esports
Age and fatherhood change a man, but do they change the competitor?
LAS VEGAS — As tides change and metagames shift in Smash Brothers Melee, so too does life. Joseph "Mango" Marquez knows this firsthand. After all, a lot has changed for him since he was picked up by Cloud9 in 2014. A man who wears many hats, his responsibilities have multiplied both on and off the CRT TV screen as eSports and Melee have grown.
The outspoken 15-year-old Smash brother who started off competing in garages and churches has since matured into an eSports superstar who performs at venues full of fans. He is now a father, a streamer, a top player, and a beloved member of the fighting game community. Navigating these roles is a challenging task, but he has found a balance in the last two years. Now, on the grandest stage in fighting games at Evo 2016, Mango was trying to find a similar balance in the way he approached Melee.
Taming the beast
While primarily known for his innovative and aggressive gameplay, Mango has finally begun to adjust to the current meta of safe options and reliable punishes by restraining some of his rambunctious energy in favor of more conservative choices, sprinkling in some laser play and patience with his Fox. It has been a work in progress, though. At EGLX in Canada, he opted to play his signature rushdown style in Grand Finals against Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma and lost the set 3-0, but at Dreamhack Austin, he was able to pick his spots and incorporate lasers in Grand Finals to defeat Hungrybox in two straight sets, resulting in a first-place finish.
Leading into the summer of Smash and the road to Evo, Mango was clearly hitting his stride. He performed much better than he did in 2015, only placing outside of the podium once. His first-place finishes at national tournaments Dreamhack Austin and WTFox 2 underscore his competitive progress. What changed between last year and this year? Mango weighs in.
"I don’t need to practice a lot to be at my top. I realized that I can take breaks. Breaks are really good for me. Before WTFox 2 I didn’t play for like five straight days. Then, I played two days before. I think grinding a lot hurts me actually. I have to play in little bursts or I get burned out real fast."
Acknowledging his practice regimen was the start of identifying other areas he could improve on. Eating healthier, sleeping on a schedule and limiting his alcohol intake were all part of his renewed effort. With the 3vo (a chance at three Evo titles) in sight, Mango and his newfound discipline guided him all the way to Top 32 on the Winners side of the Evo 2016 bracket.
Calm before the storm
Before facing Justin "Plup" McGrath in Winners Quarters on Day 2, Mango appeared relaxed as countless fans approached him for pictures, autographs and to offer him words of encouragement.
This is Mango in his element. While he makes an effort to stay focused during a multi-day tournament and have a positive mentality, he doesn’t do anything special in between matches. In his words, he just "chills." Luckily his activities outside of the game on Day 2 of Evo were not as mentally taxing; Day 1 was a challenge.
"I was busy like, all day. I did pools then went back to my room and chilled. Then I had to do pools again. It was running a little late. Then after my pools I had to do a meet and greet. I was crazy exhausted yesterday."
As he continued to wait for his Winner’s Quarters match, an additional group of people came to cheer him on: his family. His mother Monica Noriega (some might know her as MoMMaMang0,) girlfriend Lauren and son Joseph were among the entourage that showed up. He welcomed them with his patented half-smirk, half-smile and a hug.
While many people wonder about Mango the player, not much is said about Mango the father. When asked if being a father affected his competitive drive, he disagreed. "It doesn’t really do anything for me. I’m still just a player. I don’t think 'oh my god I’m a dad now, I gotta win.'"
Instead of letting one role influence the other, he is able to separate the two and give his best to both. His family also plays an integral part in helping him juggle fatherhood and competitive gaming, especially his mother. She watches his son while he streams, travels and continues striving toward the Melee pinnacle.
However, try as he might to separate the two, all of his worlds collide on this day at the biggest fighting game tournament in the world. Everything that drives his very existence is encapsulated in the Las Vegas Convention Center, and everyone is watching.
It’s time to play.
Familiar foes
If one phrase were to summarize Mango’s Top 32 bracket, it would be déjà vu. The first match he played was against Mustafa "Ice" Akcakaya from Germany. Last year, the two met up at the same point in bracket, with Mango winning 2-0 by two stocks each game. The same would prove true this weekend. In keeping with the sense that his 2016 Evo bracket would be a rerun of his 2015 campaign, his next match brought him face-to-face once again with Plup.
