Devil Ray
Smash Lord
I'm gonna write about 4 players and that's it: M2K, Jman, HungryBox, and then Mango in that order. I've had brief small talk convos with each guy at past tournaments, but I'm really not friends with them. That said, I RESPECT each and every one of them. I think they're incredibly interesting, and i'm going to enjoy writing about them. This is mostly commentary and just how I see things. I don't mean any harm to these guys, and i'm going to try to write as fairly as possible.
Part Nuclear Missile, a portion of John Starks, and a sprinkle of Blackbeard: Hungrybox the Destroyer
3/29/2010
I have to admit this, when I first met the “Floodah Crew”, I didn’t like them. At the first Event 52 tournament in Kansas, Colbol was in my pool. As we played, he let out a nasty fart in the middle of the first match. Not only did it smell like a dead man’s armpit, Lambchops apparently took notice and started mocking the situation. When the tournament was over, I saw Hungrybox drop a traffic barrel over a smasher I knew and pushed him to the ground. The kid ended up with a bloody forehead and needed stitches. Obviously not a good first impression for the Sunshine State.
About a year later at GENESIS, I saw Hungrybox at the hotel where all the smashers stayed. At this point, he still hadn’t evolved to “rainbow puff”. He had basically no major accomplishments other 3-0’ing Shiz in a local tourney. Remembering my last encounter, I was hesitant to say anything. But Hbox’s reaction was surprisingly cordial. He approached me with a smile and patted me on the back. I was surprised he even remembered me. He greeted me with a “what’s up, shinobi?” which surprised me even more. Assuming it was some kind of Florida slang, I said back, “how you doing, shinobi?” We found a room to play, but it was occupied by a group of Euro players. To get in the rotation, Hbox had to play a French Sheik smasher and absolutely wrecked him. It was on Battlefield, and the French got combo’ed into a rest 4 times and did 15% TOTAL damage to Hbox. The French guy was swearing in French, I was completely shocked, and Hbox was just laughing. Hbox later told me that he thought I was Pink Shinobi, the peach player, which is why he greeted me that way. Of course, you know the rest of the story: Hungrybox getting 3rd at Genesis and evolving into one of the best players melee has ever seen.
***Bombs over swords*** When it comes to Hungrybox, the average smasher should ask himself, “what does this guy represent?” When analyzing other pro-level smashers, the answer usually comes easy. I’ve already written about two smashers, Jman and M2K. Not that hard to find out what they mean to the community. But for Hbox, the answer might lead down dangerous roads. Because of his success with Jigglypuff, he essentially is the 2nd best player in the country. He dominated Revival of Melee and only lost to Mango at Pound 4. Even stranger, his character requires little to no tech skill. This gives the perception that his character can dominate with ease and doesn’t “earn” the victory. It’s partly true. It’s as if Hungrybox is using an atomic missile on a pack of samurai warriors; a bomb that goes boom vs. a group of honorable swordsmen.
***That ain’t Jordan*** Hungrybox is largely looked over by the community because of Mango’s success with Jigglypuff. Mango is better and more successful, clearly dominating the scene for the past two years. Adding insult to injury, Mango clearly makes no reservations when goading Hbox. His opinion of Hbox isn’t a good one; the two best Puff players in the world really don’t like each other. This relationship reminds me of John Starks versus Michael Jordan with the Knick-Bulls rivalry in the 1990’s. John Starks was one of the most promising players and guards of that generation, but never found true success because of Jordan’s dominance. Any NBA historian will tell you that John Starks was one of the best shooting guards of his time, but Jordan destroyed him and never let the Knicks beat his team in the playoffs. At Pound 4, the spectators were more than miffed that the Grand Finals sets were Puff dittos. It was anti-climactic, boring, campy, and a sour last note for the largest melee tournament ever. No one liked those matches.
