1) T1 | MkLeo []()

“People really thought I wasn’t the best,” said Leonardo “MkLeo” Lopez Perez after winning the Ludwig Smash Invitational, the most stacked invitational in Ultimate’s history, and doing so while only dropping a single game. And he was right—for a substantial part of the 2022 season, whether or not MkLeo would retain the title of best player in the game was a question the Smash community seriously discussed. Despite posting stellar results throughout the season, the dominance that MkLeo once exerted over top level Smash appeared to be waning. He missed Grand Finals for the first time since 2019 at Smash Ultimate Summit 4, missed top 4 at Super Smash Con 2022, and even top 8 at Smash Ultimate Summit 5, and more and more players emerged who could challenge Leo for the title of best in the world. Sparg0 and ProtoBanham both beat him twice, going on to win major tournaments over him, and players like Light, Onin, and あcola saw periods of dominance and consistently high placings that matched or at times exceeded Leo’s.

And then Leo decided to try.

Or at least, that’s what people said. Despite the popularity of that narrative, Leo’s “slumping” results were still exceptional, winning stacked tournaments like Smash Factor 9, Rise ‘N Grind, and several European majors like e-Caribana and COLOSSEL 2022. His oft-maligned Aegis took wins over top players like Kola, Zomba, and Maister, and he even brought out his Joker to continue a streak of dominance against Dabuz. It’s not that MkLeo wasn’t trying—rather, after going 2-3 against Tweek in the best set of Ultimate Summit 5, MkLeo changed. Returning to Byleth, the character that brought him his strongest wins of the year against Sparg0, Glutonny, Tea, and あcola, the character that most emphasizes his brutal prowess at spacing, pressuring, and ledge-trapping, the character whose tournament results can be almost solely credited to him, MkLeo put on one of the most dominant performances of his career at the Ludwig Invitational. Because we forgot, so he had to remind us: MkLeo is the number one player in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Click here to watch MkLeo's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

2) FaZe | Sparg0 []

To say that Edgar “Sparg0” Valdez broke out in the post-lockdown world would be quite the understatement. Going from 33rd and 49th place finishes in 2019 to being a dominant force during the online era to a string of top 3 results at the end of 2021 is quite the journey. But we were all still waiting for Sparg0’s crowning moment when he could finally lift that trophy. And he ascended to the top of that mountain at Summit 4 in March, vanquishing Light in 3-0 fashion and getting revenge for Super Smash Con: Fall Fest. He immediately followed up with a win at Collision 2022, becoming (at the time) the fastest player to win back-to-back majors.

Sparg0 would continue his excellence over the next few months, never placing worse than 3rd up until the Gimvitational (along with one of the swaggiest sponsor reveals of all time). He would then take a break to focus on mental health, showing that his maturity exists both in and out of the game. Since the hiatus, he’s made brief appearances at Summit 5 and the Ludwig Smash Invitational. While he wasn’t able to maintain his top three streak at those events, when your worst results for the year are 7th and 4th at two of the most competitive invitationals against the best talent around the world, you’re doing something right. With his last appearance for the year most likely behind him (barring a possible Scuffed World Tour showing), Sparg0 will look to remind us all in 2023 why he is #2 worldwide, and to potentially usurp the throne of the king himself.

Click here to watch Sparg0's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

3) ZETA | あcola []

Mashita “あcola” Hayato, at this point, is a name that needs no introduction. The young phenom is the perfect storm of optimal and risky, and shows what is quite possibly the most optimal way to play Steve: plain old hitbox spam. Typically, あcola’s gameplan is as follows: use Steve’s absurd frame data and potent trapping tools to create space or an opening, build a wall and mine to force approaches, rinse and repeat. This loop, however, isn’t quite what makes あcola so special. THAT would be his elite gamesense. I would compare あcola closest to a player in the NFL, or National Football League, on the Dallas Cowboys named Micah Parsons. Parsons, who is currently a player on the Cowboys defense, has become notorious in the NFL for his insane versatility, whether that be in coverage, rushing down the quarterback or stuffing a run, and he, unlike any other player in the league, can change his positioning drastically regardless of what role he’s performing in a given play. You can never tell when Parsons will show up and make a stunning play, and that translates directly into あcola’s gameplay, as he uses his winning formula in unexpected ways repeatedly to take stocks or get massive damage with as little resistance as possible, somewhat similar to his fellow teenage Steve enjoyer, Onin. Unlike the He/They Heat Packer, though, あcola has the confidence and tech needed to do things previously not known to science. あcola is Smash. あcola is Life.

Click here to watch あcola's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

4) Moist | Light

Paris “Light” Ramirez Garcia had big shoes to fill this year. Over the course of the past three years, all four of 2019’s American Gods have either stopped competing, or fallen off significantly in results (well, in Tweek’s case, the drop-off proved to be only temporary, but still). Light was the only one left to show the peak of what the USA can do in this game. And he more than rose to the challenge.

His 2022 started off with a bit of a disappointment in the form of 13th place at Glitch Infinite – notably being upset by Steve main Jake.

But for the entire rest of the year – other than the absurdly hard Ludwig Invitational at which he lost three very competitive game fives – he would not place outside top 8 at any tournament.

The secret to his success? Maturity. Despite his brash, cocksure persona, Light has become a venerable student of the game, always thinking, fine-tuning, and refining his aggressive gameplan. At Smash Ultimate Summit 5, he worked on his anti-Steve strategy like a madman, and it paid off: he took a set off あcola, showing clear improvement from his Glitch performance.

Light is the best player in the US for 2022. But as he said in his victory interview for Glitch Regen: “Being the best in America feels great, but it’s not what I want. I want to be the best in the world, and I’m not going to stop until I get there.”

Click here to watch Light's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

5) Bandits | Sonix

The blue sidewinder, clock minder, perennial Wi-Fi-grinder, Carlos “Sonix” Perez spent 2022 pulling ahead of his competition to set himself apart as the blue blur’s premier player. Though top 8 finishes at Pound 2022, Smash Factor 9, and the Ludwig Smash Invitational, as well as a major win at CEO 2022, are all testaments to Sonix’s skill and patience, what’s arguably more impressive is his performance versus the rest of the field. Sonix’s winrate against top 100 players is incredible, with a winning record against more than 70% of the top-level players he faced this year. This includes huge names like Tweek, Riddles, Zomba, Onin, and Glutonny. But though Sonix is known for his slower, defensive playstyle, what makes Sonix such a dangerous player is that he can still play explosively, lest anyone forget his 3-minute 1-stock dismantling of Shogun in the Double Down 2022 Heist Crew Battle Semifinals, or his incredible comeback against Kameme in the last seconds of their Winners Quarters set at Glitch: Regen. It’s the strength of Sonix’s combo game, his prowess at finding kills, and the way he can blow up stocks at a moment’s notice, that makes approaching him so difficult, and there are no other players able to do the kind of things Sonix can do with his character. The only things seemingly holding him back are a few problem players and matchups, like Light, Sparg0, and MkLeo, but if Sonix can overcome these bracket demons, it’ll be 3, 2, 1, GAME for the opposition.

Click here to watch Sonix's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

6) 26R | Onin

Angel “Onin” Mireles is an enigma. But he’s fun to watch. They might be Ultimate’s closest equivalent to Jmook in Melee: both seemingly came from nowhere, had a wondrous bracket run you had to see to believe, and both were under intense scrutiny thereafter to prove they were not one-hit wonders. In Onin’s case, the dust has settled and he continues picking up Top 8 appearances. In short, Onin is one of the very best players in America right now. Was their Super Smash Con run aided by matchup unfamiliarity? Probably, but they’ve shown themselves to be a reliable contender even afterwards, picking up more victories against top players in a metagame rapidly responding to Steve.

Onin is the best Steve when it comes to block placement, both for defensive positioning as well as for some frightening setups (most famously, a block slightly offstage turns the match briefly into a game of billiards for Onin). They may also be the best at making very precise glides to weave around edgeguards with the finesse of a figure skater. Perhaps the most spectacular part of Onin’s matches is the amount of setups on display—a lot of moving pieces and active hitboxes orchestrated in tandem (remember the shieldbreak on MkLeo?). In another universe, Onin would have made a gifted Pac-Man main. But in this universe, Onin arguably is the one showcasing what the future of Steve gameplay can look like. Onin is an enigma. But he’s fun to watch.

Click here to watch Onin's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

7) SS | Shuton

Throughout Smash Ultimate’s history, Japan’s superstar Shuto “Shuton” Moriya has remained one of the scene’s most dependably highly-ranked competitors. That pattern continued in 2022, where the talented Aegis/Olimar co-main put up a remarkably consistent and prolific season. His only times missing top 8 at any event in this ranking period were his 9th place finishes at Double Down and the 2021 Smash World Tour Championships, and his 13th place finish at Mainstage. Outside of those stumbles, (and they can barely be considered stumbles), Shuton was a name that you could reliably count on to make a deep run. Unfortunately, his season was also defined by a constant tendency to just barely fail to win large events. He finished 2nd at six different majors and notable regionals this year, and put up 3rd place finishes at another three. Shuton was able to break through the barrier a couple times, winning the smaller Japanese majors Seibugeki 10 and Wave 2, picking up wins on Asimo, Kameme, Rizeasu, and KEN along the way. His rivalry with KEN was an especially important storyline this year, and while KEN took some crucial sets and stopped Shuton from winning a couple majors, Shuton won out with a 13-6 record against him in ranked tournaments for the year. Japan’s second-highest-ranked player made a number of successful ventures to the United States as well, including a 3rd place finish at Port Priority 3, 5th at the incredibly stacked Ludwig Smash Invitational, and 3rd at Crown 2 with victories over Sparg0, Glutonny, and Zomba among many others. Along the way he discovered a potential new bracket demon, NorCal’s Mario extraordinaire Kurama, who defeated Shuton in three of their four sets. In 2022, Shuton proved that he will always be a threat at the top level of Smash Ultimate. Perhaps he’ll even find that elusive post-quarantine supermajor victory in 2023…

Click here to watch Shuton's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

8) ZETA | Tea []

Tea Pacman. The man. The myth. The beverage. Tea Pacman has become known for two characters over the course of 2022: his signature character and loving husband, Pac-Man, and the human form of the Pac-Man bell, Kazuya. Tea Pacman is what one might consider the people’s champ. He produces Twitch clips like it’s nothing, he makes camping look cool, and probably uses the golden Kazuya alt to make it feel like he’s still playing his dearly beloved Pac-spouse. Simply put, he plays like a goblin, and it works wonders. He lives by the mantra “never let ‘em know your next move”, dash dancing, making them flinch, and holding onto the bell for a minute straight. He knows his characters like the back of his hand. Most importantly, however, he’s having fun. If you look at Smash like an obligation or a job, you’ll end up avoiding tournaments like the plague like Marss, or getting constantly frustrated like Tweek. Tea Pacman truly loves what he does, and that is why he’s so creative, why he’s so fun to watch. Tea Pacman proves that liking your job truly does make all the difference, especially if you can do it with the Pac-Man you truly love the most.

Click here to watch Tea Pacman's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

9) Liquid | Riddles

The Best Terry, Best Kazuya (main), Best Canadian, Michael “Riddles” Kim seemingly has it all with his rise to the top echelon this year. Although initially set on Terry as his main, Riddles has been more at home on Kazuya as of late, and has used the duo to great effect at many majors, with performances like 5th at Smash Summit 5, 5th at Ultimate Wanted 4, 4th at Collision, 3rd at The Gimvitational, 2nd at CEO, and finally taking home gold at The Big House 10. Along with great placements, Riddles has also attained a vast resume of wins including the likes of Dabuz, Glutonny, Kola, Light, Maister, MkLeo, Onin, Sonix, Sparg0, Tweek, Zomba, and many more, with sets played against nearly half of the Top 100. Having torn down nearly every obstacle in his path, there seems to be no limit to what Riddles can do, and with only a few top players left he hasn't beaten, it seems inevitable that Riddles has a bright future ahead of him.

Click here to watch Riddles’ greatest set victory of the ranking period.

10) Liquid | Dabuz []()

New Jersey’s very own King of New York (???) is a player with a machine of a brain. The way it works, however, is surprisingly simple: he sees a weakness, he exploits the weakness. Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby is a dominating presence in the neutral game, so it requires an incredible amount of adaptability to even attain an even set count against him, let alone have a winning record. Out of all of the top 100 of 1000rank who have played more than one set against him post-lockdown, only 7/22 have a winning record. Those players? Gluto, Tea, Cosmos, Leo, Sparg0, Light, and Kola. The thing they have in common? These 7 players are arguably the most dynamic and aggressive players in the WORLD. The most interesting thing about Dabuz, however, is his character choices. In particular, he chooses to use Rosalina, while being increasingly avoidant of his old main, Olimar. Rosalina seems to be quite the counterpick, as she enjoys the typical puppet character conventions of uniquely dangerous pressure setups, strong advanced tech, and, most importantly, an oppressive advantage state - something which, contrary to popular belief, is actually quite the strong point for Dabuz. This, however, comes with a weakness that he shares with another highly analytical and defensive player, Mew2King: rigidity. When Dabuz can’t find a particular weakness in a player, he struggles. This can be best seen by his 0-5 record with MkLeo, who lacks a particular weakness that he can take advantage of. He also, potentially to his own detriment, refuses to attempt a particular solution - locking in Olimar on the character select screen. Dabuz has seemed increasingly avoidant of his old main, especially since his co-mains of Rosa and Min-Min tend to give him reliable coverage, but what about for characters such as Fox? Roy? Wario? Pac-Man? Joker? How reliably can this duo cover the matchups that have given him so much trouble? This, dear reader, is his true limiting factor, and it is this writer’s opinion that only when he embraces his scorned, tiny first love, will he truly no longer be Leo’s son.

Click here to watch Dabuz's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

11) Moist | Kola []

You know him as the beginning of Moist Esports, he’s universally agreed to be the best Roy player in the world (even if he’s unranked in his region), you know that he’s only becoming even more threatening worldwide, he’s The Artist Formerly Known As Salt One, it’s Kolawole “Kola” Aideyan! Georgia’s king may not have the greatest record against FP2, but don’t let his distaste for it deceive you: he’s got wins on some of its best representatives, such as Riddles, ProtoBanham, Onin, Ned, Jake, DDee, and even あcola! These, combined with wins on Shuton, Zomba, Sparg0, MuteAce, Glutonny and Cosmos, as well as top 8’s at many of the years premier majors, like Double Down, Smash Con, and even 3rd at Ultimate Summit 5, place him squarely just on the edge of our top 10.

