In about a month, we’re going to see a historic event at Tipped Off 15. Not only is it poised to be yet another major, but it will feature the return of Plup, as well as basically the entire top echelon. More than that, this event is geared to be the most streamed tournament of all-time, with all of Top 128 planned to be recorded.
On-campus housing sales end TONIGHT at midnight eastern! Be sure to lock it in on our startgg reward shop to take advantage of this great deal. https://t.co/mndviuFfLe https://t.co/VcCAOVGCRp
— Tipped Off 15: Connected (@TippedOffSSB) May 26, 2024
I mention all of this, because we have a bit of time before this event happens, and frankly, I think it’s worth a long build-up. And on that note, my anticipation for Tipped Off has played a large role in me spending extra time refining my major double-elimination bracket simulator over the last week. It’s been a fairly gruesome process, which I will briefly detail below:
- Step 1: Scour the internet for major tournament results over this year.
- Step 2: Compile every single set into a large database.
- Step 3: Realize that major tournament results alone are not going to cut it for head-to-head research (I need more data).
- Step 4: Scour the internet for regional tournament results over this year.
- Step 5: Manually compile these sets into the existing large database (and then, midway, realize I could have just created another database and merged the two databases together).
This brief explanation does not even begin to properly articulate the pain in the ass of ‘cleaning’ data. Heading into my project, I thought I would leave it loving data. But I don’t think I love data any more. I hate it.I’ve never felt more irrational rage at the smasher propensity to change a gamertag multiple times, my least favorite of which is “Kürv” to “Dogshit Player.” In fact, can we just ban numbers in player tags? The next time I have to think about the difference between “Mango” and “Mang0,” I might just hit my head against a wall.
Now, jokes aside, my work on this larger project is nowhere close to finished. Although I’ve now compiled every single Liquipedia recorded Melee bracket (as of May 22, 2024), as well as figured out which players I want to incorporate into my long-term major simulations, I still have to compile character and matchup information for my simulations. However, as it turns out, looking at every single notable major and regional bracket over the course of a week tends to give you a few ideas. And after one particularly bad night in which I yelled at my computer – when I realized I did not catch the difference between “Kins0” and “kins0,” I decided to give myself a break and pursue another idea for today’s column.
Using the information I had available to me, and with a major or two left before we reach the halftime point for 2024, I created a for-fun “Top 25” for Spring 2024. For the first time in a while, I’ll be putting on my pundit cap to talk about which players made my cut, and what my exact process was.
Methodology
I began by looking at every single Liquipedia-documented bracket. While I didn’t have any illusions of this being a “complete” dataset (this would include R1 Pools at some majors, several locals, and perhaps even smaller regional events not listed on Liquipedia), I chose to prioritize efficiency in selecting representative results. Besides, for what we’re interested in, looking later in the bracket is already a self-selection process of sorts. Who in a prospective Top 25 is going to have a win or a loss in round one pools that drastically changes how I see them as a player?
Afterward, I compiled a massive spreadsheet of every player involved in a set, filtering it so that I only included current Top 100 players or people who had beaten current Top 100 players. I did this last Wednesday, so, for what it’s worth, it did not take Combo Breaker 2024 into account. Regardless, I don’t think much of my list changed, and I had about 180 people, each with their wins listed in one column and losses listed in the other. I then once again had to take a leap of faith and manually categorize the players, since not every Top 100 win is equal. Although it wasn’t exactly an “objective” process, I do think that, roughly speaking, there were five types of players, which can be described as the following:
- Tier 1: People who finished Top 2 at a major.
- Tier 2: People with multiple wins over Tier 1 players.
- Tier 3: People with multiple wins over Tier 2 players.
- Tier 4: People with multiple wins over Tier 3 players.
- Tier 5: Everyone else.
Tier 5 was the vast majority of players and, as such, had the largest range of talent. Broadly speaking, these were the Bekvins, the Drephens, and everything in between. If that sentence reads like Arabic to you, what you need to know is that I basically got rid of anyone who isn’t realistically in Top 25 consideration for results this year. That left me with about 52 people, and from that point onward, it became easier to narrow down the list.
