Pro Smash's BIGGEST Anomaly 

First tournament I ever entered, I immediately was sent to loser’s bracket and was then approached by a stranger who had arrived late to the venue. He said “If you let me take your spot in the tournament, I will win it and give you 30% of the prize money”, to which I obliged - I later learned that person was Crush 😅

Even when he was a kid he had that Crush energy

I remember crush talking about how he was banned in certain chats cause of the way he expressed himself lol. He put up random topics like falcon color tier list years before random tier lists was a thing. He was definitely an interesting guy

He's the only player I've ever seen to retire and actually stay retired. Even guys like Armada still have a level of involvement, even if it's less frequent and less involved. Crush just...disappeared. It's a truly unique case.

Man the mid-late 2010's was such a magical time for melee

Crush was one of my favorite players when he was active. He was just really good and didn't have the same mindset as everyone else. I still remember him talking in an interview about how he didn't believe in stage counter picks. Basically that there wasn't an "optimal" stage to counter pick different characters or players to and that you should just play better than your opponent.. That mentality of "just play better no matter the situation" still resonates with me with all games.

Yesss a crush video was much needed for people who weren't around to bare witness to the legend, keep up the banging vids Chalegend

Some day, we’ll see crush again in esports, he’ll randomly win the biggest major, then drop off the face of the earth again

Forgot to mention about his short comeback in 2019 at locals under the tags « Kimba » and « Bagheera ». Maybe there’s hope of a return of the king of Dragon Duel

not a day goes by where i dont thank god for Crush.

*Faces one of the best players of all time who has a case for being the GOAT* Crush: "This guy has ok shield pressure, so I'm gonna down b out of shield"

Ngl I was somewhat hoping that this would cover details from 2011-2013 based on how the video started. It’s a pretty overlooked era in the competitive community due to being considered the dark age, so the small amounts of behind the scenes information we get about it are interesting to see.

Just started the video but gotta share my one experience as someone in NE who didn't know him personally I played crush in doubles bracket at a MMOM in Amesbury ~2015 maybe. My team was sheik peach and I remember asking him if he noticed anything we could work on and he just said "down smash more" and walked away Dudes a legend

Crush is closer to enlightenment than most of us

hes so real

I feel like I remember someone mentioning that Crush felt that Melee as a game had issues, and that was why he stopped playing. I'm also pretty sure he has since been to a local at least, but I could be mixing him up with another player.

I talked with n0ne about that at GOML 2023.. he said to me "don't give top player too much praise, some of them already have to much of an ego. We are just gamers"

4:56 might be the most confused scar has ever been

The nikola jokic of smash lol

Reminds me of someone i know, has superhuman learning skills and can become a pro at anything in a month but is always depressed and doesn't really care

E-sports is foremost personality driven. You can be very good at your game, yet if you aren't entertaining as a person, less people will care about whatever you do than they otherwise would have. The word used here, "celebrity", essentially encapsulates Crush's appeal as a character in this drama that is Melee. Above it all, on another level, too good for this, but all tempered with an obvious douse of irony, even if you don't always understand the punchline---you can tell it's a joke, but a joke that still feels real in some way. Although at the time his age may not have been figured in as a significant factor, in a scene dominated by mid-millennials, he along with Wizzrobe represented a potential crop of top talent from Gen Z that could potentially displace The Gods or the players immediately below them---that there was a real future where the guys who won everything now may not be able to maintain that dominance against newer, younger players, which helped to bring excitement to the events taking place. And of course, Crush was not only good, but great even, and seemimgly rapidly improving. The height of his success was at the end of 2017 where he almost 6-0'd SFat to win a tournament stacked with most of the aforementioned top players who weren't The Gods. He proved he could be a winner, someone to champion. Pure speculation, but if you look at his 2018 results, it paints a picture which may have gotten to *him*, that of a top *regional* talent who nevertheless was going to be coming up short at supermajors, if not forever, then perhaps for a long foreseeable future. There could have been the thought that he had plateau'd, and further progress would require more investment than he was willing to give. Crush represented a lot of promise for the scene. He's missed because every fresh face that has come after him---quite a few who have been more successful than he was---has failed to build that same level of intrigue about themselves and their place in the game. At this point it's been acknowledged quite often how dependant the scene is upon who's playing and people caring to see them play. It's debatable how much of an impact his departure in itself made upon the quality of the scene, as well as whether it contributed to an often complained about decline of Melee's scene, but he remains missed and continued to be discussed years after the fact because he struck the exact right chord that resonates with the community. Many players have come and gone and yet few are as memorialized as Crush. It's not just because he was entertaining, but because of his seemingly unrealized potential, that it feels like he never finished the story---that he left Melee on a cliffhanger that many of us just can't accept.

love it when ppl bring up how he played ygo

another great video, chaler ages ago saw his "i can't do this anymore" interview clip, interesting to have a fuller picture of the guy now! crush's story is inspirational, in a way. to put on my own armchair psychologist hat - not sure if he'd want to be an inspiration to people or not but for me, it's beautiful to see the way you can still integrate with a community and people despite not following all of its customs to the T. to be accepted for a shared passion, plain and simple. not just for that, though. the ability to supposedly stay true to yourself despite pressures around you. the pursuit of your craft in pure, undiluted form. i realized despite having your videos pop on my homepage and watching them religiously i wasn't subbed 😨 please keep the content coming, or don't. you can pull a crush and delete your channel, i won't hold it against you. much.

