North American multigame esports organization Team eLevate has signed Southern California player Larry "Larry Lurr" Holland as its first step into Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, just days before the summer's first major tournament, Community Effort Orlando. The team is also adding a new director of fighting games, Matt Sedowicz, who was previously a member of Noble Esports.
Larry Lurr is best known for playing an array of characters like Fox, Donkey Kong, Luigi, Mario, Sheik, Samus and Falco. He's best known for his Fox and Donkey Kong and is considered the best competitive Fox player in Smash for Wii U.
Larry tells ESPN that he's "ecstatic" to compete under the eLevate banner and represent the organization in a new community. "I chose eLevate because they are a supportive and nice group," he said. "Even though there are no huge Smash experts on the team, they try to understand the game, ask me questions about the current meta, and are willing to learn about it. That really stuck out to me."
Larry Lurr is currently ranked the seventh-best player in the world at Smash for Wii U, according to global rankings released by Panda Global last month. He's under the likes of Team SoloMid's Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios, Team Liquid's Nairoby "Nairo" Quezada, and other top players. Additionally, he's taken top-eight finishes at major tournaments such as Pound 2016, Genesis 3, and CEO 2015. He'll look to continue moving up the ranks beginning this weekend at CEO 2016, which starts on Friday, June 24.
"[Larry] brings a combination of professionalism, maturity and high-energy play that makes him a delight to watch," Team eLevate CEO Brandon Hatfield tells ESPN about the new signing. "His recent win [over ZeRo at 2GGT: Mexico Saga] and his obviously high-skill ceiling shows what he's capable of, and his experience and profile within the fighting game community really gives us an opportunity to build a solid presence there, something that we have been working for the past year."
Larry is currently ranked the second-best player in Southern California, only below Counter Logic Gaming's James "VoiD" Makekau-Tyson, who is a top-20 player in the world. Prior to competing in Smash for Wii U, Larry Lurr was known as a Super Smash Bros. Brawl player. Like many other players of that game, he moved to Smash for Wii U upon its release due to the underlying competitive weaknesses -- tripping and the overpowered strength of Meta Knight -- of Brawl that many players expressed dislike of. In Brawl, he mained Falco, and adopted the name "Does Everyone Hate Falco?" (shortened to DEHF) for a short period of time.
Before expanding to Smash Bros, eLevate competed in the likes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty, SMITE, Gears of War, Halo, Overwatch, Starcraft 2, and Rainbow Six. Its most popular ventures are in Starcraft 2, Overwatch and Call of Duty, taking second place at the latter game's biggest yearly tournament MLG Anaheim last week.