Following a seventh-place finish at the first Gimvitational, Sparg0 is taking an indefinite hiatus from competing in Super Smash Bros. to focus on his mental health and prepare for events.
According to the top-level Ultimate player, he was contemplating doing this prior to the Gimvitational but decided to compete anyways despite being hesitant due to ongoing mental health struggles over the last several months.
“Before you say I’m only saying this because I underperformed at the Gimvitational, I’ve been feeling this way since Genesis (or probably slightly before that,)” Sparg0 said. “I constantly ignored [it] because I thought it was just a one-time thing and/or it would just go away eventually, but it’s only been getting progressively worse. I thought having a month break was gonna help (hence one of the reasons I didn’t attend anything back in May) but it was still the same thing.”
Sparg0 notes he was hesitant to attend the Gimvitational because he knew he wasn’t in the right state to compete, but he thought he could play like usual and also felt like he somewhat “had to do it” due to the invitational nature of the tournament.
That mentality continued through the event, and he admitted to having “a terrible anxiety attack” before matches against Kola and Felipe “Ferps” Moura, along with general feelings of fatigue that led to being demotivated throughout the weekend.
In order to focus on himself and tackling his mental health, which he will not be sharing any additional info about, Sparg0 will not be attending any upcoming Majors—barring a significant change.
He still plans to attend Smash Factor 9 in late July, but as a spectator.
“[I] hope eventually I’ll be able to come back stronger than ever!” Sparg0 said. “For now, I’ll be staying away from competition and social media to focus on my mental health.”
Sparg0’s seventh-place finish at the Gimvitational was his lowest offline placement since 2020, breaking a 16-event streak of finishing in the top three when competing on LAN dating back to his breakout performance at Smash Ultimate Summit 3.
He will keep fans updated on his readiness to return to competition.
Published: Jun 21, 2022 01:00 am