Jared Hubbard wakes up at the crack of dawn. The 20-year-old drives four hours across North Carolina and the southern United States to compete. He wins every single match, and takes home money.

His uniform is a collared shirt and khaki pants. It’s not a traditional sport he plays in, and he’s not a normal athlete. He plays a video game – Super Smash Brothers Wii U.

“There was a little tournament in Wilmington with no major threats, and I won that pretty easily,” said Hubbard.

Super Smash Brothers is cute-lite version of Mortal Kombat and was created by video game company Nintendo, one of the top three gaming companies in the world, competing with Sony and Microsoft, in the market worth tens of billions of dollars.

The twist in this fighting game is that Nintendo uses its characters such as Mario the plumber, Pikachu the yellow, lightning-shooting mouse from Pokémon, and sword-wielding warrior Link from The Legend of Zelda to fight one another. The goal of the game is simple – damage your opponent, knock them off the stage, and deplete their lives. The series was first introduced on the Nintendo 64 console in 1999, and now has five total installments. Over its lifespan it has sold 39 million copies.

Hubbard plays the latest version, and in its fourth year since release he has played in dozens of tournaments and thousands of matches. He’s LazyBored0m, at least to the Super Smash Brothers Community in the eastern portion of North Carolina.

“I remember getting the Xbox 360 for Christmas, and signing up for Xbox live that evening,” said Hubbard. “I don’t know why I specifically chose LazyBored0m, but I remember my mother going “really?” and I just kept it from there.” Now everyone knows the name LazyBored0m – Hubbard is one of the top-10 players in the state.

His first competitive gaming experience was in League of Legends, not Super Smash Brothers. League of Legends is fantasy game where a team of monsters and armor-clad heroes have to destroy another team’s base. He was ready for something else. Super Smash Brothers served as a graduation step for him.

“I saw the new Smash was coming out, so I decided to just go all in for that.”

Before he went to tournaments in person, he had played over 10,000 matches of Super Smash Brothers online.

“I used to participate in online tournaments as well. I played fairly well in them, so I started looking around here in North Carolina for Smash tournaments.”

North Carolina has tournaments that vary in size from eight people to 150 and take place all over the state. The loud clack of the controllers. The sound of Pikachu’s lightning zapping Mario. A PA system announcing the next fight. The atmosphere of a tournament is a gamer’s paradise.

He practices for tournaments by fighting his friends in “friendlies,” which are casual matches to hone your skills. When his friends aren’t available, he’ll fight against computerized foes. Hours are spent practicing, even though tourney matches are in six minute bursts. When he’s ready, he goes to tournaments.

Tournaments have large group of players going head-to-head as you work your way up to the top. If you win, you advance. The more wins, the more likely you are to become number one, winning the cash prize and notoriety throughout the community.

Wilmington’s Phil Register, 16, is a junior at Hoggard High School, sets up most of the tournaments in town.

“I’ve been put into more stressful leadership positions during tournaments than I have in leading patrols in the Boy Scouts,” said Register. “Hosting really requires a love for the community more than anything.” Register is also one of the best players in the state, on top of school work and tournament planning. He’s Hubbard’s biggest competition in Wilmington, and takes second place on a consistent basis.

“Compared to other players, he’s [Hubbard] more calculated,” said Matt Kessinger, 21, of Wilmington. Kessinger is the fourth best player in Wilmington according to the rankings done by Register. Kessinger is usually on the offensive, but against Hubbard he has to go on the defense.

“You have to be on your toes, change your own habits, and get on his level,” he said.

Hubbard’s real secret to winning?

“He never does the same thing twice,” said Kessinger, “His habits are constantly changing.” Picking different characters is one way Hubbard likes to confuse his opponents. Opponents who study Hubbard’s normal habits will be surprised, because Hubbard will choose a character people didn’t know he could play. All Hubbard has to do is fight a confused and panicked player and secure his win.

Hubbard’s best tournament was last month at the Meteor Smash competition in Winston-Salem. He was against 50 other players, making it a large tournament. He started playing at 11 a.m. By 10:30 p.m., he had beaten over nine of the tournament’s best players, and was on his last set of two out of three matches. His opponent had taken all but one of Hubbard’s lives, and that’s when he made the comeback.

Hubbard had only one life left. He had to win.

“Through some well-timed attacks, I managed to take two lives off my opponent,” said Hubbard. “I could already tell I had gotten in my opponent’s head, and he began playing worse and a bit desperate.” Hubbard won, but had to face his opponent once more to break the tie. At his final match of the set, the unexpected happened.

Hubbard took a life off the opponent who expected to win.

“He angrily quit the game before I even had taken all of his lives,” said Hubbard. Then the player committed one of the worst breaches of etiquette: he got up, refused to shake Hubbard’s hand, and walked off the stage in front of the large audience. Hubbard’s bearded auburn was stoic, but he knew he just got $350 richer.

Anger and disrespect in Super Smash Brothers tournaments is a rare thing. The community is not about being cutthroat.

“Everyone is friendly with each other, and aside from a few specific people, everyone is friends,” said Hubbard. “As far as I know, other fighting game communities don’t tend to be as friendly as at least the North Carolina Super Smash Brothers Wii U community.” Other competitive video game communities have participants who refuse to handshake their opponents. Sometimes they will trash-talk; other times they will walk out of the venue. But the Super Smash Brothers community shares a comradery, respecting one another no matter how bad someone lost a match.

“I slowly became friends with a lot of people,” said Hubbard. “The me three years ago wouldn’t have wanted to go to restaurants after tournaments to converse and have fun, and now I find myself actually a bit disappointed when that doesn’t happen.

“If I didn’t do this, I’d probably be a recluse who never bothered to make any friends,” said Hubbard, “and while still playing video games, probably wouldn’t be as satisfied with life as I am now.”