Click here to watch Kola's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

12) LG | Maister []

Drop the confetti because here comes Enrique “Maister” Hernández Solís! Maister has continued his success from the pre-quarantine era, and although he is still yet to win a major, he’s the definition of top player, being the 3rd best player from the loaded region that is Mexico after MkLeo and Sparg0, and (barely) retaining the title of best Game & Watch in the world despite some recent competition in the form of Miya. After being dropped by Space Station Gaming earlier this year and being picked up temporarily by Moist Esports, he finally got picked up in October by Luminosity Gaming, becoming their 2nd Smash player after Ginger. And oh boy, did Maister deserve it. He has winning records this year over WaKa, Myran, Yei, Tarik, Niko, MKBigBoss, LeoN, DDee, Fatality, SHADIC, Scend, goblin deez, BassMage, Lui$, MuteAce, KEN, Skyjay, Sisqui, Tweek, Zomba, and, most impressively, ProtoBanham. He’s even one of the few players to say he has taken a set off of MkLeo, winning at COLOSSEL 2022. His placements are impressive as ever, never getting below 25th place, and getting 2nd 3 different times at COLOSSEL, Lost Tech City, and most impressively, at Super Smash Con 2022, beating LeoN, Shadic, Tweek, DDog, and Light twice. Don’t be surprised if he continues to rise and makes top 10 next year, because this bell-ringing main isn’t going anywhere.

Click here to watch Maister's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

13) FTG | ミーヤー []

Kagaribi 8 was quite the tournament, with the spotlight for the most part being put on the re-emergence of Abadango’s potent Meta Knight. However, that same spotlight was subsequently yanked away by a new eldritch horror come to wreak havoc from the depths of the Smashmate Wi-Fi ladder: ミーヤー (hereafter referred to as Miya). The first Game and Watch to win a major, and second only to Maister in rank, the tiny terror spooked the scene with a new revelation - Game and Watch can play aggressive! Who would’ve thought! Miya, unlike the more smothering, advantage-focused Maister, actually relies a lot on reads and consistently winning neutral more than his opponent, best showcased by his Kagaribi set vs Abadango, in which he was seen doing the unthinkable: punishing Dimensional Cape. This bold and brash playstyle, however, isn’t incredibly sustainable. Thusly, at times it can be prone to being more like belongs in the trash, which is why Miya ranks lower, and is rated as a fairly volatile player.

Click here to watch ミーヤー's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

14) Solary | Glutonny []

William “Glutonny” Belaid is definitely a curious case of a player this year. As expected, he is the highest-ranked European on this list, and for good reason. Although his results in Europe itself have been lacking compared to his performance in previous years, with him not winning a single major, and even having several 17th place finishes, his other tournaments more than make up for it. His results at North American competitions have been nothing short of incredible, getting 9th at Collision, 5th at Glitch: Infinite, Battle of BC 4, and both Summit 4 and 5, and even getting 4th at both Smash Factor 9 at Super Smash Con 2022. His crowning achievement, the period that defines him as a player this season, however, is the month of April. After a period of extreme grinding in Mexico, he performed the best he ever did, placing 3rd at Delfino Maza RETA, 2nd at Genesis, and finally winning his first North American major at Pound 2022. And although he has some rather low-rated losses, the fact that he has become sort of a bracket demon for MkLeo recently, winning 4 of their last 5 sets, as well as him being winning on Light and even with Sparg0 proves that, if he can more consistently hit his peak, he will be a contender for top 5 once again.

Click here to watch Glutonny's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

15) Quidd []

Let me take you back to January of this year. SWT 2021 had come and gone. Every player in the top 3 played Aegis. There had not yet been even a half-serious mention of a Steve ban. And those tuning into Let’s Make Big Moves 2022, the first NA major of the year, got to witness Quidd, this year’s premier hidden boss of Smash Ultimate, tear through Tilde, Scend, MuteAce, and Kola to win the whole bracket―the only NA player to ever accomplish this feat while seeded outside of the top 16. One of the challenges of writing about Pokémon Trainer players is that there’s so much to say. Should we focus on how Quidd seamlessly adapts from playing fast and aggressive as Squirtle to methodical and patient as Charizard? On how his advantage state looks like one of the most oppressive in the game? On how cracked he is at landing Ivysaur Down Air spikes? Regardless, Quidd’s immaculate play brought him to a stellar 5th place finish at his next major, Collision 2022, where he added wins on SHADIC and Zomba to his résumé. Then: the boss returned to hiding, with Quidd’s out-of-region attendance sparse-to-nonexistent throughout the rest of the year. His high score on these rankings is indicative of the fact that Quidd made each of his few appearances count, assembling an exemplary record of high-level wins and placements. His gameplay speaks for itself: be careful or you’ll let yourself be caught in the Quidd games.

Click here to watch Quidd's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

16) TSM | Tweek []()

Anyone following Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey’s career closely knows that “Character Crisis” has been his middle name for pretty much all of Ultimate’s lifespan. In 2019 alone he cycled through phases playing Young Link, Wario, Roy, Pokémon Trainer, Joker, and probably some others I’m forgetting. At the start of 2022, he came in hot with Diddy Kong, getting 5th at Smash Ultimate Summit 4 and 2nd at Collision 2022. But something was different this time. He spoke on his podcast, Tweek Talks, about how he enjoyed playing Diddy more than any other Ult character yet – which makes sense, as Diddy’s banana shenanigans (or bananagans) fit Tweek’s endlessly tricky playstyle like a glove. And he discussed working hard on his mentality, seeing a sports psychologist, reading The Inner Game of Tennis, the whole nine yards.

But Diddy’s matchup spread isn’t the best on its own, so in the middle of the year Tweek had a string of bad results, suffering such a cornucopian variety of upsets that it dragged him outside of the top 15 of this year’s 1000rank. For a short time he even switched his main to Aegis. Things were looking grim, and he even spoke on Tweek Talks about how he felt adrift.

But then, almost without warning*, things clicked into place for him, and all his hard work – ESPECIALLY the work he did on his mentality – paid off. It all culminated at Port Priority 7, where he was upset early by Chronos, but then went on one of the longest losers runs in Ultimate history to win the tournament, marking the first time he’s ever won from losers in this game. All with Diddy.

I don’t think Tweek has a character crisis for his main anymore. I think we’re going to see scary good things from him in 2023.

*There was, in truth, one set that foreshadowed Tweek’s eventual mental apotheosis: click here to watch what is, in my opinion, the greatest Super Smash Bros. UItimate set of all time.

17) CR | ProtoBanham

“If he keeps improving and adapting like this, I can't rightly think of a single player he won't eventually be able to beat.”

A quote from 1000rank 2019’s blurb of Naoto “ProtoBanham” Tsuji. Back then, people were hailing the coming of Proto due to results like his tight 2-1 loss to MkLeo, where he was one of just two people to take a game off of him at CEO 2019. He also had a win over Light at EVO 2019. Now, after the hyperbolic time chamber from 2019 to 2022, ProtoBanham has evolved. Crazy Raccoon’s star Smash Player has gone from improving and adapting like that in 2019 to being that guy this year. His record all time over Light—a player who himself has shot up heavily in skill—has aged well, being 3-2 all time now, 2-2 this year. He also now is 3-2 on MkLeo himself all time; he has gone from being one of few to take games to one of few to take MULTIPLE sets on Leo, and remains, as of the time of writing, one of only four players who have a positive record on him over multiple sets. The Lucina and Min Min Co-Main has won multiple North American Tournaments, including OrionRank Category 5+ Double Down, and Smash Ultimate Summit 5, with a win resume including players like Dabuz, Bloom4Eva, an extensive record on KEN, MuteAce, Ned, Ouch!?, Paseriman, Riddles, Shuton, Tweek, and Yaura. The only things holding him back are his performances in Japan. If he can return to the dominance he had in-country in 2021, he could very easily chase the #1 spot on the rankings.

Click here to watch ProtoBanham's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

18) Revo | ヨシドラ

In a meta dominated by robots, demon-human hybrids, and funny block men, ヨシドラ’s (hereafter referred to as Yoshidora) presence at the top levels as the friendly egg-laying dinosaur is certainly unique.

Yoshidora’s 2022 started off rocky with a career-worst 49th at Kagaribi#6 and 17th at Kagaribi#7, but afterwards it’s been smooth sailing. Since early May he has attended six events and never missed top 8 - with four being majors. Yoshidora became the third player to win a MaesumaTOP (as a major) with his victory over HERO at MaesumaTOP#8, and more recently finished 3rd behind Miya and あcola at MaesumaTOP#10. Coincidentally, these three are the newest members to win a Japanese major this year.

Speaking of あcola, Yoshidora is one of two players with multiple set wins over the best Steve in the world (with the other being MkLeo at the recent Ludwig Invitational). Fans at home and abroad have yearned to see the Yoshi master travel and fight international competition, but unlike most of Japan’s elite he has yet to do so due to work and family reasons. We’re left to our imagination, but given how Yoshi basically doesn’t exist outside of Japan (sorry Suarez), it would be a matchup check and then some. Unfortunately, thanks to a certain organization we were robbed of Smash World Tour and thus an NA Yoshidora appearance but he has discussed potential plans for Genesis, so we can only hope.

Click here to watch ヨシドラ's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

19) bc | Cosmos []

Ohio is known to be one of the better states in the Midwest, and no small part of that is thanks to top 20 mainstay Brian “Cosmos” Kalu. Beastcoast’s now-Aegis main has gone through somewhat of a character crisis since you’ve heard from us last after dropping Inkling, but has since settled on being the best Pyra/Mythra in North America while keeping his Corrin in the back pocket. The Shine 2022 winner has wins on players like Tweek, Sparg0, Tea, zackray, Zomba, Light, Dabuz, and many more. With performances like 2nd at L'Odyssée, 4th at Get On My Level 2022, 9th at Pound 2022, and 1st at Glitch - Infinite, Cosmos is clearly playing at another level, and we can only hope to see him performing just as well in the future.

Click here to watch Cosmos's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

20) R2G | Kameme []

The chosen wielder of the Keyblade, the Guardian of Light and the Slayer of SoraStats. In one of the most dramatic and surprising rises of the year, Takuto “Kameme” Ono burst back onto the scene with a vengeance.

Long time fans of Smash would of course know Kameme as a top level threat, but at the start of the year, he was anything but. In 2021, Kameme made only a single top 8 appearance. He was seemingly stuck in a character crisis, neither the Sheik nor the Mega Man giving him the results he wanted. Few people had faith when he made the switch to Sora. Even zackray didn’t believe in the character any more.

But at Kagaribi 6, Kameme shocked everyone by storming into top 8 beating Hero, DIO and Rizeasu. This was just an omen of things to come. At Maesuma TOP #7 and Maesuma TOP #8 he made top 8. At Wave #1 and #2 he made top 8. At Glitch:Regen, at The Big House, at Kowloon #3, at Port Priority, he made top 8. From seventeen tournaments attended this year Kameme only missed top 8 three times, showing a high degree of consistency.

Kameme’s Sora play is characterized by his sharp execution and relentless hunting for kill confirms, traits that seem to have carried over from his Smash 4 Mega Man days. With the Sora meta still very much developing, who knows how far Kameme will push this unique character.

Click here to watch Kameme's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

21) GW | zackray

Japan’s legendary wild card has had an interesting year. First: the activity. You could count the major Ultimate events Sota “zackray” Okada attended on one hand. This is because zackray spent a healthy portion of 2022 as a professional Pokemon Unite player whose hopes and dreams were ruined by a teammate’s inability to wake up—but that’s a story for another time. Given the low attendance, zackray’s results are of uber importance… and they’re a mixed bag.

On one hand, gold. At Kagaribi#6, zackray became the first player to win back-to-back Kagaribi titles. At Ultimate WANTED#4 in Paris, he took home the trophy after an exhilarating ten-game grand finals vs. Shuton, becoming just the second Ultimate player in history to win a major in all three major regions. He joins fellow countryman Tea in achieving the exclusive Triple Crown.

On the other hand, painful agonizing failure. At MaesumaTOP#10, he lost to Kuroponzu and Shori for a 49th place finish which is a career low. At the Ludwig Smash Invitational, zackray drowned in Swiss pools. After failing to complete a reverse sweep on Cosmos to start his day, he would 3-0 Scend in his following set before falling unceremoniously to Kurama and DDog.

It’s hard to say which version of zackray we will see in 2023, but with a solid showing at his last appearance at WINNER! Next#1, signs point upward. Despite the rollercoaster results, zackray still flashed brilliance in his victories and has the 3rd most major wins of all time.

Click here to watch zackray's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

22) SSG | Zomba []

Salvatore “Zomba” DeSena spent his early years being a good if unspectacular player. But everything changed post-lockdown. In four consecutive late 2021 majors, he went from 33rd at Riptide to 25th at Glitch 8.5 to 17th at Super Smash Con: Fall Fest to 5th at CEO 2021. Then: Smash World Tour happened. Zomba went on an absolute tear, taking out Riddles, Tarik, Shuton, KEN, and Kola en route to a 4th place finish. This performance served to cement Zomba in the top echelon of players, which would prove true the following year.

2022 was a whirlwind of activity for the ROB superstar. Zomba's attendance sheet for the calendar year is simply insane. If you looked at Liquipedia's list of Ultimate majors in NA you'd be hard-pressed to find one that Zomba wasn't at. Furthermore, outside of two duds (17th at MomoCon and 33rd at Double Down) his worst placement was 9th. That's insane given the sheer number of events he went to. Only players like Light and あcola can claim their consistency was more impressive. Zomba's secondaries also saw substantial growth, going from "oh he's given up" to "actual counterpick" status. Mainly, the Lucina has been utilized in a handful of matchups in the back half of 2022. Those will only continue to improve (along with his mentality) as Zomba continues to grow as a player.

While he couldn't bring home a title yet, Zomba's fundamentals, consistency, Zombair, and Twitter bait are all among the best in the business. The King of New York better watch out because the Prince is eyeing the throne.

Click here to watch Zomba's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

23) Wrath

The 2nd best player from Georgia after Kola, and the 2nd best Sonic main in the world after Sonix, Carrington “Wrath” Osborne is still out here taking names. Although he hasn’t attended a major since Momocon, getting 17th place beating Peabnut, Niko, and Jahzz0, he has done his damage on the local level, getting wins at 4o4 Smash Night and Maji Summer of Smash. Since he’s been so inactive, for the most part, his uncertainty is extremely high, so take the actual value of this ranking with a heaping pile of salt. Still, seeing how he performed at Momocon and last year at the Smash World Tour Qualifiers proves that you can’t be too slow on this hedgehog main!