***Evil vs Good*** But as I type this, part of me has to wonders this: is Hungrybox really a villain? Does his success with Jiggs invalidate the skill of others? Is he the bad guy of melee? Is he Blackbeard the pirate from One Piece? The answer to all those is a simple NO. Despite what he did with the traffic barrel, Hbox isn’t an evil person. He’s not a guy who’s out to harm people and he’s not trying to steal money from smashers. He’s just a kid playing a game at a really high level and has a questionable playstyle. It’s not as if he’s trying to make the game tedious or dull; Hungrybox is just trying to win like any other smasher. Our views of his character and playstyle of choice are based off perception, not the truth. It takes an understanding of the game to know what is gay in melee, but it requires the envy and dissatisfaction of a judgmental mind not to accept it. We choose not to like how he plays.
Ultimately, people will learn to accept Hungrybox as a great player. Smashers will finally consider him skilled and more than a cheap player that only back-airs. But even if we understand that, will Hungrybox change as a player? Will he actually play less gay? Even if we accept him as a winner, will Hungrybox change how he wins? Eventually, our perceptions of him will do a 180 degree turnaround. Instead of a real change, our minds will just view him as a really good player, which he already was to begin with. Calling him cheap won’t have any meaning because of how much he wins. But every story needs a hero and a villain, every match needs two players, and smash is a game that is defined by winners or losers. Instead of letting Hungrybox choose which side he is on, we will make the choice for him.
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A sprinkle of Kevin Garnett, a spoonful of Isaiah Thomas, add a pinch of Carson Daly: Jman, the Baby Faced Fox Assassin 2/1/2010
I first met Jman in person at Event 52 at Kansas City in May 2009. In the Smashboards thread, Jman had casually posted saying that he would attend. Apparently, he was driving from New York. I guarantee you, NO ONE in the Midwest thought he would make the trek to Kansas from New York FREAKING City in any kind of automobile. I’m from Chicago. It took me about 8 hours to get to the tournament. For Jman, that trip was a crazy 18 hours of driving with two other East Coast players, Hazzard and the ever-present G-Money. That made me think, “this guy is here to win.” (As a side note, he showed up half an hour before doubles started)
As predicted, Jman cruised through the singles bracket. In order to play Dark Rain in Loser’s Finals, he forfeited to the mighty Mango. A pretty confident Jman was set to face the robotic Dark Rain in front of a pretty hostile Midwest crowd. The first match was a disaster for Jman. You can watch the set on Youtube, but let me tell you, Dark Rain slapped him around like Charlie Murphy on Rick James. You could tell Jman was spooked. But even scarier was Jman’s adaptation. He evolved, as he was playing. The short, skinny, smasher leaned in, started breathing hard, and exploded into a fury of Fox Tech Skill. It was a good set, and Dark Rain fought hard, but Jman was too much. Jman won the set and the money, but both players won the respect of the crowd. It was a moral victory for both of them, and it was definitely the most entertaining set of the tournament. (Mango and Jman ended up splitting the money for 1st and 2nd)
**It’s not easy using Fox ** Fox McCloud is definitely one of the most interesting characters in Melee, if not all fighting games. This is a character that basically has advantage in EVERY SINGLE matchup, but doesn’t really counter anyone. Not only that, every matchup has the following requirement: MUST HAVE GOOD TECH SKILL. That disclaimer never goes away. It’s not like a MetaKnight situation where the character is easy to pick up; with Fox there’s a balancing act between consistency and broken advanced techniques. Not to mention the fact that fox is ridiculously easy to suicide with. And I tell you this, Jman is the best pure fox player the Melee community has. Cactuar, Colbol, Lucky, and Kels are all great players, but Jman still has the best fox out there. The fact that he’s accomplished this much with such a difficult character is a great achievement. It reminds me of Isaiah Thomas, one of the best pure point guards in all of NBA history, a baby faced killer that’s tough as nails and talks trash all the time.
