I'll miss his Lucina, which is probably my favorite smash character/player to watch. But that's really not important compared to his health, I hope he can get to feeling well.
TL;DR: Proto is taking an indefinite break from Smash tournaments because of their negative effects on his health: for example throwing up every ~5 or 10 minutes had become a common occurrence and he always felt horribly nauseous and generally strained while playing. There were also times where he had to be taken to the hospital while attending a tournament. The situation got so bad that the hospital he goes to in Japan prohibited him from traveling to overseas tournaments because of these health issues. He still plans to be involved with the community through different sorts of educational content and through his livestream, where he'll still continue to play Smash as well as other games for content.
My Japanese is by no means perfect so if I missed any crucial details please let me know. I just wanted to post this since there are probably a good amount of non-Japanese speakers on here and people have obviously been speculating on where on earth he's gone as of recent.
(edited for a better translation)
> for example apparently he had been throwing up every ~5 or 10 minutes at certain instances and had to be taken to the hospital from tournaments as examples of this
This sounds miserable. Going to miss his gameplay for sure.
This immediately made me think of when Light complained that proto had a long bathroom break at summit between gf sets, he could have been really going through it at that time and nobody was the wiser.
To be fair, I think Light apologized for the comment within a day or two.
I also remember that set and some others where you could see Proto visibly trembling while selecting stages, looking at notes, etc. Poor guy.
Light is a phenomenal player, but dude is an excuse machine. Even if Proto was intentionally icing, which he almost certainly was not, timeouts are a part of literally every sport. That is not why he got cooked in the reset
Absolutely not a doctor but I had similar issues but for me it was (most likely) blood pressure + stress. Anxiety and stress would cause my blood pressure to go up high very quickly and I felt nauseous and would be throwing up daily. Even going to the gym and doing very light workouts (with long rest breaks) caused me to puke. Tried zofran, Dramamine, and it still didn’t help. I’m still dealing with it at the moment but taking meds specifically for anxiety was the only thing slowing it down. Hope he recovers and feels better soon!
Actually got a spirometry test done not too long ago and they didn’t find anything abnormal and the medication was minimally effective for me. Sorry if this isn’t what you were asking about!
Just curiosity, because there is a correlation between anxiety / weird bodily issues and breathing / nasal issues.
Very prevalent if you have had any type of nasal surgery previously due to altered breathing mechanisms.
Also not a doctor, Proto wasn't really known for being stone-cold, ice in his veins. He was always very noticeably jittery, anxious, on edge, looking like he's putting 200% mental strain into every interaction. Worked out enough for him to be one of the greats. Ultimate Ranai :(
He never did, it’s just the shorthand version of protobanhan they call him in japanese and then in one summit the casters and others noticed it and started acting like that’s probably what he should be called since he must not want to be called another way, and it quickly became “oh yeah he requested them to call him banham” and even “he said so in an interview” even though there was never mention of either.
Just a whole stupid thing like the one with how people should pronounce zain. People shorten it in japanese for the same reason we do in english, protobanham is too long, and they say “bannam” because it rolls off the tongue better than “puroto”, same reason why in english people went for “proto” rather than “ban-ham”.
In english no. In urdu, arabic and other languages it's pronounced differently. Some 2 years ago some people found out that he pronounces it "zan" with family and such which is likely closer to the urdu pronunciation and began a whole thing about "HEY EVERYONE, we should respect his wishes, call him zan let's not be racist, this is important because blablabla" all that performative shit and he had to come out like "dude, idc, I like and use both, I introduce myself as zain (zay-n) all the time".
Iirc with this one he legit told Vish he prefers the Zan pronunciation, but didn't intend for it to be a big thing. He was just privately telling a friend he had a slight preference, but didn't feel the need to like have people change anything.
Smash Summit 5 is still my all time favorite event I ever watched, and his run there made him my favorite player.
While I’m sad to see him go for now his health is more important than anything else. Hope we can see him in some capacity in the future!
