Guest Article: Why Mew2king will win Paragon

The Dark Horse

Mew2king, despite being one of the Gods and being ranked 4th on the 2014 MIOM Rank, has repeatedly been overlooked by many of the major analysts (read: Tafokints) and gone under the radar for most major tournaments. However, it’s probably not wise to sleep on the King of the Mews, and Paragon is shaping up to be a perfect storm for Mew2king to win his first major since The Big House 3. To do so, he’ll have to defeat some very strong competitors.

Armada

Mew2king’s Greatest Challenge. Photo credit goes to Kara.

Armada will be M2K’s largest obstacle at Paragon. M2K rarely beats Armada and has only won against Armada at SKTAR 3. However, the circumstances of SKTAR 3 and Paragon are very similar: they’re both the first tournaments that Armada will travel to after arriving in the US.  Mew2king typically performs better against Armada early on as Armada needs to become acclimated to his tendencies. Let’s look at some history in the Summer of Smash.

M2K and Armada started the Summer of Smash with SKTAR 3, where M2K was able to barely defeat Armada. By the next week at Super SWEET, Armada had figured out M2K’s Fox, and each of the two sets ended 3-1 in Armada’s favor. However, no individual game finished with a substantial margin of victory.

M2K’s second set win almost came at MLG Anaheim where, despite losing 3-0 in Winner’s Semis with his Fox, M2K was nearly able to bring it back in Loser’s Finals with his Sheik, ending the set in Game 5 on their last Stocks.

As the summer went on, the margin of victory for Armada continued to increase, even forcing M2K to bring out his Jigglypuff in a lackluster performance at Kings of Cali 4. It’s been a while since Armada’s last trip in the states and this will play into M2K’s advantage. More importantly, M2K has a variety of characters at his disposal.

Credit to PouchedJuice, creator of this design! Could M2K’s varied character choice help him to beat Armada?

M2K originally performed well against Armada with his Fox at SKTAR, but his Sheik performed even better at MLG. A mix of the two could give M2K the edge as Armada has to take some time to adapt. However, Mew2king doesn’t main only Sheik and Fox; he has quite a legendary Marth as well. While Armada’s Peach-Marth guide was written very well, how often is he able to practice the Marth matchup? How many high level Marths are there in Sweden?  Armada, barely if ever gets to play a high level Marth, certainly none that are M2K’s caliber. Remember that even PPMD’s younger Marth was able to defeat Armada’s Peach in a set during Armada’s dominanting period in 2012- early 2013. M2K’s Marth, while worse than PPMD’s in Marth dittos, has remained untested against Armada’s Peach for almost a year and a half. M2K has recently gone on record saying that he feels Marth is more fun to play than his other characters and has defaulted to Marth for many of his sets. Could Paragon be the opportunity for M2K’s Marth to come out and face Armada?

HungryBox

Will Hungrybox’s recent losses to Foxes continue with M2K?

Hungrybox has given Mew2king a bit of trouble recently, but M2K can still compete with him. Mew2king had a long losing streak to Hungrybox that ended at The Big House 3, and he entered 2014 with several wins over Hungrybox. However, Hungrybox has turned the tide and defeated M2K in their most recent sets. Nevertheless, in the words of Mango, “if you’ve beaten Hungrybox once, you can do it again”. Hungrybox has lost to several lesser Foxes recently, and M2K’s Fox is certainly strong enough to be able to beat Hungrybox. It’ll definitely be a tough match, but M2K can do it. Still, there is another fiery challenger M2K will have to face.

Leffen

Leffen’s sights are set straight for Mew2king.

Leffen, hot off the heels of winning BEAST V, is coming straight for the last God he has yet to beat. Leffen usually starts his sets against M2K strong, but ends demoralized by M2K’s Marth and his daunting punishment game. Yet, Leffen has shown a remarkable ability to bounce back from hard losses. After a tough game 4 loss to Armada at BEAST V, Leffen was able to remain composed and take game 5 to win the set and the tournament. Will Leffen be able to overcome his Marth/M2K problem? In my opinion, I don’t think it’ll happen at Paragon. M2K’s success largely hinges on his mindset, and Leffen seems far from being able to get into his head. Just watch M2K’s interview post BH4. M2K’s God matchups are certainly doable for M2K; how will he stack up against non-Gods?

Other Players to Watch

Of course, there are many other heavy hitters M2K will need to watch aside from the Gods. M2K has lost the most sets to non-Gods recently than any other of the Top 6 (although it could be argued that it’s because he travels to many more events than the other Gods, no Johns). Of the non-Gods attending, only Axe (not recorded) and Shroomed have taken sets off of M2K. However, M2K only barely lost to them both 3-2, and was able to beat them both  in Loser’s in the same tournament that they beat him. Also worthy to note is that none of these upsets happened when it really mattered: in bracket of a national tournament. Most of his losses have been at locals or were not detrimental to his overall placing. M2K could also lose to other top players such as Westballz, SFAT, or Lucky, but it seems very unlikely. Westballz had recent close sets with M2K at Do You Fox with It and SKTAR 3, but M2K had always been able to pull through in the end.

Mindset

Mew2king’s recent improvements in mindset may pave the way for his Victory. Photo credit goes to Robert Paul.

Mew2king has  largely improved his mindset in regards to Smash. While early losses before crippled him mentally and caused him to play even worse, he’s shown a remarkable ability to bounce back and make the comeback later in tournament (with the excepton of DYFWI). As mentioned earlier, he came back to 3-0 Shroomed and Axe at the tournaments that they originally defeated him. Despite an early loss to aMSa at KoC4, he was able to come back and place third. Also, he seems to be playing much more for fun, which greatly improves his play, as seen at the Big House 3 and 4. Mew2king has the potential to beat everyone at Paragon, and his mindset is finally at a point where he’ll be able to do so.

Conclusion

It’s time for a Return of the King 2015. Picture by Nick Konstantino.

Paragon is shaping up to be Mew2king’s tournament. Many are sleeping on the King of the Mews, but winning Paragon could be a great start to a great year for Mew2king.

Many of these photos were found on websites without sources, so I apologize if I forgot to credit you! Please comment here if you need credit!