Vergeben

"*I use: GameFAQs (Vergeben), reddit (DasVergeben), 8WayRun (Vergeben), and eventhubs (Vergeben). If you see me elsewhere (example: 4chan or Twitter) it's not me.*"
— Vergeben's signature

## Vergeben

### Aliases

"Verge"
DasVergeben
Virginben (common insult)

### Affiliation

Sources within the game industry (Allegedly)

## Account Info

### Current Status

Inactive

**Vergeben**, also known as **DasVergeben**, is a well-known leaker, most famously known for predicting information about various fighting games, including *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.* Vergeben began his Smash-related leaks shortly before E3 2018, and he quickly gained traction as his claims were repeatedly "proven" by the game's series of content reveals. One of Vergeben's earliest claims to fame was a leak that correctly revealed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as upcoming DLC in the video game *Injustice 2*. While a few of Vergeben's claims have been false (such as a later-disavowed false list of guest characters posted in early 2018 and the promise of *Minecraft* content appearing in the base game), most of his claims for *Ultimate* have indeed come to pass. This said, he has recently garnered serious skepticism as a continued reliable source after he falsely claimed Master Chief would be the big reveal at E3 2021 (with that honor instead going to Kazuya), combined with him seeming to piggyback more off other leaks during Ultimate's DLC speculation. Regardless, he left a significant mark on SmashFAQs that will be hard to forget. Due to the attention towards his leaks, Vergeben has easily become one of the most well-known users to be active on the *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* board, even if he mainly visits the board only to either provide or simply elaborate on information he's apparently received from his multiple sources.

### Background and History

Not much is known about Vergeben's history before he took on his current online alias. His account dates back to August 2017, but he was notably active on GameFAQs throughout the course of 2018 and 2019, revealing information pertaining to both *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* and its subsequent first Fighter Pass. Before he began his successful streak of leaks, he actually posted another supposed leak pertaining to the game right after its reveal pertaining to guest fighters. He claimed it was from a "brand new person" and said to take it with a grain of salt. The reason he had even posted it, according to the post, was to have it out there in the even it was true. In the end, this information was mostly false, as it made no mention of Pac-Man or Ryu coming back and none of the alleged newcomers (Tails, Zero from *Mega Man X*, Phoenix Wright, and Noctis from *Final Fantasy XV*) made it in *Ultimate* as playable characters. Essentially nobody believed this list, and it faded into relative obscurity.

Vergeben would garner more attention from the Smash community during May of 2018 from a new leak that included claims that the entire roster of the previous Smash game (*for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U*) would return in the Nintendo Switch installment as fighters once more along with the Ice Climbers, Snake, and newcomer Ridley. All of this information was proven to be correct upon the game's formal reveal at E3 2018, leading to Vergeben gaining significant credibility as a source of insider information on the upcoming Smash game. In addition to the above, he would also correctly claim the inclusions of Simon Belmont from *Castlevania* (first mentioned before E3 2018 along with the others), Isabelle from the *Animal Crossing* series, Ken Masters from *Street Fighter*, and a new Pokémon from Generation VII. As the game got closer to release, he eventually identified the then-unnamed Pokémon to be Incineroar, who was seen as a polarizing choice. Along with these, he also claimed the inclusion of a Square Enix character and *Minecraft* content in an unknown form. The following reveals of Simon during the Smash Direct in August and Isabelle during a general Nintendo Direct in September would further solidify his perceived status as a reliable source of information on *Ultimate*. Some opponents brought up false information he had pedalled in the past, but a large number had been convinced that he had legitimate knowledge on the upcoming game.

