PMRank continues today with ranks 6-4! Within the top 6, we have reached the portion of the list filled exclusively with Project M Titans. Each has demonstrated a significant level of dominance within their own region and put their skills to the test at nationals throughout 2016. While these players didn't make top 3 on the list this year, make no mistake: any of these players are fully capable of becoming the best in 2017.
PMRank is a panel-based Power Ranking of the top 50 Project M players worldwide. Players, commentators, and tournament organizers within the community had the opportunity to apply to be panelists, and we ended up with about 20 panelists by the time of the project's conclusion. Initially, 85 players were qualified to be ranked based on their placings and attendance at major Project M events throughout 2016. Only 50 highly skilled players made the final list.
With that information in mind, the panelists were given the following prompt:
Given all of the results of 2016 in Project M, if everyone on this list entered 50 tournaments, who on average would place the best?
Panelists were also tasked with rating each player on their list from 1-10, with the lowest ranking player given a 1 and the highest a 10, scaling it appropriately. For each player, the highest and lowest rating on all panelists lists were removed when averaging votes to reduce variance.
This project would not have been possible without the dedicated volunteers who helped us engineer spreadsheets, track down tournament data, construct head-to-head charts, create and revise ranking ballots, write and edit player summaries, and gather photographs. A number of photographers have given us permission to use their high-quality photographs of Project M players for the purposes of this project as well.
Without further adieu, I'm pleased to present to you the next three ranks of PMRank, starting with #6.
Rating: 9.376
Other Notable Results: 2nd at TGL Monthly 5, 5th at Shots Fired 2
Forrest “Mr Lz” Griffin underwent a meteoric rise to fame in 2015 by taking 1st place at Paragon Los Angeles, the largest Project M tournament to date, at the age of 13. With his consistently devastating Game & Watch combos and heavy use of Chef (a.k.a. Bacon) to control space and keep opponents staggered, Lz had already made his claim to fame coming into 2016. His victory at Paragon placed high expectations on the young Game & Watch main at the start of the year, and for the most part he rose to the occasion. Still, when he finished in 5th place at Shots Fired 2 after losing to Ally and the up-and-coming Flipp, some wondered whether Paragon had been a fluke. For months afterward, he disappeared from the national scene.
When he re-emerged at Smash and Splash 2, Mr Lz all but put those doubts to rest. After being put into losers in an upset by Aki, the noted Game & Watch slayer, he went on to defeat XYK, Dirtboy, Hyperflame, Hungrybox, ThundeRzReiGN, and Marshall to earn his spot in grand finals. Lz then clutched out a grueling 10-game grand finals against Lunchables to take the tournament. Lz only attended 2 more major events in the remainder of the year, earning 5th place at Low Tier City 4 and 3rd place at Rewired 2016. Over the course of those two events, he earned wins against Boringman, Jason Waterfalls, Boiko, Hyperflame, and Luck. Despite the fact that his age prevented him from going to many nationals in 2016, Mr Lz proved that he can still contend with the best in the world, and will no doubt remain at the forefront of the Game & Watch metagame in 2017.
Written by: Sabre and FlashingFire
Photo Credit: Casey “CND” Ruiz
Rating: 9.537
Other Notable Results: 1st at Frozen Phoenix, 1st at Shots Fired 2, 2nd at EVO 2016, 3rd at ARLO 3
For most of 2015, Arjun “Junebug” Rao had a strong argument for being the #1 player of the post-3.02 era; the Virginia native travelled far and dominated tournaments consistently. His fundamental skills and adaptation are superb, and while he cleverly uses Diddy Kong’s projectiles to draw out reactions from his foes, he is by no means reliant on them. Junebug’s early 2016 performances remained incredibly strong — he took home the gold at stacked tournaments like FinalBOSS and Frozen Phoenix, and secured 1st at Shots Fired 2 after encountering UK veteran Professor Pro in the finals.
