Smasher:Sparg0

Sparg0
Sparg0 holding his Supernova 2024 trophy
Character info
Melee main	Marth
Smash 4 main	Cloud
Ultimate main	Cloud
Other Ultimate characters	Pyra, Mythra, Piranha Plant, Young Link
Retired Ultimate characters	Inkling, Corrin
Team info
Sponsor(s)	FaZe Clan
Former sponsor(s)	XTR Esports
Rankings and results info
Most recent ranking	Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v2: 31st UltRank Half Year 2026: 8th
Best historical ranking	LumiRank 2024.2: 1st
Best tournament result	4th / 119 at Super Smash Con: Fall Fest 1st / 2,281 at Supernova 2024
Winnings	~$112,412.47
Personal and other info
Real name	Edgar Valdez
Birth date	November 25, 2005
Location	Tijuana, Baja California

Sparg0 is a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Cloud player born in San Diego, California who is currently residing in Tijuana, Mexico, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest Ultimate players of all time, having been considered the best in the second half of 2024, ranking as a top 10 player since the pandemic, and having secured over 20 major wins across his career. In addition to this, he is the undisputed best Cloud player of all time, and also stands as one of the best Aegis and Piranha Plant players of all time.

Though he competed in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Sparg0 was known for being one of Ultimate's first prodigies, competing with and even defeating several ranked players as early as the age of 13, and becoming the best player in North America's online metagame during the pandemic. In the post-pandemic metagame, he initially played Aegis before returning to Cloud in 2022, whom he used to win his first major at Smash Ultimate Summit 4; at the age of 16, Sparg0 became one of the youngest Ultimate players to win their first major, alongside Doramigi and acola. Since then Sparg0 has won many other majors, including the Japanese supermajor Kagaribi 10 and the American supermajor Supernova 2024. In addition, he continues to play the Aegis as a counterpick while also finding success with many other characters, including Inkling, Corrin, Piranha Plant, and Young Link. He used Piranha Plant to win 95 Kings of Fields 5, becoming the first Piranha Plant player to win a major, as well as being the fourth player to win a major in each of Ultimate's three superregions.

Outside of singles, Sparg0 is often considered one of the best doubles players in the world, often teaming with Chag, and has won several large doubles events, including GENESIS 9 and Supernova 2024.

On April 17th, 2022, FaZe Clan announced they had signed Sparg0 as their first Super Smash Bros. player.

Playstyle

In all Smash games, Sparg0 is a methodical, yet aggressive player, using his movement, game plan, and solid fundamentals with the characters he plays. One of Sparg0's most fearsome traits has always been his adaptability and the capability to change his playstyle. Using Cloud, he has been known to constantly switch up which aerials he will use, as well as the timing of said aerials to constantly throw off his opponents. In particular his ledgetrapping game is a forefront of his playstyle, able to continuously pressure his opponents with back air and constantly keep them at the ledge or offstage. A particular trait of his gameplay while using Cloud is a tendency to go all-in with a calculated risk, heavily using Cloud's limit for an extended edgeguard or suicide up-b, able to keep his opponents on edge for a surprising kill.

Sparg0 is also notorious at mitigating the weaknesses of his characters. Both Cloud and the Aegis are known for having subpar recoveries, yet Sparg0 has shown incredible creativity when it comes to getting back on the stage. His knowledge of when to use his resources and when to take risks has given him a reputation for being notoriously difficult to edgeguard, even when on paper he should be at a disadvantage.

Tournament history

Pre-Ultimate

During Smash 4's competitive lifespan, Sparg0 competed both online and in his home region of Tijuana, and in both scenes, he became recognized for his skill despite his young age. Online, he achieved wins over other top players like Chusam, Rax, and Zomba. Sparg0 was ranked 31st on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v2; ranked just four days after his 13th birthday, he remains the youngest player ranked on any iteration of the WWR.

Ultimate's rising prodigy

Shortly after Ultimate's release, Sparg0 won Smashing Legends Ultimate Christmas Special, the first WWR-eligible event of the new game. About a week later, he won the 818-entrant Ultimate Naifu Wars 2, defeating Vendetta 3-1 in grand finals. With the tournament's large size, and its wide viewership on Nairo's stream, Sparg0 quickly gained notoriety in the Smash community for his skill at only 13 years old. Around this time, Sparg0 made his first trips to compete in the United States. He quickly made an impact in the Southern California weeklies he attended, defeating well-known players such as Elegant. He placed 49th at his first major, GENESIS 6, losing to California natives ImHip and Lui$. Months later at 2GG: Prime Saga, he placed 25th losing to Shuton and Teb.