Click here to watch Wrath's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

24) BMS | Bloom4Eva []

Of the many storylines that rose to prominence in 2022, few have been as prevalent and impactful as the emergence of the prodigies—the new, young players taking the scene by storm. But though Sparg0, あcola, and Onin have dominated the conversation, Oliver “Bloom4Eva” Alexander has by comparison flown a bit under the radar. And that’s a shame, because after the season he’s had, Bloom4Eva threatens to usher in a new age of dominance in an entire region. The premier player in the UK, and arguably the whole of Europe, Bloom4Eva has attained wins over some of the region’s best, including quiK, Sisqui, and the long-time king of EU, Glutonny. What’s more, Bloom distinguishes himself from other EU competitors with a number of wins over Japanese players like Kome and Shuton, historically a region EU struggles with immensely. Have we mentioned that he does all this with Bayonetta, a character he pilots so elegantly that at times it looks like he’s playing an entirely different (older) game? With his flashy combos and deadly Up Tilt confirms, Bloom’s season reached its apex at Vienna Challengers’ Arena 2022, where he took home 1st place with 2 set wins over Glutonny. As with all the young prodigies, though, the most exciting thing about Bloom as a player is how much potential he has to climb even higher. With a major win under his belt and the EU region seemingly already under his spell, it just remains to be seen how far this player will fly.

Click here to watch Bloom4Eva's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

25) GRNT | DDee []

One of the most interesting questions going forward into the future of Smash Ultimate is DDee, the 16-year-old Steve main who took the Southeast by storm in 2022. While his low attendance means there still isn’t that much information on the young prodigy (which makes him very difficult to rank), all signs point to his potential to become one of the US’s most formidable tournament threats. DDee began his season with a solid run at the regional Cardd’s Basement, defeating Peabnut, Vendetta, and Mugen before falling to Kola and Fatality to place 5th. He would soon match that 5th placing at a much more prestigious event, MomoCon 2022. In his home state of Georgia, DDee made his only major tournament appearance of 2022 a memorable one. After losing to Light early on, he tore through the losers bracket dispatching Sonido, Jake, Dark Wizzy, Lui$, Goblin, and Riddles all in a row before a tough game 5 loss to Maister ended his run. DDee is well-positioned to succeed in the modern meta, as his proficiency in the Steve matchup with his secondary Pokemon Trainer (proven by a 3-0 record against Jake and a 5-0 record against Fallen in-region) means he’s likely to have favorable brackets in the future as the Minecraft menace’s results keep rising. If he’s able to make it out to more events, we could soon watch DDee level up from one of the US’s scariest hidden bosses to a top 8 mainstay.

Click here to watch DDee's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

26) GIA | Sisqui []

The highest-ranked French Spanish player, Pau “Sisqui” Caire exploded onto the international scene after a breakout run at the 2021 Smash World Tour Championships. Piloting a patient and precise Dark Samus, Sisqui made some stellar top 8 runs at NA tournaments like Battle of BC 4, Smash Factor 9, and Rise ‘N Grind. But while his travels netted him wins over players like Riddles, Tweek, and Kurama, they didn’t get in the way of his continued dominance in the EU scene. The Frenchman Spaniard also saw great runs in his home region, including 3rd place at e-Caribana, 4th at Vienna Challengers Arena 2022, and a victorious 1st place at UK national BOSS BATTLES: Phase 1, as well as holding a winning record on top EU players like Leon and Space. The secret to his success is his measured and adaptive playstyle. Though he’s more than willing to zone across the stage with Samus’s zair and projectiles, he’s also not afraid of scrapping up-close with tools like her tilts and nair. His ledgetrapping is immaculate, using well-timed bombs and ranged options to chip away at his opponents’ options off of ledge, turning an otherwise rote offstage scenario into a huge advantage. And of course, there’s his use of Charge Shot, always looking for an opportunity to catch his opponents off-guard and blast them away with a Bola. Despite all this, Ultimate’s premier Samus is still hunting for his first major win, but with his particular set of skills, there’s no doubt he’ll find that bounty soon.

Click here to watch Sisqui's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

27) Paragon | Kurama []

This wasn’t supposed to happen. This was supposed to be a modest writeup about a great player looking for their big break. We were supposed to talk about how Pedro “Kurama” Alonso’s great punish game but risky, aggressive playstyle, led him to results that were good but ultimately shy of the top level. We would’ve talked about his great run at Crown 2, where he even picked up a win on top Japanese player Shuton. We would’ve talked about how any tournament now, the world’s best Mario would have their big break. Then, it happened. At the Ludwig Smash Invitational, Kurama, qualifying for the event through the LCQ with wins on SHADIC and Skyjay, proceeded to absolutely pop-off, beating Tea, zackray, Glutonny, Kola, and Sparg0 in a jaw-dropping run to 3rd place. It was as if Kurama had become a top 20 player overnight; his pressure and combo-heavy punish game looked unstoppable, and he showed the patience that he’d been lacking in another set against Shuton. And just to ensure spectators knew it wasn’t a fluke, Kurama made another monstrous run to 2nd place at Port Priority 7, beating Anathema and Shuton and only losing to a Tweek on a deadly One-Piece-plus-Pokémon-power-up. If Kurama keeps up the momentum he’s developed in the last quarter of the year, then he will without a doubt rank even higher on next year’s rankings. All eyes are on him now, and we’re confident he’ll be sure to jump on this superb opportunity.

Click here to watch Kurama's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

28) CJ | へろー []

In his main series, Bowser is a character often overlooked; always seen as the inferior competitor of his rival and arch-nemesis, Mario. However, Captain Jack Esports' premier player and Japanese Bowser extraordinaire, Hero (or へろー, for those who prefer his name in his written language of kana), has done his best to rectify that for Smash Ultimate, and has put the spotlight on the Koopa King once again. He's done quite the job of it, too, taking wins over players who have won majors domestically and internationally, including sporting a 1-1 record on KEN, and an even more impressive 2-0 record on ProtoBanham, among other wins such as Asimo, Nietono, Paseriman, and Yoshidora! Hero dominated the Maesuma TOP series this year, placing 5th, 2nd, 4th, and 5th at their 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th iterations, as well as placing no worse than 17th at the Kagaribi series! Needless to say, this Kanto star truly elevates his character to another level, and makes Bowser look like the real Hero.

Click here to watch へろー's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

29) SBI | KEN

As one of Japan’s strongest representatives across all of Ultimate’s lifespan, SBI e-Sports’ Kengo “KEN” Suzuki once again returns to a high spot in the rankings. It’s genuinely hard to think of a time KEN wasn’t near the top of the rankings. You see, KEN is a true prodigy of Super Smash Bros. In 2015 he top 8’d his first ever tournament with a win over Kameme. Less than a year later he found himself on the other side of the world, placing top 16 at EVO. And a year after that, he was on the main stage, scoring wins in EVO top 8.

For the vast majority of his career, KEN earned his placings with Sonic and Sonic alone. But this year, things changed. After a surprise loss to Rizeasu’s Sephiroth at Kagaribi 6, KEN was inspired to begin using the One-Winged Angel himself. And in true prodigy fashion, six months later, KEN won his first major with Sephiroth, Battle of BC 4.

In terms of playstyle, KEN is patient to the very last moment, which, when combined with Sephiroth’s One Wing or Sonic’s speed, allows KEN to pull off seemingly impossible comebacks. With such careful play and determination to win, I don’t see KEN ever not being a top level player.

Click here to watch KEN's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

30) CRYME | Lui$ []

NorCal is a region that can go under the radar for a lot of people due to the outsized presence of its southern brother, but that hasn't stopped Luis "Lui$" Oceguera Ramos from being one of its shining stars to break out post-quarantine. With wins on players like Onin, Zomba, Gackt, and many, many more, he's built up a resume of impressive wins and, moreover, impressive losses as well, with multiple top 8's at majors, like Lost Tech City 2022 and Crown 2! On top of being one of the best Palutena mains alongside Chag, he is also a part of an easily top 3 static doubles team alongside Ness main Scend—those two WILL farm you and your friend if you get in their path. Make no mistake: Lui$ is in his bag, and his rise this year is no coincidence, so you best remember the name.

Click here to watch Lui$'s greatest set victory of the ranking period.

31) R2G | Etsuji

The return to Monke in Ultimate has officially arrived, with everyone except Europe having 2 whole top representatives. Not only this, but Diddy appears to be an incredibly expressive character, with how you play neutral with the character being entirely dependent on how you feel like playing the game. Aaron goes with the flow, having a good sense of the game’s underlying rhythm; Tweek relies on camping so hard it actively works against him at times; and then we get to Yuki "Etsuji" Kajihara. The not-so-new kid on the block, Etsuji has been here since Brawl, maining Diddy Kong since the Wii U days, or, as I like to call it, Smash Vietnam. Etsuji plays with a focus on hard reads and unexpected moves, often even killing with Up Special straight off of the angel platform. Etsuji, as a result, in addition to his spotty attendance at majors (or events in general for that matter), almost manages to squeak his way into top 30 of 1000rank 2022, albeit with an enormous amount of uncertainty.

Click here to watch Etsuji's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

32) GG | Tilde

It’s not just Melee where the bird reigns supreme—the Falco agenda is real in Ultimate too! Michael “Tilde” Tedesco, currently the world’s best Falco, has had an amazing 2022, with a staggering jump of 232 places from the 2019 ranking. Hailing from New York, Tilde went on to have winning records against Gen, Vinny G, Nitox, IcyMist, goblin deez, Lima, Jakal, ApolloKage, Peabnut, Marss, Zomba, and Glutonny. His placings have been great in 2022, reaching 9th place at majors such as Collision 2022, Glitch Infinite, and Get On My Level 2022. He also got a top 4 placing in E-Caribana, an invitational in France, beating Nitox, Sintro, and Peli. The crowning achievement though would have to be his 1st place finish at Riptide 2022. There he beat Lima, ApolloKage, Zomba, and Peabnut twice to win the event. Fox and Wolf may have great placings in the meta, but don’t forget about the 3rd spacie and his best rep!

Click here to watch Tilde's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

33) MuteAce []

This year, Antony “MuteAce” Hoo has been a bit inconsistent, and for good reason (he has some ailment in his hands that pops up sporadically and locks his joints, if you didn’t know). If you’ll allow me though, let me tell a bit of an anecdote. This year, I had the opportunity to go to my first EVER major. It was The Big House 10 in Detroit. It’s my mission to get a picture with as many top players as I can get. The first picture with an Ultimate player I got is MuteAce! I see him playing some friendlies with Ned, and out of respect I’m waiting till the game ends to get the pic with him. As I watch them play, something about Mute’s Peach vs Ned’s Seph was on FIRE. And this was on Friday! So I go to the PGStats discord and send the picture (roast my fit all u want idrc) and a message.

Ned was MALDING over turnip interactions, it was hilarious. But I realized something in that moment. Mute looked consistent. He would go on to get 5th place in singles that weekend, with wins over Colorondo8 and Marss, losing to Onin and Tweek. When Mute is playing hot, he’s playing HOT. This man has wins over あcola, Dabuz, Gackt, and Paseriman, after all. Those guys aren't pushovers. Neither is he. Keep an eye on Mute.

Click here to watch MuteAce's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

34) wG | ApolloKage []

What’s the scoop(ert) on ApolloKage, the St. Louis Snake main who can do(obert) it all? Snake has been a prominent part of Ultimate’s meta since its inception, and as the highest-placing Snake on 1000rank, ApolloKage is an upstart in comparison to early-Ultimate fixtures like Shogun, DIO, and MVD. What sets his Snake apart is a patiently aggressive playstyle that’s all his own, weaving seamlessly between pressuring opponents with Snake’s surprisingly safe tilts and aerials, threatening the C4 stick on players caught shielding, or hanging back behind layers of explosive traps. Since his breakout performance at Super Smash Con: Fall Fest in 2021, AK has become a fixture of his own, blasting his way to a litany of national top 8s and major top 12s including 5th at Let’s Make Moves Miami, 4th at Riptide, and winning Dreamhack Atlanta 2022, all the while amassing an impressive assortment of wins over players like MVD, Anathema, Shuton, and crown-jewel victories over Kola and Sonix. ApolloKage is here, and if the end of his season is anything to go by, he’s here to stay. AK followed Dreamhack up by making a run to 5th place at Mainstage 2022 and qualifying for next year’s Ultimate Summit 6—redemption for how close he was to being voted into Summit 5. With such a great opportunity before him, there’s still room left for this star to rise, and with a Cypher to lift him up, there’s no telling how high he’ll go.

Click here to watch ApolloKage's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

35) Desmona

Bursting onto the scene with a last second breakout performance at Mainstage, Desmona is the latest in a long line of Steve prodigies to make a name for himself this year. Being based in Wisconsin meant that for the vast majority of the year, Desmona wasn’t able to show off his skills on the big stage, nor face any top players. When he finally got his opportunity, he didn’t let it go to waste. Desmona stormed into Mainstage top 8 taking down Zinoto, Asimo, Chag and Riddles, and scored a respectable placing at the Mainstage Arcadian to boot.

Of course, with such a low sample size, comes uncertainty. Desmona has one of the highest uncertainty scores of any player on the top 100. It is unclear at this stage exactly what Desmona’s true level is and whether he can maintain his current ranking. I, for one, am excited to see exactly how high he can rise.

Click here to watch Desmona's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

36) AITX | Jakal

Jude "Jakal" Harris, a Wolf main hailing from New Jersey, has been around the block this year, playing and beating a good amount of top players from different regions. He has winning records against Gen, Syrup, Aaron, ApolloKage, Bloom4Eva, ESAM, Jake, Ling, Niko, SHADIC, and KEN. A notable matchup is Jakal vs Syrup, who have played an absurd 24 ranked sets this year, with Jakal winning 18 of them. Jakal started the year with a couple of rough results, getting 65th at Glitch Infinite, but he quickly shot up the rankings with a 13th place at Collision 2022 and a 9th place at Pound 2022. Since then he’s been on fire, reaching top 8 at 3 out of the 4 majors he has attended since then with 7th place finishes at Double Down 2022 and Shine 2022, and rebounding from that Glitch Infinite with a 5th place finish at Glitch Regen, beating smub and Syrup while taking a game from Light and taking Zomba to game 5 last stock. He has jumped 69 spots from his 2019 ranking, and was ranked as the 2nd best Wolf main until he managed to overtake Ouch!? late in the year and claim the number one spot. With the pace he has been going at, who knows how high he’ll lead the Star Wolf squadron next year?

