Like every competitive arena, fighting game talent has come and gone in generational waves. While players like Daigo Umehara, Justin Wong, and Ricky Ortiz continue to compete at high levels in pretty much every game they touch, old heads regularly find themselves ousted by their younger counterparts as the years dull their reactions and real life stretches free time thin.
From Street Fighter up-and-comers like Du “Nuckledu” Dang and Chris “CJ Truth” Jayson to Tekken prodigy Alexandre “AK” Lavarez, the future has never looked brighter, and we may have recently received our first look at who will be dominating the Smash scene as the series continues on into its fourth installment.
To promote Super Smash Bros. for Wii U’s upcoming release, West Hollywood’s GameStop held a special sneak peek earlier today, allowing fans to get their hands on the title before launch and see how it compares to its handheld counterpart. While all signs pointed towards a fairly normal round of festivities, one very interesting competitor spiced up the casual matches and made the preview event one to remember.
It all started this afternoon when news began to trickle out from attendees like D’Ron “D1″ Maingrette and Keith “Southpaw” Gordon that a mysterious ten-year-old had shown up and promptly shut down many of the players who were matched up against her. Karissa (or possibly Carissa, spellings differ) apparently put on quite a show, utilizing Rosalina to such an extent that these Smash players couldn’t help but be impressed.
Fortunately, her escapades would not be confined to mere Twitter mentions. Another attendee by the name of Jourdan happened to capture a decent chunk of footage, highlighting a few of the matches Karissa took part in over the course of the event. Though off-screen and thoroughly shaky, the video does a good job of showing off the youngster’s excellent fundamentals. I’m not a Smash player by any stretch of the imagination, mind you, but it’s fairly obvious she knows what she is doing, tackling her opponents head-on with characters like Sheik, King Dedede, and Diddy Kong.
Perhaps the best part of this replay, however, is Karissa’s confidence. After losing a close match to Southern California’s Matt “Xzax” Liberatore and shaking his hand, she makes sure he knows she’s coming back for him; later on, she stares up at an opponent a good foot and a half taller than her and demands to know if he is crying after handing out yet another beatdown.
Yep, I’d say she’s completely ready to enter the competitive community. Be sure to check out the footage of Karissa’s matches below, along with a bonus introduction by D1, and let us know what you think.
If for some reason you can’t view the Facebook video above, it’s been mirrored on YouTube by another user.
Sources: Jourdan (via Reddit and NeoGAF), D1
