Smasher:CPU


 * CPU1 redirects here. For the Japanese smasher that sometimes goes by CPU1, see .

CPU (alternatively CPU1 and ?CPU?) is a retired Brawl player from California who mained His most notable tournament appearance was in, where he defeated  in the Grand Finals set, making him the winner of one of the first major-sized Brawl tournaments, while he was barely fifteen years old. The victory, however, was immediately controversial; CPU, who was effectively unknown prior to the tournament with EVO being his first tournament, was perceived as being a worse player than Ken, who was renowned as the best Melee player in the world prior to the release of Brawl. CPU's victories in the tournament were primarily ascribed to the fact that items, including the Smash Ball, were infamously allowed during the tournament, and that CPU had become luckier with them; in addition to more frequently obtaining the Smash Ball and allowing him to use R.O.B.'s extremely potent Diffusion Beam several times, a particularly notorious moment in his battle with Ken featured CPU KOing the veteran with a Bumper at only 50% damage. As a result of this reliance on items, competitors and competitive spectators alike claimed that other players in the tournament were better than CPU, and that CPU did not deserve to even make it to the finals in the first place. CPU himself later admitted he was aware that he had become luckier than Ken with items and intentionally centered his gameplan around abusing items, acknowledging that without the items, he would have been easily defeated by Ken, only furthering criticism of the tournament itself.

At the conclusion of the tournament, CPU stated that attending further tournaments was unlikely; at the age of fifteen, he was entirely dependent on his parents for transportation, and that the sole reason for attending EVO was because of a family vacation that took place in Las Vegas at the same time as the tournament.

Following his controversial victory, CPU would enter a few more Brawl tournaments. He would enter six months later, where he made it out of round 1 pools but failed to make it out of round 2 pools, placing 65th overall among 243 entrants, with no notable wins. He then reappeared at, tying for 25th with eight other players among 128 entrants, though defeating no one remotely notable in his bracket path. His last tournament was a low-key affair in December 19th, 2009, where he placed second in a doubles bracket with eight other teams, while not entering singles. Overall, in his few post-EVO 2008 appearances, he would never display the ability to replicate his EVO 2008 performance, ultimately validating the criticisms of its item-based ruleset.

After Smash 4's release, he would enter a few more tournaments, most notably, where he placed 129th among 356 entrants. However, he would never become a regular competitor, and would disappear from the competitive scene entirely after 2018.