A menace is sweeping the Melee nation – one that people have slowly taken note of over the course of this decade. I am, of course, talking about the rise of low tiers. Contrary to popular belief, Melee is not just Fox vs. Fox on Final Destination. With Junebug winning Patchwork 2024, the largest tournament victory a Donkey Kong has had since Bum’s win at Zenith 2007, it’s clear that we as a community have fully entered the Monkey Zone. But zoom out a bit further and you’ll realize Donkey Kong is just a symptom.
Last month, we saw a Bowser player get 49th place at a supermajor. Last year, we had our first active Ganondorf in the top 50, right after years of the character falling off. And over the next month, we’re preparing ourselves for a new summer Top 50. With the end of year rankings coming up well after that, we have a lot of time to sit on a few questions. What characters can or can’t make the Top 100? What does it even take to make the Top 100? Has the Top 100 changed?
Some of these are simple questions; some of these aren’t. However, they carry an important connecting thread that I’ll be talking about at the end of the column. Until then though, stick with me. I’m going to jump into a few questions about the Top 100, character representation on the top 100, and what it all means.
What characters have made the Top 100 as a primary or exclusive character and how frequently?
Using 2013 as my starting basis, I looked at every single Top 100. Some of you might remember the information I’m using for this all the way back when I examined the prominence of playing multiple characters in the metagame at different points of the last decade. However, instead of organizing players into groups of multi mains vs. solo mains, I simply tried to look at which characters have made it onto the Top 100 as “Primary” characters. I determined this using past versions of SSBMRank and which characters were assigned as such to the players. Since we’re just looking at characters here, I didn’t account for repeat instances; for our purposes, I’m counting each player and season combination as one data point.
NOTE: I did not count Leffen’s HM year, nor did I count Twitch for 2015.
As you can see above, 16 characters in the history of Melee have made it onto the Top 100 as primary characters. Unsurprisingly, all eight of the top tiers are there, with Jigglypuff surprisingly lower than the rest of her peers, yet still present. Beneath that though is where it gets interesting. Essentially, you have Melee’s most prominent mid tiers over the last decade of play.
An especially fascinating bit of trivia is that last year marked the first time any DK has ever finished on the official list (though Ringler was on the ballot in 2022). Meanwhile, Rocket’s inclusion on the Top 100 in 2022 marked the first time Young Link ever appeared as a solo main, though Axe has had Young Link listed as a secondary for years. With each of Dr. Mario (Franz and Shroomed), Ganondorf (Kage, Bizzarro Flame, and Mekk), Yoshi (aMSa, nebbii, and Egg$), and Pikachu (Axe, PikaChad, Swift, and Ralph), their representation has typically been concentrated within a small group of people.
What low tier heroes missed the cut?
Obviously, making the top 100 is only one sign of success. For the most part, the ten characters who haven’t finished on the list as a primary character have still had big moments of success. Some of them have even made the ballot, though they fell short of making the actual list. I’m going to share the biggest examples of low tier (or relatively low tier) players achieving notable results to warrant Top 100 consideration.
The first one, Qerb, is a leading contender for greatest player to never make SSBMRank and the greatest Mr. Game & Watch player of all-time. In the 2019 season, he scored wins over Cool Lime, htwa, and Cob at majors, while defeating each of TheSWOOPER, vortex, 42nd, mvlvchi, and Ryobeat at regionals (along with scoring another win vs. Cool Lime). Two years before, Qerb had wins over Kaeon and KPAN, missing the cut there too.
The second smasher, J666, had long been notable for being a power-ranked player within SoCal. In 2016, however, he boasted one of his best seasons, defeating each of Vish, Alex19, and – get this – KoopaTroopa895 over the year. Yes, it’s the exact same KoopaTroopa895, who also happens to be the third example of someone who almost made the Top 100 with a character who hadn’t previously made the list as a main character. The man we now recognize as KoopaThanos was once a mere Mario player from SoCal. And by mere Mario player, I mean that he still played like a psycho, only with Mario. In his 2016 season, he ended up scoring wins over SUNG475, Nintendude, and, most shockingly, Zain, back when he was a mere rising regional star of MDVA.
Beneath that, you have a few examples of low tier players scoring brief upsets and having moderately successful years that fell short of making the ballot. Unfortunately, one of these examples is A Rookie, the now-disgraced Mario main who defeated Drephen and Wobbles in 2016, yet didn’t make the ballot that year. In the following year, he’d actually one-up himself in terms of total results, scoring sets over Alex19, htwa, essy, Porkchops, and Nickemwit, though he’d miss it that year too.
