Jason Sheldon Zimmerman (born February 5, 1989), known by his gamertag Mew2King, commonly shortened to M2K, is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

professional ''

Super Smash Bros. ''Super Smash Bros.'' is a Crossover (fiction), crossover fighting game series published by Nintendo. The series was created by Masahiro Sakurai, who has directed every game in the series. The series is known for its unique gameplay objectiv ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

from Cinnaminson,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. He has won more than 70 tournaments during his career, primarily in ''

Super Smash Bros. Melee ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' is a 2001 Fictional crossover, crossover fighting game, fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. I ...

''. Zimmerman is one of the "Five Gods" of ''Melee'', along with

Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma Juan Manuel DeBiedma (; born June 21, 1993), better known by his alias Hungrybox, is an Argentine-American professional ''Super Smash Bros.'' player and streamer. Recognized as one of the best and most successful ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' playe ...

Adam "Armada" Lindgren Adam Lindgren (born 28 March 1993), known by his handle Armada, is a Swedish professional ''Super Smash Bros.'' player from Gothenburg. He is widely considered one of the greatest ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' players of all time and the greatest ...

Kevin "PPMD" Nanney Kevin Nanney, also known by his gamer tag of PPMD and formerly known as Dr. PeePee, is an inactive American professional '' Super Smash Bros. Melee'' player. Nanney is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, alongside Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph ...

, and Joseph "Mang0" Marquez and is also widely considered one of the greatest ''

Super Smash Bros. Brawl ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' is a 2008 List of crossovers in video games, crossover fighting game, fighting video game developed by Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The third installment in the Super Smash Bros., ''Super Smash ...

'' players of all time. He has also competed at a top-level in ''

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and (colloquially and collectively referred to as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'') is a group of two 2014 crossover fighting video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS a ...

'', ''

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is a 2018 crossover fighting video 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 ...

'' and ''

Project M ''Project M'' is a 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 designed to retool ''Br ...

''. In ''Melee'', Zimmerman primarily plays

Marth Marth may refer to: * Marth, Thuringia, Germany People with the surname * Albert Marth (1828–1897), German astronomer * Christophe Marth (born 1980), French rugby player * Frank Marth (born 1922), American actor * Tommy Marth Thomas Christian ...

, Sheik, and

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, while he plays

Meta Knight is a fictional character and antihero in Nintendo's ''Kirby'' video game series created by Masahiro Sakurai and developed by HAL Laboratory. He first appeared in the 1993 video game ''Kirby's Adventure'' as a nameless character, remaining un ...

in ''Brawl''. He uses his namesake character

Mewtwo Mewtwo is a Pokémon, a fictional creature from Nintendo and Game Freak. Created by Ken Sugimori, it debuted in the video games ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Blue'', and later appeared in subsequent sequels and spin-off titles, such as '' Pokken Tourna ...

, as well as Fox and

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

, in ''Project M'' and specializes as

Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...

in the original ''

'' game. In ''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U'', Zimmerman's primary character is

Cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...

. Zimmerman is known for his extremely methodical and logical style of play, as well as his detailed knowledge of frame data in ''Melee'', earning him the nickname The Robot. He is known to play ''Melee'' using a claw-like grip on his controller. For his skill across every ''Smash Bros.'' game, he is regarded by some as the greatest overall ''Smash Bros.'' player of all time. A 2021 list compiled by PGstats ranked Zimmerman as the fifth-greatest ''Melee'' player of all time. From May 2016 to January 2020, he was a member of the professional esports organization

Echo Fox Echo Fox was an American esports organization. It was founded on December 18, 2015, by retired basketball player Rick Fox, who created Echo Fox after he purchased the NA LCS spot of Gravity Gaming. The organization had expanded into various g ...

Gaming career

Zimmerman began competing in tournaments in 2005 at the age of 16. Kashan "Chillindude" Khan described M2K as having little natural

aptitude An aptitude is a component of a competence to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. Outstanding aptitude can be considered "talent". Aptitude is inborn potential to perform certain kinds of activities, whether physical or mental, and ...

for the game, becoming good through practicing a lot. During 2006, Zimmerman went from being relatively unknown to being one of the best players in the game. In 2004, he spent over 2,000 hours with help from SuperDoodleMan collecting data about various attacks and movements in ''Melee''. In 2007, he managed to place 9th at

EVO World 2007 The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known as Evo, is an annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The tournaments are completely open and use the double elimination format. As with Super Battle Opera, contestants ...

. Zimmerman was considered the best ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'' player from 20082009. From 20102014, his tournament placing declined and he began losing to improving newer players. Zimmerman and Wyatt "ADHD" Beekman, were banned by

Major League Gaming Major League Gaming Corp. (MLG) is a professional esports organization. MLG is headquartered in New York City, New York and was founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso. MLG has held official video game tournaments throughout the ...

from competing in MLG Dallas 2010, after the two had allegedly conspired to manipulate brackets at ''Brawl'' event at MLG DC 2010. The ban came after ADHD had stated that he paid Zimmerman 300 to lose the loser's bracket final, a violation of MLG rules. MLG dropped ''Brawl'' from their pro circuit at the end of 2010. For most of 2013, M2K had not won a major tournament all year until he went on a winning streak where he won virtually all of his fights, including against Mango, whom he had not beaten for several years. In 2014, Zimmerman lost to aMSa in winners quarters and Armada in losers finals at Kings of Cali 4. Zimmerman finished 2nd to Mango at Big House 4 in

Romulus, Michigan Romulus is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 23,989 at the 2010 census. Romulus is a western suburb of Metro Detroit and is also considered part of the Downriver collection of communities. It is most nota ...

