Road From Redemption 2: Scott/Max

Scott/Max is one of the most entertaining players to break out onto the Queensland scene with one of the most electrifying playstyles on his signature Captain Falcon. Scott, like most other Smash fans, got their initial taste of competition on Nintendo's FANTASTIC Quickplay for Smash Ultimate. He wanted to take the game to the next level and stumbled across Ausmash and the Queensland Ultimate Discord in 2019. That's when he attended his first Super Smash QUTies event, which was a free semi-casual event that didn't count to ELO and didn't have any monetary prizes - A fantastic introduction to competition for new Smash players. "SSQ was the best local ever. As a new player, I didn't want to pay $15 to go 0-2 so SSQ was much more fun for me because it was free. A lot of people were playing their secondaries and the environment was more chill."

After a few SSQ events, he felt comfortable taking it a step further and decided to attend his first Friday Night Smash (run by Tournameta/Jett) near the start of 2020. He didn't go so hot in Main Bracket but managed to get some wins in the Amateur's Bracket. Unfortunately, Covid struck before he could dive deeper into competitive Smash with only a handful of tournaments under his belt.

A few months down the track, Queensland was able to put together a multi-house-based Covid-safe tournament: ISOLATION COMBAT. It was an insanely optimistic attempt at bringing back Offline Smash to the hungry Queenslanders. Scott/Max was able to attend the first iteration of this event but was still a relative no-name in the scene. His first round pool had players such as Shadrew, Mittens, HeaL, Python, Yo-Yo and Boingboing. Most people in the pool and other smashers predicted Scott/Max to come last in his pool... How they were wrong. Scott was able to take all players except Shadrew to game 3 with most games being last hit last stock and also managed to take a set off Smash 4 Veteran, Yo-Yo. In addition to that, Isolation Combat was streamed publically which meant it was the first time people were able to witness Scott's gameplay. The community were instant fans as his playstyle was unique and a bit insane but filled with Falcon Kick callouts and also having a penchant for Falcon Punch reads - One actually landing on me (CLIP: https://www.twitch.tv/jwai7/clip/SuperFamousPangolinPeoplesChamp ) - Even though my soul was destroyed, it was still one of the funnest sets I've personally played to date. Ultimately, Scott was unable to advance to the next round placing 6th out of 7 but definitely reignited his passion for competitive Smash. "It was so much fun to play Smash again after such a long time not playing and now I go to everything and am loving it."

He was able to attend the next installment of ISOLATION COMBAT in July but slightly better results. He would take 2 sets, with one being against a player 2 seeds higher and was also able to steal a game of the top seed, Negima. While he didn't make it through to the second Round, Scott was definitely showing some improvement and great competitiveness. Scott would only be able to attend one more tournament in 2020, Redland Rumble, where he would be able to beat Timtam, Queensland's resident Pac-Man, and also take KaiDASH to game 3. Scott wouldn't be able to close the set out and finished with a respectable 17th out of 48.

2021 would be the reboot year for Scott as his results skyrocketed throughout the first few months of the year. At FNS, he would be able to best players such as Joe Fast, Ham, Seymourbutts, Joser, Classicjono and he would be able to dominate one of Queensland's long-timers Iroh in a spicy Falcon ditto. Scott's great determination and playstyle would see him take PR player, Spammage, to game 3 which showed his spark. At his first Couchwarriors' Ranking Battle in March he would be able to beat Gold Coast powerhouse Kaboose and former Power Ranked player Flex. He would take this momentum to his next FNS where he'd have his best performance yet. Scott was able to breakthrough and place 9th out of 48 managing to beat two formidable players, Cajeck and Mittens and only losing to Bro1 (another up and comer) and one of Australia's best players, Extra.

Scott continues to rise through the ranks, maintaining consistent results and continuing to show off his flashy and fun playstyle. He doesn't really have any competitive Smash goals - "I'm a very in-the-moment kind of player. My goals are more along the lines of figuring out different players or different playstyles. Whether I win or lose, I try to figure out why and then figure out counterplay. I think that's the most fun part of the game." Scott remains one of the community's favourite players to watch as his playstyle is extremely entertaining.

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You can find Scott at @scottmaxssb - Give him a follow and see his journey as well as some of his clips!