Last July, Luminosity Gaming (LG) announced its partnership with Even Matchup Gaming (EMG) and became the title sponsor for the Let’s Make Moves series of events for 2024 because of it. After a strong start at Luminosity Makes Moves Miami last October, generating 533 attendees (387 of those playing in Ultimate Singles) and plenty of fun through beach volleyball & dodgeball, many looked to see how Luminosity would build off that momentum as they started 2024 in the Big Apple, and they delivered.
Coming in at 1116 attendees (891 of those playing in Ultimate Singles), Luminosity Makes Big Moves 2024 blew all expectations out of the water. Compared to Let's Make Big Moves 2023, there was a 16.5% increase in overall attendance and a 16.2% increase in Ultimate Singles attendance. The event was multi-streamed on YouTube and Twitch and peaked at over 40,000 concurrent viewers. With monstrous upsets, historic rivalries, and plenty of special guests that made this event so special for many. It is also important to note that Steve got banned from this bracket. Numerous top players have abstained from attending events that banned Steve. Not to mention, UmeberaSP#10, a premier tournament in Japan, took place the same weekend as Luminosity Makes Big Moves 2024. Both of which impacted attendance significantly.
Ultimate Doubles kicked off this high-stakes event with 130 teams as classic and new teams shook up the bracket. A new team on the block, FaZe Clan’s Sparg0 & Skyjay (#2 seed), took it over LG | MKLeo & MKBigBoss (#1 seed) 3-1 to win their first-ever event as a team and get a +1 Seed Performance Rating (SPR). Meanwhile, in the Ultimate National Arcadian, Monte (#3 seed) took the event over 256 attendees with a 12-1 record over notable names such as T3 Dom, Cee, GuyGuy, NoTag, Justice. Mr.Ping, Pacha, and Bruho, earning himself a +2 SPR.
Outside of all the Ultimate fun this weekend, Luminosity hosted the first offline major for Nickelodeon All Stars Brawl 2 Singles, with #1 seed Seggo winning the event as projected. He got notable wins on Toast, Sparkx21, and BlazingPasta. Skyjay also made Top 8, placing 5th overall with a +1 SPR and being the only player at Luminosity Makes Big Moves 2024 to finish in the Top 8 in Ultimate Singles, Ultimate Doubles, and NASB 2 Singles.
Moving onto day 2, Ultimate Singles put its foot on the gas and never let it off. Numerous top players dropped like flies as upsets poured in throughout the event. Most notably, Team Liquid’s very own Dabuz (#4 seed) fell to 49th place with a -8 SPR after getting upset by Spritzy (#132 seed) and Justice (#100 seed) in Upset Factor 11 & 10 wins respectively. Moist Esports’s Aaron (#24 seed) also got 49th place with a -5 SPR after getting upset by DEKURAW43 (#233 seed) and BlitzyLuigy (#145 seed) in Upset Factor 7 & 6 wins respectively.
To highlight the amount of upsets this past weekend, here were some other notable upsets:
Wildz (#113 seed) swept Quidd (#16 seed) in an Upset Factor 6 win to qualify for Top 128 winner's side.
MFA (#76 seed) defeated Peabnut (#12 seed) in an Upset Factor 6 win to qualify for Top 64 winner's side.
WebbJP (#28 seed) defeated Moist Esports’s Light (#5 seed) in an Upset Factor 5 win to qualify for Top 32 winner's side.
Anarchy (#56 seed) reverse swept MuteAce (#9 seed) in an Upset Factor 5 win to qualify for Top 64 winner's side.
Oolong (#74 seed) swept Capitancito (#15 seed) in an Upset Factor 5 win to qualify for Top 16 winner's side.
Synergy (#97 seed) defeated MKBigBoss (#35 seed) in an Upset Factor 4 win to qualify for Top 128 winner's side.
Gamer (#171 seed) swept Armadillo (#43 seed) in an Upset Factor 4 win to qualify for Top 128 winner's side.
For all the other upsets at Luminosity Makes Big Moves 2024, check these upset threads by @EchoStats on Twitter; thanks to @kenniky1 on Twitter for working hard to keep this account running smoothly!
