| A Rookie | |
|---|---|
| |
| Character info | |
| Melee main | Mario |
| Other Melee character | Fox |
| Team info | |
| Crew(s) | SFS |
| Personal and other info | |
| Real name | Albert Suafa |
| Birth date | |
| Location | Pensacola, Florida 
|
| Miscellaneous info | |
| Skill |  High level |
A Rookie is a Melee Mario player from Southern California, currently residing in Pensacola, Florida. He is considered the best Mario player in the world, and remains one of the only prominent Mario players. He is currently ranked 1st on the Pensacola Melee Power Rankings, and was formerly ranked 24th on the SoCal Melee Power Rankings. He has taken sets of off Redd, Kalvar, Squid, Alex19, NMW, Lucky, Kira, Wobbles, Tafokints, Porkchops, Captain Faceroll and Rudolph.
Tournament placings
Super Smash Bros. Melee
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 placement | 2v2 placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GENESIS | July 10th-12th, 2009 | 65th | — | — |
| 2GG Battle Frontier | December 13th, 2010 | ? | — | — |
| Kings of Cali 2 | April 13th-14th, 2013 | — | 7th | Manacloud |
| Kings of Cali 3 | December 14th-15th, 2013 | 25th | 9th | Manacloud |
| SoCal Regionals 2014 | February 28th-March 2nd, 2014 | 13th | 17th | Khepri |
| The Next Episode | March 22nd-23rd, 2014 | 33rd | — | — |
| Kings of Cali 4 | July 5th-6th, 2014 | 17th | 9th | dayman |
| EVO 2014 | July 11th-13th, 2014 | 65th | 33rd | J666 |
| Apex 2015 | January 30th-February 1st, 2015 | 49th | — | — |
| I'm Not Yelling! | April 11th-12th, 2015 | 65th | 9th | J666 |
| Press Start | May 9th-10th, 2015 | 17th | 13th | J666 |
| GENESIS 3 | January 15th-17th, 2016 | 65th | 65th | soju |
| CEO 2016 | June 24th-26th, 2016 | 25th | 25th | DP's Mario |
| Come to Papa 2 | October 22nd-23rd, 2016 | 9th | 7th | Aly |
| Smash the Record 2016 | November 11th-14th, 2016 | 25th | 7th | Oppa |
| Smash Conference LXIX | January 7th, 2017 | 17th | 5th | Dingo |
| Tampa Never Sleeps 7 | February 25th-26th, 2017 | 7th | — | — |
| Frame Perfect Series 2 | March 18th-19th, 2017 | 13th | 3rd | The Moon |
| CEO Dreamland | April 14th-16th, 2017 | 33rd | — | — |
| Function(2) | May 6th, 2017 | 9th | 9th | Green Mario |
| The Bigger Balc | May 27th-28th, 2017 | 7th | — | — |
| CEO 2017 | June 16th-18th, 2017 | 13th | — | — |
| Function(3) | July 8th, 2017 | 7th | 5th | Green Mario |
| DreamHack Atlanta 2017 | July 21st-23rd, 2017 | 33rd | — | — |
| Training Mode Tuesdays #25 | September 26th, 2017 | 5th | — | — |
| Smash at Power 9 #50 | September 28th, 2017 | 3rd | — | — |
| The Big House 7 | October 6th-8th, 2017 | 129th | 49th | Wreck |
| Tipped Off 12 | November 11th-12th, 2017 | 9th | 9th | DP's Mario |
| Golden Daze | November 17th-19th, 2017 | 1st | 1st | Oppa |
| The Last Smash at Power 9 | December 28th, 2017 | 3rd | 2nd | KoopaTroopa895 |
| National Melee Arcadian | March 11th, 2018 | 5th | 17th | Wreck |
| Hidden Power March 2018 | March 17th, 2018 | 2nd | 3rd | Sam |
| Low Tier City 6 | July 27th-29th, 2018 | 17th | — | — |
| EVO 2018 | August 3rd-5th, 2018 | 33rd | 13th | J666 |
| DreamHack Atlanta 2018 | November 16th-18th, 2018 | 25th | 9th | unchosen |
| GENESIS 6 | February 1st-3rd, 2019 | 65th | 65th | Pimp Jong Illest |
| Vortex Monthly #1 | February 9th, 2019 | 3rd | — | — |
