Pikachu (SSBU): Difference between revisions

However, Pikachu noticeably lacked the results other contenders for best in the game had. ESAM largely spearheaded Pikachu's results for the first few years of the game's competitive lifespan, and despite seeing high highs, was often brought down by mediocre results. For example, ESAM saw a career-defining victory over {{Sm|MkLeo}} at {{Trn|Glitch 8.5 - Konami Code}} but underperformed at most of his other majors in 2021. The post-online metagame also saw the rise of a couple other Pikachu players such as {{Sm|H4}}, {{Sm|Neeroz}}, and {{Sm|ShinyMark}}; the latter especially has seen performances that were on par with ESAM's, which included two top 8 finishes at supermajors. These results, however, were often countered with the players' inconsistency or a lack of results from outside their region. As a result, per [[OrionRank]]'s character rankings, Pikachu was 25th in results in 2021<ref>https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zTKrF1HOv70Pp8xdJKrRQy3QiMYKLTCstoVNgxymt0o</ref>, and then fell to 43rd in 2022<ref>https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gRlzy4z_dpqb2ZRhGoqtbDcuvUKz_ROsMZHGegon53M</ref>, a far cry from its top tier perception. Furthermore, Pikachu's position in the post-pandemic metagame became less secure due to the increase in strong players at top level play as well as new metagame standards, with more people preferring to use characters that have easier time racking up damage and KOing, such as {{SSBU|Steve}} and {{SSBU|Kazuya}}.