Counter Logic Gaming didn't just bring Zacqueri "Aphromoo" Black to the 2015 League of Legends All Star Event, they also brought their Super Smash Bros. for Wii U player Tyrell "NAKAT" Coleman. theScore eSports caught up with NAKAT to chat about Smash 4 in 2016, his deep character pool, and who he wants to see Sakurai announce on Tuesday.

How are you finding the All Star event so far?

This isn't my first league event, I went to the NA summer finals to watch CLG fight TSM, but it's always fun! I love it.

This has been a pretty hectic event, we actually just watched Aphromoo lose kind of a weird little 1v1 against Froggen. They both played Zilean where they didn't scale any abilities, just CS. Have you talked to Aphromoo at all? Is that sort of just classic him?

He was telling HuHi and I about the whole ordeal, it was probably planned. He's a troll.

You're one of the few higher-level players who play more than two characters. It's mostly you, and sometimes Nairo. Do you think that a deep character pool is helpful in the current meta? Is counterpicking something you find yourself going to a lot?

Definitely. I've been a Fox player in like, every single Smash game that's come out, whether I played it competitively or not, but Ness wasn't so viable in other games., This is the first time Ness was able to be played viably, being able to win with him, things like that. And he's one of my favourite Nintendo characters of all time, so I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm gonna play Ness this time!' But I found myself having trouble with the characters who are, I guess who are way better than him. He's a top tier in his own right, but then you have Sheik, Rosalina sometimes little obscure characters can give him trouble. Rosalina is probably his worst matchup, unwinnable in most cases, so I had to have a second character. That's where Fox came in.

But I felt like I needed to add one more character, in case I run into a matchup that neither of them are comfortable in, and that's where Pikachu, a real wildcard, came in. Pikachu isn't a pick-up-and-play character, which is why you don't see a lot of him at a top level. It's literally like only myself and ESAM, so when I added Pikachu to my character pool, that became a game of, 'Alright, I have these three characters, all these matchups and player matchups, who can I use in what instance?' It became more of a counter picking game for me, and I do think it helps a lot, but it can also be a curse as well, because you might choose the wrong option at the wrong time. It's proven to be more effective than negative.

I know you also have a fondness for Ness and the Mother characters, do you think that Lucas is someone that might come around every now and again?

Funnily enough, I used Lucas in a high-profile match once, and he almost granted me the victory, it was against Ally's Mario at a tournament in Chicago, and ever since then people beg me, even on Twitter "Lucas! Are we gonna see more Lucas NAKAT?' And I always say that while I do enjoy playing him, I just don't have a reason to play him, as well as Ness just being better than him. I won't say you'll never see Lucas again, it's just that he's a very in-the-moment kind of pick. You might see me pick him in a dire situation, where I feel he can do what my other characters can't.

What is your personal Smash goal in 2016?

My Smash goal every year is to always be the best. That's number one. I want to be the best player in the world. And that's been my dream since I was a Brawl player coming up, and 2016 might just be the year where I can achieve that goal. Of course, it's gonna be very hard, every other player is trying to strive for that same dream, but I find it to be exciting. it adds more of a challenge, more of a story.

What I want to do in 2016 besides becoming the best player, is generally I have high interaction with my fans already, but I want to take it a step further. I really love the people in the Smash community, especially the people who do support me, so I've been thinking of ways to engage with them even more, past maybe streaming which I do a lot, and my YouTube videos. At events, I want to do more for them. I'm busy at events, I'm competing, but I never want to turn people away. I want them to always approach me, I just want to become more interactive with my already strong community,

Like you said, a lot of players are striving to be the best, who do you want to face to prove that you are on your way to becoming the best player in the world?

I want to beat ZeRo. That's the goal. I've gotten very close twice, but it wasn't enough, and you can't live off of a "what if," it isn't enough. You have to just do it. And so next time time I fight him? Oh my gosh man, I want to beat him so badly. And only a few of us have actually gotten close or have been able to do it, so that's really a feat in itself, in showing just how talented he is.

You should look at it not so much as, 'Oh, Zero's unbeatable, he's unstoppable wow!' That's a level that's achievable. We can do that. And that's what I want to do. But I don't want to get to ZeRo's level, I want to pass him. Nario is the second best player, and I'm able to beat him as well, I showed that at Smash the Record. I don't want to be as good as Nairo, I want to pass him as well. That goes for any player that might be better than me at the moment, or could be catching up. I never want to be stagnant. I always want to push forward.

