Smasher:Hax

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Hax "Hax$"
Hax money.jpg
Character info
Melee main Fox
Retired Melee character Captain Falcon
Smash 4 main Captain Falcon
Project M mains Fox, Captain Falcon
Team info
Former sponsor(s) CLASH Tournaments, VGBootCamp, Even Matchup Gaming
Former crews S.W.A.T.
Rankings and results info
Most recent ranking Super Smash Bros. Melee MPGR 2019: 19th
Best historical ranking Super Smash Bros. Melee SSBMRank 2013: 6th
Winnings Super Smash Bros. Melee ~$14,018.18
Personal info
Real name Aziz Al-Yami
Birth date (age 29)
Location New York City, New York United States

Hax$ (pronounced "Hax Money"), informally known as Hax, is a Melee player based in Manhattan. He used to solo main Captain Falcon with the pink costume (commonly known as Captain Fabulous); however, in early 2014, he switched to solo maining Fox, and was widely regarded as the most technical Fox player when he was still active. In April 2016, he went on a indefinite hiatus due to having a calcified FCU tendon, which was left untreated because no surgeon was willing to remove it. During this hiatus, he began working on the B0XX, a controller designed in a similar vein to the Smash Box by Hitbox, after having tested the Smash Box and finding it unsatisfactory. He has also slowly made a return to competitive Melee as of March 2017, having finally been treated for his hand problems. He would attend various Melee events showcasing the potential of the B0XX, and spent a long time balancing it to be as fair to a GameCube controller as possible. By 2019, he was considered to be playing at a level similar to when he played on a GameCube controller.

Hax was formerly ranked 2nd on the New York City Melee Power Rankings and 19th on the 2019 MPGR.

He joined Even Matchup Gaming on January 29th, 2019.[1] He left the team on January 7th, 2021.[2]

As of June 2021, Hax$ has been banned from tournaments due to repeated - allegedly defamatory - remarks made towards Leffen, and Hax's persistent reinforcement of these statements[3], which were deemed to constitute harassment.

Tournament History[edit]

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Origin of the name[edit]

Hax used to be into competitive Pokémon. In the context of competitive Pokémon, "hax" is lingo for the uncontrollable RNG involved in battles, such as critical hits, that can sometimes undeservedly turn the tide of a match. The high number of angry players who would call "hax" after severe losses due to this prompted Hax to name himself after this term. When switching to competitive Melee, Hax wanted a fourth character in the space given for tags in-game, and decided to add the dollar sign to it, eventually giving birth to "Hax$" or "Hax Money".

2008-2009: Starting Off[edit]

Hax began his Melee career as an up-and-coming Captain Falcon main who quickly rose up the ranks in his region. At his first major tournament, Pound 3, he placed 9th; he lost to Mew2King in the first round of winners' bracket, then ran through losers' bracket and defeated LoZR, Silent Wolf, and Colbol in losers', then was eliminated by Azen. A year later, at Revival of Melee, Hax once again showed fantastic prowess with his Captain Falcon; he lost to Eggm in winners', but went on another mini-run through losers' bracket, taking out thumbswayup, HBK, and RaynEX. He then lost to Jman 0-2, with both games going down to the last stock, finishing at 13th in singles overall.

Hax's next major was Apex 2009, which was also his biggest breakthrough in the Melee scene to that day. At that tournament, he defeated ChuDat in winners' bracket before losing to Jman, but went on another run through losers', this time taking out big names such as Anther, Scar, and Kage before losing to ChuDat in a rematch, placing 4th overall. At GENESIS, he teamed with Hungrybox, where they were defeated by Armada and Aniolas in the winners' bracket. They rose through the losers' bracket, but only reached 13th place. He reached 7th place in Melee singles, besting many of the most talented players from North America and Europe.

2010-2011[edit]

Hax then reached 13th place at Pound 4, the second highest placed Captain Falcon at the tournament (behind SilentSpectre, who was considered the strongest Captain Falcon at the time). In doubles, he teamed with Darc and was rather successful, placing 4th. At Apex 2010, Hax once again lost in the first round of winners', this time to I.B from Canada. He then eliminated WarriorKnight, th0rn, Silent Wolf, and finally, ChuDat in a rematch from Apex 2009, before being stopped by Zhu's Falco, placing 9th overall in singles.

After a comparatively low placement of 13th at Revival of Melee 3 and a handful of tournaments where he failed to break the top 8, Hax once again placed within the top 8 at Pound V. There, he continued his trend of losing very early in winners' bracket, this time to Zhu. He then tore through losers' bracket, defeating tect, MacD, Kels, Amsah, and VaNz, before meeting and being defeated by Axe in losers' quarters, finishing 5th overall. He also placed 3rd in teams, teaming with Hungrybox. Hax then placed 9th at GENESIS 2, where he sent HomeMadeWaffles to losers' and eliminated Fuzzyness and Fly Amanita, but was defeated by Taj in winners' and PPMD (then known as Dr. PeePee) in losers'.

2012: Best Falcon in the world[edit]

Hax placed in top 8 at Apex 2012. Although he lost to Zhu 1-2 early in winners' bracket, he eliminated SFAT 2-1 and MacD 2-1 in losers' bracket before losing to JAVI 0-2 in losers' top 8. He continued to perform extremely well in tournaments later that year, with a 5th place finish at Zenith 2012 and Revival of Melee 5 and a 6th place finish at MELEE-FC10R Legacy. At the latter tournament, he made it into the final round-robin bracket, where he defeated Kels 3-1 and Darkrain 3-2, with the latter match solidifying his position as the best solo main Captain Falcon in the world. However, he lost to everyone else in the bracket, placing 6th overall.

