Ken Hoang, also known as 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. Hoang's dominance in the game earned him the nickname "The King of Smash".
Joseph Manuel Marquez, known by his gamertag Mango, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player from Norwalk, California. Known for his aggressive, high-risk playstyle, he is widely considered one of the game's greatest players of all time, and is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, along with Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman. Marquez began his career playing Jigglypuff, however he has primarily played Falco and Fox since 2011. He has been part of the Cloud9 eSports team since 2014.
Jason Sheldon Zimmerman, known by his gamertag Mew2King, commonly shortened to M2K, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player from Cinnaminson, New Jersey. He has won more than 70 tournaments during his career, primarily in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Zimmerman is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, along with Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and Joseph "Mang0" Marquez and is also widely considered one of the greatest Super Smash Bros. Brawl players of all time. He has also competed at a top-level in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Project M.
Adam Lindgren, known by his handle Armada, is a Swedish professional Super Smash Bros. player from Gothenburg. He is widely considered one of the greatest Super Smash Bros. Melee players of all time and the greatest Melee Peach player of all time. Lindgren has won several major tournaments: he is a three-time champion of GENESIS, two-time champion of EVO, two-time champion of Apex and one-time champion of The Big House. Considered one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, alongside Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, Lindgren was ranked one of the top two Melee players in the world every year from the beginning of formal rankings in 2013 until his retirement from singles tournaments in 2018, with Lindgren ranked as the number one Melee player in the world in 2015 and 2016. A 2021 list by PGstats ranked Lindgren as the second-greatest Melee player of all time. Lindgren retired from professional Melee singles tournaments in September 2018, citing declining interest in the game, although he still occasionally enters doubles tournaments teaming with his brother Andreas "Android" Lindgren. He also runs a YouTube channel with over 125,000 subscribers.
Kevin Nanney, also known by his gamer tag of PPMD and formerly known as Dr. PeePee, is an inactive American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. Nanney is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, alongside Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, and Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma. He is a two-time champion of the Apex tournament series and was ranked as one of the top six players in the world from 2010 to 2015, after which he was removed from rankings due to inactivity. Nanney uses Falco and Marth and is known for his intelligent and patient playstyle. A 2021 list compiled by Melee Stats, which was hosted on PGstats, ranked Nanney as the seventh-greatest Melee player of all time.
Juan Manuel DeBiedma, better known by his gamer tag Hungrybox, is an Argentine-American professional Super Smash Bros. player, streamer, YouTuber, and esports commentator. Recognized as one of the best and most successful Super Smash Bros. Melee players of all time, he is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee along with Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and is regarded as the best Jigglypuff player in Melee history. Active since 2007 and ranked as the best Melee player in the world since 2017, he is also an active competitor in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and he has been a member of Team Liquid since 2015; in December 2021, Hungrybox, now the longest-lasting member of the organization, became co-owner of Team Liquid.
William Peter Hjelte, better known as Leffen, is a Swedish professional gamer who competes in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Guilty Gear Strive, Dragon Ball FighterZ and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In Melee, Hjelte plays the character Fox, and is considered one of the best players in the world, having been ranked as one of the top six Melee players in the world every year since 2014. Hjelte is the first of two players to have beaten each of the "Five Gods" of Melee—Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney—in a tournament set and was also the first person outside the "Five Gods" to win a major tournament since 2010 when he did so in 2015. Since Lindgren's retirement in 2018, Hjelte has been considered the undisputed best Melee player in Europe. Hjelte has won several major Melee tournaments, including EVO 2018, Super Smash Con 2015 and 2019 and Community Effort Orlando 2015. A 2021 list compiled by PGstats ranked Hjelte as the sixth-greatest Melee player of all time.
Gonzalo Raúl Barrios Castro, known by his gamertag ZeRo, is a Chilean former professional Super Smash Bros. player and streamer. He was considered the best Super Smash Bros. for Wii U player in the world throughout his career, with a record-breaking 56 consecutive tournament wins in the game from November 2014 to October 2015, including high-profile tournaments such as EVO 2015 and The Big House 5. Prior to the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, he was a top ranked Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Project M player. His best known characters are Diddy Kong in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Pit in Project M, Meta Knight in Brawl, and Fox in Melee. He is the only player to have earned more than US$100,000 playing Super Smash Bros. for Wii U competitively.
