3 Melee Sets to Look Out For At CEO 2026
Since its debut in 2010, CEO has grown into one of the longest-running and most recognizable events on the fighting game calendar, complete with its signature wrestling-inspired presentation and championship ring. Super Smash Bros. Melee joined the main CEO lineup in 2014 and has since become a recurring part of the series, appearing across numerous CEO and CEO Dreamland events over the past decade.
Melee returns again at CEO 2026 with a field featuring Cody Schwab, Hungrybox, Wizzrobe, Axe, Krudo and plenty of other familiar names in today’s competitive landscape. Even with heavyweights like Zain and Joshman having to DQ from the event, there’s no shortage of interesting paths through the bracket.
With that in mind, here are three projected sets (and therefore also 6 players) worth keeping an eye on at CEO 2026.
Prof vs Kola
Ever since the ages of the Versus Gaming late-night streams, prof has proven to be an absolute menace on the sticks whether it’s been his Sheik, Marth, or even his Mewtwo for any ball-knowers who remember those absolute disgusting combo videos (of which he’s very much still making with Sheik/Marth). Since acquiring a clean 85th on SSBMRank 2023, prof’s been relatively under the radar attendance-wise but has placed relatively to seed at the nationals and majors he has made it out to. That being said, I’ve noticed that after a disappointing showing at CEO 2025, where he lost to Florida Falcon players Captain G (who I’m also anticipating to pop off this weekend) and Chipotle+ to place 33rd, prof has been ramping things back up and it’s been showing.
Following his underplacement at CEO with taking a set off of Morsecode762 at the Florida monthly Soul of Smash V a month later in July 2025, prof secured a clean 17th at Let’s Make Moves Miami 2025 (I’m all set with mentioning the Voldemort organization) with wins on Forrest and ADMJ. He’d then disappear into the shadows until February 2026, where he won a couple South Florida monthlies, including one where he double eliminated fellow T100 alum Voo’s Falco. Pat’s House 5 showed much of the same consistency, with wins on Kurv and Jeeemt on the way to 33rd.
But it was GOML 2026 where prof really showed his capacity to still be a top-level threat in the current meta. Falling to Finland’s Raptori in winners, prof proceeded to run through Bobakanoosh, GloveGlitterSlide4 (FKA Howdy), and grab his 2nd Top 100 win of the year on mgmg to make Top 64. This alone showed that this unc did in fact still have it, but then he decided to get the best win of his career over Axe to send the Pioneer of Pikachu to an early exit. Though he was swiftly defeated by Rishi the round after, it’d be silly to sleep on prof going into CEO 2026 with the momentum he’s accrued.
Speaking of people who have been cooking lately, Kola’s transition from “really good Ultimate player who also fucks around with Melee” to an actual threat in bracket has been one of my favorite side plots of 2026. Obviously, nobody needs me to explain what Kola can do in Ultimate, but his Fox has been putting together some extremely respectable results over the past several months, and at this point I think we can stop treating every Kola Melee win like some bizarre crossover episode…especially when the last episode featured a run with 4 Top 100 wins in losers bracket alone!
Here’s one for you: the last time Kola placed below his seed in Melee was Genesis X in February 2024, and in the 18 brackets he’s entered since then he’s outplaced his seed at 13 of them. While there’s simply too much to cover in just one article, apart from the elephant in the room that was his GOML 2026 run I’ve noticed Kola has a propensity for a good losers run like his Let’s Make Moves Miami 2024 National Arcadian and Super Fusion 1 performances illustrate. This isn’t to say he isn’t capable of a solid run in winners side, though, as he demonstrated at Momocon 2025 and Let’s Make Moves Miami 2025 National Arcadian. That being said, there’s obviously a difference between being nasty at the game and consistently making deep runs against people who have been grinding this shit for the better part of their lives, but Kola’s increasingly starting to look capable of doing both.