However, it wasn't until late in the season that Sparg0 made his biggest waves offline. He first had his breakout event offline at the special weekly Weds Night Fights x Orange County Spring 2019 2.6, where he surprised everyone by defeating VoiD 2-0 (then considered the best player in SoCal and one of the best players in the world), Elegant 2-0, and kameme 2-0 to finish 4th, all the while using Cloud, a character many had dismissed due to his nerfs from the previous game. This performance, alongside other notable weekly performances, led himm to be ranked 2nd on the SoCal Ultimate Power Rankings despite living just outside the region. In addition, in the spring, he entered all three tournaments in the Ultimate Naifu Wars: Sandy Road to CEO circuit, with the winner of the circuit being flown out to CEO 2019. Despite finishing second to king_chris in the circuit, chris opted to award the flight to Sparg0, so he was able to attend his first tournament outside Mexico or California. At CEO, Sparg0 defeated Myran 2-1 and Sinji 2-0, achieving wins on two players en route to PGR-ranked seasons of their own. Though he lost shortly after to Marss and WaDi, his 17th place finish and aforementioned wins were his best ever at an offline major. Finally, his strong play online continued, and he was ultimately ranked 2nd on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v3.

Heading into the second half of 2019, Sparg0 had became well-known in the North American community, and was considered one of the Cloud players in the world. However, he was unable to build on the success he found in the first half of the year. Seeded 8th at his home country's Smash Factor 7, he fell at 17th after a loss to Mr. R and an upset by Pablo. Continuing to attend majors throughout the season, he placed 33rd at EVO 2019, 25th at 2GG: SwitchFest 2019, and 49th at 2GG: Kongo Saga. Despite respectable placings, none were able to eclipse his previous peak at CEO nor his incredible performance at Weds Night Fights, and he was unable to get a PGR-ranked win at any. As such, he was unranked on both the PGR and OrionRank, especially as Weds Night Fights was not used on both rankings despite it being a special event rather than another weekly. Sparg0 remained a top threat online, but reduced attendance with his shift to offline play led him to drop to 15th on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v4.

Sparg0's results held steady after the new year. In January 2020, he attended Let's Make Big Moves in New York City, traveling the furthest from his home yet. Despite a strong performance in the Tristate vs The World Crew Battle, taking five stocks for Team World, he placed 33rd in the main bracket, defeating Mr. E 2-1 but losing to Larry Lurr and Light, both 0-2. A 49th place finish at GENESIS 7, losing to MuteAce 1-2 and Cosmos 0-3, ended his final major event before the quarantine period. Though still ranked highly in-region and regarded as one of his character's best players, Sparg0 was unable to break top 16 at a major during this time, and the quickly rising Kola had begun to challenge him for the title of best Cloud player.

The King of Wi-Fi

Upon the cancellation of events worldwide in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sparg0, like many others, shifted his focus to online competition. Though the influx of PGR-ranked players made the competition tougher than ever, Sparg0's skill and familiarity with online conditions allowed him to keep his footing at the top. He placed highly at many large and lucrative online events, including 1st place at Mazer Gaming Smash, 2nd at The Quarantine Series: Minor Tournament 1, and 5th at The Quarantine Series: Major Tournament 1. At the end of the season, he was ranked 4th on the 75-player Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5, and was the only returning player to rise in placement despite the massive influx of offline threats.

The second half of 2020 brought even greater success. Early on, Sparg0 won Lockhart Series, taking winners' and grand finals 3-1 and 3-0 over Maister. As the thousand-entrant supermajors gave way to a landscape of top player-hosted sub events, Sparg0 gladly traded his subs for first place finishes. He won Maister's Flat Realm 8, Hungrybox's El Jugo Box, Dabuz's Galaxy Gambit 2, and MkLeo's M-Kolosseum 4. Additionally, he was able to keep positive records over his closest competitors, Maister, BestNess, and Sonix. This dominance led him to be ranked 1st on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v6, topping the rankings for the first time.

2021 was more of the same for Sparg0, who continued winning major online events with few blemishes on his record. Notably, two of these tournament wins secured him spots at offline events later in the year. At his region's online qualifier for the recently announced Smash World Tour 2021, he recovered from a 0-3 loss to MkLeo with a 3-2 win over Maister and two wins over MkLeo in grand finals, earning him a spot at the upcoming offline regional qualifier. At Collision Online 2021, he 3-0'd Maister twice in two sets of grands, securing him a spot at Smash Ultimate Summit 3. In the end, despite a close race against Sonix and Maister, he repeated as 1st place on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v7, becoming just the second player ever to rank 1st in two separate seasons. With nothing left to prove on Wi-Fi, and with the return of online majors around the corner, the pressure was on Sparg0 to translate his dominance to the in-person stage for the first time.

