'Smash 64' tournament ends in a marathon Pikachu duel

The biggest names in Super Smash Bros. fought for glory at Genesis 4 this weekend -- the first major Smash tournament of 2017 and a breeding ground for some amazing and memorable matches.

Genesis 4 featured tournaments in Melee, Smash 4 for Wii U and the Nintendo 64 original, and each game showcased some of the highest level of play imaginable. With so many great matches over the three-day tournament, we rounded up some of the best for your enjoyment.

Check out the five best matches of Genesis 4 below.

5. Smash 4 -- Top player, Zero, upset by Brood in pools

Gonzalo "Zero" Barrios -- Genesis 3 champion -- is the best Smash 4 player in the world and he didn't seem too worried about going up against Japanese player Brood in the pools on Saturday, especially considering Brood hasn't placed in the top 10 of any international Smash 4 tournament and was playing as Duck Hunt. In the best-of-three set, Zero took the first game without a problem, but something happened in the second game of the series.

Brood was handling Zero's Diddy Kong left and right. On top of that, Zero was making deadly mistakes, losing stocks twice because of careless errors.

Capitalizing on those mistakes, Brood turned the 0-1 set in his favor and defeated Zero 2-1, making this the biggest upset over the entire weekend. Brood sent Zero to the losers bracket and forced him to win every single match thereafter to avoid getting knocked out of the tournament.

4. Smash 64 -- Tournament ends with marathon Pikachu duel

The grand finals of the Smash 64 tournament was an intense duel between two party-hat-wearing Pikachus -- Alvin Leon Hara vs. Daniel "SuperBoomFan" Hoyt, one of South America's best Smash 64 players vs. North America's best Smash 64 player, respectively.

Playing only on Dream Land, the match lasted over 30 minutes as the two Pikachu players took the match to all five games.

Alvin won 3-2, landing enough combos and successfully guarding the edge to take first place on the biggest stage the Peruvian player has ever competed on.

3. Smash 4 -- The closest grand finals match of the weekend

The Smash 4 grand finals turned out to be one of the closest matches of Genesis 4, with Leonardo "MKLeo" Lopez Perez taking on Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oyarce in a rematch from the winners finals. Each game in the best-of-five set came down to one stock vs. one stock as MKLeo's Marth and Ally's Mario beat each other down to high percentages over and over.

One of the single greatest moments was in the second set, one stock to one stock, when Ally launched MKLeo off the stage to the left and performed one the greatest up-smash, edge-guard counters to tie the series 1-1.

MKLeo came out on top at the end with his own impressive edge guard, closing out the grand finals in spectacular fashion.

2. Melee -- World's best Melee player, Armada, put on the ropes early

In the winners round of 16 for Melee, Adam "Armada" Lindgren was face to face with Johnny "S2J" Kim. Armada -- arguably the best player in the world -- was expected to make it to the grand finals with relative ease. S2J -- a player who has never broken the top 10 in Melee's global rankings -- wasn't going to make it easy for him.

Playing as Captain Falcon to Armada's Peach, S2J was on fire and aggressive, feeling out Armada and nailing perfect hits to keep the games relatively even. The crowd was cheering on S2J as he read Armada's movements and went on a rampage of neutral-air attacks, up-aerials and knee smashes.

S2J had Armada on the ropes with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five set, but Armada stayed calm and turned it all around, crushing S2J's dreams and taking the set away from him with a 3-2 victory.

1. Melee -- Melee God and God Slayer stun the crowd in close match

After being sent down to the losers bracket by Armada, Joseph "Mango" Marquez was immediately up against the God Slayer, William "Leffen" Hjelte in a space animal vs. space animal duel with everything on the line. Leffen stuck with his main character Fox while Mango went with his backup Falco. The greatest, closest, fastest-paced match of Genesis 4 was underway.

The two players started the match by trading games to tie up the set 1-1, then Leffen pulled ahead with a win on Pokémon Stadium. In game four, it looked like the match was over; both players had one stock and Mango was in a sticky situation with 100 higher damage percentage. Mango performed with insane skill and reads to send Leffen off the stage and tie the series 2-2.

In the final game, Leffen had a stock advantage almost the entire time. Mango managed to even it up with some amazing combos, putting Leffen on edge and taking the advantage.

Leffen was launched off the stage and attempted to recover with an up-B but was canceled by a laser from Mango. He tried it again but Mango threw himself off the stage with a downward-aerial to bury Leffen at the bottom of Dream Land. Mango took the set 3-2 and rode that victory to the grand finals against Armada, but it wasn't enough to take first place.