Recently, Alex sat down with Apex 2012 Melee Champion, Armada. In anticipation for this weekend’s qualifier, Smasher’s Reunion, he went over several topics including Apex 2012 highlights, expectations for 2013 and some interesting topics not many people hear about.

Alex Strife: The Road to Apex has begun and today we have with us Apex 2012 Melee Champion Armada. Before we begin how have you been?

Armada: Very good, thanks for asking.

Alex Strife: As we know, your gamer tag is Armada. What is your full name and where are you from?

Armada: My full name is Adam Conny Axel Victor Lindgren. A lovely child, like me, has many names. And I’m from Kungälv, a small city in Sweden close to Gothenburg.

Alex Strife: That is a very long name! I envy the name Axel, but as a Megaman fan I hate it ha-ha. Now many people don’t know despite your skill you are one of the youngest smashers on a high level. How old are you now?

Armada: Megaman is great! I’m 19 years old.

Alex Strife: That’s pretty young. Are you attending college (University) if so, what are you studying?

Armada: I graduated five weeks ago. Right now I have no plans for College and even if I will go it will be 1-2 years from now. I want to enjoy life for a couple of months with my friends, some Smash, and get a job in September or something.

Alex Strife: Well I wish you luck! Speaking of Smash, a lot of newcomers would be curious about your regimen. How do you practice for tournaments? Is there any specific routine that you do before you go to an event?

Armada: I actually don’t have a secret answer for this. I try to play with as many people as possible. Except from that, I play with my brother every day and if he can’t I play alone. I usually just do the same combos all the time so I know I will be able to perform those perfectly. I still have the motivation. I need to make sure to do everything perfect and if you do it daily it means you will be more consistent in the long run.

Alex Strife: Well your persistence has shown based on the results of Apex 2012. This leads me to my next question. What’s story behind Young Link? For many, it is obviously a good counter-pick but really tell us the story, you know, the when and why.

Armada: The story actually begins from Apex 2010 when I lost against Hbox. I realized that this was not a winning matchup for me. My goal since I started playing this game in tournament, at eleven years old, was to become the best. Two great players, who play Puff, had been in my way. I could never really practice against Puff because Sweden never had a great Puff player. I started to think what characters were possible for me to choose that have around a 50-50 MU, at least, but still a character Hbox has no experience against. I started to think and it came down to Young Link, Luigi, and IC. I took away ICs kind of fast because they needed the most work. The choice had to be between Young Link and Luigi. Then I had a flash back from 2006 when Tonberry played Young Link against my Peach. I started to think it maybe was possible to camp Puff hard enough to win the MU so I started practice him against all players in Sweden and never let them record anything.

Alex Strife: Well Young Link helped you win Apex 2012. With that win do you think that you are the best in the world?

Armada: I honestly think I was after Genesis 2 but only because Mango wasn’t playing seriously for a very long time. Apex 2012 made the position clear.

Alex Strife: Well that sounds like a pretty confident champion ready to defend his title. I know that your favorite moment was you winning the final match but tell me was there any moment, as a fan of competitive gaming in general, that you enjoyed the most at Apex 2012.

Armada: I really enjoyed Javi’s performance against Dr. PP. He is a good friend and great person but there was something special about Javi. He played so clean and he was such an underdog and performed well. Javi gave me a flash back from the first Genesis and I was so happy for him to preform that well. Upsets are what makes competitions so fun.

Alex Strife: There are players that are working night and day for a way to defeat you. M2K once talked about doing a Peach ditto with you to beat you in bracket. What are your thoughts on the ditto or playing players that are trying to find ways to beat you via counter-picking?

Armada: I actually find out about M2K wanted to play Peach ditto. Since I was counter-picking Hbox in a very stupid MU it would be very hypocritical to be mad for people to try to find new weaknesses in my game. So I support people thinking out of the box.

Alex Strife: Tell me what expectations do you have for the event and for yourself overall? Do you think we will see any surprises like Tuga, or Javi doing even better than before?

Armada: I have really high expectations for Apex 2013. Apex will be the Melee series in USA I have attended most times. Apex 2012 had a lot of great players and it was really fun to be there and had a perfect stream. I hope we will see something similar to Javi’s performance at Apex 2012. I know Javi is skilled enough to take a top place but I doubt he has the experience overall against weird characters like IC/Pika/Samus/Doc but with an okay bracket I think he will place top five.

Alex Strife: Ah! With Impulse, our Canadian Melee Qualifier, Mango took first. Do you think he is coming after you next or do you think it was just a one-time deal with him? What are your thoughts on Mango and his seemingly varied performance at tournaments he attends?

Armada: I think he is trying. I actually talked to Mango not too long ago and he said he wanted to go to SRMG, a tournament in Norway. That means he really want to have a rematch against me and hopefully we will have another set at Apex 2013. Mango has been a top player long enough to not call it a one-time deal. I actually think he is kind of hungry for that title again so expect a good show at Apex 2013 for sure.

Alex Strife: Well hopefully we see that this year. As for this weekend you are going to Smashers Reunion as part of the European Road to Apex. What are your expectations for Dr. PP playing the PAL version of Super Smash Bros. Melee and your own personal performance?

Armada: I have really high expectations of Dr. PP. He was losing a close first set in GF against Mango and he will be hungry for sure. I don’t think Pal will be that such of a big deal in our set. Falco’s d-air is different but it is such a small change. Regardless of the outcome, I don’t think PAL will be the important thing to remember from our set. I aim for first in both singles and doubles and will work really hard for it. I have the motivation and first place is the only thing that counts.

Alex Strife: Well you have to get those Apex points so I wish you the best luck. Are there any last words for people thinking about going to Apex 2013 or any of the qualifiers?

Armada: Yeah those good Apex points are something. If you want to place well you need to believe in yourself and if you do I wish you the best of luck.

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