The next best player?

At SWT: Mexico Ultimate Online Qualifier, Sparg0 placed 6th, losing 3-2 each to MkLeo and Maister, and disqualifying out of the tie-breaker against Yei. Despite falling short of both his 1st place finish at its online counterpart and expectations from those who were watching him, this placement was good enough to secure him a spot at the Smash World Tour 2021 Championships later that year. A week later at Smash Ultimate Summit 3, Sparg0 was faced with daunting pools matchups against invitees Tweek and KEN, both of whom were among the best in their home regions and the world. However, he shocked the world by winning both sets, 3-1 and 3-2, respectively. Not only did this secure him a spot in final bracket on winners' side, but it marked his first PGR wins at a major since CEO 2019 more than two years prior. He continued his hot streak on Sunday finals, defeating Riddles and Zackray, before falling to Tweek 3-1 and to MkLeo in a crushing reverse 3-0. In the post-set interview, Leo commended Sparg0, and stated his belief that Sparg0 would be the next player to become the best in the world after himself.

Since quarantine, Sparg0 had relegated Cloud to a secondary, and was now using Pyra and Mythra for most matchups. With this new character choice, he continued to reach the podium at every major he attended. At Riptide, he once again lost to MkLeo and Tweek, placing 3rd. With the two absent from Super Smash Con: Fall Fest, Sparg0 entered grand finals on winners' side, but lost two sets to Light to place 2nd. Later that month, he outplaced Tweek for the first time, defeating him 3-2 in losers' finals of Port Priority 6; he lost to Leo 2-3 in grands, once again placing 2nd. By this time, Sparg0 had cemented himself as one of the top three players in North America post-quarantine, along with his fiercest competitors Leo and Tweek.

Arguably Sparg0's most notable result of the year came at Mainstage 2021; with a Summit spot and supermajor win on the line, all eyes were on him to see if he could finally come out on top. An early 1-3 loss to Chag put this in doubt, but Sparg0 responded with a monster losers' run, defeating ESAM, Kola, Light, Chag, Tea, and Elegant along the way. Waiting for him in grand finals was MkLeo, who he had yet to take an offline set from. Sparg0 won the first set of grands 3-1, and looked poised to take the second after leading in percent during game 5. However, an untimely reversal allowed Leo to stuff out Sparg0's recovery with a devastating Byleth down air, stealing the Mainstage title in seconds. Despite another strong finish at the SWT Championships, Sparg0 was unable to get revenge, losing once again to MkLeo and then to Cosmos, both of whom also used Pyra & Mythra.

Though a major title eluded him, Sparg0 ended the year widely considered as the second best player in the world. He was ranked S+ tier, or top 3, on the PGRUContenders North America, and 2nd on the concurrent OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse North America.

The lull in tournament activity in early 2022 allowed Sparg0 time to reconsider his character choices. After finding himself the third best Aegis player at SWT, he decided to return to his longtime choice of Cloud} as his main. Having qualified for Smash Ultimate Summit 4 back at Mainstage, this became his first major event of the year. He swept his pool again, this time as the first seed, defeating Tea, Elegant, and Lavish. After winning his runback against Chag in final bracket, he defeated MkLeo for only the second time, 3-1. Sparg0 then faced off against Light, and defeated him twice in winners' and grand finals, to achieve his first-ever victory at a national tournament, using Cloud for the majority of his sets other than Chag and Lavish.

Sparg0 continued his hot streak at Collision 2022 the next weekend, reverse 3-0ing MkLeo's Byleth in winners' finals and 3-0ing Tweek in the second set of grands for his second straight major victory. However, at the Mexican invitational Delfino Maza RETA 2022, a major in its own right, he finished in 2nd place after Leo pulled out a character counterpick of his own: Corrin. Despite this result, coming out of the first quarter, many players started to believe that Sparg0 had the potential to finally dethrone Leo as the best player in the world, and many eyes were on him and Leo coming into GENESIS 8.

Sparg0 fell slightly short at GENESIS 8, losing to both MkLeo and Glutonny to place third. This, alongside his losses to MkLeo at Relax & Smash at GeekFest Cancún and his disappointing 7th place finish at The Gimvitational, solidified his rival's position on the throne. Still, despite threats from Light, Glutonny and Japan's rising star acola, Sparg0 managed to hold onto his 2nd place position thanks to his incredible first half of the season, as well as his run at Low Tide City 2022, where after he fell to MuteAce prior to top 8, he tore through the loser's bracket, 3-0ing almost everyone in his path, before double-eliminating Kola to take the tournament. On the PGRU v3 NA, he was 0.7 points away from MkLeo, marking the closest time MkLeo was outranked.