Psychologically this can be a double-edged sword as patterns can subconsciously dictate how a player is feeling. If past results were positive, a player can go into the match with confidence. If they were negative, it can shake a player’s faith in victory. Would the changes he made earlier in the year be enough to make a difference?
There’s no telling what Mango was thinking before this match, but if his two-stock victory in Game 1 of the set was any indication, he was coming out with all cylinders firing, ready to bear the fruits of his labor. Then Plup began to show signs of life, getting early kills and favorable trades to even up the set count one game apiece. Game 3 turned into a back-and-forth contest, inevitably going down to the very last stock. A timely neutral air out of shield from Plup’s Sheik took Mango’s last jump before he could realize it and he was unable to recover — a heartbreaking end to a close match.
If there was any time to feel pressure, it was now. A loss to an up-and-coming rival, for the second year in a row, right before the biggest Top 8 in the history of the game, has to be demoralizing. But there was still one more chance for him to make it to the Mandalay Bay Events Center on Day 3. Despite a shaky start in Game 2 against Julian "Zhu" Zhu, he took that chance and qualified for Top 8 through Losers in a 2-0 victory over the NorCal Falco main. His climb toward a record third Evo title was still underway.
On Top 8 Sunday, he painstakingly clawed past Kevin "PewPewU" Toy and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman in two sets that both went the distance in 2-1 victories, landing him in Loser’s Semis. Waiting for him in Loser’s Semis however was Hungrybox, the man who eliminated him last year. All the ways he prepared and improved throughout this year had all been for this moment. If he played the way he did at DreamHack Austin, overcoming Hungrybox was a real possibility.
And that he did, for at least 98 percent of the match.
In Game 1 he came out like a white-hot ball of rage, seamlessly combining overwhelming offense and defensive lasers to take Hungrybox’s first stock without taking a single hit. When Mango is able to shift playstyles like this on a dime, he becomes arguably the toughest player to handle in Melee. Hungrybox was able to take a few stocks, but Mango cleanly took Game 1. In Game 2, Hungrybox showed his resilience, pulling out an innovative pound-to-rest combo and better defense to take the round. The set count was tied 1-1, and Game 3 would be where the truth would ultimately be revealed.
As each player went down to their last two stocks, a change could be felt in the playstyle of both competitors. Mango wasn’t shifting as smoothly from offense to defense, and Hungrybox began to play much more defensively, staying near the edge — almost an ode to last year’s match. After getting hit by an unorthodox grab-to-rest setup, Mango was provoked into launching a purely offensive attack on his last stock and abandoned his defense completely when it mattered most.
Even as Hungrybox grabbed the edge nine consecutive times, Mango continued his relentless pursuit, only able to strike at air for nearly 20 seconds. When Hungrybox saw the opening he was looking for, he landed on stage with a surprise drill to grab combination, landing a game-winning rest on Mango’s recovery.
Mango’s tournament was over.
While he’d come a long way in optimizing his gameplay, his evolution was not yet complete, and he fell to Hungrybox in one of the most devastating losses of the tournament. The dream to 3vo would have to wait another year.
mangoDOWN
How much has Mango grown since his fifth-place finish at last year’s Evo? Immensely. His Evo placement may have only improved by one spot to fourth, but he is closer than ever to becoming a complete player. His acknowledgement to finally adapt to a field that has surpassed him is a big step in that direction, but implementation takes time.
In the end, though, we are who we are. Underneath the optimal pragmatist Mango is trying to become is a man who wants to win on his own terms with an all-in playstyle, and that playstyle is why many have become his biggest fans. He may be down for now, but he’s never out.
With Hungrybox stopping his 3vo for a second year in a row, Armada gearing up to play his best Melee yet after also falling to Hungrybox at Evo, and an ever-improving field of players such as Plup and James "Swedish Delight" Liu closing the skill gap, the battle for Melee’s throne is the most intense it’s ever been. Will Mango have what it takes to 3vo next year?
Before you answer, just remember the number one rule of competitive Melee: Thou shalt not sleep on the Kid.
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