Smasher:Isai


 * Not to be confused with the Colombian player .

Joel Isai Alvarado, known as Isai (often pronounced "Isaiah"), is an American Super Smash Bros. 64 player widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time. He is credited with creating the modern metagame and was so far ahead of all other competitors that he was virtually untouchable, giving rise to the meme "Isai is too good" within the community. He mains in Super Smash Bros., but can use the entire cast at a top professional level, choosing to use a variety of secondaries at tournaments. Isai has stated on Reddit that his favorite characters are, , , , , , and.

He is a former Super Smash Bros. Melee player and was ranked 7th best in the United States before retiring from the game. He mained and  in Melee, while using  as a secondary. He was ranked first on the Melee NorCal Power Rankings in 2006.

After finishing 1st at, Isai went on a two-year hiatus period from Smash 64, as he preferred playing more matches against top level players without having to play lower level players first. This break from the game ended when he attended in 2016 where he placed 4th, losing twice to.

Super Smash Bros.
Isai is considered by many to be the best Super Smash Bros. player of all time. The only player to ever beat him in a twelve character battle is the Japanese champion (possibly due to the battle being done on the Japanese version of the game) and the only smashers who have shown true competition to his  are,  and  (one of the best Japanese and Peruvian players, respectively), who have taken multiple matches against Isai in dittos, as well as  and , who are the only two people to have defeated Isai's Pikachu in a tournament set. Isai is currently ranked 2nd on the 2021-2022 Smash 64 Power Rankings.

Isai traveled to West Japan in November of 2006 to play the professional players there. He played at Tokyo and a Hokkaido Smashfest in December 2006 and in Osaka in January 2007 and recorded a lot of matches that can be found on his Youtube channel. He lost a few games playing as Mario, Samus, DK or Captain Falcon (against 's Ness, 's Luigi,, and ), but generally did not have any true competition.

He won FC Diamond in 2007, which can be considered the first US major Smash 64 tournament. With 64 participants, it was the largest US Smash 64 tournament for a few years. In grand finals he won Link dittos against.

In 2011 he travelled to Peru to compete against the top players there. At a smashfest in July in Lima he had no competition, but in August in Tacna he had some close matches and lost a few times against, and , with his games against Gerson specifically being his favorite matches.

Isai is also known for his impressive performance with the low-tier character. He managed to finish second at Apex 2012 by only using Link, only losing to 's and still winning a few matches against the latter. He also won the European tournament B.E.A.S.T 7 using primarily Link.

After winning Apex 2014 with only using and defeating, the player considered the best  in the world twice, this helped Jigglypuff's recent rise on the tier list.

From around 2005-2007, Isai was the leader of his online crew MC. MC was considered the preeminent crew and recruited some of the best players before its disbandment, later ceding its best crew title to PPS.

In 2023, Isai would win an extremely competitive supermajor with, even sweeping SuPeRbOoMfAn and reverse sweeping in Grand Finals after losing to him in Winners' Finals.

CT Live stream
Isai agreed in November 2013 to regularly stream online sessions of Smash 64 through CLASH Tournaments' Twitch channel in exchange of revenue based on viewership count. These take place on Tuesday nights at 8PM PST (11PM EST). Smashers regularly featured on the stream include, Mariguas, and among others.

Melee
Isai in his prime was regarded as the best Melee player in the world. Although his placings at Melee singles tournaments lowered over time, he is one of the few players to have defeated former Melee world champion multiple times.

Isai and Ken constituted El Chocolate Diablo, the strongest doubles team in the world circa 2004-2006. El Chocolate Diablo remained undefeated in tournament sets until their loss to and  at a Champ Combo tournament, and placed 1st at every tournament they entered until placing 2nd behind  and  at MLG Chicago 2006. However, Isai and Ken would later win MLG Las Vegas 2006, the final MLG National Championship for Melee teams in 2006. Following this win, El Chocolate Diablo became inactive for almost a year until their final appearance at Super Champ Combo, where they placed 7th.

Loss of interest in Melee
Despite his success, Isai gradually lost interest in Melee in 2007. In early 2010, Isai expressed interest in playing Melee seriously again, but after smashing with and entering a handful of tournaments, Isai still did not find it enjoyable anymore.

Notable sandbagging incidents
At Apex 2012, he was unexpectedly convinced by the crowd to play a Melee exhibition match against the other Smash veteran. However, he only sandbagged and was 4-stocked, much to the audience's disappointment.

Trivia

 * Isai holds a positive record against every smasher he has played in tournament (in Smash 64), with the exception of SuPeRbOoMfAn (3-8), Kikoushi (1-2), Wizzrobe (1-2), and Wangera (2-2).
 * He purchased Brawl but does not play it. Super Smash Bros. has always been Isai's preferred Smash Bros. game; he has been playing Smash 64 since 1999 and Smash 64 online since 2004.
 * Isai often used the in-game tags "VI" and "MEL" in Melee. In Super Smash Bros, his YouTube video tag is "malva" if it is an online match or "Isai" if it is a console match. His nickname "malva" originates from his mother's Windows login name (she used the initial 'm' for her name plus a shortened version of her last name, Alvarado or 'alva').
 * Isai's YouTube name is MevseC. This nickname originates from the fact that he plays Marvel vs. Capcom (MvsC). He added the two 'e' letters in the middle to make it look cooler and sound like a name.
 * Isai calls online Smash "fake Smash" due to the delay and lag experienced online. He also calls it fake Smash because, by definition, it is emulated and thus merely a copy or imitation of the real game on console.
 * Noticing that there were exceptional Smash 64 players in Japan and Peru, Isai traveled to both of these countries and played the top players there (e.g., the Japanese national champion and , the Peruvian national champion). He is one of the few Smash 64 players to make a serious effort to travel internationally multiple times in order to play the top Smash 64 players from around the world.
 * Isai is the oldest player to win a major (as well as supermajor) Smash tournament, winning Smash 64 singles at at the age of 38 years, 4 months, 26 days.