Click here to watch Jakal's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

37) Checkmate | Anathema

Steven “Anathema” Acosta has leveled up since last year, and demonstrably so. His start to the year was nothing to gawk at, after placing 7th at LMBM and 4th at cardd’s basement, but evening it out with some rough big majors at GENESIS and Low Tide City. However, for however bad you think his run could have been at LTC, he proved to Texas later in the year that R.O.B. is BIG, and he’s a grower… from his losses. He grows from his losses. What did you think I was talking about? Anyways, not to be outdone by his neutral based counterpart, Anathema’s punish-heavy gameplan won him the ditto over Zomba, solidifying his 2nd place at Rise ‘n Grind, and punching himself a ticket to Smash Ultimate Summit 5. He got 9th there, and showed that he really did Rise and Grind, with placements and wins like 9th at LMMM beating Cosmos, 5th at Port Priority 7 over yonni, and another 2nd at Dreamhack Atlanta beating DDee, Fatality, Teaser, Goblin, and MVD before falling to ApolloKage. Anathema has proven he can hang with the big leagues, and he doesn’t intend on going anywhere but up!

Click here to watch Anathema's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

38) Chag

Santiago “Chag” Perez was once a very unknown quantity in Smash Ultimate. The last time there was a 1000rank, he registered for EVO 2019, went (wrongly) unseeded, and went on to place 33rd. Since then, he’s become an international menace. He’s been in his home of Mexico, from coast to coast in the USA, to Europe, and even Qatar, getting wins on players like MkLeo, Maister, MkBigBoss, Skyjay, Goblin, Sisqui, and Bloom4Eva. With placements like 3rd at COLOSSEL 2022, 5th at E-Caribana, 13th at GENESIS 8, and 13th at Battle of BC 4, he’s assured that, alongside Lui$, he is one of the best Palutena players there is out there right now, and when he’s at his best, you won’t want to be on his side of bracket.

Click here to watch Chag's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

39) ZETA | Gackt

I’ve been watching a lot of competitive VALORANT this year. It’s been a relieving break from Smash for me, but it has also introduced me to many international teams I didn’t know about before. I learned more about the 100Thieves and Optic equivalents of other regions, and as a huge Smash fan, the ones I gravitated towards most were in Japan. I’ve been chatting about these orgs with friends on the PGstats Discord. One day, on June 1st, I sent these messages.

We talked a lot about a certain Gakuto “Gackt” Ito needing to get picked up by someone. He has it all. Incredible wins, including Glutonny, Shuton, Tea, Hero, Ken, Cosmos, and the list goes on, and on top of that, he is EASILY the biggest Smash Player/Streamer sans Hungrybox himself. But… nobody came. For a while. The first piece of my prophecy fell into place at Double Down. Crazy Raccoon ProtoBanham was real. Surely this would become a precedent, right? But we kept waiting. Many tournaments passed. 9th at that Double Down. 9th at Kagaribi 8. 9th at Maesuma TOP 9. 2nd at Uprising 2022. What would it take for the best Ness player to get signed? And then Smash Ultimate Summit 5 happened. Gackt and Tea were restreaming it to Japan, watching an あcola group stage set vs Myran. あcola takes off his jacket and reveals that he is wearing a ZETA Division Jersey. I, watching the main BTSsmash stream, am excited by this, but nothing would prepare me for what was to follow: my Twitter timeline FLOODING with retweets of an image featuring あcola, Tea, and Gackt all in ZETA jerseys. What followed was an incredible introduction video featuring sick clips of each of them.

Gackt’s future has yet to be written, entirely, but I know that the Smash world is a better place with a sponsored Gakuto Ito in it, and the world’s best Ness player has yet to show us everything he can under the ZETA DIVISION banner.

Click here to watch Gackt's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

40) Panda | Marss []

Tyler “Marss” Martins, Panda’s premier Zero Suit Samus main, isn’t quite the #3 player in the world he used to be, but how could we realistically expect him to be? After all, ZSS sux. That hasn’t stopped him though! He’s added Joker to his character arsenal for the ugly matchups, and has stayed as sharp as he can, nerfs permitting, with the bounty hunting blonde. With wins on Zomba, Skyjay, Peabnut, Kurama, Cosmos, and Aaron, the full time competitor-gone-content-creator has still held his own in as competitive a field as ever, winning Lost Tech City, getting 7th at Genesis 8 and getting 9th at The Big House 10 and Shine 2022. While he may not be as active as before, he has shown most of all that you really CAN be a content creator while being the #1 player in the world (source: his YouTube titles)!

Click here to watch Marss's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

41) Ouch!?

Things that make us say ouch: number 1—the fact that Jayjay “Ouch!?” Basilan only attended a handful of majors until the latter few months of the year. Number 2—da ouchy. In the post-quarantine era, Wolf’s place in the meta has sort of dropped out from under him, but as one of the few players still championing the feral mercenary from the stars, Ouch!?’s gameplay just goes to show that Wolf can still be a high-level threat. When Ouch!? is playing well, he just runs the other player over, using stage positioning, shield, and Wolf’s Blaster to pressure opponents into unsafe options, and brutally punishing their attempts with Wolf’s heavy tilts, aerials, and dash attack. It was this exact style of play that brought Ouch!? the defining tournament performance of his career, an eight-set losers’ run to 3rd place at his hometown major, Battle of BC 4. This run had everything, from impressive wins including MVD, Riddles, and Shuton, to stunning clips like a three-stock game five in his set against Shuton, and throughout the season, every subsequent tournament Ouch!? attends has almost been a question of whether or not he can live up to it, turn a Cinderella story into the expected result. But with Ouch!? one thing’s for sure. What’s holding back his results is not his play, but his major attendance, and as Ouch!? makes his way into the position of major top 8 regular, well, his opponents will know what to say when they see him in their bracket paths.

Click here to watch Ouch!?'s greatest set victory of the ranking period.

42) Ned []

In a year where the Midwest as a whole—and his home city of Chicago in particular—have begun to break onto the scene more nationally with players like Ikan, SamteaSilver, ATATA, Cyber, Ravenking, and IceKnight beginning to capture the eyes of many at events like Glitch - Infinite, Genesis 8, Get On My Level, Rise ‘N Grind, and The Big House 10, Chicago’s #0 on their most recent PR, Nicholas “Ned'' Dovel, has remained the constant through it all, being the rock solid bar for them all to look at and aspire towards. The second best Sephiroth main boasts an impressive record on Midwestern Steve powerhouse Onin, on top of wins such as ESAM, Jake, Scend, Sisqui, Syrup and Tilde. Although his local attendance may be little compared to his fellow Chicago friends, his Major and Regional attendance can only be described as being on the grindset, with placements like 9th at Glitch Regen, 9th at Smash Con 2022, 17th at Double Down, and 1st at regionals Warp Zone and Back In Blood 5. He’s also just as avid a grinder of his stream on Twitch at twitch.tv/NedPT, which isn’t a misnomer, as PT is a character which he is bringing back into the rotation recently for matchups he doesn’t like as Sephiroth. Regardless, whether he’s NedPT or NedFF, Ned remains a bracket threat to not only the Midwest, but to everyone from coast to coast.

Click here to watch Ned's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

43) XTR | WaKa

Many people like to talk about skill as relative to region: how great Tristate is, the cracked level of Japanese players, and the incredible fact of 3 Mexicans in the global top 20. However, entire countries like Mexico and Japan aren't just one region. Friends, today I am here to introduce you to the sunny Baja California, home of Tijuana and everyone's favorite Cloud player, Sparg0. Except, it’s not just him. Sparg0 may have gained his fame on Wi-Fi, but his offline grinding in Tijuana was just as significant to his improvement. One of those in-region grinding partners is Mario "WaKa" Cervantes, the best Luigi main in the world.

WaKa wasn't dormant online either. As Sparg0 got his second #1 in a row on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v7, WaKa wasn't far behind, at #12. As Sparg0's taken the world by storm, WaKa has quietly stayed behind in Mexico, grinding and working. He's got wins offline this year on players such as Goblin, Dark Wizzy, and BigBoss, as well as wins on Andrik and AlanDiss, two more of Tijuana's finest. His loss profile is great too, with his worst record being 0-4 to Sparg0, his friend and also top 3 player. For WaKa, it's not a question of if he can be a threat, but when?

Click here to watch WaKa's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

44) Scarz | Asimo

Ryu. The World Warrior. The Stoic Hero of the iconic Street Fighter franchise! A character that many people played famously as DLC in Smash 4. In December 2018 though, his wisecracking, American friend, Ken Masters, joined Ultimate. If you saw a Shoto player at the top level, there was a good chance it was a Ken. Most people had all but forgotten Ryu by now. But one man grinded and grinded. He lives in what some call “The Wyoming of Japan”, or what most normal people just call “Shikoku”. But he is alive and he is coming for us all. His name? Asimo (あしも). Nobody could have predicted the meteoric rise of such a player in such a fashion. At Kagaribi 7 ALONE he beat ProtoBanham, Tea, Gackt, Huto, Tsubotsubo, and MASA, all before seeing double elimination by あcola. It was then that he would take the USA, and indeed, the world, by storm. At the Gimvitational, he won his pool over Marss, Chase and Light, then beat Cosmos before falling to the eventual tournament winner, あcola. At L'Odyssée, he got wins on Shuton, Flow, and Sisqui. And at the Ludwig Smash Invitational, he got 13th with wins on DDog Quandale Dingleingleton, Scend, and Tea. I could go on, but the question is; why should I have to? You should already know who Asimo is. He IS the world warrior, after all…

Click here to watch Asimo's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

45) SHZ | Big D

The tallest smash player, Dawson “Big D” Perron, spent much of the year chowing down on his competition. The best Ice Climbers player in the world, Big D has been in the Smash scene through four titles. But despite being a veteran of the community, Big D still managed an explosive entrance this year. First, at Get on My Level 2022, Big D used every desync and blizzard kill-confirm in the book to stitch together a monstrous losers’ run, beating Zinoto, Aaron, Syrup, Cosmos, and Riddles to reach Grand Finals, where he ultimately lost to the same player who sent him to losers’ in the first place, Onin. Big D’s performance at the Ludwig Smash Invitational made an even greater impact, with the Icies player beating Light, Tweek, and Riddles again in a run that demanded the community’s attention. But perhaps most impressive was his run at supermajor Mainstage 2022, which saw him take another set off Light and add wins on Gackt, Kurama, and somehow, ApolloKage to finish the tournament at 3rd. Though Big D’s season also features several far weaker performances and worse losses, his X-factor is readily apparent. It might be too much to ask for consistency with such a volatile character, but if Big D can ever find it, then it won’t be long before he climbs to the summit of the competitive landscape.

Click here to watch Big D's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

46) IcyMist

America’s Samus savant has had herself a great year, met with many obstacles overcome with as much versatility as Samus herself has when squeezing down into a morph ball (seriously, how is that physically possible?)! Willow “IcyMist” Barto has proven to be just as ice cold as her tag indicates, especially after starting off the year hot making some big moves in the Big Apple for a 9th place finish at Let’s Make Big Moves 2022! Samus’ strongest warrior on this side of the Atlantic Ocean also has more, including a 25th at Collision 2022, 17th at Pound 2022, 13th at Get On My Level, and a 9th place at The Big House 10! She also bolsters a positive record on Michigan-based Steve beast, Onin, alongside wins on Jakal, Zomba, WaDi, ApolloKage, Aaron, and many more! Suffice it to say, whether you’re in the Midwest, Tristate, or anywhere in the world, Pittsburgh’s best is in Prime Four-m, and you can be sure she’ll be collecting bounties left and right wherever she goes…

Click here to watch IcyMist's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

47) Jake

2022 was the year of Fighters Pass 2; this year, every FP2 character but Sora was able to win a major, and these characters became central in community discourse. But despite much of the spotlight being on emerging Steve mains like Onin, あcola, and DDee, it was Jake “Jake” Silberman who paved the way for the man from Minecraft’s ascendance within the scene. With a signature style of play laser-focused on mining for diamond tools and converting that advantage into stocks, Jake delivered Steve’s first major top 8 with an explosive 3rd place finish at Glitch: Infinite, a run that saw him beat top players like Light, Kola, and Dabuz. Jake was the first to demonstrate that the Steve meta had reached a point where good Steve players were a top-level threat, and that Steve was a matchup high level players needed to learn, lest they be anviled, minecarted, or Forward Smashed into oblivion. But while the aforementioned あcola and Onin went on to win enormous majors, Jake struggled to remain consistent, scoring wins over Riddles, Zomba, KEN, and Sonix, but facing numerous losses outside the top 100 players. Despite this, Jake can’t be counted out: he made two more runs to top 8, at Double Down and Ultimate Fighting Arena 2022, and he demonstrated his ability to adapt by winning the runbacks on players like Spectral and Justinbyleth, who had upset him before. His results make it clear: don’t underestimate Jake, because with his patented Jake Smash, one opening could be all he needs.

Click here to watch Jake's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

48) Supahsemmie

By far the strongest Young Link in Europe and a strong contender for the best worldwide, Supahsemmie is one of the best players from the often overlooked Dutch scene—currently ranked 2nd on their latest PR, but 1st in the country on this year’s 1000rank. With sparse attendance, Supahsemmie is somewhat tough to accurately judge, but he performs well when it matters most, placing 5th at BOSS BATTLES For Glory, 9th at Ultimate Wanted 4, 2nd at Dreamhack Rotterdam, and bagging a 1st place finish at On Reaction. Supahsemmie may have little interaction with top players this year, but his wins are nothing to scoff at, having beaten Space, Leon, Tarik, and Tilde, proving that he can keep up with Europe's top talent. Although currently a hidden gem, with more attendance Supahsemmie could be a common name at the top of European smash in the future.

Click here to watch Supahsemmie's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

49) LFG SF | AlanDiss

Mexico’s resident Snake main, Alan “AlanDiss” Carrillo, has had an impressively solid 2022. As one of the top players in Mexico who rarely travels out of region, AlanDiss is the classic case of a big fish in a small pond, putting up dominating result after dominating result. Just look at his tournament record. At the eleven ranked events AlanDiss attended this season, he made top 3 at eight of them, only failing to do so at the major Smash Factor 9, the stacked invitational Delfino Maza RETA and at the regional Fight Club: Face to Face 2.

Those of you familiar with rankings may think that AlanDiss’s score is artificially inflated by farming his region, but AlanDiss backs up his score with big wins on Glutonny and Maister. As a player, AlanDiss represents the great depth regional talent Ultimate has today.

Click here to watch AlanDiss's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

50) Paragon | Scend []

Spencer Garner continues not to be the BestNess… instead he’s “Scend” now! Although Gackt finishes ahead of him this year, the Utah based Ness main has held his own ground, gathering wins on players like Andrik, ApolloKage, ESAM, Goblin, Marss, Myran, and more! He’s continued to be a regional fiend, attending (and often winning) the Back in Blood series like crazy, as well as being a frequenter of the Midwest's larger regionals like Frosty Faustings and Level Up Arena, which, as a resident of Illinois, I tip my hat to. This is also not to mention that he, along with Lui$, forms one of the top Doubles teams in the history of the game. Needless to say, Scend holds up well after the days of Wi-Fi and Quarantine, and is on track to take on the best there is out there.

