 3-0 where Yetis had to claw his way back into the set after being down 2-0.

How to get in to PAST#1

Initially, 8 players qualified via the Philippine SSBM League (PHSL), 3 special guests were invited and the 12th spot was meant for the community vote. Players had 1.5 weeks to campaign for their spot in PAST in the community Discord. Then the community voted for each player in a ranking style vote system from 1 (most wanted) to 9 (least wanted).

Voting

After 22 community members voted, the final results were calculated and are shown below. The lower the score, the higher ranked vote they achieved.

Machina/iSD
Score: 2.454

Roya
Score: 4.091

Xian
Score: 4.818

Hex
Score: 5.091

Kaiser
Score: 5.318

Sweets
Score: 5.818

Notxtwhiledrive
Score: 7.273

Ronin
Score: 7.682

Initial Line-Up for PAST#1
Qualified players (from the PHSL)
– Yetis Exist
– Johnny69
– Delta
– Machu
– Taxmaster
– Kaz
– Porqpine21
– Aggrill

Vote-Ins
Machina/iSD (tiebreaker)

Special Guests
– xthechar from Singapore
– ced from Cambodia
– lately from Cebu, Philippines

However, 3 qualified players and 2 special guests could not attend, meaning that 6 players were voted in instead.

Final line-up for PAST#1
Qualified players (from the PHSL)
– Yetis Exist
– Delta
– Machu
– Taxmaster
– Kaz

Vote-Ins
– Machina
– iSD
– Roya
– xian
– hex
– Kaiser

Special Guest
– xthechar (from Singapore)

Prize Pool

PAST#1 had a prize pool of PHP13,000 (approximately USD260). The breakdown of prizes are as follows:

1st – 34% (PHP 4,420)
2nd – 21% (PHP 2,730)
3rd – 15% (PHP 1,950)
4th – 10% (PHP 1,300)
5th – 6% each (PHP 780 each)
7th – 4% each (PHP 520 each)

Format

The event consisted of 2 round robin pools of 6, that fed all the players into a final double elimination bracket. Here, 8 players would start in winners side, and the bottom 4 players in pools would start in losers side.

Pools Stage

Pool 1 consisted of Machina, xthechar, Delta, Taxmaster, Roya and Kaiser.

Standings after pools:
1. Taxmaster (4-1)
2. machina (4-1)
3. Roya (3-2)
4. xthechar (3-2)
5. Delta (1-4)
6. Kaiser (0-5)