Ken Hoang

Last updated

Ken Hoang
Ken Hoang.jpg
At the Survivor finale showing, at CBS Studios, Los Angeles, California, December 14, 2008
Current team
Team Team Liquid
Games Super Smash Bros. Melee
Project M
Personal information
Nickname(s)
  • SephirothKen
  • LiquidKen
  • The King of Smash
Born (1985-10-10) October 10, 1985 (age 37) [1]
Career information
Playing career2003–present
Career highlights and awards

Ken Hoang (born October 10, 1985), also known as Ken, SephirothKen, or Liquid`Ken, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player and television personality. Hoang was widely considered the most dominant Melee player in the world during the early years of the game's competitive scene in the early to mid-2000s. Hoang primarily plays Marth in Melee and is credited for pioneering several gameplay techniques integral to the game's competitive play, including the "dash dancing" movement technique and the "Ken Combo", an effective Marth combo for which he is the namesake. [2] Hoang's dominance in the game earned him the nickname "The King of Smash". [2]

Contents

Hoang was the 2004–2005 national champion of Major League Gaming, the 2007 international champion of Evolution Championship Series (EVO) World Finals, [3] [4] and was the highest ranked Super Smash Bros. Melee player in the United States, having also defeated reputable players from around the globe, including top Japanese players.

Hoang possesses the highest major tournament win-to-loss ratio of any Super Smash Bros. Melee player from 2003 to 2007. [5] He received minor television coverage in MTV's True Life: I'm a Professional Gamer. [6] Hoang retired in 2007, however he returned to the Melee scene in 2012, competing sporadically since. In 2014 he and fellow Melee veteran Daniel "KoreanDJ" Jung joined Team Liquid as the team's first Smash Bros. players. [7] A 2021 list compiled by PGstats ranked Hoang as the fourth-greatest Melee player of all time. [8]

Hoang was a contestant on Survivor: Gabon , which aired in the fall of 2008. He finished in fifth-place and was the sixth member of the jury.

Smash Bros. career

Hoang started playing Super Smash Bros. when it was released for the Nintendo 64, but never competed in an organized tournament for the game, due to a lack of a widespread competitive scene at the time. When Super Smash Bros. Melee was released for the GameCube, Ken initially did not enjoy it, but the game grew on him after a period of a few months.[ citation needed ] By the time he attended his first tournament, he already built up a reputation in his town as the best Smash player. This tournament differed from most later Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments in that matches were free-for-all matches between four players rather than a 1 vs 1 match. The other players teamed up against Hoang to eliminate him. [9]

In 2003, he competed in his first major tournament, part of the Tournament Go (TG) series, one of the first major Melee tournament series. [10] In this, the fourth installment of the tournament series, Hoang won the singles (1 vs 1) tournament and lost in the doubles (2 vs 2) tournament to the winners of the first two TG tournaments. [9] [11]

Seven months later, in August 2003, Hoang attended and won TG5. This was the first tournament where he partnered with Joel "Isai" Alvarado (otherwise known as "Malva00") for doubles in a team known as El Chocolate Diablo. Their victory in the doubles tournament started a 2+12-year winning streak. They won every doubles tournament they entered until MLG Chicago in July 2006, where they were defeated by Azen and Chillindude829 in the finals and received second place. However, they reclaimed their title later that year in August at MLG Orlando where they defeated Azen and Chillindude829 6–3 in the finals. [12]

For the next two years, he continued to win nearly every competition he entered. The worst loss he ever garnered in his competitive career was in August 2004 at TG6 where he placed 9th out of approximately 128 competitors. He traveled to Japan several times and defeated top players such as Aniki, Captain Jack, Masashi, Bombsoldier, Korius, and Mikael in the summer of 2005 and 2006. [13]

Ken retired from competitive play in 2008. Although retired, he was regarded as one of the top players long after his departure from the tournament scene. [3] In September 2006, Ken was nominated in "The Dangerous Five" as one of "The World's Most Dangerous Gamers" by Electronic Gaming Monthly , in which he was called "The Duper" for his fast, smart, and aggressive play. [14]

Hoang returned to the game in 2012 after a five-year hiatus and placed 33rd in Kings of Cali. He has since attended several additional tournaments, including EVO 2013, where he placed 49th out of 696 participants, then the Smash tournament with the largest number of entrants in history.

In 2013, Hoang's career was profiled in the documentary series The Smash Brothers . [2] [15] At the end of the year, Ken was ranked in the final spot at 100th in Melee it on Me's 2013 SSBMRank listing of the best Melee players. [16]

On March 18, 2014, Team Liquid announced that Hoang and KDJ would be joining their new Super Smash Bros. team. [17] Ken rose to 58th in the 2014 SSBMRank. [18]

At Apex 2015 Ken finished 81st. At Apex he also played PC Chris in a Salty Suite exhibition match and lost 3–2. [19]

At EVO 2015 Ken finished 13th, his highest placing at a major since Super Champ Combo in 2007.