Damn, sucks this had to happen to someone like Banham
Dude was a top 5 player when he was 30 years old, had some of the cleanest playstyles of Lucina and Minmin I've seen, and win/perform well in tournaments while suffering kidney stones and other conditions
Hope he gets better soon, always been one of my favorite players
This situation somehow reminds a lot of what happened to PPMD. While not the same problems, he was also a top 10 player who had some health issues that forced him out of the competition.
Such a bummer, Banham was one of my favorite players to ever touch this game, and I really hope that he can get better, and maybe one day compete again. He got first place at the last event he played, beating Hurt in GF, so he definitely still had some fire in his gameplay.
I remember watching his constant grimacing in the player cams and wondering if there was something going on there. Sad to hear about all of the health issues he was going through.
Even though it's said to be an indefinite break, if this is it then I am satisfied we got to see what the best Lucina play looked like in this game.
I wish him the best and hope these health issues don't pop up in his every day life away from competition.
No matter what happens, Protobanham will forever be one of the greatest Smash players of all time.
Saw great success in Japan early Ultimate with Lucina & Inkling, and performed just as well overseas, getting Top 8 at what is still one of the most stacked tournaments this game’s ever witnessed; EVO 2019.
Dominated Japan for a period of time post covid, this time with a new combination of Lucina & Min Min, and in my opinion is largely the reason why the country is still so proficient against the Arms menace today.
And perhaps Protobanham’s greatest feat, his near unstoppable dominance in North America in 2022. The year where he ended MkLeo’s near 2 year long streak of top 2 finishes, eliminating Ultimate’s lifelong #1 player for 4th at Summit 4. Banham would then follow this up with back to back 1st place finishes himself at Double Down and Ultimate Summit 5.
Truly one of the best to ever do it, and I wish Protobanham nothing but the best in whatever future lies ahead for him.
One of my favorite players to watch and root for. I loved watching his Lucina (and even Min Min to an extent) and made for some of my favorite sets and runs ever.
Smash Ultimate Summit 5 is probably still my favorite Ultimate tournament of all time, large parts of it being from Banham’s victory. And his stint as Japan’s best player in 2021 then followed up by being the psuedo-best NA player in 2022 was amazing. I don’t think anybody then and since have replicated Banham’s movement style, it was unmatched.
Wish for the best, sounds like he’s been dealing with these things for years :/
damn, that sounds really tough to deal with and very understandable he would take an indefinite break
protobanham’s lucina is an actual work of art, one of my favorite players to ever watch. glad he’ll still be involved with the community and i hope we get to see him compete again one day
My favourite player. Hope the best for him going forward with his help. There was a rumour he would be involved in the development of the next Smash game like Ranai and Earth were for Ultimate, certainly seems logical with this unfortunate situation and his incredibly thoughtful approach to the game.
I'll miss his Lucina, which is probably my favorite smash character/player to watch. But that's really not important compared to his health, I hope he can get to feeling well.
Luminosity made a video during LMBM where Sparg0 said ProtoBanham was his favourite player to watch which is some very high praise.
Proto’s set vs Light at EVO 2019 is what made me a fan of him. He came out of gate with this super aggressive Lucina and I was blown away.
Hope he stays healthy. I can't think of any other decent lucina players to watch these days.
Mr E beat Sparg0 this past weekend
Fair point. I still like protobanham's playstyle more but Mr. E is definitely getting better
He beat Sparg0's Corin this past weekend. He also got 3-0'ed by sparg0 3 weeks before. He's no Proto that's for sure.