2013: Turn to the Dark Side (20XX)[edit]

Hax placed in top 8 at Apex 2013, defeating JAVI 2-1 in a rematch in winners' bracket, as well as Kage 2-0, before losing to Dr. PeePee 0-2. In losers' bracket, he eliminated Axe 2-0, but then lost to Mango 0-2 for top 8. At EVO 2013, Hax defeated S2J 2-1 in the winners' quarters pool to make it into the semifinals pool. He lost to Dr. PeePee 1-2 in winners' bracket, and then to Ice 0-2 in losers' bracket, placing 9th overall.

At this point in his Melee career, Hax popularized the "20XX" joke, depicting a post-apocalyptic world where everyone played Fox to TAS levels of perfection. He also began claiming that Captain Falcon, as a character, was not strong enough to make him become the top Melee player in the community. Although many doubted that he would switch to Fox at first, Hax dropped Captain Falcon entirely after The Big House 3, much to the disappointment of many Captain Falcon fans. It seemed for a while that Hax would take his Fox to the top level at his next major after winning No Johns Monthly, defeating VaNz and The Moon in a dominating fashion.

2014: Rise of Fox in a summer of Smash[edit]

Hax underperformed in Melee singles at Apex 2014, placing 17th. He lost to s0ft in winners' finals of the first round of pools, and made it to losers' quarters in the second round of pools before losing to Ice 1-2. However, he managed to win Melee doubles with Mew2King. They lost to Mango and Lucky 2-3 in winners' semis, but once in losers' bracket, they managed to defeat Shroomed and S2J 2-0, Armada and Ice 3-2, and Hungrybox and Plup 3-1 to make it to grand finals against Mango and Lucky. They won the first and second sets 3-2 and 3-1, respectively.

Hax upset Mango 3-1 in winners' finals at WHOBO MLG, including two Fox ditto victories, but then lost two consecutive 0-3 sets in grand finals to his Falco. At SKTAR 3, Hax defeated players such as ZoSo and Nintendude in winners' bracket before losing to Armada 0-2. In losers' bracket, he eliminated ChuDat 2-0 and Zhu 2-0 before being eliminated by Mew2King 0-2 in losers' quarters, placing 5th overall. Due to Hax's strong placements at WHOBO MLG and SKTAR 3, he qualified for the MLG Anaheim 2014 championship bracket.

In his pool at MLG Anaheim 2014, Hax defeated Leffen 3-2, Colbol 3-1, s0ft 3-0, and Remen 3-0, but lost to PPMD 1-3, Mew2King 1-3, and Axe 1-3. He was seeded in losers' bracket in the championship bracket, where he eliminated S2J 3-2 and PewPewU 3-2 before being eliminated by Leffen 2-3, finishing off at 7th place.

At EVO 2014, the largest Melee tournament at the time, he placed 13th out of a massive number of 970 entrants. In the winners' quarters pool, he unexpectedly lost early to Zanguzen. However, he managed to sweep the losers' quarters pool, eliminating Lovage, Reason, DEHF, Hyprid, and Nintendude, before losing to Plup 0-2 in top 16, ending his run.

At Zenith 2014, Hax placed 2nd in Melee singles, defeating Fly Amanita 2-0 and Wizzrobe 3-1 in winners' bracket, making it to winners' finals against Mew2King. He won the first two games, including a win against Mew2King's Marth on Final Destination, though ended up losing the set 2-3. In losers' finals, he defeated Zhu 3-2. Hax then won the first set of grand finals against Mew2King 3-1, with another win on Final Destination, although he still lost the second set 0-3. Hax also won Melee doubles with Mew2King, defeating Axe and ZeRo in both winners' finals and grand finals.

2014: Post-summer of Smash and hiatus[edit]

Hax attended The Big House 4, the 4th largest Melee tournament of all time. In pools, he had a close set with Vro, where Hax won the set 2-1. In top 16, Hax faced off against Mango's Captain Falcon and Marth, losing 1-3, sending him to losers bracket. He then had a close set with Kalamazhu in losers, taking it 3-2 and advancing into top 8. After defeating Kels 3-0, he faced Armada in losers top 8, taking the first game convincingly, but ultimately ended up losing 1-3, placing 5th. In doubles, he teamed with fellow Fox main Leffen. They beat HugS and Lucky 2-0 and DJ Nintendo and The Moon 2-0 as well, before losing to Hungrybox and Plup 2-3. In losers, they defeated SFAT and Axe, and VaNz and MacD, both 3-1. In losers finals, they had a rematch with Hungrybox and Plup, but lost once again, this time 1-3, netting them 3rd.

Hax then attended the New York regional tournament Justice 4. In winners finals, he faced Armada, where he lost 1-3. After beating Zhu 3-0 in losers finals, he faced Armada once again in grand finals, which Armada won 3-2 in a much closer set. He also teamed with Armada in doubles, getting 1st without dropping a set.

On January 1, 2015, Hax announced that he would be taking an indefinite hiatus from Smash as a result of a hand injury and insomnia, forcing him out of Apex 2015.

2015: Return and second hiatus[edit]

Hax made his full return to Smash after recovering from his hand surgery at Super Nebulous 3 in late April 2015. He lost to Nintendude in winners semis 2-3, getting sent to losers. After beating Wizzrobe 3-1, he lost to Lucky in losers semis 2-3, placing 4th.

In July 2015, Hax announced another hiatus. In a blog post, he discussed his insomnia, which worsened whenever he was at a tournament. Hax surmised that his insomnia may be linked to his his perfectionist "20XX" mentality. Hax said he would still practice and attend some major tournaments, such as Apex and EVO, but would not attend as many tournaments until his insomnia was under control. Tafokints made a video detailing Hax's condition, saying that he, as of writing, was in a cast for his prior injury, but had been making progress, and would return in the near future.

