Smasher:Aklo

Aklo is a smasher from Long Island, New York who mains in Melee with a  secondary. He is currently ranked 1st on the New York City Melee Power Rankings and 11th on the SSBMRank Summer 2023. He is currently considered the best active Link player in the world with 's hiatus from competition. He co-mains and  in Project M. He also plays in Ultimate.

In Melee, Aklo is notable for his versatile recovery mixups, proficiency in tech-chasing, and solid defensive game. He first gained attention from the broader Melee scene by demonstrating proficiency against the old guard of top players in Northeastern US regionals, including, , and. Aklo first rose to prominence after being voted into, where he defeated then-Top 5 player. In the time since, he has commonly been regarded as one of the best players to emerge from the post-pandemic era.

In Project M, he notably attended both iterations of The Flex Zone, placing 7th at both. At, he was sent to losers early by , but made a loser's bracket run through , , , and to make it to top 8, where he lost to POOB again. He also made a big impact at, where he defeated 3 PMRanked players in the form of , , and , only losing to in winners and then  in a game 5 last stock scenario in top 8. He has continued to perform well in tournaments for Project+, the spiritual successor to Project M.

In Ultimate, he has wins over players such as, , , and.

On October 29th, 2021, Aklo signed with hometown NYC-based organization Chilly Mountain. He would part ways with Chilly Mountain on October 9th, 2022. Afterwards, Nouns Esports announced that they had signed Aklo on October 21st, 2022.

Trivia

 * Aklo has played Melee since he was a toddler, and grew up alongside a family of brothers who all retain an active competitive interest in the game. His brothers' tags are, , and.
 * Collectively known as the Brotherhood, they all attended and caused some significant upsets in Project M singles, in which:
 * Killacubs sent to Loser's side of bracket.
 * Foxy Grandpa sent to Loser's side of bracket.
 * Vidiot eliminated at 33rd place.
 * All 3 of them were eliminated by the same player,.
 * Aklo notably won the 25th and final Uncle Sam's Maple Syrup online Melee bracket using only.
 * Smash Summit 11 was Aklo's first in-person Smash major outside of his home state of New York.
 * Aklo is known to perform flashy displays of tech skill in between stocks (such as continuously edge canceling Fox's mid-shortened side special on platforms) against his opponents in tournament.
 * For a while, he was also notorious for occasionally taunting after landing a Star KO (inspired by the taunt bonus mechanic of Street Fighter).
 * Aklo was the first player to win a national-level Melee tournament while utilizing Link at, using him to beat and.