Why Mkleo is the greatest Super Smash Brothers player of all time.
Warning: banned players and personalities in the Super Smash Brothers competitive scene are mentioned by name in this article.
Viewer Discretion is advised.
When any discussion about legacies in competitive Smash Brothers is brought up, one common conversation is brought up, who is the greatest across the Smash series?
Melee pundits would throw Mang0, Armada, and Hungrybox into the ring, stat nerds would mention Mew2king and ZeRo for sheer dominance and length at the top, and you’ll even see the occasional Hail Mary mention of Nairo into the conversation.
There is one name rarely mentioned in the conversation for GOAT contention and it’s the Ultimate goat Leonardo “MKleo” Lopez Perez.
In this article, I will explain why MKleo shouldn’t just be in contention but should be considered the greatest to have ever touched a Super Smash Bros title.
Chapter 1: The Origins of MKleo.
While MKleo had been entering Super Smash Bros tourneys since Brawl and even won a tournament at the age of 9, the true breakout would happen at the Mexico regional Smash Factor 4.
At the event, the recent EVO runner-up and clear-cut top 5 player, Mr.R, was a clear favorite to rampage this event and knock it out of the park.
Instead, Mkleo would strike the Dutch player 2–0 in Winners Semis, and after besting the #2 in Mexico, Hyuga, 3–0 in Winners Finals, Mr.R would climb back into the Grand Finals with no resistance.
Now in a BO5 MKLeo wouldn’t just beat Mr.R a second time, but would horrifyingly thrash him leaving Europe’s best stunned but would leave the US scene curious and impressed.
After winning True Combo beating Hyuga and Vinnie (the latter being one of the best players in the US and the second person to take a tournament set from ZeRo), The hype seemed immense.
The fire enflamed even more when the Mexico crew would trash Florida (one of the best regions in the world at the time) in the Genesis 3 crew battle (without the best player in Mexico, MKleo) on top of Hyuga’s good results from Genesis 3 (9th) to CEO 2016 (5th) before being banned and barred from the scene, the MKleo hype was in full effect.
Eventually, we would finally get a test to see how good the young Meta Knight main was at Canada’s premier major, Get On My Level 2016.
At the Canadian major, MKleo would impress during his run to 5th place, sweeping False and upsetting Nairo to make it to Winners Semis before losing to eventual 1st and 2nd place Ally and ZeRo, the latter in a nail-biter series.
Two months later, Smash Factor 5, despite losing in Winners Quarters to Sonic main Wonf, MKleo would barrel through losers, beating Dabuz and win both sets of grand finals vs Mr.R to defend Smash Factor.
After a bronze medal at Egames Rio de Janeiro 2016, falling to Ally and Larry Lurr, MKleo would win Canada Cup 2016 against Mew2King and the EVO champion Ally to take his second stacked regional this year.
After another bronze medal at KTAR XIX, losing to ZeRo and Salem and a disastrous 13th at UGC Smash Open, losing to Marss and an on-fire Darkshad, the test for MKleo was the supermajor ZeRo saga.
Despite going into the event as the eleventh seed, MKleo would make an absolute monster run to win the event, beating Komorikiri, losing to Void in winners quarters, and then going on to beat Dabuz, Anti, Ally, ZeRo, Void in the runback and Larry Lurr Twice to take home his first major as the buzzer beater shot of 2016.
MKleo would continue this form heading into Genesis 4 (despite getting 5th at Genesis Saga to Tweek and Void), where he would win the championship event, defeating Elegant, Komorikiri, Mr.R, and Ally twice to take home the title.
With two premier event wins within a month, it seemed like we were in a new era for Smash Wii U, or so we thought.
Chapter 2: The Slump.
After taking home the title at Genesis 4, MKleo would only win 1 other major for the rest of the season (Umebura Japan Major 2017, Despite resistance from KEN), and it wasn’t because Mkleo stopped playing well, with many top 4 finishes across the season, the main reason for his lack of trophies is his 11 set losing streak to ZeRo preventing him from taking majors like FPS2, Dreamhack Austin, CEO and many other events along the PGRV3 season, ranking him #2 in the world.
The summer would tell another tale, with a handful of top 8 finishes alongside massive underperformances at EVO, Dreamhack Atlanta, and Pax West Arena.
Even with a great end to the season with Major Wins at GTX 2017, IBP Masters and 2GG Championships, The season was overall more inconsistent and dropping down to rank 4 was evidence of that, Despite finally getting over ZeRo and flipping the script against his former nemesis.
Chapter 3: Challenged King.
2018 was a good year for Mkleo as he was the best player in the world (at worst second, behind Tweek.)