Professional Super Smash Bros. competition involves professional gamers competing in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games published by Nintendo. Organized tournament competition began in 2002 with Super Smash Bros. Melee, released for the GameCube in 2001. Later tournaments have featured the other games in the series with the two largest and most popular Smash Bros. scenes revolving around Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch. Smaller scenes exist for the original game for Nintendo 64 and Project M, a popular fan modification of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. Major Smash Bros. tournaments include the GENESIS, Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Super Smash Con and The Big House annual series. Major League Gaming (MLG) has also previously included Smash Bros. games in its Pro Circuit.
Immortals is a professional esports organization based in the United States owned by Immortals Gaming Club. It was founded on October 7, 2015, after the acquisition of Team 8's LCS spot.
Genesis, stylized as GENESIS, is a series of annual Super Smash Bros. tournaments occurring in the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States state of California. The first Genesis tournament took place in 2009 in Antioch at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds.
Tempo Storm is an American esports professional video game team that has teams competing in Age of Empires II, FIFA, Magic: The Gathering, fighting games, and Shadowverse. They have formerly held divisions in Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Fortnite, League of Legends,Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Vainglory, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege,World of Warcraft, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
Justin McGrath, better known as Plup, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player from Orlando, Florida. McGrath is considered to be one of the best Super Smash Bros. Melee players in the world, having been ranked as one of the top 10 Melee players every year since 2015. McGrath is only the second player in the game's history to have defeated each of the players considered the "Five Gods" of Melee — Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney in tournament competitions.
The 2016 Evolution Championship Series was a fighting game event held in Las Vegas on July 15–17. Being hosted on the twentieth anniversary of the Evolution Championship Series, the event offered tournaments for various video games, including Street Fighter V, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Pokkén Tournament. Participation reached record-breaking numbers, with over 5,000 people registering for the Street Fighter competition alone. 2016 was the first time the Evo Grand Finals were held in an arena and were broadcast by ESPN2 in addition to Twitch.
Heir is an annual British Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament that began in 2014. The event has also featured a Project M tournament on several editions.
Ludwig Anders Ahgren is an American live streamer, YouTuber, podcaster, and esports commentator and competitor. Ahgren is best known for his live streams on Twitch from 2018 though late 2021, and on YouTube beginning in late 2021, where he broadcasts video game-related content as well as non-video game-related content such as game shows, contests, and gambling. He is also known for his work as an esports commentator at various Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments. Since beginning streaming full-time on February 16, 2019, Ahgren had become one of the largest streamers on Twitch.
Sota Okada, also known by his gamer tag zackray, is a Japanese professional Super Smash Bros. player. As of the end of 2019, he was ranked the seventh best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player in the world and the highest ranked player from Japan. In October 2019 he won The Big House 9, becoming the first Japanese player to win a premier-tier tournament held outside of Japan.
Jeffrey Williamson, known professionally as Axe, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. As of 2020, he is ranked as the fourth best Melee player in the world, and has finished in the top ten of formal rankings presented by Red Bull every year since 2016. Some of his notable tournament placements at major Melee tournaments include first place at Smash Summit 8, second place at GENESIS 6, and fifth place at EVO 2014.
Zain Naghmi, more commonly known by his tag Zain, is an American Super Smash Bros. Melee player from Reston, Virginia. Beginning his career in 2014, he rapidly climbed the ranks, becoming a ranked top 100 player in the world within only two years and a top 10 player since 2018. He is currently considered the best Marth player in the world. His most notable tournament placings include first at GENESIS 7, second at The Big House 9, second at Smash Summit 11 and third at Super Smash Con 2019. A 2021 list compiled by PGstats ranked Naghmi as the ninth-greatest Melee player of all time. He has been sponsored by Golden Guardians since 2020.
Kelsy Medeiros, known professionally as SuperGirlKels, is a Canadian professional Super Smash Bros. player. Medeiros began her career in 2014, and has competed in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate events primarily using the character Sonic the Hedgehog.
