Justin McGrath, better known as Plup, is an American professional ''Super Smash Bros.'' player from

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. McGrath is considered to be one of the best '' Super Smash Bros. Melee'' players in the world, having been ranked as one of the top 10 ''Melee'' players every year since 2015. McGrath initially rose to prominence in 2015 after placing highly in several major tournaments. Among his best placings are first at

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, second at The Big House 7 and Smash Summit 9, and third at

EVO 2016 The 2016 Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo 2016 or EVO 2016) was a fighting game event held in Las Vegas on July 15–17. Being hosted on the twentieth anniversary of the Evolution Championship Series, the event offered to ...

and

EVO 2018 The 2018 Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo 2018 or EVO 2018) was a fighting game event held in Las Vegas on August 3 to 5 as part of the long-running Evolution Championship Series. The event offered tournaments for various ...

. McGrath was initially the best

Samus is the protagonist of the video game series ''Metroid'' by Nintendo. She was created by the Japanese video game designer Makoto Kano and introduced in the first ''Metroid'' (1986) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Raised by the birdlike ...

player in the world but later switched to primarily playing Sheik. In addition to playing Samus and Sheik, McGrath uses

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as a secondary. McGrath has also competed professionally in ''

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is a 2018 crossover fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth installment in the '' Super Smash Bros.'' series, succeeding ' ...

'', playing primarily with

Mega Man ''Mega Man'' (known as in Japan) is a video game franchise developed and published by Capcom, featuring the Mega Man (character), protagonist of the same name. The Mega Man (1987 video game), original game was released for the Nintendo Enter ...

and

Ridley Ridley may refer to: Education * Ridley College (Ontario), a university preparatory boarding and day school located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada * Ridley College (Melbourne), an evangelical theological college in Melbourne, Australia * Rid ...

, and ''

Project M ''Project M'' is a mod (video gaming), mod of the 2008 fighting game ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' for the Wii, created by the community group known as the Project M Development Team (PMDT; previously known as the Project M Back Room). It is des ...

'' playing primarily with Samus. McGrath was formerly sponsored by Panda Global. A 2021 list compiled by PGstats ranked McGrath as the tenth-greatest ''Melee'' player of all time.

Early life

When McGrath was seven years old, he received a

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...

from his father.

Career

McGrath began his ''Super Smash Bros.'' career in 2010. He entered the

CEO 2010 Community Effort Orlando (often shortened to CEO) is an annual fighting game event held in Daytona Beach, Florida. Prior to 2018, CEO was held in Orlando, Florida. Introduced in 2010 and organized by Alex Jebailey, the event is known for its stro ...

tournament as a

player and finished in 13th place out of a total of 62 players. In 2014, he finished in 13th place out of over 600 players at

Apex 2014 Apex is an annual esports tournament held in New Jersey that is focused on ''Super Smash Bros.'' The event's first incarnation was in 2009 with Jesus "Jman" Fernandez as the champion of '' Super Smash Bros. Melee'' and Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oya ...

. In 2016, McGrath finished in third place at CEO 2016 Prologue,

CEO 2016 Community Effort Orlando (often shortened to CEO) is an annual fighting game event held in Daytona Beach, Florida. Prior to 2018, CEO was held in Orlando, Florida. Introduced in 2010 and organized by Alex Jebailey, the event is known for its stro ...

, and

. After finishing in the top 10 at Shine 2016 and Summit 3, he was ranked as the sixth-best placer of the season. In 2017, McGrath won his first major at

DreamHack DreamHack is a Swedish ESL Gaming brand specializing in esports tournaments and other gaming conventions; at its root, a massive LAN party and computer festival, recognized by ''Guiness World Records'' and Twin Galaxies as being the world's l ...

Atlanta 2017 after defeating

Hungrybox Juan Manuel DeBiedma (; born June 21, 1993), better known by his alias Hungrybox, is an Argentine–American professional '' Super Smash Bros.'' player, streamer, tournament organizer and commentator. Recognized as one of the greatest and most ...

in the finals and placed second at Big House 7. In 2019, he finished in second at Smash Summit 9.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plup Super Smash Bros. Melee players Project M players People from Apopka, Florida American esports players Living people 1993 births