Smasher:Fatality
| Fatality | |
|---|---|
| Character info | |
| Melee main | Captain Falcon |
| Other Melee character | Sheik |
| Brawl main | Captain Falcon |
| Other Brawl character | Snake |
| Smash 4 main | Captain Falcon |
| Ultimate main | Captain Falcon |
| Project M main | Captain Falcon |
| Other Project M character | Ivysaur |
| Team info | |
| Sponsor(s) | DETONATE |
| Former sponsor(s) | team ZENMA, True Ambition, Fly Society, Team YP, eSports Ecosystem, Recursion, FURIA Esports |
| Rankings and results info | |
| Most recent ranking | |
| Best historical ranking | |
| Best tournament result | |
| Winnings | |
| Personal and other info | |
| Real name | Griffin Miller |
| Birth date | |
| Location | Stone Mountain, Georgia |
Fatality is a Smasher from Georgia, known for being one of the greatest and most influential Captain Falcon players across two different Smash titles.
Fatality's career began in Project M, where he was considered one of the best Captain Falcon players in 2014. He later received nationally recognition for his performances with Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, especially after his breakout performance at Super Smash Con 2015. Throughout the game's competitive history, Fatality was the only Captain Falcon player to consistently succeed at the highest level of competitive play, with several top 8 major finishes under his belt, most notably his 2nd-place finish at 2GGC: Civil War. He was ranked on every iteration of the PGR and was eventually ranked 19th on the PGR 100 as the sole Captain Falcon player on the rankings. Due to these achievements, Fatality is widely considered the greatest Smash 4 Captain Falcon player of all time.
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Fatality continued to play Captain Falcon in spite of the character's nerfs. Despite some inconsistenty, he remained the most successful Captain Falcon player in Ultimate's early metagame, placing top 8 at several superregionals in the first half of the metagame and eventually ranking 48th on the Spring 2019 PGRU. After numerous buffs to Captain Falcon in balance patches, Fatality's results improved, culminating in several notable performances in the early years of the post-pandemic metagame, which includes top 8 finishes at CEO 2021 and Let's Make Big Moves 2022, and him ranking 33rd on the OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse. Though his results have since been matched by other Captain Falcon players, thanks to his long-term success with the character, Fatality is still considered one of the greatest Ultimate Captain Falcon players of all time, as well as the greatest to come from North America.
Tournament history[edit]
Project M years[edit]
Fatality began actively competing in Project M tournaments in late 2013. Even before his dominance with the character in Smash 4 and Ultimate, he was considered one of the best Captain Falcon players in the United States. His first tournament was at Tipped Off 9 where he placed 5th, losing to PPMD and Plup. His next notable tournaments were 7th place at both Tipped Off 10 and Paragon Orlando 2015, with notable set wins over Lucky, MVD, Shroomed. Fatality switched his focus to Smash 4 upon the game's release; his last appearance at a Project M tournament was S@X 158 on July 13th, 2016.
Smash 4: National debut[edit]
During the first year of Smash 4, Fatality took 1st place at many locals, but struggled to get strong placements at larger events. He finally found his first national success at CEO 2015, where he defeated 6WX and Day en route to a 17th place finish. Although he followed it up with a 65th place finish at EVO 2015, his lowest placement in a Smash 4 tournament, he finally had his breakout tournament at Super Smash Con 2015, where he notably defeated Dabuz before falling to ZeRo and Nairo to place 4th. He followed this strong performance with a slew of top 24 placement at national-level tournaments, as well as victories over top players such as Mr. E, Pink Fresh, and Nietono. With these strong results at national-level tournaments, many players considered Fatality to be the best Captain Falcon player in the world, a title that was proven when he was ranked 41st on the PGR v1, 9 places ahead of the only other Captain Falcon player, Tearbear.
Fatality started the second season with a few solid placements, with a 9th place finish at MomoCon 2016 and 17th at CEO 2016. However, he wouldn't see his best placements of the season until a few months later. At Super Smash Con 2016, Fatality defeated Marss en route to a 7th place finish. Although Fatality fell to Samsora early at The Big House 6, he made a Loser's run, winning his rematch against Samsora as well as defeating an up-and-coming Cosmos and the Japanese hidden boss Ri-ma before falling to Marss, placing 9th. Although he ended off his season on a slightly weaker note, with a 33rd place finish at UGC Smash Open and a 13th place finish at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga, his overall solid placements during the middle of his season helped him rise to 28th on the PGR v2.
Fatality's best season[edit]
Despite these impressive results, Fatality's best season was yet to come, although it did not look like it at first. On the surface, his third season looked lukewarm: he consistently placed no better than 17th at nationals, and only defeated a couple of notable PGR-ranked players. Conversely, he fell to several PGR'd players as well as a couple hidden bosses such as Somé and Dog w/ Hips. Even regionally, he struggled against ScAtt, who stole victory from Fatality at two tournaments - Final Round 20 and Tupelo Titans Throwdown.