However, even with all of his success within the last year, Sparg0 struggled with his mental health. As a result, on June 20th, he announced his hiatus, which he initially declared was indefinite. During the next few months, the metagame saw some notable shifts. In particular, around the time of his hiatus, there was a surge of Steve results, largely due to acola's continued strong performances, which included his victory at The Gimvitational, as well as Onin's victory at Super Smash Con 2022, where he decisively defeated several top players including MkLeo, Glutonny, and Maister. Furthermore, Sparg0 was not the only other player in contention for the throne, as other players such as Light and acola saw consistently strong performances throughout the year.

Although Sparg0 did attend a couple of regional and locals during his hiatus, he did not return to top level play until he was invited to Smash Ultimate Summit 5 in September. However, he was somewhat rusty in his initial few appearances. At Summit, Sparg0 ultimately placed 7th, with his only top 10 win being Glutonny, and he fell to Tweek, ProtoBanham, and Glutonny in the runback. Sparg0 fared better at the Ludwig Smash Invitational, the most stacked invitational of the year, where he qualified for the final bracket after going 3-1 in his Swiss Pools, notably showing his confidence in the Steve matchup by defeating Onin 3-0 and losing only to Shuton. Although he was sent to the loser bracket early by Kurama, Sparg0 saw an impressive loser's run defeating Dabuz, Riddles, Sonix, and Shuton, but ultimately fell to acola following an unfortunate SD at the start of the final game. Even with this run, however, Sparg0 still had much to prove if he were to claim the top spot, and two other players stood in his way: MkLeo, who, despite underperforming at Super Smash Con and Summit, dominated the Ludwig Smash Invitational; and acola, who, in addition to his continued dominance in Japan, placed 2nd at the invitational and claimed victory at the supermajor Let's Make Moves Miami the following week. In order for Sparg0 to get back into the conversation, he would need to derust quickly, as the end of the season was starting to close in, and with the cancellation of the Smash World Tour 2022 and the postponement of the Panda Cup, only two major tournaments remained for Sparg0: Mainstage 2022, a supermajor which saw many SWT-qualified players in attendance, and Ludwig's second invitational: the Scuffed World Tour. Sparg0 would need to see strong performances at both if he were to reclaim his former glory.

Despite facing a bit of trouble early on, Sparg0 easily made it into top 8 at Mainstage 2022. Unfortunately, a headset malfunction knocked him out of the groove, leading to Sparg0's 3-0 defeat by Tweek. This setback did not hinder his run, however, as after switching out his headset, Sparg0 made yet another strong loser's run, defeating Kurama, Light, and Big D to face Tweek once again in grand finals. Despite coming close, Tweek failed to reverse 3-0 Sparg0 as the bracket was reset, and Sparg0 ultimately defeated Tweek 3-2 in the next set, claiming his first major victory since Low Tide City, avenging his devastating loss from the previous Mainstage.

In Sparg0's predicted bracket at the Scuffed World Tour, he had to face Miya, Japan's other rising star, as well as acola. Despite having experience from fighting Maister, Miya proved challenging for Sparg0, as he was ultimately down 2-1 against him, and Sparg0 was forced to switch to the Aegis, which ultimate gave him the set victory. In the following match, despite Sparg0's confidence in the matchup, he quickly realized that acola was still in peak shape, and their set once again went to game 5. However, Sparg0 did not SD this time, and ultimately won the runback and moved on in the winner's bracket where, instead of MkLeo, he had to face Tweek yet again. Sparg0 ultimately cleaned up Tweek, both in their winner final's set and their grand final's set, winning the invitational.

Sparg0's performance in December blew away expectations. Not only was he able to win two major tournaments back-to-back, but he did so as if he had never left before, winning runbacks against players who had defeated him during his rusty period, and proving that he was still one of the best despite returning in a new metagame. His run at these two tournaments marked a strong end to the season, and while rankings for the year have ranked him in different places, all of them agreed that Sparg0 was in the top 3: OrionRank 2022 and UltRank 2022 ranked Sparg0 3rd, while EchoRank and RaccRank ranked Sparg0 1st.

