Smasher:Mang0

Mang0 (often stylized as Mango or MaNg0, also known as Scorpion Master, The Kid, and The Buster) is a professional Melee player from Norwalk, California who is currently ranked 6th on the SSBMRank Summer 2023, and was formerly ranked at the 0 position on the Northeastern Ohio Melee Power Rankings and 1st on the SoCal Melee Power Rankings. One of the "Five Gods" of Melee, Mang0 is famous for being able to play several characters at a highly competitive level. Breaking onto the scene as a main, he later found success playing  and  with strong, , and  secondaries. Because of his innovations and dominance with Jigglypuff from 2007 to 2009, Mang0 is generally credited for Jigglypuff's large jump in the Melee tier list, from ranking 6th and 7th with Captain Falcon to ranking 3rd.

Mang0 is widely considered to be the greatest Falco player of all time, and his Fox is also rated amongst the game's best. Melee It On Me's 2013 SSBMRank and 2014 SSBMRank ranked Mang0 as the #1 Melee player in the world, and he is one of two smashers in history to have won Melee singles at EVO more than once, performing the feat in the 2013 and 2014 installments of the series. A top 6 player for over a decade, Mang0 is widely considered to be one of the greatest Melee players of all time.

Origin of the name
Mang0 received his gamertag in the 5th grade while playing the PC first-person shooter Counter-Strike. At a LAN party, he entered his name as "I want a Mango" and his friends have called him "Mango" ever since.

2007-2009: Rise to Fame with Jigglypuff
Mang0 placed 3rd in Singles at EVO World 2007, defeating many of the best known professional smashers, notably in pools. He placed 3rd in singles at Super Champ Combo, again defeating many well-known players. In doubles, he also placed 3rd with his partner, even beating the team of and.

On February 4th, 2008, Mang0 won Pound 3. After losing in round 1 of the bracket to, he beat , , , , , , , , and twice to complete one of the greatest loser's bracket runs of all-time.

By March 8th, 2009, he was considered one of the best active Melee players in the world, having beaten PC Chris, ChuDat, Mew2King, and many other smashers at Revival of Melee in Nanuet, New York, placing 1st.

On July 10th, 2009, Mang0 attended GENESIS by DBR, which had 290 entrants in Melee Singles (Melee's largest tournament ever at the time), where he reached the Winners' Finals and lost 2-3 the first set against, a main regarded as the best player in Europe. After defeating in Losers' Finals 3-0, Mang0 reached Grand Finals against Armada. Mang0 then proceeded to win a very intense and close second set 3-2, and the third set 3-0 to win the tournament.

Revival of Melee 2 was the cause of much debate within the Smash community when Mang0 placed fourth after being double eliminated by. However, rumors and uncertainty ended after Mang0 claimed 1st place at Pound 4 (then the largest tournament in Melee history with over 300 entrants) without dropping a set, defeating Hungrybox 3-1 in Grand Finals.

Since his victory at Pound 4, Mang0 was regarded by many to be the world champion of SSBM.

2010: Sandbagging as the Scorpion Master
After being banned on SmashBoards, Mang0, along with DBR and the rest of his region, decided to prank the rest of the Smash community by creating an alias known as ScorpionMaster94 and sandbag at a number of tournaments. Originally going to use or, when using his alias, Mango decided to use Mario after soundly defeating fellow SoCal smasher  in a money match.

Mang0 and the rest of SoCal created a backstory for his alias, claiming "Scorp" was a prodigy from Mexico named Joshua Lopez who defeated everyone in SoCal and was ready to place Top 3 at Apex 2010. Mang0, however, failed in this endeavor, losing to Wobbles and Eggz and getting an unexpected 25th place at Apex 2010. Mang0 continued to sandbag with other characters, such as Captain Falcon and Marth, in addition to his Mario, convincingly defeating 2-0 with  and Marth at Revival of Melee 3 and receiving 9th place, and placing 17th at Pound V.

2011-2012: Regaining the Lead with Fox
Mang0's planned revival was GENESIS 2 now maining Fox (along with Falco) instead of Jigglypuff. Despite being upset by in Winners Semis, he was able to fire through Losers Bracket to reach Grand Finals against, defeating  3-0 in Losers Semis and Taj again 2-0 in Losers Finals (Taj forfeited after he was 4 stocked in game 2). After a close and intense set, Mang0 ultimately placed 2nd, losing 2-3 against Armada.

Mang0 secured his position as champion of North America by winning Revival of Melee 4, convincingly defeating 3-0 in Winners Finals and 3-1 in Grand Finals.

At Apex 2012, Mang0 fell short of people's expectations and placed 3rd after losing 0-3 to Armada in Winners Finals and 1-3 to Hungrybox in Losers Finals.

After Apex 2012, Mang0 began to regain the dominant lead he held back in 2008. He won IMPULSE, a Canadian national tournament, after defeating, Hungrybox and. Mango continued to defend his victory streak, convincingly defeating Hungrybox in Grand Finals at MELEE-FC10R Legacy and again at The Big House 2, winning both national tournaments without dropping a set. However, he placed 2nd at Kings of Cali, where he unexpectedly lost two sets of Grand Finals to 3-2 and 3-1 after defeating him 3-0 in Winners Finals.