Click here to watch Scend's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

51) Lima []

Everyone's favorite controversy-magnet is back: give it up for Bharat "Lima" Chintapall everyone! The Texas native has been the leader of the state for a while, so having a player like MuteAce move there is surely keeping him on his toes competitively! Lima has been performing well throughout the year, with placements like his First Attack where he got 2nd losing to only Sonix and beating Ling, kept, and Capitancito, or Lost Tech City 2022 where he got 3rd, securing a spot in the Panda Cup Finale [RIP - Ed.] with wins on Maister and Niko. Seriously, setting aside events outside of the game, he's held up a very good year, and it's only looking to get better. Whether you like him or not, Lima's 2022 has been an impressive showing.

Click here to watch Lima's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period (set #1).

52) SPG | ヤウラ

ヤウラ (Yaura)’s story is one we have seen time and time again in Japan’s Smash scene. After a successful Wi-Fi career, Yaura entered his first major in 2021 and has been posting top level results ever since. Online grinder during quarantine, into top offline player is, evidently, a true combo.

His accolades in 2022 are many and varied. Wins on Kameme, Kome and ProtoBanham show the level of play Yaura is capable of. He is the best Samus in Japan and was formerly considered the best player in Shikoku (not that Yaura got worse—it’s just that a certain Ryu main started taking names all over the world).

Perhaps most notably though, Yaura was the first ever player to beat あcola offline, winning a 3-2 set at the first Maesuma Offline Invitational. While あcola did get his runback at that same event, and then again at Sumabato 29, Yaura has bragging rights for time eternal. Regardless of how Yaura’s career progresses in the future, he will always have that one glorious W against the Steve god.

Click here to watch ヤウラ's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

53) IluZ | Skyjay

Make no mistake: Incineroar IS a mid-tier, and Juan “Skyjay” Pablo is, frankly, a God Mode Gamer of epic proportions for piloting this character to a top 100 finish on 1000rank 2022. I won’t let anyone tell me otherwise.

So how did he do it? Well, other than incredible fundamentals all around, the secret sauce that really makes Skyjay shine is a better use of counter (in this case, Revenge) than any other player in the world. Somehow, Skyjay has an uncanny knack for downloading the attacking timings of even some of the very best Smash players on Earth, allowing him to unleash devastating Revenges multiple times a game. This proficiency has led him to some terrific tourney placements, occasionally even coming tantalizingly close to top 8 at some stacked-as-hell brackets, like Smash Factor 9, Lost Tech City 2022, and the LSI LCQ, but never quite managing to break that barrier. But if he keeps up his insane level of improvement – the highest increase in rank from 2019 of anyone on 1000rank! – it’s only a matter of time before he finally makes it.

If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. ‘Cause there’s a new cat in town, and he’s cookin’ up the hurt, daddio. 😎

Click here to watch Skyjay's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

54) 8LX | HIKARU []()

Eita “HIKARU” Hoshi may not have been the first person to pick up the Blazing Blade of Roy in Ultimate, but there is no doubt in saying that he is one of the best of them. After proving his worth in spades with Donkey Kong of all characters—a character who he seems to have brought back onto his roster, going on an insane run of upsets at Ultimate Fighting Arena 2022 using almost solo DK—8LX’s hero had somewhat of a character crisis where he landed on Pokemon Trainer and Wario before finally finding Roy. This year, his shining accomplishment is being one of few people who can claim to have a set on あcola, despite getting run back in that same bracket. He’s also got wins on Asimo, KEN, Kome, Nietono, and Yaura, with big placements at Sumabato SP 24, WINNER! -Next Gen-, Shin-Ken League, Sumabato SP 27, Maesuma TOP 8, KOWLOON 2, and Maesuma TOP 10. Needless to say, the Japanese swordsman has performed as advertised, and is looking to continue that into the future.

Click here to watch HIKARU's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

55) Shory's | ShinyMark

The top-ranked player from Guatemala, and the best Pikachu in the world, Markus “ShinyMark” Florido has shocked the competition, as he has had an electrifying year. Although he hasn’t attended much due to living in Central America, which is why his uncertainty is so high, he has been able to get a good amount of top player wins, having winning records against WaKa, Ling, and Sisqui. His placings have also been fairly solid, getting 5th place at Smash Factor 9, beating MKBigBoss and WaKa, getting a massive upset on Sisqui, and making another seeding upset on WaDi. He showed similar success at Smash Legends 3, a big Central American national, beating Echofire and Haunter to reach 3rd place. All in all, don’t sleep on this yellow rat main heading into next year!

Click here to watch ShinyMark's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

56) skittles

Wi-Fi Warrior turned bona fide Top Player, Tanner “skittles” Jordan is one of the Midwest's finest and a contender for the best Young Link. A fair amount of skittles' best results have been from regional events, with a 2nd place at SOS 7 as well as winning both Frosty Faustings XIV and LEVELUP Arena 4. While not quite hitting his regional peaks, skittles has been no pushover at majors either, with a 17th at Genesis 8, 9th at Rise N' Grind, 5th at Riptide, and 17th at The Smash World Tour Championships serving as proof that he can hang with some of the best Ultimate has to offer. Although volatile, skittles' tournament runs have been far from empty, with wins over the likes of ApolloKage, Atelier, Chag, Lui$, Sonix, yonni, and a stunning 4-3 record against Zomba more than making up for the occasional underperformance. Only time will tell if skittles can repeat his peaks, but with some improved consistency he could easily become a regular name to see deep in brackets.

Click here to watch skittles’ greatest set victory of the ranking period.

57) Moist | Aaron []

In his first full year since quarantine, Moist Esports’ own Aaron “Aaron” Wilhite eventually capitalized off the momentum he gathered from Summit 3 and reinvented himself throughout 2022. After a slow start with R.O.B. and Sora at Let’s Make Big Moves 2022, returning back to maining Diddy Kong didn’t provide immediate answers at Glitch - Infinite or Collision 2022, as he suffered upsets to the likes of Jiggs, Soar, and C.Kaleb. However, the Central Florida veteran responded in a massive way at Genesis 8, sculpting an eight-match losers run en route to 9th place and eliminating Goblin, Chag, Monte, and Big D along the way. Aaron’s inconsistency got the better of him at this year’s iterations of Low Tide City and MomoCon, but another 9th at CEO 2022 headlined by Zomba and Fatality wins showed his stratospheric potential. The strong showings continued with a Top 8 finish at GOML 2022 (including sets over Tilde and Ouch?!) and deep bracket runs at Double Down and Super Smash Con 2022, the latter of which featured wins over MKBigBoss, Tilde, and Skyjay. This paved the way for his crowning achievement of 2022, when he captured his first Ultimate regional and Panda Cup Qualification [RIP - Ed.] by defeating WaDi, Light, and Kola (twice) to take the PAX West 2022 Arena Crown. Aaron cooled off with consecutive 17th place finishes at The Big House 10 and Let’s Make Moves Miami, but with the GENESIS 9 looming, there’s no telling what Aaron can pull off—he always seems to shine brightest on the biggest stages.

Click here to watch Aaron's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

58) MP MK | MKBigBoss

One of Mexico's finest, throughout the year Abraham “MKBigBoss” Slane Parra has steadily built a very solid resume as a top ROB main. MKBigBoss has mostly attended locals and major events this year, but still made respectable showings at regional events with a 2nd place finish at Viva La Smash, 1st at Neroliebers Fest and 1st at Smash Legends 3. He also demonstrated astounding consistency for Ultimate at the many majors he attended this year, with 13th at Low Tide City, 13th at Collision, 17th at Rise N' Grind, and 17th at Genesis 8 marking some of his high points. Aside from his consistency, MKBigBoss has shown himself capable against a number of threats with wins on players like Anathema, Fatality, Goblin, Jake, Lui$, Niko, Raflow, ShinyMark, and many more. Although his consistency is a blessing, MKBigBoss' biggest hurdle seems to be closing out tight sets. If he can clutch out even a few more game 5's he'll be due for a major Top 8 in no time.

Click here to watch MKBigBoss's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

59) UNI | MASA

I’d forgive you if you didn’t recognise MASA’s name. Despite being a Smash 4 veteran, MASA has only truly come into his own in 2022, easily establishing himself as the top Falco in Japan. While he has only competed at a handful of events, MASA stands as a pinnacle of consistency in an otherwise turbulent region. Of the ten tournaments he has attended in the ranking period, he has only missed top 16 at two.

His peak performance came from Maesuma TOP#8. After an early loss, MASA kicked up to another level and decided to go on a seven-set losers run. His patient Falco took down Rizeasu and Kameme, as well as kept, Suinoko and YOC. He didn’t stop winning until he was finally taken down by Yoshidora, finishing in 4th place.

Don’t be surprised if you see MASA’s name appearing more and more as we head into 2023.

Click here to watch MASA's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

60) FURIA | Fatality []

Griffin "Fatality" Miller is a player with a good deal of intriguing circumstances and results this year. First, he's sponsored by an internationally renowned Brazilian organization in the form of FURIA Esports, which is a rather curious turn of events when you consider that he is a white guy who lives in Georgia. To this day, I still have no clue how that happened. He also has a handful of surprisingly great set records, including a win on ProtoBanham, a 1-1 record against Cosmos and a 1-0 record against fellow Georgian DDee. He’s even gotten 9th at back to back European Majors, and on top of that has multiple top 16 finishes in his home of the Southeastern USA at Momocon 2022 and CEO 2022. What does this add up to, you ask? Well, only the highest ranked Captain Falcon main in the world. His drive to become the best has pushed him to new heights, and we hope to see even more incredible and logic-defying action from him come 2023.

Click here to watch Fatality's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

61) Epic_Gabriel

Florida R.O.B. main Gabriel “Epic_Gabriel” Romero is a bit of an enigma. Somewhat of a hidden boss, it’s obvious that he is very active in his local scene, winning 19 tournaments and finishing second six times. These are mostly smaller tournaments of less than 50 players (and thus not counted for 1000rank), but he does have a few impressive results anyone would be proud of at larger tournaments: 17th at LMM Miami, 17th at Rise ‘N Grind, and 25th at CEO. It’s easy to assume that against top tier opponents, E_G simply cannot match their level. He lacks a signature win against a top-30-ranked player this year with the closest he’s come being a 2-3 loss in Winners Semis to Riddles at SOAR Summer 2022, a pre-CEO local. He was able to earn another shot at Riddles in grands by beating Jake and yonni, but Riddles once again defeated him to take the set 3-1 putting E_G out at 2nd.

Again, the set data makes E_G’s true ability difficult to determine. He is incredibly consistent if he’s the best player in the venue, hardly prone to an upset and placing very respectably at larger tournaments. We just don’t see him compete against the top ranked players often enough. E_G has five sets against players ranked above Jake (his best victory) and has suffered defeat in all of them. He also has nine top three or better placements at significant tournaments over 50 entrants. The sample size isn’t large enough to say definitively that he’s not capable of competing with the best, and while what we have seen is not encouraging, more head-to-head encounters with the Ultimate’s best are needed to determine where he truly stands.

Click here to watch Epic_Gabriel's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

62) Puppeh

The #1 ranked SoVA player Troy “Puppeh” Wells had been threatening to break into the top 50 on the PGRU this year. He started off 2022 farming 1st place finishes at locals, cementing his place at the top of regional rankings, and double eliminating WaDi in winner’s finals and grands at Stick Drift 2, SoVA’s biggest regional tournament. At Pound 2022, Puppeh placed 17th, notching victories over Grape and Luma. This appeared to be his ceiling as he placed 33rd at MomoCon 2022 and 17th at COST 2022, while another victory over a highly ranked player eluded him. We saw the best of Puppeh at Super Smash Con 2022 where he placed 17th yet again out of nearly 2,400 entrants. At SSC, Puppeh earned his most notable win of this season, a dominant 3-0 victory over Marss before being sent to losers by honorary NY #1 Dabuz and being eliminated by Kola in his next set, dropping both sets 3-1. Puppeh’s results have earned him a spot at the top of the MDVA rankings.

His decision to stay with his longtime main PT may be viewed as somewhat limiting to his ceiling as many believe the meta has passed the character by. He seems committed to his main while other notable PT players, such as Ned and Tweek, are content to flirt with the character. Puppeh remains one of the top PT mains in the world, with only NY #2 Quidd holding him off the claim to the top PT spot.

Click here to watch Puppeh's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

63) R2G | Paseriman

2022 has been a good year for the Fox mains. For Japan’s best Fox player and the second fiddle to Light himself, RayRoad Gaming’s Yutaro “Paseriman” Naguro, that’s meant a return to form! You may recognize him from his breakout just before the pandemic in early 2020, but if you thought he was good then, he’s only ascended further now, with wins on players like ProtoBanham, Zackray, Shuton, and KEN, not to mention boasting some records internationally such as wins on Bloom4Eva, Raflow, and Sisqui after a visit to Paris where he got 4th place at the invitational L’Odyssée - Chant 1, a performance standing alongside such others as 9th at Kagaribi 8, 2nd at Shin-Ken League, and 1st at WINNER! -Next Gen-. Needless to say, the trajectory for Paseriman is looking just as upwards as his American counterpart, with no signs of stopping.

Click here to watch Paseriman's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

64) BMS | Raflow

When talking about France's best, Arda “Raflow” Imrek is a player whose name can’t be left out of the conversation. Although not quite in contention for very best, this year finds him breaking into the upper echelon of players from the European continent. Being the 3rd best Palutena, ranked 64th is certainly something to be proud of, but Raflow definitely still has room to grow. Because, although his peaks show that Raflow has what it takes (particularly an 8-5 record on Sisqui, as well as 3 wins on Glutonny and 1 win on Maister) his overall ranking is dragged down by the fact that he also has some dud tournaments. Particularly his overseas tournaments come to mind, although 65th, 65th, 25th and 17th showings at those tourneys is a strong indicator that his results are trending in the right direction. If Raflow can shake his inconsistency, and maintain his ability to take sets off of the best of the best, he’s sure to become a force to be reckoned with.