Wins at G5, Evo Japan, SSC, Switchfest, CEO, and GOML, 6 of the 11 majors he attended (and 6/20 according to Liquipedia), and while he was tested throughout the year (and Tweek gave him a tough time throughout Smash 4), he ended the game in good form and at the end was #3 on the PGR100 behind ZeRo and Nairo at the end of the game.
Chapter 4: Finding his Footing.
The first few months of Smash Ultimate were weird, Dabuz played Palutena, ZD was on fire, Mang0 was invited to the first Ultimate Summit, Olimar and Pichu were Murking people, Leo played Ike, Tweek played Chrom, and it was a mess.
Despite winning G6 and the first Ultimate Summit and still being a world-class player, the best in the world was up for grabs, and with a disastrous performance at Umebura Japan Major with his new character Joker, what happened not long after would be unprecedented.
Chapter 5: The God of the Game.
From Momocon 2019 to SWT 2021 (21 majors), Mkleo placed at least second.
15 out of the 21, he got first.
That is the most unbelievable level of domination in Smash History, not even close.
Any other level of domination in Smash before or after came in a less competitive era or had an asterisk next to it.
For example, ZeRo’s 56 tournament win streak was mainly at locals and regionals with not as much competition, with only 5 majors being part of this streak (Apex, CEO, EVO, SSC, and TBH5).
Mang0’s dominant Pound 3 to Pound 4 stretch was in a dying stage of the Melee Community (Hence why it’s called the Dark Ages) and only won 4 of the 5 majors during that period (4th at ROM2, losing to Kage Twice).
M2K’s dominance of early Brawl was also far less competitive and had way less crossover between Japan and the US than in later times.
Some of the most dominant Stretches of Armada and Hbox careers aren’t nearly as ridiculous as Leo in his prime.
Even Prime Ken doesn’t touch this level of dominance, let alone in his much smaller pond.
Even when Leo would lose early, his legendary loser’s runs at events like EVO and Frostbite strike fear into anyone thinking he was ever out of the running for an event.
Top players like Dabuz and Maister performing at their best were consistently denied due to the Leo Buzzsaw, with only two rivals in his way (Marss and Samsora).
Everyone else was seemingly an auto-win for the god of the game.
Even after coming out of the pandemic with a new character and new top players, Leo was just as dominant as ever, dropping 6 tournament sets and being 10:0 in Game 5s across 2021 on LAN.
This isn’t in a period of less money in the scene like olden times or avoiding a big rival or any question mark you could throw into the conversation, in an era where people were paid to be Smash Bros professionals and record numbers in 2019, Nobody could mess with Mkleo.
Chapter 6: Holding onto the Crown.
Mkleo headed into the 4th major of the year and his first major of 2022 as one of the biggest favorites to win a major-level event in any version of Smash Bros.
He had just mopped everyone at SWT and was winning majors even on his B-game, and not a single human thought Leo was losing Smash Ultimate Summit 4 besides the handful of people who waited for Sparg0 to get over the finish line.
Mkleo didn’t just fail to win SUS4. He also did not win Collision 2022.
He also failed to make the top 2 at either major, his worst performance since April 2019.
With Sparg0 winning both events and starting the season strong, their were slight murmurs of Leo being toppled.
Despite being tested by many top caliber competitors, the rise of Acola, Sparg0 having a good end of 2022 and even Tweek getting it going at the end of the year, Mkleo was the overall best player of 2022 and while at many times Leo’s crown was in jeopardy, Wins at Delfino Maza Reta, Genesis, Smash Factor 9, Rise N Grind and the Ludwig Smash Invitational kept him at the top of the table for one more year.
Chapter 7: The Fall.
Despite snatching Genesis 9 from behind, it’s been a rough year for the world’s former best.
His slump wasn’t too bad at the start, But placements went from somewhat underwhelming to concerning in record time.
As contemporaries like Acola, Sparg0, and surprisingly Miya, and Sonix battled it out to make it their era, Mkleo has been left in the dust, and nothing seems to reinvigorate his passion for the top spot.
Playing Byleth? *Incorrect Buzzer Noise, Playing Joker? WRONG, Playing more Aegis? NOPE, Bringing back Lucina? NADDA, nothing seems to be able to get Leo back into the game, and IDK how an all-time great like him who has won everything can get his mojo back, and IDK if he knows either.
Chapter 8: Conclusion.
I hope this trip down memory lane has convinced you of why Mkleo is the greatest Smash player of all time.
From being the best player in the world in two different titles to the most dominant stretch of winning in Smash Bros history, to his ability to win notable events with a variety of characters (MK, Marth, and Cloud in Smash 4/ Ike Joker, Byleth, Aegis in Smash Ultimate) and how he turned a smaller region like Mexico into a Juggernaut and to be taken seriously across a long and prestigious career and with nearly every trophy you could ever win, he is a winner and a champion of the franchise.
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This took me a long time to make so i hope this was worth the wait and until next time, PEACE.
