Smasher:Fatality

Fatality is a retired American professional Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player from Sugar Hill, Georgia who currently resides in Lilburn, Georgia. He is considered the best player of all-time, being the undisputed best in early-2019 and from 2021 to 2022, and is a prominent figure for the character due to his innovation to the character's metagame. He has taken sets off of players such as, , , , , , , and. He is currently ranked 2nd on the Georgia Ultimate Power Rankings, 22nd on the OrionRank 2022 North America, 46th on the UltRank 2022, and 37th on the OrionRank 2022; he was also formerly ranked 61st on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5.

In Super Smash Bros. 4, Fatality was also a player, earning his reputation as the best Captain Falcon player with his top 8 placings in both  and, in addition to getting top 16 at. However, his best performance was at, where he impressed the crowd by running through players such as , , and among other top players until he was defeated by  in Grand Finals to end at 2nd place. He was ranked 1st on the final Georgia Smash 4 Power Rankings and 19th on the Panda Global Rankings 100.

In Project M, he was also considered to be one of the top players.

Fatality has been signed by multiple organizations, most notably and. He is currently sponsored by.

Project M years
Fatality began actively competing in Project M tournaments in late 2013. Even before his dominance with the character in Smash 4 and Ultimate, he was considered one of the best players in the United States. His first tournament was at where he placed 5th, losing to  and. His next notable tournaments were 7th place at both and, with notable set wins over , ,. Fatality switched his focus to Smash 4 upon the game's release, his last appearance at a Project M tournament was S@X 158 on July 13th, 2016.

Smash 4: National debut
During the first year of Smash 4, Fatality took 1st place at many locals, but struggled to get strong placements at larger events. He finally found his first national success at, where he defeated and  en route to a 17th place finish. Although he followed it up with a 65th place finish at, his lowest placement in a Smash 4 tournament, he finally had his breakout tournament at , where he notably defeated before falling to  and  to place 4th. He followed this strong performance with a slew of top 24 placement at national-level tournaments, as well as victories over top players such as, , and. With these strong results at national-level tournaments, many players considered Fatality to be the best Captain Falcon player in the world, a title that was proven when he was ranked 41st on the PGR v1, 9 places ahead of the only other Captain Falcon player,.

Fatality started the second season with a few solid placements, with a 9th place finish at and 17th at. However, he wouldn't see his best placements of the season until a few months later. At, Fatality defeated en route to a 7th place finish. Although Fatality fell to early at, he made a Loser's run, winning his rematch against Samsora as well as defeating an up-and-coming  and the Japanese hidden boss  before falling to Marss, placing 9th. Although he ended off his season on a slightly weaker note, with a 33rd place finish at and a 13th place finish at, his overall solid placements during the middle of his season helped him rise to 28th on the PGR v2.

Fatality's best season
Despite these impressive results, Fatality's best season was yet to come, although it did not look like it at first. On the surface, his third season looked lukewarm: he consistently placed no better than 17th at nationals, and only defeated a couple of notable PGR-ranked players. Conversely, he fell to several PGR'd players as well as a couple hidden bosses such as and. Even regionally, he struggled against, who stole victory from Fatality at two tournaments - and.

However, these lukewarm results were countered by some of his best performances ever. At, the largest tournament of the season, despite the many top player upsets that took place, Fatality not only managed to mostly avoid being upset, but also made some of his own upsets, including over , , and. Although he fell to, he was able to get his runback in Loser's Finals, but ultimately fell to , placing 2nd. In addition, at, although he fell to early in bracket, he made the best Loser's run of his Smash 4 career, winning his runback against Larry Lurr as well as defeating , Kameme, and even ZeRo, before losing to Nairo for 2nd. These two placements prove that on a good day, Fatality was a force to be reckoned with, and by the end of the season he jumped all the way to 15th.

A period of inconsistency
Unfortunately, he did not see any of these explosive performances in the fourth season. Once again, he failed to place higher than 17th at any major tournament and consistently fell to other PGR players. At the, he was only able to win one game - against , and ultimately placed 15th. Even at lower-ranked tournaments Fatality fell to unranked players such as and. His season was saved by a couple of good wins as well as his victory at, but he ultimately fell to 38th, his worst season since the first.