During October of that year, he ended up as an opponent of the infamous Grinch Leak. He was adamant about the leak being fake, with a major reason being due to his sources claiming Isaac from *Golden Sun*, who was on the alleged final banner, had returned bengas an Assist Trophy. The rumored inclusion of Ken and Incineroar in the game would end up taking on the nickname of Kencineroar, particularly after the advent of the Box Theory, which was based on a promotional image of a Collector's Edition box for Ultimate that featured two unfilled slots that would match up perfectly with the two characters. It's worth noting that Vergeben wasn't 100% sure on Box Theory, mainly due to supposed evidence of a Square Enix character coming, but he speculated on this character potentially being DLC while Ken and Incineroar were the final newcomers. Many began to paint Vergeben as an anti-thesis to the Grinch Leak due to his information directly conflicting with it. "Kencineroar", as the duo became collectively known, were indeed confirmed to be playable on November 1, 2018, which hosted a final *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* Direct that opened with a trailer revealing the two as the final base game fighters. While Vergeben was again proven correct about the inclusion of the two on the roster, he had been wrong about (at the time) the inclusion of *Minecraft* content and a second Square Enix character. Further doubt was cast on his credibility after the reveal of Joker from Atlus and Sega's *Persona 5* as the first DLC character during The Game Awards 2018, with some users attributing his previous accuracy to a "series of lucky guesses."

Vergeben continued to insist on the Square Enix character being early DLC, later identifying them as a character from *Dragon Quest* (most likely Erdrick from *Dragon Quest III*) after other leaks begin mentioning similar information, along with *Minecraft* content still being on the way. These claims would take a long time to be proven true or false due to the next reveal not taking place until E3 2019 six months later. A few days before Nintendo's E3 presentation was set to take place, insider Shinobi made a not-so-subtle hint that Banjo and Kazooie were likely to be included in Smash. Vergeben later responded that he had heard his most-trusted source claim they were "DLC. But not 100%. 99%," though he continued to still insist on *Minecraft* content as well. The inclusions of both a *Dragon Quest* fighter (later revealed to be Hero, consisting of several skins including Erdrick and The Luminary from *Dragon Quest XI*) and Banjo & Kazooie were indeed confirmed during the presentation, giving a boost back to Vergeben's credibility. Similarly, when listings on Nintendo's official site leaked the next fighter being from SNK, he correctly identified them as Terry Bogard from *Fatal Fury*.

After being correct on three characters in a row, many had their eyes on Vergeben's information on the final fighter of the first volume Fighter Pass. Rather than giving any direct information, Vergeben took an unorthodox approach when he went on to claim that a very large list of characters (see below) would not be the final DLC fighter in the first Fighters Pass. He would later show information from a source confirming that Byleth from *Fire Emblem* was the next DLC character, though this information was shown by Vergeben only minutes after Byleth's reveal. Regardless, he still managed to correctly reveal the yet-unannounced Mii Costumes, giving indication that his source's information was likely true.

As *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* entered its second volume of DLC, Vergeben remained a controversial figure. Some still saw him as a largely accurate source of information, while others doubted his credibility as "lucky guesses" either since the start or since Smash entered its DLC phase. He was largely absent throughout the course of 2020, leading many to speculate on the reasons for him keeping quiet for so long. Regardless, he did pop in several times at random intervals, such as to comment on a Smash leak hinting at a *League of Legends* rep (no information to share) and to confirm that an upcoming Pokémon reveal would be a collaboration with Tencent (later confirmed as *Pokémon Unite*). He would make a notable appearance around October 2020, during which he popped onto the Smash Ultimate board shortly after the reveal of Steve from *Minecraft* as a newcomer. Some took this inclusion a further sign of validity for Vergeben, with the man himself mentioning that Steve’s inclusion had indeed come about after years of negotiations. Around this time, he also brought up that negotiations had allegedly taken place between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo in regards to Smash, which added onto the slew of rumors surrounding the inclusion of Ryu Hayabusa from *Ninja Gaiden*. While he would go quiet for the rest of the year, one tidbit worth noting is that Sephiroth would later be revealed as a fighter during The Game Awards 2020 in December of that year, linking back to him being one of the more serious names from the Seven Squares leaks according to past DMs.

