A young rising star in Smash Bros Ultimate from the East of England – Oliver ‘Bloom4Eva’ Alexander – has won a major tournament.
Unsigned player Bloom4Eva (aka Bloom) won Vienna Challengers Arena (VCA) 2022 Super Smash Brothers Ultimate in Austria last weekend, a competition which is a platinum tier event on the Smash World Tour – the tour’s highest tier.
403 competitors travelled to the Messe Wien Exhibition Centre in Vienna on October 1st 2022 to take part. And Bloom was the last player standing. Not only that, but he also became the first player to win a Smash Bros Ultimate major playing as the character Bayonetta.
But Bloom’s performance at VCA 2022 was no surprise for anyone from the UK. He has basically been running the UK both online and offline with his signature character Bayonetta and number of pocket characters since his first appearance in late 2019.
In recent Power Rankings, he is ranked #1 in both his region of East of England and for the entirety of the UK as well as being ranked #3 overall in Europe, only behind Sisqui from Spain and Glutonny from France, who is also ranked #6 worldwide.
The event also featured UK casting talent Asura, Focus Miss, Kopter and Sma, among others from around the world.
How Bloom4Eva performed at VCA 2022 – match reports
Going into VCA 2022, Bloom was seed #4, with Abadango (#7 in Japan), Sisqui and Glutonny above him. Bloom had a simple path out of pools, winning all three sets without dropping a game and qualifying for top 64 on the winners side of the bracket.
On the second day of the event, his first opponent was the person who had knocked him down to the losers bracket at Colossel in France, where he finished fourth: NaetorU. Bloom started out the set picking Pokemon Trainer against NaetorU’s Pichu. Although many knew that Bloom’s Pokemon Trainer was no joke, it was looking rough as he went 2-0 down in this best-of-five set. Bloom pulled out a new character, Mii Brawler, a character known for killing opponents extremely early off of stray hits, something that helped Bloom out a lot against the lightweight character of Pichu, pulling an amazing reversal and winning the set 3-2.
Following this, Bloom took on fellow countryman Shaneak, who Bloom had previously lost to at Tea Party back in March 2022, one of very few UK players to take a tournament or even a set from Bloom. After losing the first game of the set, Bloom took the next two games handily, forcing Shaneak to switch from Inkling to Joker, but Bloom still ended up taking the set 3-1. He would then take on French Pac-Man player MoDzai, who had just knocked out fellow EoE player Luugi, in the qualifier for top eight. Bloom made this a quick one with it being a 3-0 in his favour.
Moving onto the winners semi finals and Bloom was taking on Europe and France’s #1 player, Glutonny. In dominant fashion, Bloom took the first game barely giving any space to his opponent, finishing with a quick string of aerial combos to take out Gluto from the top of the screen. Game two, however, started off with Bloom having to take a more defensive stance as Gluto took an early lead, finishing the game off with Wario’s famous comeback mechanic of Waft (his down special move).
“For Smash, the main goal for me I guess – as it is for a lot of people – is to become the best. In my case, however, this goal is just for my friend who passed away, who wanted to become the best himself but never got the chance.”
Bloom4Eva
With a similar situation happening for game three, it looked like Glutonny had taken full control as he took the lead 2-1. All momentum swung back to Bloom in game four though as he quickly built up the damage, taking the first stock of the set before taking Gluto’s second stock at an extremely early percent, evening the set up 2-2 and going into game five with strong momentum and only one game away from a guaranteed third-place finish. (for non-Smash readers, a stock is essentially a life, and each player has three at the start of the game).
Game 5 started with many back and forth interactions as both players fought tooth and nail for that Winners Finals spot. Bloom took an early stock lead advantage but Glutonny answered back quickly taking two of Bloom’s three stocks. Bloom had a lot of work to do to take back the game as he fell down to his final stock against the French Wario’s 2 stocks with a full Waft on deck. As Bloom struggled to take Glutonny’s second stock, he was given a life line as the signature Wario Waft was whiffed, and with his win condition gone Bloom quickly finished up the final stocks to take the set 3-2.