Notable tournament placings

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Tournament [20] Date1v1 Placement2v2 PlacementPartner
Tournament Go 4January 19, 20031st2ndManacloud
Tournament Go 5August 2–3, 20031st1st Isai
Game OverJanuary 10, 20041st1stIsai
MELEE-FC1July 9–10, 20041st1stIsai
Tournament Go 6August 21–22, 20049th1stIsai
MLG New York 2004October 24, 20041st1stIsai
MOAST 3January 16, 20052nd1stIsai
MLG DC 2005January 29–30, 20051st1stIsai
MLG San Francisco 2005February 26–27, 20051st1stIsai
Gettin' Schooled 2June 25, 20051st1stIsai
MELEE-FC3July 10–12, 20051st1stIsai
Jack Garden TournamentAugust 20, 20051st
MLG Los Angeles 2005October 14–16, 20052nd1stIsai
MLG Atlanta 2005November 25–27, 20051st1stIsai
MLG Chicago 2005December 16–18, 20051st2ndChuDat
MLG New York 2005February 24–26, 20061st1stIsai
MLG New York Opener 2006April 21–23, 20062nd1stIsai
MLG Dallas 2006May 19–21, 20061st1stIsai
MLG Anaheim 2006June 23–25, 20061st1stIsai
MLG Chicago 2006July 21–23, 20061st2ndIsai
Zero Challenge 2August 15–17, 20061st7thRob$
MLG Orlando 2006August 25–27, 20065th1stIsai
MLG New York Playoffs 2006October 13–15, 20067th3rdIsai
MLG Las Vegas 2006 November 17–19, 20063rd1stIsai
Comrades 2June 9, 20071st1stCAOTIC
Zero Challenge 3July 20–22, 20074th2ndBombsoldier
EVO World 2007 August 24–26, 20071st
Super Champ ComboSeptember 29–30, 20077th7thIsai
Kings of CaliNovember 10, 201233rd3rd Dr. PeePee
Kings of Cali 2April 13–14, 201317thHairynipples
EVO 2013 July 12–14, 201349th
Kings of Cali 3December 14–15, 201325th5thHugS
Pat's House 2May 24–25, 201417th9thHugS
SKTAR 3May 31-June 1, 201425th9thKoreanDJ
SSS Lock-InJune 14–15, 20149th5thKoreanDJ
MLG Anaheim 2014 June 20–22, 201421st9thKoreanDJ
CEO 2014June 27–29, 201433rd7thKoreanDJ
Kings of Cali 4July 5–6, 201413th4thDEHF
EVO 2014 July 11–13, 201433rd
Super Smash Sundays 29December 7, 20149th5thDEHF
Apex 2015 January 30–February 1, 201581st25thKoreanDJ
I'm Not Yelling!April 11–12, 201525th5thLil Fumi
MVG SandstormApril 18–19, 201517th9thOkamiBW
Press StartMay 9–10, 201525th7thKira
EVO 2015 July 17–19, 201513th
Paragon Los Angeles 2015September 4–6, 201533rd
HTC ThrowdownSeptember 19, 201517th5thAxe
GENESIS 3January 15–17, 201633rd17thSantiago
DreamHack Austin 2016May 6–8, 201617th
EVO 2016 July 15–17, 201649th
GENESIS 4January 20–22, 201797th7thSantiago
DreamHack Austin 2017 April 28–30, 201725th9thEl Fuego
EVO 2017 July 15–16, 201749th
GENESIS 5January 19–21, 201865th13thSantiago

Project M

Tournament [21] Date1v1 Placement2v2 PlacementPartner
SKTAR 3May 31, 2014193rd
CEO 2014June 27–29, 201425th7thKoreanDJ

Survivor

In August 2008 it was announced that Hoang would be appearing on Survivor: Gabon , on the American television network CBS. [1] [22] He stated that he believed he was the underdog but hoped that it would garner him popular support. [1]

Hoang was chosen to join the Fang tribe in the first episode when Danny "GC" Brown picked him. Fang was weaker than the opposing Kota tribe in challenges, losing five of the first six immunity challenges, and Hoang was in danger of elimination several times during the pre-merge stage of the game. He formed an early bond with fellow Fang castaway Michelle Chase, [23] who ended up being the first person voted off. During the second Tribal Council, he was a target for elimination by Gillian Larson, but was spared as the rest of the tribe saw Larson as the weaker player. Hoang won the first immunity challenge for Fang, in which his puzzle-solving skills were pitted against physics teacher Bob Crowley of the Kota tribe. Though Kota was in the lead at the end of the first section of the challenge, which allowed Crowley a head start in solving his puzzle, Hoang solved the puzzle first and saved his tribe from Tribal Council.

Hoang made the merge and was in the merged tribe, named Nobag, a name that he coined himself. [24] He wanted to seem like a weaker player, when in reality, he was the mastermind of some of the most important votes. He was the fifth-place finisher, and sixth member of the jury. In the Final Tribal Council, he voted for Susie Smith, who placed second behind Crowley, in the vote for Sole Survivor. [25]

Personal life

Hoang was born on October 10, 1985. [1] Hoang's family is Vietnamese. [2] Ken attended California State University, Long Beach where he completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration. [26] He credits his earnings from playing Super Smash Bros Melee for financing him through college.[ citation needed ]

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References

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