Fight for the throne

Coming off his strongest year yet, Sparg0 was eyeing the throne for the following year, and at a first glance, it seemed like it was finally his time to shine. Sparg0 saw the best performances of the mid-year season in the spring, where he won the major MAJOR UPSET and the premier-tier tournaments Kagaribi 10 and Battle of BC 5. Although Sparg0's MAJOR UPSET run was notable as he double-eliminated MkLeo in Grand Finals, the latter two events were the highlights of his season, as not only were they two of the largest tournaments of the season, but he also defeated acola twice at each tournament. This, alongside his victory over acola at GENESIS 9 at the start of the season, gave Sparg0 a dominant 5-0 record against acola going into the mid-year season. Sparg0's two premier-tier victories, more than any other player up to that point, and dominance over acola led many players, particularly in North America, to believe Sparg0 would be ranked first by the end of the mid-year season.

Unfortunately, Sparg0's incredible performances were offset by several weak performances. First, he greatly underperformed at Smash Ultimate Summit 6 by going 2-4 in sets, only defeating two players who were not ranked in the top 100 that season and conversely being upset by VoiD in the final bracket to place 13th. In addition, Sparg0 also underperformed at Crown the Third, as he was first upset by Jakal before being eliminated by MkLeo at 9th. His two major finishes outside the top 8 and his loss to a player ranked outside the top 100 weakened his season. Conversely, acola did not have a single placement outside of the top 8, and in fact had a stronger record than Sparg0 (against all players qualified for LumiRank that season, Sparg0's record was 71-16 and acola's record was 90-10, while acola did not have a single loss outside the top 50), therefore making acola the more consistent player. This consistency ultimately pushed acola just barely ahead of Sparg0 in what became the most contentious season of Ultimate, leaving Sparg0 ranked 2nd on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023. However, the race remained very close to the very end: had Sparg0 won both Grand Finals sets against Sonix at Get On My Level 2023, he would have just barely been ranked #1.

Despite this disappointing finish to the season, Sparg0 was looking to take the #1 throne from acola. He started the season strong at Smash Factor X, which saw Sparg0 take his first-ever set against MkLeo, who used Joker, and get his grand finals runback against Sonix in a tense game 7 that nearly went to time. Sparg0's appearance along with Sonix in Grand Finals at two consecutive North American supermajors cemented the offline rivalry of the two players, who had both long since been dominating the online Smash scene. This led to subsequent Grand Finals featuring these two to be termed "Coinbox Grand Finals", referring to the online weekly tournament series hosted by Hungrybox in which Sparg0 and Sonix regularly trade tournament titles.

Sparg0's strong outings at Get On My Level 2023 and Smash Factor X earned him the 1st seed going into Super Smash Con 2023, which, at 2,607 entrants, was poised to be the biggest Ultimate tournament since the post-quarantine era. Expectations on Sparg0 were high, and with a bevy of high-profile Japanese talent attending the tournament, many were wondering if he could repeat his career-highlight successes at the previous two premier events. Unfortunately, Sparg0 ended up with a shocking 49th-place finish at the event, his worst placement ever tied with GENESIS 6, 2GG: Kongo Saga, and GENESIS 7. Sparg0's losses at the event were to players who weren't ranked in the top 50 at that time: Ly and Aaron. The magnitude of this placing was not lost on Sparg0's competitors: acola ultimately won the event without dropping a set, widening the gap between him and Sparg0.

Although Sparg0 was able to bounce back the following weekend by taking Delfino Maza 2023 over Glutonny, the next few events saw Sparg0 have a more difficult time against other top players. At Tera, Sparg0 lost 2-3 to Tweek before being eliminated by Glutonny for 3rd, despite having defeated him in their last two encounters. ReWired Fest 2023 saw Sparg0 fall to his bracket demon MuteAce yet again before being swiftly cleaned up by Light 3-0. Finally, Sonix remained a thorn in Sparg0's side; Sonix defeated Sparg0 in Winner Finals at Luminosity Makes Moves Miami 2023 only for Sparg0 to double-eliminate Sonix in a grueling 10-game, hour-long pair of grand finals sets.

Although these performances still established Sparg0 as one of the best in the world, it wasn't helping him in his race for #1, especially with acola's continued dominance in Japan. In addition, Sparg0's race to #2 was also becoming tighter after Miya's string of equally strong performances. Not helping his case was his performance at Port Priority 8, which saw Sparg0 lose to KEN before being eliminated by Riddles for 17th, yet another underwhelming finish at an important event; with Sonix winning the event, a few players even went as far as to question whether Sparg0 would end up outside the top 3. Following the event, Sparg0 acknowledged his struggle to adapt to the game's fast-changing metagame and promised to come out stronger at the final invitational of the year, Watch The Throne.