Click here to watch Raflow's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

65) 26R | Zinoto []

If you hail from the Great Lakes, Julian “Zinoto” Carrington is a name that you have definitely heard of. He has remained as consistent as ever, coming in at number 65 on this year’s 1000rank, up 3 spots from 2019’s ranking. One major difference this year is that he’s returned from the Mushroom Kingdom to the Monkey Kingdom. Once Diddy got buffed, Zinoto jumped right back on the Diddy train, and since then it’s like he never switched mains. He has winning records against Puppeh, IcyMist, Andrik, and, impressively, up-and-comer BassMage. His placings have also remained fairly consistent over this year, placing as high as 9th at Get On My Level 2022, beating Burst and LA GRIMACE, and as low as 49th at Double Down 2022. His crown jewel placement this year, however, is an eye-raising 13th place at The Big House 10, including a dominant 3-0 over BassMage. Although he may not be Michigan’s number 1 anymore (and who can blame him—Onin is on another level), Zinoto is still a top level threat that can take out your favorite player 3-0.

Click here to watch Zinoto's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

66) DIV3 | SHADIC

There is no better phrase to describe SHADIC than that of PG Stats writer Trash Day!, who when describing the 15-year-old Texan’s breakout top 8 finish at The Big House 10, succinctly labeled him as “the only solo Corrin main that anyone has seen, heard, or imagined in Ultimate.” Though never considered a bottom tier, popular opinion on Corrin was that they were ultimately outclassed by fellow swordies like Roy and Lucina. But though it was MkLeo’s brief success with the character that caught most people’s attention early in the year, it has been SHADIC whose ascendant combo game, carefully measured spacing, and deft maneuvering with Dragon Lunge has really pushed Corrin throughout 2022. Beginning the year with a strong 17th place finish at Collision 2022, SHADIC has established himself and his Corrin as a prominent bracket threat, with huge upsets over players like Zomba, Chag, Aaron, and Skyjay. Perhaps most notable—and ironic—are the two set wins he accrued over Cosmos, the former world #1 Corrin in Smash 4, at Collision 2022 and MomoCon 2022. SHADIC’s performances over the year hit their peak with his aforementioned top 8 finish at The Big House 10, but in order to break into the highest level of Ultimate play he’ll have to find something many players struggle with their entire careers: consistency. Still, SHADIC has demonstrated without a doubt that neither he nor his character should be underestimated—lest his opponents be left lost in thoughts, bewildered, all alone.

Click here to watch SHADIC's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

67) Syrup

Syrup, a Ness main hailing from New Jersey, was previously unranked for the 2019 ranking, but during the online era he had a major come-up, consistently making top 8’s in online tournaments like Xanadu Online and Mega Smash Mondays. When offline events returned in 2021, Syrup was a whole different player, and ready to show the world what he was made of. In his first offline event, he reached 2nd, only losing to Jakal, and he’s only been getting better ever since. This year he has winning records against Jake, Mugen, Tilde, Marss, and Ouch!?, and has taken sets off of Gen, Jakal, Ling, LeoN, Cosmos, and Dabuz. He started the year off with a 13th place finish at Let’s Make Big Moves, and since then he’s obtained impressive results, such as 5th at Get On My Level 2022, beating Ouch!? and Cosmos, and 5th at Shine, beating Beast, Marss, and Jakal. Look for this young Ness main to continue rising throughout next year!

Click here to watch Syrup's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

68) Paragon | Myran

Robert “Myran” Herrin’s season can best be summed up with one word: inconsistent. He’s had his big highs and he’s had his big lows. Though still the best solo Olimar main in the world (Dabuz and Shuton don’t count), Myran has fallen since 2019, slipping from 28th to 68th. He does have some notable wins, however, including winning records on thirty4, Marss, Ned, ApolloKage, and MuteAce. His records have some amazing results, like his 5th place finish at Genesis 8, beating Teaser, Ikan, and Marss, but also lows like not getting a single set win at Ultimate Smash Summit 5, and getting 27th at the Ludwig Smash Invitational, the last possible placement in the tournament. Still, the Olimar name has remained a name to keep an eye out on, so don’t be surprised if he runs it back in 2023.

Click here to watch Myran's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

69) Sigma

Bombs away! The best Toon Link in Japan (a region in which the otherwise niche character is surprisingly plentiful) and moreover, the highest-ranked Toon Link in the world, Sigma blasts his way through opponents with a combination of speedy movement, fast aerials, and, of course, bombs. Lots and lots of bombs. In a gameplan almost reminiscent of R.O.B.’s gyro, Sigma is adept at turning a bomb hit into a combo off of Toon Link’s fast tilts and Up Air, or into a kill off of Forward Air or Up Special. He even uses it as a recovery mix-up, using a bomb’s explosion to break out of special fall. When he’s playing well, Sigma controls space almost as if he were playing Snake instead, and though his results were less than stellar earlier in the year, he quickly began to pick up steam, posting a 9th place finish at Maesuma TOP#7, 9, and 10, coming oh-so-close to a major top 8 each time. In the process, he was able to take strong wins over some of Japan’s best, including Shirayuki, Asimo, ProtoBanham, and 2 wins over Yoshidora. But though all the previous players have become well-known even in the West, Sigma still remains relatively obscure, in part due to his less-represented character and in part due to awful luck in getting his winning matches streamed. But don’t be surprised if Toon Link shows up big at a Japanese major in the future: Sigma’s on the grind and sooner or later everyone’s gonna know it.

Click here to watch Sigma's greatest set victory of the ranking period (set #1).

70) jaredisking1

The purple Shulk main from Oregon entered 2022 with something to prove, placing an impressive 33rd at Genesis 8 with a victory over Dark Wizzy. Over the next several months, Jared “jaredisking1” Sharp continued to accrue solid yet just-under-the-radar placements with 9th at Back in Blood 4, 25th at Battle of BC 4, 33rd at Double Down, and 49th at Super Smash Con. Along the way, Jared kept fine-tuning his playstyle, slowly optimizing his Monado Art usage and truly tenacious edgeguarding. All of the ingredients were there; he just needed to pull it all together in a single tournament run. That breakthrough came with Rise ‘N Grind, where Jared reached 5th after fighting his way through Lima, Deathspade, BassMage, and ATATA (and his eventual loss to Sisqui was likely the wildest set of the tournament).

Jaredisking1 has a way of hovering perpetually at the outer edge of Shulk’s disjoint range. This proactive-but-safe playstyle stacks the deck in his favor for when he does go for a hard call-out—typically a double jump punish with Up-Air or one of his signature Forward Smashes. With the steady improvement we’ve seen from him over the year, it doesn’t take a Vision to say that 2023 is looking bright for Jared.

Click here to watch jaredisking1's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

71) BKROG | Mr.R []

Ramin “Mr.R” Delshad has dropped down the EU rankings slightly this year. He lacked wins over top players for most of the year until managing to take a set off Glutonny at L'Odyssée. This win does have the caveat of being in a best of three, so the quality of this win is up for some debate. While suffering from a bit of an ongoing character crisis early in 2022, Mr.R committed to Sheik as his main, a character that, while being a high tier, still has some very noticeable limitations. Coupling Sheik with a secondary Aegis seems to be the preferred way forward for Mr.R.

Tied in sets against the best in Europe, 2-2 against Bloom4Eva and 1-1 against Gluttony, Mr.R has shown flashes of brilliance. This culminated in a second-place finish at the recent Tech Republic VI. While not the most stacked tournament in terms of worldwide talent, Mr.R took the opportunity to even his set count this year with Bloom, sending him to losers in winners semis and eliminating him in losers finals to make grands where he fell to Luugi.

The latter half of the year has been much stronger for Mr.R. With his character lineup finally settled, he was able to place well at several other tournaments including 7/1024 at Colossel, 9/572 at UFA 2022, and the aforementioned 2/418 at Tech Republic VI. If he remains motivated and active, there’s a chance we will begin mentioning him alongside Gluto and Bloom as one of Europe’s best.

Click here to watch Mr.R's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

72) thirty4

Though they fall a few placings short of their namesake, thirty4 has spent the season proving that they’re not to be underestimated. Though their main, Olimar, has had it rough in the 2022 meta, with the premier representatives Dabuz and Shuton mostly focusing their attention on other characters, thirty4’s measured and consistent gameplay does a lot to show the character’s continued viability. Olimar is a character that almost requires two different mindsets to play, a patient willingness to sit back and throw Pikmin in neutral and an opportunistic sense of when to get aggressive and rack up huge damage with Up Smash and aerial combos, and thirty4 is adept at shifting on a dime from one playstyle to another. It’s this adaptability that led to their best offline major run, a 25th place at Mainstage 2022 with a win over Atelier, alongside a 3rd place finish at the BTS Arcadian the same weekend with a win on Desmona. But thirty4 is perhaps most known for their proficiency in Wi-Fi brackets, so I’d be remiss not to highlight one of their most impressive online accomplishments: reverse 3-stocking Sonix in Winners’ Semis game 5 of CoinBox #8, a tournament thirty4 would go on to win. That’s a reputation-setting victory, and going into 2023 it’ll be interesting to see what sort of reputation thirty4 builds for themselves in offline Ultimate.

Click here to watch thirty4's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

73) Elegant

74) mCon | Space

Alain “Space” Balemba has carved out a… space amongst EU’s best for himself. The Aegis now joins Inkling in his character lineup, yielding a string of consistent top placements and wins at just about every tier of tournament there is. While he has yet to defeat the top dogs of EU, Glutonny and Bloom4Eva, he’s notched impressive wins over Fatality, Jake, quiK and Mr. R to name a few. He lacks a true statement win over the continent’s best players, and while a 7th place finish at the recent UFA 2022 is impressive, it takes on an even bigger impact when you consider that he was sent to loser’s by Bloom, who finished fourth, and eliminated by Gluto, who placed second.

Space is a player who is poised for a breakout. Out of his last 10 ranked tournaments, only three times has he failed to finish in the top 8. He seems to be a big fish in a small pond though. The resume is just slightly lacking in terms of experience against the game’s best. Changing that is up to Space and the tournaments he chooses to attend. While incredibly active in his home region, Space will have to venture out of Europe in order to establish himself as a true top player and take the next step. The question is, will it be a small step, or a giant leap?

Click here to watch Space's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

75) Moist | goblin deez []

This year, Florida Roy main Alexis “Goblin” “goblin deez” Stennett has displayed some excellent play and earned a handful of tourney wins; however, he seems to have arrived at somewhat of a plateau. In the first quarter of the 2022 calendar year, Goblin placed 5th at Let’s Make Big Moves, 5th at The Peabnut Formal, 9th at Glitch Infinite and 13th at Collision. A well-established and highly ranked player, he was voted into Summit 4, his first Summit appearance, where placed a respectable-if-slightly-underwhelming 9th.

This is Goblin’s current ceiling in Ultimate. He’s shown himself capable of placing well at larger tournaments, but it seems when the very top-level competitors show up, Goblin hits a wall. Truly one of the “best of the rest,” if seeded highly amongst the field, he is a threat to take a tournament. A perfect representation of this is the Ludwig Smash Invitational. Goblin was unable to earn an invitation to the main tournament, but qualified through the LCQ with relative ease notching wins over Mr. E, Lui$, and Ouch!?. Once qualified, he was dispatched in three straight sets by Glutonny, Chag, and Quandale Dinglelingleton, failing to make it out of Swiss Pools.

No one tournament defines a player, and Goblin’s placings this year run the gamut of truly impressive, to disappointing. Though he has only one top-10 win this year in the form of Tea, and only one other top-30 win in the form of Zomba, outside of this range you see the consistency and results start to emerge. While prone to suffer an upset, Goblin seems just as likely to slide down the rankings as he does to develop his play and climb even higher. Only time will tell.

Click here to watch goblin deez's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

76) Rizeasu

Rizeasu, also known as the random button, is a player best known for being a multi-main, currently maining the trio of Byleth, Sephiroth, and Marth. Interestingly, he seems to have different playstyles for each of his characters. While his Byleth is focused on taking up as much space as possible as consistently as possible while using Neutral Special to lure out an option from the opponent, his Marth is focused on calling out the opponent’s movements to connect tippers more often, and his Sephiroth is focused on scaring the opponent and keeping them on their toes. At the same time, however, he also seems to have multiple somewhat constant traits amongst his characters that we can identify as distinctly Japanese. Firstly, his use of shield, shared between his Marth and Sephiroth. Since Marth and Sephiroth have somewhat specific out-of-shield options, instead of using the shield to fall back on, he uses it as a pressure option, shielding in his opponent’s face to mask what he might do next. This strategy is similar to a strategy commonly seen in martial arts like Taekwondo called jamming, in which you press against your opponent to force them to attack in but a few specific and predictable ways. Instead of using the shield defensively, then, he uses movement as his primary defensive option. This is especially prevalent in his set against Asimo at Maesuma 1on1 #13, where he repeatedly opts to crouch under, jump over, run away from, or even dash under (in the case of Marth specifically) hadoukens and shakunetsus. Finally, Rizeasu shows incredible amounts of discipline. This discipline is something that even other top players, such as ESAM, Onin, and Kola, tend to lack, and something that other top Japanese talent such as HIKARU and Kameme have made a name for themselves off of. But is Rizeasu really that good? If you go by his results, not quite. He’s inconsistent, but he passes the eye test with brilliant, flashing, flying colors, and thus earns his ranking inside this list’s top 100, and a spot as one of my personal favorite players to watch.

Click here to watch Rizeasu's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

77) Chase []

SoCal's rising star and one of the best Palutena mains worldwide, Lucas “Chase” Ray has demonstrated in 2022 that the region’s new blood is just as good as its old guard. This year Chase attended a sizable amount of events both in and out of state and has the results to show for it with impressive results at both the local level and at larger events having placed 9th at LVL UP EXPO, 17th at Riptide, 17th at Low Tide City, 13th at Mainstage, and winning the Mainstage Arcadian. Compared to his placements, Chase's win resume is just as impressive if not more so with Chronos, enhancedpv, Jdizzle, Ling, MKBigBoss, Monte, Scend, Sonix, and thirty4 being only some of the notable players Chase has triumphed over this year. Going into 2023, Chase is running with strong momentum after his Arcadian win, and if he can follow up on it Chase may very well close the gap between him and his fellow Palutena mains.

Click here to watch Chase's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

78) ES | Nitox

When thinking of mid-tiers [Bet. - Ed.], Lucas is certainly a major player that comes to mind. Sometimes it is a bit hard to find good reps of this sort of character, but Scott "Nitox" Gaman makes his name as the best in the business. Although his performances at majors leave a bit to be desired, regularly placing 17th-49th, with a best result of 9th, at Colossel 2022. His regional placements, however, show what he is really capable of. He regularly makes top 8 at these big French (and British) regionals. Not only did he get 3rd at both Boss Battles: For Glory and Wanted S4 C4, with wins over Tarik, Supahsemmie, Mr. R and Oryon, Mr. R, respectively, that wasn’t even his best placement. That title goes to BDE Last Stock, a regional he won, with wins over Flow, Leon and Raflow.