That’s what makes him such a fun wildcard going into CEO. I’m not about to start pretending we should pencil Kola into Top 8 at every major he enters, but I think it’d be silly to think he isn’t going to be a staple in final bracket of nationals with the resume he’s been building. If the Fox is moving anything like it was at GOML, with the clear upswing in his results as of late wouldn’t surprise me, there are absolutely some established Melee players in this bracket who should be sweating.
Prediction: Kola 3–2 Prof.
I could really see this one going either way, but considering even early on into Kola’s Melee career it was evident he had a good sense of how to fight both Marth and Sheik (and now he has Top 100 wins in the matchups to show for it) I’m inclined to lean towards him in taking this one. I am going to give prof credit where credit’s due and presume this one’s going to go to the wire, and quite frankly regardless of the outcome both of these gamers has the opportunity to add another impressive result to their 2026 resumes along with a shot at Hungrybox in Top 48.
Forrest vs pace
If there’s one thing you can basically always count on from Florida Melee, it’s Forrest randomly reminding everyone that he is still absolutely disgusting at this game. The artist formerly known as MrLz has been around forever at this point, and while his attendance has never really returned to what it was during his peak years, the Marth remains one of the more terrifying draws you can get from someone who isn’t currently sitting on a Top 100 ranking. Whether it’s been his brief foray into NYC Melee, his tenure as #2 in South Jersey to fellow Marth Jude, or his current position as a gatekeeper of CFL Melee, Forrest has shown plenty to fear in recent years.
What’s particularly interesting is while his local attendance throughout those aforementioned journeys has been relatively consistent, CEO 2026 is going to mark only the 3rd tournament regional-size and beyond Forrest has entered since 2023. Of the other two regionals he’s been to, he had a quiet yet solid performance to seed at LMMM 2025 with wins on Walmart Shoes and Plush on the way to 25th and an even stronger showing at Central Florida Face Off 2025 with Stockholm Syndrome and Panda wins part of his campaign to 5th.
Get stoc dollars.’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
His current status as the gatekeeper of high level Florida Melee while not necessarily appearing on larger stages is what I find to be one of the more fascinating storylinesgoing into CEO. Forrest’s clearly still someone to fear in bracket, if wins on Komodo, Captain G, and Panda this year don’t illustrate that enough, yet his inactivity has placed him in a relatively low seed compared to his ceiling.
This is still the same guy who once finished 13th at The Big House 9, and while 2019 might as well be the fucking Paleolithic era in modern Melee terms, the hands clearly haven’t disappeared. With CEO essentially being a home-field major for Forrest, I would not want to be the unfortunate higher seed who gets rewarded for making it through pools by seeing this dude’s Marth sitting on the other side of the setup.
And speaking of players I wouldn’t want to see on the other side of the setup, pace is another Florida name I’ve been keeping an eye on heading into CEO, particularly with how active he’s been throughout 2026 compared to his quiet 2025. The West Florida Sheik has been around the scene for a while now, with him being a lock for Top 3 in WFL when he hits activity requirements, but that’s the key factor: being able to hit activity. Even so, his 2026 has been particularly impressive and he’s giving Akir a run for his money as far as the race for King of Tampa is concerned.
After placing 4th at Taking Back Tampa 70 in June 2025, pace has made it to grand finals at every in-region event since at the time of this writing and apart from losing 2 tournaments to Akir has only dropped a single set to anyone else, that being Who? (aka PeachPants) in winners bracket of TBT100 before taking the runback to cap off a 5-set losers run to make grands. Safe to say, seems like he took that 4th place performance personally.
Obviously, translating strong regional performances into a major is an entirely different task, but CEO gives pace a good opportunity to see where he stacks up outside of Florida. He’s not someone I’m necessarily expecting to suddenly make some ridiculous run through the bracket, but given his recent activity and familiarity with a pretty strong Florida field, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him outperform expectations and give a higher seed some trouble. He was a literal hit away from making Top 128 at Genesis X3 earlier this year after all, so it wouldn’t shock me in the least if he were to go far here.
