Smasher:Sparg0

Sparg0 is an Ultimate player born in San Diego, California who is currently residing in Tijuana, Mexico. He is considered the best Cloud player in the world, the best Aegis player in the world prior to using them as a secondary and is still one of the two best Aegis players in the world along with, the current best player in North America, and a top 3 player in the world following the end of the online era. He is one of the most well-known prodigies in Smash, competing with and even taking sets off of top professionals as early as the age of 13. This, along with his heavy usage of sword characters, has given him comparisons to 's Smash 4 career. He is one of the youngest Ultimate players to win his first major alongside, winning at the age of 16. Sparg0 is currently ranked 1st on both the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v7, the Tijuana Ultimate Power Rankings and the Mexican Ultimate Power Rankings, and 2nd on OrionRank 2022 North America, and 2nd on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023; he was also formerly ranked 2nd on the SoCal Ultimate Power Rankings.

In Smash 4, Sparg0 was also a player. He was ranked 31st on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v2 and has a win over.

On April 17th, 2022, 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. His Cloud 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 Cloud's gameplay 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 opponent's on edge for a surprising kill.

Sparg0 is also notorious at mitigating the weaknesses of his characters. Both Cloud and 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.

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, , and. 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, the first WWR-eligible event of the new game. About a week later, he won the 818-entrant, defeating 3-1 in grand finals. With the tournament's large size, and its wide viewership on '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 SoCal weeklies he attended, defeating well-known players such as. He placed 49th at his first major,, losing to California natives and. Months later at, he placed 25th losing to and.

However, it wasn't until late in the season that Sparg0 made his biggest waves offline. In April and May, 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. Despite finishing second to 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 2-1 and  2-0, achieving wins on two players en route to PGR-ranked seasons of their own. Though he lost shortly after to and, his 17th place finish and aforementioned wins were his best ever at an offline major. Finishing the season with wins at weeklies over, , and , he was ranked 2nd on the SoCal Ultimate Power Rankings despite living just outside the region. His strong play online continued as well, and he was ultimately ranked 2nd on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v3.

Heading into the second half of 2019, Sparg0 was well known as a strong player and one of the best players in the world. However, he was unable to build on the success he found in June. Seeded 8th at his home country's, he fell at 17th after a loss to and an upset by. Continuing to attend majors throughout the season, he placed 33rd at, 25th at , and 49th at. Despite respectable placings, none were breakouts to eclipse his previous peak at CEO, and he was unable to get a PGR-ranked win at any. During this time, 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 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 2-1 but losing to  and, both 0-2. A 49th place finish at, losing to and 1-2 and  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 had begun to challenge him for the title of best Cloud.

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, 2nd at and 5th at. 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, taking winners' and grand finals 3-1 and 3-0 over. 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, 's El Jugo Box, 's , and 's. Additionally, he was able to keep positive records over his closest competitors, Maister,, and. 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 an 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, he 3-0'd Maister twice in two sets of grands, securing him a spot at. 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, Sparg0 placed 6th, losing 3-2 each to and , and disqualifying out of the tie-breaker against. 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 later that year. A week later at, Sparg0 was faced with daunting pools matchups against invitees and , 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 more than two years prior. He continued his hot streak on Sunday finals, defeating and, 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 his to a secondary, and was now using  and  for most matchups. With this new character choice, he continued to reach the podium at every major he attended. At, he once again lost to MkLeo and Tweek, placing 3rd. With the two absent from, Sparg0 entered grand finals on winners' side, but lost two sets to to place 2nd. Later that month, he outplaced Tweek for the first time, defeating him 3-2 in losers' finals of ; 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 ; 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 put this in doubt, but Sparg0 responded with a monster losers' run, defeating, , Light, Chag, , and  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 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, 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 player at SWT, he decided to return to his longtime choice of  as his main. Having qualified for back at Mainstage, this became his first major event of the year. He swept his pool again, this time as the first seed, defeating, , and. After winning his runback against in final bracket, he defeated  for only the second time, 3-1. Sparg0 then faced off against, 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 and.

Sparg0 continued his hot streak at the next weekend, reverse 3-0ing MkLeo's  in winners' finals and 3-0ing  in the second set of grands for his second straight major victory. However, at the Mexican invitational, a major in its own right, he finished in 2nd place after Leo pulled out a character counterpick of his own:. 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.

