The Duck Hunt Dog isn’t the most popular character to use in Smash 4, but the d-tier character is doing quite well at an official Smash tournament. One of the players who is using the Duck Hunt Dog and kick major tail is Raito. He’s proven that the cute dog has some bite, beating players like Dyr and Jason “ANTi” Bates, both of whom have fallen into the lower bracket at CEO Dreamland.

The original Duck Hunt Dog is supposed to only be around to ridicule you, but the Duck Hunt Dog in Smash 4 uses exploding cans and guns to maul you down. (Come to think of it, if the Smash 4 Duck Hunt Dog was a real dog, Michael Vick would have been to scared to run a dog fighting ring.)

With the wins, Raito has moved the winners bracket of the top 48. With some of those wins coming against top Smash players, he’s probably barking with confidence.

Raito isn’t the only player using the Duck Hunt Dog. An relatively unknown player, an underdog, if you will, is called Dandy Penguin, who hails from my home state of North Carolina. Despite an unknown, he has taken down Melee pro Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman off stage. He dropped a match to James “VoiD” Makekau-Tyson. Penguin is still in the game though; he’s fought off top players like Seraph to reach the top 48.

People love watch the best duke it out for supremacy, but what makes a competition special is competitors using unusual characters and taking down the best. Maybe this mindset will be more popular and players like Penguin and Raito will be able to breed down a whole new litter of competitors using unusual characters in official tournaments.

To see Raito dish it out with an opponent, you can watch the following video:

If you’ve been counting, I have used seven different dog puns. Woof. Okay, make that eight.