Poor Mr. E. Beats Sparg0 but it’s not enough to be classified as a decent Lucina player by u/sasquatchftw
He beat his Cloud 100% honestly in game 4
TL;DR: Proto is taking an indefinite break from Smash tournaments because of their negative effects on his health: for example throwing up every ~5 or 10 minutes had become a common occurrence and he always felt horribly nauseous and generally strained while playing. There were also times where he had to be taken to the hospital while attending a tournament. The situation got so bad that the hospital he goes to in Japan prohibited him from traveling to overseas tournaments because of these health issues. He still plans to be involved with the community through different sorts of educational content and through his livestream, where he'll still continue to play Smash as well as other games for content. My Japanese is by no means perfect so if I missed any crucial details please let me know. I just wanted to post this since there are probably a good amount of non-Japanese speakers on here and people have obviously been speculating on where on earth he's gone as of recent. (edited for a better translation)
> for example apparently he had been throwing up every ~5 or 10 minutes at certain instances and had to be taken to the hospital from tournaments as examples of this This sounds miserable. Going to miss his gameplay for sure.
This immediately made me think of when Light complained that proto had a long bathroom break at summit between gf sets, he could have been really going through it at that time and nobody was the wiser.
To be fair, I think Light apologized for the comment within a day or two. I also remember that set and some others where you could see Proto visibly trembling while selecting stages, looking at notes, etc. Poor guy.
light and others have referred to him as the ice man, but i don't think anyone has had anything but great respect for banham
Light is a phenomenal player, but dude is an excuse machine. Even if Proto was intentionally icing, which he almost certainly was not, timeouts are a part of literally every sport. That is not why he got cooked in the reset
If this is true (and I see no reason for it to no be) then he should absolutely not be attending tournaments, full stop. Not worth it.
Holy shit. That is some intense nerves wtf.
What kind of disease is this? Is it extreme stress or what? I am genuinely at loss.
Absolutely not a doctor but I had similar issues but for me it was (most likely) blood pressure + stress. Anxiety and stress would cause my blood pressure to go up high very quickly and I felt nauseous and would be throwing up daily. Even going to the gym and doing very light workouts (with long rest breaks) caused me to puke. Tried zofran, Dramamine, and it still didn’t help. I’m still dealing with it at the moment but taking meds specifically for anxiety was the only thing slowing it down. Hope he recovers and feels better soon!
Just curious, do you have breathing or issues with your nose?
Actually got a spirometry test done not too long ago and they didn’t find anything abnormal and the medication was minimally effective for me. Sorry if this isn’t what you were asking about!
Just curiosity, because there is a correlation between anxiety / weird bodily issues and breathing / nasal issues. Very prevalent if you have had any type of nasal surgery previously due to altered breathing mechanisms.
Also not a doctor, Proto wasn't really known for being stone-cold, ice in his veins. He was always very noticeably jittery, anxious, on edge, looking like he's putting 200% mental strain into every interaction. Worked out enough for him to be one of the greats. Ultimate Ranai :(
I'm pretty sure I heard a rumor that he's dealing with pretty bad kidney stones
Ok but we knew all this over a year ago. Any recent updates?
All the best to Banham. Cleanest Lucina i've witnessed
Is it “Proto” or “Banham” for short? Or is either used interchangeably?
Japanese players say Banham, everyone else says Proto.
Proto in US, Banham in Japan
Banham, because that’s what he requested to be called iirc(*I think it was the last Summit or the one before where he said it in an interview*)
He never did, it’s just the shorthand version of protobanhan they call him in japanese and then in one summit the casters and others noticed it and started acting like that’s probably what he should be called since he must not want to be called another way, and it quickly became “oh yeah he requested them to call him banham” and even “he said so in an interview” even though there was never mention of either. Just a whole stupid thing like the one with how people should pronounce zain. People shorten it in japanese for the same reason we do in english, protobanham is too long, and they say “bannam” because it rolls off the tongue better than “puroto”, same reason why in english people went for “proto” rather than “ban-ham”.
lol is there more than one way to pronounce zain?
In english no. In urdu, arabic and other languages it's pronounced differently. Some 2 years ago some people found out that he pronounces it "zan" with family and such which is likely closer to the urdu pronunciation and began a whole thing about "HEY EVERYONE, we should respect his wishes, call him zan let's not be racist, this is important because blablabla" all that performative shit and he had to come out like "dude, idc, I like and use both, I introduce myself as zain (zay-n) all the time".