With a minimum third place achieved, Bloom moved on to take on top Japanese player Abadango, a powerhouse player with a number of different characters that they can rely on. However for this set he pulled out Palutena, a character that has been strong and getting results worldwide since the release of Super Smash Brors Ultimate whilst Bloom switched back to Mii Brawler. In a bizarre set, Bloom opted to keep the combos short, only going for stray hits to keep the pressure up against Abadango. Ths proved extremely fruitful as Bloom took the set in a comfortable 3-0, making it to his first grand finals of a European Major.
One more set remained. Bloom was sitting in the grand finals waiting for his opponent. After defeating Sisqui and Abadango, the opponent Bloom would be waiting for is none other than Glutonny, a rematch of Bloom’s winners semi-finals set, who had now found himself in the same position as he was in VCA 2019, where he came second to #1 worldwide MKLeo, and VCA 2021, where he came second to #3 UK Peli. Bloom currently had the set record against Glutonny offline with a victory at Colossel and earlier in the day at VCA 2022 itself.
Game one of the finals started with both players going head to head, trading blow after blow. Glutonny took the lead, taking Bloom’s first stock but quickly answering back and evening up the game instantly. Bloom then built up the damage, taking Gluto’s stock, but this time it was his time to answer back as he took Bloom’s stock as quick as Bloom had taken his. As Bloom took full control of the final stock, it looked like he was about to take the first game, but Gluto turned it around with a quick Zero-To-Death in a nail biting three-minute game to go 1-0 up.
Whilst game two started similarly, Bloom quickly pulled ahead taking two of Glutonny’s three stocks and almost taking the final one before his opponent could even answer Bloom’s extremely strong advantage state. With this he evened out the set count to 1-1 in such a fast reply to the previous game. Bloom continued the dominance in game three and although the game would quickly even up, it was not enough as Bloom pulled ahead in the set, setting the score to 2-1 in his favour. Bloom only needed one more game to win the entire event, but as game four started, it seemed Gluto had found an answer as he started to control the pace of the entire set as Bloom was punished for a brave yet slow move that gave Glutonny the advantage and both players moved onto game five. 2-2.
If Glutonny won this game, it would reset the bracket and another best-of-five would ensue. If Bloom won this game, he would win the event. Both players were playing very carefully in this crucial set, not wanting to give any advantage to the other. Glutonny took the first stock of the game whilst Bloom struggled to answer back but answer back he did, taking Glutonny’s first stock and taking the second stock through a solid combo.
The game was looking strongly in Bloom’s favour but then it all came down to the last stock for both players. Glutonny had Wario’s Waft ability available but was at a high percentage and Bloom just needed a small opening. Glutonny was getting ready to finish it all when he missed the Waft again, just as he had in winners semis, and Bloom took full advantage, finishing the stock, the game, the set and becoming Vienna Challengers Arena 2022 champion.
What does the win mean for Bloom4Eva and what’s next for him?
With this victory, Bloom4Eva has cemented himself as European Powerhouse for Smash Ultimate with a 3-0 set record against Europe’s #1 Player Glutonny and a 5-0 set record against Europe’s #2 Player Sisqui.
With this win, Bloom also secured a spot at the Smash World Tour 2022 Finale in December, where he will go head to head against the world’s best players for a prize pool of over $125,000.
The UK contingent celebrated after Bloom’s win in Vienna:
The win comes after Bloom missed out on VCA 2021 due to issues with covid. He came into 2022 with the main goal of competing on the European stage, with his first EU Major being Colossel in France, where he placed fourth – the highest-placing European at the event. He only lost to French Pichu player NaetorU and Mexican Palutena player Chag, who is currently ranked #19 worldwide. After this, Bloom took his first trip to the US for Double Down 2022 in Las Vegas, placing 13th. Now he’s asserted himself as one of the best rising players in Smash.
So what’s next for Bloom?
He told Wade ‘AggresiveDuck’ White for Esports News UK: “Whilst I’m not quite sure, I’ve been really focused on writing recently, having written two books – one for mentality and the other just a fictitious story. It’s been going really well and it’s a big personal goal as I’ve always loved the idea of helping many people.
“For Smash, the main goal for me I guess – as it is for a lot of people – is to become the best. In my case, however, this goal is just for my friend who passed away, who wanted to become the best himself but never got the chance.”
Related article: Frenzy became the first UK player to play at Smash Summit 13 in the event’s history
Wade White is a Tournament Organiser for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate in London and Essex.
Writing for Esports News UK about Smash and other FGC events