Fortunately, Fatality was able to pull himself together for the fifth season. Despite a characteristic 17th place at, he followed it up with his first top 8 at a major since MomoCon 2017 - - where he ran through Salem and Cosmos to place 5th. His next notable placement came a month later at, where despite falling to early on, he once again made an impressive Loser's run, defeating Ally, Salem, Larry Lurr, and Cosmos before falling to  for 4th. Although the rest of the season saw a series of high and low points - from a disappointing 25th place finish at to yet another respectable Loser's run at  - these two tournaments showed that Fatality could compete against the scene's newest players, and by the end of the season, Fatality jumped back into the top 15, placing 14th.

With the next Smash game on the horizon, Fatality prepared to make the transition to the new game, which resulted in a rather characteristic season, where he placed outside of the top 8 at the final 2 majors he attended and failed to pick up any notable PGR wins. Despite this weak ending, his highs highlighted his Smash 4 career, and the panel-based PGR 100 ranked him as Smash 4's 19th best player.

Ultimate: A rough start
During the transition from Smash 4, Captain Falcon received changes that made the character harder to play, resulting in a smaller playerbase than what the character saw in Smash 4. Despite this, Fatality continued to stick with the character and pioneered the character's metagame. Unfortunately, this effort didn't seem to pay off at the start, as during the first season, Fatality saw some of his worst performances ever. Similar to most seasons, he once again placed no higher than 17th at majors, while he placed 65th at, falling to and , and 97th at , falling to  and. His season was saved by his regional performances, specifically his top 6 finishes at, , and , tournaments where he saw a win over a PGR player. Due to a more lenient algorithm for the first season, these regional performances were enough for Fatality to be ranked 48th on the first PGRU.

However, the new algorithm was not lenient on him for the second season, which was by far Fatality's worst season yet. He only placed higher than 17th at one PGR-ranked tournament - his 9th place finish at - and only garnered one PGR win - over. Conversely, Fatality placed 129th at - his worst performance up to that point - and consistently lost to non-PGR players such as  at,  at , and  at both EVO 2019 and Syndicate 2019. Due to the slew of mediocre performances and unranked losses, Fatality was absent from the Fall 2019 PGRU, his first absence from a PGR list, while some people began casting doubt on Fatality's title as the best Captain Falcon player due to strong, albeit limited, major results from.

Online era and resurgence
This poor season, however, did not deter Fatality, and he went into the third season hoping for something better, and initially, it looked like it was going in Fatality's favor. At his first major,, Fatality managed to place just outside of the top 8 while defeating , his best win since the first season. Although he had a mediocre, he was able to place top 8 at , his first top 8 at a PGR tournament since 2GG: Grand Tour - South Carolina nearly a year before.

Unfortunately, the season was cut short after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the offline metagame, and Fatality moved into the growing online metagame. However, Fatality's transition to the online metagame was rough, as throughout the next year, he failed to place higher than 49th at almost all of the major online tournaments he attended. However, he saw a glimpse of success at, where he ran through , , and to place 3rd. This performance greatly helped him that online season, and he was ranked 61st on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5.

During the online metagame, Captain Falcon received several buffs that addressed several of the character's problems, and Fatality capitalized on the buffs as he labbed the character. While it did not pay off during the online metagame, it was about to make him a threat once the offline metagame returned. At, the first national tournament since , Fatality was able to show that he still had it in him by placing 5th, defeating the rising stars and  along the way. This tournament was only a taste of what Fatality could do, and at the next few majors he attended, he ended up placing no lower than 17th. This performance was hindered by the fact that he only defeated a couple of notable players during this time, as well as a mediocre 33rd at. However, Fatality followed this with his best Ultimate run yet at, where despite falling to early in bracket, he made his first ever Loser's run in Ultimate, defeating the rising star  and veteran players , , and , en route to a 4th place finish. This performance, as well as consistently high placements at majors, helped put Fatality back on the map, and he was placed in the B-tier, or top 24, on the PGRUContenders North America, as well as 33rd on the OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse.

