Welcome to Part Two of the PMRank 2021-22 Mid-Season Contenders List.
Since the return to in-person competition in the latter half of 2021, we have seen the rise of new top players making their mark on the metagame and positioning themselves to claim their places on PMRank 2022 later this year. In the absence of PMRank for the last two years, we are producing the PMRank 2021-22 Mid-Season Contenders List to honor the accomplishments of our players in 2021 and early 2022, and to present a current representation of the competitive meta.
For this mid-season ranking, we have elected to forgo the traditional ordered top 50 ranking format and instead highlight thirty-five players in seven unordered tiers that more accurately represent the current distribution of top players based on available data. Given the limited number of in-person tournaments in 2021 and 2022 so far, this format change was made due to the limited amount of data making it more difficult to directly compare players and produce specific ordered rankings with confidence than in previous years. This format allows us to work with the data we do have to represent the range a player may appear at on PMRank based on their performance at eligible events from September 2021 through April 2022.
This project is intended to serve as an updated reference point for those curious about our scene and the players currently defining its competitive meta. While this is not intended to be fully equivalent to an annual PMRank Top 50, we hope that the players recognized on the PMRank 2021-22 Mid-Season Contenders List will take pride in their accomplishments. PMRank will return to the traditional top 50 format for PMRank 2022 at the end of the year, using data from all of 2022, and we look forward to seeing how this list changes over the next several months.
B+ Tier
One of the most active players in P+, AssTAStic routinely attends locals and regionals in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts to test himself against the best players on the East Coast, and his practice has paid off. AssTAStic kicked off the return of LAN majors with a bang at Undertow by sending PMRank 2019’s #1 player Malachi to losers bracket before top 32 had even begun. Shortly after Undertow, the Ness/Mario dual-main stepped further into the spotlight with a 9th place finish at Blacklisted 6 after defeating Cory, Emukiller, and ~CP9~. With a win over one of the game’s all-time greats and a spotless record against players below the B+ tier, AssTAStic has become one of the community’s rising stars and the newest top player to emerge from New York.
Author: Sabre
Photo Credit: Joey
The often-underrated best Falcon in the world returns to PMRank with a stellar season thus far. Bongo has quietly placed top 16 at all three majors he attended this year including 9th place finishes at Undertow and Jailbreak. His brutal punish game helped him to secure an upset over Twisty at Blacklisted 6 and net two wins over Comb this season, while consistently beating out players below his seed such as Narq and Jagz$. While he came just shy of top 8 twice in 2021 after close losses to Pikmon and Lunchables, it’s only a matter of time before we see Bongo knee his way onto the big stage.
Author: Sabre
Photo Credit: Everfresh
Active outside of the Midwest for the first time in years, Ellipsis picked up numerous high level wins and solid placements with a character considered by most to be severely nerfed in P+. One of the last few high level representatives of Mr. Game and Watch, Ellipsis continues to push his character further and further and show that he’s still got what it takes to compete in the modern meta. Beginning his year at Undertow, he defeated Kendrick, dotcom, assTAStic, and Kumatora en route to a 9th place finish. From there, he would have a quiet Blacklisted 6 highlighted by a win on Vari, but rounded out his resumé with an extremely strong performance at Joey’s Birthday Bash taking the tournament from winners after defeating Studebacher, Nave, Yono, Chaloopy, and Chaloopy (again). Finally able to compete nationally again after years of pharmacy school, Ellipsis stands at the precipice of higher peaks and greater consistency after his remarkable showing this season.
Author: kate
Photo Credit: Joey
With Lunchables moving out of state and Violet’s relative competitive inactivity, Fearless found himself as Texas’ foremost representative at home and abroad. At Shipwrecked, he defended his home region against Comb and Tealz on his way to a 5th place finish. Bringing the fight to SoCal at Jailbreak, Fearless traded sets with Cloudburst and eliminated Pikmon, Sneez, and Jagz$ to qualify for the prestigious Project M Theatre via a 4th place finish. Although his top 8 streak was eventually broken by a 13th place finish at Theatre, Fearless’ incredible runs at open-bracket majors easily solidify him as a threat at any event he attends. Fearless continues to bring his own style to Lucario, standing out from the crowd with flashy kill confirms and an aggressive neutral that caught even the most seasoned players off guard this year.
