Smasher:Westballz

Westballz is a professional Melee main with strong  and  secondaries from Burbank, California. He is currently ranked 8th on the SoCal Melee Power Rankings, 31st on the 2019 MPGR, and was formerly ranked 7th on the SoCal Project M Power Rankings. Westballz solidified himself as a top 10 player at, where he upset 3-0 in pool play. He defeated him again 3-1 in losers' quarters at, where he also defeated in losers' semis 3-2. Additionally, he beat 3-1 at. Westballz is considered to be among the best Falco mains in the world along with Mango and, and is widely renowned as the most technical one.

On July 2nd, 2015, Westballz was picked up by Tempo Storm alongside, however has left the team a year later and signed with G2 Esports. On March 31st, 2019, Westballz left G2 Esports. On August 17th, 2019, he joined Thunder Gaming, but left on January 10th, 2020.

Origin of the name
Westballz created his gamertag while watching his brother play Halo, and based it off his brother's gamertag "Nickelnutz", replacing "Nickel" with "West" and "nutz" with "ballz".

Playstyle
Westballz is often seen as the most technical Falco player in the world in both Melee and Project M. He is infamous for his very high-risk/high-reward punishes, often going for extremely technically demanding combos that can rack up extremely high amounts of damage and put his opponents into dangerous positions. As such, his punish game as Falco, particularly his platform follow-up ability, is arguably the best in the world. A very technical player whose playstyle heavily incorporates shield dropping, Westballz generally tends to show off his tech skill as much as possible such as multishining in place even in a neutral position. He is also known for his flashy secondaries, most notably his, which he used to land a Sacred Combo on at Kings of Cali 3.

Westballz has stated that his success against top-caliber players stems from his ability to condition opponents and mix-up his approaches. He will often utilize a certain set of approaches in friendlies to condition players while learning their playstyle, then when he plays those same opponents in tournament, he will completely switch his playstyle, keeping his opponents adapting while controlling the match.

However, Westballz has a worse neutral game compared to his punish game. A common misconception is that Westballz is a very aggressive player, no matter who he is playing. However, against stronger players, he takes a much slower approach to the neutral game, spacing up tilts and back aerials to try to catch his opponent to then exploit his superior punish game, rather than directly applying pressure. This approach, combined with him not utilizing Falco's Blaster as well as other Falcos such as and, often leads to his opponent controlling the pace of the match if he cannot get an opening.

Additionally, while Westballz has more wins against top players like Mango and under his belt than most others of his caliber, he is rather inconsistent, and is infamous for losing games, or even sets, to players far below his skill level. At Rubicon 2, he gained a 3-stock lead on, but attempted to "style" on him with unsafe attacks for the rest of the game, allowing KJH to mount a 4-stock comeback. He also lost to, a mid-level Falco, at Low Tier City 2, after sandbagging and losing with in game 1. He also occasionally becomes overwhelmed by pressure, making untimely self-destructs that lead to his defeat, such as in Loser's Semis at Pat's House 2 against 's lone Ice Climber in a last stock, last hit situation. Intending to input a back aerial, he accidentally inputted an unsafe down aerial that spiked Popo onto the stage while he self-destructed, ending his run.

Westballz' zero-to-death combo on 's Fox in losers' finals of has become one of the most well-known combos in Melee history.

Trivia

 * He is known for wearing a hoodie for some of his tournament matches, especially during the cold season.
 * Westballz has placed 33rd at Apex 2013, 2014, and 2015.
 * Westballz has defeated 4 of the members of the 2015 top 6 players (all but and ), defeating  at MLG Anaheim 2014,  at Sandstorm,  at DreamHack Winter 2015, and  at Battle of the Five Gods.
 * He considers PPMD as his rival as all of their sets have been extremely close.