Super Smash Bros pro Leffen explains how Joker exposes Ultimate players’ flaws

Michael Gwilliam

Super Smash Bros Melee legend William “Leffen” Hjelte doesn’t think Ultimate fighter Joker should be nerfed, but rather players need to be the ones to adapt.

The 24-year-old Swede took to Twitter to address the game’s balance after Mexico’s Leonardo “MkLeo” Lopez Perez won Evo 2019 while using the DLC fighter Joker. 

“I sincerely hope Joker doesn’t get nerfed just because Leo is better than everyone else,” Leffen wrote. MkLeo won six straight games against Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey in the Evo finals after originally finding himself down 2-0.

“Not only is joker an entertaining character to watch but he is also exposing the ultimate players inability to adopt even basic countermeasures to the char who consistently wins the majors,” Leffen continued.

The Fox main explained how Leo was able to take advantage of players not knowing the matchup. “The amount of times Leo got 50% or a kill because the opponent didn’t wait on the angel platform was ridiculous. Its the most basic thing to change yet it was seen like 5 times.”

“Don’t get me started on how predictably people recovered vs him or how many reactable side bs hit,” Hjelte criticized.

“I know, theres a fuckton of characters so its hard to know every MU. The point is that Leo doesn’t display even close to as such obvious flaws in MU knowledge as those who face him.”

Leffen, who couldn’t make Evo due to a passport problem, is extremely opinionated. 

He has been very vocal regarding the game’s newest fighter, Hero, who relies heavily on luck to get maximum value. The former Evo winner created a bit of a mock petition for Hero to be banned from competitive play. The description simply reads “FUCK RNG”. 

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Later, he commented, “I just don’t think that much RNG is fun or healthy for any competitive scene. Obviously we shouldn’t ban him before he gets released tho lmao.” 

Leffen and MkLeo are scheduled to compete at Super Smash Con where Joker will be legal for the first time. 

It will be interesting to see if the two end up meeting and Leffen can practice what he preaches in the Joker matchup.