With those sorts of performances, there’s definitely still room to grow for Nitox, but if he can transfer his regional performances to majors, he’ll be a top threat in no time.

Click here to watch Nitox's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

79) LVD | Ling []

There’s always a place for royalty here on 1000rank. Ricky “Ling” Gorritz, a Peach main from Connecticut, and second in the state behind only Light (a player who’s been in contention for best in the world this year), has been tearing it up with his main since Smash 4. He is ranked the 2nd best Peach in the world, after MuteAce. 2022 has been a great year for him. He has winning records against Andrik, Nitox, Axiom XL, Syrup, Goblin, BassMage, Tilde, Myran, and Marss. And while it wasn’t in a major, he has taken a set from Light in a Connecticut local (albeit one not counted on 1000rank). In majors this year, Ling has had great placements, with the biggest one being 9th place at MomoCon 2022, beating Toast, Teaser, JMafia, and Myran. Look for this princess to shock the world as Ling continues to travel to new tournaments!

Click here to watch Ling's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

80) Mugen []

Some players have such a smooth and defined playstyle that the only way to describe it is pure. Mugen, the slightly less well-known Georgia Roy, is one such player. His playstyle is pure aggression, which is not to say that he rushes in headlong or regularly makes unsafe plays, but rather that he’s always trying to pressure his opponent in neutral and push his lead in advantage. The way that he spaces aerials right in the opponent’s face or seamlessly moves to catch air dodges and rolls is honestly one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in Ultimate. It was this gung-ho style of play that helped Mugen start the year strong with a 17th place finish at Let’s Make Big Moves 2022 and a 9th place finish at Glitch: Infinite. Though his placements dipped later in the year, Mugen still picked up impressive wins over other strong players in-region, including Kola, DDee, and Fatality, alongside wins over Tilde and the French Leon at his aforementioned Glitch run. But the issue with aggression is that it runs both ways―though Roy can delete stocks with a few well-placed hits in advantage, he can also get rolled over the same way in disadvantage, as demonstrated in Mugen’s sets with explosive players like Gackt and Glutonny. Still, if Mugen can tighten up his play in disadvantage, then before long he might reclaim the title of NA’s premier Roy player. Oh, and by the way, it means infinite. Just in case you didn’t know.

Click here to watch Mugen's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

81) PHNM | Peabnut

In a sea of blue bombers that is drying out, Christian “Peabnut” Londoño (not to be confused with Little Mac main Peanut) stands alone at the top of robot mountain. His 2022 campaign kicked off at a regional aptly named the Peabnut Formal where he got 2nd to Kola. He attended six majors throughout the year: Collision 2022, Pound 2022, MomoCon 2022, CEO 2022, Super Smash Con 2022, and Let’s Make Moves 2022 Miami. Average results at these events ranged from 65th to 17th. Of these, his best performance came at CEO. He picked up 3-0 victories over Jahzz0 and Luma, with losses to Dabuz and Marss (a 2-3 no less) ending 13th place. Peabnut also finished 13th at the Ludwig Smash Invitational Last Chance Qualifier, grabbing wins on Chase and BassMage before falling 2-3 to Skyjay and Lima.

Peabnut was also sighted at various regionals like the aforementioned Peabnut Formal, Just Roll With It! 2022, and Dreamhack Atlanta 2022. But the run that defined Peabnut’s year was Riptide 2022. While Riptide may or may not be a major, what isn’t debatable is Peabnut going nuclear - notably taking out Zomba en route to a 2nd place finish, getting double eliminated by Falco extraordinaire Tilde. That Zomba win is the peak of his season, and gets added to Peabnut’s trifecta of huge wins this year along with beating Cosmos at Collision and Anathema at MomoCon.

With Peabnut’s performances, MPg’s breakout run at APEX 2022, and Repo potentially returning to form, we may be in for a Mega Man renaissance next year.

Click here to watch Peabnut's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

82) Leon []

The best Lucina in the EU, Nassim “Leon” Laïb makes the 1000rank top 100, riding off a number of impressive year-long results. He started the year strong with a 9th place finish at NA major Glitch: Infinite, taking wins on skittles, Scend, and Fatality in the process, and largely carried that momentum into subsequent events in his own region. He made a 9th place finish at European supermajor COLOSSEL 2022, and managed a 5th place finish at both 95 Kings of Fields 2 and Vienna Challengers Arena 2022. At these events he picked up wins on top EU talent like Sisqui, Raflow, and Tarik – but oddly enough, though Leon is positive against a number of NA players, his head-to-head scores against every other EU player ranked in the top 100 are even at best and weighted pretty heavily against him at worst. These head-to-head records, alongside a number of less stellar performances like a 25th at Ultimate Wanted 4 and the obligatory EU-player underperformance at an NA event (in this case, 49th at GENESIS 8), are what really hold back Leon’s results this season. He does have one important winning record though: a 1-0 record on the best NA Bowser, LeoN.

Click here to watch Leon's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

83) GOTE | Vinny G

Although Vincent "Vinny G" Ghiroli has only been to 3 ranked tournaments this year, accounting for his 32 uncertainty score, which is absurdly high, he more or less maintained his consistency from 2019. He is the 3rd best Snake, only behind ApolloKage and AlanDiss. At those tournaments he attended, of which the most recent major was CEO 2022, he reached 25th place, beating Seibrik and Senn before falling to Zomba. He also consistently got 1st and 2nd at locals. He does have a winning record against Myran, beating him at Nite Lite 2, a local in Florida. A common matchup Vinny G has is against GenV, a Mario main from Florida, whom Vinny G is 4-0 against (1-0 in ranked tournaments). He still has it in him to be top 100, so if he attends more next year we should be able to see the grenades and C4 exploding everywhere!

Click here to watch the only known VOD of Vinny G from the past year.

84) Axiom XL

John “Axiom XL” Smith’s rise has been as unrelenting as the combo game of his main KAZUYA MISHIMA. He’s established himself alongside Riddles, Tea and あcola as one of Ultimate’s masters of the Mishima fighting style, and is arguably the world’s second best Kazuya player. Axiom’s ascent parallels the recent emergence of Kazuya on Ultimate’s scene, and we have seen him take sets off some of the very best players and place consistently well at tournaments this season.

While proving to be an absolute beast in his local scene, Axiom has placed well at larger tournaments with his best results coming at Pound (25/433), Shine (5/446) and Apex (25/607). His performance at Shine is worth a close examination. He registered a win over Marss, who he owns a very impressive 4-0 over, and eliminated ESAM 3-2. His run was halted by Tweek, but it was not straightforward for the Diddy main to dispatch him. After going up 2-0 in the set, Axiom needed just one more hit to close out the 3-0 but was unable to close. Oh, what might have been? He was able to push Tweek to last stock in game four but by then it seemed the opportunity had passed, and the download was complete. Tweek reverse 3-0’d Axiom to end his run at a very impressive fifth place. A smaller scale tournament to note is his performance at Bay State Beatdown 55. This tournament saw him double eliminate Marss (note: one set was Bo3) and take a set off the incomparable Light in grands, his first set win over Light, to force a reset where he fell 3-1.

He has shot up our rankings climbing an incredible 345 spots, and while some may argue that he may be carried by Kazuya, this ranking is deserved. You simply cannot defeat or push top players to their limits the way Axiom has without having a deep understanding of the game and the skill to match.

Click here to watch Axiom XL's greatest set victory of the ranking period (set #1).

85) BassMage

After 3 Generations of not getting in on the regional gimmicks of each new generation, Jigglypuff finally got a Paradox Form in the (as of now) newly-dropped Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. My assumption is that Troy “BassMage” Waters threatened to Rest them if they didn’t. BassMage is one of the most consistent players in the world, boasting some of the best fundamentals of any player period who just so HAPPENS to be playing Jigglypuff. His secret? Not Rest! No, really, the secret is not using Rest. In contrast to Melee, which has a rest that can kill at 0 easily, and can be confirmed into effortlessly, Rest in Ultimate kills later and is harder to combo into, not to mention that it’s much harder to tech chase with than it is in Melee. Instead, BassMage relies on carrying the opponent offstage and stuffing them out with Puff’s crazy aerials, gimping even the best characters in the game. His only problem is that Puff isn’t EXACTLY the best character for a specialist. His set records directly reflect this, as he has no wins on two Min-Min players (Proto and Dabuz), KEN, who plays Sephiroth, Peabnut, who plays Mega Man, and Leo, who he actually did look very good against, and was simply held back by the fact that he was playing against Byleth. Perhaps he could win a major with a secondary Yoshi?

Click here to watch BassMage's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

86) HIVE | quiK

With Samus becoming more and more of a meta threat in recent times, it is no surprise that Germany's Samus specialist, Marcel “quiK” Romagnuolo, finds himself in the top 100. And although he has only attended 5 majors this year (Let’s Make Big Moves, E-Caribana, COLOSSEL, VCA, and Tech Republic VI), that doesn’t mean his results aren’t there. Not only does he boast a 2nd place finish at E-Caribana, he also has wins on some of Europe’s Elite, like Tarik, Sisqui and Raflow, with additional wins on some pretty impressive international talent, like Chag, Larry Lurr and WaDi.

That’s why, even though his results aren’t the best they’ve ever been, you can never count quiK out. What he’s lacking the most right now is opportunity, and if he can find the time to attend more majors, be it in Europe or overseas, his results are bound to jump to the next level.

Click here to watch quiK's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

87) PNG | Shirayuki

The Inkling is an animal we know extremely little about. A species once thought to be extinct by experts, the elusive Inkus Lingus has been spotted in the remote region of Japan, a land which Kazuyas and Steves rule over with an iron fist. This Inkling, whom we refer to as Shirayuki, has adapted to his environment well, and even found a new primary food source: Bowser. Shirayuki has often been observed bullying a Bowser referred to as Hero after the Koopa acquires a fresh kill, forcing him to back off so Shirayuki can take the spoils for himself. This particular specimen also seems to have developed a particular rather peculiar adaptation: the use of Down Air. Experts often refer to Inkling’s Down Air as a niche tool only used for spikes offstage. However, Shirayuki seems to disprove such a theory. When Shirayuki swoops in on his prey, he uses his Down Air in order to combo into grab, guaranteeing around 30% if he should catch his prey off-guard. This species, however, can rarely be seen at the top of the food chain. Perhaps his prey response triggers more often than necessary?

Click here to view rare footage of Shirayuki hunting down his most fearsome prey to date.

88) GG | Larry Lurr

It’s hard to talk about Larry “Larry Lurr” Holland without talking about his record against MKLeo. Larry seems capable of standing up to Leo head-to-head. At the recent Shark Tank #22, Larry was sent to Losers by Leo in Winners Finals, dropping the set 3-2. He battled back to reach Grands and impressively 3-0’d Leo to reset the bracket before falling to Leo 3-1. While not the most prestigious tournament, with a player pool totaling 28 entrants (and hence not counted for 1000rank), it followed the most dominant tournament run in Ultimate’s history, Leo’s win at the LSI where he only lost a single game. Earlier in the year, at the G4 Smash Ultimate Invitational, Larry also took two sets off Leo and eliminated him in Losers Finals. Taking these results on their own, Larry is #2 in the world, right? Not really.

Larry has faced seven different players in the top 10 this year, and while he may have a winning record over #1, he simply does not have the resume against the rest of the field to warrant such a ranking. Broadening the scope to outside the top 50 gives us a better idea of Larry’s ability. Larry is clearly capable of impressive tourney runs; 1st at Dreamhack Rotterdam, 4 at Pax West, 1st at Kawaii Kon, 4th at LVL Up Expo. He’s also shown himself to be prone to a slip up now and then, with disappointing finishes at SSC 2022 (193rd) and Genesis 8 (129th). While he’s not as consistent as some of the top players, he has the sauce. Just watch any sets of his vs Leo or his sets against Marss at Kawaii Kon. When he channels his best play, he’s capable of beating anyone, even the best in the world.

Click here to watch Larry Lurr's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

89) AITX | LeoN []

The premier Western King of the Koopas, David “LeoN” Leon spins into the competition, piloting the sovereign superheavy like the dreadnaught he is. With a playstyle bombastic enough to make Jack Black proud, LeoN is known for leveraging Bowser’s strengths with big swings, early kills, and an impressive degree of longevity for a character that can be so exploitable in disadvantage. LeoN spent the year amassing a respectable belt of top-player wins. Most of them, like Zomba, Jakal, Tilde, and Quidd, hail from his home region of Tri-State—but he also snagged wins on skittles and Lui$ at various installments of the PnW regional Back in Blood. Despite some respectable major runs including 13th at Collision 2022, 17th at Pound 2022, and 9th at Crown 2, LeoN also saw his fair share of disappointing placements this year, missing top 64 at both Glitch Infinite and Super Smash Con 2022. It’s not that LeoN is doing anything wrong, but rather that as Ultimate’s metagame becomes more developed and punish games become stronger and stronger, the viability of characters like Bowser with such a shaky disadvantage state becomes less and less stable. Still, LeoN closed out the year with a strong 7th place finish at Apex 2022, and his continued development of his Hero secondary will help address some of Bowser’s more problematic matchups in the future. In the meantime, don’t underestimate him: LeoN’s shown that both he and his character are still to be feared.

Click here to watch LeoN's greatest set victory of the ranking period (set #1).

90) GG | Tarik

When talking about interesting character combinations, Tarik “Tarik” Fayazi certainly has to be in the conversation, as he uses both Greninja and Kazuya to a high degree of success. Not only is he the highest ranked Greninja in the world, but also the highest ranked Kazuya in Europe. The latter is doubly important, as one very common invader in Europe, Tea, is well known for his dangerous Kazuya, so the continent needs all the practice it can get. His most impressive set counts are definitely quiK, who he is 3-2 on, as well Bloom4Eva, who he is 2-1 on. Although he has had very impressive results, including several 9th and 13th places at big events, the big breakthrough is still missing. He was only a game away from reaching top 8 multiple times, so it is only a matter of when, not if he can reach it.

Click here to watch Tarik's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

91) enhancedpv []

Ranked #1 in Maryland, and a regular demon at his locals, Andrew “enhancedpv” Davis is another young prodigy trying to carve a place for himself in the rankings. In 2021, Sparg0 paved the way for Cloud mains and enhancedpv is following hot on his tail.

His Cloud play is smooth and speedy with a strong command of neutral and the ledge. And importantly, like all good players, enhancedpv is not afraid to swing big when he sees his chance to strike.