Surprise: no it didn’t. You see, the tricky part was determining activity requirements. I had originally only decided something counted as a major or regional if it was listed on Liquipedia. However, for my filtering process, I decided to count Full Bloom 2024 as a “national” – somewhere below the median major, but well above the median regional – for the purpose of being generous to player activity. For what it’s worth, there’s precedent for this type of decision in SSBMRank; as an example, counting Arcamelee #4 as equal to an attended major for a competitor, even if it may not be a major in terms of prestige or strict definitions.
NOTE: On a tangential note, I almost counted Medz as inactive, but upon looking at his attendance on Smashdata.GG, I noticed that I was missing the Arizona Melee Championships in my record of sets. It did not seem right to exclude him from the list for having two strong major performances, a notable enough regional showing at Searing Sands 2, and two other regionals that weren’t listed in Liquipedia. No shade to the Liquipedia team here, as they are comprised of all volunteers who do an excellent job archiving major results; I just figured I’d mention it for transparency.
Because I wanted to err on the side of rewarding attendance, I ultimately decided to go with a “four notable events” minimum, counting only majors, nationals and regionals. On top of that, a player must have attended two tournaments that could qualify as majors or nationals. Keeping this in mind, here are my following honorable exclusions from the list, as of right now:
- Leffen (Genesis and BOBC).
- Wizzrobe (Genesis and GOML)
- lloD (Collision)
- SluG (Smash Valley: Revival, Genesis, and Creed)
- SFAT (Genesis, SoCal Star League)
- S2J (Genesis, Pat’s House, Spit Your Game)
- Morsecode762 (BOPME, BODIED, GOML)
- ckyulmiqnudaetr (Shuuten Tokyo, BODIED, GOML)
- Junebug (NCK Remastered, Collision)
In a future column, I’m going to be jumping into the next step of my larger overarching project: coming up with win probability calculation just in time for Tipped Off 15. But for now, let’s get into the fun part: the Edwin Budding Spring 2024 Melee Top 25, top to bottom.
NOTE: For the sake of brevity, I have not included every head-to-head in the boxes below; just treat them as brief summaries. I still am counting placements and considering them.
The List
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Zain | Soonsay (3-1)
moky (3-0) Mang0 (7-0) Jmook (4-2) Hungrybox (4-0) |
aMSa (0-3)
Cody Schwab (0-1) |
N/A |
You all knew I was going with Zain here. He has the most majors of the year – GOML X, Pat’s House 4, and Collision 2023 – and even has a “close to major” in Full Bloom 2024. On both a hardware and head-to-head basis, he’s clearly at the top spot right now, even though there is seemingly one recurring spoiler to his year. However, there’s one statistic that I want to share about Zain here – only two people have eliminated Zain from a tournament this year: aMSa and Cody Schwab. In fact, these two are the only people in the world who have done it since Leffen beat Zain at LACS 5 grand finals. I wouldn’t put him in Armada territory for consistency vs. the field, but when Zain is playing Marth at a major, he’s been pretty close to Armada-levels of impenetrable.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Cody Schwab | Zain (1-0)
aMSa (5-0) Jmook (1-0) Leffen (2-0) moky (1-0) |
BING (0-1)
Morsecode762 (0-1) Hungrybox (0-2) Mang0 (1-2) |
Soonsay (1-1) |
Just two months ago, Cody Schwab was looking near indestructible, with a simultaneously riveting and demoralizing loser’s run to win Battle of the BC 6, which involved him essentially bitch-slapping the entire top echelon in a row. Oh, how much changes in a couple of months. Nowadays, Cody happens to be on the losing end of the biggest upset in Melee history, as well as having missed his first top eight in just under a year. Still: with two major wins this year, one of which is Genesis, Cody’s clearly done enough to cement himself as Top 2. And, as the last year has shown, there really is a huge gap after him and Zain.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| aMSa | Zain (3-0)
Jmook (1-0) moky (1-0) Mang0 (1-0) Aklo (2-0) |
Trif (0-1)
Cody Schwab (0-5) |
N/A |
If Cody did not exist, aMSa would have a great shot at being number 1. Maybe this is me being too forgiving of aMSa for being far away and not being able to attend as many tournaments as his competition, but his head-to-heads are phenomenal. A second-place at Genesis, a second-place at Battle of BC 6, and superb records vs. everyone except for two people (but, really, just one in meaningful capacity) are more than enough to make him top three.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Jmook | Mang0 (2-1)