However, these lukewarm results were countered by some of his best performances ever. At 2GGC: Civil War, the largest tournament of the season, despite the many top player upsets that took place, Fatality not only managed to mostly avoid being upset, but also made some of his own upsets, including over komorikiri, Nairo, and CaptainZack. Although he fell to T, he was able to get his runback in Loser's Finals, but ultimately fell to Dabuz, placing 2nd. In addition, at MomoCon 2017, although he fell to Larry Lurr early in bracket, he made the best Loser's run of his Smash 4 career, winning his runback against Larry Lurr as well as defeating Salem, Kameme, and even ZeRo, before losing to Nairo for 2nd. These two placements prove that on a good day, Fatality was a force to be reckoned with, and by the end of the season he jumped all the way to 15th.
A period of inconsistency[edit]
Unfortunately, he did not see any of these explosive performances in the fourth season. Once again, he failed to place higher than 17th at any major tournament and consistently fell to other PGR players. At the 2GG Championship, he was only able to win one game - against Elegant, and ultimately placed 15th. Even at lower-ranked tournaments Fatality fell to unranked players such as SuperGirlKels and Kresent. His season was saved by a couple of good wins as well as his victory at Showdown: Battle Royale 2, but he ultimately fell to 38th, his worst season since the first.
Fortunately, Fatality was able to pull himself together for the fifth season. Despite a characteristic 17th place at GENESIS 5, he followed it up with his first top 8 at a major since MomoCon 2017 - Frostbite 2018 - where he ran through Salem and Cosmos to place 5th. His next notable placement came a month later at Smash Masters League: Battle for Vegas, where despite falling to VoiD early on, he once again made an impressive Loser's run, defeating Ally, Salem, Larry Lurr, and Cosmos before falling to MkLeo for 4th. Although the rest of the season saw a series of high and low points - from a disappointing 25th place finish at Get On My Level 2018 to yet another respectable Loser's run at CEO 2018 - these two tournaments showed that Fatality could compete against the scene's newest players, and by the end of the season, Fatality jumped back into the top 15, placing 14th.
With the next Smash game on the horizon, Fatality prepared to make the transition to the new game, which resulted in a rather characteristic season, where he placed outside of the top 8 at the final 2 majors he attended and failed to pick up any notable PGR wins. Despite this weak ending, his highs highlighted his Smash 4 career, and the panel-based PGR 100 ranked him as Smash 4's 19th best player.
Ultimate: A rough start[edit]
During the transition from Smash 4, Captain Falcon received changes that made the character harder to play, resulting in a smaller playerbase than what the character saw in Smash 4. Despite this, Fatality continued to stick with the character and pioneered the character's metagame. Unfortunately, this effort didn't seem to pay off at the start, as during the first season, Fatality saw some of his worst performances ever. Similar to most seasons, he once again placed no higher than 17th at majors, while he placed 65th at GENESIS 6, falling to MkLeo and Captain L, and 97th at Pound 2019, falling to SciFire and Lemon. His season was saved by his regional performances, specifically his top 6 finishes at Smashpoint, Just Roll With It! 11, and 2GG: Grand Tour - South Carolina, tournaments where he saw a win over a PGR player. Due to a more lenient algorithm for the first season, these regional performances were enough for Fatality to be ranked 48th on the first PGRU.
However, the new algorithm was not lenient on him for the second season, which was by far Fatality's worst season yet. He only placed higher than 17th at one PGR-ranked tournament - his 9th place finish at Syndicate 2019 - and only garnered one PGR win - over Kola. Conversely, Fatality placed 129th at EVO 2019 - his worst performance up to that point - and consistently lost to non-PGR players such as Beastly at Low Tier City 7, Monty at The Big House 9, and Flow at both EVO 2019 and Syndicate 2019. Due to the slew of mediocre performances and unranked losses, Fatality was absent from the Fall 2019 PGRU, his first absence from a PGR list, while some people began casting doubt on Fatality's title as the best Captain Falcon player due to strong, albeit limited, major results from NickC.
Online era and resurgence[edit]
This poor season, however, did not deter Fatality, and he went into the third season hoping for something better, and initially, it looked like it was going in Fatality's favor. At his first major, Glitch 8 - Missingno, Fatality managed to place just outside of the top 8 while defeating LeoN, his best win since the first season. Although he had a mediocre Frostbite 2020, he was able to place top 8 at Clash Of The Carolinas III, his first top 8 at a PGR tournament since 2GG: Grand Tour - South Carolina nearly a year before.
