About
Union is a grand yet grassroots gathering for the Finnish Smash Bros. community. The event is usually organized once every two or three months in Helsinki. Last weekend on March 29th-31st it was the time for Union XX to take place. Another one for the record books.
Team PHZ at Union XX
Team PHZ was represented by none other than Lancelot. On the first day of Union XX Lancelot won the Smash Ultimate Doubles tournament with the help of his teammate Mursu. There were 23 teams in total but Lancelot and Mursu did not lose a single set that day.
On the second day, Lancelot managed to also win the Smash Ultimate Singles tournament, which had 81 competitors in total. All due respect to Lancelot for his efforts, but we must not forget about Mursu’s incredible run on the losers side of the bracket. Mursu was knocked down to the losers side at a relatively early phase but he persevered and managed to climb all the way up to Grand Finals, where he ultimately lost to Lancelot despite all his efforts. Truly a fantastic performance from both players during the first two days.
European Smash Ball Team Cup 2019
On the third and final day of Union XX a completely new event format took place. This was the official Finnish qualifier for Nintendo’s very own European Smash Ball Team Cup 2019. The format featured its own special rules, one of which was the inclusion of the iconic Smash Ball, which is an in-game item that allows players to unleash attacks so powerful that they have since been prohibited within the guidelines of the most common competitive standards. The participants for this format also had to form teams of 3 players instead of the usual team size of 2.
Lancelot teamed up with Mursu and Solobattle and even in this brand new format, they emerged victorious with yet again a 100% win rate on their sets. The top two teams from this Finnish qualifier proceed to Sweden on April 12th-14th. Let’s hope our Finnish teams perform very well in Sweden because that will give them a chance to proceed to Netherlands as well. Let’s see who become the first European Smash Ball Team Cup champions!
The Supposed Continuation of Union
Union has been going on for quite a long time, seeing as how we have 20 iterations in total now. The main tournament organizers for Union thus far have been Oskari “Loota” Vartia and Kivi “stemu” Laakso. These two have announced that they will be stepping down from this role going forward.
The community is both sad to see them stepping down but also happy for those two getting a well-deserved chance to focus on other aspects of their lives. Both Loota and stemu will still attend some of the future iterations but just not as organizers anymore. And yes, you read correctly; future iterations. Stemu has implied that Union will not simply cease to exist now that him and Loota are stepping down. As the community eagerly waits for future iterations of Union, let’s pay respects to arguably both the greatest tournament organizers and the greatest event series in Finnish Smash Bros. community history.