**Jman can beat anyone, but he’ll never win a national tournament** Reread that statement. Then read it again. Jman is a guy who has taken sets off Mango, Colbol, Silent Spectre, Dark Rain, Scar, PC Chris, Mew2King(only one set in grand finals), Dr. PeePee and more. This is a guy that joined in 2007 and is one of the most accomplished smashers in history. If Jman is put in one of your pools at a tournament, the best you can do is 2nd Seed. I promise you that. But with all of that in mind, I wouldn’t bet a single cent on him winning a national tournament. I would never do it. The reason? My theory is two-fold: 1. Fox is difficult to be consistent with at a high level. 2. Like Kevin Garnett, Jman is a classic upside guy. He has incredible talent and ability, but a load of unclear potential. Even at his worst, Jman is still great. But his ceiling, his absolute best level of play, is hard to understand. I don’t think even Jman knows his own limits. So when another great player is thrown at him, he becomes like a motorcycle that can go super fast but crashes the microsecond you lose control. He would never lose to a random scrub, but we all have a sinking feeling that some other great player out there can take him. We don’t know who, but we can see it happen. Jman’s status in the Smash community reminds me of Carson Daly; a guy who’s always in the spotlight but we know he’ll never be on top.
**A strange balance** Unlike my previous post about Mew2King, I rarely feel bad for Jman when he loses. When I saw Jman lose to Amsah at Pound 4, I thought he got cheaped out and camped like crazy. But at the same time, Jman’s a campy player himself, maybe one of the worst. Everybody watching that match live thought the same thing: Jman basically deserved it. Jman’s smash persona has a weird balance; he loses matches more than the top players, but we know he’s still good. We don’t pity him because he still wins plenty. Jman has reached a balance where he’s respected by all the players better than him, but he’s also feared by the ones who are below him. Continuing on that line of thought, consider Jman himself; he’s only 17 years old. He’s still in high school, but he’s been to more tournaments than 99.9% of the smash community. He has an incredible amount of experience, but he’s so young. He has such extreme qualities, but they end up balancing out for him. At the very least, color me impressed.
As a spectator, I’m pretty fascinated by Jman. I know that he won’t win any major events, but I have no idea where he’ll end up. Part of that is the nature of tournaments, of nearly all forms of competition. I’m intrigued by the fact that he can pull some crazy wins, but lose some exciting matches. He’s not a tragic figure, but he’s not a hero either. He’s something in between. I have no idea what he is, but I’m okay with not knowing.
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Episode 1--Jan 24th 2010
Mew2King: 50% Kobe Bryant, 50% Anakin Skywalker, 10,000% TRAGIC FIGURE
The first time I saw Mew2King in person was at MLG Chicago 2006. At that point, I had finally learned how to L-Cancel and Wavedash, two “advanced techs” that I had working on for a better part of a year. I thought I’d never get shield grabbed again. As a rookie, I watched with my own eyes one of the best sets ever: Mew2King-Fox vs Azen-Marth( (it’s on youtube). I had never seen up-air combos work to that extent. I never saw such precise laser camping before. I had never seen that gay-****ing fox illusion from the ledge work so well. Even if he wasn’t a real robot, he certainly played like one. After I saw Azen lose, I instantly thought this was the best fox player the world had ever seen. I thought, “Jason Zimmerman is the chosen one; he’s Darth Vader with a pair of glasses.” (on a side note, after Azen lost, he said he could have beaten m2k with his Luigi but didn’t feel like it).
Skip some four years, insert a broken controller, a black-caped Marth, a silver Sheik, a west coast Mango winning Pound 3 and 4, Mew2king now seems more human than ever. In 2010, after barely getting 5th place in Melee singles at Pound 4, I no longer feel the same sense of awe and wonder. I don’t look at him with the admiration that I used to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still wildly entertained by his gameplay, but now I feel something else. I feel sorry for him; a deep sense of pity for a person who’s at a fixed point in life that won’t change until he quits Smash.
