With little going in the Melee community, right now seems about as good of a time as ever to make predictions. In fact, one of my favorite columns of each year is when I pick ten ‘sleeper’ players to break out later in the year. Is it typically successful? Well, no, but it is fun.
In my 2023 preview, none of my breakout picks made the Top 100, nor did they even make the ballot. The next year, however, was better, in a sense, with four of them making the ballot (Agent, Fudge, Maher, and Graves). If this number seems low, and you’re raising your eyebrow at me, that’s fair – I only ask that you stick with me for another edition, as well as check out my stipulations. Today, I’m going to once again make ten sleeper picks for players who will break out in 2025. Here are the rules behind who counts as a “sleeper” pick:
- I’m not allowed to choose anyone who has made SSBMRank at any point of their career.
- I’m not allowed to choose anyone who qualified for the Top 100 ballot in 2022, 2023, OR 2024. Examples of disqualified players: Elliot, Paladin, Steech, etc.
- I’m not allowed to choose anyone I’ve EVER picked in the history of this mini-column series. That excludes the following players: Kikoho, Guava, Alex (from Missouri), Kingu, Inngenn, Epoodle, fknsilver, Kero, Stone, $TYN, and Goodie.
- I’m not allowed to choose multiple people from the same region.
- I’m not allowed to choose any of the players who made top eight in singles at Let’s Start The Fire. It’s more fun that way.
Electroman (Massachusetts)
Ask anyone who plays Melee in New England: Electroman is a total sweetheart. In addition to his Fox being sick with it, Electroman’s also one of a few leaders of New England’s hybrid Star League format. Although he’s preparing for law school, to my knowledge, Electroman is still fairly committed to traveling out of region for Melee tournaments, as well as determined to make the Top 100.With a big out-of-region win over Juicebox, as well as multiple sets in 2024 over bonfire10, Kalvar, and Bekvin within New England, Electroman was about a big tourney or two away from being in consideration.
It ended up not being in the cards, as his performances were relatively up and down. And to be fair, he just recently had an unfortunate showing at the New England Spartan, where a brutal pools format led to him going 0-4. However, this is the type of thing that comes as a growing pain with being more active and notable. With a few adjustments and a little more experience, Electroman has what it takes to make the Top 100.
HM: eveningstar.
DarkGenex (New York City)
I’m not a very objective source on things related to DarkGenex. We worked together in the past on SSBMRank, love movies, and share a deep love for cringe. However, what’s objectively true is the fact that he’s a very good Melee player. 2024 was the year of the commentary grind for Melee’s biggest fan of the Ice Climbers – 2025 is more of that for sure, but DarkGenex also plans on taking competing more seriously at a national level.
Since returning to competing, DarkGenex has entered four Nightclubs. He has a win over E-Tie and another over Tranimal, but other than that, he’s had a bit of a slow beginning to his new arc of entering tournaments. Meanwhile, each of WillyP, JoJo, Tazio,and fitzy, have beaten him (alongside Adwan, Nintendude, and Aklo (in a heartbreaker). These are results that are pretty cleanly somewhere outside the Top 10 of the most recent PR, but I fully expect his results to steadily climb the more he enters. Even if it doesn’t significantly improve, we have years of experience seeing Ice Climbers players transform from modest ‘gatekeepers’ to accomplishing some randomly insane shit, like beating KoDoRiN or something.
HM: fitzy.
HOBORG (Philadelphia)
HOBORG is a player near and dear to my heart. He’s genuinely one of the coolest people in the scene, a pleasant controller modder, and he plays a sick Luigi. At a time in which the character hasn’t really had that much active representation at the top level – due to Eddy Mexico and Jah Ridin’ living outside the United States – HOBORG has been the next up for strong active Luigis, just barely missing the ballot in 2024.
One of the factors working well for HOBORG is the fact that he’s in a strong region: with Raz, Dawson, Nanami, and Fudge nearby, he has no shortage of great practice. When he travels out of his region, it also helps that HOBORG plays a relatively obscure character, giving him a potential X-factor. As it stands though, here are his best 2024 wins: Balloon Day, bambi, Blue, McCloud, Sock, and Goodie, the last three whom he beat in an awesome run to third at Phantom, where he also fell just short of beating Joshman. HOBORG additionally has a win over Nicki at the Don’t Park pre-local, though this set had a bit of external shenanigans (read: Nicki playing secondaries).
HM: Young Neil.
RapMonster (MDVA)
It feels like cheating to pick RapMonster. He has basically terrorized the waters of Slippi for the last couple of years, and his region has been gassing him up for years. When it came to writing this column, I frankly assumed he didn’t qualify. He did, so he’s an obvious pick here. Sidenote: his set against Axe at Supernova is one of the year’s most secretly killer sets.
The truth is that he’s done quite a bit more than merely giving top players aneurysms online. Within his region, he’s basically done about as well as you can for players right underneath Kevin Maples. I’m not quite certain about his specific head-to-heads vs. the rest of his region, because of how many of them used to be tracked on Challonge, but I know that within the last year, he typically went back-and-forth with (or outright consistently beat the likes of) Khryke, Juicebox, and Maelstrom. And yes; to address the elephant in the room, he also won the last Xanadu over Hax, for whatever that’s worth. I’m not sure about RapMonster’s long-term travel plans, but he’s too good to ignore.
