Smasher:Maister

Maister is a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate main from Mexico, considered the second best Mr. Game & Watch player in the world, after, and a top 3 Mexican player after the online era alongside  and. He is also widely known to be the player who proved Mr. Game & Watch's viability at a time when most pros were doubtful of the character. He is currently ranked 3rd on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v7, 10th on the OrionRank 2022 North America, and 18th on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023; he was also formerly ranked at the 0 position on the Chicago Ultimate Power Rankings and 3rd on the Mexican Power Rankings.

In Smash 4, Maister was also a main, and was considered to be the best Mr. Game & Watch player in the world. His breakout tournament was at GENESIS 5 where he placed 13th after beating top players like, , and. He has also taken sets off of players such as, , , , , , , and. Maister was ranked 8th on the final Mexican Smash 4 Power Rankings and 81st on the Panda Global Rankings 100.

Maister has joined and left several esports team, including and. He was representing, but not fully part of,, and remained a free agent, until he joined his current sponsor on October 9, 2022.

2018: The Rise
Maister first appeared in the competitive scene in 2017, where he saw moderate success in his home country, eventually being ranked 32nd on the Mexican Power Rankings. It wouldn't be until 2018 where he would have his national breakthrough at. Despite playing a character that was widely considered low-mid tier at best, Maister defeated top players such as and  en route to a 13th place finish, the best performance of a Mr. Game & Watch player at a supermajor since fellow Mexican 's run at.

His performance for the rest of the season, however, was marked with ups and downs. Following a disappointing 49th at, he would surprisingly take first place at , defeating , , and twice. He followed that run with a mediocre 49th at, but afterwards had yet another fantastic run at , the largest tournament of the season, where he defeated en route to a 17th place finish. Despite his inconsistent placements throughout the season as well as Combo Breaker 2018 not counting for the season's rankings, Maister's impressive wins and showings at GENESIS 5 and 2GG: Hyrule Saga, as well as solid placements back in Mexico, allowed him to be ranked 44th on the PGR v5, the only solo-Mr. Game & Watch player to be ranked on a Smash 4 Panda Global Rankings list.

Although he only attended a couple of PGR tournaments in the final season, Maister made each and every one of them count. His best performance of the season was at, where he defeated champion  as well as , eventually placing 3rd, his first top 3 placement at a PGR tournament. Thanks to his performance in the game's final year, players considered Maister to be the best Mr. Game & Watch player in the world and one of the three best players in Mexico. By the end of the year, he would be ranked 81st on the PGR 100, Smash 4's all-time power ranking.

2019: Entering the Avatar State
Despite many players considering Mr. Game & Watch to be one of the worst characters in Ultimate's early metagame, Maister stuck with the character. He defied expectations by finding success in not just his home country, but Chicago as well, where he racked up 26 consecutive tournament set wins and was ranked in the 0th position on the Chicago Power Rankings. However, he would struggle on a national level, placing 129th at and 49th at, the only 2 supermajors he attended that season. Although he was widely considered the second-best player in Mexico; had placed in the top 3 at all other PGR tournaments he attended that season, including defending his title at ; and had multiple wins over and, Maister would be left out of the Spring 2019 PGRU.

Even after he got the short end of the stick in the first season, Maister was still determined to prove himself in the second season. He began with a 3rd place at, double-eliminating and defeating  but fell to  twice, a player who eventually become his offline bracket demon. Although he had a respectable 17th placement at, it was quickly overshadowed by his performance at ; he initially lost to early on in the tournament, but would make an impressive Loser's run, eliminating yeti, ESAM, and  before falling to  and placing 5th. Although this was, at the time, the highest a Mr. Game & Watch player had placed at a supermajor, Maister would continue his streak of outstanding performances. From then on, he saw top 6 placements at every tournament he attended aside from, including 3rd at the S-tiers and. His impressive runs helped change the perception on Mr. Game & Watch, with players now considering the character to be a high tier, at the cost of gaining a negative reputation as a masher. Despite this, his performance would be rewarded at the end of the season where he was ranked 6th on the Fall 2019 PGRU.

