Our top ten begins today with players from all over the continent.
Welcome everyone to another year of PMRank! PMRank is a panel-based Power Ranking of the Top 50 Project+ players in North America. We're excited to put together another list of the best performers throughout the 30+ eligible events this year, covering Exodus 2023 through Honeypot 6. Initially, 76 players were qualified to be ranked based on their placings and attendance at major Project+ events throughout 2023. Panelists were tasked with reviewing this data and ranking each player in order, from #1 to #76. For each player, the highest and lowest rankings on all panelists’ lists were removed when averaging votes to reduce variance. After an initial ballot, panelists were given time to discuss the aggregated results and move closer to consensus in the case of players with high standard deviations. Then, panelists submitted a second and final ballot to determine the placement of our PMRank Top 50.
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.
The full list of eligible events and eligibility requirements for PMRank 2023 can be found on our start.gg hub.
After making history with a debut top 5 placement on PMRank 2022, Stango showed that he can comfortably and confidently maintain his place at the top of the mountain in the ever changing P+ climate. Although we saw less of Stango this year, what we were able to catch was nothing short of dominance over his competition. Stango began his year with a visit to NorCal for Genesis’ Shadow Major Exodus, and he left all but one foe in utter destruction. Stango tore through the likes of BigDK, Sabre, and Boringman twice without dropping a single game and would only be kept in check by a new found rival in The Doctor. Despite his best efforts and a strong commitment to ZSS, Stango fell to his fellow titan for second place at the NorCal classic. Stango didn’t let this loss deter him, however, and he used it as fuel for his next endeavor back home on the East Coast in New Jersey at Rutgers’ own Scarlet Classic. Here, Stango saw only two game losses, one to Turbo Mode and Wolf Master Switch and one to up-and-coming New Jersey native Gclem. He took 3-0 victories over PMRank veterans Phresh and Emukiller, secured a 3-1 victory over Switch, and walked home with first in P+ (and a respectable fourth in Melee). Stango closed the curtains on his 2023 season with a final appearance at New York’s Cream of the Crop. Here, he stepped up to bat against some of Tri-state's finest competition, but he stood strong and showed his expertise with Donkey Kong. Stango left Shadowhawke, Shiny Zubat and Boiko in his wake with the banana slammin’ king of the jungle on his way to establishing himself as the top banana with the first place prize. Stango in 2023 had few and far showings, but what a show he would put on in the times he did take the stage He claimed victory over all but one player in his PMRank-qualifying tournaments. He not only saw great success in P+ in 2023, but he also spread his reign of terror into NASB2 with a lethal Gertie. With 2024 on the horizon and a whole slew of events already stacking up with talent old and new, the question remains — will Stango arrive to leave them in turmoil and defeat or will he wait for the perfect stage to remind us just how powerful he is?
Written By: Mr.Watch&Learn
A champion of his character and his region, Blue continues to prove that he is the greatest Link to touch the sticks in P+. It is an honor as a scene to have seen Blue’s journey from Arizona locals now to the top 8’s of the national stage. There is a pride to revel in when you are the first player to achieve such heights and become the first PMRank top 10 representative for both your character and region. Blue has continuously impressed the world with his precision, item play, and ability to overcome some of the toughest matchups for his character when the stakes are high. This year was no exception, and, despite not attending many tournaments, Blue definitely came out with a fury and something to prove. Starting the year at Mile High Club, Blue showed supreme mastery of the Ice Climbers matchup going through a total of four sets where he slayed the character, beating dank, Flarp, Serb, and Phresh. Blue also achieved a phenomenal victory over one of 2023’s strongest players and someone who would strike fear into the hearts of any average Link main: dvd, Sheik connoisseur. Despite being down 2-0 when the stakes were the highest, Blue rose to the challenge and completed a reverse 3-0 victory. This set was emphatic, and the venue was thundering with the cheers coming from the Arizona crowd. After being eliminated by SipMastah, Blue ended his Mile High Club run at a remarkable fourth place out of 113 entrants, but he decided he was hungry for some more. Blue decided to register for the Texas tournament The Back Hit, located in his new temporary region of Dallas. This was a chance for Blue to defend a new region on new home turf, and he sure showed some profound skill in his bracket run. Blue overcame two of NY/NJ’s finest in this bracket: the old-school Mario legend, Gallo, and the greatest Wolf of all time, Switch. These wins earned him a spot in top 8 where he fell to PMRank 2022’s #3, Jonny Sosa. Undeterred from the loss, Blue faced off against up-and-coming Sheik, Suvir, and was able to claim victory to progress. Here, Blue faced the titan dvd for the second time this year, but he was unable to secure victory in game five this time around. This resulted in Blue obtaining his second fourth place finish at a major of the year, with a plethora of impressive wins along the way. Blue’s last tournament of the year was Sunset in Sapulpa, an event where Blue swept the bracket and did not drop a game. Here, he garnered wins over Studebacher Hoch and double-eliminated top Olimar ~CP9~ to claim his first regional victory of the year. With a desire to focus on other areas of life, Blue ended his 2023 tour there. However, the reward would not be reaped till today, where it is PMRank 2023’s pleasure to award Blue with a place in top 10 at #9, a feat which we all applaud. We look forward to seeing great things from Blue in the future no matter where his journey takes him. No matter what, we will all remember Arizona’s Link master who rose against all odds to show he belonged with the best.