While enhancedpv has made big gains this year, he’s yet to have a truly breakout performance. He makes regular appearances in major top 64s, and always puts up stiff competition at locals, particularly when Japanese players have come to visit. However, he has yet to crack a big top 16 or a top 8. Enhanced regularly makes it far enough in bracket to face top level players, but has yet to take a big name at a major.

At this point, it’s just a numbers game. As talented as he is at such a young age, it’s only a matter of time before we see enhancedpv’s name at the top of an upset thread.

Click here to watch enhancedpv's greatest set victory of the ranking period (set #1).

92) RGG | Andrik

I can imagine a mantra Andrik “Andrik” Gonzàlez might repeat in his head before a pivotal set: “Speed. I am speed.” More than anything, Andrik’s Captain Falcon is always in motion, maneuvering deftly in and out of an opponent’s reach, retreating defensively when necessary or weaving in to hit one of Falcon’s signature combo-starters and find a big conversion. It’s a game plan that seems like it must be exhausting to carry out, but more often than not ends up tiring out the other player instead, leading Andrik to find a greater number of pivotal openings as a set progresses. Piloting this hectic playstyle, Andrik posted some excellent results throughout the year, with a 9th place finish at Delfino Maza RETA 2022, a 13th place finish at Smash Factor 9, and a 3rd place finish at SoCal regional Wavedash 2022, picking up wins over some of Mexico’s best in the process, like AlanDiss and two wins over MKBigBoss. But aside from these wins, Andrik’s less impressive record against other top 100 players, alongside his relatively low major attendance, is what most holds his results back. He has the pieces in place to be a top-level threat, so we’ll have to wait and see if he can put them together in the next season and really kick off his race to the top.

Click here to watch Andrik's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

93) Luugi

Though this season has seen no end to character discourse, perhaps the most polarizing character in Smash Ultimate was and remains Luigi. Infamous for his low-percent zero-to-deaths off a grab, his fluid combo game, and his invincible Down Special, Luigi warps the way a player approaches the game, forcing them to carefully consider every interaction. Conversely, watching Luigi at top level is not representative of how the character is supposed to play, since high level players know the cautious approach they need to deal with him. You’ll rarely see a Luigi land a zero-to-death deep in bracket, with the character relying more on his combos and Down Special. EU’s best Luigi, Adam “Luugi” Jassim, addresses this issue by just being cracked with his character. With some great major performances like 13th at COLOSSEL 2022 and 17th at Vienna Challengers Arena 2022, Luugi put in work, helping to establish the UK region as a huge threat. He was able to gather wins over top EU players like Bloom4Eva and Tarik, but what really makes Luugi’s season is his capstone run to 1st place at EU superregional Tech Republic VI, which saw him beat players like quiK and Mr.R. The secret to his success? His fantastic hit-rate on Up Tilt into Up Special kills at mid percents, virtually doubling the window in which his opponents need to be wary of getting touched and dying. Luugi is on the rise, and with his unique approach to the character, he’s sure to remain a bracket threat going into 2023.

Click here to watch Luugi's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

94) Jonhy ()

Hailing from Texas, Jonathan “Jonhy” Azua previously made waves in the online scene with his Ike, and this year has made a name for himself on the national level with Roy and Sephiroth. Although Jonhy had few showings at larger events, he made the most of his attendance with placements such as 33rd at Rise 'N Grind, 5th at SmashSmashRevolution, 5th at DreamHack Dallas, and 9th at Low Tide City, alongside extremely strong local results. Even without ever leaving his home state, Jonhy acquired a diverse list of wins including Brr, Lima, MKBigBoss, SHADIC, Shoe, Teaser, and Zie. With his consistency at a local level and high peaks at majors Jonhy may very well have what it takes to take the spot of Top Sephiroth in NA next year, although whether or not he'll attend majors out of region is still up in the air.

Click here to watch Jonhy's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

95) POW?! | Monte

Next up we have a well-known Game & Watch player who uses the iconic turquoise skin and whose name starts with an M. No, not that one. No, not that one either. All jokes aside, don’t be surprised if Anthony “Monte” Montes’s results start to shoot up next season. The SoCal GnW boasts a number of great tournament runs, most notably 17th place at both Genesis 8 and Mainstage 2022, with wins on players like Oryon, Andrik, and Gackt, alongside a 2nd place finish at Pacific Northwest super-regional Back in Blood 5, where he beat LeoN, Lui$, and Dark Wizzy. Monte’s gameplay is, like his results, super solid. He has a great understanding of how to use GnW’s (many) safe moves most effectively, to give himself the greatest advantage, and he differs a bit from other GnWs in that he’s very willing to go on the offensive and initiate an interaction. What’s missing from his gameplay is an X-factor, something that allows him to more consistently threaten players seeded above him and stake a solid claim among the top tiers of play. While both Miya and Maister are the current frontrunners for the title of world’s best Game & Watch, a little more experience and polish could turn Monte into a fearsome contender in his own right, a fact which should serve as a reminder to the field as a whole not to rest on your laurels.

Click here to watch Monte's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

96) Kum Hia Nao []

Toyoki “Kum Hia Nao” Tanaka, otherwise known as SamteaSilver, and formerly known as Yoomoo, has shot up the rankings this year, going from 369th to 97th, shooting up 272 spots. He is the second best Mario after Kurama, and the second best player from Chicago after Ned. He has a winning record over Scend this year, beating him at Super Smash Con. He has swept through his local scene, including a win at the oldest major series in Smash, Show Me Your Moves 2022. Some notable placements include a pair of 33rd places at Super Smash Con 2022 and Riptide 2022, a 17th place at GOML 2022, and most impressively, a top 8 finish at Combo Breaker 2022, beating IceKnight and Cless, only losing by one game to loaf and Onin. Keep an eye on Kum Hia Nao, as he travels a ton, as he looks to get even better next year!

Click here to watch Kum Hia Nao's greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

97) LG | アカキクス

For the past few months, the top of the Smash scene in the US has been tossing and turning over Hero. They call him a High Tier; they call him a killer of Steves. But late at night, all they can do is dream of what they need: a Hero. Lorekeeper Larry Lurr tells of a legendary Hero—one who’s fast, strong, and fresh from the fight. His name is アカキクス (Akakikusu). Akakikusu is a master of the character, taking him to heights larger than life by collecting wins on America’s very own Japanese bracket demon, ProtoBanham, and Sora extraordinaire, Kameme. The difference maker in this case is his mana management: he never uses Kaswoosh when he isn’t forced to, instead vying to fish for Zoom first, then use a lower form of Up Special instead. He also isn’t constantly in his menu, only going into it at exactly the right time to fish for buffs. Most importantly, however, he uses Hero less like a typical zoner and more like a typical sword fighter, using his huge Up Tilt, solid Down Smash, hard-hitting Forward Tilt, and insanely strong Neutral Special to finish off stocks while mixing in uncharged Neutral Special variants and Zapple for quick space coverage and pokes, and both jab and grab (in addition to his aerials and the other moves already mentioned) as decent boxing tools. If only the States’ resident charge shot enjoyer WaDi would pick up the character and save them from the legion of Steves…

Click here to watch アカキクス’s greatest set victory of the ranking period.

98) Rivers ()

James “Rivers” Wade has not had the best 2022 season. He slipped 73 spots on our ranking from 25th to 98th place. That being said, he has had some bright spots this year. The once Chrom turned Diddy Kong main has gotten better the longer the year has gone on. His first major, Super Smash Con 2022, he got 65th, losing to MkLeo, which is completely fine, but then getting upset by Comet in losers. He improved his result at Let’s Make Moves Miami 2022, getting 33rd, and beating Omega, while only losing to Onin and Goblin. He saved his best performance for last though, in his backyard of New Jersey, he got 17th at Apex 2022, beating NoTag, while losing to Gackt. He is currently the 5th best in the stacked state of New Jersey, and the 5th best Diddy Kong. Still, with the improvement he has made, it wouldn’t be a surprise for next year to make his opponents shiver for facing Rivers.

Click here to watch Rivers' greatest recorded set victory of the ranking period.

99) DIV3 | Niko []

Storming into the top 100, Niko is the third-highest-ranked Cloud main, showing remarkable consistency in his home region of Texas. Not to be confused with SoCal Shulk and swordie main Nicko (as viewers and commentators alike were when they played this year at GENESIS 8), Niko’s results are bolstered by strong regional performances, but brought down by his placements at higher level events. His best major result was at Rise ‘N Grind, where he placed 17th with wins over yonni and Cosmos, but his most impressive run of the year was definitely his 7th place at Lost Tech City, where he beat WaDi, MVD, and Skyjay. The Skyjay set in particular is definitely worth revisiting – a 5 game banger that ends in one of the most jaw-dropping comebacks of the year. Sadly, his record against other top 100 players is heavily weighted in their favor, which is what holds him back from a higher overall ranking. When Niko plays at his best, his precision and punishes are immaculate, so his challenge going into the next season will be to find the polish and consistency he needs to take his play and results to the next level.

Click here to watch Niko's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

100) MP | RockMan []

One of the biggest wildcards in the Top 100, RockMan is a Steve/Mega Man who has made it (just barely) into the Top 100 without leaving his home region of SoCal. Although much of RockMan's time is spent on the online scene rather than offline, he's proven to be one of SoCal's best players having won nearly half of the tournaments he attended, winning LHT #83, UpTownSmash #12, and Run That Fade #19, among other unranked tourneys. His only major performances are a solid 33rd at Genesis 8, a slightly shakier 65th at Mainstage, and a respectable-enough 9th at the Mainstage Arcadian. Despite his low attendance, RockMan still has a respectable resume of wins, including BacoN, Ignaize, Peckham, T3 DOM, Zenyou, and MKBigBoss. With impressive consistency and the ability to hold his own against some of Ultimate's heavy hitters, RockMan may just end up becoming a dominant force in the future.

Click here to watch RockMan's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

101) Revo | Kome

Regardless of where you may have him on your personal tier list, it’s not too controversial to say that for short bursts of time, Shulk is the most dangerous character in the game. And Seisuke “Kome” Komeda is the Shulk best able to identify those fraction-of-a-second windows of opportunity and maximize what he can get from them. His decision-making and intuition have propelled Kome to the front of the Shulk meta ever since Ultimate came out. He’s a relatively patient player—all of his movements feel highly intentional, trimmed of any excess fat. He’s also an inconsistent player, arguably more so in 2022 than in any time prior. Partly that’s a function of the upset-heavy Japanese meta, and partly it’s built into the character he plays (Monado Arts must be the most literal implementation of a “double-edged sword” that Ultimate has). But when Kome’s playing at his best, he’s a serious threat in any major: he’s won the past several encounters he’s had with ProtoBanham and has been trading sets with Yoshidora and Miya. And while he hasn’t traveled to North America much this year, he was able to show he’s just as comfortable in the Western meta, beating Cosmos convincingly enough to actually force him to switch off of Aegis. Along the way, Kome picked up wins on ESAM, Dark Wizzy, and reached Top 8 at Battle of BC 4. With the number of Japanese tournaments he’s been attending lately, Kome could be poised to translate his peak performances into a baseline we expect from him. He just needs to figure out the Steve matchup.

Click here to watch Kome's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

103) DIO []

Explosives are usually known for knocking down walls, but DIO uses Snake’s grenades and C4 to build them. The highest rated Snake in Japan, DIO sports a patient, grenade-focused defensive playstyle, and he’s a master at making his opponent play at his own pace and wearing them down over a long series of interactions. He doesn’t want to approach; he wants his opponents to approach him. You shouldn’t be surprised to see DIO three-stock an opponent while living to more than 200%, or making a two-stock comeback at nearly 180% (both of which happened in his set against Huto at Kagaribi 7). With his methodical gameplan, DIO has spent the year making his argument for one of the best players in Japan, taking wins over other top players like Sigma, Kome, and Shuton. But though he was able to blast his way to some fantastic placements, like 9th at Maesuma TOP 7 and 4th at Kagaribi 7, DIO’s record against other top Japanese players isn’t the greatest. When his opponents are able to disrupt his gameplan or force him to play from behind, DIO can struggle to reverse the situation, as tends to be the case with more defensively-inclined players. Still, when it comes to this slower and more patient brand of Snake, DIO is second-to-none, and we’d be shocked if he doesn’t continue to topple even stronger opponents in many tournaments to come.

Click here to watch DIO's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

104) Liquid | Atelier

Team Liquid’s own Wolf/Pokemon Trainer extraordinaire, Towa “Atelier” Kuriyama, has had a strange year. Less than two weeks into January, Atelier stumbled at Kagaribi 6, taking an early loss to Shissho, one of Japan’s notorious Doctor Mario players. Atelier would go on to place only 33rd, his worst placing in over two years. And the very same weekend, Quidd won Let’s Make Big Moves 2022, calling into question Atelier’s status as the best Pokemon Trainer.

Atelier would continue to find mixed results, placing 33rd at both the 2000 person supermajor, Genesis 8, and at the Kansai regional Sumabato 25. This continued until April, at which point Atelier took a break from majors due to hand issues. He also took this time to change focus character wise, changing Wolf from a secondary to his main. He didn’t return to serious competition until August, at Maesuma TOP #9, where he bagged a top 8 finish.

And yet despite all this, Atelier has continued to be a top level threat, with wins on KEN, Gackt and even MuteAce. The smoothness and precision of his Wolf play makes him a joy to watch. If he can continue to refine his playstyle and his character picks, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Atelier creeping his way back towards the top 50.

Click here to watch Atelier's greatest set victory of the ranking period.

114) Panda | ESAM []

Panda’s proficient Pikachu player Eric “ESAM” Lew has spent most of 2022 on the sidelines, having only attended six events as of writing. Three of these were majors: Genesis 8, Battle of BC 4, and The Big House 10. Results-wise, it’s been a rough showing for the former best Pikachu in the world. ESAM failed to make top 8 at any of the aforementioned majors, with his best performance of the three being 9th at Battle of BC 4 where he lost vs. international threats Sisqui and Kome. On the flipside, he does have a pair of solid wins in Tweek (Genesis 8) and MuteAce (Lost Tech City).

We didn’t get to see ESAM in his two strongest environments: at a Glitch or against MkLeo. Despite the surging ProtoBanham and Glutonny, ESAM remains the player with the best winrate against Smash Ultimate’s GOAT (4-2 all-time). Besides the lack of travel, there have been other developments in ESAM’s game. First, the Mii Brawler - who he touts very highly - has been seeing more usage, especially against Pikachu’s poorer matchups like Ness. Second, he has since switched over to using a box controller and did so full-time for the first time at Lost Tech City in September. ESAM also tried qualifying for the Panda Cup Finale online, and came up just one win short vs. Jake. Given recent developments, probably for the best.

Wait, he’s bald?!

Click here to watch ESAM's greatest set victory of the ranking period.