A professional Smash Bros player and tournament organizer has joined the cast for the 49th season of Survivor, months after another Smasher made waves on Jeopardy.
Jason Treul, better known as Jason Waterfalls in the Smash scene, is the 90th best Project M player of all time and known for his Zero Suit Samus skills.
If you’ve never heard of Project M, there’s a good reason why. It’s a mod of Super Smash Bros Brawl on the Wii that essentially made the game less casual and more like Melee on the GameCube.
Despite being a mod, Project M has a fairly strong following, and while there have been much better Smash alternatives in the years since then like Smash 4 and Ultimate, it has held strong in its place as a popular platform fighter.
During the Survivor 49 season premiere, Waterfalls couldn’t help but dig into the specifics about the game.
Smash player gushes over Brawl mod on Survivor
When Waterfalls was asked if he was a professional gamer, the ZSS main stayed humble, but truthful.
“Yeah, I mean, I competed and I’ve won money, but I’m not…” Jason began before the others cut him off, convinced he was describing a professional gamer.
Waterfalls was then asked about what his game of choice is, to which he delved into Project M.
“I play Super Smash Brothers,” he said, getting a big reaction from the group. “I love Melee, but I play Project M, which is a mod to make it play like Melee.”
“Nerd talk, I love it!” one of the other contestants exclaimed.
As it turns out, Waterfalls only got into Survivor because of another Smash player who joined the reality TV show, Ken ‘SephirothKen’ Hoang, who was at one point considered the best Melee player in the world.
“He was the king of Smash! He was my hero growing up,” Jason told Parade. “I had no idea really what Survivor was. I kind of knew, because it was a global phenomenon or whatever. But Ken was really what drew me in. And when I saw it, and I, kind of saw it through that Smash lens, I’m like, ‘How does a gamer play this game?’ And he got f**king far. He made the finale!”
We’ll have to see how far Waterfalls can go, but he isn’t the only Smash player to have made waves competing on a major TV show.
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