2020: The Consistency Online
At the start of the third season, Maister continued his strong performances with a 7th place finish at the first national tournament of the season,. Although he faltered at, where he placed 17th, he followed it up with a quick return to form at the next two supermajors - and. In the latter tournament, he managed to reach Grand Finals on the Winner's side, but despite seeing some promise when he used Pichu, he was quickly 6-0'd by his bracket demon.

Although offline play was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down all tournaments worldwide, Maister would continue to succeed in the online metagame. He started off on a decent note, with solid S-tier placements such as 3rd at, 9th at , and 13th at. His best performance of the season was at, where he ran through Wi-Fi Warriors such as , , and to win the tournament, his first Wi-Fi Warrior Rank S-tier win. At the end of the season, he would be ranked 8th on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5 with a 10-4 record against the list's top 10.

In the next season, Maister would see a performance similar to that of his second offline season. Although he did not claim victory at a single S-tier, he managed to place 2nd at the two he attended - and. His only major victory was at, where despite being disqualified in his first set, he tore through the entire tournament, eliminating Wi-Fi Warriors such as , , and in the process, before double-eliminating , marking one of, if not, the most brutal Loser's run during the COVID-19 period. By the end of the season, when ignoring full DQs, Maister had placed top 3 at all but four events. Due to all of the aforementioned, he would rise up to the runner-up position on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v6.

Playstyle
Maister, unlike most players, has a very aggressive and fast-paced playstyle, centred around quickly throwing an opponent into disadvantage and sealing out stocks while taking little retaliation in return by smothering all their options. His clever usage of throws and aerials, such as Mr. Game & Watch's, initially thought to be one of the worst moves in his kit, along with his proficiency in edgeguarding and very strong combo game, gives him one of the most, if not the most, oppressive neutral and advantage state of any player. He is also has a flexible disadvantage state, as he maintains great DI that allows him to commonly survive up to 150% or higher as the third lightest character in the game. Notably, he is one of the few players who uses Mr. Game & Watch’s smash attacks to bait and condition his opponent due to their low ending lag, playing them his overall strengths.

However, due to his risky and aggressive playstyle, he often overextends many of his attacks which can get him KO'd early due to Mr. Game & Watch's extremely light weight. Additionally, he can often become very predictable due to him continually going for the same options in certain situations without mixing things up (for example, he almost always uses down air after an up special OoS which makes his landing easy to read and punish). Combined, those two factors can leave him susceptible to comebacks which has led to upsets from lower ranked players such as, , and. He also struggles in some DLC character matchups, particularly in the, and  matchups, having an 1-19 record against  offline, suffering a reverse 3-0 from  at  when the latter switched to Joker as well as losing against  two times in  and  when the latter played as Kazuya.

Trivia

 * Maister was scheduled to money match at  after a small encounter on Twitter, but Salem never went through with it.
 * When playing in tournaments, Maister can frequently be seen leaning very far into the screen he's playing on. This often results in the player cam only showing the top of his head.
 * When Maister starts to condition his opponent with Mr. Game & Watch's smash attacks or successfully hits a nine with Judge, the community likes to joke that Maister "has entered the Avatar State".
 * This joke originated from a tweet written by Maister himself, where he was comparing himself to Aang, the protagonist of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Like him, Maister has usually a goofy personality but when playing, he becomes very serious and is almost playing unconsciously. When a set is over he is sometimes wondering what happened exactly, like Aang when he is back to his normal state.
 * This running joke has inspired some of Maister's Twitch emotes and other memes.


 * GENESIS 5 Smash 4 Wave I Pools - EMG|Mistake (Bayonetta) vs SHFFL|Maister (Mr. Game & Watch)
 * GENESIS 5 Smash 4 Losers Top 32 - SHFFL|Maister (Mr. Game & Watch) vs YP|Fatality (Captain Falcon)
 * 2GG: Hyrule Saga Wave E Pools - Marss (Zero Suit Samus) vs KJS|Maister (Mr. Game & Watch)

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

 * MVD vs Maister - Ultimate Singles Top 48: Winners Quarterfinal - Full Bloom 5
 * ESAM vs Maister - Ultimate Singles Top 8: Winner Semifinal - Full Bloom 5