| Come to Papa 3 | April 27th-28th, 2019 | 17th | — | — |
| Nimbus #44 | May 2nd, 2019 | 9th | — | — |
| The Second National Melee Arcadian | May 5th, 2019 | 17th | 25th | J666 |
| MomoCon 2019 | May 23rd-26th, 2019 | 9th | — | — |
| CEO 2019 | June 28th-30th, 2019 | 33rd | — | — |
| Shine 2019 | August 23rd-25th, 2019 | 33rd | 33rd | Palika |
| Fanaticon: Super Robot Rumble | October 5th-6th, 2019 | 2nd | — | — |
| DreamHack Atlanta 2019 | November 15th-17th, 2019 | 9th | 13th | Logan |
| Sono Con X New Challenger Approaching | December 14th-15th, 2019 | 1st | — | — |
| Tampa Never Sleeps 8 | January 18th-19th, 2020 | 5th | — | — |
| Sweet Revenge #12 | February 8th, 2020 | 1st | 1st | Logan |
| CEO Dreamland 2020 | March 13th-15th, 2020 | 17th | — | — |
| Pound Online | April 24th-26th, 2020 | 33rd | — | — |
The Freedom Series |
January 16th, 2022 | 9th | — | — |
| Mana Monthly |
July 21st, 2023 | 4th | — | — |
| Mana Monthly 2 |
August 25th, 2023 | 2nd | — | — |
| Mana Monthly 3 |
September 29th, 2023 | 4th | — | — |
| Mana Monthly 4 |
November 3rd, 2023 | 2nd | — | — |
| Mana Monthly 5 |
December 1st, 2023 | 1st | — | — |
Project M
| Tournament | Date | 1v1 placement | 2v2 placement | Partner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee Boys 10 | January 15th, 2017 | 7th | — | — |
| The Bigger Balc | May 27th-28th, 2017 | — | 33rd | J666 |
| Golden Daze | November 17th-19th, 2017 | 2nd | — | — |
| Baited 2 | April 28th, 2018 | 5th | — | — |
Controversy
On July 2nd, 2020, a former tournament organizer known as Sheik shared her account of why she left the Smash community. She claimed that A Rookie began to make uncomfortably romantic advances towards her after just a short time of knowing her. One day, after seeing a photo of her at the beach, A Rookie sent her an unsolicited, sexually explicit photo of himself. The co-owners of her tournament series refused to ban him for this offense, resulting in her leaving the scene.[1]
A Rookie would soon make a response to her statement, arguing that he made advances because he thought Sheik reciprocated interest in him. He also claimed that she had sent the beach picture directly to him with a winking emoji, leading him to "really... [think] she was into it" and send the explicit photo.[2]
Sheik later made a final statement that disproved the last point, stating that the photo she posted was on her public Snapchat story and not for only him to see.[3]
On July 3rd, 2020, the Pensacola Melee community indefinitely banned A Rookie from their regional events. They cited the aforementioned misconduct situation, as well as his dismissive and belittling attitude towards serious community issues, as reasons for his ban.[4](dead link) The Louisiana Melee community would follow suit, banning him from all online events and in-person events upon being resumed. [5].
On October 8th, 2021, A Rookie posted screenshots of him making a secondary account called "Ayy Rooks Apology" since Sheik had blocked A Rookie prior to posting her 1st twitlonger. As A Rookie's name suggested, he DM'd Sheik via Twitter and she met him with no response to his message, just a block.[6]
On November 10th, 2021, A Rookie would follow up with a final video addressing why he was banned from tournaments.[7]