Guppy (left) playing against GodZ (right).
Denis "PBE | Guppy" Giron is one of the Philippines' top players and the best Smash 4 Peach around. For the past year, he's been going at it and has placed within the top 8 of almost every major. Come Loser's Semis of January Playbook's New Years Cleave tournament last January 23, he took down Adrian "Enigwa" Marin, the country's reigning champion.
Just yesterday, Smashboards sat down with Guppy to share his history, his place in the competitive scene and insights towards his main, Peach.
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Popi: Good evening Denis! Thank you for agreeing to do this interview with us. First things first, congratulations on your high placing at New Year's Cleave, how do you feel about that?
Guppy: Hahaha thanks for having me! 3rd place is pretty high now isn't it? But I think I care a whole lot more about managing to take out Enigwa who is one of the most dominant players in the country at the moment.
P: For our viewers who haven't heard of Denis "Guppy" Giron yet, who are you? Who do you main?
G: Hello my name is Denis and I'm a competitive Smash 4 player! I go by Guppy (Binding of Isaac reference) in the Philippine smash community and I main Peach!
P: Going into the game, it's known that you and your brother Don "DYG" Giron are both active competitors. How did you guys start out playing?
G: Smash 64 was a part of our childhood and was something we considered a really fun "Party Game". What made me see Smash in the competitive light was when I saw Myk "L1nK" Villaflor and our friend Mitch play Melee. They were just really amazing at the game.
When Brawl came out, I became the best among my small group of friends and I mained Ness back then. My brother didn't play the game as much as I did but he was still the only one who can challenge me in the game among the people I knew. Regardless of how much I loved Brawl, there just wasn't a competitive scene here in the Philippines for it.
When Smash 4 was announced, I--along with tons and tons of people--was excited for the game. Heck, my brother even bought a 3DS just for the game! And from there we founded the Smash Bros Philippines Facebook page and I got sucked into the Smash 4 competitive scene where I met a lot of new people.
P: So you had a lot of main characters, what was your journey with this and why finally Peach?
G: Well in Smash 4, I started out with Ness as my main since all I had to do was make the Ness I had in Brawl transition to the new game. But then my brother started kicking my ass with Marth (he always used the counter whenever I had to recover with PK Thunder 2).
I started thinking that maybe Ness wasn't the best for me. Then I saw a match between Oracle and Jumpman during the Smash 4 3DS days. His Bowser Jr. got me fascinated in exploring the character. But again my brother learned the match up and stage spiked me over and over again every single time I attempted to do a recovery.
Then I saw Dabuz play Rosalina for the first time and I saw him bring out Rosalina's potential. Rosaluma actually allowed me to win a tourney where I beat Mikel "Godz" Godinez in the grand finals.
Then there was this tournament where I couldn't go but my brother could so I trained him by having him fight me as I went through every single character in the game. When I got to Peach, it just clicked. I had fun playing the character and gave her a ton of lab time. When I tried fighting my brother again with my new found main, he actually struggled. Eventually my Peach far surpassed my Rosaluma and now I go by as the Peach main of the South.
P: Who are your favorite Peaches? How high among Peaches do you rank yourself?
G: Favorite Peaches? Well for Melee, who else other than Armada! He's one of my favorite Melee players and in my opinion, the best player in the world.
For Smash 4, I idolize three people. One of them is SlayerZ from America. I watch all of his matches. I believe that among the Smash 4 Peach players, he has the best neutral game. I actually try my best to play my Neutral game like SlayerZ.
My other favorite Smash 4 Peach main is Umeki from Japan. I believe that Umeki has the best technical play among all of the Smash 4 Peach mains. He is probably the only one who could trap a player like Void in a float cancel up air footstool infinite!
Another Peach main that I really really like is EOE from Europe I believe. He makes the best Peach tutorial videos on Youtube and he has some of the best turnip shenanigans among the Peach mains. I actually got my habit of juggling turnips from him hahaha!
How high do I rank myself among the people I just mentioned? Dead last! Come on! They're my masters and I am but a student!
P: Wow, that's actually pretty enlightening. I mean, you're really humble, considering your placings. How do you see yourself within the community? At what moment did you realize you were a top player or do you not think of yourself as such?
G: Oh no I may be humble but I don't deny that I'm a top player in the Philippines! I am capable of going head to head with pretty much any one of the the Philippine's best at the moment.
Perhaps the more interesting question is just how great is the Philippine Smash community when brought to the world stage. That is a question that hopefully I get an answer to soon.
P: In a few more years, where do you see yourself? Where will Guppy or Denis be? Is he here to stay?
G: Well at the moment there are things in my life that may require a higher amount of priority so there is a chance that my presence in the competitive scene may become a bit weaker... But since I am good friends with the top players in the country--DYG, Godz, Cheese, Stats, L1nk, Agumon, Enigwa, Arihead, Dr. Pat, Champo, Shampoo Master, Skatoonist, the Limchocs, Busterado (whatever his tag is right now), Desperado, RZ, DJR--and most of them are available to kick my ass in the game at any time, I don't think my skill as a player will dwindle down anytime soon.
P: Lastly, thank you so much for doing this interview! Any shoutouts to friends or family? Perhaps to fans?
G: Shout outs to the Beerkada Assholes (they know who they are), to PlayBook (Hi Rich and Kris), team PBE, the Smash Philippines community, my Lola (Grandmother), and to Mineshine Milk Tea!
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Photos by Playbook.
Videos by Playbook, Tournament Locator and Guppy on Youtube.
the frequency of smash events in here is next to nothing