Author: Studebacher
Photo Credit: ExHale
Having last been ranked at #49 on the 2017 edition of the PMRank, you might be forgiven for thinking Kumatora’s best days were behind her. Competing against New England’s ever growing pool of top talent throughout post-quarantine, Kumatora has elevated her gameplay to new heights having dominated the #1 spot in her home state of Massachusetts since the return of locals. Known for putting up impenetrable walls in neutral aided by one of the most explosive punish games yet seen for the character, Kumatora’s ferocious Ness play has earned her victories over the likes of Kycse and Tealz, as well as a returning Switch at Blacklisted 6. While she may still be slightly inconsistent on the big stage due to the sheer ferocity of her playstyle, a big breakout run seems to be only a matter of time. With some more refinement and experience against S tier caliber players, Kumatora’s time away from national rankings will soon seem nothing but a distant memory.
Author: Flarp
Photo Credit: ExHale
Despite dwindling attendance in recent years, Silver made his presence felt at Undertow and Blacklisted 6. He upset Ivayne in the Falco ditto in pools at Undertow, and then he went on to beat New England’s local rising star, AssTAStic, 3-2 in winner’s top 32. A loss to Boringman and a nail-biting game 5 loss to Pikmon ended his run at a respectable 9th place at the biggest major of 2021. At Blacklisted 6, Silver took out metroid and Shiny Zubat before falling foul of Envy and Blue for a respectable 17th place finish. Silver’s careful use of lasers and a patient, calculated neutral make him one of New England’s strongest players and a bracket threat to even the most seasoned spacie-slayers.
Author: Serb
Photo Credit: Joey
Sneez has once again put together an incredibly impressive season over the course of three majors on the West Coast proving himself a consistent threat to the game’s elites and an absolute wall for anyone seeded below him. The SoCal titan has mostly played ROB in the last year using him to pick up wins over Ivayne, Cloudburst, Sabre, and Darc on his way to top 3 finishes at both Smash Camp and Exodus, but his Diddy Kong also made a rare appearance in a reverse 3-0 comeback against Grealy at Jailbreak. In three major appearances, Sneez has consistently beaten out everyone below the B+ tier and proven he can hang with the game’s elites with his quick projectile play and brutal edgeguards.
Author: Sabre
Photo Credit: TheZardDog
A Tier
While 2021-22 is the first PMRank season in which Dirtboy is not far and away the most active top player in the world, his rare appearances at Midwest events always lived up to his storied legacy. At Undertow, he showed off Squirtle’s slippery movement and newly buffed Water Gun as he picked up wins over Pikmon, Ellipsis, and Narq on his way to a top 8 finish. Over seven months later, Dirtboy would return to remind the Midwest of his skill at Honeypot 3. There, he only dropped sets to New York invader Envy as he eliminated Comb, Sothe, metroid, and Not Chris before finishing at 2nd place. While we hope to see more of Dirtboy in the rest of the season, his strong appearances so far are more than enough to prove that he remains a top-level competitor in the modern meta.
Author: Sabre
Photo Credit: ExHale
It’s been an ascendant year for Envy. Over the last year, the New York Ike has reached new heights near the summit of P+’s mountain. While Blacklisted 6 was the only proper major we saw Envy at, he performed strongly at the Massachusetts major, beating Kumatora, Silver, and Ellipsis on a run to 9th at one of the season’s most stacked tournaments. However, this wasn’t the end of the Emperor’s reign. Utilizing seemingly unlimited reserves of power, he would travel to Iowa for Honeypot 3: Fight for the Bees, where he would take the tournament without dropping a set; no small achievement considering Dirtboy, Comb, and Ripple stood in his path.
Author: Studebacher
Photo Credit: Joey
Despite trading one space animal for another over quarantine, Ivayne’s Falco has proven just as deadly as his Wolf ever was. While his “lows” include being eliminated from Undertow at 25th by techboy and getting knocked out at 5th at Exodus to the legendary Darc, his highs represent the best results that Falco has had in Project M/+ since Mang0 himself entered nationals. Ivayne ran the New York gauntlet on his way to top 8 at Blacklisted 6, taking out Envy, Boiko, and Gallo before finally falling at 7th to Twisty. At You’re So Mad, Ivayne absolutely dominated the waterfall format with a perfect 15-0 set record and a clinically efficient 3-0 over Pikmon in Grand Finals to earn the title of the first and only solo Falco main to win a P+ regional. Ivayne may have once been the most underrated player in PM, but his technical and patient spacies have become a mainstay of final brackets in the post-quarantine era.
