Being a fan of Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman is not easy, or, at least, it's not easy as it used to be. The era of Mew2King's dominance has come and gone, and what we are left with now is one of the greatest Super Smash Bros players of all time who you can never count out. He might not win all of the tournaments, but he has the potential to win each one he enters.





He most recently showed that potential at Smash Summit 6, where he won the entire event through winners side, taking out a surging Zain Naghmi twice, Justin "Wizzrobe" Hallet, William "Leffen" Hjelte, and Adam "Armada" Lindgren twice. Before Smash Summit 6, Armada was 20-4 in lifetime sets against Mew2King. In one tournament, Mew2King added two more wins to that ratio and overcame his European demon once more to win one of the biggest tournaments of his life.

"oh did I win?... no seriously I won?" @echofoxgg @MVG_Mew2King is your Smash Summit 6 champion!  Congratulations on winning one of the hypest Smash Summits ever! #SmashSummit6 #Wholesome2King pic.twitter.com/kGckHePzCa — Most Valuable Gaming (@MVGLeague) May 7, 2018

Since 2007, Mew2King has placed fifth or worse only 22 times out of all of the Melee tournaments he entered. He has had the consistency to always place high, but he's never been as dominant as other plays of his caliber have been in their primes -- mainly Armada.

Just for context: @MVG_Mew2King first reached the top of the game in 2007.



To still be able to beat the the best in the world OVER A DECADE LATER is ridiculously impressive and puts him up there with esports legends like Flash + f0rest + Dendi + Daigo. — Brandon Ewing (@Atrioc) May 7, 2018

Mew2King made it to the top of Melee scene in 2007, when Ken Hoang fell from power. Christopher "PC Chris" Szygiel, Daniel "KDJ" Jung, and Mew2King dominated the East Coast -- and the entire scene -- for a couple years. Out of the three, only Mew2King stayed as a constant in the scene and continued winning. When Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out in 2008, Mew2King was one of the few Melee pros who picked up the game and stuck with it. He became known as the best Meta Knight player in the world and rarely lost a set in any of the Brawl tournaments he entered.

Although his expertise was split between Melee and Brawl, Mew2King stayed at the top of both games, competing in Brawl up until its death.





Had Mew2King solely focused his efforts on Melee, his dominance likely would have lasted years, and he could've seen much better results. Still, he held his own, all the way up until "the Return of the King," Mew2King's resurgence in 2013 after he won Big House 3 against Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, a player who had M2K's number for multiple sets in a row.

The return of the King was the second big power spike for Mew2King, and after he won Big House 3 in October 2013, he had a slew of first-place finishes all the way up to June 2014, only placing second at Apex 2014, Revival of Melee 7, and Fight Pitt IV, and SKTAR 3. At Get On My Level 2014, he placed third.



​Regardless, from October 2013 to June 2014, the King was certainly back, and that's the last time we have seen him as dominant. At the same time, he was also destroying everyone in Brawl and Project M, and it's worth mentioning that he took first place in Brawl at Get On My Level 2014, the tournament at which he had the worst placing of his dominant Melee era.





In late 2014, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS came out. As Smash 4 came to prominence, the Brawl scene phased out, and Mew2King replaced his practicing for Brawl with his practicing for Smash 4. Mew2King never wanted to be the best Melee player; he wanted to be the best Smash player, which meant being the best in every single Smash title. Melee stats don't care about that, though, and his focus on multiple Smash games could have hindered his ceiling in Melee.

Mew2King has had fluctuating results throughout his entire career, more so than the other Melee "gods," and that might have more to do with his personality than anything else. Years prior, and even in early 2017, if Mew2King had a bad stock, got gimped early, had the crowd cheering against him, or flubbed some tech and SD'ed, he lost more than just one stock. He seemed to lose his will to win. You could see it in his body language and the way that he would play after something like that happened. He just looked defeated, and because of that, he eventually was defeated.





By late last year, Mew2King has matured before our eyes, both physically, and mentally. He's having more fun with the game and not getting as down on himself, as his not-so-fantastic placings in 2017-2018 can attest. At Smash Summit 5, Mew2King placed ninth, getting knocked out in losers by Jeffrey "Axe" Williamson. No one pegged him as the favorite for Smash Summit 6, and somehow he came away with the title.

He's won the last few sets over Armada and proven that he can take on Joseph "Mang0" Marquez and Leffen. The true test for Mew2King this year will be Hungrybox, a player he managed to avoid at Smash Summit 6. Maybe Mew2King would've crushed Hungrybox at Smash Summit 6 -- he was playing well enough -- but we will never know.





If Mew2King can take the momentum from this tournament and bring it to his next one, then 2018 could be the resurgence of the King.





​When asked if this tournament win was a turning point for him, Mew2King said "yes, but I'm also going to be honest. I plan to play both Melee and Smash 5. I'm going to play both games, because I like all the Smash games and I wish both communities would just work together more."





We might never see Mew2King's full potential in Melee because of his interest in other Smash games, but we should count ourselves as lucky to witness his true strength as a player when we can.





Photo by David Platlut/DreamHack

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