SSBMRank Summer 2023: 30–21
Melee Stats is proud to present SSBMRank Summer 2023! Counting down the 50 best players of the year so far to determine the best player for the first half of 2023.
This year, we asked 28 panelists to rate each player based on their results so far in the year based on the following prompt:
Based on the quality of results from December 19, 2022 to July 23, 2023 rate each player on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being best)
Exhibitions, online tournaments, and tournaments that did not complete are NOT to be counted
You may consider results at locals and invitationals, but understand that the environment surrounding these events may not always be the most serious in nature
If you as a panelist are a player who is on the ballot, you may give yourself a score as a placeholder, but any score you use for yourself will NOT be counted
Each panelist gives each player a score from 1 to 10. After suppressing the effect of outliers, the votes are aggregated into a single point estimate representing that player’s score. Finally, scores were rescaled to a 1–100 rating, which is displayed above each player’s blurb.
#30: SFOP | Rating: 56.95
It’s always a treat to find Benjamin “SFOP” Duren at a big Melee tournament. Beginning the year with a top eight appearance at Redemption Rumble, where he took a set from Spark, SFOP then boosted his résumé with a strong Genesis where he defeated Preeminent and Aklo. After this tournament, SFOP disappeared for about three months before winning the And Friends regional over Zamu.
With consistently strong performances like these, it was still natural to expect SFOP to eventually return to Earth. On the surface, this appears to have happened at Tipped Off 14 — at least until you look at the details. In reality, he just lost to Zain and Jmook for the most cursed 13th place of all-time. Every possible opponent, from Top 50 hopefuls to even players like Jmook, should count their blessings that SFOP doesn’t attend more. By the time SFOP enters his next major, they might not be so lucky.
-Anokh “EdwinBudding” Palakurthi
#29: Krudo | Rating: 57.90
The humble Sheik player Kyle Krudo seldom speaks on social media, choosing to let his play speak for itself. He silently loads up his stream with zero announcement, plays hundreds of Ranked battles, and typically achieves enlightenment during late night hours-long grind sessions. Then, when he’s finished, he shuts the PC off, vanishing just as quickly as he’s arrived.
Krudo’s silent ninja approach has translated to great performances at big tournaments. Like a ghost, he will appear out of nowhere to defeat top players, and then disappear back to Florida, waiting for his next time to strike. He’s done this a few times already: slaying Khalid at Collision 2023, winning Creed II over Hax$ and Chem, and defeating Mekk and Axe en route to a major top eight at Tipped Off 14. His results: powerful. His personality: enigmatic, yet captivating. Krudo is a figure of secrecy who’s all-but-guaranteed to take down top talent when he pops up.
-Justin “DarkGenex” Cohen
#28: Chem | Rating: 58.45
For most of this decade, Andrew “Chem” Khalili was the common go-to answer for Top 100 Fox player. Ironically, most of this time came when the scene didn’t have an official Top 100. When he was finally recognized on the 2022 list, it was an impressive feat for sure, but not something that adequately captured the place Chem held in the competitive field. His 2023, however, has shown the potential that many people knew he had the whole time.
Chem first had a great Short Hops, where he took sets from Mot$ and Hax$. Following that was a second place at Creed II where Chem not only defeated Mot$ and Hax$ again, but beat Jflex and pushed Krudo to the limit, stealing a set in grand finals. I like to imagine that Chem ran up and down the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum after this event in a Rocky-esque montage — because he proceeded to top this performance a month later at The Nightclub VIP 2. Here, the once mere “Top 100 Fox player” double-eliminated Zuppy, defeated Aklo, and 6–0'd Hax$ to win the tournament.
-Anokh “EdwinBudding” Palakurthi
#27: Ginger | Rating: 59.18
After several years in which you could not turn on a Melee stream every week without seeing Avery “Ginger” Wilson competing in a tournament, 2023 has been fairly different. This is no accident; being one of the most active players in recent memory has taken its toll on Ginger. The Ginger of this year has taken more time for himself, notably taking a long break from social media and Melee to manage burnout. But his sparse attendance at events shouldn’t be mistaken for a drop in his ability to keep up with the field. In fact, the longtime veteran has quietly met and exceeded expectations at various points this year.
For example, Captain Falcon used to be considered one of Ginger’s weak matchups, but he convincingly handled S2J at Genesis 9. The same was once said about his Marth matchup — right before he beat KoDoRiN at Wisdom Melee. These achievements, alongside regional victories over Ben and Zamu point toward Ginger still maintaining a high level of play, as well as taking incremental steps forward. With his break coming to a close, Ginger seems poised to replicate these results on the big stage, with a new outlook on the game.
-Anokh “EdwinBudding” Palakurthi
#26: Swift | Rating: 61.01
The battle for the title of best Pikachu main in the game rages on! After enjoying a strong fifth place at the year-end Redemption Rumble, Dan “Swift” Petruso fans had precious few opportunities to see the rapidly improving speedster in the first half of the year, but the salaryman would find time to defeat Magi at Collision 2023. After a shaky 17th at The Nightclub VIP 2, Swift silenced all doubters in the LACS 5 open qualifiers, claiming his spot in swiss pools by running through Khalid, KoopaTroopa895, Soonsay, and Magi (again). And while Swift may have lost the head-to-head duel with Axe there, he made Top 8 at one of the year’s most contested events after rattling off three straight wins against Zamu, Joshman and Magi (it just keeps happening).
Swift’s innovative approach to neutral with both Pikachu and Fox, ever-expanding combo tree, frightening movement optimizations that have his opponents cursing The Obelisk, and talent for stealing the souls of overzealous top spacies will keep the scene believing in his potential. It will also have his rivals constantly hoping his job’s PTO policy doesn’t get more generous.