2013: EVO Championship and Becoming the Best
At Apex 2013, Mang0 defeated several notable smashers in Winners bracket such as, , and , before losing to Mew2King. In Losers bracket, he defeated Vwins again,, and before losing to Mew2King again, placing 4th.

At B.E.A.S.T 3 in Sweden, Mang0 won the tournament after defeating well known European smashers such as, , , and finally in Grand Finals.

At Kings of Cali 2, Mang0 won the tournament without dropping a set, defeating 3-1 in Winners Finals and  3-0 in Grand Finals.

At NorCal Regionals 2013, Mang0 was upset by in Winners Semis. Mang0 reached Grand Finals after defeating, , and PewPewU in the Losers Bracket and won a convincing 3-0 first set against (including a 4 stock in game 2), but failed to pull through in the second set, losing 2-3.

At Vindication, Mang0 defeated in Winners Finals 3-0, but lost the first set of Grand Finals 1-3. However, he managed to win the second set 3-1, winning the tournament.

Zenith 2013 was a significant tournament, with all 4 top players in the United States present for the first time since Apex 2013 as well as being a road to EVO qualifier. Mang0 was put in the Losers Bracket by Mew2King after losing Winners Semis 1-3. He defeated 2-0 in Losers Quarters,  3-1 in Losers Semis, and Mew2King 3-1 in Losers Finals before reaching Grand Finals against Hungrybox. Mang0 won the tournament after defeating Hungrybox in 2 sets, both 3-1.

At IMPULSE 2013 in Toronto, Mango claimed 1st place without dropping a game, defeating 3-0 in both Winners and Grand Finals. Mang0 also took 1st in Melee Doubles (teaming with Unknown522) and 1st in Project M Singles.

With 709 entrants, EVO 2013 was the largest Melee tournament in a year. With his victory at Zenith 2013, Mang0 was the number one seed and successfully advanced from his pool in day one, cruising into the Winners' Quarters pool without dropping a game.

On day two, Mang0 then proceeded to the Winners Semis pool after defeating 2-1. In Winners Semis, Mang0 was put in the Losers Bracket after losing 1-2 to. Mang0 then cemented his place in the Top 8 after defeating 2-1.

Mang0 began EVO finals in the Losers Bracket. He defeated 2-0 and  2-0 before reaching Losers Semis against. In a highly anticipated match, Mang0 defeated Armada 2-0 to reach Losers Finals against. After defeating Hungrybox 2-0, Mang0 reached Grand Finals against Wobbles. Mang0 then defeated Wobbles in 2 sets, 3-0 and 3-1 to become the champion of EVO 2013. This, along with his run at Pound 3, is considered one of the best loser's bracket runs of all-time.

After winning EVO 2013 and with the birth of his son, Mang0 announced that he would be taking a small hiatus from competitive Melee. During this period he entered tournaments primarily with secondary characters, including placing 2nd at LANHAMMER 2013 with and 2nd at Pound V.5 with Marth and.

At Fight Pitt 3, Mang0's defeated 's  3-2 in Winners Finals. However, Mew2King managed to take 2 sets from Mango in Grand Finals to win the tournament, both sets 3-1.

2014: Continued Dominance and Second EVO Championship
At Apex 2014, Mang0 beat 2-0 in Winners Quarters but was defeated 1-3 by  in Winners Semis. He then defeated in Losers Quarters 2-0 to reach Losers Semis against, the preeminent Fox player in Europe. Mang0 defeated Leffen in a riveting 3-2 set (including a 4-stock in game 5). Mang0 ultimately lost to Mew2King 1-3 in Losers Finals and placed 3rd.

Revival of Melee 7 marked Mang0's return to competitive Melee. Mang0 won the tournament without dropping a set, defeating 3-0 in winners' quarters,  3-0 in winners' semis and  3-2 in winners' finals and 3-1 in Grand Finals. This was also the third time Mang0 has claimed a ROM title.

At Fight Pitt IV, Mang0 faced off against Mew2King in winner's finals and won 3-2. In Grand Finals, Mew2King won the first set 3-2, but Mang0 prevailed in the second set, winning 3-0. In the final set, Mang0's Falco was able to defeat Mew2King's Marth on Final Destination in two consecutive games, a remarkable feat considering Mew2King's mastery of the Space Animal match-up on that stage.

At WHOBO MLG, Mang0 was upset by Hax 1-3 in winners' finals. Mang0 went on to defeat Hax in two sets of grand finals 6-0 using to win the tournament and successfully qualify for MLG Anaheim 2014.

On May 6th, 2014, Cloud9 announced that they had signed Mang0 to lead their fighting games division. Mang0's first tournament under this new sponsor was Get On My Level 2014, where he took 1st place, defeating Kage 2-0, KirbyKaze and Mew2King 3-0, and Hungrybox 3-2 in grand finals for the title. However, at subsequent tournaments, Mang0 did not perform as well. At SKTAR 3, he lost to PPMD 1-3 in winners' finals, and then was eliminated by Mew2King 1-3 in losers' finals, finishing at 3rd place overall. At Super SWEET, he was defeated by Armada 2-3 in winners' finals then eliminated by Mew2King 1-3 once again in loser's finals, with the last match being a 4-stock against him on Pokémon Stadium.