With his strongest Ultimate season behind him, Fatality was looking better than ever in 2022, and he was able to continue his strong performances in the first season by placing top 24 at every major he attended except. This time, he was able to garner some notable wins at each tournament: and  at,  and  at , and  at. However, his season was not without downsides, which while not terrible, certainly affected his final standings for the season. Despite defeating ProtoBanham, he failed to win any other set at Summit and ended up placing 13th. His remaining majors, while solid, were also largely empty brackets as the only national-level win he got during these tournaments was, a player who had only attended a handful of tournaments that season and thus was ultimately not ranked on most global rankings. Due to a rather empty second half of the season, Fatality didn't make any notable improvements on the global rankings, maintaining his 33rd place ranking on the OrionRank Mid-Year 2022 and dropping out of the top 24 to 37th on the PGRU v3 NA.

His second half of the year was largely the same: although he still placed highly at most majors, most of his runs were rather empty, and he only picked up a few solid wins. His strongest performances were at the supermajors and, where he placed 13th at both tournaments and defeated players such as , , and. Conversely, his season was brought down by some lukewarm performances such as 65th at after losing to  and  and 9th at the super regional  after losing to  and. His strong highs but disappointing lows led to his 46th place ranking on the inaugural UltRank 2022, a ranking that roughly covered the second half of the year; however, his strong major placements kept him from slipping too much on OrionRank, as he only dropped four places to 37th on the OrionRank 2022.

Retirement
Despite having a successful two years, Fatality's motivation for the game had been declining as he began losing interest in competition. This was the most apparent in the new year, which saw Fatality's worst performances of his career, as he failed to place top 32 at a single major. This included going 1-2 at after losing to  and  to get 257th, his worst placement ever, and placing 193rd at, losing to  and. In addition, the year saw another Captain Falcon player finally overtake Fatality, as 's strong performances at majors landed him at 25th on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023; conversely, Fatality was left unranked for the first time since the Fall 2019 PGRU. All of these factors ultimately reinforced Fatality's decision to retire, which he did so following Super Smash Con 2023, in favor of focusing on the newly-released Street Fighter 6.

Playstyle
Fatality implements heavy usage of dash-dancing, utilizing it for spacing, mind games, and approaches. He is known for his simultaneously flashy and incredibly devastating punish game, zero-to-death combos, and impressive off-stage proficiency, notably his prowess at getting back on stage with a recovery as intercept-able as Captain Falcon's. In order to KO his opponents (often times at very early percents) Fatality incorporates air dodge reads and a myriad of kill set-ups, all with style. He is also reputable for his consistent usage of footstool combos.

Trivia

 * Fatality always takes a brief respite before and after each round to compose himself. He will also sometimes exercise in preparation.
 * Though Fatality was generally considered the best Captain Falcon player in the world for both Smash 4 and Ultimate, his record in the mirror match is less than exemplary:
 * Against, he lost 4-5 at in a first to 5 $100 money match, despite being up 4-1 at one point.
 * Against, he lost 0-2 at , and placed 13th.
 * Against, he lost 0-2 in the Falcon round robin at , and placed 2nd.
 * He later defeated him in Losers Finals at, although they went 1-1 in games during the ditto.
 * Against and, he lost to them 0-2 and 1-2 respectively in the Falcon round robin at , later forfeiting the event and placing 65th.
 * Against, he lost 1-3 at , placing 9th.
 * He later defeated him 7-2 in a first to 7 match at.
 * Against, Fatality lost 1-2 in Winners Quarters at 4o4 Ultimate Weekly 4.3.
 * Against, in an online first to 10 set with the final score being 4-10.
 * He later defeated him 3-1 at.
 * Fatality has a tendency to underperform at tournaments, placing 65th at  and 129th at.
 * After winning the Best Combo (Wii U) award at 's Smashies Award Show, Fatality mentioned as the one who inspired him to become a Smasher in the first place, and that he tries to model his own style of gameplay after Isai's.
 * The tag 'Bunny' which he often uses in Tournaments is the name of one of his cats.
 * Fatality,, and , who are some of the best Captain Falcon players in Ultimate, all use the same red alternate costume, also known as the Blood Falcon.
 * Fatality is known for having a secondary crisis, failing to have one to cover bad matchups for Captain Falcon. He tried out, , , and even in Smash 4, and , , , , , ,  and  in Ultimate, but ended up dropping all of them.
 * Fatality has a tendency of overextending on edgeguards and self-destructing because of it.