Smasher:Mark Jackson
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| $YAK | |
|---|---|
| Melee main | Falco |
| Crew(s) | Church of Smash |
| Additional info | |
| Real name | Mark Jackson |
| Birth date | April 30, 1987 (age 20) |
| Location | Pickering, ON 
|
Mark "$YAK" Jackson is a Canadian smasher out of Pickering, Ontario. He is both the founder (in name only) and a member of the Church of Smash crew. Maining Falco is the result of watching Soldier of Fortune, a Bombsoldier combo video. Since then, Mark has strived to achieve even a fraction of that skill.
[edit] Training
Mark has studied rigorously under the watchful eye of Renato LPH Velit since the summer of 2006. The origin of the crew name 'Church of Smash' can also be credited partially to LPH. One day, during a session of smash, LPH was dueling Adrenaline on Onett when, out of the blue, he exclaimed, "This is it... this.. is life". This one statement got the ball rolling for starting up an official crew for the small group of players based out of Southern Ontario. That summer was a precursor of things to come. At the time, the crew was still small and looking for members. However, in the fall of 2006 Mark joined most of the crew at UOIT/DC, thus allowing them to start up an official school club and have weekly smash session in the school's student centre. This allowed them to recruit more players and get the word out on campus to anyone that would like to play. In October of 2006, Mark lined up at a local EB Games for PS3 pre-orders. During this fateful night, he met Ken Chaotic D'Silva in line. Not having much to talk about besides how much Seal Paul sucks and how cold it was that night, the topic of smash was eventually brought up, and the rest is history. Chaotic became a regular and was immediately initiated into the church. Mark is currently trying to improve his Falco for the upcoming tournaments in June and would like to initiate his own protege to the church.
[edit] Etymology
The origin of the handle $YAK lies in Mark's formal introduction to smash. In the winter of 2005 during Christmas break, Mark decided to take up the game seriously. (Prior to this, the only exposure to the game occurred in the summer of 2005 when he witnessed LPH duel Adrenaline. Unfortunately, everyone was blazed out of their skulls at the time and no one really remembers what happened that lovely afternoon.) Upon returning to residence at UofT, Dave, a friend of his a Mark's, decided to bring his Gamecube. One night while playing, when scrolling through the plethora of saved handles, Mark noticed one name in particular; $YAK. When questioned about the name's origins, Dave responded, "I dunno, one of my friends from high school put that there. No one knows what it means, it's just 'Dollar Yak'." and the rest, as they say, is history. There are two main variations of how $YAK came to be pronounced. First is the above mentioned 'Dollar Yak'. The origins of the second pronunciation occurred during a session of smash with Adrenaline. After a particularly good combo, Adrenaline proclaimed, "SYAK", and it stuck.
