Ken Hoang

Ken Hoang
Ken Hoang
	At the Survivor finale showing, at CBS Studios, Los Angeles, California, December 14, 2008
Current team
Team	Team Liquid
Games	Super Smash Bros. Melee ; Project M
Personal information
Nickname(s)	SephirothKen; LiquidKen; The King of Smash;
Born	October 10, 1985 (age 39)
Career information
Playing career	2003–present
Career highlights and awards
	Ranked #1 (2004-2006); Ranked #4th All-Time; 2x Tournament Go champion (2003); 6x MLG champion (New York 2004, Washington D.C 2005, National Championships 2005, Dallas 2006, Anaheim 2006, Chicago 2006); Zero Challenge 2 champion (2006); EVO champion 2007;

Ken Hoang (born October 10, 1985), also known as Kenny, SephirothKen, or Liquid`Ken, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player and television personality. Hoang was widely considered the most dominant Melee player in the world during the early years of the game's competitive scene in the early to mid-2000s. Hoang primarily plays Marth in Melee and is credited for pioneering several gameplay techniques integral to the game's competitive play, including the "dash dancing" movement technique and the "Ken Combo", an effective Marth combo for which he is the namesake.^[2] Hoang's dominance in the game earned him the nickname "The King of Smash".^[2]

Hoang was the 2004–2005 national champion of Major League Gaming, the 2007 international champion of Evolution Championship Series (EVO) World Finals,^[3]^[4] and was the highest ranked Super Smash Bros. Melee player in the United States, having also defeated reputable players from around the globe, including top Japanese players.

Hoang possesses the highest major tournament win-to-loss ratio of any Super Smash Bros. Melee player from 2003 to 2007.^[5] He received minor television coverage in MTV's True Life: I'm a Professional Gamer.^[6] Hoang retired in 2007, however he returned to the Melee scene in 2012, competing sporadically since. In 2014 he and fellow Melee veteran Daniel "KoreanDJ" Jung joined Team Liquid as the team's first Smash Bros. players.^[7] A 2021 list compiled by PGstats ranked Hoang as the fourth-greatest Melee player of all time.^[8]

Hoang was a contestant on Survivor: Gabon, which aired in the fall of 2008. He finished in fifth-place and was the sixth member of the jury.

Smash Bros. career

Hoang started playing Super Smash Bros. when it was released for the Nintendo 64, but never competed in an organized tournament for the game, due to a lack of a widespread competitive scene at the time. When Super Smash Bros. Melee was released for the GameCube, Ken initially did not enjoy it, but the game grew on him after a period of a few months.^{[citation needed]} By the time he attended his first tournament, he already built up a reputation in his town as the best Smash player. This tournament differed from most later Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments in that matches were free-for-all matches between four players rather than a 1 vs 1 match. The other players teamed up against Hoang to eliminate him.^[9]

In 2003, he competed in his first major tournament, part of the Tournament Go (TG) series, one of the first major Melee tournament series.^[10] In this, the fourth installment of the tournament series, Hoang won the singles (1 vs 1) tournament and lost in the doubles (2 vs 2) tournament to the winners of the first two TG tournaments.^[9]^[11]

Seven months later, in August 2003, Hoang attended and won TG5. This was the first tournament where he partnered with Joel "Isai" Alvarado (otherwise known as "Malva00") for doubles in a team known as El Chocolate Diablo. Their victory in the doubles tournament started a 2+1⁄2-year winning streak. They won every doubles tournament they entered until MLG Chicago in July 2006, where they were defeated by Azen and Chillindude829 in the finals and received second place. However, they reclaimed their title later that year in August at MLG Orlando where they defeated Azen and Chillindude829 6–3 in the finals.^[12]

For the next two years, he continued to win nearly every competition he entered. The worst loss he ever garnered in his competitive career was in August 2004 at TG6 where he placed 9th out of approximately 128 competitors. He traveled to Japan several times and defeated top players such as Aniki, Captain Jack, Masashi, Bombsoldier, Korius, and Mikael in the summer of 2005 and 2006.^[13]

Ken retired from competitive play in 2008. Although retired, he was regarded as one of the top players long after his departure from the tournament scene.^[3] In September 2006, Ken was nominated in "The Dangerous Five" as one of "The World's Most Dangerous Gamers" by Electronic Gaming Monthly, in which he was called "The Duper" for his fast, smart, and aggressive play.^[14]

Hoang returned to the game in 2012 after a five-year hiatus and placed 33rd in Kings of Cali. He has since attended several additional tournaments, including EVO 2013, where he placed 49th out of 696 participants, then the Smash tournament with the largest number of entrants in history.

In 2013, Hoang's career was profiled in the documentary series The Smash Brothers.^[2]^[15] At the end of the year, Ken was ranked in the final spot at 100th in Melee it on Me's 2013 SSBMRank listing of the best Melee players.^[16]

On March 18, 2014, Team Liquid announced that Hoang and KDJ would be joining their new Super Smash Bros. team.^[17] Ken rose to 58th in the 2014 SSBMRank.^[18]

At Apex 2015 Ken finished 81st. At Apex he also played PC Chris in a Salty Suite exhibition match and lost 3–2.^[19]

At EVO 2015 Ken finished 13th, his highest placing at a major since Super Champ Combo in 2007.

