"I can't wait to see it work," the Smash Bros. tournament announcer said as he watched one of the fighters struggle to land a mighty blow. "It's gonna be at the top of the subreddit." And so it was. Sometimes, fortune favors the goaded.
A hilariously-timed episode unfolded in a Smash match at a tournament held in Baltimore, MD late last month. GimR, playing as Mr. Game & Watch, was squaring off against competitor Seagull, who took Sonic into the match. Game & Watch is a relatively surprising character to see in competitive Smash matches because while he's a powerful fighter, he's not the easiest one to control.
The character's most powerful attack is one called "Judge." Or, at least, it can be a powerful attack. What makes it tricky is that after Game & Watch whips out a hammer to bop his opponent, a number between one and nine appears above his head, each with a different effect. Landing a "9 Hammer," as its popularly known, is a surefire way to get an instant KO. But since the numbers are randomized, you never really know what you're gonna get when you execute the move.
GimR goes for a 9 Hammer very early in the match, but ends up drawing a six instead. This leads the match's commentators to poke some fun at him.
"He tries to go for 9 Hammers all the time," reslived says to his co-announcer Keitaro, chuckling. "It's the funniest thing."
And just like that, he pulls it off:
The segment that blew up on Reddit is actually a truncated version of the moment that makes it look like GimR drew a 9 Hammer just a few seconds after reslived teased him for failing to so. In reality, it took a little while long. But as you can see in this footage of the full match, the longer version actually makes the moment of victory so much better:
GimR got KO'd after his first attempt at the 9 Hammer. He and Seagull were both down to a single life when he finally managed to pull off the Game & Watch attack to end all Game & Watch attacks.
"And Seagull is even in disbelief," reslived shouts as the crowd bursts out laughing. "That is how you make a comeback!"
"We were just talking about this, and then it actually happened!" Keitaro adds, still cracking up and clapping his hands.
Awesome.
UPDATE (2:18 pm): I accidentally swapped the names of the two competitors in the original draft, GimR was playing as Game & Watch, and Seagull was Sonic. My mistake!
To contact the author of this post, write to yannick.lejacq@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq.