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MKLeo Wins 2GGC Championship for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

The 12-month Smash 4 circuit came to an end this weekend and there's a new Best in the World.

Ozzie Mejia

December 3, 2017 7:10 PM

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Super Smash Bros. for Wii U capped off a full 12-month esports season over the weekend, as the 2GGC Championship crowned a champion. Meet the best player in Smash 4. It's Echo Fox's Leonardo "MkLeo" Perez, who took a thrilling Grand Finals reset over Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios.

MkLeo cruised to the Grand Finals on the winners side, beating all comers, which included ZeRo in the Winners Semi-Final. While MkLeo had beaten ZeRo handily with Meta Knight earlier in the day, ZeRo adjusted in Grand Finals and was able to reset the bracket. The reset came down to a game four, where a pair of Diddy Kong Up-Smashes shockingly came up empty, allowing MkLeo to ultimately take the series and the tournament with an Up-B that sent ZeRo's Diddy through the blast zone.

The rivalry between ZeRo and MkLeo began in earnest one year ago during 2GG: ZeRo Saga. While ZeRo had spent that Friday night avenging each and every one of his losses by beating his prior opponents one-by-one in a special Zero's Runback exhibition, the weekend ended with MkLeo beating ZeRo on his way to a tournament victory. The two have traded wins throughout 2017, most recently at Game Tyrant Expo 2017 in September, where MkLeo again came out on top.

But while ZeRo became familiar with MkLeo's Marth and Cloud over the past year, Barrios was seemingly rocked by Perez's Meta Knight choice. MkLeo has frequently kept Meta Knight as a secondary character choice, but had seldomly used him against ZeRo's Diddy Kong prior to this weekend.

Prior to the Grand Finals, the Losers Finals came down to an Evo 2017 finals rematch between ZeRo and Evo 2017 champion Saleem "Salem" Young. This series unfolded differently from the Evo series, with ZeRo adjusting to the Bayonetta matchup. The fourth and final game in the series saw the two competitors largely evading each other on the last stock. As the match went into the final minute, Salem slipped and ZeRo capitalized with an Up-Smash that clinched the series.

Perez walks away with $20,000, out of a $50,000 prize pool. The 2GGC circuit has awarded over $100,000 in prize money over the course of 2017.

There were many memorable matchups and moments that took place over the 2GGC Championship weekend. In fact, there isn't enough room to go over everything here. Come back to Shacknews on Monday, as we break down our most memorable moments of the 2GGC Championship weekend.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?