Smash player fakes 51-man tournament win, immediately gets caught

It seems a Smash player is trying to make their name known at all costs, going as far as faking an entire 50+ player bracket in order to be featured in PGstats' Smash Ultimate local winners weekly roundup. 

PGstats spawned from Panda's (formerly Panda Global) esports org as a resource that compiles all sorts of data from multiple fighting games, primarily focused on Smash titles, eventually becoming a de-facto official source for player rankings via the PGR (Panda Global Rankings) and to measure the importance of a tournament via their rating system. 

Naturally, being featured in PGstats' weekly roundup is a neat way to start gaining some traction (and notoriety) within the Smash community. At first, nothing seemed wrong with the latest one shared on 31st August, which featured events from Europe and North America.

The roundup only takes into account local events with over 50 entrants registered via Smash.gg. Digging deeper into the tournament results, William B., a Smash player from Michigan, quickly found some strange irregularities with Makoto, a Sheik main highlighted in his state.

OKAY so HOL'up. Who the hell is this? Well follow this thread and follow me into *the journey* 1/? https://t.co/ovAXzhtroXpic.twitter.com/vtvGZT0uES

— William B. (@SSBM_Aghi) September 1, 2021

In a detailed Twitter thread, William found out that Makoto's only two registered tournament appearances (both this past August) featured plenty of private and seemingly burner accounts.

In fact, Traverse City SmackDown, the tournament which Makoto allegedly attended and won, didn't even feature a location on the event page.

William contacted a player named Thunderblade, who was registered for one of the events Makoto allegedly attended, confirming no tournament took place at the stipulated date within the Smash.gg event page. 

Okay this one kinda nails it on the head. @pgstats I think one of the events was faked. Has this ever happened before? pic.twitter.com/WGRDv4o9aj

— William B. (@SSBM_Aghi) September 1, 2021

Soon after this ploy was uncovered, Makoto's Twitter account was deactivated. As for PGstats, they decided to play along with the harmless joke by featuring an article hyping Makoto's accomplishments of winning their first-ever recorded tournament without dropping a single game.

Today's Rising Stars features the incredible run from Makoto. So sudden and so unlikely, it's almost like his opponents didn't even exist.https://t.co/1IIkYBkPi9pic.twitter.com/XiiuNFeYYH

— PGstats.com (@pgstats) September 1, 2021

The moral of the story, not everyone can be the next MkLeo, be proud of your achievements and improvements even if they're as simple as going 2-2 at your weekly, that's already better than being an 0-2er. 

For more on all things Smash Ultimate, check out our dedicated section filled with news, tournament results, and more.