MLG Anaheim 2014 was notable for having one of the largest prize pools in Smash history at $15,000. Mang0 defeated PPMD in winners' semis 3-2 and Armada in winners' finals and grand finals, both sets 3-2, to claim first place.

Mang0 later attended CEO 2014, where he managed to defeat Mew2King 2-0 and Armada 3-1 to secure a spot in grand finals. However, CEO proved not to be a repeat of MLG Anaheim, as Armada came back in grand finals to win two sets over Mang0, 0-3 and 1-3, to take the tournament.

At Kings of Cali 4, Mang0 defeated, , and 3-0 before reaching winners' finals against Armada, where he won 3-1. He lost the first set of grand finals 0-3 to Armada, but still won the second set 3-1, placing 1st overall in singles at the tournament.

EVO 2014 had a total of 970 entrants for Melee, surpassing the record set by EVO 2013 and becoming the largest Melee tournament for over six months. In the winners' quarters pool, he defeated Axe 2-1 to make it into the top 8 via winners' bracket. He then defeated Mew2King 2-0, and Hungrybox 3-2 in both winners' finals and grand finals, to take first place.

This victory allowed Mang0 to become the first player to win Melee singles at EVO more than once.

In October of 2014, Mang0 attended The Big House 4, one of the biggest tournaments of the year. In Top 32, Mango beat 2-0 and  3-1 to make Top 8. In Winners Semis, he lost 3-0 to 's. In the Loser's Bracket, he defeated his best friend 3-2,  3-1, and  3-1 to reach Grand Finals versus Mew2King. Mango defeated Mew2King's 3-1 in both sets of Grand Finals to claim first place. Due to this victory along with his victories at MLG Anaheim 2014 and EVO 2014, Mang0 was considered by many to be the world champion of Melee at the time.

2015: "The Buster"
Mang0 began 2015 by traveling to Sweden for B.E.A.S.T. 5. He beat 3-0 in Winners Semis to advance to Winner's Finals, where he lost to  3-2, the first time Leffen had beaten him. Mang0 then quickly lost to 3-0 to place a disappointing 3rd place.

Mang0's appearance at the Apex tournament in February of 2015 was largely the role of an avenger after Leffen's highly anticipated and convincing 5-0 game win against. In response to Chillin's loss, Mang0 challenged Leffen claiming: "[If] we meet in bracket, we're putting one thousand on it." Leffen immediately accepted and would go on to defeat Mang0's Falco with Fox in a series of hard fought matches that ended with a 3-1 game score in Leffen's favor. After the defeat, Mang0 defeated Yoshi main in a close 5 game set 3-2 in loser's quarters before losing to Armada 0-3 in loser's semis, netting 4th place. He also coined the "Buster" meme, claiming that he "went out like a buster" after losing to Leffen and Armada.

After his performance at Apex, Mang0 did not enter another major tournament until I'm Not Yelling in April. After reaching Top 8, Mang0 got his revenge on, beating him 3-1 and then beat 's 3-1 as well to advance to Grand Finals. However, Armada switched to and won both sets of Grand Finals by a score of 3-1.

A week later at MVG Sandstorm, Mang0 had one of the worst tournaments of his career. He lost 3-2 to in Winner's Semis and 3-1 to  for 5th place.

At Press Start in May, Mang0 was DQ'd from the Winner's Bracket after failing to show up to his match on time. In the Loser's Bracket, he beat, Westballz, , Leffen, , , , Axe, and twice to complete yet another amazing Loser's bracket run. He rode this momentum to win at Battle Arena Melbourne 7 in Australia, where he defeated Leffen in Winner's and Grand Finals by a score of 3-2.

Though he seemed poised for a repeat of 2013 and 2014, where he had a bad winter but a dominating summer, this would not turn out to be the case. At CEO 2015, Shroomed's defeated Mang0's  2-0 in Winner's Quarters. He narrowly defeated 2-1 to make Top 8. The next day, he won a close nailbiter set against 's Sheik 3-2, then beat Hungrybox and Westballz 3-1 before losing to Armada 3-1 for a 3rd place finish.

One week before EVO, Mang0 attended WTFox. After beating 3-1 to make Top 8, he lost to Armada by a score of 3-1. In the Loser's Bracket, he defeated Westballz 3-0, 3-2, and Armada in a dramatic 3-2 set before being swiftly 3-0'd by Leffen to finish in 2nd place.

EVO 2015 became the second largest Melee tournament of all time, with 1869 entrants. Mang0 was knocked into the losers bracket in winners quarters by 's Sheik 1-2 in a rematch from CEO 2015, causing a major upset. He beat 2-0 to make it into top 8, then beat  2-0 to face Hungrybox in losers quarters. Hungrybox ended up winning over Mango 2-1, ending Mango's EVO run at 5th place, meaning a new EVO champion would be crowned, which ended up being Armada.

At Paragon Los Angeles 2015, Mang0 placed first over players such as, , , , , and. Notably, he used for matchups that had caused trouble for his  in previous months, namely,, , and. However, a few weeks later, Mango had a catastrophic performance at HTC Throwdown, losing to and  for 17th place.

At The Big House 5, Mang0 reached Top 8 by defeating 3-0. He lost to Hungrybox 3-1, beat Westballz 3-1, then lost to Mew2King by a score of 3-0 to get 4th place. He failed to defend his Big House title.

