Genesis 5 Welcomes 80,000+ New Plup Club Members

To be honest, when Mang0 was elminated by Leffen in Loser's Quarters, I nearly turned off my stream. I checked Twitter and saw a lot of people felt the same, even Cloud9's own Ally had a remark about G5 not being worth watching anymore. I went outside like a punk teenage kid and smoked a cigarette and sulked. But hey, what else am I gonna do on a Sunday at 11?

With the incomprehensible Plup 3-0 over Armada and the HBox 3-2 over Leffen in Losers Finals, the Grand Finals had been soldified. The number one player in the world, the number one polarizing player in the community, takes on the steadfast gatekeeper who has slowly been creeping into God-status since he started consistently contesting Mang0 after EVO 2015.

With the start of Grand Finals, HBox walked out to a chorus of boos in response to his current beef with Leffen, compiled on top of a history of just being the villian. The majority of the crowd support was with the up and coming Plup, entering from winner's side of a super major for the fist time.

And then HBox reset the bracket.

Looking unstoppable with a series of consistent and creative rest setups, I turned off the stream. Why would I watch? After CEO and TBH7, it seemed like The Plup Club was about to have their souls crushed again, and I wanted nothing to do with it.

The state of Melee for me has been despondent. With Armada and Hungrybox dominating the scene for the last year and a half, with all other players being way outside their realm in terms of consistency, it's hard to watch when you can bet safely on those two winning the tournament.

Mang0 seems to be on his way out, the Kid's playstyle just can't hang the same way in 20XX. But there is a light, and the light wears a Spongebob hat and dinosaur sweatpants, and plays Samus sometimes.

With the 3-0 over Armada, and pulling out a comeback victory when all hope was lost at arguably the most important tournament of the year, sending Mang0, Armada, and Hungrybox to the shadow-realm, the future of melee looks bright. 

With this performance, Plup crystallized something the community had been waiting for, a new face among the Gods. One can expect great things when people realize that the Armada/HBox flowchart heavy playstyle isn't the only one that can succeed at the highest level. Instead, you can still play make reads, act a little goofy, and beat the best.