**Stuck in Ken’s Shadow**. Regardless of how much he has improved the Marth metagame, part of me believes that the memories of Ken Hoang still haunt him. Much like Kobe Bryant, he’s stuck between the great players of the past and ones that will dominate the future. You might be thinking, “what’s so bad about being Kobe Bryant? That guy is amazing”. It’s true, I’m a Kobe fan myself. But the problem is that Kobe Bryant will never be the GOAT(Greatest of All Time). Neither will M2K. Ken retired before M2K could truly prove he was better and Mango ended up beating him within a year after that. I do think M2K could have beaten Ken around EVO 2K7, but it was too late. M2K missed his window. I can’t imagine the level of frustration that would cause; to have the ability to beat the best but not the opportunity. To this day, I honestly believe it’s one of his biggest regrets in Smash.
**No Compensation**. Some people might be jealous of M2K, envious of all the success that he’s had with both Brawl and Melee. Smashers look at his videos and wish they could reproduce those same results. People steal his “secret techniques” and copy his edgeguards all the time. Many smashers are jealous of his tournament earnings, the money he’s earned. But to me, I would argue that he’s underpaid as a smasher. His contributions to the metagame in both Brawl and Melee are beyond dollars and cents. You can’t put a price tag on the amount he’s given to the community, and he’ll never get the money he deserves. Furthermore, I wouldn’t trade my life for Jason Zimmerman’s for any amount of cold cash. I like Mew2King, I think he’s definitely a nice guy(even tho my fav smasher Drephen hates him LOL), but I see a chasm of disappointment. I think the losses he feels are deeper than any 1st Place finishes he’s won. We steal from him all the time, and yet the money he earns from tournaments isn’t enough to replace his sense of self worth. He’s a slave to the game, and the community takes more than he can give.
Normally, I would tell a person in this situation to suck it up, to be a real man. But for Mew2King, I think it’s too late. It takes an incredibly creative mind to play like he does, but it takes a fractured spirit to feel that amount of disappointment. Even though tournaments seem like an analogy to life, it really has nothing to do with it. Even if you win at Smash, you may end up losing in other areas of life. As a spectator, I would love to watch M2K's Marth and Fox in Grand Finals at every tournament. But for his own sake, I hope that M2K quits the game soon. I sound like a jerk and an idiot, but I’d rather see him move on to something else that might make him happy. Despite all his tech skill, Mew2King has and never will be a robot; but I wonder if he would prefer to be a machine with no emotion in order to avoid the regrets and dissatisfaction of Smash.
Part Nuclear Missile, a portion of John Starks, and a sprinkle of Blackbeard: Hungrybox the Destroyer
3/29/2010
I have to admit this, when I first met the “Floodah Crew”, I didn’t like them. At the first Event 52 tournament in Kansas, Colbol was in my pool. As we played, he let out a nasty fart in the middle of the first match. Not only did it smell like a dead man’s armpit, Lambchops apparently took notice and started mocking the situation. When the tournament was over, I saw Hungrybox drop a traffic barrel over a smasher I knew and pushed him to the ground. The kid ended up with a bloody forehead and needed stitches. Obviously not a good first impression for the Sunshine State.
About a year later at GENESIS, I saw Hungrybox at the hotel where all the smashers stayed. At this point, he still hadn’t evolved to “rainbow puff”. He had basically no major accomplishments other 3-0’ing Shiz in a local tourney. Remembering my last encounter, I was hesitant to say anything. But Hbox’s reaction was surprisingly cordial. He approached me with a smile and patted me on the back. I was surprised he even remembered me. He greeted me with a “what’s up, shinobi?” which surprised me even more. Assuming it was some kind of Florida slang, I said back, “how you doing, shinobi?” We found a room to play, but it was occupied by a group of Euro players. To get in the rotation, Hbox had to play a French Sheik smasher and absolutely wrecked him. It was on Battlefield, and the French got combo’ed into a rest 4 times and did 15% TOTAL damage to Hbox. The French guy was swearing in French, I was completely shocked, and Hbox was just laughing. Hbox later told me that he thought I was Pink Shinobi, the peach player, which is why he greeted me that way. Of course, you know the rest of the story: Hungrybox getting 3rd at Genesis and evolving into one of the best players melee has ever seen.