The first sign of blood came at the second PMCC event, Supernova, where June was eliminated by Malachi and iPunchKidsz for a 9th place finish. Soon afterward, The East Coast titan travelled west to The Big Balc for a chance to prove Supernova was a fluke. There, he was sent to loser’s bracket in a spectacular upset by NY native Phresh and his Ice Climbers’ deadly ledge-handoff setups. Junebug quickly cleaned up his act, taking out top players like Jose V, Lunchables, and Phresh in the runback before brutally 6-0’ing Flipp in grand finals. In a return to form, Junebug closed out the tournament in a way that only he can: one neutral victory after another.
The summer proved to be unstable for Junebug. He performed well at LTC4 (3rd) and EVO 2016 (2nd), racking up wins on iPunchKidsz, Jose V, lloD, Sosa, Strong Bad, and Machiavelli. However, he hit a low point after suffering a devastating 17th place at Smash n Splash 2. His generally high placements also belied some flubs, like losing to Phresh again at We Tech Those 2, but this didn’t deter Project M icon Junebug. He made a gargantuan losers run through multiple top 20 players, including Switch, DVD, Flipp, and Darc, finally finishing at 4th. June finished the year by placing 5th at the circuit finale, Olympus, where he lost to ThundeRzReiGN and Gallo. Despite looking more mortal than times past, the bearded guru remains a household name in the realm of Project M, and could at any time rise once again to the top in 2017.
Written by: Apollo Ali and Strong Bad
Rating: 9.549
Other Notable Results: 1st at Blacklisted 2, 1st at GUTS 4, 1st at Gauntlet 6, 2nd at ARLO 3
These days, it feels like any of NY/NJ’s considerable talent can make top 8 at a major. But in 2016, one player stood tall above the rest of the region: Malachi "Bob" Covington. Perhaps the hardest working and hungriest player in the region, Malachi transformed himself from a mid-level player in 2014, to one who traded sets with Gallo, Jaden, and Frozen in 2015, to the undisputed rank #1 of NY/NJ in the second half of 2016 and beyond. Malachi plays like a bulldozer — if a bulldozer could input frame-perfect shield drops — crushing his opponents with legendarily precise Sheik reaction tech chases or his aggressive Peach. Malachi certainly bulldozed through Blacklisted 2, where he suffered an uncharacteristic loss at the hands of Kycse in round 2 of winners before going on one of the most ridiculous loser’s runs Project M has ever seen. He defeated Mr. Watch & Learn, Phresh, Frozen, BaconPancakes, Envy, Darc (in a close game 5 set), and Gallo to earn his spot in grand finals. All this culminated in a brutal 6-0 on New Jersey’s resident Toon Link player, dvd.
Malachi maintained an undefeated 2-0 record vs. Junebug in 2016 and placed in the top 6 of every major he entered with the exception of We Tech Those 2, where he placed 9th. The best player of both his mains, he boasts impressive wins over Hyperflame, Gallo, Emukiller, Switch, Professor Pro, Jaden, and many more. Unfortunately, he had limited exposure outside of the East Coast, only traveling to ARLO 3 where he placed 2nd. In 2016 he didn’t manage to take a set against either Sosa or Lunchables, and hasn’t played ThundeRzReiGN yet, but he’s confirmed for Bigger Balc already and is looking to travel more in 2017. If his rate of improvement and exposure increases at the same rate in 2017, no one will be able to stop this rabid koala.
Written by: Apollo Ali and Strong Bad
Rest of the List
Credits
PMRank Staff: Adam “Strong Bad” Oliver, Cody “Yata!” Anderson, Brennan “FlashingFire” Connolly, Devin “reslived” Gajewski, Nick “Boiko” Boiko.
Graphic Design: Eric “FingerStripes” Bohorquez, Desiree “TinyKasama” Macasieb
Editing: Adam “Strong Bad” Oliver, Ahmed “Apollo Ali” Akbar, Cody “Yata!” Anderson, Brennan “FlashingFire” Connolly, et al.