Hungrybox (1-0) Soonsay (1-0) Aklo (1-0) KoDoRiN (1-0) |
Zain (2-4)
moky (1-2) Cody Schwab (0-1) aMSa (0-1) Joshman (0-1) |
Spark (1-1) |
I’ve previously written about Jmook’s 180 from being one of the most consistent top players in the game to becoming the most volatile member of the top echelon. In many ways, this has hurt his resume for the year. At the same time, having two wins over the current favorite for No. 1 gives his head-to-heads a unique strength from all but two other people in the field. Him collectively having the slight edge vs. Hungrybox, Mang0, and moky (4-3) makes me want to place him here, and the same can be said for each of his notable runner-up performances this year. If you had to pick someone to end the Zain/Cody major win-streak, it probably would still be Jmook. He just has to make it there first – and close it out.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Hungrybox | Cody Schwab (2-0)
Joshman (2-0) KoDoRiN (1-0) Aklo (3-0) Soonsay (1-0) |
Wizzrobe (0-1)
Zain (0-4) Jmook (0-1) |
moky (1-1)
Mang0 (1-1) |
As much as it’s easy to give Hungrybox shit – as I love doing – for his obsession with making major top eights seemingly over actually winning events – his decade-long streak of making offline major top eights really is a one-of-a-kind achievement in Melee history. Believe it or not, save for a clearly losing record vs. Zain (which we know is certainly not unique to him), his head-to-heads are actually quite good. Having two wins on Cody, as well as splitting sets with Mang0 and moky, is great, and the same could be said about how he’s mostly destroyed the field. It’s difficult to gauge what a loss to Wizzrobe “means” in the context of a year where he hasn’t been around very much, but to me, I would treat it like dropping a set to someone around the same level of play.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Mang0 | Spark (1-0)
Trif (2-0) Soonsay (3-0) Cody Schwab (2-1) Aklo (1-0) |
Jmook (1-2)
Zain (0-7) aMSa (0-1) Ossify (0-1) Fiction (0-1) |
Sirmeris (1-1) |
Mang0 began this year with a middle-of-the-road Genesis and then a stinker Full Bloom where he uncharacteristically dropped sets to Ossify and Sirmeris. Since then though, he’s been gearing into form. If you look at his overall records vs. the field at majors, he’s been pretty reliable vs. the tier of players under the top echelon. Speaking of which, it’s pretty interesting to see Mang0 basically get whooped by the entire top echelon, only to return against some of those same players and beat them. He’s yet to crack Zain yet, but beating Cody multiple times, as well as Jmook and Hungrybox are promising signs.
| Player Name | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| moky | Wizzrobe (1-0)
Jmook (2-1) Mang0 (1-0) Spark (2-1) KoDoRiN (1-0) |
Leffen (0-1)
Zain (0-3) Cody Schwab (0-1) aMSa (0-1) Soonsay (0-1) |
Hungrybox (1-1) |
I, and every other Melee pundit, have talked about moky’s chances of winning a major; he’s come close a few times, but for whatever reason, it hasn’t been in the cards yet. With that said, his overall results are still consistent enough – particularly against the field – for him to hold a clear spot above everyone beneath him. His “worst” losses come in otherwise winning records or they’ve come to rising stars of this year. For moky to make it to the next level, I feel like he needs to either finally defeat Zain or turn the corner on peers he’s currently not dominating (like Hungrybox and Cody). Right now, his biggest strength is that he doesn’t lose to people outside my current Top 10.
| Player Name | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Soonsay | Medz (1-0)
Wizzrobe (1-0) moky (1-0) Aklo (1-0) Fiction (1-0) |
Zain (1-3)
Mang0 (0-3) Salt (0-2) Spark (0-2) Akir (0-1) |
Cody Schwab (1-1) |
On Fourside Fights, a controversial topic came up: should we start considering Soonsay on the same level of major contention as moky? Most of us didn’t think this was the case yet, but the truth is that being able to take a set from Zain, even if at a local, already distinguishes him from most of his peers. When you take into account the fact that Soonsay has also beaten the two best Fox players in the world, it’s very clear that, bare minimum, he does have “a path” to winning a major. Granted, I don’t think it’s a likely path to happen – his winners finals appearance at GOML did involve a bit of bracket luck – but it’s worth noting. Once Soonsay overcomes the mid-tiers (and Spark), he’ll be unstoppable.