After this, Mang0 fully committed to playing only. At Smash Summit, he lost to Mew2King in Winners Semis by a score of 3-0 before beating, Plup, and Mew2King, all by a score of 3-1. He then lost to Armada in a close 3-2 set to get 2nd place.

At Dreamhack Winter 2015 however, he lost to Plup 3-2 and Westballz 3-0 to place 5th and cement 2015 as one of Mango's worst years in Smash.

2016: GENESIS 3 and the Second Place Master
The first major tournament of 2016, Genesis 3 marked the revival of one of the most prolific tournament series in Smash history. Mang0 came into the tournament as an underdog, as he failed to place above 3rd at any supermajor in 2015. He was upset in winners quarters by Axe 3-1 before defeating Plup 3-1 in the losers bracket to qualify for Top 8. Mang0 then proceeded to win the next 10 games he played, running through Nintendude 3-0, PPMD 3-0, and getting his revenge on Axe 3-0. He then defeated Hungrybox 3-2 to qualify for Grand Finals against Armada. Mango crushed Armada in the Fox ditto in the first two games, prompting Armada to switch to Peach before Mang0 won the first set of Grand Finals 3-1. Mang0 lost the 2nd set 3-1, placing the highest he had in any super major for over a year at 2nd.

As 2016 wore on, Mang0 continued to consistently place better than in 2015 but major tournament victories still eluded him, thanks in part to the recent dominance of. Mang0 placed 2nd to Hungrybox at PAX Arena, Battle of the Five Gods, Pound 2016, Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo, and Low Tier City 4, and defeated him once in between, taking two sets to win DreamHack Austin 2016. He added another silver medal to his collection at Get On My Level 2016, where he defeated Hungrybox in Loser's Finals but lost in Grand Finals 3-1 to.

At WTFox 2, Mang0 breezed through bracket playing only Marth before playing in winner's semis where he won in a close game 5 set 3-2. He then faced Armada in winner's finals, where he once again brought out a Marth pick for the Final Destination match before winning the set 3-1. He then faced Armada in Grand Finals, where he cleanly swept Armada 3-0 to win his first tournament with Armada present since The Big House 4.

EVO 2016 became the largest Melee tournament of all time, with 2,372 entrants. Mang0 swiftly breeze through the bracket until he encountered Plup where Mango was defeated 2-1. Crusing through the losers bracket, Mang0 was able to swiftly 2-0 Zhu and managed to enter top 8 losers side. In top 8 losers side at the largest Melee tournament of all time, Mango was able to take down PewPewU at 2-1 and Mew2King 2-1. After his wins against Mew2King and PewPewU, Mang0's losers run fell short as Hungrybox, who grew very dominant throughout early 2016, defeated Mango 2-1, placing Mango at 4th.

Mang0 entered The Big House 6 and swept through the entire bracket (with exception to a very close battle in winners quarters against, who he beat 3-2) up to the winners side of Top 8, where he defeated Armada 3-2 and Ice 3-0 to qualify for Grand Finals. He faced Armada once again in Grand Finals. Despite Armada resetting the bracket 3-1, he ended up winning 3-2, with very close games in both sets of Grand Finals, and once again taking the title of champion of The Big House.

2017: From Temporary Decline to Resurgence
Mang0 competed at GENESIS 4. He swept through pools and Top 32, 2-0ing and 3-0ing all players he faced (with the exception of Hungrybox, whom Mango surpassed with a 3-1 victory in winner's quarters). In top 8 however, he lost against Armada 3-1 and he confronted against his rival, Leffen. In a spectacular comeback, he beat Leffen 3-2, Hungrybox 3-1, and Mew2King 3-1 to move on to Grand Finals where he faced Armada once again. Nonetheless, he lost in Grand Finals against Armada in an anti-climatic, 3-0 finish.

After GENESIS, Mang0's performance had notably declined throughout January to May 2017 due to his random losses and inconsistent placings. In Smash Summit Spring 2017, Mang made an embarrassing 9th place finish. Mang0 started out beating 3-0, but he dropped to losers bracket when he lost to  in a 3-0 fashion. In the losers bracket, Mang0 lost to 3-1 and finally, losing to  3-2. At Frame Perfect Series 2, Mang0 made a devastating loss in top 32 where he was defeated by in a 3-0 fashion. In the losers bracket, he made a reverse 3-0 against but he was defeated by  3-1, ending his losers run at 13th place. At Smash Rivalries, Mango made a clutch win against 3-2 but lost once again to ChuDat in winners and to Axe 3-1 in losers. In DreamHack Austin 2017, Mang0 swept through pools and defeated 3-2 and  3-0. However, for the third time, Mang0 lost to ChuDat by 3-1 and was sent to losers where he lost to 3-1, ending his run at 4th place.

After his embarrassing losses against ChuDat and his inconsistent placings throughout early 2017, Mang0 made his resurgence by winning on Mother's Day. Mango started off strong in pools by 2-0ing players he met at pools. After pools, he swept through top 32 winners by 3-0ing and. In winner's quarters, he quickly took down 3-0 but lost to Armada in a close 3-2 in winner's semis. Pursuing retaliation, he made it to Grand Finals as he reverse 3-0, 3-0 , and 3-1. Mango and Armada made a rematch once again in Grand Finals. Despite Armada's dominance, Mang0 ended up winning 3-2 twice, with very close games in both sets in Grand Finals, obtaining the title as the champion of Royal Flush. Mang0 also notably finished Armada's 7-month winning spree, in which Armada won every tournament he entered since The Big House 6, which he had also lost to Mang0.

