Smasher:Salem

Salem
Salem.png
Character info
Brawl main	Zero Suit Samus
Other Brawl characters	Snake, Marth
Smash 4 mains	Sheik, Zero Suit Samus
Project M main	Zelda
Other Project M character	Zero Suit Samus
Team info
Crew(s)	CLASH Tournaments
Personal and other info
Real name	Saleem Akiel Young
Birth date	August 1, 1994
Location	Atlantic City, New Jersey
Miscellaneous info
Skill	Top professional

Salem is an American smasher from New Jersey who mains what is considered to be the best Brawl Zero Suit Samus in the world, along with Choco from Japan. He has become infamous for his incredible usage of Zero Suit Samus's Power Suit Pieces to rack up damage at the beginning of matches, and his surprising victory at Apex 2013, one of the most prestigious Brawl tournaments in the United States.

Salem is currently ranked 6th on the Tristate Brawl Power Rankings. Due to his aforementioned dominance at Apex 2013, CLASH Tournaments has recently recruited him into their crew as a top professional player.

History

Before playing in the offline scene, he gained fame on the AiB ladder as an incredible Wi-Fi player, dominating the ladder with Zero Suit Samus. When he finally did enter an offline tournament, he made a large splash in his offline debut and got 5th in his first tournament, Concentrate II, where he defeated Nicole, Jbandrew, Will, and Kingtoon. He made more news a few months later at Apex 2012; while he did not advance very far in bracket, placing only 33rd, he managed to take a set off of Nick Riddle, who was then considered to be the best Zero Suit Samus player in the USA.

Throughout 2012, Salem continued to enter tournaments and place well, but never actually won or gathered much public attention until a dominating performance at Apex 2013, where he came out of nowhere to take first place. In his march to victory, he defeated top players such as mikeHAZE, Mr. R, Otori (the Apex 2012 champion), Dojo, Mikeneko, and Mew2King in both winners' and grand finals, the latter of which has been considered to be one of the most intense sets witnessed in Brawl tournament play. In the grand finals set, both players took the other down to the last stock and last match, before Salem eventually won after a long, drawn-out war of attrition. This shocked the world, as he had not only won one of the most prestigious Brawl tournaments ever with a character who wasn't considered top tier, but had done so without winning any local tournaments in his region prior to the event.

At Apex 2014, Salem placed 1st in his pool by defeating Mekos, and defeated fellow Zero Suit Samus main V115 before losing to ESAM in winners'. He proceeded to defeat Pwii and Koolaid before losing to ADHD 1-2 in a close set, placing 9th overall and outplacing Nick Riddle once again.

Notable tournament placings

Brawl

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Concentrate II	October 22nd, 2011	5th	2nd	Anti
Apex 2012	January 6th-8th, 2012	33rd	65th	Meekspeedy
SKTAR	July 14th-15th, 2012	17th	—	—
Impact IV	August 25th, 2012	5th	2nd	Chibo
Collision V	September 1st, 2012	5th	3rd	Chibo
Apex 2013	January 11th-13th, 2013	1st	—	—
SKTAR 2	August 3rd-4th, 2013	33rd	7th	Vex Kasrani
Thanks for Playing 4	December 21st, 2013	2nd	—	—
KTAR 8	December 28th, 2013	17th	3rd	ZeRo
Collision 8	January 11th, 2014	3rd	2nd	Vex Kasrani
Apex 2014	January 17th-19th, 2014	9th	9th	Vex Kasrani
SKTAR 3	May 31st-June 1st, 2014	17th	—	—
Apex 2015	January 30th-February 1st, 2015	4th	2nd	Mew2King

Project M

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Thanks for Playing 4	December 21st, 2013	3rd	1st	ZeRo
KTAR 8	December 28th, 2013	5th	—	—
Collision 8	January 11th, 2014	1st	—	—
SKTAR 3	May 31st-June 1st, 2014	13th	13th	Xzax

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Sky's Smash 4 Invitational	November 20th-22nd, 2014	9th	5th	K9
Collision X	November 29th, 2014	5th	5th	Chibo
Collision XI	January 3rd, 2015	9th	7th	Chibo

External links

• Salem's tournament history on All is Brawl
• Salem vs. Mew2King grand finals at Apex 2013