2016: Second return and third hiatus[edit]

Hax has made a return at NYC Nebulous Prime Locals. He has defeated DJ Nintendo at these events, placing first in the ones he has attended. However, he has said in interview that he is not ready to return in full force just yet. His first huge tournament of 2016 was Shots Fired 2, where he placed 3rd, and used the money he got from the tournament to pay for his last surgery. His next big tournament was Pound 2016, where he went on a rampage through pools, making it to Winner's Ro32. There, he defeated smashers such as SFAT 2-1, Nintendude 3-0, and eventually defeated Mango in Winner's semis 3-2, in a nailbiter set where Mango missed a crucial edgeguard, giving Hax his ticket to Winner's finals against Hungrybox, where he was defeated 3-0. Sent to Loser's finals, Hax was pitted in a rematch against Mango, where again, he was defeated 3-0, ending Hax's run at 3rd place.

After initially making himself eligible for being voted to participate in Smash Summit 2, Hax drop out due to another hand injury. Its recurrence prompted another indefinite hiatus from Smash until he could fully recover.

2017-2018: Third return and the B0XX[edit]

Hax posted an update video on January 19th, 2017. In the video, he further detailed the complications with his hands and revealed that he had finally met a doctor that would treat most of his hand problems that arose, the incurable thumb joint arthritis that eventually developed on his left hand now prevented him from using a GameCube controller. Hax also discussed his experiences with the Smash Box arcade controller during his hiatus. While Hax had a relatively painless experience using the Smash Box even before the final hand surgery, he proposed several changes, most of which were shot down due to logistical issues with submitting them. Cactuar then approached Hax and told him about two Rutgers University engineering students, Arhum Siddiqi (also known as WatchingTime) and James Taylor, who were working on a Smash Box-based product called the "Icebox" that would work better for Ice Climbers players' desynching techniques. A controller design commissioned and approved by Frycook, Hax decided to contact them and contribute to improving the Icebox for use with Fox, slowly implementing the changes he initially submitted to the Smash Box team, and giving the product a new name: the "B0XX". Hax stated that the B0XX would be customizable, and additionally slated a return to competitive Melee for February 2017, though he would not attend a tournament until a month later at Smash Summit Spring 2017 as a commentator.

After a few months of attending locals on the B0XX, Hax won his first tournament with it, Nebulous Melee 85, in May 2017. Since he began using the B0XX, he has taken sets from ranked players such as Westballz, KJH, Crush, Fiction, Kage, Captain Smuckers, DJ Nintendo, and Qerb. He has also since made update videos defending his thinking on the legality of the B0XX and is still working on getting it legalized in the MIOM recommended tournament ruleset.

2019-2020: Partial resurgence[edit]

Hax had a rough start to 2019, placing 17th at GENESIS 6 and only winning some smaller tournaments. The Summer MPGR placed Hax at 25th in the world. Hax's results began to pick up in the summer when he got 9th at Shine 2019, he then went on to place 3rd at Mango's Birthday Bash beating Hungrybox in the process. This led to Hax's being ranked at 19th, 19 places better than in 2018. At the start of 2020, Hax attended GENESIS 7 where he was knocked into losers early by Leffen. He beat SFAT, Westballz, PewPewU and Shroomed for the opportunity to play Leffen again, in which Hax won 3-1. Hax placed 4th at GENESIS 7 after being reverse 3-0'd by Hungrybox. This placement also qualified him for one of the few invite spots to Smash Summit 9, where he placed 7th.

Playing style[edit]

Hax was arguably the strongest Captain Falcon player in the world, utilizing much of the same deadly combos as Falcon mains before him, but with a superior playstyle. Unlike other Captain Falcon players, who relied on what Hax saw as mindless aggression, Hax played very conservatively by utilizing camping and clever baits to get openings. This made him the strongest Captain Falcon against more defensive characters (such as Marth and Sheik), and eventually, in the world. He was also the most technical Captain Falcon player, as he had amazing reactions and spacing, and utilized difficult techniques such as the "Hax-dash", an invincible ledge-invincibility refresh that doubles as a visual mixup. As Fox, Hax continues pursuing a perfectionist mindset with fast reactions and extreme technical skill, but has become a lot swingier, notably using a lot of fadeback neutral airs and jittery close-range movement. Hax is known for going for nearly frame-perfect combos and theoretically unbreakable shine pressure, along with reaction tech-chases and a strong ledge-game, often retreating to the ledge to be able to invincibly ledgedash and regain a strong neutral position.

However, this perfectionism has also led to losses in certain matchups. For example, Hax will rush down and approach even defensive characters such as Jigglypuff and attack with drills and shines (the most "optimal" way to pressure), instead of playing more defensively with Blaster when the situation calls for it. This can lead to him overextending, which leaves him susceptible to Jigglypuff's lethal punishes. Additionally, Hax is susceptible to psychological pressure, as shown when Mango defeated him 3-1 with his secondaries at The Big House 4 using mostly hard reads. In addition, Hax's playstyle often is very strong at short-ranges where his execution is extremely consistant, but he is often hesitant to commit to longer range approaches, leading to difficulties vs some more conservative and campy players; an example of this would be Hax's set vs Mike Haze at Smash Summit 5, where Mike shifted to a more dash-dance campy style and reverse 3-0d Hax.