Going into 2021, Vergeben would continue to be mostly absent from GameFAQs. He did pop in to give credibility towards the upcoming Reddit leaker PracticalBrush12, who had leaked Steve and his alts moments before their reveal among other video game leaks, but otherwise he would mostly refrain from making any notable comments in regards to Smash on the site. That said, he would become more active on his Reddit account, eventually posting a series of supposed leaks on June 14, 2021, pertaining to the upcoming Nintendo Direct for E3 2021. The biggest claim was a blatant hint at Master Chief from the *Halo* series joining as a fighter. He later posted lyrics from "We Are the Champions" in the thread containing this post, which some took as a hint at the Champions from *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild* (who had gained far more attention the past couple of days) taking up the other remaining fighter slot. Other hints seemed to pertain to a new 2D *Metroid* game from MercurySteam, a new *Donkey Kong* game, and some form of *Zelda* news. All of these claims notably were following up on a lot of similar rumors around the time. The Nintendo Direct would eventually air on June 15, and while the long-rumored *Metroid* game (titled *Metroid Dread*) was confirmed alongside several announcements on *The Legend of* *Zelda*, Vergeben's other claims were proven completely false in relation to E3 that year. Most notable of these was his Smash information, which was disproven by Kazuya Mishima from *Tekken* being the only reveal during the presentation. This ended up marking by far Vergeben's biggest mistake related to *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* since he started seemingly picking up accurate information on the title. The reaction towards this mistake was swift and unforgiving, with most deeming him to no longer be a reliable source. There was debate on whether or not he had actually been reliable in the first place, but regardless his time as a reliable Smash leaker had practically ended at this point. Some theorized that he may have been intentionally sabotaging his credibility to get people off this back, though there is no real proof of this. A little over a week later, he posted a response on Reddit trying to backtrack and elaborate on his mistakes. He claimed that there was no hint at the Champions (which is dubious, as he made no attempt to correct people who interpreted it as a Champions hint prior to the Kazuya reveal), and the Master Chief comment had come from an older source whom he cut ties to right after instead of his "main" source, who had apparently been unable to contact him before Nintendo's presentation. The damage was already done, however, and response did little to justify himself in the Smash community's eyes.

Though Vergeben remained active on Reddit for another year following the Master Chief debacle, he would never post any more Smash info again after that (not even weighing in on the Sora leak and rumors that surfaced towards the end of speculation). Following one final leak in late June of 2022 (regarding a trailer for the Switch's port of *Portal* and *Portal 2* in the then-upcoming Nintendo Direct Mini), Vergeben would disappear, presumably abandoning the handle once and for all. Despite his mostly-accurate track record, Vergeben is mostly remembered in a negative light, with many claiming that he was a fraud all along, either making lucky guesses or piggybacking off of info posted by other leakers. Unfortunately, his E3 2021 blunder would wind up replacing past triumphs such as the correct info regarding *Minecraft* and *Dragon Quest* content in Smash as his defining moment, and the one he'd be most remembered for when the dust settled on Ultimate speculation.

### Personality

Vergeben is often collected and concise with his information. However, he has been known to become agitated with those who repeatedly doubt his claims. On GameFAQs, Vergeben has disabled "pings," meaning he will not receive a notification if a user types @Vergeben in a post on the site.

### Vergeben's Claims

Vergeben has made a number of claims about unrevealed content relating to *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*, but due to his notoriety many have associated him with statements not actually made by him. This is a collection of the claims that he has made, primarily from his GameFAQs account.

Early Claims (less reliable)

* He mentioned that "a totally brand new person" had given him information on the guest fighters coming to the game, although he claimed to take the list with a grain of salt. Said list included the veterans Sonic, Mega Man, Cloud, Bayonetta, and the returning Snake alongside newcomers Tails from *Sonic the Hedgehog*, Zero from *Mega Man X*, Phoenix Wright from *Ace Attorney*, and Noctis Lucis Caelum from *Final Fantasy XV* (proven wrong with the return of Pac-Man and Ryu during E3 2018, and further proven wrong by none of the newcomers listed joining the roster) [1]

