If you haven't heard yet, Leffen's visa issues are finally a thing of the past. Leffen had been blocked from entering the U.S. and therefore was not able to enter any tournaments held in the U.S. This block kept him out of the country for a year. A year when Hungrybox and Armada were battling it out in America to see who was no.1 . in that time Leffen was playing a lot of netplay and going to as many European tournaments as he could. when Armada wasn't in America , he was free to turn up at European tournaments. America is the best country to get better but, despite not being able to any of the U.S. major's he able to play Armada when he would show up and other top European players like Ice, Fuzzyness, Professor Pro, Zgetto etc and other more local players. Leffen stayed as active as he could. He has a stream on twitch that he would play netplay on with other E.U. players and practice his tech skill. He attended a few E.U. tournaments, his placing showing that he was still at the top of his game. He did have a few questionable performances but most 1st or 2nd place finishes overall. He's pretty good, ranked second in Europe for now and he continued to be a part of the scene while he was away. He communicated with his fans on twitter giving insight about who would win a tournament or how players would fare against another, and providing commentary on the majors going on in his absence.
In the time Leffen has spent away from the U.S. Melee tournament scene Leffen has even picked up another sponsor, becoming the newly sponsored T.S.M. Redbull William "Leffen" Hjelte. So now he'll be able to travel even more so than he was able to before, and now with his visa block removed you would think Leffen be in full gear, but sadly he sent a message to his fans through the Youtube video. This message is extremely disappointing because it isn't like he needs any time to readjust to American tournaments especially after his performance at G.O.M.L. where he beat 4 of the "Melee GODS" to win the entire thing. It has been 5 months since that performance which legitimizes his excuse of not practicing much due to his uncertainty of when he would finally be able to compete in the U.S. again, but he should have at least gone full throttle and tried his best. We all wanted to see the Fox, not the Falco or the Mewtwo. At a tournament as huge and prestigious as The Big House it is now a part of Melee history that in retrospect you have to wonder, what if he went Fox in singles. Would he still have lost to Gahtzu if not the way the bracket was he would have played against Ice, Silent Wolf, and then the rematch with Sfat who are all players who he has whooped in the past? We still have to look out for what Leffen does in these month's to come whenever Leffen feels he is in top form, it will be interesting to see how the tournament storylines play out. Mang0 won TBH6, M2K Won Shine, Armada still a huge threat formerly ranked 1st in MIOM, and Hungrybox who has had shaky performances recently but has announced going full-time in Smash Melee.
