This past week’s Big House 9 Smash Ultimate Singles tournament in Detroit was the final “supermajor” tournament (signifying the highest level of Smash competition) of 2019, and after a few close matches, its winner was Zackray, whose victory was preceded by a journey as heroic as any fictional protagonist’s.
Zackray is a Japanese player, and has been one of the top players in the Japanese scene for a while now, despite his young age—he’s only 17. Just one week prior to The Big House, Zackray placed second in Tokyo’s Umebura SP5, a “major” tournament, and his record also includes multiple first place wins in his home country preceding this. However, he hadn’t yet seen quite the same level of success in U.S.-based tournaments. EVO 2019’s historically large player pool included a number of Japanese players, and while Zackray made it all the way to the top 8, it wasn’t the major win on which he likely had his sights set.
During August’s Super Smash Con tournament, Zackray nearly defeated current Smash king MKLeo in a best-of-five match, and following the narrow loss, Zackray showcased an outburst of emotion as heartstring-tugging as anything in esports. MKLeo’s post-match Tweet acknowledged just how close Zackray came to taking the set.
In his Big House 9 run, Zackray first lost to Maister in the Winner’s Semi-Finals, sending him to the Loser’s bracket. There he defeated Tweek and Nairo, before facing Maister yet again in the Loser’s finals. Maister took the first two games of the best-of-five, but Zackray swept the next three, securing his spot in the Grand Finals. Initially, Zackray had played and lost his first couple of games as Sonic, but after switching to Joker, seemed to become unstoppable; this is indicative of just what made Zackray’s Big House run particularly enjoyable to watch. Whereas most Smash pros tend to stick with one character over the course of a tournament, Zackray switched between six—Sonic, Joker, Corrin, Mr. Game & Watch, Wolf and R.O.B.
Against Dabuz in the Grand Finals, Zackray remained calm and collected. He initially won their first match 3-0, resetting the round since Dabuz had yet to lose. Both players then switched characters, from Olimar (Dabuz) and Wolf (Zackray) to Rosalina & Luma (Dabuz) and R.O.B. (Zackray). This second match was only marginally closer—while some individual stocks were pretty back-and-forth, Zackray ultimately secured his win handily with a 3-1 scoreline.
As most who have been following his career expected, Zackray’s big win was followed by an emotional outburst that was met with a standing ovation by the Big House crowd (with “Megalovania” playing in the background, because it’s Sans Undertale’s world, we’re just living in it). While Zackray’s hero’s journey may now be complete, he now joins the ranks of other Smash champs trying desperately to hold onto their crowns against newer, younger players as hungry as they once were.