Since Royal Flush, Mang0 had maintained his consistency throughout 2017 like his notable placement at EVO 2017. EVO 2017, despite the decrease amount of entrants in comparison to its predecessor, is still one of the biggest Melee tournaments of all time, at 1428 entrants. In this tournament, Mango swiftly cruise throughout pools and top 32 winners while able to 2-0 and 2-1. In top 8 winner's semis, he knocked the previous EVO Champion, Hungrybox, into losers in a 2-1 victory. Nevertheless, Mang0 wasn't able to pass through winner's finals as his rival, Armada, was able to swiftly 3-0 Mango out of winners. Pursuing retaliation once again, he made it to Grand Finals as he eliminated Hungrybox 3-2. Mang0 and Armada made a rematch once again in Grand Finals. Unlike their previous rematch at Royal Flush, where their matches were extremely close, EVO's Grand Finals was merely lopsided to Armada's favor as Mang0 was stumped by Armada's strong dominance. Losing to Armada 3-1, Mang0 placed 2nd at EVO 2017.

Super Smash Con 2017 was held once again in 2017. Mang0 finished phase 1 and phase 2 pools, defeating 3-1. Throughout winners, he first faced Axe; after taking a game against Axe, Mang0 and Axe did the unexpected and switched from their mains to their secondaries: Mang0 as Mario and Axe as Young Link. In a close match, Axe's Young Link clutched the game against the former Scorpion Master. After Axe took the game, the two competitors switched back to their mains where Mang0 defeated Axe in a close 3-2. Riding the winners bracket into top 8, Mang0 defeated Mew2King 3-1, Plup 3-2 and made it to Grand Finals. During Grand Finals, Mang0 swiftly 3-0 Mew2King and was declared as the champion of Super Smash Con 2017, maintaining his title from the previous year.

At Shine 2017, Mang0 swept through top 96 and defeated 3-0, PewPewU 3-2, and finally defeated ChuDat 3-1, heading to top 8 winners. In top 8 winners, Mang0 defeated Plup 3-0 but lost to Hungrybox 3-1, forcing Mango to be sent to losers. In loser's finals, Mang0 made a convincing 3-0 against S2J. On Grand Finals, Mang0 was defeated by Hungrybox in a close 3-2 set. Unable to reset Grand Finals and losing to Hungrybox, Mang0 secured his placement at 2nd.

During top 32 winners of DreamHack Denver 2017, Mango defeated 3-0, and ChuDat 3-1. Into top 8, Mango defeated Axe 3-1 while losing one game as Mario. However, Mang0 lost to Hungrybox 3-2 and was sent to losers bracket. In Loser's Finals, Mang0 defeated Axe 3-0 while getting vengeance with Mario in the set. In Grand Finals, Hungrybox defeated Mango 3-1, securing Mang0's spot as 2nd place.

The Big House 7 was a profound tournament in 2017. In top 64, Mang0 was capable to run through winners while able to defeat and Shroomed but was quickly stopped by Leffen with a 3-0 loss. Throughout loser's top 16, Mang0 eliminated Crush 3-1 and Wizzrobe 3-1. After Mango had defeated Wizzrobe, the two "Non-Gods", Leffen and Plup, were able to defeat Hungrybox and Armada. The latter, Plup, became the second person to defeat all "Gods", with Plup beating Armada 3-1, earning his status as a "God-Slayer". This marks the first tournament ever where there is not one single "God" at Winner's Finals since the Era of the Five Gods (with Leffen and Plup, the God-Slayers, earning their spots in Winner's Finals by eliminating the four competing Gods). Coincidentally, all of the "Gods" with the exception of PPMD (who is currently inactive), made it in and competed against each other in top 6 loser's bracket. Mang0 unfortunately lost to Armada 3-1 in losers' quarters, securing a 5th place finish.

2018: Inconsistency against Top Players and Slight Decline
At GENESIS 5, Mang0 breezed through most of Top 32, before falling to Plup 2-3 in Winners Quarter-Final. He then preceded to eliminate Wizzrobe and Axe before losing to Leffen 2-3, placing 5th. His next tournament was The Mango, a tournament that he had helped organize; despite this, Mang0 chose to sandbag and played Captain Falcon, losing to and, placing 17th. Mango then went to Full Bloom 4, where he blew through top 32, defeating Duck and aMSa, before being destroyed by Leffen 3-0. He then preceded to eliminate SFAT, Wizzrobe, and win his dominant rematch with Leffen 3-0 to make it to Grand Finals, where he lost to Hungrybox 3-1, placing 2nd.

For the sixth time in a row, Mang0 was invited to Smash Summit 6. During pools, Mang0 pulled off an impressive run by defeating everyone in his pool, including Armada and Hungrybox with Falco (the first time either had lost a full set to Falco in years), while making it to the winner's side of bracket. However, Mang0 then lost to 2-3 and, later, to Hungrybox 3-1, placing 7th. In doubles, Mango teamed with SFAT, defeating n0ne/Wizzrobe, Mew2King/Plup, and Armada/Leffen to make it to Grand Finals. However, they were then double-eliminated by Armada/Leffen 2-3 and 3-0, placing 2nd.