. After a complex leveling game, Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma defeated Zimmerman at Paragon Orlando 2015. Mew2King

From 2009 to 2014, Zimmerman was a member of Empire Arcadia (EMP), a company that has also sponsored e-sports players such as

Justin Wong Justin Wong, occasionally shortened to just Jwong, is a formerly American and now Canadian professional fighting game player. Wong has won more EVO titles than anyone else with nine tournaments won: seven for '' Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of ...

. He left the organization after having issues with back payment from the organization. Zimmerman alleges that since 2009 EMP president Isaiah "Triforce" Johnson has owed him "5k total more/less" and has lent Johnson more than 1,000. From 2011 to 2014, Zimmerman was sponsored by CLASH Tournaments (CT). From 2012 to 2014, Zimmerman was signed with

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

-based Play-For-Keeps, an online e-sports betting service. Zimmerman has supported Pastime Gaming and Most Valuable Gaming since late 2014 and started working as a business manager for the latter. By late 2014 to early 2015, Zimmerman began focusing his time on ''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U'' and online streaming and plans on playing fewer online tournaments due to hand problems. His tournament placings have also declined, placing tied for 9th at

Apex 2015 Apex was an annual esports tournament held in New Jersey that was 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- ...

. In April 2015 he became a member of esports team COGnitive Gaming. Around June 2015, Zimmerman suffered a hand injury and missed CEO 2015 and EVO 2015. He did however attend Super Smash Con in August 2015 where he placed 2nd after losing to Leffen. On August 31 he defeated Leffen in the grand finals of

PAX Prime 2015 PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving Tabletop game, tabletop, Arcade game, arcade, and video game, video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United Stat ...

, thereby ending the streak of Swedish players winning national tournaments. At Paragon Los Angeles 2015, Zimmerman placed second, losing to Mango in Grand Finals. Zimmerman finished 9–12th in ''Melee'' singles at

GENESIS 3 Genesis, stylized as GENESIS, is a series of annual ''Super Smash Bros.'' tournaments occurring in the San Francisco Bay Area of the US state of California. The first Genesis tournament took place in 2009 in Antioch at the Contra Costa County Fa ...

in January. In early April, Zimmerman left COGnitive. On April 17, 2016, Zimmerman joined

. Zimmerman finished in 1st place in ''Melee'' singles at Smash Summit 6 in May 2018. Zimmerman did not lose in the bracket stage, managing to defeat Armada twice, including during the grand finals. He became the first player to win a Smash Summit event outside of Armada and Hungrybox.

Personal life

Zimmerman was born on February 5, 1989. His handle comes from the

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

. Zimmerman grew up in

Cinnaminson Township, New Jersey Cinnaminson Township is a township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. Cinnaminson Township borders the Delaware River, and is an eastern suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 15 ...

, and is a 2007 graduate of

Cinnaminson High School Cinnaminson High School is a four-year public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Cinnaminson Township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the Cinnaminson ...

. He attended

Lorain County Community College Lorain County Community College (LCCC) is a public community college in the city of Elyria in Lorain County, Ohio, with learning centers in Wellington, North Ridgeville, and Lorain. In addition to associate degrees and certificates, students ca ...

before transferring to

Camden County College Camden County College (CCC) is a public community college in Camden County, New Jersey. Camden County College has its main campus in the Blackwood section of Gloucester Township, with satellite locations in Camden, Cherry Hill and Sicklervil ...

, from where he has an

associate degree An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. The fi ...

game design Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

. Zimmerman said that he had to do an additional half-year of school again because several credits would not transfer. He is uninterested in pursuing a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

. Zimmerman has been diagnosed with

Asperger syndrome Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's, is a former neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in Interpersonal relationship, social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and re ...

obsessive–compulsive disorder Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental and behavioral disorder in which an individual has intrusive thoughts and/or feels the need to perform certain routines repeatedly to the extent where it induces distress or impairs general ...

and

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inap ...

and has had depression and suicidal thoughts for most of his life. He has attributed much of his social growth to the ''Smash'' community. From May to November 2014, Zimmerman, lived in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, with YouTube gaming personality Sky Williams, who houses several other professional gamers. In early 2015, Zimmerman moved to

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. In the summer of 2015, he moved to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Zimmerman is a full-time video game player who streams on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

and attends tournaments almost every week. He is a co-owner of video game tournament organizing company Most Valuable Gaming. He was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 "Games" List for 2019. A 2009 photo of Zimmerman getting kissed by a girl at a ''Super Smash Bros.'' tournament has become a widely circulated viral image across the internet, including an article written on the subject by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Notable tournament placings

''Only Majors and Supermajors are listed.''

''Super Smash Bros. Melee''

''Super Smash Bros. Brawl''

''Project M''

''Super Smash Bros.''

''Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS''

''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mew2King 1989 births American esports players Cinnaminson High School alumni COGnitive Gaming players Echo Fox players Empire Arcadia players Living people People from Cinnaminson Township, New Jersey People from Lorain County, Ohio People from Los Angeles Sportspeople from Burlington County, New Jersey Sportspeople from Phoenix, Arizona People with Asperger syndrome People with obsessive–compulsive disorder Super Smash Bros. Melee players Twitch (service) streamers Super Smash Bros. 64 players Super Smash Bros. Brawl players Super Smash Bros. for Wii U players Project M players Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players Camden County College alumni