Ultimately, Sparg0 was able to deliver on this promise. Although his Round Robin stage was somewhat shaky, which included a close game 5 set with ApolloKage and being once again swiftly defeated by Light, Sparg0 was able to tear through his Gauntlet Stage, defeating MkLeo 3-1 and Glutonny 3-0. The main bracket saw Sparg0 quickly dispatch the rest of the top 4, with Sparg0 defeating both acola and Miya 3-1 despite both players putting up a noticeably more competitive fight than before. Most notable among this was Sparg0's surprising dominance over his two sets against Sonix, whom Sparg0 defeated in Winner Semis 3-0 and Grand Finals 3-1, using Cloud for every game he won instead of the Aegis, the character Sparg0 normally used for the Sonic matchup. Sparg0's victory at this event, especially his clean victories against acola, Miya, and Sonix, led many to reassess his overall season: many players believed Sparg0's Watch The Throne saved him from falling from his mid-year placement, which was confirmed when he was ranked 2nd on the LumiRank 2023.

Not content on missing out on the top spot for yet another year, Sparg0 looked to finally claim the spot in 2024, and initially, it seemed like he had a great shot. Up until the beginning of April, Sparg0's tournament performances were stellar, placing no lower than 3rd at any event he attended and even claiming a supermajor win at Collision 2024. His record over the top 10 was also pretty solid, having a positive record over Light and SHADIC (both 2-0) but a negative record against Sonix and Hurt (both 0-2). Despite having two losses outside the top 50 in the form of WaKa and Skyjay (though the overall records that season were still in Sparg0's favor) and a negative record against MkLeo up to that point (4-3) in what was MkLeo's worst season yet, many players still considered Sparg0 as a shoe-in for the top 5.

Unfortunately, all these strong performances were offset by the rest of his season, which was arguably Sparg0's worst string of performances since the pandemic. The superregional PSKSHOWDOWN 7 was his first underperformance, as Sparg0 was upset by Mr. E and AlanDiss for 5th. However, this was soon overshadowed by his performances during the Golden Week. Despite high hopes for him due to his previous win in Japan, as well as his reputation for being great against Japan's best players, Sparg0 underperformed at both of his Japanese events, placing 13th at DELTA 8 after losing to Rarikkusu and Lv.1 before then placing 33rd at Kagaribi 12 after losing to Toriguri and Noi. Finally, he failed to replicate his Smash Factor X victory, falling to 5th at S Factor 11 after losing two game 5 sets to Cosmos and SHADIC, an unfortunate reverse 3-stock in the fourth game effectively sealing the deal in the latter set. Although he was able to even up his record against MkLeo at S Factor 11, this unceremonious conclusion to Sparg0's season, coupled with underwhelming records for a top 10 player (4-5 against the top 10 and 22-12 against the top 50) was reflected in his final ranking, where he fell to 9th on the LumiRank 2024.1, his worst placement since the early metagame and a placement that surprised many.

Claiming the throne

Despite this unfortunate finish and his string of underperformances, Sparg0 was able to get out of this slump immediately as the new season started. His third trip to Japan for Kowloon 12 with Kagaribi saw what many considered a return to form: although knocked into losers by Doramigi, Sparg0 was able to make a strong losers run to 3rd, knocking out Asimo and getting his revenge against Doramigi and Lv.1, ultimately losing to acola for the first time since Ludwig Smash Invitational. His performance at this event, especially his wins over players who had previously defeated him that year, was a foreshadow to what was coming at Supernova 2024. In what many considered his revenge tour, Sparg0 was able to win his runbacks against Hurt and SHADIC, while a surprise character choice of Roy in game 2 onwards allowed him to defeat Sonix and claim his first P-tier win of the season.

Sparg0 followed this performance with yet another P-tier victory at Riptide 2024, winning every game up to winner's semifinals and taking the event by double-eliminating Shuton. At the Luminosity Invitational 2: Back to School, though he lost early to MkLeo and Zomba in round robin pools, which sent him to the losers bracket for the main bracket, Sparg0 managed to claw his way out to a 2nd place finish through an incredible losers run, defeating Sonix 3-2 (once again using Roy), as well as beating Maister, Light, Asimo, Zomba, and Shuton before defeating Kola 3-1 in the first set of Grand Finals. At The Throne 2024, Sparg0 lost to Zackray in round robin pools but beat Marss, Tweek, Candle, Hurt, MkLeo and Light twice to win the entire event. These five performances led many to believe Sparg0 had not only redeemed his LumiRank 2024.1 placement, but also made him the undisputed #1 for the LumiRank 2024.2 season.