Unfortunately, the season was cut short after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the offline metagame, and Fatality moved into the growing online metagame. However, Fatality's transition to the online metagame was rough, as throughout the next year, he failed to place higher than 49th at almost all of the major online tournaments he attended. However, he saw a glimpse of success at Ultimate Naifu Wars 12, where he ran through Scend, Middy, and MkLeo to place 3rd. This performance greatly helped him that online season, and he was ranked 61st on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5.
During the online metagame, Captain Falcon received several buffs that addressed several of the character's problems, and Fatality capitalized on the buffs as he labbed the character. While it did not pay off during the online metagame, it was about to make him a threat once the offline metagame returned. At InfinityCON Tally 2021, the first national tournament since CEO Dreamland 2020, Fatality was able to show that he still had it in him by placing 5th, defeating the rising stars Grayson and Epic_Gabriel along the way. This tournament was only a taste of what Fatality could do, and at the next few majors he attended, he ended up placing no lower than 17th. This performance was hindered by the fact that he only defeated a couple of notable players during this time, as well as a mediocre 33rd at Mainstage. However, Fatality followed this with his best Ultimate run yet at CEO 2021, where despite falling to Toast early in bracket, he made his first ever Loser's run in Ultimate, defeating the rising star Jake and veteran players WaDi, ESAM, and MVD, en route to a 4th place finish. This performance, as well as consistently high placements at majors, helped put Fatality back on the map, and he was placed in the B-tier, or top 24, on the PGRUContenders North America, as well as 33rd on the OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse.
With his strongest Ultimate season behind him, Fatality was looking better than ever in 2022, and he was able to continue his strong performances in the first season by placing top 24 at every major he attended except GENESIS 8. This time, he was able to garner some notable wins at each tournament: Anathema and Ned at Let's Make Big Moves 2022, Riddles and WaDi at Glitch - Infinite, and ProtoBanham at Smash Ultimate Summit 4. However, his season was not without downsides, which while not terrible, certainly affected his final standings for the season. Despite defeating ProtoBanham, he failed to win any other set at Summit and ended up placing 13th. His remaining majors, while solid, were also largely empty brackets as the only national-level win he got during these tournaments was Wrath, a player who had only attended a handful of tournaments that season and thus was ultimately not ranked on most global rankings. Due to a rather empty second half of the season, Fatality didn't make any notable improvements on the global rankings, maintaining his 33rd place ranking on the OrionRank Mid-Year 2022 and dropping out of the top 24 to 37th on the PGRU v3 NA.
His second half of the year was largely the same: although he still placed highly at most majors, most of his runs were rather empty, and he only picked up a few solid wins. His strongest performances were at the supermajors Super Smash Con 2022 and Let's Make Moves Miami, where he placed 13th at both tournaments and defeated players such as Cosmos, BassMage, and ApolloKage. Conversely, his season was brought down by some lukewarm performances such as 65th at Double Down 2022 after losing to Goblin and RyuKai and 9th at the super regional BOSS BATTLES: Phase 1 after losing to Lucretio and Sandro. His strong highs but disappointing lows led to his 46th place ranking on the inaugural UltRank 2022, a ranking that roughly covered the second half of the year; however, his strong major placements kept him from slipping too much on OrionRank, as he only dropped four places to 37th on the OrionRank 2022.
Initial retirement and return[edit]
Despite having a successful two years, Fatality's motivation for the game had been declining as he began losing interest in competition. This was the most apparent in the new year, in which despite having a respectable 13th place finish at MomoCon 2023, saw Fatality's worst performances of his career, as he failed to place top 32 at a single major. This included going 1-2 at Maesuma TOP 12 after losing to Hamachi and Rumiru to get 257th, his worst placement ever, and placing 193rd at Super Smash Con 2023, losing to Creepooba and Skew. In addition, the year saw another Captain Falcon player finally overtake Fatality, as Jogibu's strong performances at majors landed him at 25th on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023; conversely, Fatality was left unranked for the first time since the Fall 2019 PGRU. All of these factors ultimately reinforced Fatality's decision to retire, which he did so following Super Smash Con 2023, in favor of focusing on the newly-released Street Fighter 6.[1].
For the next year and a half, Fatality largely stayed outside of competitive Ultimate, aside from a couple of doubles events and DreamHack Atlanta 2024. His motivation eventually returned, and after competing at Battle of BC 7, Fatality announced his return to competitive play.[2] He further saw a return to form at other supermajors such as MomoCon 2025 and S Factor 12, notably defeating Neo at the latter tournament.
Playstyle[edit]
Fatality implements heavy usage of dash-dancing, utilizing it for spacing, mind games, and approaches. He is known for his simultaneously flashy and incredibly devastating punish game, zero-to-death combos, and impressive off-stage proficiency, notably his prowess at getting back on stage with a recovery as intercept-able as Captain Falcon's. In order to KO his opponents (often times at very early percents) Fatality incorporates air dodge reads and a myriad of kill set-ups, all with style. He is also reputable for his consistent usage of footstool combos.
