Dabuz is a top SSBU professional player from Nesconset, New York who is currently residing in New Jersey. He is a Rosalina & Luma and Olimar main with a Min Min secondary who is considered the best Rosalina & Luma player in the world, one of the two best Olimar players in the world, along with Shuton, and the best Min Min player in the United States when he actively used these two characters. Dabuz is currently ranked 20th on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v7, 8th on OrionRank 2022 North America, and 24th on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023; he was formerly ranked 1st on the New York City Ultimate Power Rankings.
In SSB4, Dabuz was a Rosalina & Luma main with Olimar and Mewtwo secondaries. He was considered the best Rosalina player in the world, one of the best Olimar players in the world along with Shuton, and one of the best Mewtwo players in the world at the end of the game's lifespan. Dabuz ranked 1st on the New York Smash 4 Power Rankings and 4th on the Panda Global Rankings 100. He was the 10th player to take a set off of ZeRo, doing so at WTFox 2.
In SSBB, Dabuz was an Olimar player, and was considered the best Olimar player in the United States. Dabuz was formerly ranked 20th on the 2014 SSBBRank, and 6th on the Tristate Brawl Power Rankings. A noted threat offline, despite sparse tournament attendance, he gained fame as a prominent online player, winning many online tournaments, All is Brawl playoffs, and GameBattles playoffs. He still enters Brawl occasionally and is currently ranked 5th on the 2020-2022 SSBBRank.
On June 22nd, 2016, Dabuz was signed by Dream Team.[1]. On August 22nd, 2016, amidst allegations of mispayment, Dabuz and Dream Team would part ways.[2][3] On October 6th, 2016, Dabuz was signed by Renegades[4]; he separated from Renegades on positive terms on October 14, 2017.[5] On June 17th, 2018, Dabuz was sponsored by Gravity Gaming.[6] Dabuz left Gravity Gaming on positive terms on February 18th, 2019.[7] On March 7th, 2019, Team Liquid announced that they had signed Dabuz.[8]
Dabuz uses a creative approach and damage output with Rosalina and Luma and Olimar. With Rosalina, he can choose to play the long game and stuff out opponent's approaches by whiff punishing them with up smash or neutral air out of shield. He also has above average edgeguarding because he knows of Rosalina's floatiness and her amazing recovery, allowing him to travel deep. When Dabuz utilizes Luma, his innovative techniques allow him to rack up tons of damage and combo into hard hits to secure himself a KO. When Dabuz is at a disadvantage, he uses Luma to prevent his opponent from trying to extend the combo on Rosalina since she is a tall lightweight. Since his trip to Japan in 2023, he has made more use of detethered Luma to exercise more stage control.[9]
On the other hand, Dabuz uses Olimar as a bait-and-punish playstyle. He has a wide knowledge of all the Pikmins' strengths and weaknesses and the memorization of the order Olimar plucks them. He knows all the status effects each Pikmin contains. As an example, he utilizes Blue Pikmin's up throw to score easy KOs as it is the strongest among other Pikmin. Dabuz is notorious for repeatedly using Olimar's strong and safe up smash because it is a highly damaging combo tool. He also camps with Pikmin to gain any lead and just like Rosalina, he chooses to play the long game.
Dabuz commonly uses tags with motivating words of advice in order to keep himself composed during play. He also occasionally opts to bring a Luma plushie to tournaments, which he asserts acts as emotional stress relief.[10]
Dabuz is often considered to be Hungrybox's equivalent in the Smash titles that come after Melee due to both sharing a signature defensive playstyle, being born in the same year (1993), sporting prominent beards, and being sponsored by Team Liquid.
Dabuz is well known for maintaining detailed notes on other players and match-ups, which he utilizes as a reference. This has become a meme in the Smash community, which is often employed when an unexpected upset occurs in tournament, or when Dabuz is given an example of how to perform in a match-up, or against a specific player.
Dabuz is famous in the Smash community for his affinity for unusual food combinations, such as Pepsi and milk or peanut butter and BBQ sandwiches.
Dabuz was the best player in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale, winning multiple tournaments. Dabuz also won the Kid Icarus: Uprising National Nintendo Championship.
The Smash community often joke about Dabuz's lips, drawing to the fact that they're of a large size. Its meme status even reached it to a Smash Summit skit where Glutonny was intentionally misinterpreted to say that Dabuz had "beautiful lips".
Whenever Dabuz does a very good play in match, people state that Dabuz entered "Lippo Mode", a parody of the term "Sicko Mode" based on the running joke about his lips.
A running gag during Dabuz's sets is people calling him attractive, leading to several copypastas and chants in Twitch chats, most notably "Dabuz looking kinda cute tho 😳" as well as the rhyme "😳 Dabuz kinda cute 😳 Dabuz kinda clean 😳 Dabuz kinda looking like the man of my dreams 😳".
Dabuz has said he can now play Olimar after winning CEO 2023 albeit its status not being a major, however after playing Alph for so long it has become his brand and he feels an attachment to him.
Dabuz is infamous for not having a single Ultimate major win despite being a consistent presence in the top 8. He has placed 2nd at 11 majors including Low Tide City 2021, Smash Factor 9, and Super Smash Con 2023. CEO 2023, his only national-level win, was not a major despite previous iterations being considered one.
As a result, Dabuz is often considered a "gatekeeper" in Ultimate due to being one of the best Ultimate players to have never won a major, while several top players who managed to overcome him become major winners in the future (eg. Glutonny and Riddles).
Dabuz is sometimes referred to by his nickname, "The King of New York", given his domination of the New York City scene starting from its first Smash 4 power ranking into Ultimate up until his lack of attendance to New York events.