Smasher:Isai
| Isai "malva00, MevseC" | |
|---|---|
| Isai.png | |
| Character info | |
| Smash 64 mains | Pikachu, Fox |
| Other Smash 64 characters | Captain Falcon, Link |
| Personal and other info | |
| Real name | Joel Isai Alvarado |
| Birth date | |
| Location | Northern California 
|
| Miscellaneous info | |
| Skill |  Top professional  |
Joel Isai Alvarado, aka "Isai", is considered the world champion of Super Smash Bros. and was ranked 7th best in the United States in Melee before he retired. He mains Pikachu and Link in Super Smash Bros. (his favorite characters are Kirby, Samus, Luigi, Fox, and Mario) and mained Captain Falcon, Fox, and Sheik in Melee. He was also ranked first on the NorCal Power Rankings. Having retired from Melee, Isai now plays Super Smash Bros. exclusively.
Isai in his prime was regarded as the best Melee Captain Falcon in the world. "Isai is too good" became a meme in the Smash community. Although his placings at Melee singles tournaments lowered over time, he is one of the few players to have defeated previous Melee World Champion Ken Hoang multiple times.
Isai and Ken constituted El Chocolate Diablo, the strongest doubles team in the world circa 2004-2006. El Chocolate Diablo remained undefeated in tournament sets until their loss to Taj and Forward and placed 1st at every tournament they entered until placing 2nd behind Azen and Chillindude at MLG Chicago 2006. However, Isai and Ken would later win the final MLG National Championship for Melee teams in 2006. Following this win, El Chocolate Diablo became inactive for almost a year until their final appearance at Super Champ Combo, where they placed 7th.
Despite his success, Isai gradually lost interest in Melee. In early 2010, Isai expressed interest in playing Melee seriously again, but after smashing with Scar and entering a handful of tournaments, Isai still did not find it enjoyable anymore.
Isai lost in the two most recent major SSB64 North American tournaments to SuperBoomFan. Despite these defeats, many still consider him to be the best in the world due to the fact that he only used low tier characters (Luigi/Jigglypuff/Link) in these tournaments.
At Apex 2012, he was unexpectedly convinced by the crowd to play a Melee exhibition match against the other Smash veteran Captain Jack. However, he only sandbagged and lost to Captain Jack without removing one of his stocks.
He purchased Brawl but does not play it. Super Smash Bros. has always been Isai's preferred smash game; he has been playing SSB since 1999 and SSB online since 2004.
Trivia
- Isai often used the in-game tags "VI" and "MEL" in Melee. In Super Smash Bros, his YouTube video tag is "malva" if it is an online match or "Isai" if it is a console match. His nickname "malva" originates from his mother's Windows login name (she used the initial 'm' for her name plus a shortened version of her last name, Alvarado or 'alva').
- Isai's YouTube name is MevseC. This nickname originates from the fact that he plays Marvel vs Capcom (MvsC). He added the two 'e' letters in the middle to make it look cooler and sound like a name.
- Isai calls online smash 'fake smash' due to the delay and lag experienced online. He also calls it fake smash because by definition, it is emulated and thus merely a copy or imitation of the real game on console.
- Noticing that there were exceptional SSB64 players in Japan and Peru, Isai traveled to both of these countries and played the the top players there (e.g. Jousuke, the Japanese national champion and Gerson, the Peruvian national champion). He is one of the few SSB64 players to make a serious effort to travel internationally multiple times in order to play the top SSB64 players from around the world.