***Bombs over swords*** When it comes to Hungrybox, the average smasher should ask himself, “what does this guy represent?” When analyzing other pro-level smashers, the answer usually comes easy. I’ve already written about two smashers, Jman and M2K. Not that hard to find out what they mean to the community. But for Hbox, the answer might lead down dangerous roads. Because of his success with Jigglypuff, he essentially is the 2nd best player in the country. He dominated Revival of Melee and only lost to Mango at Pound 4. Even stranger, his character requires little to no tech skill. This gives the perception that his character can dominate with ease and doesn’t “earn” the victory. It’s partly true. It’s as if Hungrybox is using an atomic missile on a pack of samurai warriors; a bomb that goes boom vs. a group of honorable swordsmen.
***That ain’t Jordan*** Hungrybox is largely looked over by the community because of Mango’s success with Jigglypuff. Mango is better and more successful, clearly dominating the scene for the past two years. Adding insult to injury, Mango clearly makes no reservations when goading Hbox. His opinion of Hbox isn’t a good one; the two best Puff players in the world really don’t like each other. This relationship reminds me of John Starks versus Michael Jordan with the Knick-Bulls rivalry in the 1990’s. John Starks was one of the most promising players and guards of that generation, but never found true success because of Jordan’s dominance. Any NBA historian will tell you that John Starks was one of the best shooting guards of his time, but Jordan destroyed him and never let the Knicks beat his team in the playoffs. At Pound 4, the spectators were more than miffed that the Grand Finals sets were Puff dittos. It was anti-climactic, boring, campy, and a sour last note for the largest melee tournament ever. No one liked those matches.
***Evil vs Good*** But as I type this, part of me has to wonders this: is Hungrybox really a villain? Does his success with Jiggs invalidate the skill of others? Is he the bad guy of melee? Is he Blackbeard the pirate from One Piece? The answer to all those is a simple NO. Despite what he did with the traffic barrel, Hbox isn’t an evil person. He’s not a guy who’s out to harm people and he’s not trying to steal money from smashers. He’s just a kid playing a game at a really high level and has a questionable playstyle. It’s not as if he’s trying to make the game tedious or dull; Hungrybox is just trying to win like any other smasher. Our views of his character and playstyle of choice are based off perception, not the truth. It takes an understanding of the game to know what is gay in melee, but it requires the envy and dissatisfaction of a judgmental mind not to accept it. We choose not to like how he plays.
Ultimately, people will learn to accept Hungrybox as a great player. Smashers will finally consider him skilled and more than a cheap player that only back-airs. But even if we understand that, will Hungrybox change as a player? Will he actually play less gay? Even if we accept him as a winner, will Hungrybox change how he wins? Eventually, our perceptions of him will do a 180 degree turnaround. Instead of a real change, our minds will just view him as a really good player, which he already was to begin with. Calling him cheap won’t have any meaning because of how much he wins. But every story needs a hero and a villain, every match needs two players, and smash is a game that is defined by winners or losers. Instead of letting Hungrybox choose which side he is on, we will make the choice for him.