At Smash 'N' Splash 4, Mang0 swept through his pool and most of Top 64 until he was sent to Loser's Bracket by Mew2King 2-3. In Loser's, he defeated Wizzrobe before losing to Zain 0-3, placing 7th. At his next tournament, Low Tier City 6, Mang0 was upset by 2-3 in Top 64. He then preceded to defeat and  3-1 and 3-0, respectively, before losing to Armada 1-3, placing 5th. Mang0 similarly placed 5th at EVO 2018, making it to Winner's Top 8 but losing to both Plup and Armada 0-2. Despite his consistent results, Mang0 was inconsistent against top players; furthermore, he had only made it to Grand Finals once at that point, while failing to win a tournament. As such, Mang0 dropped to 6th on the first Melee PGR.

At Super Smash Con 2018, Mang0 lost to in Phase 2. He then subsequently dropped out of the tournament, citing that he was too tired, and placed 65th; not only did he fail to defend his title from last year, but it was also his lowest placement to date. This caused a lot of backlash from his fans, who threatened to unsubscribe from his Twitch channel; Mang0 then proceeded to say that he had spent a lot of time streaming and taking care of a family, while telling the haters that "they couldn't make it in sandals." Thankfully, Mang0 was able to perform significantly better at Shine 2018. In Top 8, Mang0 was able to defeat Plup's Fox 3-1 before losing to Zain 2-3 and Hungrybox 0-3, placing 3rd.

Mang0's next tournament was The Big House 8, where he stormed through to Winner's Top 8 without dropping a game. In Winner's Semis he met Leffen; there they had a close and intense set, but Mang0 ultimately triumphed 3-1. Mang0 advanced to face Hungrybox in Winner's Finals and lost 0-3, notably bringing out his Fox for the first time in tournament since he had met Hungrybox seven months earlier at Full Bloom 4. He then played Plup in Loser's Finals, switching back to Falco, but fell 0-3 once more. Losing 0-6 to MPGR's #1 and #2 players, Mango was out at 3rd, ending his legacy of even-numbered Big House victories.

2019: Breaking the Dry Streak and Further Inconsistency
At GENESIS 6, Mang0 was upset in pools by, but managed to make a big loser's run until being 3-0'd by aMSa, placing 5th. His next tournament was Pound 2019, where he finally beat Hungrybox again, and proceeded to beat Plup in Winner's Finals to enter Grand Finals through winner's, looking poised to finally take a major after over a year. However, he lost 2 heartbreaking sets to Hungrybox in Grands to get 2nd.

At Get On My Level 2019, despite nearly losing to early, he pulled out in a Game 5 last hit set, proceed to 3-0 SFAT, then dominated Leffen in Winner's Finals 3-0, including a 4-stock game 1. Again, Mang0 found himself in Grands. This time, he dispatched of his adversary Axe convincingly, 3-stocking him in Game 5 to claim his first major victory in almost 2 years.

However, at Smash 'N' Splash 5, Mang0 was sent to loser's early by aMSa again, and was 3-1'd by Leffen in top 8 loser's, getting just 7th. His next tournament was Smash Summit 8, where he looked strong in pools, emerging 3-0 and the 1st seed after swiss, notably defeating former demon Zain as well as Plup. However, he was immediately sent to loser's by Axe, where he was defeated by rising star, placing him 9th, his first finish outside of top 8 since Smash Summit Spring 2017. Despite a major victory, his continued inconsistency had him repeat his previous ranking at 5th on the Summer 2019 Melee PGR.

Mang0's summer would prove equally disappointing. At Low Tier City 7, Mang0 would fall to his old demon Zain again, before being eliminated in 4th by Hungrybox. At Super Smash Con 2019, Mang0 would lose again to Zain, pitting him against his new demon aMSa. After losing games 1 and 3, he switched to Fox to win game 4, but was defeated in game 5, giving him his 3rd loss to aMSa this year and placing him at 9th, outside of top 8 yet again. At Smash Camp: End of Summer, Mang0 lost to Zain for the 3rd tournament in a row, before being dispatched by, getting 5th place. Then, at arguably his most disappointing tournament this year, Mang0 would lose to at Mainstage, and would be beaten by his long time friend  for the first time ever in tournament, getting just 13th. At this point, Mango looked like a shell of his former self, having failed to win, or even place top 3, all summer and losing to a multitude of different players and characters.

Going into The Big House 9, Mang0 was seeded just 6th due to his paltry recent results. He started strong, defeating before losing to Leffen in Winner's Semis, pitting him against Hungrybox for 5th. However, Mang0 shocked the world by coming out strong, 3-1'ing the #1 player and eliminating Hungrybox at 5th. Next, he faced Fiction in a runback from Winner's, and although Fiction looked strong, being up 2-1, Mang0 took game 4 and narrowly won a nail-biter game 5 set where he made an amazing comeback. In Loser's Finals, he again faced Leffen, who also went up 2-1 before Mang0 narrowly won game 4 and then pulled away in game 5 to reach Grands against his demon Zain. There, in 2 back-and-forth game 5 sets, Mango pulled out the victory, breaking the dry spell and claiming his 4th Big House in an emphatic fashion.

