At a GameStop event in California earlier this month, a 10-year-old girl trashed pro-level opponents at a special Super Smash Bros. Wii U demo. Quickly proven fake, GameStop has explained how “Karissa the Destroyer” cleaned up.
Smash fans were more than a little ticked off when 10-year-old Karissa’s seemingly legendary Super Smash Bros. run proved, as many suspected, to be a hoax. An ad placed at a local talent agency looking for “ringers” surfaced soon after her legend began to grow. Still, some of the West Coast’s top players were taken in by the precocious youngster, who used her talents as a young actress to dole out some pretty convincing trash talk.
I emailed GameStop PR multiple times in the days following the debacle, requesting an explanation of the event. No response was given. Yesterday the company released the video at the top of this post, explaining how the stunt was pulled off.
Sequestered away in the back room of the GameStop was pro gamer Liquid’KDJ, whose Smash skills are indeed legendary. I’m guessing they used an HDMI splitter to get the game running on the two different screens, and Karissa smashed random buttons trying (and failing) to remember not take her hand off the controller to scratch her face in mid-battle.
I’m a little bit pissed, really. On one hand, I wanted Karissa’s skills to be real. On the other, when everyone started crying foul and fake, GameStop just quietly let it all pass in order to produce this pointless video. Bad form, GameStop.
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