| Player Name | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Trif | Wally (1-0)
Joshman (1-0) Jmook (1-0) aMSa (1-0) Faust (1-0) |
moky (0-1)
SDJ (0-1) Mang0 (0-2) Salt (0-1) Aklo (0-1) |
N/A |
In similar fashion to how I was willing to give aMSa much credit for his consistent head-to-heads in lieu of travel issues preventing him from going to as many events as he’d like, I think Trif has a stellar group of big performances for the year. In addition to having two standout wins over Jmook and aMSa, he has two other wins in Wally and Joshman that currently look even better than they may have had last year. The interesting thing with Trif is that he’s been pretty unbreakable vs. the field, a threat to defeat the top echelon, but actually a bit vulnerable to players we’d consider his peers. His individual losses to each of SDJ, Salt, and Aklo stand out, making his head-to-heads look especially curious. Trif is simultaneously a lock for late bracket, great vs. the top level, but a little more shaky against comparable players than you might imagine.
| Player Name | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Spark | Chem (1-0)
Soonsay (2-0) Joshman (1-0) Salt (2-1) Medz (1-0) |
moky (1-2)
Aklo (1-2) Juicebox (0-1) ckyulmiqnudaetr (0-1) Panda (0-1) |
Krudo (1-1)
Jmook (1-1) Iron (1-1) KoDoRiN (1-1) SDJ (1-1) |
Spark’s highs this year have been phenomenal. His first ever top eight showing at Pat’s House 4 also happened to put him among only 84 people in all of Melee history to ever finish top four at a major. Winning Eggdog Scramble 2 is another highlight, with Spark overcoming a surprise early loss to Iron to defeat an entire gauntlet of top Fox players and more to take the whole tournament. All together, the accomplishments make for a clean Top 10 resume.
| Player Name | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Joshman | Soonsay (1-0)
Aklo (2-0) SDJ (1-0) Salt (1-0) Jmook (1-0) |
Cody Schwab (0-3)
Hungrybox (0-2) KoDoRiN (0-2) Trif (0-1) mvlvchi (0-1) |
Krudo (2-2) |
Before his unexpected loss to mvlvchi at Pat’s House 4, Joshman was having a great year against the field. He had recently beaten Jmook, had multiple sets over Aklo, a win on Soonsay, and, impressively, a great rivalry with Krudo. Other than that, the only people who had beaten him were other Top 25 players here or S2J, a player who just missed my cut for activity and might have been here otherwise. Keeping this in mind, his most recent major seems like an outlier; expect to see him return to form at his next tournament.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Aklo | Lucky (2-1)
Fiction (1-0) Spark (2-1) Trif (1-0) Salt (1-0) |
aMSa (0-2)
Medz (0-1) Joshman (0-2) Hungrybox (0-3) Zain (0-3) |
N/A |
Any newcomer to the Top 10 is going to have growing pains as the next player to have a huge target on their back. In a sense, Aklo’s dealt with that since finishing 2023 at the No. 10 spot. Keeping this in mind though, while his year hasn’t had the highs of his previous season, Aklo has still been fairly consistent, with a winning record over Spark and Lucky, along with stray sets over many Top 25 peers, like Trif and Salt. Though he did drop a set to Fro116 at Spit Your Game, Aklo ended up winning that event all the way from the loser’s bracket anyhow.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Krudo | 404Cray (2-1)
Wally (1-0) SDJ (1-0) KoDoRiN (4-0) Ossify (1-0) |
Cody Schwab (0-1)
Medz (0-1) Lucky (0-1) Junebug (0-2) Colbol (0-1) |
Joshman (2-2)
Spark (1-1) |
Is there any rising player who passes the “Top 15 vibe check” more than Krudo? The king of 2024 regionals himself – the bogeyman of competitive Melee – has had an insane coming to form this year, roaming one day regionals like nobody’s business and winning them. What stands out to me is his epic loser’s bracket run to win Altitude Sickness, but you could just as easily point out him winning Ohan’s Birthday Bash. The only reason I don’t have him higher is his relatively underwhelming major resume. At the same time, certain elements of his year, like that juicy 4-0 record over KoDoRiN, have been amazing.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Medz | S2J (2-0)
Magi (1-0) Krudo (1-0) Aklo (1-0) CPU0 (2-0) |
Lucky (1-2)
KoDoRiN (0-1) Soonsay (0-1) Spark (0-1) Salt (0-1) |
Far! (2-2) |
