Last night, a giant was slain. Genesis 7 marked the beginning of the new Super Smash Bros Ultimate season. Players from around the world flew out to prove where they stand among the best at the start of the decade. Volatility was high in a tournament full of upsets and aggression, but there was no upset greater than the swift defeat of three-time Genesis champion Leonardo “MKLeo” Lopez Perez by the ever-impressive Tyler “Marss” Martin.
Expectations coming into this tournament were the same as any tournament in 2019 with MKLeo in attendance, the real competition was a fight for second. Throughout 2019, Leo was widely regarded as the best player in the world known for his unshakable mental game that has resulted in some of the greatest comebacks in Smash history. So, when Leo fell into the losers bracket early into Top 8, no one batted an eye. He would go on to confidently defeat the likes of Enrique “Maister” Hernandez, Eric “ESAM” Lew, and Ezra “Samsora” Morris who sent him into the loser’s bracket in the first place. It seemed like the same old Leo who used Joker’s Arsene to spark fear in the hearts of his opponents and his sheer track record to get into their heads. But, his match against Marss was different.
Last year, Marss made a name for himself in Ultimate. He became the Zero Suit Samus player and he was always a force to be reckoned with at any tournament that he attended. He also proved how good of a player he was by having the best record of all top players against MKLeo at 7 wins of 16 games. He even beat Leo twice to win an A-tier event, Smash Factor 8, but that was back in July, and since then Leo had spent the year continuously asserting his dominance over the scene.
As mentioned before, the way Leo wins is by getting in the heads of his opponents by just --- being Leo, and Marss knew that. After playing against one opponent so many times, one of two things happens; either he is in your head and he seems like an immovable object, or you know him like the back of your hand and he ceases to phase you. On Sunday, Marss experienced the latter.
Before the match between Leo and Marss, the casters were speculating on what Marss would do to beat the odds and defeat Leo. The theory they had was that Marss would bring out his Mega-Man that he used to beat Leo in September.
“Joker is great at the mid-range,” Phil “EE” Visu said, “but those pellets [Mega-Man’s neutral attack] just kind of, invalidate everything. It’s a total game-changer and has been known to frustrate Leo in the past.” They couldn’t have been more wrong.
Marss played as a man possessed. His play was the most aggressive that anyone had seen. In the first seconds of the first match, Marss tried desperately to break through the defense that Leo begins every set with. Marss missed his mark a few times before Leo caught him in a string that racked up 53%, but as soon as Marss was given an inch, he flipped the script and turned the fight into a four-second 0 to death against Leo. This level of volatility and aggression out of Marss continued throughout the entire set. There were two instances where Marss went so deep for stocks that he killed himself just to even up the match and make a statement against Leo. After the second match of the set, the audience wasn’t worried because it’s Leo, this happens sometimes, but now he’s had his time to understand Marss and he’s going to come into this third match even stronger and more focused. But instead, for the first time in a long time, Leo looked lost. Marss came out swinging for the third time and made quick work of Leo for a clean 3-0 to win Genesis.
With this win for Marss behind us now, it’s time to look forward to the next major where hopefully the fans can see a rematch between these two. Will Leo watch his VODs and come out stronger against Marss, or will Marss take this new level of aggression into all his future matches and increase his stock as a top player?