6:05 Crush rocking the Diamond Supply Co. Highs 😳😳😳

I wish I would have been into competitive smash when Crush was around. I know the name but nothing about him. Great video ++

I love your content so much chaler. Hope you catch the algorithm more

Crush reminds me a Patrick Bateman and idk whhhhhhyyyyyyy.

Primal Dialga fight theme is criminally under rated. Good choice at the end.

I love this series, would love to see a mini doc about the greatest homie of all time: dunk

This is like the 10th fgc video ive seen this week with sexy trunks for background music

I miss Crush :(

Crush and Silentwolf are two Foxes I miss so much man

mele big alimony 👍

babe wake up new chaler video just dropped

Now this is what we need in Melee!

12:17 i cried 😭 he was so cooool i hope hes doin alright

What a mad lad

Crush was ahead of his time fr

Crush did what everyone wants to do and it's to just play melee instead of playing the game

Another banger. But the real question is, when are you going to do a video about the legend, the man...AC? Fun fact: Crush played against AC in EVO 2013 pools

ah yes the winner of 14 dragon duels

I can only talk to girls with UCF is such a banger tweet

the coolest melee top player ever

Chillin made me chuckle

Dude is the Zach Greinke of smash

holy shit quadball is mentioned

great video, bangers songs

@Chaler where to cop that shirt?

holy shit i went to junior high and high school with crush, used to play melee w him in junior high, and I was so surprised when his figure slowly faded in from black in the center of the screen hahahahahah

Crushed it.

Liquidpedia says that he no longer qualified for Dragon Duels because he was too old. So he aged out of that and then I guess started to focus on Melee.

Crush scares me

I miss crush

My goat

Gotta love how people thought he was Guyfarting

He did btw come back for two events under other tags, those being Bagheera and Kimba and then disappeared again. Sure was Crush.

Damn. What a guy.

W video I wish crush would come back

i miss that guy

"great games everone" :p

nice moves on the disclaimer!

What's the song at the end?

Song name that starts playing at 2:06? Nice video!

I thought this would be about Borp

Crush really ran out of characters halfway through the interview

We can see the border of his green screen and I cant unsee it lmao

That wasnt his last event

whats the song called at 2:06?

Crush shows up to a game; becomes a top player, and leaves to do whatever else the fuck he wants. Why? Because he’s crush.

bombsoldier video when smile

Crush is kewl

2:06 whats the song name please anyone

I feel like his quirkiness was a bit contrived. Like he was being deliberate about it and wanted people to talk about it. It was a bit too self aware.

Crush is my GOAT

5:39 What’s the song?

There anyone here that knows the song at 5:40 ?

I am the Crush of Metal Gear Solid

what about the Kimba OVA

Song in the intro? Ive been looking for ages

Baller thumbnail

Isn’t crush hbox’s coach? Or is it crunch?

Bros just add ggets obsessed for a long time then finds something new

He looks like Christian Bale too xD

Massachusetts 👍👍👍

Feels like a weird cross between ludwig and bo burnham

who’s the disclaimer about?

👍

I really disagree with the thesis here, I think the energy he brought was negative overall. Almost all Melee pros I've met are incredibly kind people, which really helps combat the elitism that's endemic to a game with so many skill plateaus. Crush is just kinda... mean. He interacts with everyone as if it's a chore, not because he seems anxious, but because he seems to think that everyone is beneath him. Everything he says is just dripping with disdain. Compare that with someone like Mang0 That said, part of me wants him back tho. It was fun to have a douchey heel to root against.

I think he's weird, that interview clip confused me

Spell check bro

The overlap between melee and yugioh is so strangely large. Magi was also a hardcore yugioh player

Vibeo

actual psychopath

Hello?

where is 7:45 from why is mang0 wering a wetsuit?

Chaler, gotta work on your hand gestures while talking. You look like not sure if you're doing it right, and unless you're trying to imitate a cardboard robot, you're definitely not doing it right.

OIOI

Crush gotta be one of the Super Smash Brothers Melee (2001) for Nintendo Game Cube players of all time.

FSkinny

Calling Cody the best player is pretty controversial.