Top 16 cooled down on the chaos, but a bit came in through who made it. Sinji (#44 seed) ran through the winner’s bracket with wins on Panthermk, JeJaJeJa, MVD, MFA, and WebbJP before falling to Skyjay and Tilde for 9th and a +4 SPR. WebbJP (#28 seed) continued his hot streak at LumiRank events with wins on Juanpi, Gen, and Moist Esports’s Light & Kola before falling to Sinji and Sparg0 for 9th place and a +3 SPR.
What would be more surprising are the 13th-place finishers. Niko (#43 seed) won against Mata-Door, DEKURAW43, Regalo, Monte, and ChunkyKong before falling to Anarchy and WebbJP for 13th place and a +3 SPR. Oolong (#74 seed) had the best SPR out of any Top 16 finisher, defeating the likes of Demon, SoulArts, GuyGuy, and Capitancito before falling to MKLeo and Tilde for 13th place and a +5 SPR.
This top 8 created one of the most unique atmospheres of a final bracket day many Smash Bros. players have ever seen. Before the bracket started, Jay Eazy performed one of his hit singles, Mega Man. The crowd erupted as they sang along and took pictures with an unlikely rising figure in the FGC. There was even a cameo from actor Josh Hutcherson sharing his love for the game and a new trailer for his new movie, The Beekeeper.
The biggest surprises of Top 8 were Skyjay (#20 seed) and Tilde (#19 seed), where both players were not even seeded to make Top 16. Besides Dabuz, the only other Top 8 seed failing to place as projected was Team Liquid’s Riddles, who lost to SHADIC & LG | Maister for 9th place.
Skyjay cleaned his first four opponents before upsetting Kola and sweeping both Jahzz0 & Sinji to make Top 8 winner’s side. From there, he fell to LG | Sonix in a close game five set and Sparg0 for 5th place and a +4 SPR.
Meanwhile, Tilde cleared his first two opponents before winning a close game five against Alo! He would continue this momentum into Top 128, where he made light work of Rocke & Anathema before falling to LG | Tweek in a close game five set. He would be the only player to take Tweek to an elimination game. From there, Tilde would win three straight sets over BeastModePaul, Oolong, & Sinji before falling to Maister for 7th place and a +3 SPR.
Luminosity members dominated as they took up ½ of this top 8 (Tweek, Sonix, MKLeo, Maister), and only had one set where they lost to a non-Luminosity player (Sparg0 3-2 MKLeo in loser’s semi-finals). Despite all the wild upsets, Tweek took care of Sonix to win back-to-back Let’s Make Big Moves. This top 4 included the same people as last year’s Let’s Make Big Moves (Tweek, Sonix, Sparg0, MKLeo), where the only difference was Sparg0 & Sonix swapping placements. Tweek’s win at this edition also marked the first supermajor or premier tournament not to be taken by ZETA | あcola, FENNEL | Miya, Sparg0, Sonix, or Solary | Gluttony since Zomba took Crown the Third in June 2023.
A wildly exciting bracket for spectators turned into a successful event for Luminosity Gaming. Not only did their 2nd player win a supermajor or higher under the organization since Sonix did it back at Port Priority 8 last November, but this sets the stage for numerous players for the rest of this year.
The next place Luminosity Gaming will hit in the Let’s Make Moves series will be Toronto, Canada, with the 10th installment of Get On My Level - Canadian Fighting Game Championships underway from May 17th - May 19th. With plenty of storylines and rankings on the line, as LumiRank 2024 hits its halfway mark, it will be pivotal to attend.
Looking outside of North America, KOWLOON #9 With Sumabato will take place as a supermajor in Japan with plenty of Japanese talent & top player invaders such as Gluttony and Zomba looking to take the win. That tournament will close out in January as Ultimate starts hot with three supermajor - premier events as the game enters a pivotal year in its lifespan.
Thank you to Joseph Crow (@chowjiaming on Twitter) for their hard work and consent to let me use the photos presented in this article. The photo album from Luminosity Makes Big Moves 2024 will be linked below, showcasing great photography work from Joseph Crow and other talented photographers!
Scottie Wade
Writer, 26 Rising
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