Smasher:CaptainZack
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CaptainZack is a former Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Bayonetta, Peach, and Daisy player from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was considered the best Bayonetta player in the early metagame, achieving solid placements in competitive play despite her drastic nerfs from Smash 4. He was formerly ranked 32nd on the Spring 2019 PGRU and has wins over players such as Ally, Nairo, Wishes, Salem, Dark Wizzy, Prodigy, Goblin, and Umeki. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, he was initially a Peach main, but found greater success after picking up Bayonetta. At one point, he was considered the best Bayonetta player in the world, but eventually faced a period of inconsistency that lasted for the rest of the game's active lifespan. CaptainZack was ranked 15th on the Panda Global Rankings 100 and was formerly ranked 2nd on the Louisiana Smash 4 Power Rankings. He is known (and partly infamous) for his colourful personality, in and out of the game. He makes frequent usage of taunts, as well as dances, many of which come from the Bayonetta series itself. On June 6th, 2017, CaptainZack was sponsored by Phoenix1[2], making him their second SSB4 player after Tweek, and third Smash player overall following Duck. He would leave the team on May 17th, 2018. He would then be picked up by Polar Ace on March 13th, 2019,[3] but would be dropped on August 2nd of the same year following a blackmail controversy. [4] Since then, he has been embroiled in controversies surrounding his relationships with several adults while underaged, including with former professionals Nairo and Ally. Many of these relationships involved further blackmailing and extortion from CaptainZack, which eventually led to his ban from the competitive scene. ContentsTournament history[edit]Smash 4[edit]Before Bayonetta[edit]In the early metagame of Smash 4, CaptainZack was a solo-Peach player. Despite his young age, he quickly established himself as one of the strongest players in his region, where he consistently placed top 2 at local monthlies. Although he made a few appearances nationally, he still saw passable results, notably placing 33rd at CEO 2015 and taking sets off of players such as Seagull Joe and 8BitMan. Bayonetta's release[edit]The results with Peach, however, would be no match to his later results. Following Bayonetta's release as a DLC character, CaptainZack, being a fan of the character, decided to pick her up. Although his first tournament with her, CEO 2016, ended in disappointment, he saw his first top 8 placement at a national at Clutch City Clash, where he defeated Fatality and Mew2King, ultimately placing 4th. This placement, however, was overshadowed by his out-of-region breakout tournament at 2GGT: Abadango Saga, where he upset Larry Lurr to ultimately place 9th. This run, along with other fantastic placements such as 17th at The Big House 6 and 7th at UGC Smash Open and as subsequent wins over other top players such as Dabuz and ESAM, helped him debut at 20th place on the Panda Global Rankings v2. Challenging Salem's title[edit]Although CaptainZack had several high placements in the second season, they were no match for Salem, who not only had better placements, including a few victories at smaller PGR tournaments, but notably double-eliminated ZeRo at Collision XIV, among other top player victories. Ultimately, Salem was ranked 13th on the rankings, 7 places higher than CaptainZack, solidifying himself as the best Bayonetta player in the world. However, in the third season, CaptainZack challenged Salem's title. CaptainZack started the season strong, placing 4th at GENESIS 4, defeating ANTi, komorikiri, and Abadango, as well as 5th at Frame Perfect Series 2, defeating kameme and Ranai. His best tournament run, however, was at 2GGC: Civil War, one of the most stacked tournaments in Smash 4 history, where he defeated kameme, Marss, and Mr.R, en route to a 4th place finish. His outstanding performance outshined Salem's initial results, who placed lower than CaptainZack at all three tournaments. Although Salem later caught up in the second half of the season, culminating in a 2nd place finish at 2GGC: Nairo Saga, the damage was already done: by the end of the season, CaptainZack was ranked 7th, while Salem was ranked 4 places lower at 11th. Losing steam[edit]Despite having a strong third season overall, his challenge started to become questionable in the second half. Following 2GGC: Civil War, he failed to qualify for top 8 at a supermajor until the final supermajor of the season, CEO 2017. Furthermore, he saw several losses to unranked players such as Twi, Sandstorm, and Lazyboredom; the latter loss started a struggle against mid- and low-tier characters such as Little