Fans of William "Leffen" Hjelte who have been watching his grind back to the top of the Melee rankings will be disappointed to hear that he is no longer attending CEO.
Leffen shared on Twitter earlier today that his decision to not go to CEO is official now, explaining that he's "still sick from Covid." Despite testing positive, Leffen said he only has a cough. But while he's not suffering from any severe symptoms, Leffen decided not to go to CEO due to feeling irresponsible if he still went to a large event despite the test results.
The decision was met with sympathy and understanding from most of the Smash community, with many wishing him to get better soon and comending him for being responsible. Still, it will be a letdown to not see Leffen compete at CEO after his recent successes.
Earlier in the year, Leffen was struggling with a lack of motivation due to the lack of top-tier competitors in Europe. He was also dealing with a lot of visa issues, preventing him from competing overseas. This left the top player feeling rusty and having underwhelming results.
"Really fucking depressed about being robbed from yet another year of Melee competition. At this point, I'm leaning towards quitting Melee and I will focus on Strive. Being out for two years straight now with no end in sight is too much, man. I feel like giving up," Leffen tweeted back in July of last year.
But Leffen has been having increasingly impressive results while competing in majors in North America as of late. He got the community buzzing after beating Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma at Battle of BC this month, four-stocking the Jigglypuff main in the winners finals. Not only did this put their age-old rivalry at 22-22 but it was the first time Leffen has been in a grand final at a major since Super Smash Con 2019.
Leffen not attending CEO this weekend is a letdown for fans of the controversial Melee veteran. But he'll be back.