Now, Smash 4 has grown significantly over the last year, what do you think of the growth of this game, and what do you think is coming next?

I love it. I couldn't have imagined it honestly, especially being a Brawl player, because Brawl players we came from a game that was successful in the beginning, and then slowly started to die down and doesn't exist anymore, whereas Melee was on the brink of death, came back to life, and has now just seen crazy growth. For a game that's definitely over ten years old... Melee's old. That's amazing, and Smash 4 is new, but our community is rivaling the size of theirs and we just keep growing and growing and growing, I love it.

What I really want to see in the future is true Nintendo support. Because Nintendo has actually stepped in, they're doing subtle things. They're really starting to make their mark within the scene, but similar to how Riot is supporting their game, I'd really love to see that from Nintendo. That, to me, is a dream come true. To have Nintendo setting up events like this All Star event, really getting in there with the competitive scene, helping the community that helped promote their game. I'm pretty sure they've realized we promote their game hard.

But there's a casual audience for Smash, and while the casual is the one that's more well-known, the competitive scene is something to really admire, because this game has changed the lives of so many people. I don't know if Nintendo realized how strongly we feel about Smash Brothers. How strongly it's helped a lot of us, and I just want them to really step in, support the game, the players, the community and let's all grow together as one unit.

You said you want Nintendo to take a direct role in the game is run, but they also have a direct role in how the game is balanced, so there's a new update coming out in the next couple of days, what would you personally want to see in terms of buffs or nerfs to certain characters?

In terms of nerfs, I think the balance in Smash 4 is already pretty good, especially considering the other Smash games had... they had their problems. But this game, you know, even the characters that aren't as good, the gap isn't that big. But when it comes to the top tiers and the overall number one to five? I think Sheik definitely needs to be balanced, but in the correct ways. They're not correcting her the way she needs to be corrected. They want Sheik to be this super-fast character that's not as strong, but what they're not realizing is that with the rage mechanic, Sheik benefits from that. She gets stronger, she doesn't have lag on her moves, many characters have lag on their aerials. They have to tone that down, somehow. Bouncing Fish is a move that not only aids her in her recovery — which also needs to be balanced because it's almost not punishable — it's very hard to punish, but it also it gives free damage off of a throw, even at higher percents, the move is just kind of OP at the moment.

Then you have Rosalina, and they've been balancing her every now and then, and I don't think she's as crazy as she used to be, but they really do need to kind of tone down the knockback of Luma, in a sense. Because (laughs) Luma can kill at some absurd percentages. Finally, Zero Suit Samus, is a character that can reliably kill extremely early in various ways. Roof combos, rage helps her kill people off the top even without landing the final kick of her Up-B. The knockback of that should probably be reduced. Her recovery is abusable, but many people just over-respect it, so I wouldn't say nerf her recovery. But her kill potential needs to toned down a bit. If I'm outplaying five or six times in the neutral to kill you and you have to outplay me once or twice I feel like that's a problem.

Some characters, the lower tiers, they do need some buffs, but hey don't need anything crazy to make them viable. Like, they gave Donkey Kong his Up-throw, Up-Air, and that's quite crazy, but DK was a character that didn't really have much going for him, and even with that buff, you still don't see Donkey Kong winning events. Just things like that. Some of the, you know, lower down characters definitely deserve it in my opinion.

So, of course the new update will come with a new character as well. We know you're a Mother fan, but if you had to put one character at the top of your wish list, who would that be?

It's easily Krystal from Starfox Adventures, man. Star Fox being one of my favorite series of all time, I feel like Krystal is a character that's sort of overlooked. She's very unique in the sense where Fox used her staff in that game, she's a staff-wielding character, female representative, and has the ability use magic from the staff. I just think she has a lot to offer for the game, and putting aside my bias as a Star Fox fan, I just think she brings a new layer of female representation to the game that doesn't already exist.

Nic Doucet is a news editor for theScore eSports. He loves Lucas unconditionally. You can follow him on Twitter.

Daniel Rosen is a news editor for theScore eSports. He loves Kumatora unconditionally, but Lucas is cool too. You can follow him on Twitter.