Tournament placings[edit]

Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner Earnings
MLG New York Playoffs 2006 October 13th-14th, 2006 49th
Killa Fleet Biweekly 6/8 June 8th, 2007 5th 4th Jman
Zenith 2007 September 29th, 2007 2nd
Pound 3 February 2nd-3rd, 2008 9th 5th Jman
Smashpocalypse V March 22nd, 2008 9th
Smashpocalypse VI December 13th, 2008 17th 9th Scar
Revival of Melee March 7th-8th, 2009 13th 13th Pakman
Apex 2009 May 9th-10th, 2009 4th
GENESIS July 10th-12th, 2009 8th 13th Hungrybox
S.N.E.S. August 21st-23rd, 2009 2nd 3rd Scar
The Tunes Monthlies # 4 November 14th, 2009 7th 2nd Alukard
Revival of Melee 2 November 21st-22nd, 2009 7th 5th Linguini
The Tunes Monthlies # 5 December 27th, 2009 4th 3rd Lovage
Pound 4 January 16th-18th, 2010 13th 4th Darc
Good Shit German July 24th-25th, 2010 13th 5th Scar
The Tunes Monthlies #8 July 30th, 2010 4th 1st Jman
Apex 2010 August 6th-8th, 2010 9th 4th Hungrybox
Revival of Melee 3 November 20th-21st, 2010 13th 2nd Hungrybox
Pound V February 19th-21st, 2011 5th 3rd Hungrybox
Zenith 2011 May 28th-29th, 2011 9th 3rd Mew2King
GENESIS 2 July 15th-17th, 2011 9th 2nd Hungrybox
Revival of Melee 4 November 19th-20th, 2011 5th 3rd Jman
Apex 2012 January 6th-8th, 2012 7th 5th Jman
Zenith 2012 May 26th-27th, 2012 5th 3rd Hungrybox
MELEE-FC10R Legacy August 12th-14th, 2012 6th 5th The Moon
Revival of Melee 5 November 17th-18th, 2012 5th 2nd Scar
Apex 2013 January 11th-13th, 2013 7th 9th Westballz
Smashacre Rising April 6th, 2013 2nd 1st Mew2King
Zenith 2013 June 1st-2nd, 2013 6th 1st Mew2King
EVO 2013 July 12th-14th, 2013 9th 5th Jman
The Big House 3 October 12th-13th, 2013 5th 3rd Dr. PeePee
Sudden Death 14 October 19th, 2013 1st
No Johns 1/4 January 4th, 2014 1st 1st Alukard
Collision 8 January 11th, 2014 1st
Apex 2014 January 17th-19th, 2014 17th 1st Mew2King
Smash Mode Sundays # 2 February 16th, 2014 2nd 1st Mew2King
Smash Mode Sundays # 3 February 23rd, 2014 1st
Stony Brook Biweeklies #9 March 1st, 2014 1st 2nd G$
Smash Mode Sundays # 4 March 2nd, 2014 1st
Revival of Melee 7 March 8th-9th, 2014 5th 1st Mew2King
The Next Episode March 22nd-23rd, 2014 7th 2nd SFAT
Smash Mode Sundays 3/30 March 30th, 2014 1st
Civil War VI April 12th-13th, 2014 3rd
Bar Wars: The Region Strikes Back April 26th, 2014 9th 2nd ChuDat
WHOBO MLG May 3rd-4th, 2014 2nd 1st Mango
Justice 3 May 24th, 2014 1st
SKTAR 3 May 31st-June 1st, 2014 5th 5th Westballz
Nebulous Saturday Melee 2 June 14th, 2014 1st 3rd Slox
MLG Anaheim 2014 June 20th-22nd, 2014 7th 5th Leffen
CEO 2014 June 27th-29th, 2014 5th Colbol
EVO 2014 July 11th-13th, 2014 13th 2nd Mew2King
Zenith 2014 August 2nd-3rd, 2014 2nd 1st Mew2King
Nebulous 9 August 9th, 2014 1st
Nebulous 10 August 16th, 2014 1st
Mass Madness CE August 23rd, 2014 1st 1st ZeRo
GUTS 3 September 19th-21st, 2014 1st 1st Mafia
The Big House 4 October 4th-5th, 2014 5th 3rd Leffen
Justice 4 October 11th, 2014 2nd 1st Armada
SmashLeague: New York October 25th, 2014 1st
Do You Fox Wit It? November 15th-16th, 2014 1st 1st Mew2King
KTAR XI November 22nd, 2014 2nd (Split) 1st Mew2King
Super Nebulous November 29th, 2014 1st 2nd DoH
Super Nebulous 2 January 24th, 2015 2nd
Apex 2015 January 30th-February 1st, 2015 33rd (DQ)
Super Nebulous 3 April 25th-26th, 2015 4th 2nd Wizzrobe
Press Start May 9th-10th, 2015 13th
Assault 3 – No Game No Waifu – Evolution May 16th-17th, 2015 1st 1st Victra
Get On My Level 2015 May 30th-31st, 2015 2nd 1st Hungrybox
EVO 2015 July 17th-19th, 2015 17th
KTAR XVII February 13th, 2016 1st 1st G$
Shots Fired 2 March 5th-6th, 2016 3rd
Do or DI March 11th-13th, 2016 3rd
Super Nebulous 4 March 26th, 2016 3rd
Pound 2016 April 2nd-3rd, 2016 3rd
Collision XIII April 16th, 2016 1st
Apollo III March 11th, 2017 9th
Apollo IV April 8th, 2017 17th 5th Just Jason
Nebulous Melee 82 April 15th, 2017 2nd
Flatiron 2 April 22nd, 2017 13th 33rd (DQ) Chillin
Nebulous Melee 85 May 20th, 2017 1st
OMEGA June 24th-25th, 2017 4th 5th JFlex
EVO 2017 July 14th-16th, 2017 33rd
Get On My Level 2017 July 28th-30th, 2017 17th 9th Crush
Apollo X October 14th, 2017 33rd (DQ) 1st Hungrybox
Nebulous Melee 100! October 21st, 2017 2nd 1st dizzkidboogie
Smash Summit 5 November 2nd-6th, 2017 13th 7th Crush
Tipped Off 12 November 11th-12th, 2017 7th
RISE Melee Regional November 25th, 2017 2nd Top 4 Slox
Pat's House 3 December 2nd-3rd, 2017 9th
Smash Valley: Lucky 7 February 17th, 2018 5th
