On July 23rd, Justin "Plup" McGrath defeated a god. It's not the first time that this has happened. Super Smash Bros. Melee is one of the most popular and widely played eSports of all time, but for the better part of the last decade, six players―the "gods"―have absolutely dominated the landscape: Mang0, Armada, Hungrybox, Mew2King, PPMD, and Leffen. Since 2009, no other player has won a major tournament. Few people have ever bested a god one-on-one, and only one non-god has ever won a tournament with two or more in attendance: Leffen, while he was still on the come-up. Mere mortals can never hope to be as good as them―for most, going to a tournament means seeing how well you can perform before the top players do away with the competition and vie for the top prize. That is, unless you're Plup. Plup hasn't just beaten one god; he's beaten four. Armada, currently considered the world's absolute best, is the only one left standing. He's the most accomplished god-slayer of all time, with a whopping 20 victories over the pantheon. He became the first player in seven years to win a major with two gods in attendance, double-eliminating Hungrybox along the way. He's been a force of nature in tournament since 2014, and since PPMD's long hiatus from the game, he sits at number 6 in the global power rankings. So now we have to ask ourselves: is Plup officially a god? Well... no. Not yet, at least. He's without a doubt the best non-god on the planet, but ascending to godhood is such an incredible feat that to this day people still question if Leffen belongs in the pantheon (he absolutely does). Since Plup is currently at the same place Leffen once was, let's compare the two and see what Leffen had to do to achieve his status. Between 2013 and his ascension in 2015, he:
Plup is close, make no mistake, but he falls just short of that criteria. He has yet to best Armada―the true gatekeeper, who Leffen had to fell three times―and has only last weekend's major victory under his belt. His overall major performance is still stellar, with almost exclusively Top 8 finishes, but he has fallen victims to lesser players like Shroomed and MacD (still both very good!) at lesser tournaments like HTC Throwdown, where he didn't even crack top 20. Every player has bad days, even gods, but Plup still lacks the sheer dominance and intimidation factor that all of the true gods have displayed at one time or another. He can still fall victim to (and get tilted by) cheeky strategies, and he's been known to lose a few last-second heartbreakers like this (a great set, but you can skip to 16:00): Still, Plup is on top of the Melee world right now. He is undeniably the best mortal in the game, the reigning champ of Central Florida (RIP Hungrybox), and one of the most talked-about figures in eSports. Ascending to godhood is a tricky proposition―there's debate over whether or not the era of "gods" still exists or not, or if anyone else can take the title. But if anyone has the potential and experience to make it, it's Plup.
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