-Jacob “chroma” Robins
#25: Zamu | Rating: 61.91
Daniel “Zamu” Bernstein has had an exceptional 2023. The obvious standout win on his résumé is a set he took from Cody Schwab at Wisdom Melee, but it shouldn’t be overlooked that he defeated Ginger and Spark at the same tournament. Zamu also ended the season with a monstrous loser’s bracket run at the LACS 5 LCQ, where he clawed his way to the groups stage of the tournament, defeating Chem, Soonsay and KJH. Combined with other wins in the year over SFOP and Skerzo, Zamu’s had an especially big penchant for taking down top spacies.
Let’s zoom out for a second. This is someone who made the Top 100 for the first time in 2018 and has basically only risen since. In the last five years, Zamu has unambiguously been one of the definitive players within the Midwest. A supermajor top eight appearance could cement his spot among Darkrain, Drephen, Duck, and Ginger as an all-time legend of one of Melee’s most storied regions.
-Anokh “EdwinBudding” Palakurthi
#24: Fiction | Rating: 65.53
Much could be said about Shephard “Fiction” Lima’s 49-week win streak at Verdugo, one of Melee’s biggest weeklies. You can talk about how he’s done it while developing his secondary Sheik and Fox. You can talk about how he consistently thrashes the competition, with nearly flawless records over SoCal stalwarts like nut and null, and an impressive 33–0 record over Kürv. You can even talk about how he loves to discuss One Piece or UFOs with his opponent right before three-stocking them. Before the streak ended in July at the hands of null, Fiction actually lost to Franz in winners finals of a January Verdugo. Suddenly the venue began to flood, causing the tournament to remain unfinished. Fiction losing was such an aberration to the natural order that it flooded in Southern California, and his scene decided the streak was still intact, even though he didn’t win.
While this local dominance did not translate to a standout major run you would expect from a self-described Top 10-in-skill player, Fiction still picked up an impressive collection of wins over Axe, Magi, Salt, Soonsay, and Zuppy. If you give him some time to finish developing his long-awaited indie platformer, there’s little doubt Fiction will go from farming Top 20 players to farming Top 10 players.
-Danny “s-f” Levy
#23: S2J | Rating: 66.71
It’s hard to dissociate Johnny “S2J” Kim from his home region of SoCal. Yet a new job took the perennial Top 25 player up to NorCal, where he quickly and decisively established himself, regularly sweeping the weekly Guildhouse over the likes of Umarth, Darkatma, and Ralph. At a time when Spark has moved to Arizona and SFAT has been inactive at majors, S2J has been the one technically representing NorCal on the big stage, even if his heart is still in SoCal.
His most notable accomplishment came in the form of a Battle of BC 5 run where he blew through Shroomed, Spark, Trif, and Mang0’s Marth. Speaking of which, that latter win is one half of an unusual distinction S2J holds as the only player this season to have beaten Mang0’s Marth and Zain’s Roy. Yes, it’s an accomplishment that’s as impressive as it is stupid, but it’s fitting for a player with such a stupidly impressive career.
-Danny “s-f” Levy
#22: 2saint | Rating: 68.44
Being able to perform when the stakes are at their highest separates top level competitors from everyone else. It’s something that Toussaint “2saint” Turner struggled to achieve for much of their career right before their spectacular performance at Genesis 9. Starting off Top 64 with beating aMSa, the top seed of the tournament, was miraculous by itself, but 2saint then proceeded to defeat Soonsay and KoDoRiN to make top eight at the biggest event of the year. They’d follow it up with a solid bronze medal showing at BEMI 2023 and a respectable 17th place finish at Collision 2023, defeating KJH, Mot$, and Flash between those two tournaments.
However, it’s difficult to talk about 2saint’s year without acknowledging their sudden retirement in April, which has led them to having an uncertain future in the game. They’ve continued to drop out from majors they previously signed up for, but they’ve also continued to occasionally attend local tournaments. With that said, if a supermajor comes around, and 2saint actually shows up, there’s no reason to doubt their ability to win when it matters most.
-Ember “Sharp” L.
#21: Spark | Rating: 68.72
Among all the players we’re celebrating this summer, Zaid ""Spark"" Ali may very well be the most well-traveled. He’s attended six out of the seven 2023 majors hosted in North America, as well as numerous other regionals across the country. You’d think that such a commitment to attending would lead to inconsistency, but, if anything, the opposite has been true for Spark. He’s accrued wins over KoDoRiN, Polish, Salt, and, most surprisingly, a pair of Sheik slayers in SFAT and Aklo. Whether he’s in the Great White North of Canada, the golden coast of California, or New Jersey, chances are that Spark is going to take home a big win.
In addition to boasting a strong competitive resume, Spark is also extremely content-pilled. It’s not just the viral clips of his Sheik dunking on some poor Fox - if you’ve ever talked to Spark about Melee, or watched his Metafy series on Sheik, he has a uniquely charming way of breaking the game down to a science, all while cracking jokes and never losing your attention. This isn’t specific to Melee either. If you’ve ever played Mario Party with Spark, you’ll be shocked to the level of detail in which he casually explains the intricacies of multiple mini-games, right before proceeding to dominate them. If that’s any remote indication, we could be seeing a lot more of Spark on the big stage, and hopefully his personality on the big screen for years to come.
-Glenn “KayB” Kim
The SSBMRank Summer 2023 Team
Director: Brendan “GimmeDatWheat” Malone
Editing Lead: Anokh “EdwinBudding” Palakurthi
Data Lead: Eryk “Ambisinister” Banatt
Graphics Lead: Nick “DarkDragoon” Konstantino
Check out start.gg/SSBMRank to follow along with the full list as it releases