Nebulous Melee 115 February 24th, 2018 9th 1st mayb
Nebulous Melee 116 March 3rd, 2018 1st 1st mayb
Nebs After Dark 107 March 6th, 2018 1st
Short Hops July 21st, 2018 7th 4th Rhyme
Apollo XIV July 29th, 2018 5th
The Big House 8 October 5th-7th, 2018 33rd
The Script - Episode 1 October 13th-14th, 2018 5th 2nd La Luna
Super AON 2018 October 20th, 2018 2nd 2nd mayb
Canada Cup 2018 October 26th-28th, 2018 5th
The Mang0: Homecoming November 10th-11th, 2018 17th 9th Bladewise
DreamHack Atlanta 2018 November 16th-18th, 2018 9th 1st 2Saint
Fireside Open 2018 December 1st, 2018 9th 4th TheSWOOPER
The Parking Lot - Friday December 14th, 2018 17th
Don't Park on the Grass 2018 December 15th-16th, 2018 5th
NYXL Pop-Up! December 22nd, 2018 3rd
Scorpius 2019 January 12th, 2019 1st
GIGA HOG: Era January 26th, 2019 2nd 4th lint
GENESIS 6 February 1st-3rd, 2019 17th
The Script 2 February 16th-17th, 2019 17th (DQ) 1st AbsentPage
GIGA HOG 5 February 23rd, 2019 1st
House of Paign 20 March 2nd, 2019 4th 1st AbsentPage
The Gang Steals The Script March 9th, 2019 9th
NChi Ultra March 16th-17th, 2019 1st
CT GamerCon 3 March 23rd-24th, 2019 1st
Battle of BC 3 March 30th-31st, 2019 4th 4th moky
The Scarlet Classic V April 14th, 2019 3rd
Giga HOG: Reloaded April 16th-17th, 2019 1st
Get On My Level 2019 May 17th-19th, 2019 13th
Major Flavor May 25th, 2019 1st 1st Jflex
Concrete Throwdown #2 May 26th, 2019 1st
Omega III June 8th-9th, 2019 2nd 7th Jflex
Cold Hard Smash 6 June 15th, 2019 2nd
GIGA HOG: Reunion June 22nd, 2019 5th
Spectrum #100 July 8th, 2019 5th
Paradigm Shift 2019 July 20th-21st, 2019 1st 1st Michael
GIGA HoG 8 July 27th, 2019 1st
Concrete Throwdown - Smash Edition 2 July 28th, 2019 1st
Spectrum #104 August 5th, 2019 1st
Super Smash Con 2019 August 8th-11th, 2019 65th
Spectrum Smash #106 August 19th, 2019 1st
Shine 2019 August 23rd-25th, 2019 9th 5th moky
Spectrum #108 September 2nd, 2019 2nd
DreamHack Montreal 2019 September 6th-8th, 2019 1st moky
Mass Madness 29 September 14th, 2019 1st
The MMOM Memorial November 9th-10th, 2019 3rd
Smash Hall: Melee at the Biergarten November 16th, 2019 1st
Mango's Birthday Bash December 7th-8th, 2019 3rd 5th Swedish Delight
Garden State Smashdown December 21st, 2019 1st
Scorpius 2020 January 4th, 2020 4th
GIGA HoG: Era 2 January 18th, 2020 1st
Hax's Nightclub S1E4 January 22nd, 2020 1st
GENESIS 7 January 24th-26th, 2020 4th
Smash Summit 9 February 13th-16th, 2020 7th
Gucci Gang: Leap Year Edition February 29th, 2020 1st
5 Days of Melee Online December 15th-16th, 2020 1st
Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 3 Online December 19th-20th, 2020 17th
Galint Melee Open Online January 9th-10th, 2021 3rd
Frame Perfect Series 4: ONLINE Online January 16th, 2021 2nd
Four Loko Fight Night Online March 6th-7th, 2021 65th
Galint Melee Open: Spring Edition Online March 19th-21st, 2021 5th
MORBIUS POP TOURNAMENTOnline May 29th, 2022 1st
Serious Sunday #8Online May 30th, 2022 1st
Serious Sunday #9Online June 6th, 2022 1st
Melee Heaven #14Online September 5th, 2022 1st
The Nightclub S6E1 January 4th, 2023 2nd
The Nightclub S6E2 January 11th, 2023 1st
The Nightclub S6E3 January 18th, 2023 2nd
The Nightclub S6E4 January 25th, 2023 2nd
The Nightclub S6E5 February 1st, 2023 1st
The Nightclub S6E7 February 15th, 2023 2nd
LVL UP EXPO 2023 February 17th-19th, 2023 4th
The Coinbox #50Online February 22nd, 2023 3rd $517.50
The Nightclub S6E9 March 1st, 2023 1st
The Coinbox #52Online March 7th, 2023 7th $75
The Nightclub S6E10 March 8th, 2023 3rd
The Nightclub S6E11 March 15th, 2023 2nd
The Nightclub S6E12 March 22nd, 2023 1st
Stage Select Final Destination March 28th, 2023 1st
The Nightclub S6E13 March 29th, 2023 4th
The Nightclub S7E1 April 5th, 2023 1st
Short Hops! April 8th, 2023 1st
The Coinbox #58Online April 18th, 2023 3rd $450
The Come Up 2023 April 22nd, 2023 4th
The Coinbox #61Online May 16th, 2023 3rd $900
The Coinbox #63Online May 31th, 2023 7th $75
Tipped Off 14: Resurgence June 3rd-4th, 2023 17th / 344
The Nightclub VIP 2 June 24th, 2023 2nd / 161
The Coinbox #66Online June 27th, 2023 2nd / 344 $1,000
The Coinbox #68Online July 11th, 2023 1st / 296 $1,200
Smash Factor X July 28th-30th, 2023 2nd / 137
The Off-Season 2 Open Bracket September 23rd-24th, 2023 Top 8 / 255
The Off-Season 2 September 23rd-24th, 2023 9th / 263 17th / 59 Gahtzu
The Function 3 November 11th, 2023 4th / 259
DreamHack Atlanta 2023 December 15th-17th, 2023 1st / 130