The only other recent examples I could find for other non-Top 100-represented characters achieving something that approaches significance were the following:
- Roy: Zain finishing in 7th place at Wavedash 2023, defeating Kurv and Chango with Roy.
- Zelda: weed lesbian (also known as rienne), defeating Aura at Domino Effect – other than here, you have Drephen using Zelda situationally against top Ice Climbers players with varying degrees of success.
- Mewtwo: Leffen won a Stockholm local over Pipsqueak with Mewtwo; also Taj defeated Mango’s secondaries, 2022-ballot player Reesch, and OkayP at Genesis 9.
- Pichu: codeman defeated Captain G, a Top 100 ballot player, at Shine 2022.
- Kirby: Triple R defeated Beerman, a 2014-ranked player and power-ranked NYC player, at The Big House 6.
- Bowser: Loadspiller defeated billybopeep, a 2023-ranked player at Tipped Off 15. Before that, Loadspiller beat Jude at the Trail Invitational 3, Warriorknight finished in 49th place at Apex 2022, and for the peak of the character’s results, DJ Nintendo defeated Ryan Ford with Bowser at Zenith 2013.
- Ness: Joe(y) Bats defeated Sicca, a strong Montreal Marth with multiple sets over Squid, at GOML X. Before that, “Genghis Juan” clutched out a game five over Jude at Let’s Make Moves Miami with Ness.
Keeping this in mind, let’s switch gears. Instead of talking about low tiers. I’m going to transition into talking about people who have made the Top 100 and what their resumes have looked like at the margins.
What does it take to make Top 100?
I examined every single player who finished 100 on the official Top 100, making sure to filter for major and regional performances. See them below.
| Year | Player | Number of Wins vs. Top 100 or Former Top 100 |
| 2023 | K8A | 3 |
| 2022 | Matteo | 4 |
| 2019 | Snowy | 4 |
| 2018 | Azel | 10 |
| 2017 | 2saint | 14 |
| 2016 | 4 percent | 4 |
NOTE: For 2saint, I did not count the multiple tie-breakers they played at the Tri-State Invitational; just the sets during the planned event.
Broadly speaking, making Top 100 today requires fewer results than it used to. Importantly, this doesn’t necessarily mean that players are worse today than ever – it’s more that Melee currently faces circumstances which have shaped a climate where the bar for a resume making Top 100 isn’t as high as you’d think.
With respect to this player, whom I believe is very good and earned his spot, look at K8A. He made the list from three big Top 50 wins. Would that have been enough in 2017 or 2018? Was he the only player in the world who could have made Top 100? If you don’t like him as an example, take a look at Snowy in 2019. He was almost certainly going to miss Top 100 without one big regional where he beat Colbol and Swedish Delight.
Truthfully, what it takes to finish Top 100 depends on the circumstances of the specific year, how attendance shapes up overall, and how panelists assess results. It’s possible that Qerb’s 2019 resume in 2023 would have locked him in the Top 100. At the same time, it’s apples and oranges. We don’t even use the same prompt to evaluate players any more, as I’ve written about. Still; for reference, here are the resumes of 91 to 100 from last year’s list.
| Rank | Player | Top 100 or Former Top 100 Wins |
| 91 | Squid | 9 |
| 92 | 404Cray | 6 |
| 93 | Franz | 6 |
| 94 | Jah Ridin’ | 5 |
| 95 | Egg$ | 8 |
| 96 | nut | 14 |
| 97 | Zeo | 6 |
| 98 | Umarth | 11 |
| 99 | Ralph | 11 |
| 100 | K8A | 3 |
We’re starting to see a general picture here: in order to make the top 100 in 2024, the “goal” is to have a resume that could feature anywhere from as as few Top 100 wins as three – if they’re all concentrated in the Top 50 – or as many as 14 over a slew of Top 100 regional talent.
Does the scene have a secret low tier Top 100 player already?