However, there was incredibly strong competition for the throne from Japan's other best player, Miya, whose season was similar to Sparg0. Miya had won every major event he attended in Japan, including the premier-tier events Kowloon 12 with Kagaribi and Umebura SP 11, and as such tied Sparg0 in the number of premier-tier wins. In addition, unlike previous seasons where Sparg0 had a dominant record over Miya, Miya and Sparg0 had an even record for the LumiRank 2024.2 season, with Miya winning their encounter at Litvitational 3 and the first set of Grand Finals at Don't Park on the Grass 2024, while Sparg0 won their encounters at both Winners Final and the reset at Don't Park on the Grass. Finally, although Miya had underperformed at several North American events, the losses he took at those events were from players who were ranked in the top 50 that season, and as such Miya and Sparg0 had virtually the same number of losses against top 50 players (Sparg0 having just one less than Miya). These statistics led some to question whether another Japanese player would "steal" the #1 rank away from Sparg0, a fear exacerbated the day before the rankings were revealed, where it was revealed that the gap between #2 and #1 was the closest in Ultimate history.

This fear would not last, as the rankings revealed that Sparg0 was just able to edge Miya out of the top spot by .9 points, finally allowing Sparg0 to claim the throne for the first time in his career.

Piranha Plant, slump, losing the throne, and break

Having finally achieved his goal, Sparg0 was hoping to defend his title for as long as he could. Unfortunately, history seemed to repeat itself, as after he won Luminosity Makes BIG Moves 2025, Sparg0 entered yet another slump period, likely as a result of him becoming uncertain about his future in the game. This slump period included underperformances at his next two supermajors, GENESIS X2 and Kagaribi 13, where he was upset by lower-ranked players to ultimately place 17th and 33rd, respectively. The latter was an especially disappointing placement, with Kagaribi 13 holding the title as the most prestigious tournament of all time. While he put up great results at other majors and superregionals (including a grand finals appearance at Battle of BC 7), he also saw several upsets at these tournaments, including a devastating loss to Lemmon at Best of the West III: Climhazzard, a player who was not even ranked on the LumiRank at that time; he ultimately finished 9th at the aforementioned event, the first non-major/supermajor ranked event where he failed to make top 8. These performances effectively knocked Sparg0 out of the contention for best player in the world for the new season, especially as players such as acola, Doramigi, and Hurt either had better consistency or better tournament victories.

Fortunately, Sparg0's season turned around for the better after Kagaribi, as he found renewed interest in the game after he began playing his new secondary, Piranha Plant, a character that he had used in offline side events and was experimenting with online, but had not yet seen any serious sets. After a decent first performance at KUSUBURA Before KOWLOON, Sparg0 shocked players by using Piranha Plant to defeat Light 3-1, winning the final game in a decisive 3-stock. Though players initially assumed it was a temporary counterpick, as the season progressed it became apparent that Piranha Plant was here to stay, as Sparg0 used the character at several events, either as his primary character or as a counterpick. This included his victory at 95 Kings of Fields 5 where Sparg0 primarily piloted Piranha Plant and gave the character its first major victory; a 4th-place finish at Uzes Symphonic Gaming Festival 2025, using a mixture of Piranha Plant and Pyra and Mythra for most of the event; and his victory at BLINK RESPAWN 2025 in the second half of the season, where he used Piranha Plant to defeat MkLeo and Sonix twice, giving Piranha Plant two of its best wins. Though Sparg0 admitted several of his wins were likely due to matchup inexperience, these performances nevertheless brought Sparg0 out of his slump; alongside a strong Losers run to victory at Get On My Level: Forever where he primarily played Cloud, these performances kept Sparg0 as a top 10 player despite his inconsistent performances earlier in the year. He would ultimately rank as the 5th best player in the world on LumiRank Half Year 2025, as the highest ranked North American player.

After a meager half-year, Sparg0 would immediately begin the half-season on a high note. With Cloud, Sparg0 would decisively take 1st place in S Factor 12, the first supermajor in the latter half of the season. Sparg0 swept through most of the tournament, defeating most of his opponents without dropping a game. The only player who gave him trouble was Syrup; Syrup played Ness in Winners Finals, but was handily 3-0d by Sparg0. In the runback in Grands, Syrup would exclusively stay Steve, and actually ended up taking a set off of Sparg0, marking the first time he had lost to a Steve player since Acola at Ludwig Smash Invitational. This did not deter Sparg0, as he dominantly 3-0d Syrup in the reset, and taking the tournament as a whole. A month later, Sparg0 would also place 4th at Supernova 2025, being double-eliminated by Peabnut and Doramigi. Disappointingly, after the tournament, paralleling his thoughts after Kagaribi 13, he would once again announce his uncertainty over the future of his career in competitive Smash, and had expected for Supernova 2025 to be his last tournament. As such, Sparg0 would not compete in any remaining majors for the rest of 2025, only competing in events within Mexico (aside from an appearance in Spain at Thunderdome 6). While he won every event that he took part in after Supernova 2025 save Worst of the West 11, his break ended any chance for him to reclaim his throne, but his performances at events prior to his break secured his spot as one of the best players in the world, ranking 5th on UltRank 2025 and UltRank Delta 2025, remaining as North America's best player on both rankings.