Project M[edit]

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
Sudden Death 14 October 19th, 2013 1st
Civil War VI April 12th-13th, 2014 9th
Bar Wars: The Region Strikes Back April 26th, 2014 5th
Zenith 2014 August 2nd-3rd, 2014 7th Wizzrobe
KTAR XI November 22nd, 2014 7th

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U[edit]

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
KTAR XI November 22nd, 2014 25th

Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]

Tournament Date 1v1 placement 2v2 placement Partner
G.I.M.P.E.D. 1 February 22nd, 2009 25th 9th Basic Sausage

Controversies[edit]

Evidence.zip 2[edit]

On June 4th, 2021, Hax posted a YouTube video and accompanying PDF file titled "Evidence.zip 2"[4], claiming in a tweet that it would "decide the fate of the entire Smash community."[5][6] The video, named as a sequel to the archive file that was used to advocate a ban for Leffen back in 2013, alleges that Leffen has mentally abused several people in his quest to become the best player, having been leery about him ever since his first interactions with him on SmashBoards in 2011. He urged the community to reconsider whom they were following and alleged several claims, or "charges", against Leffen:

  • Leffen has for several years attempted to systematically take control of the community by constantly pointing out others' flaws and downplaying his own to perpetually attempt to garner sympathy.
  • Leffen has never been explicit about the truth of the archive or his initial forgiveness plea, citing incendiary comments he made after the archive was first posted and right before his initial plea, and that the initial plea was a dishonest apology.
  • Leffen would deliberately attempt to organize events that coincided with other people's events and urged his followers to ignore them or castigated other events for poor time management.
  • Leffen propagated misinformation about the game's mechanics and the B0XX, and banned anyone that disagreed with him.
  • Leffen had gone through obsessive lengths to discredit the B0XX and its legitimacy as a competitive controller, posting a stream of what Hax$ calls "anti-B0XX propaganda" to his YouTube and twitter accounts.
  • Leffen galvanized a "smear campaign" against Hungrybox amidst their longstanding feud, ultimately culminating in someone throwing a crab at Hungrybox at Pound 2019.
  • Leffen immediately attempted to garner support from the newly formed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate community by painting Salem in a bad light, showing a hefty critique of his controversial "years of research" video.
  • Leffen completely distorted an account of an altercation he had with another Smasher into a story of abuse and prejudice to further paint himself in a sympathetic light.
  • Leffen used the fallout following the wave of harassment allegations back in July of 2020 to usurp the follower base of players that had been accused to present himself as a leader and safety net for people that had been mistreated by top players.

The video drew massive derision and backlash from the community, with many in particular condemning Hax's choice to analogize Leffen to political figures such as Adolf Hitler and accuse him of trying to establish a "totalitarian regime". Nevertheless, there are also many who claim that Hax's video has merit, if not tainted in overly dramatic language and comparisons, and point to the community's history in being overly forgiving of its best players as reason to not entirely dismiss Hax's accusations. Leffen himself posted that he was unsure of his next course of action and would be speaking to a lawyer.[7] Hax would eventually private the video, which has since been reuploaded by multiple smaller channels.

In response to the video, on June 9th, Beyond the Smash banned Hax from attending Smash Summit 11 in any capacity[8], citing safety concerns and believing the video promoted harassment and threats.

On June 11th, 2021, Hax published a revised version of the video[9], which in contrast was an hour shorter and consisted solely of Hax talking in front of the camera. Hax would speak on the subject through Twitter, posting an apology for the presentation of "Evidence.zip 2"[10] and continuing to post comments about the "situation" of the Smash scene. The revised video would also be privated later on.

iBDW conflict[edit]

On June 21st, 2021, iBDW accused Hax for downplaying and making fun of iBDW's story of being sexually assaulted by his own mother.[11][12] iBDW also tweeted that he attempted to retrieve evidence to support his claims from Facebook messages, but that Hax had deleted the relevant messages.[13] Hax responded in a series of now-deleted Tweets, accusing iBDW for faking the story in order to gain Hax's sympathy as well as taking his comment out-of-context.[14]

Due to both the iBDW and Leffen controversies, on June 21st, Tiramisu announced that Hax was banned from the Melee Online Discord server.[15]

Following the accusation and ban, as well as the evidence.zip 2 controversy, Hax posted a TwitLonger on June 23rd, in which he apologized on how he handled both controversies and claimed to "exonerate" himself from iBDW's claims.[16] However, he refused to backtrack on any of the accusations made to both Leffen and iBDW. In particular, he reiterated how iBDW falsified many parts of his story in order to salvage their decaying friendship, and after that failed, iBDW went on to make several defamatory statements on Hax to try and ruin his reputation. Hax concluded the TwitLonger by once again apologizing for his behavior within the last few months and stating that he was willing to ban himself for 3 months due to how he initially handled iBDW's accusations. Hax then posted a second TwitLonger a few hours later, in which he further responded to iBDW's rebuttal, paragraph by paragraph.[17] Hax concluded this TwitLonger by asking iBDW to both contact him in private and dismiss his claims against him, lest he take legal action against him.

