The best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players are flying off the board while more organizations try to get into the rapidly-expanding competitive scene early into its second season. Isami “T” Ikeda is the most recent player to get a new sponsor in UYU today.
After joining Smash Melee by signing Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby last week, the team is now entering Ultimate for the first time by bringing in another character specialist who has quickly risen up the rankings.
T is widely considered the best Link player in the world. He’s mained the character since joining the competitive Smash scene in Smash 4 where he was named the 46th best player of all-time. He’s continued to rise up the ranks, becoming a top-10 Japanese player and jumping 32 spots in the PGRU to be 15th in the world on the most recent rankings.
He’s also the only Link player to make it into the top-50 Ultimate players for the second half of 2019.
This move has been a long time coming considering how involved UYU is in basically every fighting game scene. With players in Street Fighter, Tekken, and now Smash, the organization has a well-rounded roster of players to tackle the biggest tournaments in the FGC.
“Finally, UYU has joined the Ultimate arena with the world’s strongest Link player, T,” UYU said in the initial announcement. “We look forward to supporting one of the best Smash Ultimate players and the Japanese Smash community.”
With a Japanese scene that continues to grow, Ultimate has already become the Smash title with the most representation out of the game’s home region—at least on an international scale. UYU picking up one of the last players in the top 20 without a sponsor is a strong move heading into Frostbite 2020.