HM: Seven.
Zasa (North Carolina)
Further down the East Coast, we get to Zasa, the queen of North Carolina. Some of you might recognize her for having an absolutely bonkers run at The Big House 11 about two years ago. There, she beat SDJ, Spark, and KoopaTroopa895 en route to 25th place – one of the best major placings anyone from her state has had since PPMD was active (AKA, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth).
2024 was a bit of a quiet year for Zasa on a national level. At the same time, I still think she has the sauce. Beating 404Cray and Panda is nothing to scoff at, and neither is winning a small event over MOF. She just didn’t attend very much out of her region in the second half of the year. Hopefully that changes in 2025; she really seemed like she was trending toward being a safe lock by the middle of the year.
HM: Syched.
Mono (Ontario)
Mono’s been around the block for a bit as a streamer and personality in the scene, but 2024 was the year in which he became more prominent as a commentator, as well as competitor. Following countless close sets with top players and being prominent on a regional level, he also had a series of results last year that were a long time coming for him, and they went beyond his very high attendance (which itself came with wins over ranked players in Ontario).
What comes to mind is the most recent Don’t Park on the Grass, where Mono beat Nuckels, Lowercase hero, and Shroomed. He’s shown glimpses of promise throughout the year, defeating Guava and Kwyet at events surrounding Collision too, but the showing at Don’t Park was his first big series of wins. Given Mono’s fairly high penchant for attending majors, his career could go one of three ways: he fully commits to commentary obligations and drops competing, he takes competing more seriously and dials back commentating, or he does both. My guess is he pursues the last one, continues to be active at a regional level and makes the list.
HM: R0M.
Negat!ve (Michigan)
Moving south of the Canadian border, we get into the Midwest. Although there’s a lot of great picks, I ultimately went with Negat!ve, a player who’s been pretty active within the Michigan scene. As a matter of fact, in the most recent edition of the state’s power rankings, he finished number two, just behind Ossify.
It isn’t just the fact that he beats everyone who isn’t a literal Top 30 player in his region; Negat!ve has shown experience on the big stage before too. Most notably, he had a shockingly great run to 25th place at GOML, where he beat Maher, prof, Jah Ridin’, and Zuppy. Elsewhere in the year, Negat!ve defeated Reeve, Holiday, and Kuyashi. He didn’t make the ballot, but at the same time, the threshold for getting in is that high sometimes; this was by the margins.
HM: Joka.
s-f (SoCal)
I usually have Danny proofread my columns, and when he did so for this one, I could already hear his voice responding with something along the lines of “wrong!” But with individual sets over the likes of KoopaTroopa895, Kurv, salami, and Casper, s-f has become a beast over the last year. You’ll consistently find him in top eights of locals, and at smaller locals, there’s a nonzero chance of him winning, which, I should mention, he did at a lower divisional Star League. He even beat Umarth for good measure at the most recent Genesis: Black.
To be clear, I’ve mentioned most of s-f’s best results, not his worst ones. I also am choosing to mention him in this spot over players already ranked within SoCal, which he very astutely pointed out to me. But I’m also talking about what could happen through the rest of 2025, and he has a lot going for him in terms of his ability to build a resume that leads him into ballot consideration. He loves traveling out-of-region, and he’s one of the most active players in a region full of Top 100 ballot talent. Honestly, if s-f’s performances had come from anyone else, he’d be messaging me about how cool this player was, and how they were trending pretty highly, instead of downplaying the results.
HM: Mooshies.
Valk (Washington)
Here comes another entrant into the long line of top Washington Falco players in Valk (though he also hails from Costa Rica). Joining the likes of Graves and Jello in this 2020s tradition, Valk has quietly turned on the jets over the last six months in particular. While he finished only number nine on the most recent Wahsington power rankings, that was in large part because of his lack of activity, as well as previous performances. He’d probably be much higher right now in terms of his potential per event.
Most sleeper picks don’t wake up one day and suddenly defeat a Top 100 player. Instead, they improve steadily against the top class of their own region in a short period of time before taking the next jump. Except in Valk’s case, he already has a big win of sorts with him defeating Maher at Don’t Park on the Grass. Granted, he ended finishing in 129th place at that same event, but when you consider the fact that he’s started to take sets from the top of his regional PR more consistently, as well as beating Chango (former number one in the state) right before he went inactive in 2023, Valk seems like someone right on the cusp of a big showing, at least as long as he attends enough.
HM: Zvara.
i4 (Europe)
In similar fashion to RapM, picking i4 almost feels against the spirit of the column. Can you really consider i4 – yet another woman to claw her way into Top 100-level success – a sleeper pick when practically everyone knows how she and her sister have become the coolest doubles storyline in the scene? No, but she fit my criteria, and as such, her achievements as a competitor have to be acknowledged.
The crowning jewel to her 2024 in singles was her victory at the 2nd Gallery. There, she took home the whole tournament through a long losers bracket run in which she beat irfan, Fat Tino, Sharp, Astar, Jah Ridin’, and Rikzz (twice) – many of the continent’s best players. Although I don’t know the exact spot in which she’ll finish in EURank, I can’t imagine it would land anywhere outside of the Top 10. Within it would put her in the same group as people who have made the Top 100 ballot or outright finished on the actual list. By every metric, i4 is the real deal.
HM: irfan.