_______________________________________________
A sprinkle of Kevin Garnett, a spoonful of Isaiah Thomas, add a pinch of Carson Daly: Jman, the Baby Faced Fox Assassin 2/1/2010
I first met Jman in person at Event 52 at Kansas City in May 2009. In the Smashboards thread, Jman had casually posted saying that he would attend. Apparently, he was driving from New York. I guarantee you, NO ONE in the Midwest thought he would make the trek to Kansas from New York FREAKING City in any kind of automobile. I’m from Chicago. It took me about 8 hours to get to the tournament. For Jman, that trip was a crazy 18 hours of driving with two other East Coast players, Hazzard and the ever-present G-Money. That made me think, “this guy is here to win.” (As a side note, he showed up half an hour before doubles started)
As predicted, Jman cruised through the singles bracket. In order to play Dark Rain in Loser’s Finals, he forfeited to the mighty Mango. A pretty confident Jman was set to face the robotic Dark Rain in front of a pretty hostile Midwest crowd. The first match was a disaster for Jman. You can watch the set on Youtube, but let me tell you, Dark Rain slapped him around like Charlie Murphy on Rick James. You could tell Jman was spooked. But even scarier was Jman’s adaptation. He evolved, as he was playing. The short, skinny, smasher leaned in, started breathing hard, and exploded into a fury of Fox Tech Skill. It was a good set, and Dark Rain fought hard, but Jman was too much. Jman won the set and the money, but both players won the respect of the crowd. It was a moral victory for both of them, and it was definitely the most entertaining set of the tournament. (Mango and Jman ended up splitting the money for 1st and 2nd)
**It’s not easy using Fox ** Fox McCloud is definitely one of the most interesting characters in Melee, if not all fighting games. This is a character that basically has advantage in EVERY SINGLE matchup, but doesn’t really counter anyone. Not only that, every matchup has the following requirement: MUST HAVE GOOD TECH SKILL. That disclaimer never goes away. It’s not like a MetaKnight situation where the character is easy to pick up; with Fox there’s a balancing act between consistency and broken advanced techniques. Not to mention the fact that fox is ridiculously easy to suicide with. And I tell you this, Jman is the best pure fox player the Melee community has. Cactuar, Colbol, Lucky, and Kels are all great players, but Jman still has the best fox out there. The fact that he’s accomplished this much with such a difficult character is a great achievement. It reminds me of Isaiah Thomas, one of the best pure point guards in all of NBA history, a baby faced killer that’s tough as nails and talks trash all the time.
**Jman can beat anyone, but he’ll never win a national tournament** Reread that statement. Then read it again. Jman is a guy who has taken sets off Mango, Colbol, Silent Spectre, Dark Rain, Scar, PC Chris, Mew2King(only one set in grand finals), Dr. PeePee and more. This is a guy that joined in 2007 and is one of the most accomplished smashers in history. If Jman is put in one of your pools at a tournament, the best you can do is 2nd Seed. I promise you that. But with all of that in mind, I wouldn’t bet a single cent on him winning a national tournament. I would never do it. The reason? My theory is two-fold: 1. Fox is difficult to be consistent with at a high level. 2. Like Kevin Garnett, Jman is a classic upside guy. He has incredible talent and ability, but a load of unclear potential. Even at his worst, Jman is still great. But his ceiling, his absolute best level of play, is hard to understand. I don’t think even Jman knows his own limits. So when another great player is thrown at him, he becomes like a motorcycle that can go super fast but crashes the microsecond you lose control. He would never lose to a random scrub, but we all have a sinking feeling that some other great player out there can take him. We don’t know who, but we can see it happen. Jman’s status in the Smash community reminds me of Carson Daly; a guy who’s always in the spotlight but we know he’ll never be on top.
**A strange balance** Unlike my previous post about Mew2King, I rarely feel bad for Jman when he loses. When I saw Jman lose to Amsah at Pound 4, I thought he got cheaped out and camped like crazy. But at the same time, Jman’s a campy player himself, maybe one of the worst. Everybody watching that match live thought the same thing: Jman basically deserved it. Jman’s smash persona has a weird balance; he loses matches more than the top players, but we know he’s still good. We don’t pity him because he still wins plenty. Jman has reached a balance where he’s respected by all the players better than him, but he’s also feared by the ones who are below him. Continuing on that line of thought, consider Jman himself; he’s only 17 years old. He’s still in high school, but he’s been to more tournaments than 99.9% of the smash community. He has an incredible amount of experience, but he’s so young. He has such extreme qualities, but they end up balancing out for him. At the very least, color me impressed.
As a spectator, I’m pretty fascinated by Jman. I know that he won’t win any major events, but I have no idea where he’ll end up. Part of that is the nature of tournaments, of nearly all forms of competition. I’m intrigued by the fact that he can pull some crazy wins, but lose some exciting matches. He’s not a tragic figure, but he’s not a hero either. He’s something in between. I have no idea what he is, but I’m okay with not knowing.