Within an hour of posting the second TwitLonger, Hax deleted his tweets that linked to both of the TwitLongers he had posted that day. He then tweeted that he would take a hiatus, saying he didn't find it possible to continue discussing the controversies.[18] In the tweet, he also apologized to the community and reiterated his request for iBDW to contact him. The next day, iBDW revealed in a Twitter thread that the two indeed talked in private and were now mostly on the same page, noting that Hax is "clearly not cool with sexual assault/incest."[19] Hax also returned to Twitter to post about the conversation, apologizing to iBDW, whom he called "a good man," and the community while also limiting his guilt to certain comments he made in his own Discord server.[20]

Ban from Events[edit]

In June 2021, on the same day as iBDW's final announcement, several TOs from many US states signed a document that banned Hax from their tournaments, and his name was added to the Global Ban Database.[3] The ban was made using the previous SSB Code of Conduct Panel's 2.2.1 (Level 2) and 2.2.3 (Level 3) offences and was deemed indefinite.

The ban reasoning can be summarised as follows:

  1. The accusations were deemed baseless, particularly comparing Leffen's presence as a totalitarian regime, the belief that Leffen solely called out ZeRo for personal gain, and saying that Leffen would prefer ZeRo was dead following his suicide attempt.
  2. The calls to deplatform Leffen constituted incitement for harassment, and his fanbase response shows that this incitement has teeth to it.
  3. Hax$'s refusal to recant the statements and double down, only deeming the flaws as "tactical errors", show a lack of remorse for his actions and that these were fully intentional, not simply mistakes.

Under the rationale of the accusations being baseless, considering the 4 hours of content and the 136-page document, these remarks were deemed extremely severe and constituted an indefinite ban from events.

Notable events banning Hax$ include GENESIS, Shine, Phoenix Blue, Riptide, The Big House, and DreamHack. Outside of several US states, Hax$ is also banned from Austrian, British, Finnish, and Portuguese events, as well as Melee Online events.

As of January 2024, Hax$ has been unbanned from some events, but not all, prompting continued ban appeals.

Evidence.zip 3 & Ban Appeal[edit]

On August 14th, 2021, Hax released another revision to his video called Evidence.zip 3. In the video, he accuses Leffen of creating social engineering campaigns against multiple players, such as Hungrybox and Hax himself. The video also reiterates multiple allegations from "evidence.zip 2", such as character profiles from the original "evidence.zip" and alleged harassment levied towards Hax himself. Hax alleges that Leffen deleted 6 years worth of tweets in response to his evidence.zip 2 video, as well as being lawyer-bluffed. Hax also criticises his global ban from the scene, saying that his accusations had evidence and were not libelous or defamatory as his ban statement claimed, as well as claiming that his ban was hypocritical when doing nothing in regards to Leffen.

Building on some accusations from "evidence.zip 2", Hax points out Leffen's sudden tonal shift towards Hungrybox in 2017 and accuses him of social engineering against Hungrybox to usurp his followerbase. Hax discusses where he tried to talk Leffen out of this at Smash Summit 5, but failed to do so. Hax accuses Leffen of blackmailing Hungrybox during 2017, where he continually talked about "terrible things" Hungrybox was doing but never releasing them; Hax claims that this prompted Hungrybox to stay silent. Hax also claims that the then newly introduced Snowy was used by Leffen in his now-deleted "One of many reasons to dislike hbox" video to create "Hungrybox story" memes, which eventually culminated into Hungrybox being harassed in a Walmart store in April 2018. Hax also argues that Leffen later decided Snowy was of no use to him and began to openly slander him.

Hax once again accused Leffen of manipulating the #MeToo movement, pointing out that the victim testimony given in his video on the allegations in the Smash community on July 2nd contradicted C's statement in the original evidence.zip, which pinned Leffen himself as the abuser. He also accused Leffen of misrepresenting and even contradicting many claims in his videos on the topic, as well as making insincere tweets to "gain clout". Hax further criticised Leffen for circulating the rumour about Mew2King masturbating on a Smash player, which was proven to be false after Mew2King addressed the allegations. Earlier in the video but relevant to this topic, Hax built upon Technicals' video on Sky Williams and also accused Leffen of conspiring with Jisu, whom he claimed was manipulative when they were dating, to defame ZeRo with baseless allegations, before verifiable accusations against him had emerged. He restated Technicals' claims that Leffen's allegations of ZeRo sharing pornographic images with other Smashers were moot, for not only were they of age, but they also testified that they were looking at normal images of anime girls instead of porn. Hax also pointed out that, prior to Jisu's allegations against ZeRo, Jisu contacted Leffen, and made her tweet statement only minutes after Leffen tweeted that he would log out of Twitter to gather his thoughts. Hax claimed that this was strategic and part of the conspiracy, accusing Leffen of drawing attention to the allegations for personal gain and trying to become the most popular Smasher on Twitter by forcing ZeRo into retirement, allegedly in a similar manner to the way Leffen treated Hungrybox. Hax also believes that Leffen's wish to expel Technicals from the community in response to their challenges to the allegations is an attempt to further manipulate the situation.

Hax criticised Leffen for his response to Samox's Metagame documentary, claiming he lied about his old controversies and pressured Samox to "censor" victim testimonies and other information regarding them. Hax also expressed concern about the revised version of the documentary, particularly regarding the narrative about the original evidence.zip and the portrayal of Leffen as a "hero", as well as how Leffen now had a theme song deriding the evidence.zip archive. He alleged that this set a precedent for top players to lie and control the narrative, and argued that Samox had not only become one of Leffen's "victims" by giving into Leffen's manipulations, but broke his "integrity" as a purveyor of facts by underrepresenting the accusations in evidence.zip.

