Just under a week from today an exciting event will be taking place for the Type Lumina community. Crystal’s “New Moon Arcadian” offers the rising stars of the Lumina community a chance to feel the rush of victory in an Arcadian style bracket. With a $50 pot bonus and a secret special prize to the winner, competition in this bracket will be fierce, ardent, and will crown a new tournament champion to boot!
For those unfamiliar with these types of brackets, Arcadians are common in the Super Smash Bros. community for regions with large in-person playerbases. In Arcadian brackets, players on regional and/or state Power Rankings are banned from competing, allowing one of the up-and-coming players of the scene to take home a bracket against their equally motivated peers. The New Moon Arcadian operates on the same premise, barring entry from players who placed at/won certain events throughout the past few years.
Below is the New Moon Arcadian’s ban policy:
The qualifications for meeting the ban list are as follows:
- Have won a Monday Night Mashfest past the date of 8/19/22.
- Are a PSA Summit or PSA Summit 2 Finals Qualifier, won a PSA Circuit Qualifier online bracket or won a Blitz Blood Melter.
- Made a Top 8 placement at one of the following offline major events:
— Frosty Faustings ’23, ‘24
— Crossover Arc ’23, ‘24
— Combo Breaker ’23, ‘24
— CEO ‘23
— EVO ’22, ‘23
— Climax of Night ‘22
— CEOtaku ’22, ’23
(- The New Moon Arcadian on start.gg)
As of the time of writing, the tournament sits at an impressive 37 entrants with registration open for all of North America. With the stage set for new and old players alike to take home a prestigious tournament, let’s go over some of the most likely players to make waves in bracket.
Pala
Almost certainly the favorite to win the bracket, Pala enters the New Moon Arcadian after a lengthy absence from netplay tournaments. Of course, not before entering one Monday Night Mashfest event and clearing by Erin and Kikoho before being disqualified in Grand Finals due to an unfortunate connection test. Still, Pala’s performance at Mashfest showed the Lumina playerbase that they have improved considerably since the last time they took the stage. With rigorous connection testing from numerous players in preparation of the Arcadian confirming that Pala is good to go, it will be no surprise if Pala is able to cleanly sweep through the bracket and take home first place.
Kirby
If you’ve been keeping up with this column, you’ll recognize Kirby from his appearance in our very first article where he was credited as one of the most improved Lumina players of 2023. Kirby is a frequenter of online top 8s in events such as Monday Night Mashfest and PSA Circuit 2 Qualifier events. His impressive resume does not consist of only placements, but also set wins over Phantom, Fusshy, Arhkma MuddyKipz, DrackMae, gozen, and countless other strong players. Despite his impressive list of wins and placements, Kirby hasn’t been able to clutch out the gold at a big tournament yet. The New Moon Arcadian is a big chance for Kirby to put himself out there as the next player about to break through to the top.
Chester
Coming off an impressive first place finish at Game Lab Mega Monthly #13, at which she double-eliminated raiden to win the tournament, Chester and her immense wealth of Kouma knowledge are seeking to take home another gold. Her onslaught of offense currently finds itself in a bracket with few zoners, such as Vlov or Red Arcueid, to worry about, possibly allowing her general playstyle to plow through her opponents with ease. Chester is an extremely strong player with a bracket that currently looks favorable to her playstyle. She just needs to put it all together on tournament day.
Library
Shockingly in Chester’s blurb, the phrase “few… Red Arcueid(s)” instead of “no… Red Arcueid(s)” is used. This is because Library, an active Red Arcueid player once upon a time, has decided to join the bracket. He boasts respectable major performances such as 17th a CEOtaku 2023, 33rd at both COMBO BREAKER 2023 and FROSTY FAUSTINGS XV 2023, 13th at FROSTY FAUSTINGS XIV 2022, and a slew of strong performances at regional events such as 2nd at Roundhouse 2022. Library is a strong player with a clear knowledge of how to pilot Red Arcueid, but has he been keeping up with new setups for the character? Does he know how to combat the more developed Powered Ciel and Mario matchups? Only time will tell.
Nighto
One of the few Akiha representatives remaining in the United States, Nighto has a real chance to make waves in the New Moon Arcadian. After a strong 9th place showing at Crossover Arc 2023 beating Kikoho and Jaykom, Nighto shows that he has the skill to succeed against the best of the best. Though he’s failed to reach similar performances since then, his infrequent status in online events make it difficult to determine just how well he’ll perform in this one. He’s strong for sure, and though whispers of his shaky tournament nerves threaten to curse his bracket performance, he can make it far in the Arcadian as long as he keeps it together.