At Rising Stars at EGLX 2019, Mang0 would lose to in Winner's, marking his first loss to a Captain Falcon player in over a decade. He was subsequently eliminated by Hungrybox for 5th. However, at Mango's Birthday Bash, his own birthday tournament, Mang0 would come out swinging, defeating n0ne, Zain, the red-hot Hax, and then Hungrybox without dropping a set, taking his 3rd major. On the 2019 Melee PGR Mang0 was ranked 3rd, barely edged out of 2nd by, whose consistency across the entire year was valued slightly higher than Mango's peaks.

2020: The Switch to Online Play
At GENESIS 7, Mang0 defeated his 2019 demon aMSa as well as Leffen before losing to Zain, and was eliminated by Hungrybox for 3rd place. Mang0's final in-person tournament of the year was Smash Summit 9, where he dropped sets to Hungrybox and Plup to again finish 3rd. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the suspension of in-person tournaments, Mang0 continued to enter Melee events via netplay, which was greatly augmented in June via the introduction of Project Slippi's rollback netcode. The resulting improvements to online play led an air of legitimacy to online tournaments, leading Mango and other top players to grind seriously for the chance to win them. emerged as Mang0's primary rival for online dominance, and outside of tournaments the two would grind on their respective streams, often playing each other for Twitch subscriptions using mains and secondaries.

Mang0 closed out the year by dominantly winning Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series 3, dropping only 3 games the entire tournament. Despite the absence of any formal rankings for the year due to the pandemic and the lack of consensus regarding the legitimacy of online play, the end of 2020 saw Mang0 and Zain widely considered to be the top 2 North American players.

Playstyle
With Fox, Mang0 is known for his excellent neutral game, featuring incredible dash-dancing, aggressive running shine cross-ups, and running shield mix-ups. With Falco, Mang0 is known for creativity, excellent use of crouch cancels and shine out-of-shield to start combos and an unparalleled ability to dominate otherwise amazing players when the crowd is behind him. Mango is known for having world-class DI, great recovery, as well as reading and reacting to his opponent's poor choices.

Mang0 is also capable of playing many characters at a very high level, including Mario, Jigglypuff, Falcon, and Marth. He often has demonstrated (and pointed out himself) that his Jigglypuff in particular still influences his usage of aerial movement with his other characters in tournament, such as in this moment during GOML 2016. Mango will play Falcon occasionally for styling or when playing a ditto match. An infamous set where he played Falcon and Marth against, who had recently changed to Fox, was in Winner's Quarterfinals at The Big House 4. Mango won the set 3-1 and had a notably memetic play where he walked up slowly and down smashed for a KO. After that, he closed out the last two games of the set with Marth, which he rarely used in tournaments at the time.

However, Mang0's performance can be wildly inconsistent, as seen with his 17th placing at HTC Throwdown. His unorthodox and usually unsafe approach to the game has led to several upsets from lower ranked players, such as, , , , Hax, and. He has since worked on mixing in defense and zoning along with his signature aggressive style, which had seen some success against and.

Controversy and public image
Despite being known as one of the most skilled Melee players ever, and a consistent crowd favorite, Mango has been the center of a handful of controversial situations earlier on in his career. Such situations usually concern his divisive style of humor, or the sometimes abrasive and brief delivery of comments and criticism to others.

The most notorious example of this is his reddit AMA created after his EVO 2013 win. Many observers criticized Mango's responses for lacking substance, as well as proper grammar, and the thread exploded when wrote a lengthy comment criticizing Mango's allegedly poor treatment and respect of him. Mango's response became one of the most downvoted reddit comments of all time, and following the AMA, many criticized Mango for creating a negative image of Melee and being a poor representative of the community.

However, Mango would later take part in a follow-up interview with Hungrybox conducted by Melee It On Me, where they cleared up their misunderstandings. Additionally, after Mango established himself as a popular Twitch streamer, he has since been seen more favorably by both outside observers and individuals in the Melee community who disliked him in the past, due to his improved conduct compared to his 2007-2013 self. Both Hungrybox and Mango himself have established as late as April 2019 on their respective Twitch streams that they no longer have any animosity towards each other.

During the EVO 2015 awards ceremony, Mango threw his fifth place medal into the crowd, and gave a thumbs-down as Hungrybox received his second-place medal, causing many spectators to boo him. While some argue that his medal-throwing was unsportsmanlike, and done out of Mango's disappointment at not capturing first place, others believe that the gesture was done out of respect for his fans. Mango has since thrown his medal several more times at major tournaments, including after placing 1st at.

