That One Player

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Of course, the problem with playing alone is that when you do finally get your mates around, suddenly you turn into that guy. Don't pretend you don't know what I mean. That guy who's so much better than everyone because he plays it on his own, the loser."'
—Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, on Super Smash Bros Brawl

That One Player describes someone who has played a game so much, discovered all the secrets, knows all the moves, hell, he might as well have gotten the timing down to the point where he plays with almost super human reflexes. However, this ruins the fun of everyone else who plays with or against that one guy because he's so skilled, he's either doing all the fun parts or able to take on an army of adversaries without breaking a sweat. Of course, That One Player could also be a woman, which may be even more embarrassing (arguably). However, sometimes being That One Guy can be a talent for entertainment, when he can show off his inhuman skills.

That One Player, though, may not necessarily mean a stop having fun guy or the other way around. Nor is he That One Boss, though if he was a boss, he would be. May possibly be a Challenge Gamer, which would certainly explain their ungodly skill.

Some video games have a "handicap" option to either make a certain player weaker or everyone else stronger, purely to keep That One Player from restricting other players' fun.

Examples of That One Player include:

Anime and Manga

  • Konata Izumi of Lucky Star is seen playing a fighting game at an arcade in one episode. She beats a guy, much to his dismay of finding out who beat him. A strip similar in idea was: since she is excessively short, the other Tomboy misjudged her ability and got owned. On the next day, that other Tomboy beat Konata—but with such razor thin of a margin that she knew it was Konata who let her win!
  • Ami Mizuno in Sailor Moon manages to be this on a game she has never played before. She's just that smart.
    • In one scene from the manga, Chibi-Usa plays the Sailor V arcade game and soon starts racking up an impressively high score.
    • One early chapter in Codename: Sailor V has Minako going up against a player who keeps getting higher scores in arcade games than her.
  • Makoto Kousaka from Genshiken is like this with fighting games all video games, if his complete demolition of his girlfriend at Puyo Pop is any evidence.
    • He demolishes everyone at videogames. She just wanted to try one of his hobbies.
  • In Ai Kora, Closet Geek Yukari is secretly a fan of video games, and likes to unwind after final exams by going to the local arcade incognito and getting a high score on all her favorite games under the alias "Fantazma".

Film

  • The Wizard (film) features two of these. There's Jimmy and Lucas. Arguably Lucas is more of That One Player as Jimmy just seems to have his skills as an Excuse Plot.

Literature

Live Action TV

  • Marshall Eriksen has a preternatural skill for board games, such that he can deduce the rules of a complex foreign gambling game just by watching others play for a few minutes, despite not understanding what the players are saying. His friends assigned him to officiate their game nights rather than playing, because otherwise he'd win every time.

Music

  • The song "Pinball Wizard" by The Who is about a deaf, dumb, and blind kid who still manages to be That One Player.

Video Games

  • If you beat I Wanna Be the Guy on the hardest setting, you're instantly this, even if you use the save glitch near the end, which most (which is exactly 2) people have.
  • reallyjoel's dad (an in-joke of Daniel Remar and the eponymous reallyjoel, which developed into a Running Gag of his games) is a Memetic Badass version of That One Player.
  • PVP nuts in the average MMORPG tend to have this reputation, especially the camp that is vocal about establishing serious tournaments for the game.

Web Original

  • Pablo "DJ Mike Haggar" Bert from Speed Demos Archive qualifies, as he holds the run for Battletoads, and he plays it almost perfectly. And it's not a tool-assisted speedrun either because he clearly makes a few mistakes.
    • Hell, pretty much everyone on Speed Demos Archive could count as this considering how much work goes into planning and executing a speedrun. You almost literally have to know the game inside and out.
  • Lord Kat, formerly of That Guy With The Glasses. He beats insanely hard games (some deliberately so, more often those with Fake Difficulty) mainly through being a Determinator about never giving up. This means he's defeated games which have induced Unstoppable Rage in other internet reviewers. And yet even he couldn't beat some games, as he admitted in his Top 10 Worst Game Requests.
  • Isai is particularly memetic for his skill at Super Smash Bros. 64, while "Ken" was known as the best Melee player until his retirement circa 2008.
    • Ken has replaced by any of three or four players, usually Mango. Mew2King has generally been this in Brawl, although to a much lesser extent. And pretty much every Smashboards-goer is this when in a non-Smash circle.

Western Animation

"But how do you kill that which has no life?"

  • Monster House has one of these, who gives the kids a vital clue as to how to handle the eponymous creature.
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