Joseph Manuel Marquez, known by his gamertag Mango, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player and streamer 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 former 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. 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 "Mang0" 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.
The Smash Brothers is a 2013 nine-part documentary series written and directed by Travis 'Samox' Beauchamp. The documentary series examines the history of the competitive Super Smash Bros. community, in particular the game Super Smash Bros. Melee and seven of the most dominant players throughout its history up to that point: Christopher "Azen" McMullen, Joel "Isai" Alvarado, Ken "Ken" Hoang, Christopher "PC Chris" Szygiel, Daniel "KoreanDJ" Jung, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, and Joseph "Mango" Marquez. The film also features extensive commentary from other community figures including Chris "Wife" Fabiszak, Wynton "Prog" Smith, Kashan "Chillindude" Khan, Antoine "Wes" Lewis-Hall, Daniel "ChuDat" Rodriguez, Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, and Lillian "Milktea" Chen. The series was crowdfunded through Kickstarter, receiving US$8,910. The series had a total budget of US$12,000. The series has received a combined total of over 10 million views on YouTube.
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 alias Hungrybox, is an Argentine–American professional Super Smash Bros. player, streamer, tournament organizer and commentator. Recognized as one of the greatest 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 "Mang0" Marquez, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and is regarded as the greatest Jigglypuff player in history. He is also an active competitor in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and has been a member of Team Liquid since 2015, becoming its co-owner in December 2021. He is currently ranked as the 8th best Melee player in the world for 2023.
William Peter Hjelte, better known by his gamer tag Leffen, is a Swedish professional fighting game player and streamer. Although mostly known as a Super Smash Bros. Melee player, he has also competed in Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear Strive, 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 seven Melee players in the world every year since 2014. 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 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; however, in the series' native Japan, there have been tournaments as early as 1999 with the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. 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 and Project M, a popular fan modification of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, and to a lesser extent, Brawl itself. 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.
Luminosity Gaming is a professional esports organization based in North America. It has teams competing in Call of Duty, Overwatch, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege, Super Smash Bros., Fortnite,Apex Legends, Rocket League, Pokémon Unite, Brawl Stars and League of Legends. The team was founded in Canada by Steve "Buyaka" Maida in 2015, and is based in Toronto, Ontario.
Genesis, stylized as GENESIS, is a series of annual Super Smash Bros. tournaments occurring in the San Francisco Bay Area of the US 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.
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.
The Golden Guardians (GG) were an American esports organization owned by the Golden State Warriors. The organization was one of four that joined the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) in 2018 after the league began franchising, the others being 100 Thieves, Clutch Gaming and OpTic Gaming. On December 18, 2019, the Golden Guardians announced their expansion into the professional scenes of Apex Legends, Teamfight Tactics and World of Warcraft.
Gavin Dempsey, also known as Tweek, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player.
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.
Jeffrey Williamson, known professionally as Axe, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. As of 2023, he is ranked as the 17th best Melee player in the world and has finished in the top ten of formal rankings presented by Red Bull and esports team Panda Global every year between 2016 and 2022. 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, a top 10 player since 2018 and was ranked the number one player in the world in 2022. Naghmi plays Marth and is currently considered the best Marth player in the world. He was sponsored by Golden Guardians from February 2020 to March 2023. In April 2023, he was signed by Moist Esports.
Kelsy Medeiros, known professionally as SuperGirlKels, is a Canadian professional Super Smash Bros. player. Medeiros's competitive gaming career spanned from 2014 until her retirement in 2023, during which she competed in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments using the character Sonic the Hedgehog.