Come January, Sparg0 would make his major redebut at Vars Ultimate Summit 1, looking to prove his worth. However, this event would be especially disastrous for Sparg0, going 3-4 in Swiss pools and not even making it to the final bracket. However, this event ultimately didn't count against Sparg0 due to issues with the event itself. Nevertheless, this set a bad precedent for Sparg0 for the rest of the season, especially as he lost to several lower ranked players, such as Quidd (who ended up as an HM #101-150) and Jakal (who was ranked 32nd). Thankfully, he cleaned up his act at a tournament within the same weekend, placing a respectable 4th at Let's Make Big Moves 2026, although being sent to Loser's bracket with an unexpected loss to elijmin. On the contrary, this season proved to be one of Sparg0's most inconsistent; for every major from Cavalier Clash 7 to LVL UP EXPO 2026, Sparg0 greatly underperformed. Starting with Cavalier Clash, Sparg0 took a loss to globally Lucas unranked player SmashBros!, and then was eliminated by Tweek to place 13th. At GENESIS X3, he lost to Castle, and then lost to longtime rival MkLeo for 25th. Already, at his first three supermajors of the season, he saw several uncharacteristic losses, immediately knocking out any chance that he could be the best player in the world, let alone the best player in North America, especially considering that Sonix had won the aforementioned Vars Summmit and GENESIS X3, with these performances arguably even putting Sparg0's top 10 status in question. He continued to falter at Flash Flood and LVL UP EXPO 2026. At Flash Flood, he lost to Sir Dank, a player who wouldn't even rank within the top 100, and then once again being upset by Asimo, who defeated Sparg0 at Vars Summit. LVL UP EXPO would be slightly kinder to Sparg0, as his seeding was adjusted accordingly. As a result, his Upset factors would not be as high, though he was still upset by Ouch!?, and ended up placing 17th.

With this many weren't expecting Sparg0 to perform as well as he did at Kagaribi 15. Sparg0 dominated throughout the bracket, effortlessly qualifying for top 8 on Winner's side, defeating his rival MkLeo and Carmelo who was a top 10 player at the time. This gave way for Ultimate's most difficult top 4 of all time, with all of Ultimate's #1 ranked players. Most impressive of all, however, was Sparg0's victory over Doramigi, and although it was close for Doramigi, Sparg0 won 3-2, all of his wins being multi-stock victories, whilst Doramigi only won with one stock. This put him in Winners Finals, and the potential to win the entire event, given his dominant record against acola, with MkLeo in Losers set to face Doramigi. Surprisingly, Sparg0 lost 3-0 to acola's Steve, and took a close loss to Doramigi 3-2 in a reversal. Nevertheless, this gave him a great addition to his middling season, but this din't prove to be his only diamond in the rough. The following weekend, he resoundingly won Sumabato SP 69 over Miya, and in the same month, won MomoCon 2026 over Zomba, finally giving Sparg0 enough momentum to rank within the top 10. Although he wouldn't rank incredibly high, as he suffered disappointing losses to several non top-100 players, he ended up as 8th on UltRank Half Year 2026. This made his status as top 10 extremely volatile, especially considering that this was one of the most diffiult top 10s in the history of Ultimate.

Rankings

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Wi-Fi Warrior Rank

Ranking	Time period	Rank	Character(s)	Notes
Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v2	July-December 2018	31st

Tijuana Power Rankings

Ranking	Time period	Rank	Character(s)	Notes
Tijuana Power Rankings	September 2017	10th

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Panda Global Rankings Ultimate

Ranking	Time period	Rank	Character(s)	Notes
PGRUContenders NA	2021	S+ (Top 3)
PGRU v3 NA	March 1st-June 13th, 2022	2nd

UltRank/LumiRank

Ranking	Time period	Rank	Character(s)	Notes
UltRank 2022	June 18th-December 18th, 2022	3rd
LumiRank Mid-Year 2023	December 19th, 2022 - July 23rd, 2023	2nd		Lucina is only listed on Luminosity Gaming's main Twitter account
LumiRank 2023	December 19th, 2022 - December 17th, 2023	2nd
LumiRank 2024.1	December 18th, 2023 - July 15th, 2024	9th