After barely missing activity criteria for Top 100 in 2023, Medz has had a series of excellent performances in 2024. His almost-top-eight showing at Genesis obviously steals the show here, as it came with wins over each of S2J, Magi, Krudo, and Aklo. In one tournament, he padded his resume to an insane degree. He does have some sets dropped in relatively lower stakes here – like a double elimination at the hands of Far!, as well as a dropped set to JWick not too long ago – but they aren’t really significant enough for me to see them as notable. Another win over S2J and his first major top eight at Pat’s House made Medz an easy pick for Top 15.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Salt | lloD (1-0)
Trif (1-0) Fiction (1-0) Soonsay (2-0) Zamu (1-0) |
S2J (0-1)
Magi (0-1) SFOP (0-1) Sirmeris (0-1) Logan (0-1) |
N/A |
Known for her dominance consistency vs. the field, Salt actually began this year with a series of semi-underwhelming showings. Her Genesis performance came with a shocking loss to Logan, and then at Full Bloom, she was eliminated by Sirmeris. She’s had enough notable successes this year, including wins over two elite Peach players in lloD and Trif, as well as two sets on Soonsay, to be this high though. A set over a top seven player would nicely complement a season she’s starting to turn around in her favor.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| KoDoRiN | Ben (2-0)
Medz (1-0) Joshman (2-0) Logan (1-0) Aura (1-0) |
Krudo (0-4)
SluG (0-1) Wally (0-1) lloD (0-1) null (0-1) |
Spark (1-1)
Magi (1-1) |
It’s strange to put KoDoRiN relatively this low on a ranking. I think splitting sets with Spark is still something worth noting as a head-to-head accomplishment, as is defeating Joshman multiple times and winning his only set vs. Medz. In a weird way, rather than KoDoRiN having a “bad loss,” he’s just cumulatively seen a step back in results due to other players breaking out. I view his spot here as temporary, although it’s worth noting that previously, his biggest strength in head-to-heads was overwhelmingly beating that same group of “about to break out” players.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| SDJ | 404Cray (1-0)
Trif (1-0) S2J (1-0) 2saint (1-0) Wally (1-0) |
Joshman (0-1)
Soonsay (0-1) Salt (0-4) null (0-1) Krudo (0-1) |
Spark (1-1) |
Imagine society if SDJ held on to defeat Hungrybox at GOML X. Regardless, they seem like an easy choice for Top 20. To do as well as they did at Genesis, Collision, and GOML, they had to beat each of 404Cray, Trif, S2J, and 2saint. All things considered, their worst loss of the year is null, a player who I had in consideration for Top 25. I’m especially interested to see how their upset potential scales with enough chances – do they have any chance of beating Hungrybox in a rematch or maybe even stealing a set from a top spacie?
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Ossify | SFOP (1-0)
Ben (2-1) Morsecode762 (1-0) Mang0 (1-0) Ginger (1-0) |
Axe (0-1)
Nicki (0-1) 2saint (0-1) Krudo (0-1) ckyulmiqnudaetr (0-2) |
N/A |
You can’t talk about Ossify’s year without bringing up his awesome breakout Full Bloom, where he beat Mang0 and finished in third place at a fairly stacked “almost major.” There are also strong wins to be proud of, like him beating Morsecode762 at a BODIED he ended up finishing second to ckyulmiqnudaetr at. Being up the year vs. Ben, as well as having stray wins over SFOP and MOF cement Ossify on my list, and when Ossify does lose, it typically says more about the player who beat him (Nicki or ckyulmiqnudaetr or Krudo) than it does about himself.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Magi | 404Cray (1-0)
Lucky (1-0) Salt (1-0) Axe (1-0) Ben (1-0) |
Hungrybox (0-2)
Fiction (0-1) Medz (0-1) Faust (0-1) moky (0-1) |
KoDoRiN (1-1) |
Although she isn’t as present at big events as she used to be, Magi’s overwhelmingly been strong vs. the field this year. After she lost early to Faust at Genesis, she’s basically been impervious to anyone outside the people I have Top 25 here. She doesn’t have anything outstanding, like a win over a Top 10 player, but her wins are collectively very strong when placed in comparison with her peers. Her improvement in reliability vs. her peers since February has been remarkable too, coming with a top eight showing at Collision, a win at Low Tide City, and a good runner-up performance at Combo breaker last weekend.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Wally | Chem (2-0)