Rankings[edit]
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U[edit]
Panda Global Rankings[edit]
| Ranking | Time period | Rank | Character(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PGR v1 | January 30th, 2015-May 7th, 2016 | 41st | X-Factor: +4 | |
| PGR v2 | May 13th-December 18th, 2016 | 28th | X-Factor: -6 | |
| PGR v3 | January 7th-June 18th, 2017 | 15th | X-Factor: -1 | |
| PGR v4 | June 24th-December 3rd, 2017 | 38th | X-Factor: +10 | |
| PGR v5 | December 23rd, 2017-July 1st, 2018 | 14th | X-Factor: -3 | |
| PGR 100 | January 30th, 2015-November 18th, 2018 | 19th |
OrionRank[edit]
| Ranking | Time period | Rank | Character(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OrionRank 2016 | March 15th-December 18th, 2016 | 32nd | ||
| OrionRank 2017 | December 24th, 2016-December 24th, 2017 | 19th | ||
| OrionRank Mid-Spring 2018 | January 1st-May 1st, 2018 | 6th | ||
| OrionRank 2018 | January 1st-December 2nd, 2018 | 19th |
EventHubs[edit]
| Ranking | Time period | Rank | Character(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EH 2016 SSB4Rank | January 2nd, 2016-February 4th, 2017 | 29th |
Georgia Power Rankings[edit]
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]
Panda Global Rankings Ultimate[edit]
| Ranking | Time period | Rank | Character(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2019 PGRU | February 1st-July 7th, 2019 | 48th | X-Factor: -8 | |
| PGRUContenders NA | 2021 | B (Top 24) | ||
| PGRU v3 NA | March 1st-June 13th, 2022 | 37th |
UltRank/LumiRank[edit]
| Ranking | Time period | Rank | Character(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UltRank 2022 | June 18th-December 18th, 2022 | 46th |
OrionRank Ultimate[edit]
| Ranking | Time period | Rank | Character(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OrionRank Ultimate: Six Months In | January 5th-June 30th, 2019 | 73rd | ||
| OrionRank 2019 | January 5th-December 15th, 2019 | 52nd | X-Factor: -24 | |
| OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse | April 2020-December 19th, 2021 | 33rd | ||
| OrionRank Mid-Year 2022 | December 22nd, 2021-June 26th, 2022 | 33rd | ||
| OrionRank 2022 | December 22nd, 2021-December 18th, 2022 | 37th |
Wi-Fi Warrior Rank[edit]
| Ranking | Time period | Rank | Character(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5 |
January 11th-June 29th, 2020 | 61st | X-Factor: +24 |
OrionRank/UltRank North America[edit]
| Ranking | Time period | Rank | Character(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OrionRank North America Top 200 | January 2019-March 2020 | 41st | ||
| OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse North America | June 2020-December 19th, 2021 | 23rd | ||
| OrionRank 2022 North America | December 22nd, 2021-December 18th, 2022 | 22nd | ||
| UltRank 2025 North America | December 17th, 2024 - December 15th, 2025 | 167th |
Georgia Power Rankings[edit]
Tournament placings[edit]
Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 placement | 2v2 placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MomoCon 2013 | March 9th-10th, 2013 | 9th / 64 | — | — |
Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 placement | 2v2 placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smash Carolina 5 | October 4th, 2014 | 7th | 5th | PDude |
| Extinction IV | March 13th, 2015 | 1st | — | — |
| Gwinnett Brawl October 2015 | October 25th, 2015 | 2nd | — | — |
| S@X 158 | July 13th, 2016 | 9th | — | — |
| OUGaming 2017 | October 27th-28th, 2017 | 7th / 22 | — | — |
| Nerd Corner Knockout #5 | April 13th, 2019 | — | 5th | Ohantheman |
Project M[edit]
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 Placement | 2v2 Placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tipped Off 9 | December 14th-15th, 2013 | 5th | — | — |
| MomoCon 2014 | May 23rd-25th, 2014 | 1st | — | — |
| Tipped Off 10 | September 20th-21st, 2014 | 7th | 5th | Starlord |
| Smash Carolina 4 | October 4th, 2014 | 1st | 2nd | Mr. Bones |
| Smash Carolina 5 | October 4th, 2014 | 2nd | 1st | Starlord |
| Paragon Orlando 2015 | January 17th-18th, 2015 | 7th | — | — |
| Tipped Off 11 | November 7th-8th, 2015 | 33rd | 17th | Nicaboy |
| S@X 158 | July 13th, 2016 | 9th | — | — |
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS[edit]
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 Placement | 2v2 Placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smash Carolina 5 | October 4th, 2014 | 7th | 4th | Starlord |
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U[edit]
| Tournament |
|---|