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Episode 1--Jan 24th 2010
Mew2King: 50% Kobe Bryant, 50% Anakin Skywalker, 10,000% TRAGIC FIGURE
The first time I saw Mew2King in person was at MLG Chicago 2006. At that point, I had finally learned how to L-Cancel and Wavedash, two “advanced techs” that I had working on for a better part of a year. I thought I’d never get shield grabbed again. As a rookie, I watched with my own eyes one of the best sets ever: Mew2King-Fox vs Azen-Marth( (it’s on youtube). I had never seen up-air combos work to that extent. I never saw such precise laser camping before. I had never seen that gay-****ing fox illusion from the ledge work so well. Even if he wasn’t a real robot, he certainly played like one. After I saw Azen lose, I instantly thought this was the best fox player the world had ever seen. I thought, “Jason Zimmerman is the chosen one; he’s Darth Vader with a pair of glasses.” (on a side note, after Azen lost, he said he could have beaten m2k with his Luigi but didn’t feel like it).
Skip some four years, insert a broken controller, a black-caped Marth, a silver Sheik, a west coast Mango winning Pound 3 and 4, Mew2king now seems more human than ever. In 2010, after barely getting 5th place in Melee singles at Pound 4, I no longer feel the same sense of awe and wonder. I don’t look at him with the admiration that I used to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still wildly entertained by his gameplay, but now I feel something else. I feel sorry for him; a deep sense of pity for a person who’s at a fixed point in life that won’t change until he quits Smash.
**Stuck in Ken’s Shadow**. Regardless of how much he has improved the Marth metagame, part of me believes that the memories of Ken Hoang still haunt him. Much like Kobe Bryant, he’s stuck between the great players of the past and ones that will dominate the future. You might be thinking, “what’s so bad about being Kobe Bryant? That guy is amazing”. It’s true, I’m a Kobe fan myself. But the problem is that Kobe Bryant will never be the GOAT(Greatest of All Time). Neither will M2K. Ken retired before M2K could truly prove he was better and Mango ended up beating him within a year after that. I do think M2K could have beaten Ken around EVO 2K7, but it was too late. M2K missed his window. I can’t imagine the level of frustration that would cause; to have the ability to beat the best but not the opportunity. To this day, I honestly believe it’s one of his biggest regrets in Smash.
**No Compensation**. Some people might be jealous of M2K, envious of all the success that he’s had with both Brawl and Melee. Smashers look at his videos and wish they could reproduce those same results. People steal his “secret techniques” and copy his edgeguards all the time. Many smashers are jealous of his tournament earnings, the money he’s earned. But to me, I would argue that he’s underpaid as a smasher. His contributions to the metagame in both Brawl and Melee are beyond dollars and cents. You can’t put a price tag on the amount he’s given to the community, and he’ll never get the money he deserves. Furthermore, I wouldn’t trade my life for Jason Zimmerman’s for any amount of cold cash. I like Mew2King, I think he’s definitely a nice guy(even tho my fav smasher Drephen hates him LOL), but I see a chasm of disappointment. I think the losses he feels are deeper than any 1st Place finishes he’s won. We steal from him all the time, and yet the money he earns from tournaments isn’t enough to replace his sense of self worth. He’s a slave to the game, and the community takes more than he can give.
Normally, I would tell a person in this situation to suck it up, to be a real man. But for Mew2King, I think it’s too late. It takes an incredibly creative mind to play like he does, but it takes a fractured spirit to feel that amount of disappointment. Even though tournaments seem like an analogy to life, it really has nothing to do with it. Even if you win at Smash, you may end up losing in other areas of life. As a spectator, I would love to watch M2K's Marth and Fox in Grand Finals at every tournament. But for his own sake, I hope that M2K quits the game soon. I sound like a jerk and an idiot, but I’d rather see him move on to something else that might make him happy. Despite all his tech skill, Mew2King has and never will be a robot; but I wonder if he would prefer to be a machine with no emotion in order to avoid the regrets and dissatisfaction of Smash.
