There are currently 78 different characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and there are still more on the way. Despite how expansive the roster is, the game feels fairly well-balanced. There actually aren't too many characters that a competitor can simply "sleep on" this time around.

While characters like Pac-Man were often regarded as low tier in Super Smash Bros. 4, many of that game's weaker fighters received a plentiful number of buffs during the transition to the newest entry. As a result, we're still finding some characters are secretly quite strong.

Recently, a Japanese Pac-Man competitor — Tea — managed to take an Ultimate tournament at Thunder Smash 3: Clash of the Pandas. Although there were less than 100 entrants competing, there were some major names present like PG|Marss, PG|Cosmos, MVG|Salem, MVG|DarkWizzy, R2G|Kameme, Tsu, T1|Larry Lurr, PG|ESAM, TG|MuteAce, TG|Raito, TG|MVD, and more.

During Tea's run, he found himself going up against players like ESAM, MuteAce, Salem, Cosmos, and even Marss. I think it's fair to say that Tea's performance defied the fantasy brackets of many.

Amazingly, Tea made it into the grand finals of the tournament without dropping a set. In other words, he came from the winners side. His opponent — Marss — was certainly no slouch, however.

Without a doubt, Marss is regarded as one of the best players in the world right now. Notably, this player has even taken tournaments from FOX|MkLeo before.

As a result of this, it came at no surprise that Marss was able to reset the bracket against Tea with a 3-1 victory. Although Tea was down, he wasn't out quite yet.

Eventually, we came to a point in game four where Marss had a fairly significant lead in terms of stock count. The score for the set was currently 2-1 in favor of Tea. If Marss had won this, it would've gone down to the final game.

With a Galaxian in hand, Tea managed to score a devastating sequence on Marss that resulted in him taking over 90% damage in less than 10 seconds. All of a sudden, this game came down to a last stock, last hit situation.

Thanks to a well-timed bell throw, Tea managed to get the stun on Marss. With one last forward Smash, Tea defeated Marss and had a rather emotional response to his achievement.

Even Marss couldn't help but be happy for his opponent. The two embraced one another in a hug after the climatic finish.



Click image for animated version

Source: Video Game Boot Camp.