I’m going to now give a test to you, the reader. Given what you now know about resumes that have made or just missed Top 100, picture, in your head, a Roy player with the following results over the last two years. This is only counting matches where the opponent played their main or another character who defeated this player.
| Wins | Losses |
| Krudo
bobby big ballz (x2) Lowercase hero Kurv Chango Akir |
Hungrybox
S2J Magi KJH Bbatts CPU0 TheSWOOPER Preeminent 404Cray CAUP MOM! TPN Vintage Frost RapM |
What you are looking at right here are the results of Zain’s Roy at prominent regionals and online tournaments since 2022. Normally I don’t combine online tournaments with offline events, but for the sake of argument, I’m using them to provide any semblance of data points, even if they’re obviously not one to one. If you did not know this was Zain’s Roy, over the course of about eight events, you would probably assume that this was a player on the fringe of Top 100 contention, with maybe the Krudo win bringing them into the 80s territory. One Top 25 win, double-eliminating a volatile player like bobby big ballz, and four players who make up the bottom-end of Top 100 players.
Again – this does not necessarily mean that a Zain totally committed to Roy has no chance of doing better. However, it does show that playing a low tier doesn’t necessarily lend itself to consistent results. Everyone remembers the times when Zain’s Roy broke the ankles of top players, but those times come with their fair share of losses too. While the best moments certainly aren’t out of the realm of impossibility, making Top 100 requires enough “good days” to outweigh the “bad days” in multiple attempts – and you have to hope that the panel does not significantly measure your bad days.
What low tiers are on the verge of making history (or longshots to do so) in 2024?
We’re about six months into the year, but I think we have three main contenders who can make history and bring their character to the Top 100 in 2024. We’ll begin with bambi, a longtime stalwart of New Jersey Melee and someone who’s recently emerged as a huge threat in 2024. Each of his Young Link, Falco, and Marth are now formidable, with the Young Link nabbing wins over mvlvchi and Beezy at majors. Although his Falco ended up being the character that defeated bonfire10 for another big win, bambi wll still likely have Young Link credited as his primary character. With another big performance, it’s quite possible that he becomes the second Young Link main to finish on SSBMRank.
There’s a nonzero chance glock in my toyota, the legendary Mr. Game & Watch menace of New Hampshire, makes Top 100. In recent times, he double eliminated Skerzo at Mass Madness 45 and he actually won Mass Madness 46 over each of bonfire10 and Kalvar. One more big out-of-region performance, and glock could become the first ever Mr. Game & Watch main on the Top 100. To a lesser degree, I think South Florida’s Walmart Shoes is in a good position too, as he beat Frenzy earlier this year at Low Tide City 2024.
Then, we get into the most insane long-shot possibility of all: a Bowser main debuting on the Top 100 in Loadspiller’s potential inclusion. As of right now, he’s likely to make the upcoming edition of the Massachusetts Power Ranking and has a win over billybopeep, who made Top 100 last year. However, there’s not much else he has for regional or major accomplishments this year, though he has won locals over Trail and Electroman before. If the billybopeep win doesn’t age well, in the wake of billy not obtaining Top 100–level results for the rest of the year, then Loadspiller will need to travel more, become unprecedentedly active on a national level, and successfully defeat multiple Top 50 players, or win regionals over invading talent. I’ll put my cards on the table and state that I think this is pretty unlikely; I really cannot see this happening without some large, coordinated effort to get a Bowser to Top 100.
On a lighter and more realistic note, BING, the notorious Cody Schwab-slayer, also has a win over Maelstrom from GOML, along with multiple wins over Maher, a player who’s certainly in contention for the border of Top 100 given how he is trending. Realistically, it wouldn’t take much more for BING, a DK/Falcon/Falco player, to make the list, although there is precedent for players with his level of peaks for not finishing on the Top 100 (see Fizzwiggle in 2022). Then again, maybe DK isn’t a low-tier. It’s hard to say.
What did we learn from this?
Essentially, to make the Top 100 in 2024, is still pretty difficult. It’s also reasonable to view it as somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent, because the panel is composed of people with differing beliefs on how to assess results. Some people love peaks; others value consistency far more. Some people punish bad losses; others don’t care. But what we have is a pretty interesting system – a crazy, yet democratic approach to collectively decide, as community representatives, which players we want to celebrate.
As summer rank approaches, I want to remind people that the Top 100 isn’t really anything official. More than anything else, it’s a fun thought experiment and excuse that different people in the community use to highlight the coolest stories in the scene. Say what you want about your disagreements with the list: I think the rankings, and the team behind the rankings, do an incredible job at sharing the coolest stores in the scene.
I hope this column helped explore the possibility of what previously unlikely Top 100 stories are on the brink of actually happening. Perhaps, it’s shined a light on some of the most notable low tier players in the scene and told you some stories you may have never known otherwise.