Justin “Plup” McGrath will return to his roots and play Samus at Super Smash Con 2019. Though he started playing Super Smash Bros. Melee as a Samus main, he later switched to using Sheik and Fox. But Plup’s Samus will make a comeback at Smash Con, all because of a bet.
According to Plup, the bet originated in the Twitch chat during one of Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson’s livestreams. Plup said that he would go all-Samus at Smash Con if Axe could beat one of his Super Mario Maker 2 levels. After over 20 hours of attempts, Axe managed to beat the level without receiving any hints.
I was randomly in axes chat one day and I said if he beats my mm2 level I would go all samus at smashcon. The madman played my level for 20+ hours and actually did it LMAO samus time baby
— Plub (@Plup_Club) August 6, 2019
As a result of Axe’s success at Super Mario Maker 2, Plup agreed to keep up his end of the bargain. Plup will use exclusively Samus, even if that means dropping out of the bracket earlier than he might ordinarily.
Plup’s Samus at Super Smash Con 2019
Of course, Plup has a great deal of experience with Samus in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Plup peaked at No. 16 on the 2014 SSMBRank before switching to Sheik. He notably used Samus to defeat William “Leffen” Hjelte at EVO 2015.
Even in recent years, Plup’s Samus has not stopped putting in work. He played exclusively Samus at Shine 2017 and almost exclusively Samus at Shine 2018. He was able to place 5th at the former and 4th at the latter. At Shine 2017, Plup took sets off of Álvaro “Trif” García Moral, Ryan “La Luna” Coker-Welch, and Leffen. At Shine 2018, his Samus defeated Hugo “HugS” Gonzalez and Armand “ARMY” Del Duca.
It will be interesting to see if Plup truly sticks to using only Samus at Super Smash Con 2019. He may decide to bust out his Fox if faced with a crucial loss, like he did against Jerry Powell and Johnny “S2J” Kim at Shine 2018. It is also unclear if Plup will continue the trend of playing Samus at Shine 2019 or if he will make Smash Con his one Samus tournament of the year.
Plup may also find it difficult to keep up at this year’s event without his main character. Plup was No. 7 on the Summer 2019 MPGR. This is a definite step below his ranking of No. 2 on the Summer 2018 MPGR. However, Plup may have a hope for a strong run at Super Smash Con. Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett, who would almost definitely beat his Samus, will not enter Melee at the event. So with the right bracket luck, we may get to see Plup’s Samus shine once again.