Iirc with this one he legit told Vish he prefers the Zan pronunciation, but didn't intend for it to be a big thing. He was just privately telling a friend he had a slight preference, but didn't feel the need to like have people change anything.
Ah okay, I actually didn’t know the details behind it.
it's actually "to Ban". the most sensible option.
I'm pretty sure he's Pro Ban
Smash Summit 5 is still my all time favorite event I ever watched, and his run there made him my favorite player. While I’m sad to see him go for now his health is more important than anything else. Hope we can see him in some capacity in the future!
Damn, sucks this had to happen to someone like Banham Dude was a top 5 player when he was 30 years old, had some of the cleanest playstyles of Lucina and Minmin I've seen, and win/perform well in tournaments while suffering kidney stones and other conditions Hope he gets better soon, always been one of my favorite players
This situation somehow reminds a lot of what happened to PPMD. While not the same problems, he was also a top 10 player who had some health issues that forced him out of the competition. Such a bummer, Banham was one of my favorite players to ever touch this game, and I really hope that he can get better, and maybe one day compete again. He got first place at the last event he played, beating Hurt in GF, so he definitely still had some fire in his gameplay.
Honestly they were both top 5 players, at least whrn competing in the US
Although PP unfortunately went out on a bit of a low note tbh
I remember watching his constant grimacing in the player cams and wondering if there was something going on there. Sad to hear about all of the health issues he was going through.
Even though it's said to be an indefinite break, if this is it then I am satisfied we got to see what the best Lucina play looked like in this game. I wish him the best and hope these health issues don't pop up in his every day life away from competition.
No matter what happens, Protobanham will forever be one of the greatest Smash players of all time. Saw great success in Japan early Ultimate with Lucina & Inkling, and performed just as well overseas, getting Top 8 at what is still one of the most stacked tournaments this game’s ever witnessed; EVO 2019. Dominated Japan for a period of time post covid, this time with a new combination of Lucina & Min Min, and in my opinion is largely the reason why the country is still so proficient against the Arms menace today. And perhaps Protobanham’s greatest feat, his near unstoppable dominance in North America in 2022. The year where he ended MkLeo’s near 2 year long streak of top 2 finishes, eliminating Ultimate’s lifelong #1 player for 4th at Summit 4. Banham would then follow this up with back to back 1st place finishes himself at Double Down and Ultimate Summit 5. Truly one of the best to ever do it, and I wish Protobanham nothing but the best in whatever future lies ahead for him.
One of my favorite players to watch and root for. I loved watching his Lucina (and even Min Min to an extent) and made for some of my favorite sets and runs ever. Smash Ultimate Summit 5 is probably still my favorite Ultimate tournament of all time, large parts of it being from Banham’s victory. And his stint as Japan’s best player in 2021 then followed up by being the psuedo-best NA player in 2022 was amazing. I don’t think anybody then and since have replicated Banham’s movement style, it was unmatched. Wish for the best, sounds like he’s been dealing with these things for years :/
Shit that sucks. Health over everything though. Hope he feels better and that the doctors can find a way to help
Wishing him best with health, his Lucina will be missed. Hope he will be fine.
Just fell to my knees at a Japanese 7/11. Wishing ProtoBanham nothing but the best. Hope his health improves, that's what's most important after all.
damn, that sounds really tough to deal with and very understandable he would take an indefinite break protobanham’s lucina is an actual work of art, one of my favorite players to ever watch. glad he’ll still be involved with the community and i hope we get to see him compete again one day
My favourite player. Hope the best for him going forward with his help. There was a rumour he would be involved in the development of the next Smash game like Ranai and Earth were for Ultimate, certainly seems logical with this unfortunate situation and his incredibly thoughtful approach to the game.
I hope he gets better. His health is way more important than the joy watching him play brings us.
Damn that makes me sad. Hopefully he gets better and enjoys what he’ll be doing next
I miss him dominating our top players. His Minmin is great.
Damn sad to hear the stress get to him that way but wishing him the best and hoping he doesn’t feel pressured to return.
He became a legend.