Editing Smasher:MkLeo

| rankingssbu    = [[LumiRank 2024.1]]: 25th

Leo's first tournament of 2020 was {{Trn|GENESIS 7}} where he tried to defend his three-year winning streak. He was initially sent into Loser's bracket by {{Sm|Samsora}} in a game 5 set during top 8 and, after fighting through several top players, lost to Marss 0-3 in Grand Finals, ending the streak. He would bounce back next month with his victory at {{Trn|Frostbite 2020}}. Although he was upset 0-3 by {{Sm|Prodigy}} in winners Top 96, he tore through the Loser's bracket, defeating the likes of {{Sm|Salem}}, {{Sm|Dark Wizzy}}, Samsora, {{Sm|Nairo}}, {{Sm|Zackray}}, {{Sm|Dabuz}}, {{Sm|Tea}}, and {{Sm|Tweek}} to reach Grand Finals; the sets against Zackray, Tweek and Tea went to game 5, with Tweek being a reverse 3-0 and Tea going last hit. In Grand Finals, he 6-0'd Maister to win the whole tournament, famously choosing {{SSBU|Byleth}} for the final game.

However, GENESIS proved to be an outlier for his season, as MkLeo followed it up with his worst performances since the early metagame: 9th place finishes at {{Trn|Collision 2023}}, {{Trn|Smash Ultimate Summit 6}}, and {{Trn|Get On My Level 2023}} -- with more losses than wins at Summit -- as well as a 13th place finish at {{Trn|Battle of BC 5}}. His record against {{Sm|Tweek}}, {{Sm|Riddles}}, and {{Sm|Glutonny}} continued to worsen as they became three of his biggest bracket demons, with Riddles notably defeating him 3-0 at both Collision and Summit. Furthermore, MkLeo began dropping more sets to players outside of the top 10, including to {{Sm|ShinyMark}} at Collision, {{Sm|ApolloKage}} at Summit, and {{Sm|Jakal}} at {{Trn|Crown the Third}}. Conversely, his record against the top 10 worsened, as for the first half of 2023 he not only had a losing record against his three bracket demons but also a losing record {{Sm|acola}} and an even record with {{Sm|Sparg0}}, with acola soundly defeating MkLeo at Summit and Sparg0 double-eliminating MkLeo at {{Trn|MAJOR UPSET}}, which marked the first ''Ultimate'' major that MkLeo lost from the Winner's side of Grand Finals. These performances were also hindered by MkLeo's continued character crisis, from adding {{SSBU|Meta Knight}} to his lineup at Summit to sticking to only the Aegis and Byleth for MAJOR UPSET and Crown, to returning to Joker at Get On My Level. Due to his underwhelming major performances and poor record against players in the top 10, most players stopped considering MkLeo for the season's top 3, let alone the best player in the world. This was ultimately reflected in his final placement on the [[LumiRank Mid-Year 2023]], where he fell all the way down to 7th, the first time he was not ranked in the top 5 since the [[PGR v2]].

In the following season, MkLeo decided to take a step back from competing to focus on his personal life, opting to only attend events in Mexico until October. He attended a few events during this time, including the supermajor {{Trn|Smash Factor X}} and the major {{Trn|Delfino Maza 2023}}. His performance at these events remained underwhelming; aside from winning two superregionals, MkLeo underperformed at most of the events he attended. For example, Smash Factor X marked the first Smash Factor event since {{Trn|Smash Factor 2013}} where he didn't make Grand Finals, as he ultimately placed 5th. In addition, this period saw MkLeo take his first unranked loss since the early metagame, losing to {{Sm|SuperDog}} 2-1 at {{Trn|Hooters Universidad Smash Ultimate}}, a regional event where he ultimately placed 4th.  

Little seemed to change once October came, as the next three majors were by far the worst of MkLeo's year. The first was at {{Trn|Rise 'N Grind 2023}}, where after losing 3-0 to {{Sm|Skinny the Pooh}} in an infamous upset, MkLeo ran into Riddles in Loser's Round 4. Despite pulling out Marth, who he used to defeat Riddles previously, Riddles won the set 3-2, eliminating MkLeo at 17th. This trend continued at {{Trn|Luminosity Makes Moves Miami 2023}}, as MkLeo lost yet another set to a {{SSBU|Mario}} player, this time to {{Sm|Kurama}}, before losing 3-1 to {{Sm|SHADIC}} for 13th. Finally, at {{Trn|Port Priority 8}} he lost to rising star {{Sm|Kaninabe}} 3-2 before losing to MuteAce in the runback 3-0 to place 17th yet again. The series of mediocre performances led many players to question whether MkLeo was anywhere near the top 10 that season, let alone in the top 10.

