Two historic tournament milestones for Super Smash Bros. Melee happened simultaneously at Genesis 9, with Jmook winning his first career Supermajor and being the first to ever do it while only playing Sheik.
Jmook has blazed one of the hottest trails in history across Melee, returning to competitive play in Dec. 2021 and ending 2022 as the sixth-best player in the world. That quick rise to prominence included second-place finishes at Genesis 8 and never finishing outside of the top eight at an event he attended.
Now, a year after exploding onto the scene he successfully ran it back, winning Genesis 9 over iBDW 3-1 in the grand finals.
For Jmook, this is his first Major and Supermajor victory since he first picked up the game in 2016. He is also the first player to ever win a Supermajor while only playing Sheik, adding to the recent list of characters that have managed to take that honor—such as aMSa’s Yoshi, Wizzrobe’s Captain Falcon, and Axe’s Pikachu.
Other players have won Major events playing Sheik, such as Plup and Mew2King who have some of the game’s biggest tournaments while using the character, however, Jmook is the first to do it at the Supermajor level. And he did while taking wins off Zain, n0ne, SFAT, SFOP, moky, and iBDW.
“I owe Melee my life. My life has been mostly Melee even when it wasn’t for a while as just a part-time thing,” Jmook said to TiltMedia. “This game is beautiful. I’m proud of the person I’m becoming through this game.”
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Both moky and iBDW also had standout runs at Genesis 9, with the former playing arguably the best Melee of his career. He took down SDJ, Hungrybox, iBDW, and Plup consecutively to make it to the winner’s finals before finally being double-eliminated by Jmook and iBDW.
Ad for iBDW, he unveiled his new jersey during doubles, showing he joined CLG as their latest Smash pickup. He also had a godly run through the likes of aMSa, 2saind, Magi, Zain, Plup, and moky before losing to his doubles partner in the final matchup—and making people who bet on Jmook to finally break through like Atrioc a bit richer.
With Genesis now in the rearview, Melee’s 2023 season is officially underway, with the opener showing that the field of competitors gunning for a top spot this year only continues to grow the longer the game is around.
