Smasher:Jmook

Jmook is a Super Smash Bros. Melee player from New York. Although he has been active in the scene since October 2014, he didn't gain prominence until 2022, where following a string of top 6 placements at majors, he cemented himself as not only the best Sheik player, but also one of the best players in the world in the post-pandemic metagame. His debut at 3rd on the MPGR Summer 2022 is the highest placing for a previously unranked player since the inception of the SSBMRank/MPGR. He is currently ranked 3rd on the SSBMRank Summer 2023. He is the first player to win a supermajor going solo Sheik at.

On June 10th, 2022, Jmook joined.

The beginnings
Jmook has been playing Melee since October 2014, however most of his results were limited to a regional level, and due to these results, he was ranked 14th on the Tri-state Power Rankings for the 2018-2019 season. His only appearance at a major during this period was at where he placed 97th.

Jmook first came to prominence during the online metagame, specifically his performances at Hax's Nightclub (Season 2 Episode 1) and. At the former tournament, he defeated, , and a who was playing secondaries, ultimately placing 4th. At the latter tournament, he defeated, twice, and  to place 5th. Jmook's first tournament offline following the end of the Netplay era was the, where he qualified for the main tournament. He ultimately placed 13th, his first top 16 placement at a major at that time. Despite having seen strong performances online and having a breakout performance offline, these performance would soon be overshadowed by his performances in the following year.

2022: A sudden rise
Jmook entered without much fanfare, as eyes were on players such as  and, two players who were contenders for the best player in the world, as well as , who was recently crowned as the best player in the world on the MPGRContenders North America list. Due to this, Jmook first shocked players by defeating, who was considered the best Sheik player in the world at that time and had won the a few months prior. He then defeated to qualify for top 8 where he was eventually defeated by, falling to losers. He then shocked players once again by 3-0ing, but lost his runback to Zain to place 2nd. As the 21st seed, Jmook was the lowest seeded player to make it it to Grand Finals at a Melee major since (16th seed) at  and  (who was unseeded) at.

Following his Cinderella run at GENESIS 8, many players were excited to watch Jmook, and they didn't have to wait long, as due to his GENESIS run, he qualified for. Despite losing to Mango during Round Robin, Jmook entered the Winner's side of the Final Bracket after winning his Gauntlet round. His Final Bracket run was opposite of his run at GENESIS: he lost the runback against both iBDW and Plup, but eliminated Zain from the tournament. In addition, he also scored a win over and ultimately placed 4th. Despite losing to players he had defeated before, Jmook's Summit run proved that his GENESIS performance wasn't a fluke.

The rest of the season solidified Jmook's position in the top 5, where he placed top 6 at every tournament he attended. During this period, he notably scored 2 more wins against Zain and made 2 more appearances in Grand Finals, at both and. However, he failed to claim victory at a single national tournament, as at both aforementioned tournaments, his victory was snatched away by his bracket demon,. Thus, a "triangle" began to form amongst the three players: Hungrybox struggled against Zain, Zain struggled against Jmook, and Jmook struggled against Hungrybox.

2023: The Jaywalker
Despite placing in the top 10 the previous season, Jmook had yet to win a major, often falling to players such as and  in Grand Finals or losing to familiar demons such as. That was set to change in, the first supermajor of the year, and the tournament series where he first broke out a year prior. Both Hungrybox and aMSa were upset in Top 64, while Jmook mostly cruised into Top 8 despite a close call with. He then defeated Zain 3-2, 3-0, and finally  3-1 to take the tournament, marking the first supermajor win for a solo- player in Melee's history. Jmook followed this historic feat with yet another major victory at. Although he fell to Loser's after losing to Cody Schwab, Jmook ran through the Losers bracket, defeating several Fox players and winning his runback against Cody before facing Zain in Grand Finals, where he defeated him 3-0 and 3-2. With two major/supermajor wins under his belt within the first three months of the year, many players began wondering whether Jmook could be ranked #1 in the first half of the year. Unfortunately, Jmook's streak ended at, where he would be defeated by aMsa and then lose to Cody Schwab in Losers bracket, landing him a 4th place finish. He would then place 9th at, which was his first finish outside top 8 since the as he was upset by  in Winners bracket and lost to aMSa in Losers bracket. He would subsequently be upset twice a few months later at, losing to both and  resulting in him placing 33rd, which is his lowest singles performance since.

Trivia

 * Jmook is known for being extremely proficient at the matchup, having never lost to a Marth player at a Melee tournament prior to fighting  at.
 * Jmook has a positive record against Zain (7-4).
 * Excluding himself, Jmook has defeated all the top 8 ranked players of the SSBMRank 2022, defeating both and  at GENESIS 8, both  and Zain at, Mango at ,  at , and  at.
 * Similarly to, Jmook is the subject of a number of popular chants in Twitch chat during tournament streams, which often bring attention to his good looks, immaculate posture, or his "FLY" sponsor tag being redundant due to already being dressed well.