KoDoRiN (1-0) Lucky (1-0) KJH (1-0) bobby big ballz (1-0) |
Khalid (0-1)Joshman (0-1)
Krudo (0-1) 404Cray (0-1) Drephen (0-1) |
N/A |
Inside of Wally, there exists two wolves: the world-destroying Peach main who’s capable of shocking the best in the world and the player who’d rather grab Middle Eastern food with his friends than deal with a potential timeout against a Jigglypuff player. Thankfully, when it comes to majors, the world has seen more of the former, as he’s had a trio of great performances where he’s consistently handled his peers and made upsets. Regionals and locals are a whole different story, but when your majors are this good, they more than outweigh the less significant lows.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Lucky | SFOP (1-0)
Krudo (1-0) Medz (2-1) Fiction (3-1) CPU0 (2-0) |
Aklo (1-2)
Soonsay (0-2) Polish (0-1) Preeminent (0-1) Wally (0-1) |
N/A |
The moment Lucky started practicing and taking Melee seriously again, he snapped a long losing streak to KoDoRiN. This has been an incredible return to form year for him, with GOML as his only notably “weak” showings for the year. His positive record over Medz and Fiction in multiple sets, along with making big upsets at Genesis (SFOP) and Collision (Krudo), also hold up very well. Nothing really stands out on his resume, but it’s cumulatively very strong.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Fiction | SFAT (1-0)
Mang0 (1-0) Magi (1-0) Spark (1-0) Ginger (1-0) |
Salt (0-1)Aura (0-1)
Zamu (0-1) Axe (0-2) Lucky (1-3) |
N/A |
Outside of a rare “underperformance” as the top seed at Ghost Town 2, where he still beat Spark, Fiction basically performed as well as you could reasonably want at majors and regionals. The tricky thing here is that some of his best wins are somewhat hard to measure. For example, what exactly does a set over Mang0 at SoCal Star League mean? I can’t imagine that it would be held against Mang0 at all, but isn’t it still something pretty good? Fiction also won a Verdugo over Jmook (though Jmook played Falco in the last set after Fiction split sets with the Sheik), which isn’t counted above, but I did remember it.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Chem | 2saint (1-0)
Aklo (1-0) lloD (1-0) 404Cray (1-0) essy (1-0) |
Spark (0-1)
Wally (0-2) Drephen (0-1) K8A (0-1) Tito JoJo (0-1) |
SluG (1-1) |
Chem’s highs are good enough to warrant current consideration for Top 25. For an event like Smash Valley: Revival or Spit Your Game, you can find a tournament full of great wins, like Creed III or, more importantly, Collision 2024. I personally err on the side of viewing lloD and SluG wins as still valuable in the current top field. The wins Chem has had over 2saint and Aklo are just further proof to have him up here. Although he has had a couple stinkers, around this point in the list, you’re going to find occasional lows for everyone.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Axe | Ossify (1-0)
KoDoRiN (1-0) null (1-0) 404Cray (1-0) Fiction (2-0) |
Magi (0-1)
bobby big ballz (0-1) Wizzrobe (0-1) Soonsay (0-1) Morsecode762 (0-1) |
Khalid (1-1) |
I was very saddened to see Axe expressed his reasons for not being as invested in Melee competition as he used to be. Melee is more fun when he’s in the picture, doing well, having fun, and trying his hardest. It’s a shame too, since anyone else beneath him would consider his year a success. With wins over each of the Marths below Zain, he’s still had very good major showings, and having sets over null and 404Cray are good for his records against his peers.
| Player | Notable Winning Records | Notable Losing Records | Notable Even Records |
| Sirmeris | Salt (1-0)
Blue (1-0) TheRealThing (1-0) Grab (1-0) Komodo (1-0) |
max (0-1)
SFOP (0-1) Zain (0-1) Balloon Day (0-1) |
Mang0 (1-1)
Free Palestine (1-1) |
Sirmeris is the player on my Top 25 whose inclusion basically comes from one performance: his Full Bloom 2024, where he went on a massive loser’s bracket run to eventually finish in the top four. In the other big events he entered this year, he hasn’t done nearly as well. Still: his Full Bloom was exceptional enough for me to give him a spot in the Top 25, at least out of respect for what it stands for as a unique accomplishment.