Notable tournament placings

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Tournament^[20]	Date	1v1 Placement	2v2 Placement	Partner
Tournament Go 4	January 19, 2003	1st	2nd	Manacloud
Tournament Go 5	August 2–3, 2003	1st	1st	Isai
Game Over	January 10, 2004	1st	1st	Isai
MELEE-FC1	July 9–10, 2004	1st	1st	Isai
Tournament Go 6	August 21–22, 2004	9th	1st	Isai
MLG New York 2004	October 24, 2004	1st	1st	Isai
MOAST 3	January 16, 2005	2nd	1st	Isai
MLG DC 2005	January 29–30, 2005	1st	1st	Isai
MLG San Francisco 2005	February 26–27, 2005	1st	1st	Isai
Gettin' Schooled 2	June 25, 2005	1st	1st	Isai
MELEE-FC3	July 10–12, 2005	1st	1st	Isai
Jack Garden Tournament	August 20, 2005	1st	—	—
MLG Los Angeles 2005	October 14–16, 2005	2nd	1st	Isai
MLG Atlanta 2005	November 25–27, 2005	1st	1st	Isai
MLG Chicago 2005	December 16–18, 2005	1st	2nd	ChuDat
MLG New York 2005	February 24–26, 2006	1st	1st	Isai
MLG New York Opener 2006	April 21–23, 2006	2nd	1st	Isai
MLG Dallas 2006	May 19–21, 2006	1st	1st	Isai
MLG Anaheim 2006	June 23–25, 2006	1st	1st	Isai
MLG Chicago 2006	July 21–23, 2006	1st	2nd	Isai
Zero Challenge 2	August 15–17, 2006	1st	7th	Rob$
MLG Orlando 2006	August 25–27, 2006	5th	1st	Isai
MLG New York Playoffs 2006	October 13–15, 2006	7th	3rd	Isai
MLG Las Vegas 2006	November 17–19, 2006	3rd	1st	Isai
Comrades 2	June 9, 2007	1st	1st	CAOTIC
Zero Challenge 3	July 20–22, 2007	4th	2nd	Bombsoldier
EVO World 2007	August 24–26, 2007	1st	—	—
Super Champ Combo	September 29–30, 2007	7th	7th	Isai
Kings of Cali	November 10, 2012	33rd	3rd	Dr. PeePee
Kings of Cali 2	April 13–14, 2013	—	17th	Hairynipples
EVO 2013	July 12–14, 2013	49th	—	—
Kings of Cali 3	December 14–15, 2013	25th	5th	HugS
Pat's House 2	May 24–25, 2014	17th	9th	HugS
SKTAR 3	May 31-June 1, 2014	25th	9th	KoreanDJ
SSS Lock-In	June 14–15, 2014	9th	5th	KoreanDJ
MLG Anaheim 2014	June 20–22, 2014	21st	9th	KoreanDJ
CEO 2014	June 27–29, 2014	33rd	7th	KoreanDJ
Kings of Cali 4	July 5–6, 2014	13th	4th	DEHF
EVO 2014	July 11–13, 2014	33rd	—	—
Super Smash Sundays 29	December 7, 2014	9th	5th	DEHF
Apex 2015	January 30–February 1, 2015	81st	25th	KoreanDJ
I'm Not Yelling!	April 11–12, 2015	25th	5th	Lil Fumi
MVG Sandstorm	April 18–19, 2015	17th	9th	OkamiBW
Press Start	May 9–10, 2015	25th	7th	Kira
EVO 2015	July 17–19, 2015	13th	—	—
Paragon Los Angeles 2015	September 4–6, 2015	33rd	—	—
HTC Throwdown	September 19, 2015	17th	5th	Axe
GENESIS 3	January 15–17, 2016	33rd	17th	Santiago
DreamHack Austin 2016	May 6–8, 2016	17th	—	—
EVO 2016	July 15–17, 2016	49th	—	—
GENESIS 4	January 20–22, 2017	97th	7th	Santiago
DreamHack Austin 2017	April 28–30, 2017	25th	9th	El Fuego
EVO 2017	July 15–16, 2017	49th	—	—
GENESIS 5	January 19–21, 2018	65th	13th	Santiago

Project M

Tournament^[21]	Date	1v1 Placement	2v2 Placement	Partner
SKTAR 3	May 31, 2014	193rd	—	—
CEO 2014	June 27–29, 2014	25th	7th	KoreanDJ

Survivor

In August 2008 it was announced that Hoang would be appearing on Survivor: Gabon, on the American television network CBS.^[1]^[22] He stated that he believed he was the underdog but hoped that it would garner him popular support.^[1]

Hoang was chosen to join the Fang tribe in the first episode when Danny "GC" Brown picked him. Fang was weaker than the opposing Kota tribe in challenges, losing five of the first six immunity challenges, and Hoang was in danger of elimination several times during the pre-merge stage of the game. He formed an early bond with fellow Fang castaway Michelle Chase,^[23] who ended up being the first person voted off. During the second Tribal Council, he was a target for elimination by Gillian Larson, but was spared as the rest of the tribe saw Larson as the weaker player. Hoang won the first immunity challenge for Fang, in which his puzzle-solving skills were pitted against physics teacher Bob Crowley of the Kota tribe. Though Kota was in the lead at the end of the first section of the challenge, which allowed Crowley a head start in solving his puzzle, Hoang solved the puzzle first and saved his tribe from Tribal Council.

Hoang made the merge and was in the merged tribe, named Nobag, a name that he coined himself.^[24] He wanted to seem like a weaker player, when in reality, he was the mastermind of some of the most important votes. He was the fifth-place finisher, and sixth member of the jury. In the Final Tribal Council, he voted for Susie Smith, who placed second behind Crowley, in the vote for Sole Survivor.^[25]

Personal life

Hoang was born on October 10, 1985.^[1] Hoang's family is Vietnamese.^[2] Ken attended California State University, Long Beach where he completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration.^[26] He credits his earnings from playing Super Smash Bros Melee for financing him through college.^{[citation needed]}