by Nago/Nago#0050 on Discord
Additional Bracket info and Stream
The 9th edition of the seasonal DSEA regionals in Delft, the Netherlands is going to happen this Saturday, the 7th of January and as I’m feeling particularly excited/inspired, I’ve decided to whip up a quick little preview article for all of y’all. Starting with all of the Dutch PR that will be in attendance!
As the 2022 Dutch PR just came out, I will be providing you a link to Jim Morrison’s excellent article on the PR with individual blurbs written about everybody on the list, this is to avoid me basically just repeating what he said and so you can see the beautiful PR image made by curlycollie. Not all of the Dutch PR is actually in attendance tho, also Fout NL is technically in attendance but as he’s currently on a competition hiatus he will only be competing in the doubles bracket.
Skullbro - #1 - Noord-Brabant - Dr. Mario
Happymealz - #4 - Zuid-Holland - Fox
Jim Morrison - #5 - Zuid-Holland - Fox(?), perhaps a secondary like GnW(?)
$TYN - #6 - Zuid-Holland - Fox
Nuckels - #7 - Zuid-Holland - Marth
noon - #9 - Zuid-Holland - Mario, Dr. Mario
RestlessWhale - #10 - Noord-Holland - Falco
Noxxa - #11 - Noord-Brabant - ICs, Peach
Risc - #12 - Noord-Holland - DK
Friso - #13 - Utrecht - Fox
NVZ - #14 - Noord-Brabant - Yoshi
KasparV - #16 - Zuid-Holland - Marth
ThommyN - #17- Zuid-Holland - Puff
Def - #18 - Gelderland - Sheik
DestiKnee - #19 - Noord-Holland - Falcon
Now the big reason why I decided to write this article is because DSEA Winter 2023 is looking to become the first Dutch regional (so not including Dreamhack Rotterdam) in a decent while to feature a healthy amount of good out-of-country competition, so now that we got the obvious notable entrants out of the way, we shall begin with,
max - #3 in England - Brighton - Sheik
The Southern English Sheik is looking to be the favourite to win this tournament, having had a very succesfull 2022 that culminated in a #3 spot on the UK pr and a top 4 placing at the last big EU major of the year, HFLAN. He’s also one of the many Sheiks at this event.
NekoKaze - #12 in France - Paris - Sheik
Here’s another one! NekoKaze has been one of the upcoming players within the french scene since the return of IRL events, he made his first national PR this year and has exhibited great peaks such as a Psylo win, but has also exhibited some lows. It’ll be exciting to see him continue attending more events outside of France!
Giuseppe - HM on 2022 French PR - Rennes - Sheik
Also part of the seemingly endless supply of Sheiks in France nowadays, Giuseppe is also looking to be building off of his first ever national PR appearance even if it was only a Honourable Mention. While he didn’t leave France at all last year, he had a good top 32 showing at the french major HFLAN where he beat Friso and Porc.
Madness - #3 in France - Paris - Luigi
OBR and PSG’s own Madness is coming to the Netherlands once again to show the Netherlands that even though they may have gotten rid of the domestic luigi’s like serket and TDX, they can’t hide from the francophone luigi’s. One of France’s best is looking to once again terrorize the Netherlands like he did at Dreamhack Rotterdam 2022 when he 3-1’d Renzo to make 17th.
Touffe - #14 in France - Lyon - Samus
And here we are, they think they only have to deal with the French Luigi, the 96th person to register and therefore make the event reach its entrants cap is yet another mid-tier Renzo slayer, Touffe. The Netherlands luckily is not bereft of Sami such as the previously PR’ed seo and 2022 Honorable Mention Rabbitalex, but Touffe is definitely a different beast. Spacies and Marths alike will have to watch out for this Samus who already picked up a RestlessWhale win at HFLAN 2022 and is looking for more.
Psylo - #4 in France - Lille - Falco
For the final frenchie, it’s the one has to travel the least distance to get to the tournament, Psylo. The Lille native has, since his debut on the French PR in 2018 at 14th, slowly been climbing the ranks of the French scene. While not yet making a big dent in the tippy-top of the French scene he did pick up a Frenzy win in 2022 and is most definitely one of the top falcos in Europe. Unfortunately he still has to do this while getting bullied at his own locals by……..
LunarySSF2 - #2 on the 2019 Belgium PR - Wallonia - Marth/Falcon
The foreign player who is the closest to Delft of all foreign attendees. Lunary is kind of a hidden boss of Europe, hailing from Belgium, a scene currently experiencing quite a tournament draught. Lunary may not come from the region with the biggest presence within the discourse of best region in Europe, he has come out to French events this year to prove himself to be one of the top francophone players in the world. He won Foster’s Bros in 2022 defeating Raoul and Feradit, the other top player from Belgium. He has farmed all Lille tournaments all years and also has a Frenzy win. It’ll be quite exciting to see Lunary attend his first Dutch tournament.
lilfroozy - #6 in Berlin - Berlin - Fox
One of multiple PR’d players better known for their commentatory; I want to avoid reducing them down just to their contributions to the scene in other areas. lilfroozy is perhaps remember best as a player prior to the pandemic as the best puff in the country when he peaked at 6th on the national PR in 2019, but his switch to fox has still resulted in some productive performances like his recent 4th placing at PixelPokal x Dreamhack in November
King - Gonna be ranked on the 2022 German PR whenever that comes out - Hannover - Falco
Another change that happened in the German scene in the Slippi era is the emergence of the Melee Hannover TO, King as a top Falco within Germany. He has quickly risen through the scene and had himself a great 2022, getting top 12 finishes at both HFLAN and Dreamhack Rotterdam, picking up wins on Happymealz, Raoul, Jah Ridin’ and even an elusive Nicki win at a Berlin local.
