In a strange turn of events, the fifth character of the second DLC for Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers Ultimate fighting game has been announced as none other than Clemson’s own Trevor Lawrence. Though the game has traditionally relegated itself to only including characters who were a part of an original video game franchise, Masahiro Sakurai said that an exception had to be made to include Clemson’s former quarterback as he will soon enter the NFL.
Alternative skins will include different uniforms (such as the military appreciation uniforms) and others who filled the position of quarterback at the same time as Lawrence, such as Chase Brice and Kelly Bryant. The new character’s release, however, will be delayed until Lawrence has been drafted by an NFL team.
Sakurai has, however, already created his usual video showcasing Lawrence’s moveset:
Special moves
Lawrence has a wide variety of special attacks, mostly related to football skills.
His down special is a spin move, allowing him to dodge enemy attacks. The move lasts for much longer than a spot dodge, but also allows for immediate input of a follow-up move, which allows for him to punish characters who use moves with longer end lag.
Much like Terry, Lawrence’s side specials change depending on the direction of the input move, but they are much more similar. For both side specials, he throws a football that follows a trajectory, but for the back special, he first takes a couple of shuffle steps backward. For the back special, he is more vulnerable to attack, but his throw provides much more power and is easier to aim. The trajectory of the move can be varied with some directional input during the throwing frames. This move can be cancelled by a down special.
For his recovery, his up special, he does a high vertical jump, further than his regular jumps. This move is not a very strong recovery but it does have some advantages for dodging characters and starting combos, as aerials, jumps and other moves can be input afterward.
For his neutral special, he wields a gun.
Smash, tilt and aerial attacks
Lawrence doesn’t have much variety in his “A” button attacks. His smash attacks and tilt attacks are the same, but with different frame data, and his ariels don’t provide much of a difference either.
For Lawrence’s up attack, he throws a football into the air, almost straight up. The tilt attack is more of a lob, whereas the smash and aerials are much more powerful, go straight up and do not come back down.
As a down attack, Lawrence spikes a ball into the ground. For the smash attack variant, however, he does a brief dance immediately after, during which he is invulnerable.
For a forward attack, Lawrence throws the ball in a straight line forward. For the smash attack, it travels a distance and with a strength dependent on how long the charge is. For the tilt and aerial attacks, it is like a shovel pass.
When inputting an attack move in the opposite direction, Lawrence does a “handoff” which gives the player hit by the move a football, and forces them to run the length of half of the Final Destination stage, which can run them off the edge, or if input properly, right out of the blast zone. The tilt variant cannot put the opponent out of the blast zone, they stop at the edge. Increasing charge time on the smash variant can increase the distance by up to 1.5 times.
When asked about his inclusion, Lawrence and the other included players were “surprised but stoked.” Lawrence said he would actually go out and buy a Nintendo Switch, a copy of the game and himself, and he would main himself. “I’m pretty sure I’m a hard Little Mac and Pyra counter pick.” It seems, however, that he won’t even have to do this; Nintendo has announced that they will be providing a package that includes all of this to each member of the Clemson Football Team, and has also announced a series of raffles, giving away ten a day to Clemson students and one a day to alumni every day until Trevor is picked in the draft (which will also be when the character releases).
