Adam Lindgren

Adam Lindgren (born 28 March 1993), known by his handle Armada, is a Swedish professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player from Gothenburg widely considered one of the game's greatest players of all time. He is a two-time champion of Apex, three-time champion of Genesis and two-time champion of EVO and is the highest-grossing Melee player ever. One of the "Five Gods" of Melee, along with Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, Lindgren is considered to be the top-ranked player from 2011 to 2013, as well as 2015 to present. Lindgren holds the mark for most money won in a single Melee tournament, pulling in $18,006.80 after winning Smash Summit Spring 2017 in March.^[2][3]

He uses Fox and Peach,^[4] and formerly used Young Link as a secondary character.^[5] Lingdren rose to fame with Peach, and he is still considered by far the best Peach in the world.^[6] He is also considered one of the best 2 vs. 2 players.^[7][8] Lindgren's other nickname is the Swedish Sniper, which comes from his use of Pit's light arrows in Project M^[9] and, less notably, Peach's turnips in Melee.

Gaming career

Lindgren started his gaming career in 2003 competing in the Swedish Nintendo Championship.^[10] Armada came to prominence in 2007 finishing 4th at The Renaissance of Smash 4, his first national tournament. Seven months later, he finished 3rd at Epita Smash Arena 2, the largest tournament in Europe at the time, defeating top ranked Japanese player, Masashi, before losing to Ryota "Captain Jack" Yoshida.

Each passing year, Lindgren was ranked progressively higher. In July 2011, Armada won the major tournament at the time, GENESIS 2, defeating number one ranked player, MaNg0.^[11] Lindgren remained undefeated worldwide^[12] for two years until EVO 2013 where he lost the title and 1st rank back to MaNg0.

After Apex 2013, Armada announced his retirement from competitive Melee^[13] although he did return to compete in EVO 2013, where he placed 4th, losing to PPMD 0–2 in winners' bracket and being eliminated by Mango 0–2 in losers' semis. He returned to the scene a year later, with B.E.A.S.T being his first tournament back.

Lindgren won Apex 2014's Project M title defeating Mew2King in grand finals.^[14] He along with Zimmerman, Marquez, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, are considered to be the "Five Gods" of Melee.^[8] On 6 November 2014 he left Empire Arcadia and became sponsored by professional gaming team Alliance.^[15]

At EVO 2014, Armada used Young Link as a counterpick against Hungrybox, who chose Falco as his counterpick. After convincingly defeating him in Game 1, Hungrybox switched to Jigglypuff and took both games 2 and 3 to take the set and move on to Grand Finals. Armada then had to face the best Pikachu player in the world, Axe, who just came out of an infamous 4-stock against Silent Wolf.^[16] Axe took an intense game 1 from Armada. Armada then convincingly took game 2. In the third game, it came down to a last stock, last hit situation. Armada barely took the last game, moving on to Loser's Semifinals. Armada convincingly beat PPMD 2-0, but lost to Hungrybox 2-3 in Loser's Finals. EVO 2014 was won by Mango over Hungrybox.^[17]

Lindgren finds Super Smash Bros. for Wii U considerably different from Melee and feels that he need to spend more time playing it.^[18] Since 2015, Armada has switched from maining only Peach to both Peach and Fox in tournaments. He cites Fox's ability to put mental pressure on opponents as a reason for this change.^[19][20][21] Armada faced PPMD in the grand finals of Apex 2015, while coming from the losers bracket, but eventually lost after forcing a bracket reset.^[22] Armada was the EVO 2015 Melee champion after defeating Hungrybox in the finals.^[23] By winning EVO, Lindgren received the largest single paycheck ever awarded in a Melee tournament at that time.

After winning EVO 2015, Melee It On Me (MIOM) ranked Armada as the best Melee player for the 2015 Summer SSBMRank, ahead of Leffen and Mango.^[24]

At Dreamhack London, Armada started off the Top 16 with a 3-0 win over Spain's Overtriforce. He then beat Sheik main and Holland's best player Amsah in Top 8. He then beat Falco main Westballz in both Winner's Finals and Grand Finals, both 3-0, to win a free trip to Dreamhack Winter. Westballz also earned a free trip by placing second.^[25][26]

At The Big House 5 in Dearborn, Michigan, Armada and his Europe crew, which also consisted of Android, Norway's Widl, Britain's Professor Pro, and Germany's Ice, participated in a crew battle, which consisted of Europe, SoCal, NorCal, Midwest, Canada, Tri-state, Florida, and New England. After a very close win against the Midwest that went down to the last hit and last matchup for Ice against KJH and another close win against Canada, which ended with Armada taking Kage's last stock, Europe went on to face SoCal, which consisted of Mango, Lucky, HugS, Westballz, and MacD. Even though Armada took eight stocks off of SoCal, SoCal came back, with Mango convincingly beating Ice by two stocks in the final battle.^[27] In doubles, Armada won with his brother Android, beating Mew2King and Hungrybox in Grand Finals.^[28] In singles Top 16 winner's side, Armada beat Mexico's best player Javi 3-0, Fox main SFAT 3-0, and Mew2King 3-1 in Winner's Semifinals to face off against Hungrybox in Winner's Finals. There, he beat the Jigglypuff God 3-0 with his Fox and then 3-2 in Grand Finals to take home the title.^[29]

Armada holds positive records over every Smasher he has played with the exception of Captain Jack (0–2) and Silent Spectre (0–1). He is also the only Smasher to have a positive record over Mango (23–20).^[30] He has lost sets to only eight different Smashers ever since he was considered a God: Mango, PPMD, Mew2King, Leffen, Hungrybox, Amsah, Trifasia, and Silent Spectre. Lindgren is also the only God to stand in the way of five Smashers who need to beat him to claim the title of beating all five Gods (Axe, Wobbles, Fly Amanita, Lucky, and Plup).^[31] Armada's lowest placing in his entire Melee career, excluding forfeits and sandbagging, is 5th place at both Paragon Orlando 2015 and Get On My Level 2016.

Personal life

Lindgren has 10 siblings, two of whom, Alexander "Aniolas" and Andreas "Android", also play Melee competitively.^[32] Lindgren currently works as a substitute teacher in Gothenburg and streams on twitch.tv in his spare time.

Armada is the subject of the upcoming spin-off of the documentary The Smash Brothers by producer Travis "Samox" Beauchamp entitled Metagame,^[33] due to be released in 2017. The project raised over US$30,000 on Kickstarter.^[34]

Notable tournament placings

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Project M

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

References

External links

• Adam Lindgren on Twitter