We’ve talked about the Dutch PR’d attendees, the notable foreign attendees, but we will now talk about the deep cuts within the attendee list, the inactive, ex-PR and arcadian-level Dutch talent at the event, starting with!
Aaron - #6 in the Netherlands in 2019 - Brabant - Sheik
The allegedly retired Brabant Sheik main makes another rare appearance, he didn’t make attendance requirements for the PR this but he did win the only regional he attended, DSEA Spring 2022 beating noon, Friso, Fout NL, Jim Morrison and Renzo. I don’t think I will be the only one to tell you that Aaron isn’t just some retired sukkeltje. He did have an underwhelming Dreamhack Rotterdam but he is not to be underestimated in the slightest.
epikfaal - #11 in the Netherlands in 2021 - Noord-Holland - Sheik
This Dutch Sheik main also did not make attendance requirements for the last PR but is definitely not to be considered “inactive”, as he did end up making attendance requirements for the dutch PM pr where he got placed in A tier. So he definitely spent a decent amount of 2022 holding a gamecube controller in his hands.
Pixel - #16 in the Netherlands in 2019 - Noord-Holland - Sheik
The Around The World master from Noord Holland, one half of the pixel/noxxa static doubles team, had a relatively uneventful 2022, besides a Friso win at a one-off monitor tournament but used to be PRed prior to the pandemic.
Xin - #20 in the Netherlands in 2021 - Gelderland - Pikachu
The famous commentator making his return to Melee after his ban in the summer! He made a detour playing PM Lucas which ultimately brought him a C tier placing on the 2022 dutch PM PR. After also switching to a rectangle controller the Pikachu main from Gelderland is back to ruin the lives of Dutch Marths who have to deal with yet another PR-caliber mid-tier main.
Nukidin - #12 in the Netherlands in 2018 and fall 2019 - Utrecht - Falco
Since the death of the Arrakis/Spice series in Utrecht, Utrecht has been a bit of lull when it comes to top talent either moving away or retiring. Besides Friso the region has been waiting for more people to pick up the slack and it appears that Nukidin might be able to help him out! Somebody who peaked at #12 back prior to the retirements of Amsah and Nebbii is not one you want to understimate.
Now as the Sector Z Arcadian has been announced for a month from now, I will also want to give a quick nod to some of the favourites for the Arcadian to get their little due in this article as their performances here may give us some insight on how they will perform at the Arcadian itself.
Koningbadaap - Unranked - Noord-Brabant - Fox
King Bath Monkey, the best fox in Best has been quietly improving for a while now and sometimes shows flashes of his PR potential when he attends the Todo locals in his native Best. Occasionally picking up a PR win, or at least playing them close, he’s most definitely somebody to keep an eye out for.
serket - Unranked - Zuid-Holland - Fox
A Member of Roffa Nation, this Fox main has long been considered to be in contention for the bottom spots on the PR even back when he played Luigi pre-pandemic. He has picked some solid PR wins in the past and also made top 64 at Dreamhack Rotterdam, but hasn’t yet had the breakout necessary to push himself onto the rankings themselves.
Elec - Unranked - Gelderland - Falco
Elec has been a low-key very good player for a while now, I remember him being promoted as the biggest value pick of Fete 2 fantasy for good reasons. I’m not just listing him here because I’m teaming with him at DSEA but it definitely helps. While Elec doesn’t have any big PR wins they basically have beaten or are favoured (in my eyes at least) against the field.
Reddanger - Unranked - Zuid-Holland - Ganon
Okay, so he’s not signed up for the Arcadian but this is my petition to ask him to attend the Arcadian, not cause I’m conviced he’s gonna win but because I think him winning would be the funniest possible outcome. To actually make a case for him though, he attended exactly one event last year which was DSEA Spring 2022 where he came out of nowhere to beat serket and KasparV, which besides Friso’s Skullbro win was the biggest upset run of the tournament.
VirtualTiger - Unranked - Noord-Holland - Fox
VirtualTiger won Vechtpartij #2 a couple days ago, which is an online arcadian-style event while only dropping a single game. Now, the field at this event wasn’t as strong as the actual Arcadian will be by a long shot, but he is THE zoomer grinder of the scene right now and he’s only getting better and you don’t want to play this kid when he’s in his element.
To finish off this article I would like to just give a big shoutout to Kim/Bananenbaard for being the main driving force behind the DSEA tournaments and for continuing to support the Dutch Melee scene. Props also to Vlerk, who also is going to be the streamer at this event, for promoting his ass off to get all the foreign talent to go to this tournament and big thank you to all the people attending this tournament not mentioned in this article, in particular all the players travelling from outside the country.