Sparg0 fell slightly short at GENESIS 8, losing to both MkLeo and Glutonny to place third. This, alongside his losses to MkLeo at and his disappointing 7th place finish at, solidified his rival's position on the throne. Still, despite threats from Light, Glutonny and Japan's rising star, Sparg0 managed to hold onto his 2nd place position thanks to his incredible first half of the season, as well as his run at , where after he fell to prior to top 8, he tore through the loser's bracket, 3-0ing almost everyone in his path, before double-eliminating  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 meta 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 wasn't 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 didn't 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 faired 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'd need to derust quickly, as the end of the season was starting to close in, and with the cancellation of the and the postponement of the, only two major tournaments remained for Sparg0: , a supermajor which saw many SWT-qualified players in attendance, and Ludwig's second invitational the. 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 prove 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 meta. 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. Unfortunately, Sparg0's initial few performances were rather mixed for a #1 contender. Although Sparg0 started off with a strong run to 2nd at and 5th at, his next two major performances saw some missteps. At, although he ultimately placed 3rd, Sparg0 was double-eliminated by , giving him two non-top 10 losses for the season. He then followed it up with arguably his worst performance since the pandemic period: at, Sparg0 ultimately went 2-4, only defeating two players who were not ranked in the top 100 that season, and was notably upset by in the Final Bracket to place 13th, giving him a non-top 100 loss for the season.

However, Sparg0 turned around this bad streak, and was able to show a return to form by winning his next three major events: the major and the premier-tier tournaments  and. Although Sparg0's MAJOR UPSET run was notable as he double-eliminated 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  twice at each tournament. This, alongside his victory over acola at GENESIS 9, gave Sparg0 a 5-0 record against acola going into the end of the year's first season.

Sparg0's two premier-tier victories and dominance over acola led many players, particularly in North America, to believe Sparg0 would be ranked first by the end of the year's first season. However, the race was actually closer than what most players thought due to acola's dominance over most events he had attended: unlike Sparg0, acola did not have a single placement outside of the top 8 and had no sub-top 50 losses. This lead to the closest race for #1 in Ultimate's history, as both players had strong arguments for the #1 placement by the mid-way point of the year.

However, Sparg0's final two supermajor events were what hurt his chances. At, Sparg0 was upset by and was eliminated by MkLeo at 9th, giving Sparg0 yet another finish outside the top 8. Then, at, Sparg0 was upset by and, after making a strong Losers run, lost to  to place 2nd. These two placements further weighted down Sparg0's season and was what ultimately allowed acola to pull ahead: with two placements outside the top 8, a sub-top 100 loss, and a worse record compared to acola (against all players qualified for LumiRank that season, Sparg0's record was 71-16 while acola's record was 90-10), Sparg0 was ultimately 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, 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, which saw Sparg0 take his first-ever set against MkLeo's Joker and get his grand finals runback against Sonix in a tense game 7 that nearly went to time. Sparg0's appearance along with 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 " Grand Finals", referring to the online weekly tournament series hosted by 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, 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, , and. Sparg0's losses at the event were to players who weren't ranked in the top 50: and. The magnitude of this placing was not lost on Sparg0's competitors: ultimately won the event without dropping a set, widening the gap between him and Sparg0.

Despite this devastating performance, Sparg0 was able to bounce back the following weekend by taking over Glutonny. However, the next few events saw Sparg0 have a more difficult time against top players. At, Sparg0 lost 2-3 to Tweek before being eliminated by Glutonny for 3rd, despite having defeated him in their last two encounters. saw Sparg0 fall to his bracket demon MuteAce yet again before being swiftly cleaned up by Light 3-0. Finally, Sparg0 continued to have some difficulty against Sonix; Sonix defeated Sparg0 in Winner Finals at 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 's string of equally-strong performances. Not helping his case was his performance at, which saw Sparg0 lose to before being eliminated by  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 meta and promised to come out stronger at the final invitational of the year,.

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 and being once again swifly 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 for every game he won instead of 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. Although most players agreed Sparg0 was not #1 for the season due to his lows, many believed his performance at Watch The Throne was suffice to maintain his #2 ranking.

Trivia

 * Sparg0 is the only player ranked on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5 to move upwards in placement.
 * Sparg0 is the sixth-youngest Smash player to win their first major (after, , , , and ), and the youngest player to win a Summit event.
 * Sparg0 is known for listening to K-Pop music during his sets, which has led to jokes from commentators that he will "swap songs" in between games to give him an advantage.
 * is his favorite K-Pop music group, as evident by his "4jeongyeon" tag during 2022 and first half of 2023.
 * Sparg0 placed in Top 8 of every offline Ultimate tournament he entered after in January 2020 until  in March 2023.
 * Sparg0 is well known for being one of the players with the best records against Japan, having a winning record on most of Japan's best players including acola (7-1), (3-0), and  (2-0). His only losing records are,  and  (all 0-1)
 * He is also the only North American player to win an Ultimate Japanese supermajor, winning.
 * Sparg0 is one of the few players to have 8 or more wins on, alongside and.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

 * Smash Factor X Winners Semis - Sparg0 (Cloud) vs MkLeo (Joker)
 * Kagaribi 10 Grand Finals - Sparg0 (Cloud) vs. acola (Steve)
 * Smash Ultimate Summit 4 Grand Finals - Sparg0 (Cloud) vs. Light (Fox)
 * Mainstage 2022 Grand Finals - Sparg0 (Cloud) vs. Tweek (Diddy Kong)
 * Kagaribi 10 Top 8 Losers Round 1 - Sparg0 (Pyra/Mythra) vs Miya (Mr. Game & Watch)