South America’s third and final 2022 Smash World Tour qualifying event will take place this weekend in Santiago, Chile. Like TRETA 2022, which took place in Brazil earlier this month, Zenkoku Taikai will be a gold event.
For many South American players, this tournament will mark the final opportunity to vie for a chance at the Smash World Tour Championships in December. Here’s everything viewers should know about Zenkoku Taikai.
We've got another STACKED weekend of Gold-tier events!
On Sept. 24-25 in Chile, fans of Melee & Ultimate won't want to miss SA's best compete at Zenkoku Taikai!
On Sept. 23-25 the next edition of MD's premier Ultimate series Glitch will feature talent from across the globe! pic.twitter.com/0DGwyP4bdk
— Smash World Tour 2022 (@SmashWorldTour) September 19, 2022
Players to watch
As the Ultra Hard champion, Fernando “Sekai Doggo” Bastias is already the frontrunner to represent South America at the SWT Championships. While winning this tournament would likely cement his position, doing so will be no easy feat. Sekai Doggo is seeded ninth, meaning he will likely have to upset the likes of Alejandro “Poyo” Manuel Reyes Incháustegui, Vicente “Wise” Flores and more to claim first place.
Meanwhile, Vicente “Chape” Sánchez will be the favorite to win the Melee bracket. During his stint in the United States as part of the Melee Stats Free Agent Showcase, Chape racked up wins against Yasin “Mekk” Mekki, Eduardo “Eddy Mexico” Lucatero Rincón, Evan “Fizzwiggle” Akhavan and Josh “Morsecode762” Morse. In addition, Chape currently boasts a 10-set win streak against the No. 2 seed at Zenkoku Taikai, Gianluca “Raikin” Carboni.
Zenkoku Taikai schedule
While the Zenkoku Taikai tournament organizers have not yet shared broadcast information publicly, the overall event schedule is available. The tournament will kick off at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday with Ultimate Singles pools. The double-elimination Ultimate pools will run all day Saturday.
Meanwhile, Melee will have round robin pools starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday. These pools will feed into a double-elimination final bracket starting at 3:30 p.m. On Sunday, an amateur bracket for Melee players who didn’t advance out of pools will begin at 11 a.m.
Ultimate top 32 will kick off at 10 a.m. on Sunday. Then, top eight of the Melee bracket will begin at 1 p.m. The tournament will end following the conclusion of Ultimate top eight, which will start at 4 p.m.
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