Prediction: Forrest 3–2 pace
Forrest has been around the block when it comes to battling with Sheik, especially with Krudo, and I’d trust him to take the win here. In this writer’s opinion pace will absolutely not be going down without a fight, and perhaps might even close it out to get a shot at MOF in the Top 48 winners side qualifier!
Grab vs King Momo
Grab is another familiar name who I think is worth checking back in on going into CEO. The Kentucky Marth has been hovering around the lower half of the Top 100 for the last few years, ranking 67th in 2022, 64th in 2023, and briefly jumping all the way up to 47th on the Summer 2024 ranking (closing the year out at 63rd) before ultimately landing at 75th in 2025. There’s been some fluctuation there, but he’s been a pretty consistent presence around this level of Melee for a while now.
His larger event results over the last year have also been a little mixed. He opened 2026 with a great 33rd at GENESIS X3 taking out heavyweights like Alberto, Zealot, and Ember. This was unfortunately followed with a disappointing showing at Super Fusion 1, losing out early to Canadian upstart falco I’m Michael BTW, but he got himself back on the right track at GOML 2026. Losing early to a very-underseeded (though understandably so due to inactivity) Sicca, Grab scored wins on Wave and Mono on the way to 49th. He’s also continued to stay active outside of majors with utter dominance over the Kentucky scene, and despite some inconsistency in putting the pieces together he has plenty of experience making his way through these kinds of brackets and no one he faces in bracket should forget it.
That makes CEO a pretty interesting opportunity for Grab to start moving things back in the other direction. While his results as of late haven’t quite matched his peak, there’s enough of a track record here that I wouldn’t write him off based solely on the #75 next to his name or a couple rough brackets. There’s a reason he’s been a perennial Top 100 player in post-quarantine Melee, and I expect him to perform at that level and then some this weekend.
King Momo is another name that longtime Florida Melee followers will probably recognize, although his recent return to competition comes after a pretty substantial break from the game. The Falco was a regular presence throughout the latter half of the 2010s, eventually making his way onto the national rankings before largely stepping away into the shadows during quarantine-era Melee. After only a handful of appearances over the following years, Momo began showing up in bracket again more consistently in 2025.
Since returning, he’s gradually worked his way back into the Florida scene with some solid results at locals and larger events. His 2025 included several strong regional performances along with a respectable showing at LMMM 2025 highlighted with a Top 100 win on Freezus, and that activity has continued into 2026. He actually just had arguably his best bracket since his return this past month at Undisputed: Stadium with a losers run including wins on Cappuccino, Voo, MOF, and Stockholm Syndrome before falling in Grand Finals Set 2 after a well-earned reset on OG Kid. Considering how long he spent away from regular competition, it hasn’t taken particularly long for Momo to start looking comfortable in bracket again.
CEO should provide a good opportunity to see where that return currently stands on a larger stage. As far as major performances have gone for the King since his return, he had a fairly disappointing CEO 2025 but bounced back at Riptide 2025 along with the aforementioned LMMM 2025 run. This will mark his first large tournament of the year, and while he’s not projected too deep into the bracket Momo has enough experience at this level that he’s an interesting name to have back in the mix. More than anything, it’s cool to see a player from an earlier era of Florida Melee return after several years away and start putting together results again. I’m thinking his return to the Top 100 is going to be sooner rather than later!
Prediction: Grab 3–2 King Momo
This will be an absolute banger in my humblest of opinions, and while I truly could see this going Momo’s way I’m going to lean in the direction of a Grab renaissance. The winner gets a shot at Wizzrobe, and while I’d be psyched to see a King Momo vs Wizzrobe set in 2026 I’m anticipating the down-throw down-tilt dynamo to be on the opposing side of that matchup.
Be sure to follow the brackets all weekend, watch the stream, and shoutouts to my boy Bill (Quadae aka Wild Bill) for running an absolute banger along with Jebailey!
If you enjoy this type of content, consider following my twitter at stocmoney for updates on upcoming pieces and another melee musings.
