Why Is Tea Scared Of His Round 2 ?— Ft. The Most Powerful 1–2er In Smash History
This is a screenshot from Pool 7 from this weekend’s MaesumaTOP#12, a supermajor that is happening this weekend in Osaka, Japan. To most, this is just a set of three bracket matches highlighted, but if you’re in the know, this screenshot probably inspires a lot of emotion in you — fear? excitement? doom?
The first player of note in this screenshot is ZETA Division’s Tea, a player who does not need too much of a background. Tea is one of the best Smash Ultimate players of all time, and whenever he travels around the world [usually to Europe], his tempo defining mix of Pac-Man and Kazuya has found so much success you’d think he was a brand rep for Bandai Namco.
So why is he, a top ten player in the world, utterly terrified about his round 2?
Well, you see, his seeded opponent for his round 2 isn’t the person Start.gg or seeding actually thinks he’s going to fight. He’s much more scared about the person who is seeded to LOSE in match B — an Incineroar player named Tempaman.
Tempaman wasn’t a player missed by seeding. He has ten events on Smashdata, and more often than not, he finds himself going 1–2 or 2–2. He is, by all accounts, pool fodder for a top player.
Despite this, though, he is the most feared 1–2er in Smash history.
Tea is scared utterly shitless of Tempaman.
The legend of Tempaman streches back to last June’s MaesumaTOP #8. In May, Smashmate prodigy Acola [the first person to ever hit 2400 on the site] went to compete at Golden Week, and absolutely dominated the offline scene, beating top ten players alike and winning supermajors. This success caused the second person in Smashmate history to hit 2400, Miya, to give offline play another shot [he hadn’t competed since 2019.] Miya attends MaesumaTOP #8, and in his Round 2, he sits down to play against Tempaman. Tempaman has not played a set yet. He has been floated to round 2 due to a fortuitous DQ.
You can probably see where this is going.
Tempaman beats Miya in his first offline bracket back, then loses his next two sets. He places 129th/590, having gone 1–2, but his one win was Miya, who would make a short run through losers but ultimately fall at 65th.
A month later, Miya would win Kagaribi #8. Since then, Miya has found himself as a bonafide top ten, maybe even top five talent in the world. He’s a supermajor winner, and he’s even taken down Acola, the very player that he used as a template in the first place.
But he will have forever lost to Tempaman, the Incineroar 1–2er.
But that’s just Japan! Everyone takes weird losses! Besides, it’s not like Miya is the shining bastion of consistency.
You’re right! Japan — and honestly, Smash Ultimate — is pretty wild in that regard. Many low level players have found themselves upsetting top talent. One of my favorite sets of all time is Chicago hometown hero Grapes beating Goblin in the literal only time in my life I’ve ever popped off at the Luigi zero to death.
Tempaman continues to go 1–2 at Kansai regionals for the rest of 2022, but in February, he finds himself in Tokyo for the superregional WINNER -NEXT- #2. Winner Next, as I’ll be referring to it here, is a tiny event — 76 entrants — packed to the brim with talent — KEN, Zackray, Shogun, Futari no Kiwami Ah~, Eim, HIKARU, and Yamanaction. Tempaman is seed 65. He is slated to go 0–2, but if he wins his round 1, he gets to fight one of the titans of the game: Shuton.
Shuton right now’s in a bit of a slump. He ended the 2022 season at the highest peak ever at Scuffed World Tour, held at the Golden Guardians offices, beating both MkLeo and Acola en route to third. Since returning, though, he’s trying to find his footing. He’s dropping sets to players like Neo, Jahzzo, Atelier, and Huto — none of whom are horrible, world ending, season killing losses, of course, but definitely not losses you want to be taking if you’re making a run to being a top five, potentially top three player in the world.
So he goes to Winner in search of a smaller, resume boosting event win, bracing himself and thinking about how he’s going to deal with bracket threats like Zackray and KEN, focusing on how he’s going to win the event.
Unfortunately enough, if you’re a top player that focuses on winning the event too much, you might not really be thinking too deeply about the guy you play round 1.
Tempaman has beat his round one.
And I think you see what conclusion can be drawn here.
Tempaman beats Shuton, then loses his next two sets.
Tempaman has gone 2–2 at a regional.
Shuton is probably stunned, but he can’t stay out of it for two long. He goes through losers, and ends up wining the whole damn thing. 12 sets in losers to take the whole event, beating Shogun, HIKARU, KEN, Zackray, and Falco upstart Motsunabe in grands.
But he’s not really thinking about how he beat Zackray, or Motsunabe, or especially KEN. Famously, those two play a lot.
He’s thinking about Tempaman.
In March, a full month after Winner NEXT 2, Shuton is invited to Gackt’s Room, a podcast held by Gackt and Tea. The translated Tempaman part is here, thanks to Folseus! When prompted, Shuton has only one player, and one thought on his mind. It’s not about having won Winner Next. It’s about having lost to Tempaman.
During the interview, Tea attests that he doesn’t think he’d be able to beat Tempaman — Skyjay beat his Pac-Man at Double Down, and when he switched, he played Kazuya, but apparently, he thinks his Kazuya would lose to Tempaman.
[EDIT]: I got some clarity here! Tea’s Kazuya has lost to Tempaman online. The fears are valid.
Yesterday, KEN was streaming Arenas when Tea hopped in.
[EDIT: I’ve been given the context behind this stream from Folseus. Apparently it was, at some level, supposed to be a preparing for Tempaman effort.]
KEN goes Incineroar. Tea goes Cloud. I can’t tell if this is Tea memeing and messing around, or if he’s seriously preparing a Cloud for Incineroar.
But honestly, if you’re a 1–2er potentially making Top 10 players pick up a pocket Cloud, you’ve figured something out.
Tempaman is one of the most unique players in Smash history. I looked — admittedly not that hard — but I could not find any social media presence. To me, a guy in America, Tempaman is less a person and more a manifestation of chaos, a modern re-imagining of the kid on vacation that beat Ken [the Survivor Melee one, not the Mario Kart Ultimate one] in Brawl’s EVO Grands. He represents something so fascinating — the idea that in competition, no matter your legacy, no matter if you’re a rising star hot off the Smashmate presses or an established top talent and supermajor winner, no win is guaranteed.
If you’re not careful, you can always lose your round 1 to Tempaman, the 1–2er Incineroar. And if you are careful, as you should be, you start to be afraid of a guy with a 41% winrate.
And in my opinion, that’s pretty fucking magical.
Good luck this weekend, Tea!
MaesumaTOP#12’s bracket is here. You can use the Chrome Extension Japanese Tag Romanizer to follow brackets better! MaesumaTOP#12 will most likely be live on VGBootCamp.
