Johnny “S2J” Kim has joined beastcoast as the organization’s latest Super Smash Bros. Melee player. He is the fourth Smasher to join beastcoast, following Ramin “Mr. R” Delshad, Michael “MikeHaze” Pulido, and Phil “EE” Visu.
The esports team announced that S2J would join its ranks in a tweet and video from the beastcoast Twitter account. S2J responded with his own tweet, stating that he hoped “to do the family proud.”
https://twitter.com/beastcoast/status/1238502820103491584
Previously, S2J has competed under the banners of Tempo Storm and Halocline Gaming. However, he had been a free agent since Nov. 25, 2019. Ranked No. 11 on the 2019 MPGR, he was then the second highest-ranked free agent in the world for Melee. The highest-ranked free agent is currently No. 8 in the world, Cody “iBDW” Schwab.
S2J announced yesterday that he would not attend CEO Dreamland since it was removed from the Smash World Tour. Major Smash tournaments are not expected to resume until at least May. As a result, it seems S2J’s first few months with beastcoast will be focused on streaming and content creation.
More about beastcoast | S2J
Though he is beastcoast’s newest addition, S2J is anything but new to competitive Melee. He began competing in 2009 and quickly rose to prominence within the Smash community. The RetroSSBMRank placed S2J at No. 11 in the world all the way back in 2011. He debuted at No. 19 on the first official Super Smash Bros. Melee rankings in 2013.
Throughout his entire competitive history, S2J’s story has been one of remarkable consistency. Since the global rankings began in 2013, he has never ranked outside of the top 20. Furthermore, he has consistently ranked within or just outside of the top 10 since 2017.
S2J’s 2019 was unsurprisingly solid. He made top 8 at numerous majors, including Genesis 6, Pound 2019, and Super Smash Con 2019. His major results peaked at Shine 2019, where he finished in a phenomenal 2nd place. Throughout 2019, he defeated Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson, Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett, Zain Naghmi, and Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto, among others.
S2J’s 2020 is off to a respectable start. He placed 13th at Genesis 7, 3rd at Saving Mr. Lombardi 2, and 2nd at DreamHack Anaheim 2020. He boasts wins over Shephard “Fiction” Lima, Álvaro “Trif” García Moral, Griffin “Captain Faceroll” Williams, and Joey “Lucky” Aldama. Unfortunately, it may be a few months before we can see what heights S2J reaches as a competitor for beastcoast.