Trivia

 * Mango is the only player to have competed at every Smash Summit for Melee. Despite this fact, Mango was unable to win any of the Summits until Smash Summit 11 in 2021, almost 6 years after the tournament’s creation.
 * Mango's son, born October 14th, 2013, has his middle name taken from Mango's gamertag; his full name is Joseph Mango Marquez. He is also referred to as "Jojo".
 * At HTC Throwdown, Mango placed 17th. This was his lowest placing at a national since he had sandbagged as Scorpion Master over 5 years earlier. He was upset by and, who both beat him 2-1. Due to this poor placement, he jokingly insists that he only flew to San Francisco that weekend specifically to guest star in episode 5 of the "Scar and Toph Show", and smashers used various nicknames for Mango such as "Mango17" (in reference to ) or simply threw around the number whenever his HTC Throwdown placement is mentioned or alluded to in a Twitch broadcast.
 * At UGC Smash Open, he placed 13th, losing to and getting eliminated by
 * MVG Sandstorm, EVO 2015, and DreamHack Winter 2015 marked his next worst placements at 5th each, losing to 2-3 and  1-3 at MVG Sandstorm, losing to  1-2 and  1-2 at EVO 2015, and losing to Plup 2-3 and Westballz 0-3 at DreamHack Winter 2015.
 * These relatively poor performances in 2015 and 2016 have elicited the term "buster", which is usually used in the Smash community to describe someone who has underperformed at any given event (severely or otherwise). Mango once famously said at Apex 2015: "Life is this crazy, mystical thing, and sometimes, you just go out like a buster." One of Mango's Twitch subscription emotes uses the face of Buster, the bunny from the cartoon , wearing a pair of sunglasses to reference the term (coincidentally, the emote was also created the week before Apex 2015 began).
 * Mango has a well-known penchant for throwing objects (most commonly medals) at tournament crowds during awards ceremonies.
 * From 2013 to 2015, Mango has thrown something towards the crowd at EVO.
 * He threw his shirt in 2013 after beating Armada in losers semis.
 * He threw his hat in 2014 after beating Hungrybox in grand finals.
 * He threw his 5th place medal in 2015 right after receiving it during the awards ceremony, which he did not initially show up for.
 * At GENESIS 4, he threw his 2nd place medal towards the crowd right after receiving it during the award ceremony.
 * At GOML 2019, he threw his 1st place medal towards the crowd.
 * At Low Tier City 7, he threw his 4th place medal towards the crowd.
 * At GENESIS 7, he threw his 3rd place medal towards the crowd.
 * At Phantom 2022, he threw his 3rd place medal towards the crowd.
 * Mango is well-known for disliking the mirror match in Melee, instead using primarily  against Fox players. However, after losing losers finals of CEO 2015 against Armada due to losing the first game in Fox dittos and not being well versed in the Falco/ matchup, he eventually decided to learn how to fight other Fox players with his own Fox, and has since defeated Armada in the Fox ditto at WTFox in losers finals, GENESIS 3 in grand finals, and Battle of the Five Gods (albeit only in the first game in the first case). In terms of Fox ditto games, he leads against Armada (8-3) between CEO 2015 and WTFOX 2.
 * In relation to these victories, Mango has popularized the use of the title "master", not using it to actually describe his mastery at any particular thing, but rather to denote something he has done before or to boost his confidence in doing that action; in this case, it would be Fox dittos, in which he would call himself the "Fox ditto master" despite still disliking the matchup. Mango sometimes jokingly claims he is the "shield drop master."
 * Mango stated that the reason he decided to main is because he was inspired from watching 's combo videos.
 * Mango lost $1,000 in a match against Leffen at winners' semis of Apex 2015, tying for the biggest loss of money in a single set, alongside SFAT and . Mango would go on to lose a $1,000 bet against Leffen, on a losers quarter-finals set at The Kid, the Goat, the Mang0, between Lucky and, where Mango bet on Lucky.
 * Curiously, Mango won every Melee singles tournament falling on Mother's Day weekend that he played in from 2011-2017, those tournaments being 2GG 1.4 (2011), UCSB: Another Melee Tournament (2012), Vindication (2013), Get On My Level 2014, Press Start (2015), DreamHack Austin 2016, and Royal Flush (2017).
 * While Mango has never entered Smash 4 tournaments, he did make a notable guest appearance at 2GGC: Civil War.
 * At one point, Mango was both the youngest player and the oldest player to win a major Melee tournament: at 16 years and 2 months old, and  at 30 years and 9 months old. The latter feat stood until  won  at the age of 30 years and 11 months.
 * Mango is the only player alongside to have won a major Melee tournament in three different decades ( in 2008,  in 2010, and  in 2021).
 * Throughout his entire career, Mango has never missed Top 8 for more than three Melee tournaments he attended in a row until 2022 (9th at, 13th at , 9th at ).

Super Smash Bros. Melee

 * MLG Anaheim Winners Semis - Mango vs PPMD
 * MLG Anaheim Grand Finals - Mango vs Armada
 * EVO 2014 SSBM Winners Semis - Mew2King vs Mango
 * EVO 2014 SSBM Grand Finals - Mango vs Hungrybox
 * GENESIS 3 - {A}rmada (Fox/Peach) vs C9.Mang0 (Fox) - SSBM - Grand Finals
 * SSC 2016 SSBM - C9 Mango (Fox) Vs. Liquid` Hungrybox (Jigglypuff) - Melee Grand Finals
 * TBH6 SSBM - C9 | Mango (Fox) Vs. {A}rmada (Peach) - Smash Melee Grand Finals
 * Genesis 4 SSBM - TSM RB | Leffen (Fox) Vs. C9 Mango (Falco) Smash Melee Losers Quarters
 * Royal Flush SSBM - {A} Armada (Peach) Vs. C9 Mango (Fox, Marth) Smash Melee GF
 * Zain vs Mang0 - GRAND FINALS: Melee Singles Top 8 - TBH9 | Marth vs Falco
 * Zain vs Mango - GRAND FINALS: Singles Bracket - Smash Summit 11 | Marth vs Fox