winning streak .
Throughout that year , there was a mad rush for someone to knock ZeRo off of the throne , to claim the title of best Smash Bros . 4 player . This led to a period in which competitive players were doing all they could to find new combos , new ways to secure knock-outs , or K . O .’ s , and all the while making themselves better players and gradually evening out the field . The competitors innovated , they optimized , they trained . These days , when a national tournament is held , there are an assortment of players who are all capable of taking the title , ZeRo included . All of them have put in the work , all of them have spent countless hours fighting against other top players and many more in training mode with their best characters . People decide which characters are good and which are unsuitable for tournament use based on combos , safe K . O . setups , data about the delay , or lag , of each character ’ s moves , and each move ’ s size and duration . Playing a character is nowhere near a simple mathematical calculation ; people can underestimate characters who , when put in the right hands , can come close to winning national tournaments who were never before seen in the Top 16 of any national tournament .
One of these underdog characters was Villager , a new fighter to the Smash Bros . series who hails from Nintendo ’ s Animal Crossing series . They were available to players as early as the pre-release demo for Super Smash Bros . for the 3DS ., but was perceived as one of the worse characters . As the competitive scene evolved and the game was patched multiple times , Villager still found little use . Finally , January 2016 rolled around . Genesis 3 was a much-anticipated national American tournament , highlighted by the appearance of notable Japanese players . One of these Japanese players was Ranai , who had been taking the Japanese tournament scene by storm - with Villager . Ranai plowed through the bracket at Genesis 3 and took an unprecedented third place . He showed off aspects of the character that no one had ever thought to explore . Ranai made Villager look like a completely new character by optimizing their tools and moves in ways people had ever seen . Post-tournament , the rise of new Villager players has been tremendous . People discover new things that you can do with Villager on a consistent basis , and now regularly use them competitively . Ranai sparked a revolution that brought Villager out of the dark and into the
The medal presentation at the Smash Bros . 4 tournament at Evo 2016 , considered to be the largest tournament for fighting games in the U . S .