Hax's final accusations targeted Leffen's social media behavior, particularly the alleged dishonesty of his profile bio's and him blocking anyone attempting to discuss the allegations on either Twitter or his Twitch stream. He restated a claim from evidence.zip 2 that this behavior exhibited a degree of narcissism and psychopathy indicative of the dark triad, something he believes those who testified in evidence.zip were worried would eventually "erode" the Smash scene. Hax also condemned Leffen for allegedly letting this behavior rub off on people like Jisu, who went silent on social media for several days after Technicals' video on Sky Williams and never offered a proper response to it, whilst blocking anyone that attempted to discuss it. Hax concluded the video by admitting that accusing Leffen of creating a "regime" is extreme, but alleged that there was no better way to describe Leffen's actions.

The video was criticised primarily for the same reasons as "evidence.zip 2", with onlookers expressing skepticism for a myriad of Hax's claims. Many argued that Hax's videos were indeed defamatory, with them believing that the claims and motives are out of character or even extreme. Others have criticised Hax for repeatedly using the original evidence.zip, believing that Leffen has changed and the antiquated nature of the document makes it questionable to cite. Finally, the video was criticised for comparing Leffen to Donald Trump as an allegory to paint the former as "totalitarian". Nevertheless, some in the community have chosen to side with Hax, particularly those who watched Technicals' video on Sky Williams and agreed that there is precedent for Leffen manipulating situations for his own benefit, as well as agreeing that Hax's ban was unjustified and hypocritical.

Continued Ban Appeals & Apologies[edit]

On August 29th 2021, Hax released another video contesting his ban from the scene[21], which directly addresses a document by Mikey outlining the reasons for his ban[22]. He criticized the statement for saying there was no evidence to back his allegations and for being overly generous to Leffen overall, and argues that the very logic used to justify his ban could be used to justify banning Leffen for his interactions with Hungrybox alone.

On September 24th 2021, Hax released a video[23] where he apologised for his conduct throughout his conflict with Leffen, claiming it to come from an argument over the revision of the Metagame Documentary that he took too far. This also came with an apology tweet on Twitter[24].

On July 25th 2022, Hax issued a public apology to Leffen, Jisu, and others affected by his conduct resulting from evidence.zip 2[25]. In the video, he revealed that he was suffering from alcoholism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a bout of psychosis. He also apologised for his comments on the #MeToo movement, citing his black and white thinking as a contributing factor. He revealed that since these events, he had been sober for 9 months and has been working on his personal issues.

On 28th October 2023, Hax$ released a ban appeal video on his YouTube channel[26], apologising to Leffen, tournament organisers, and more. He also discussed the progress he made in the 2 years since his ban.

Hax$ would release another ban appeal on 21st January 2024[27], wherein he also leaked the testimonies from the original 2013 Evidence.zip. The ban appeal was later unlisted and archived on a separate channel. A week later, Hax$ would release a video titled "The Truth"[28], which continued to link the leaked Evidence.zip testimonies.

Trivia[edit]

  • Hax popularized the "20XX" meme in the Melee community. 20XX is an allusion to the introduction of Mega Man, that announced that "The year is 20XX". 20XX describes a futuristic, potentially post-apocalyptic setting, where the metagame and technical skill of players have reached a point where they can no longer continue to improve. Accordingly, only Fox is viable, and as players can perfectly capitalise on every situation, matches are determined by a rock-paper-scissors match for port priority. The joke is often referenced in Fox mirror matches and particularly impressive displays of tech skill by players. An example of this occurred at Apex 2014, when during Melee doubles there was a match during grand finals where all four players were playing Fox. The commentator, Prog, said "Are you aware of the year..." before his partner, D1, interrupts with "20XX. Here we go!". Toph had previously elaborated on the joke at The Big House 3:

Hax's thing is like, "The year is 20XX. Everyone plays Fox." And there's this whole post-apocalyptic universe that is built off of Fox being the only viable character left. Humanity has reached its pinnacle. The peasants are living in poverty. And there are these monasteries where these Fox monks just levitate and TAS Fox with one controller in one hand, and win a tournament with the other. And the tournament metagame has gotten to this point where everything is played out to theoretical perfection, so they Rock-Paper-Scissors for port priority, and that's the set. And everyone gets really excited about the port priority RPS, so RPS's metagame has really evolved to where it's really just like RPS tournaments are now. And then we have warriors like Kevin Toy and Europhoria desperately trying to prevent the apocalypse, the Fox Apocalypse, from happening with their Marths.

  • When interviewed at Super Nebulous 4, Hax mentioned that both the 20XX meme and his usage of Fox were partially attributable to Mango and PPMD.
  • Similar to the 20XX meme, Hax also coined the term 666XX, about Hungrybox's American dominance in early 2016 with Jigglypuff.
  • Since his switch to Fox, Hax commonly expresses his dislike for Captain Falcon as an inferior character in Melee, to the point where he claims the optimal strategy for using Captain Falcon is to "L R A Start Fox"-- or quitting out of the match to select Fox on the character select screen. Hax even created a B0XX with only those buttons available on the "Falcon Design".
  • Hax is known for starting a copypasta within the Smash community. After he lost to Mango at The Big House 4, where Mango was using Captain Falcon and Marth instead of his mains Fox and Falco, Hax tweeted about Mango's "disrespectful" gameplay, accusing Mango of being "a straight up jerk" and "so BM [bad-mannered]" because he picked "joke characters" in a serious tournament match. The exaggerated language in this tweet has since led to its parroting on reddit and other online communities.
  • In addition to Super Smash Bros. Melee, Hax has played a variety of games competitively:
  • Hax placed 2nd in the 12 and under Nationals for the 2006 Pokemon Journey Across America Tournament.
  • Hax used to attend tournaments for the Pokémon Trading Card Game. He notably made it to the quarterfinals of the 2008 World Championships Senior Division, after finishing the Swiss rounds in 1st place.
  • In the game League of Legends, Hax was one of the best Twisted Fate players in North America, attaining the Challenger rank (the highest in the game) two seasons in a row.

References[edit]

External links[edit]