Marvelous_Marco Upsets No. 1 Seed at USC Smash Club Tournament

Abraham “BigBoss” Parra, a local competitive Smash player from Mexico, was the No. 1 seed in the tournament and ranked No. 1.5 in the SoCal Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Power Ranking (PR). On the other hand, Marco “Marvelous_Marco” Blanco, a local competitive Smash player in SoCal, was the No. 3 seed and ranked No. 12 in the SoCal PR. Marvelous_Marco’s victory against BigBoss was an unexpected upset but his Toon Link ended up victorious over BigBoss’ R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy).

Marvelous_Marco won 3-2 against BigBoss in the final round (grand finals reset) of the USC Smash Club biweekly tournament. BigBoss sent Marvelous_Marco to the losers’ bracket in the winners’ final round winning 3-0, but Marvelous_Marco won immediately after 3-0 in the grand finals forcing a bracket reset and came up on top again in the grand finals reset round.

When asked about his mindset during the last few matches, Marco explained that he felt like he was completely in the zone. “I feel like I was playing out of my mind when I restarted the bracket. In game two, I just felt like I was winning — everything I wanted to do, I was able to do,” Marvelous_Marco said. “I implemented what I learned from him and I whiff-punished a lot of his moves. That’s kind of how I won.”

The tournament was the 66th biweekly tournament held by the USC Smash Club and the first of the year. There was a high number of entrants from USC, UCLA and others in the local Smash community such as Marvelous_Marco and BigBoss. Almost one-fourth of the 60 competitors were from UCLA which ignited the rivalrous spirit.

Matthew “Bluey” Day, a freshman at UCLA, participated in the tournament with other members in the Super Smash Bros. Club at UCLA. Initially, Bluey ranked No. 27 but ended the day placing 17th—a 10 place leap.

“I came here to have fun, play against some strong competition and see one of my friends at USC. I could’ve done better and my goal is to get top 8 next time,” Bluey said. “I also wanted to beat El Jando from USC. I played against him in the bracket and the second game we played was very close despite the fact that I SD’d [self-destructed].”

Of the top 8 in the tournament, three were USC Smash Club members and one was a club alumnus. President of the USC Smash Club Julian “Jucchan” Kida and varsity member Jack “Gossamer” Montgomery both tied for 7th while varsity member Alejandro “el Jando” Reyes placed 5th.

When asked about how the tournament went, Jucchan was very satisfied with the performance of his teammates. “We’re really happy to have such great talent,” Jucchan said. “New players like el Jando and Gossamer are already so good, and I’m hoping for them to be our core in improving the club for the next few years.”

Due to the pandemic, there have not been many tournaments in the SoCal area, and with Nintendo being relatively hands-off in regards to Smash tournaments, players depend on grassroots efforts to hold tournaments to bring the community together.

“Even university tournaments like this encourage a lot of gameplay because L.A. is experiencing a drought — especially with in-person tournaments — because of COVID,” El Jando said. “Events like these are revitalizing the Smash community.”

Marvelous_Marco believes USC plays a big role in bringing the Smash community together.

“USC is well known and you get a lot of people. If the tournament wasn’t capped, there would have been even more today,” Marvelous_Marco said. “I’ve been to this tournament before where there were over 100 people at one point. It spreads the word and people talk about it. A lot of people from even the I.E. [Inland Empire] or other places come all the way here to this tournament.”