McGrath began his Super Smash Bros. career in 2010. He entered the CEO 2010 tournament as a Samus player and finished in 13th place out of a total of 62 players. "Get to know Smash Bros. star Justin 'Plup' McGrath". Red Bull. Retrieved February 13, 2023. In 2014, he finished in 13th place out of over 600 players at Apex 2014. In 2016, McGrath finished in third place at CEO 2016 Prologue, CEO 2016, and EVO 2016. After finishing in the top 10 at Shine 2016 and Summit 3, he was ranked as the sixth-best player of the season. In 2017, McGrath won his first major at DreamHack Atlanta 2017 after defeating Hungrybox in the finals and placed second at Big House 7.
At the start of 2018, Plup would begin with a bang, winning Genesis 5 in February by beating the top 3 seeded players: Mang0, Armada, and Hungrybox (twice), establishing himself as a top threat for the year. This win was especially prolific for Plup as it was one of the first times a Sheik main won a major, despite Justin's use of Fox against Hungrybox. Plup's 2018 would continue as his most significant and promising year in Melee, as he maintained top placements at several majors, including GOML 2018, EGLX, and CEO. At all these majors, Plup placed second, losing to Hungrybox in Grand Finals each time. However, Plup reached a record-high ranking of second place for the MPGR 2018 Melee summer rankings. Plup then entered the most prolific tournament of 2018, EVO 2018, and started off strong. Plup cruised his way into top 8, and in his Winners Semifinals match, he beat Mang0 to reach Winners Finals. Unfortunately, Plup suffered a panic attack during top 8 due to the pressure of the tournament and his hopes of winning such a grand event. https://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/24427802/mental-health-issues-esports-remain-silent-very-real-threat-players.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) Plup lost to Leffen, the eventual winner of the event, and then to Armada, placing third. Plup had one more fantastic event that year at The Big House 8. After being upset by Bananas, Plup went on a nine-set losers run, defeating Moky, N0ne, Lucky, La Luna, Swedish Delight, Axe, Leffen, Zain, and Mang0 to place second, again losing to Hungrybox.
In 2019, Plup put Melee a bit on the back-burner, focusing more on Smash Bros. Ultimate. Plup ended the 2019 Melee season as the 8th-best player in the world, but much of his time was spent playing the new Smash title. Plup was featured on a video by the famous YouTube channel REACT, where Justin acted as a hidden top Smash player and played against many of the actors on REACT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-1p_PZ7-E4.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) Plup started the year placing top 64 at Genesis and Frostbite, two of the biggest tournaments of the year, then placed 17th at GOML, only losing to top 10 player VoiD twice. Plup had a stellar run at the biggest tournament of the year, EVO 2019, beating ZD and the 21st-best player of that period, MVD. Plup ended the year with a bang, getting 17th at The Big House 9 and beating 30th-ranked Salem. Plup continues to play Ultimate occasionally and has scored upsets against top talent like Atomsk, Riddles, Larry Lurr, and Lingling. In 2020, just before the shutdown of offline events due to COVID-19, Justin finished second at Smash Summit 9, with a great run beating Axe, Zain, Mang0 twice, and taking Hungrybox to the brink in a bracket reset.
2021 marked a significant year for Melee, as in-person majors returned, and Plup made a splash with a streak of dominance rivaling his 2018 peak. Plup placed fourth at the first major back, Smash Summit 11, beating Mang0 and only losing to Zain (second place) and Mang0 (eventual champion). Plup then won the Smash World Tour North America West Regional Finals, beating perennial top 10 player Sfat, and even more impressively, won the Smash World Tour Championships. The Championship brought together the most accomplished and veteran players from around the globe for a massive $75,000 prize pool. Plup outplaced top talent like Wizzrobe, Hungrybox, aMSa, Mew2King, and Jmook to take home $20,000. https://liquipedia.net/smash/Smash_World_Tour/2021/Championship/Melee#:~:text=The%20Smash%20World%20Tour%202021,tournaments%20divided%20into%20seven%20regions.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) Plup continued entering Melee tournaments, albeit more infrequently and casually, but remained a top threat, winning three large tournaments after the Smash World Tour Championship: CEO 2022, CEO 2023, and Riptide 2023.
Rivals of Aether II
Plup shifted his main focus to Rivals II upon its release and soon found massive success. At Genesis X2, Plup went on an incredible Cinderella run, upsetting kusiwastaken and defeating Rivals veteran and arguably the most dominant Rivals player, Cakeassault, in both Winners and Grand Finals (with his main, Maypul), to win a major to start the year. After a brief break, Plup entered EVO 2025 and again shocked everyone with a near-flawless run, beating players like Pikmon, MysterySol, Sparg0, Cakeassault, and Stango, dropping only one game (against Stango) and stopping his monstrous eight-set losers run to reach Grands. With this run, Plup truly cemented himself as a champion of fighting games by winning the most prolific and illustrious tournament series in the FGC, finally achieving his dream dating back to his Melee days at EVO, where he placed third twice (at EVO 2016 and 2018).
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