Mac. While his outstanding first half and performance at CEO 2017 helped CaptainZack in the third season, he had no such help in the fourth season. He failed to qualify for top 8 at any supermajor during the season, and while he still had solid placements at regionals, they were unable to alleviate the damage done from the weaker national performances. Furthermore, he developed a bracket demon in ESAM, who had an 0-5 record against him by the end of the season. To top off the season, although CaptainZack qualified for the 2GG Championship, he infamously lost to komorikiri's Roy and ultimately went 1-2 in round robins to place 11th. Conversely, Salem had the best season of his Smash 4 career, where he not only saw consistent top 8 placements at supermajors, but even briefly challenged ZeRo's title for best player in the world by winning EVO 2017, DreamHack Atlanta 2017, and 2GGC: Fire Emblem Saga. Due to Salem's sudden resurgence and CaptainZack's decline, Salem took back the title of best Bayonetta and was ranked 2nd by the end of the season, 16 places above CaptainZack's 18th. A brief return to form[edit]Although he had a rough fourth season, CaptainZack started to bounce back in the fifth season. Despite starting the season with a lukewarm 17th at Frostbite 2018 with a notable loss to R.O.B. player SaSSy, CaptainZack saw his first national top 8 at Smash Masters League: Battle for Vegas, where he defeated VoiD and ultimately placed 7th. From there, he only appeared at a couple PGR tournaments before ending off the season with top 8 placements at the two largest tournaments of the season: at 2GG: Hyrule Saga, he eliminated Samsora and MkLeo to finish 5th, while at CEO 2018, he defeated Salem and Abadango to place 4th. These two placements and top player wins alleviated a rather inactive season for CaptainZack and caused him to rise to 9th by the end of the season. However, CaptainZack returned to inconsistency in the final season. Although he started off strong with a 2nd place finish at EVO 2018, the lack of seriousness he showcased during Grand Finals, which included a homie stock and holding Bullet Climax for two full minutes, seemed to have cursed his final few months. EVO 2018 was the last supermajor he placed in the top 8, and he saw some of his worst placements ever, including 49th at Shine 2018 and 33rd at The Big House 8, with several losses to unranked players including MagiMagi, Kuma, and Blade. These performances; the rise of other Bayonetta players such as Lima, Mistake, andTweek; and Salem's consistency up until the game's final moments erased any chance for CaptainZack to reclaim the best Bayonetta title. Despite this weak conclusion, thanks to his outstanding third and fifth seasons, CaptainZack was ranked 15th on Panda Global's all-time Smash 4 rankings. Ultimate[edit]Reclaiming the title[edit]As Ultimate rolled around, many people noted the severe nerfs Bayonetta received during the transition that hindered her KO power and notorious combo game. As a result, many of her best players, most notably Salem and Tweek, dropped Bayonetta in favor of other characters. Despite the nerfs, CaptainZack continued to play Bayonetta, and placed 17th at Let's Make Moves and 49th at Glitch 6. These results, while decent, were nevertheless a far cry from CaptainZack's performance throughout most of Smash 4. In hopes of changing things around, CaptainZack prioritized the superior character Peach and her echo Daisy, and initially saw some success, placing 9th at the first supermajor of the year, GENESIS 6. This success, however, did not last very long, and CaptainZack placed outside of top 32 at next three national tournaments he attended. Seeing how focusing on Peach and Daisy wasn't helping him, CaptainZack returned his attention to Bayonetta, and saw some of the best results of his Ultimate career, including 17th at MomoCon 2019 and 13th at Smash 'N' Splash 5 before ending off the season at a disappointing yet familiar 33rd at CEO 2019. Despite an incredibly mixed season, CaptainZack managed to pull off success with Bayonetta, a character players have waved off as a threat of the past. While most other Bayonetta players such as Lima and tamim found success at a regional level, they either failed to travel throughout the season (Lima) or faltered at national tournaments (tamim). Although he also used Peach and Daisy, CaptainZack was able to find success with Bayonetta at both regionals and nationals during the season, defeating players such as Nairo and Salem along the way. With CaptainZack being ranked 32nd for Ultimate's first season, he was acclaimed as the best Bayonetta player in Ultimate, allowing him to reclaim a title he had lost years ago. A controversial career conclusion[edit]The first season, however, was also the last time CaptainZack saw national