#### Base Game Claims

* Ridley would be coming to the then-untitled *Super Smash Bros.* installment for Nintendo Switch as a newcomer, along with the title being a new game with "assets being reused" rather than a port (March 2018; proven correct during Nintendo's 2018 E3 Direct) [2]
* Every veteran from *Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS*/*Wii U*, Ice Climbers, and Snake would be coming to the new Smash installment (May 2018; being confirmed during the aforementioned 2018 E3 Direct)
* Simon Belmont from Konami's *Castlevania* was also coming to the game, mentioned along with the above information (May 2018; confirmed during the August 2018 Smash Direct)
* At least half a dozen characters were still to be revealed for the game (June 2018, post-E3; minimum number hit by September 2018) [3]
* In addition to Simon Belmont, Isabelle from *Animal Crossing* would be added as a newcomer as well (July 2018; confirmed during the September 2018 Nintendo Direct)
	+ He claimed later on Reddit hearing that she was an Echo Fighter (August 2018; not entirely true, as she was a semi-clone of Villager with a separate number rather than a full-on clone) [4]
* A Generation VII newcomer would be included, but it would not be Decidueye, Lycanroc, or Mimikyu (August 2018; later confirmed in the November 2018 Smash Direct; given validity when Mimikyu was shown as a Poké Ball Pokémon in the previous Smash Direct a few days later) [5][6]
	+ Confirmed later to be Incineroar, after some guessed as such due to process of elimination (September 2018; confirmed in the same aforementioned Direct) [7]
* Ken from the *Street Fighter* series would be coming to the game (August 2018; confirmed during the November 2018 Smash Direct, after being leaked from an image in September) [8]
* Square Enix would be getting a new character in the game (August 2018; proven false for the base game, but later true for the DLC as of June 2019) [9]
	+ He claimed later to have heard seven different names tossed around for this mysterious character, clarified later via DMs to include Erdrick, Luminary, and Slime from *Dragon Quest*; Sephiroth from *Final Fantasy VII*; Crono from *Chrono Trigger*; Geno from *Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars*; and Sora from *Kingdom Hearts*
* The Grinch Leak was false and Isaac would instead be an Assist Trophy similarly to *Super Smash Bros. Brawl* (October 2018; both points proven correct during the November 2018 Smash Direct) [10]

#### DLC Claims

* Reiterated on a second Square Enix character and *Minecraft* content both being included, hinting they were very likely to be a part of the first Fighter Pass's DLC (November 2018, post-Direct; first half was proven correct later, but the second was false despite the eventual inclusion of *Minecraft* content as DLC later on) [11]
	+ Notably, he claimed the Square Enix character would be a part of the first DLC pack (proven false at The Game Awards 2018 from Joker's reveal as Challenger Pack 1)
	+ During this post, he pointed out that fellow supposed leaker Senjougahara\_\_Hitagi (as they are known on Reddit) had claimed similar information to the above while also specifying that Steve would be a fighter along with Katalina from *Granblue Fantasy* by Cygames. Despite speculating on the DLC at the time in conjunction with Hitagi's information, he later went back on her claims after she showed conflicts on her information
* The Square Enix character would be from *Dragon Quest*, with the names he heard including Erdrick ("the name I heard the most"), The Luminary ("second most heard & almost always heard when Erdrick is heard"), and Slime ("I heard about once") (December 2018; proven correct during the 2019 E3 Nintendo Direct, with The Luminary being heard often with Erdrick fitting Hero’s different alts) [12]
* *Minecraft* had been decided on "to some extent" after talks with Microsoft, whether or not this involved Steve as a playable character (April 2019; mostly came to pass with the inclusion of Steve in Fighter Pass Vol. 2, which was mentioned to have been in talks since 2015) [13]
* Banjo & Kazooie were almost guaranteed to be in the Fighter Pass (June 2019; proven true in Nintendo's E3 Direct a few days later) [14]
* A 4chan post claiming a female fighter that "has a mecha" would be the 4th fighter was false (August 2019; proven correct from the reveal of Terry as FP4) [15]
* He claimed the SNK leak was legit, later confirming the identity of the character to be Terry Bogard (September 2019; proven correct during the September 2019 Nintendo Direct) [16][17]
* Starting in October 2019, Vergeben began a list of characters (see "The List") he claimed would not be the final fighter of the first Fighter Pass, starting with Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden (October 2019-January 2020; Byleth, the eventual final fighter of the pass, was indeed not on the list)
* Minutes following Byleth's confirmation, Vergeben reiterated that Byleth was indeed the fighter and posted a full list of the Mii Fighters to come along with them (January 2020; 100% correct) [18]
* He mentioned that there had been talks with Koei Tecmo in regards to Smash, though the outcome was unknown; he speculated that something was likely to have come out of it, but didn’t outright confirm DLC content from them (to be proven if it pertained to a fighter, although since then there have been Spirit Events for the Koei Tecmo-developed *Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity* and *Persona 5 Strikers*) [19]
* He hinted very clearly at Master Chief coming to the game, and based on the timing implied this would be revealed at E3 2021 (June 2021; 100% incorrect for E3 itself. It's unknown whether it's to be final fighter though) [20]
* While he later backtracked on it and claimed it was just a coincidence, he also posted lyrics to Queen's "We Are The Champions" around the same time as his Master Chief rumor, which was seen as a reference to *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*'s Champions quartet (who were being heavily speculated upon in the days before Nintendo's E3 2021 Direct). The legitimacy of this claim is questionable, however, as he made no effort to correct people who took it as a hint at the Champions until after the Kazuya reveal took place (despite actively making posts in the same Reddit thread at the time, and clearly being aware of how it was being interpreted).

