North American organization Team Liquid has signed Super Smash Bros. Melee player Daniel "ChuDat" Rodriguez, expanding Liquid's extensive esports portfolio, the team announced on Wednesday.
"We try to follow closely the results and careers of all the top Smashers, and so ChuDat's career is one that we've been interested in for a while now," Team Liquid player and project manager Brittany Lattanzio told ESPN. "Chu's results in the early part of 2017 have been consistent: He has been placing top 10 in just about every event he's competed in and he has shown that he has a lot of potential to grow. This is the primary reason we decided to ask Chu to join us."
Team Liquid came to a contract buyout agreement with ChuDat's former team, VGBootcamp, who has since signed Rishi Malhotra in his place. With the move, ChuDat will debut in a Liquid uniform on Friday at Community Effort Orlando against 291 other Super Smash Bros. Melee players.
The signing comes after ChuDat's recent surge in performance, including a second-place finish at DreamHack Austin in Austin, Texas, in April, when he took second place to Team Liquid's Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma. At that event, ChuDat defeated two of the game's historically best players, Joseph "Mang0" Marquez and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman.
ChuDat has also taken fifth at Yahoo's Smash Rivalries, seventh at Smash Summit Spring 2017, and ninth at Genesis 4. He believes his recent resurgence, which mirrors his top placements from 2003-2011, isn't just temporary.
"I definitely feel that my recent top placements put me at the top of [Smash]," ChuDat told ESPN. "I feel as if I'm able to beat anyone nowadays, my game play has improved dramatically and my mindset is at the best it's ever been, so I'm not surprised."
ChuDat continues to expand Team Liquid's Super Smash Bros. Melee roster, which notably hosts Hungrybox, Kashan "Chillin" Khan, and Ken "Ken" Hoang. ChuDat is best friends with Chillin, as both live in the Maryland-Virginia competitive area for Super Smash Bros. Like Chillin and Ken, ChuDat is one of the oldest players in the scene who has competed in the game for more than a decade.
"Our portfolio also includes other players who have made an impact on the Smash Melee community in some way," Lattanzio explained. "Chu's long standing presence in the scene, his contribution to the growth of the Melee community, and his legacy are an asset to Team Liquid Smash."
Team Liquid itself is one of the oldest organizations in esports, starting from a StarCraft guild in the early-2000s. The team has since merged with Team Curse in 2014, which was founded by American businessman Steve Arhancet. In 2016, the team sold the majority of its equity to an ownership group named aXiomatic, which is funded and co-owned by Golden State Warriors co-owner and Hollywood producer Peter Guber, Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, and Magic Johnson.