Survivor Gabon’s Ken Hoang demolishes teens in Smash Bros. Ultimate
Ken Hoang was known as the King of Smash long before competing in Survivor: Gabon, and now he’s back as a secret pro for the React YouTube channel.
It seems like, at an ever-increasing rate, Survivor has been overlapping with video games. We just discussed the end of a former player’s attempt at creating a Kickstarter-funded mobile game, and now Survivor Gabon’s Ken Hoang is featured on one of the biggest YouTube channels; React.
It was touched on during his season that he was a professional gamer, but he’s likely a much bigger deal in esports than he is in Survivor (as cruel as that is). He used to play Marth for the majority of his time playing Super Smash Bros. Melee, innovating the competitive scene with the Ken Combo that really changed the game on his way to becoming the King of Smash during the mid-2000s.
Of course, he still looks fairly despite being 33, so the React channel thought it would be funny to bring him on as one of the newest teens in the Teens React subseries as he faced off against everyone in a match of the just-released Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Needless to say, the teens involved were in for a rude awakening!
During the first match, Ken pretended that he wasn’t familiar with the game, taking characters such as Simon Belmont and Ganondorf before beating most players by a stock count of 3-0. To even out the odds, on the second round, the non-professional teens got to pick the character Ken had to play. It didn’t matter in the end, as years of professional play helped him adapt to the challenge.
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As someone who runs a sister video game website, it’s always great to see the Survivor and video game worlds collide. Though Ken is a better Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player than he is a Survivor player (that’s not an insult, by the way), it would be amazing to see him come back in a Second Chance or full classic returnee season.