A recurring theme in these losing sets were MkLeo's choice of characters. His loss to Skinny the Pooh was with Joker, a character known to struggle against Mario, while his loss to Kurama was with his secondary {{SSBU|Marth}} and retired main {{SSBU|Lucina}}, leading players to question why he didn't just use {{SSBU|Byleth}} or {{SSBU|Aegis}}, characters MkLeo used to defeat Mario players in the past. In addition, his chose to MuteAce with Byleth even though MuteAce had soundly defeated MkLeo's Byleth beforehand. As such, many also began to question whether he was juggling too many characters at the same time.  

There was still some hope left, as aside from a disappointing {{Trn|Sunrise 2023}} run, where he placed 9th losing to {{Sm|KID}} and {{Sm|Supahsemmie}}, MkLeo managed to clean up his game and saw a small resurgence in the last few weeks of the season. First, his trip to Europe saw him attend the major {{Trn|Ultimate Fighting Arena 2023}}, and his performance marked MkLeo's best performance in months. After falling to {{Sm|NaetorU}} while using Lucina, MkLeo ran through the Loser's bracket, surviving game 5 sets against {{Sm|BassMage}} and {{Sm|Tarik}} and defeating the tournament's #1 seed {{Sm|Tea}} before falling to {{Sm|Raflow}} for 4th. Although this was the first European event he failed to win, on the other hand MkLeo's win over Tea marked his first top 20 win since Sonix at Wavedash 2023. In addition, MkLeo's performance at the final major of the year, {{Trn|Watch The Throne}}, was just as solid. Although his first two days were rough, where he defeated {{Sm|KEN}} but lost to Sonix, {{Sm|Lui$}}, and {{Sm|Sparg0}} in the Gauntlet to start on the Loser's side, MkLeo managed to defeat ApolloKage and {{Sm|Dabuz}} before losing to KEN in the runback for 7th. Despite this placement, MkLeo once again claimed a few top 20 wins. These two runs convinced players that MkLeo could see a potential comeback in the future: despite underperforming and ultimately finishing 11th on the [[LumiRank 2023]], many players were confident that MkLeo could regain his former glory, especially after he announced his motivation returning for the game.

 

However, these positives failed to balance out MkLeo's lows, some of which were arguably the worst performances of his entire ''Ultimate'' career. He followed LMBM with a disastrous performance at {{Trn|GENESIS X}}, where he was infamously upset in pools by {{Sm|Titan}} 2-1. Despite making a strong Loser's run, he was ultimately eliminated by {{Sm|Gackt}} 3-1 to place 25th, the first GENESIS event where he failed to make Grand Finals, much less win the event. Further hurting his season was his second-ever trip to Japan: although he arguably performed better than his last trip, he still failed to make top 8 at both Golden Week supermajors, placing 9th at {{Trn|DELTA 8}} and 25th at {{Trn|Kagaribi 12}}; yet another infamous set took place at the latter event, where MkLeo saw himself get reverse three-stocked twice in his set against {{Sm|Snow|p=Japan}}, further cementing Mario as one of his worst characters to fight against. Finally, his performances in North America remained incredibly mixed, as he had underwhelming runs at the major {{Trn|Battle of BC 6}}, the superregional {{Trn|Diamond Dust}} and a relatively poor run at a major invitational {{Trn|The Luminosity Invitational}}, where he ultimately went 2-3 defeating only {{Sm|Dabuz}} and {{Sm|Hungrybox}}. Diamond Dust notably saw the debut of MkLeo's {{SSBU|Roy}}, which initially impressed players due to MkLeo's quick mastery of the character. However, subsequent usage of Roy after Diamond Dust fell short of expectations, as he has yet to win a set with Roy since. With MkLeo's overall record against the top 10 remaining abysmal, with {{Sm|Sparg0}} being his sole top 10 win, hope for an MkLeo resurgence dwindled, with some players questioning whether MkLeo was even top 20 that season. This speculation was confirmed after MkLeo fell to 25th to end the [[LumiRank 2024.1]] season, marking his single-worst global ranking.