#### "The List"

In the lead-up to Challenger Pack 5, Vergeben refused to comment on the identity of the fighter. Instead, he ended up giving a massive list of characters who he said would NOT be the next fighter. In the end, FP5 was revealed to be Byleth from *Fire Emblem: Three Houses*, who was not on Vergeben's final list of deconfirmations.

* The list included the following characters:
	+ Ryu Hayabusa [21]
	+ Scorpion [22]
	+ Geno
	+ Doomguy [23]
	+ Gordon Freeman [24]
	+ a character from Nippon Ichi Software [25]
	+ a character from Ubisoft
	+ a character from Nihon Falcom [26]
	+ a character from Bandai Namco
	+ a character from Level-5 [27]
	+ Arle Nadja
	+ Sakura (Sakura Wars)
	+ Crash Bandicoot
	+ Tracer
	+ Reimu Hakurei
	+ Kat (Gravity Rush) [28]
	+ Sora
	+ Sol Badguy
	+ Ragna
	+ Billy and Jimmy Lee
	+ Dante
	+ Phoenix Wright
	+ Sir Arthur
	+ Amaterasu
	+ Monster Hunter
	+ Sam Porter Bridges
	+ Geralt of Rivia
	+ Monokuma
	+ Kratos [29]
	+ Reiji Arisu and Xiaomu
	+ Morrigan [30]
	+ KOS-MOS [31]
* He posted a bunch of companies on December 6, 2019, along with the character not being promoted from a Spirit or Assist Trophy. This claim was pulled back the next day, however, with Vergeben claiming he had mixed up specific characters with the companies that owned them. [32]

### Trivia

* Vergeben's username is German, and roughly translates to "forgive" or "forgiven".
* Vergeben has been assumed by some to be multiple different people, specifically six.
* Vergeben has made several claims about other games that have been less reputable than his *Super Smash Bros.*-related predictions. Perhaps most famously, he claimed a large number of characters were in development for *Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite* despite never being added to the game, likely never being in development in the first place. That said, enough of Vergeben's information about various games has been true that many assume at least some of his sources are reliable.
	+ Another well-known mistake was Vergeben's confidence in the existence of *Star Fox: Grand Prix*, a new game in the Star Fox series for the Nintendo Switch focused on racing. Rumors of this title began to circulate in mid-2018, with claims that it might even be Retro Studios' next project after *Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze*. While many other insiders fell for the rumor, Vergeben was one of the ones most vocal about it. He would continue to believe in the game's alleged development up until February 2019, where he posted a leak claiming that the title would finally be shown in the Nintendo Direct that month along with a port of *Pikmin 3*. [33] Both claims ended up being false, although a *Pikmin 3* port was later released in 2020.