Armada (gamer)

Lindgren started his gaming career in 2003 competing in the Swedish Nintendo Championship.[12] Armada came to prominence in 2007 finishing 4th at The Renaissance of Smash 4, his first national tournament. Seven months later, he finished 3rd at Epita Smash Arena 2, the largest tournament in Europe at the time, defeating top ranked Japanese player, Masashi, before losing to Ryota "Captain Jack" Yoshida.

By 2009, Armada had firmly established himself as the strongest player in Europe and so he decided to travel to Genesis, a tournament held in Antioch, California which was attended by the best players in the larger and more prominent American community. Many Americans did not expect Armada to do well, but he shocked the country by reaching the finals of the tournament, upsetting top American players such as Mew2King and Mang0. Armada would eventually lose in Grand Finals to Mang0, but Genesis established Armada as a legitimate contender for best in the world and was the start of a prolific rivalry between Armada and Mang0.[13]

Each passing year, Lindgren was ranked progressively higher. In July 2011, Armada won the major tournament at the time, GENESIS 2, defeating number one ranked player, Mang0.[14] Lindgren remained undefeated worldwide[15] for two years until EVO 2013 where he lost the title and 1st rank back to Mang0.

After Apex 2013, Armada announced his retirement from competitive Melee[16] although he did return to compete in EVO 2013, where he placed 4th, losing to PPMD 0–2 in winners' bracket and being eliminated by Mang0 0–2 in losers' semis. He returned to the scene a year later, with B.E.A.S.T, a tournament held in his hometown of Gothenburg which he helped to organize, as his first tournament back.

Lindgren also had a fairly short-lived, but very successful career in Project M, winning Apex 2014's Project M title by defeating Mew2King in grand finals.[17] On 6 November 2014 he left Empire Arcadia and became sponsored by professional gaming team Alliance.[18]

Lindgren initially showed some interest in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U stating that he found it considerably different from Melee and felt that he needed to spend more time playing it, but has not publicly practiced or competed in the game since a short time after its release.[19] Since 2015, Armada has switched from using only Peach to both Peach and Fox in tournaments. He cites Fox's ability to put mental pressure on opponents as a reason for this change.[20][21][22] Armada faced PPMD in the Grand Finals of Apex 2015, while coming from the losers bracket, but eventually lost after forcing a bracket reset.[23] Armada was the EVO 2015 Melee champion after defeating Hungrybox in the Finals.[24] By winning EVO, Lindgren received the largest single prize ever awarded in a Melee tournament at that time.

After winning EVO 2015, Melee It On Me (MIOM) ranked Armada as the best Melee player for the 2015 Summer SSBMRank, ahead of Leffen and Mang0.[25]

At The Big House 5 in Dearborn, Michigan, Armada and his Europe crew, which also consisted of Android, Norway's Widl, Britain's Professor Pro, and Germany's Ice, participated in a crew battle against crews representing SoCal, NorCal, Midwest, Canada, Tri-State, Florida, and New England. After a very close win against the Midwest that went down to the last hit and last matchup for Ice against KJH and another close win against Canada, which ended with Armada taking Kage's last stock, Europe went on to face SoCal, which consisted of Mang0, Lucky, HugS, Westballz, and MacD. Even though Armada took eight stocks off of SoCal, SoCal came back, with Mang0 convincingly beating Ice by two stocks in the final battle.[26] In doubles, Armada won with his brother Android, beating Mew2King and Hungrybox in Grand Finals.[27] In singles Top 16 winner's side, Armada beat Mexico's best player Javi 3–0, Fox player SFAT 3–0, and Mew2King 3–1 in Winner's Semifinals to face off against Hungrybox in Winner's Finals. There, he beat Hungrybox 3-0 and then again 3–2 in Grand Finals to take home the title.[28]

Armada continued his tournament success in 2016 and 2017, winning events such as Genesis 3, Dreamhack Winter 2016, Genesis 4, and EVO 2017 as well as a multitude of doubles events with his teammate and brother Android. In addition, Armada won the first four iterations of the highly prestigious invitational tournament series Smash Summit. In doing so, Armada became the first Melee player to win the same major tournament series three and four times consecutively. Armada was ranked the number one player in the world on the Melee it On Me (MIOM) year end SSBMRank for 2016 and on the mid year Summer SSBMRank for 2017.[3]

Armada holds positive records over every Smasher he has ever played with the exception of Captain Jack (0–2) and Silent Spectre (0–1). He was previously the only Smasher to have a positive record over Mang0, who has since lost acquired several negative records (26–20).[29] He has lost serious tournament sets to only nine different Smashers ever since he was considered a God: Mang0, PPMD, Mew2King, Leffen, Hungrybox, Amsah, Silent Spectre, Swedish Delight, and Plup. Lindgren is also the only God to stand in the way of four Smashers who need to beat him to claim the title of beating all five Gods (Axe, Wobbles, Fly Amanita, and Lucky).[30] Armada's lowest placing in his entire Melee career, excluding tournaments which he forfeit or did not seriously compete, is 5th place at both Paragon Orlando 2015 and Get On My Level 2016.

Armada retired from competing in Melee singles on September 18, 2018.[31]

Lindgren has 10 siblings, two of whom, Alexander "Aniolas" and Andreas "Android", also play Melee competitively.[32] Lindgren formerly worked as a substitute teacher in Gothenburg, but now dedicates his time fully to competing, producing YouTube videos, and streaming on Twitch.

Armada is one of the subjects of the spin-off of the documentary The Smash Brothers by producer Travis "Samox" Beauchamp entitled Metagame,[33] which was released on December 11, 2020.[34] The project raised over US$30,000 on Kickstarter.[35]

• Armada on Twitter