Yunxmi
Another member of our “Most Improved Players of 2023” list, Yunxmi brings his newly trained Dead Apostle Noel to the New Moon Arcadian. Despite Yunxmi’s relatively short amount of time on the character, he has already put up some good results with DAN. He placed 5th at Monday Night Mashfest #141 beating Lucy and Jaykom and placed 2nd at Melty Friday Type Lumina #41 beating piko and RathSilk. Just as Yunxmi showed with Ushiwakamaru, his aptitude for improving is incredibly high. Who knows how well he’ll perform this weekend, but I personally wouldn’t be surprised to see an upset or two.
Strokin Meoff
Congratulations. You got me to type “Strokin Meoff” in one of these articles.
Strokin “Mercy” Meoff is an up-and-coming west coast Ciel player with serious potential to make it far in the Arcadian. Mercy recently took sets over gozen and Luusei at Game Lab Mega Monthly #13 and has been steadily improving their online placements over the course of the past year. Their work is definitely paying off, and though they have their work cut out for them in this bracket for sure, they’re easily capable of defeating the players seeded above them.
Roger with a w
Though an infrequent entrant of online brackets, most long-time Lumina players know Roger for his excellent Mash and his astounding consistency. Performing well throughout PSA Circuit 2 Qualifiers and his offline local events, Roger is a force to be reckoned with. What some people may have forgotten by now is that Roger placed 17th (out of 552) at EVO 2023, beating defeating Masoma and Tenchi. He’s a good player with a good resume and an even better chance at taking the Arcadian home.
Mik
Mik has been playing forever. As far as I can remember my own time practicing and trying to improve, Mik has also been grinding. He also brought one of the only Lumina setups to the BYOC area at COMBO BREAKER this past year so some people could get casuals before tournament day (which was very cool of him). A frequent name to spot in online events and majors, Mik boasts numerous notable performances at events such as 17th at COMBO BREAKER 2024 and FROSTY FAUSTINGS XVI 2024. Equipped with Arcueid’s deadly offense, Mik has some real potential to make some serious upsets in this bracket.
RathSilk
A seriously strong Hisui player with a slew of secondaries ready to counterpick, RathSilk has an arsenal of matchups at his disposal to startle and confuse his opponents in the Arcadian. With wins against piko, Fusshy, Vivian, Kikoho, Shishi, Patdabaker, BKP, Link Pendrago, and fellow New Moon Arcadian competitors Chester, Kirby, Blixby, Yunxmi, B39_, and Mik, RathSilk has already shown he can win this bracket. He just needs to play well on tournament day.
Dark Horses
For a bit of fun, below are a few entrants that have the potential to make it far in bracket if things go their way.
JagTaggart
Frequenter of brackets both online and offline, this Vlov player has shown they can make things work under the right conditions. They placed 9th at East Coast Throwdown 2023 defeating Maigo, shocking the Connecticut scene. Don’t let your guard down against the Jag Man, because he can take the game in just a few bad stomps.
SeaBurn
A long-time Ciel player and frequenter of the PC ranked matchmaking queue, New Jersey’s very own SeaBurn can assuredly take some names if they can remain cool and collected.
B39_
B39_ is a Vlov player from Washington that rarely popps up in online events. My placement of B39_ here comes from my personal experience playing them, usually on ranked and once in bracket. I think they have potential and are close to breaking through and being really strong. The New Moon Arcadian is a good chance for them to show their skills and perhaps make a name for themselves doing it.
deltazura
A Mario player from New York, deltazura has recently been tearing it up in beginner brackets. They placed 1st in Training Mode Network’s second beginner bracket, winning Grand Finals in a close reset. They frequent their local for Lumina, and have wins on other Arcadian entrants such as Blixby. deltazura’s tricky Mario may be trying to shake off a bit of rust over the past few months, but be ready for a breakout performance if the rust is gone by tournament day.
The New Moon Arcadian will be held on Saturday, July 13th at 7:00 PM EST. Register here!
The New Moon Arcadian is sure to be an incredible experience for both viewers and spectators alike. The tournament will put the players who are nearest to the top against each other to determine who will likely get there first. Who knows? It could even be you…