ChuDat

ChuDat at Super Smash Con in August 2017. Photo by Preston Kwan.

Player Information

Name:

Daniel Rodriguez

Nationality:

United States

Born:

January 16, 1987 (age 39)

Years Active:

2004 - 2025

Alternate IDs:

Chu

Approx. Total Winnings:

$35,897

Super Smash Bros.

Current Mains:

Kirby

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Current Mains:

Ice Climbers

Former Mains:

Fox

Secondaries:

Young Link

Jigglypuff

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Current Mains:

Kirby

Project M

Current Mains:

Kirby

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Current Mains:

Cloud

Former Mains:

Sheik

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Current Mains:

Pokémon Trainer

Mii Gunner

Links

Achievements

Melee:

History

2006-??-?? — ????-??-??

Carbon

2014-05-26 — 2015-06-22

Mortality

2015-10-10 — 2016-06-27

ROOT Gaming

2016-07-14 — 2017-06-13

VGBootCamp

2017-06-14 — 2026-01-10

Team Liquid

Daniel "ChuDat" Rodriguez is a Melee Ice Climbers main from the Mid-Atlantic United States, and previously Southern California. He is largely regarded as one of the best Ice Climbers players in history, and remains the only person to have won a major using Ice Climbers with a first place at Pound 2 in 2007.

A veteran who started competing in 2003 and was considered a top 10 player for most of the following decade, he is credited with pushing the early Ice Climbers metagame. He remains one of only three Ice Climbers mains to have reached grand finals of a major, and is the Ice Climbers main to have done so the most with nine major grand finals between 2005 and 2017, including five times in 2006 alone. He was ranked 63rd in SSBMRank 2022.

Biography

ChuDat began competing in local Virginia tournaments with his, at the time, unusual main of Ice Climbers. At one tournament, he met and quickly befriended the members of the crew, Ha Ha You Lose (H2YL) such as Chillindude. He was soon recruited to join the crew. Upon competing and placing third at Tournament Go 6 in California exclusively with Ice Climbers, he became even more recognizable for his unique play with a fairly unrepresented character. After continuing to place very well in locals and majors, ChuDat moved to Southern California to live and compete alongside legendary player Ken and his family, after ChuDat started dating Ken's sister. While living in California, he continued to place extremely well in tournaments, but the price was his friendship with the members of H2YL. He regularly placed second to Ken at various MLG tournaments. His place in Ken's crew didn't last forever, as ChuDat was feeling pushed to the brink in the household, and felt that he couldn't try his best at tournaments against Ken because he would be shunned if he won. He eventually left California and moved back to Virginia, where he reconnected with the members of H2YL.

In 2006, ChuDat was one of several smash players who were sponsored by Carbon, an esports organization that originally focused on Halo.^[1]^[2] It is not known when this sponsorship lapsed, as MLG slowly phased Smash out of its Pro Circuit in 2007. Wife has also asserted that Smash players ultimately benefited very little from the sponsorship.^[3]

After a hiatus from Melee, he returned to compete after the release of The Smash Brothers documentary, (which he was heavily featured in) and quickly rose back to one of the top players in his region.

On May 26th, 2014, ChuDat was picked up by Mortality eSports, as their first Smash Bros. player. On June 22, 2015, ChuDat announced that he was no longer part of Mortality.^[4] Around the same time, he was let go from his day job. Due to this, he could not afford to attend EVO 2015. Through a crowdfunding campaign by Facebook group Melee Hell (MH) via a GoFundMe page, ChuDat was able to go. At EVO 2015, ChuDat was able to defeat numerous high-caliber players including KirbyKaze, Silent Wolf, Westballz, and HugS. He ultimately qualified for Top 8 at the event, but was knocked out of the tournament by Mango.

Although not attending January 2016's GENESIS 3, ChuDat still gained highly ranked wins, defeating both HugS and Westballz again when they traveled to his home region in early 2016. Then, at Pound 2016, ChuDat placed 17th, where he defeated Axe. A few months later, ChuDat placed 7th at CEO 2016, including wins over Alex19, Gahtzu, and Druggedfox, where he lost in Game 5 to Shroomed.

Only a few days after his Top 8 placing at CEO 2016, Root Gaming closed its Smash division, thus parting ways with ChuDat. One month later on July 14th, 2016, it was announced that Chu would become a part of the VGBootCamp Pro Team.^[5] He left the team on June 13, 2017.^[6]

At Heir 3 in August of 2016, ChuDat made history by becoming the first Ice Climbers player in recorded history to take a tournament match from Armada. Armada previously had a completely spotless record versus all Ice Climbers players, playing the highly advantaged Peach vs Ice Climbers matchup, until ChuDat took Game 1 of their Winners Quarters set on Final Destination.

On June 14, 2017, it was announced that Chu joined Team Liquid.^[7]

Team Liquid parted ways with ChuDat, Ken, and Chillindude on January 9, 2026.^[8]

Results

Melee

Recent Notable Wins

Wins over players ranked in SSBMRank 2024:

Rank 94 - bonfire10

2025-11-02 | 3 : 2 at VacationLAN 2025

Ultimate

Brawl

Recent Notable Wins

Wins over players ranked in SSBBRank 2014:

Rank 37 - Seagull Joe

2016-09-25 | | 3 : 0 at Glitch 2
2016-09-25 | | 3 : 0 at Glitch 2

Rank 83 - K9sbruce

2014-01-19 | W : L at Apex 2014

Project M

Wii U

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