success. Following a decent performance at EVO 2019, allegations of manipulation and blackmail surfaced, and many prominent tournament organizations banned CaptainZack from competing. Although he was allowed to spectate at Super Smash Con 2019, CaptainZack stopped entering tournaments and would be considered largely inactive. His only notable appearance since then was at the online tournament Soaked Series Invitational, where he entered under the tag "Secretary" and used mostly Bayonetta to place 17th. He would later return to the scene by attending Louisiana locals, consistently placing in the top 2, however following more manipulation allegations, he would be banned there as well. Since then, he has not made any appearance in the community. Controversies[edit]Blackmailing/Bracket Manipulation[edit]On August 2nd, 2019, around the time of Ally's controversy, a since-deactivated Twitter account going by the name of "The Truth" posted that CaptainZack pressured Ally into dating him, and that he blackmailed Ally into intentionally losing games to Zackray at 2GG: Prime Saga and Nairo at MomoCon 2019. A few hours later, CaptainZack, in a Twitlonger, confirmed the rumors about manipulating Ally, and revealed more information about their relationship. He also stated that he was forcing Ally to drop games in hopes that Ally would leave him, and that he was getting more and more upset as Ally was able to have continued success.[5] He was subsequently dropped by his team, Polar Ace, as a result of the incident. Due to the incident, Zack was also banned from competing at Super Smash Con 2019. He was, however, allowed to attend as a spectator, and confirmed the decision on Twitter.[6] 2GGaming also banned him from all 2GG tournaments on August 5th.[7] 2GG notably organized both of the tournaments in which Zack admitted to manipulating brackets. On January 16th, 2020, the SSBConductPanel released a statement where they advised an indefinite ban for CaptainZack with a chance to appeal after 5 years[8]. This decision was met with significant backlash, with many players such as MVD and Fatality pointing out that Mew2Queen only had half of CaptainZack's sentencing for sexual harassment. The controversial ban was brought up again in late June 2020 amidst a number of bans on other Smashers, and the hashtag "UnbanCaptainZack" trended on Twitter. The SSBConductPanel released a statement on June 29th defending their decision, which caused more backlash as people noted that they did not go into the details of the decision. The panel later made another statement saying that they could not provide anything else because it involved private information[9]. VGBootCamp made a post the following day saying that they were going to ignore the panel's ruling and only giving CaptainZack a one-year ban[10]. This decision was also controversial, with people such as The Crimson Blur, who has seen the aforementioned private information, and Glyphmoney, who was part of the panel's investigation on Promaelia, disagreeing with the decision[11][12]. On July 5, 2020, D. Disciple revealed text messages between Ally and CaptainZack confirming that CaptainZack threatened to expose Ally if he did not lose to Zackray, contradicting CaptainZack's opening Twitlonger statement.[13] Manipulated Claims on Nairo[edit]
On September 14th, 2020, several claims in CaptainZack's accusation of Nairo were brought into question when tamim released a TwitLonger. In it, he claimed that Zack manipulated his TwitLonger on Nairo by filling it with lies; notably, he claimed that CaptainZack initiated the first sexual contact with Nairo, who was allegedly still asleep at that time. tamim also pointed out how Zack twisted the wording to make it look like Nairo was paying Zack hush money when it was, in fact, Zack who requested money from Nairo. Furthermore, tamim said that CaptainZack was "a very sneaky and devious person" and had attempted to seduce and manipulate several other adults besides Ally and Nairo [14]. tamim also claimed that Zack wasn't worried about facing retribution for being in a relationship with Ally because he was a minor. Two days later, CaptainZack would reach out to tamim where he confirmed a few things stated in tamim's TwitLonger, including asking Nairo for money and the minor excuse. tamim also stated that CaptainZack no longer planned to be part of the community[15]. Despite this claim, CaptainZack continued to attend Louisiana locals until he was banned in October.[16] Tournament placings[edit]Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]
Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]
Project M[edit]
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U[edit]
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]
Trivia[edit]
References[edit]
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