Before the Smash Ultimate Summit even began, Leonardo “MKLeo” Lopez Perez was sitting atop the rankings for the newest entry in the Super Smash Bros. series.
It’s widely accepted that Echo Fox’s MKLeo and TSM’s Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey are the top two players in the current landscape of Smash Ultimate. This is based on the pair splitting the top placement at four of the five major tournaments in 2019 so far.
And with Tweek not in attendance, MKLeo was the top player among a field of legendary players in the Smash community.
After two days full of side events like Squad Strikes and a Random Character Tournament, the main event started with MKLeo in a heated set against another top player, Jamaal “Samsora” Morris. Samsora’s Peach put in work against MKLeo’s Lucina, taking him to a game five situation where Leo pulled it out with a reverse forward smash.
From there, it was nothing but smooth sailing for the smasher from Mexico. He went on to 3-0 Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada, another Smash veteran, in a complete stomp.
He faced off against the second-best Wario player in the world, William “Glutonny” Belaid, in the winners finals, where he held control for the entire match. His second sweep in a row placed him in the grand finals, where he’d wait to face the winner of Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby and Glutonny in the losers finals.
Dabuz went on to three stock Glutonny, but his Olimar was no match for the waiting Falchion blade that Leo wielded. After two games of being outplayed in neutral and noticing his failure at keeping distance and using his Pikmin effectively, Dabuz switched to his main from the previous game, Rosalina, to try and turn things around.
Dabuz had only used Rosalina once in the tournament’s main bracket thus far against Samsora, where the swap helped him take a game five and move on. But that one match didn’t shake off all of the rust, and MKLeo took advantage of it.
Within the first 20 seconds of the match, Leo forced Dabuz off stage, killed Rosalina’s Luma, and then spiked Dabuz for a kill at less than 50 percent damage. That set the tone and despite Dabuz looking more comfortable on his last stock later in the match, it was too late to change anything.
This win at Summit is MKLeo’s third Major victory in 2019, along with his titles at both Smash Conference United and Genesis 6.
