For a long time Upstate, New York has been somewhat isolated compared to other Melee regions. We built our communities with local players from cities like Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, Syracuse, and Binghamton. We have a good amount of talent in my opinion. Tournament events are pretty consistent in Upstate although they are not as frequent as events like Nebulous in New York City which are 2 to 3 times a week, but we have local events like Cusetown Beatdown in Syracuse which is a fun monthly that is also partnered with the Syracuse biweeklies and all events being held at The Vault in downtown Syracuse, but we don’t get a lot of traveling talent coming through. In my 4 yrs being a part of the Upstate Melee Community, I have seen a few players from New York City, such as The Moon, DJ Nintendo, and Hax$ come through for some of our annual or monthly events. I also remember Plank coming through to compete against the Upstate heroes. We didn’t defend the area against all invaders but we put up a fight, but as the battle for king, it seems to have been decided long ago with Rochester’s own JesiahTEG. In the time I have been here Jesiah has dominated the region, consistently beating players like Pika Pika, Mask, Jank, Beta, and Manalord. With his 2 characters being Marth and Fox he has slashed, grabbed, shined and kicked his way to victory. There have been many challengers over the years to go head to head against this region's number 1 but have come up short in Grand Finals. He hasn’t remained undefeated over the years but he has won the most Grand Finals in the region. He defeated Gravy back in the day before he went down to Florida and leveled up to 20GX. JesiahTEG is a player of unquestionable skill and has cemented his status as the greatest of all time in upstate. In recent years he has lost sets to some new players on the rise. AndrewAJT the Ice Climbers player from Connecticut who took a Grand Finals set from Jesiah but stopped coming to events because of issues with his hands. IBDW and Jank who have each respectively taken sets away from Jesiah and the new Sheik on the come-up, Jmook. This leads to the question: could there soon be a new king of Upstate? Jmook has been winning grand finals in Syracuse since Syracuse biweekly 22. Dropping the only grands in Syracuse biweekly 24 to the one and only JesiahTEG, but with notable wins against Mask and Chess he is the next best contender for king of upstate. Sure he hasn’t been around very long but with his most recent wins back to back at Syracuse biweekly 27 and sucker punch beating JesiahTEG in Grand Finals at both events it's hard to deny when he’s got the results. So I am extremely excited to see what is in store for Upstate Melee now that we have someone who is actually in contention for no.1 in the region and is consistently putting up results that back up the argument. Will the current king adjust ? Jesiah has put on the pressure with his Fox in the past and his Marth should always be feared. With Marth, Sheik, and Fox smack dab in the middle of the current metagame, it will be interesting to see how the story unfolds.