Author: Sabre
Photo Credit: TheZardDog
The longtime king of Washington makes his fifth consecutive appearance on PMRank, and his first as a solo Ike main. Pikmon made a splash at Undertow with game 5 wins over both Silver and Blue on his way to top 8. He repeated the feat at Jailbreak with wins over Bongo and Kumatora for consecutive 7th place finishes at the biggest events he attended this season. On his home turf, he showed off his brutal punish game and uncanny ability to find dair spikes as he defeated Boringman, Tealz, grealy, and PwrUp! to earn a 2nd place finish at You’re So Mad. While his otherwise stellar season is slightly marred by a loss in pools to Anday at Smash Camp 2022, Pikmon’s overall resumé is that of a consistent bracket threat capable of placing top 8 at anything he attends, and his wins over Boringman and Blue show that he can go even further as he continues to improve.
Author: Sabre
Photo Credit: Everfresh
Eternally number one in Ontario, Rongunshu had a relatively quiet ranking period compared to his past national activity mostly due to the difficulties of traveling across the border due to the ongoing pandemic. In the few tourneys he did attend stateside, his results were as impressive as in past years. Picking up wins on Tealz and AssTAStic at Blacklisted 6 with his relatively new Ike, Rongunshu truly showed his evolution as a player over the past few years developing from a solo Lucario main to a solo Marth main to now having a plethora of characters he can bring out in tournament. He would finish his year off at The Project M Theatre, where he would use all three of his characters in various sets. He would pick up a win on Blue with Lucario and wins on Trucker Hat and Dr Grin with Marth, before falling to Nogh and dvd with Marth and to techboy with Ike. Despite a sparse year results wise, Rongunshu’s mastery over several different characters at a tournament level is an excellent development for the best player in Canada, and hopefully 2022 will offer more opportunities to travel to larger American majors.
Author: kate
Photo Credit: Joey
Some call him the president of Twister nation, some call him the coolest Wario in P+, and others just call him Twisty. Twisty’s foray into post-pandemic Project+ saw bracket runs as exciting as his bite combos and waft edgeguards. At Undertow, Twisty beat Ellipsis and Comb before losing to the eventual champion, The Doctor, in Winners Quarters. He bounced back from this loss by beating Chevy and Dirtboy before losing to one of modern P+’s major threats in Nogh. He stumbled a bit at Shipwrecked, only picking up a win on JHamp while losing to Tealz and Blue without much fanfare, but he bounced back at Blacklisted 6, where he placed 5th and was the highest placing New England player on the podium. After suffering an upset early in pools to Bongo, Twisty would go one of the best losers runs of his career. He broke out Jigglypuff to defeat Phresh for the first time ever in their historically one-sided rivalry, and then he dominantly beat Guttey, Yono, Boiko, and Blue before showcasing Wario’s brutal punish game in a reverse 3-0 comeback against Ivayne to secure 5th place. With top 8 showings at all three majors he attended in 2021, Twisty remains Massachusetts’ top representative in the modern meta.
Author: Serb
Photo Credit: Everfresh
You may have known him as a long-time Roy player, but Yono has found his greatest successes after making the switch to Knuckles. At Undertow 2021 in Ohio, he took sets from Yung Quaff, Blue, and Dirtboy to finish at 5th place, followed by a 3rd place finish at Joey’s Birthday Bash, beating the likes of Thalia, metroid, and Mr. W&L. In the following months, he would only attend Smash Camp 2022, where he would make it into Winners side of Grands after defeating Sneez, grealy, ilovebagelz, and guttey, falling only to a determined Blue in two sets. Killer that he is, we wonder what’s to come for Yono in the following months and welcome him to his first PMRank appearance at A tier.
Author: Studebacher
Photo Credit: Blanksy
Part 1
Part 3 - Release date 5/22/2022
Part 3 - Release date 5/22/2022
Credits:
PMRank Staff:
FlashingFire
Motobug
Pikmon
Sabre
Photo Credit:
Everfresh
ExHale
Joey
Obregon Design
Rye Bread
TheZardDog
Graphic Design:
Motobug
Additional Editing:
CND
Drake
kate
Studebacher
Stryder
Last edited:
