Smasher:Isai

Isai "malva" "MevseC"
Character info
Smash 64 mains	Pikachu, Fox
Other Smash 64 characters	Kirby, Jigglypuff, Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Yoshi, Luigi
Melee mains	Captain Falcon, Sheik
Other Melee characters	Fox, Young Link, Marth, Samus
Team info
Former crews	MC, CLASH Tournaments
Rankings and results info
Most recent ranking	64 League Rankings: 3rd
Winnings	~$1,907.10 ~$21,525.00
Personal and other info
Real name	Joel Isai Alvarado
Birth date	March 17, 1985
Location	San Jose, California
Miscellaneous info
Skill	Top professional Top professional (retired)

Ken and Isai of team "El Chocolate Diablo." (Isai is on the right.)

Joel Isai Alvarado, known as Isai (often pronounced "Isaiah"), is an American Super Smash Bros. 64 player widely regarded as the greatest of all time. He is credited with creating the modern metagame and was so far ahead of all other competitors that he was virtually untouchable, giving rise to the meme "Isai is too good" within the community. He mains Pikachu in Super Smash Bros., but can use the entire cast at a top professional level, choosing to use a variety of secondaries at tournaments. Isai has stated on Reddit that his favorite characters are Link, Mario, Fox, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Yoshi and Jigglypuff.

He also played Super Smash Bros. Melee and was ranked 7th best in the United States before he retired from that game. He mained Captain Falcon and Sheik in Melee, while using Fox as a secondary. He was ranked first on the NorCal Power Rankings in 2006.

After Apex 2014, Isai went on a two-year hiatus period, which ended when he attended GENESIS 3 placing 4th, losing twice to wangera.

Feats

Super Smash Bros.

Isai is considered by many to be the best Super Smash Bros. player of all time. The only player to ever beat him in a Twelve Character Battle is the Japanese champion Jousuke (possibly due to the battle being done on the Japanese version of the game) and the only smashers who have shown true competition to his Pikachu are the Japanese champion and one of the best Peruvian players, wario and Gerson respectively, who have taken multiple matches against Isai in dittos, and wangera, who is the only person to have defeated Isai's Pikachu in a tournament set. Isai is currently ranked 12th on the Smash 64 ELO Rating, due to his long stretch of inactivity.

Isai traveled to West Japan in November of 2006 to play the professional players there. However, no sets against the Japanese champion Jousuke (nor many other top Japanese players) were recorded and as a result of this, Isai generally did not have any true competition.

Isai is also known for his impressive performance with the low-tier character Link. He managed to finish second at Apex 2012 by only using Link, only losing to SuPeRbOoMfAn's Captain Falcon and still winning a few matches against the latter.

After winning Apex 2014 with only using Jigglypuff and defeating Moyashi, the player considered the best Kirby in the world twice, this helped Jigglypuff's recent rise on the tier list.

Isai's online crew MC was considered the preeminent crew and recruited some of the best players before its disbandment, later ceding its best crew title to PPS.

CT Live stream

Isai agreed in November 2013 to regularly stream online sessions of Smash 64 through CLASH Tournaments' Twitch channel in exchange of revenue based on viewership count. These take place on Tuesday nights at 8PM PST (11PM EST). Smashers regularly featured on the stream include Bane, Mariguas, and Near among others.

Melee

Isai in his prime was regarded as the best Melee Captain Falcon player in the world. Although his placings at Melee singles tournaments lowered over time, he is one of the few players to have defeated former Melee world champion Ken multiple times.

Isai and Ken constituted El Chocolate Diablo, the strongest doubles team in the world circa 2004-2006. El Chocolate Diablo remained undefeated in tournament sets until their loss to Taj and Forward at a Champ Combo tournament, and placed 1st at every tournament they entered until placing 2nd behind Azen and Chillin at MLG Chicago 2006. However, Isai and Ken would later win MLG Las Vegas 2006, the final MLG National Championship for Melee teams in 2006. Following this win, El Chocolate Diablo became inactive for almost a year until their final appearance at Super Champ Combo, where they placed 7th.

Loss of interest in Melee

Despite his success, Isai gradually lost interest in Melee in 2007. In early 2010, Isai expressed interest in playing Melee seriously again, but after smashing with Scar and entering a handful of tournaments, Isai still did not find it enjoyable anymore.

Notable sandbagging incidents

At Apex 2012, he was unexpectedly convinced by the crowd to play a Melee exhibition match against the other Smash veteran Captain Jack. However, he only sandbagged and was 4-stocked, much to the audience's disappointment.

Tournament placings

Smash 64

This Smasher article or section lacks a complete results table. You can help SmashWiki by adding the missing results. The editor who added this tag elaborates: As the "all--time" best Smash 64 player, he probably has more results than that.

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
MELEE-FC Diamond	July 12th-14th, 2007	1st	—	—
CGC @ SFSU 15	February 6th, 2010	1st	—	—
Tourney Play 4	February 12th-14th, 2010	1st	2nd	Jel
-	CGC @ SFSU XVI	March 6th, 2010	1st	—	— CGC @ SFSU 16]	March 6th, 2010	1st	—	—
64 Washington Tournament	August 21st, 2010	1st	—	—
GENESIS 2	July 15th-17th, 2011	2nd	—	—
Apex 2012	January 6th-8th, 2012	2nd	1st	Nintendude
Apex 2013	January 11th-13th, 2013	2nd	—	—
Apex 2014	January 17th-19th, 2014	1st	—	—
GENESIS 3	January 15th-17th, 2016	4th	3rd	Rith
SFS #23 (low tiers)	June 17th, 2016	1st	—	—
Snosa 2016	June 18th-19th, 2016	3rd	3rd	KeroKeroppi
Super Smash Con 2016	August 11th-14th, 2016	3rd	1st	Alvin
GENESIS 4	January 20th-22nd, 2017	13th	—	—

Melee

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Tournament Go 4	January 19th, 2003	7th	—	—
Snexus 2	July 12th, 2003	2nd	2nd	Recipherus
Tournament Go 5	August 2nd-3rd, 2003	3rd	1st	Ken
Game Over	January 10th, 2004	3rd	1st	Ken
Zero Challenge 1	January 17th-18th, 2004	2nd	—	—
Smash 4 Cash	June 2004	1st	2nd	Matt Deezie
MLG Chicago 2004	June 19th-20th, 2004	2nd	1st	Ken
MELEE-FC1	July 9th-10th, 2004	3rd	1st	Ken
Tournament Go 6	August 21st-22nd, 2004	5th	1st	Ken
MLG San Francisco 2004	September 11th-12th, 2004	2nd	—	—
MLG Los Angeles 2004	September 25th-26th, 2004	?	1st	Ken
MLG New York 2004	October 24th, 2004	2nd	1st	Ken
MOAST 3	January 15th-16th, 2005	1st	1st	Ken
MLG DC 2005	January 29th-30th, 2005	2nd	1st	Ken
MLG San Francisco 2005	February 26th-27th, 2005	5th	1st	Ken
Gettin' Schooled 2	June 25th-26th, 2005	7th	1st	Ken
MELEE-FC3	July 10th-12th, 2005	4th	1st	Ken
MLG Seattle 2005	September 10th-11th, 2005	?	1st	Ken
MLG Los Angeles 2005	October 14th-16th, 2005	1st	1st	Ken
MLG Atlanta 2005	November 25th-27th, 2005	4th	1st	Ken
MLG New York 2005	February 24th-26th, 2006	4th	1st	Ken
Champ Combo: Yayuhzzz Edition	March 25th, 2006	9th	1st	Ken
Champ Combo: NorCal Edition	April 8th, 2006	2nd	1st	Ken
MLG New York Opener 2006	April 21st-23rd, 2006	6th	1st	Ken
MLG Dallas 2006	May 19th-20th, 2006	13th	1st	Ken
MLG Anaheim 2006	June 23rd-24th, 2006	4th	1st	Ken
MLG Chicago 2006	July 21st-22nd, 2006	8th	2nd	Ken
Zero Challenge 2	August 15th-17th, 2006	—	1st	Captain Jack
MLG Orlando 2006	August 26th-27th, 2006	4th	1st	Ken
MLG New York Playoffs 2006	October 13th-14th, 2006	6th	3rd	Ken
SMASHTALITY 2	October 21st, 2006	25th	5th	Wes
NorCal Tournament	October 28th, 2006	9th	1st	Ken
MLG Las Vegas 2006	November 18th-19th, 2006	6th	1st	Ken
Cataclysm 3	March 3rd-4th, 2007	13th	1st	Mew2King
Prodigy's Tourney 3/17	March 17th, 2007	—	1st	SilentSpectre
UCLA Monthlies II	March 24th, 2007	81st	1st	Bob$
NorCal BiWeekly 4/07	April 7th, 2007	—	1st	Tang
Super Smash Royale III	April 28th, 2007	2nd	1st	Ken
MLG Long Island 2007	May 5th-6th, 2007	7th	1st	Mew2King
NorCal BiWeekly 6/30	June 30th, 2007	—	2nd	?
MELEE-FC Diamond	July 12th-14th, 2007	41st	5th	Mew2King
Zero Challenge 3	July 20th-22nd, 2007	25th	1st	The King
NorCal BiWeekly 9/22: Prep 4 SCC	September 22nd, 2007	—	2nd	Bob$
Super Champ Combo	September 29th-30th, 2007	33rd	7th	Ken
CGC @ SFSU 15	February 6th, 2010	17th	5th	Scar
Tourney Play 4	Februray 12th-14th, 2010	7th	—	—
CGC @ SFSU 16	March 6th, 2010	25th	—	—
GENESIS 2	July 15th-17th, 2011	—	13th	S2J
Apex 2012	January 6th-8th, 2012	—	97th	Vans

Trivia

• Isai holds a positive record against every smasher he has played in tournament (in Smash 64), with the exception of SuPeRbOoMfAn (3-6), Kikoushi (1-2), Wangera (1-2) and Wizzrobe (0-1).
• He purchased Brawl but does not play it. Super Smash Bros. has always been Isai's preferred Smash Bros. game; he has been playing Smash 64 since 1999 and Smash 64 online since 2004.
• Isai often used the in-game tags "VI" and "MEL" in Melee. In Super Smash Bros, his YouTube video tag is "malva" if it is an online match or "Isai" if it is a console match. His nickname "malva" originates from his mother's Windows login name (she used the initial 'm' for her name plus a shortened version of her last name, Alvarado or 'alva').
• Isai's YouTube name is MevseC. This nickname originates from the fact that he plays Marvel vs. Capcom (MvsC). He added the two 'e' letters in the middle to make it look cooler and sound like a name.
• From around 2005-2007, Isai was the leader of the then-top online SSB64 crew MC.
• Isai calls online Smash "fake Smash" due to the delay and lag experienced online. He also calls it fake Smash because, by definition, it is emulated and thus merely a copy or imitation of the real game on console.
• Noticing that there were exceptional Smash 64 players in Japan and Peru, Isai traveled to both of these countries and played the top players there (e.g. Jousuke, the Japanese national champion and Gerson, the Peruvian national champion). He is one of the few Smash 64 players to make a serious effort to travel internationally multiple times in order to play the top Smash 64 players from around the world.

External links

• Isai's Smash 64 video place on YouTube
• Isai's Online Smash 64 Channel on Livestream
• Isai vs. SuPeRbOoMfAn at Apex 2012
• Isai vs. Kikoushi at Apex 2013
• Isai vs. Moyashi at Apex 2014
• Episode 3 of The Smash Brothers, a competitive Melee documentary, which focuses primarily on Isai