User:The Squirrel Conspiracy/sandbox/2

Eric Lew (born November 17, 1992), also known as ESAM, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player. He has competed in five Smash titles – Melee, Brawl, Project M, Wii U, and Ultimate. In the Panda Global Rankings, he was ranked the 17th best Super Smash Bros. for Wii U player of all time, and was ranked the 16th and 14th best Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player in the world for the first and second halves of 2019, respectively.

ESAM uses Pikachu as his primary character in Brawl, Wii U, and Ultimate, as well as in "low tier" competitions in Melee. He uses Samus Aran as his primary character in Melee and Project M, and as his secondary in Ultimate. He is regarded as the best Pikachu player in the world in both Wii U and Ultimate.

Early Career
ESAM began competing in Super Smash Bros. Melee in 2005. His first tournament result came in 2008, where he tied for 13th at a small Orlando, Florida tournament, FAST 1. He continued to compete in Melee after other Super Smash Bros. titles were released, competing in both Melee and the newer title at the same event; notable placings include 4th at Low Tier City 4 in 2016, tied for 5th at Tipped Off 11 in 2015, and tied for 9th at DreamHack Montreal 2017.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl released in 2008, and ESAM had a number of strong placings in that game. He took 4th at Major League Gaming's MLG Orlando 2010, then 8th at MLG Columbus 2010. The following year he tied for 9th at GENESIS 2. He took 4th at APEX 2012, and took 2nd at SKATAR later that year. The following year he took 13th at APEX 2013 and 7th at SKATAR 2, and in 2014 he finished 3rd at both APEX 2014 and SKATAR 3. Following the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U in 2014, ESAM competed in both Brawl and Wii U at Super SmashCon 2015, taking 2nd at both. ESAM also competed in Project M, a fan mod of Brawl, at several events. In 2014, he took 9th at APEX 2014, 4th at SKATAR 3, 9th at CEO 2014, and 5th at Tipped Off 10. He repeated his 5th place finish at Tipped Off 11 the following year. His last major Project M competition was at Smashadeplhia 2017, where he tied for 17th.

In addition to Smash titles, ESAM also competed in the fighting game Divekick, and won the Divekick tournament at CEO 2014.

Characters
Although he is best known for using Pikachu in competitive play, ESAM originally used Samus Aran in Super Smash Bros. 64 and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He gravitated towards the character because his father's favorite game was Super Metroid for the SNES, and ESAM grew up watching his father player it. ESAM's handle is a portmanteau of Eric and Samus; he chose it after he began playing Melee, which had a four-character limit for in-game player names. ESAM also used Fox McCloud and Pikachu in Melee, and used the latter specifically for "low tier" tournaments; competitions where players were only allowed to select characters that the community considered weaker options.

When Super Smash Bros. Brawl released, he found it difficult to use Samus or Fox in the new game, but found he had an affinity for Pikachu. In an interview, ESAM stated that he saw himself as a "pioneer" and "innovator" with Pikachu, and went on to say "I've been doing all the broken stuff. I've been figuring out most of the combos because of my creative mind with the character." He especially appreciates that Pikachu's high mobility allows the character to avoid taking damage in situations where other, less mobile characters would. Pikachu became significantly stronger in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and esports journalist Jacob Wolf called ESAM "at the forefront of a meteoric resurgence in the power of Pikachu" in the runup to Evo 2015. In Ultimate, Pikachu is considered one of the best characters in the game, and ESAM is considered the best Pikachu player in the world. ESAM readily admits that Pikachu is incredibly strong in Ultimate, and frequently calls the character "broken" or "busted". After his praise of the character became a meme, ESAM released a video of himself saying "Pikachu busted" for 10 minutes straight.

Personal Life
ESAM is from the Miami, Florida area. His older brother also played competitive Smash Bros. under the handle "Nick Riddle", and the pair frequently contested the same Brawl, Project M, Wii U events.

In April 2018, he and fellow professional Smash player Jestise "MVD" Negron, ESAM's frequent teammate in 2v2 competitions, moved from Miami to Norman, Oklahoma. He is engaged to fellow Smash player Kokiri.

He has a degree in genetics from Clemson University.