Written By: Suvir
As someone firmly cemented as one of the strongest players in the world, Parker “SipMastah” Boring was once again both one of the most consistent and well-traveled players within the top 10 this year. The then tri-main started the year off strong at Exodus, losing only to Stango twice while defeating NorCal rivals Ivayne and Darc, as well as invaders Narq and Dirtboy. Mile High Club also saw great success for the PMRank mainstay, earning an incredible third place with wins over ~CP9~, Cloudburst, and Blue twice over at the most stacked event of the year. However, both Mile High Club and Grand Line #2 saw his current lineup of characters take losses to The Doctor and Rongunshu. Starting with Warp Zone 2, the master of sip decided to switch priorities: Diddy Kong was now at the forefront of his lineup, putting fun first, while only swapping to the rest of his lineup in dire situations. Despite such a drastic shakeup, his results barely took a hit, with his Diddy Kong sweeping through the Midwest’s ORLY, Dirtboy, and Chaloopy, as well as Cloudburst, only falling to the titans of techboy and Lunchables for the bronze at the Midwest’s biggest event of the year. While his Blacklisted 8 was more of the same, taking wins against strong players but without the monumental wins, Parker’s performance at the end of the year was his best of 2023. The Diddy Kong was joined by a bit of Meta Knight and Lucario at Against All Odds, tearing through Suvir, Ivayne, and Pikmon twice to win the entire event, only dropping a single game in the process. Finally, at Honeypot 6, he once again defeated ORLY and Dirtboy in rematches from Warp Zone, and added wins on Comb and a leveled-up Blitz to his resume. Despite another loss to Rongunshu in the winner’s side in a match that featured a character roulette of Meta Knight, Diddy Kong, and Sonic, when it came to their rematch in Losers Finals, SipMastah committed just to Diddy and clutched out one of the most exciting sets of the year over one of his bracket demons. He one-upped himself right after this, too, defeating techboy 3-0 in the first set of Grand Finals, again only with Diddy, in a matchup he historically struggled in between all of his other characters. While the tournament win was not meant to be that day, falling to techboy in the reset 3-1, SipMastah has shown that he’s knocking right on the door of the tippy-top level of the game, and judging by the end of his year, he’s about to kick that door right on down.
Written By: Motobug
No matter what time of year it is, it’s always bag season for Phresh. Showing out at the start of the year in a big way, Phresh took Lake George Snowdown in a stunning first place finish defeating WouldSmokeCraq in a game five clutch, and both Malachi and Kycse without dropping a game. He continue this amazing run by beating dvd, hot off of a win at Joey’s Birthday Bash 2, twice in a row during the game ten Grand Finals runback. Despite a seventh place finish at the February Cream of the Crop, Phresh quickly bounced back at the insanely stacked Mile High Club, where he took down evil lesbian, metroid, and Pikmon to make top 8 at the biggest tournament of the year. Scarlet Classic VIII saw the Icies take down Switch to earn the bronze medal at the event, but Blacklisted 8 was where bag season truly came through in force. On day one of competition, Phresh slid into the top cut with relative ease, only dropping a single game to resident Olimar sfy bees. The next day, Phresh took down fellow Ice Climbers main Serb in a decisive 3-0 set that featured no Icies but instead tertiaries and a Snake ditto. In the next set, Phresh clutched out a stunning game five set against the Icies Slayer Comb, ending it with a signature handoff into forward smash on their last stocks. In Winners Semis of top 8, Phresh again won a close set against West Coast’s SipMastah, adapting to the NorCal native’s Diddy Kong to close game five. In Winners Finals, Phresh looked unstoppable, 3-0’ing dvd’s Ike and Toon Link to earn his spot in winner’s side of Grands. While Malachi ended up taking Blacklisted 8 in the end, Phresh’s run showed an incredible display of skill, and he carried this momentum into the last tournament of the year, Honeypot 6. On day one, Phresh’s Snake and Icies were quick to make their presence known, dominating not only his pools without losing any games, but also in the Snake round robin that evening in which he only dropped three games to FlashingFire. In the top bracket the next day, the dominance continued with Phresh bagging wins on Che and Blitz to make winner’s side top 8, ending the year with a fifth place finish. This year marked an incredible resurgence of the Ice Climbers main, and, despite being absent from PMRank since 2017, Phresh has bagged back onto PMRank at a well-deserved 7th place in this year’s rankings.
Written By: ilikepizza107
Other PMRank 2023 Articles
1/29/2024 - PMRank 2023: The Edge of Glory
1/29/2024 - PMRank 2023: In The Margins
1/30/2024 - PMRank 2023: 50-41
1/31/2024 - PMRank 2023: 40-31
2/1/2024 - PMRank 2023: 30-21
2/2/2024 - PMRank 2023: 20-11
2/5/2024 - PMRank 2023: 10-7
2/6/2024 - PMRank 2023: 6-4
2/7/2024 - PMRank 2023: 3-1
1/29/2024 - PMRank 2023: In The Margins
1/30/2024 - PMRank 2023: 50-41
1/31/2024 - PMRank 2023: 40-31
2/1/2024 - PMRank 2023: 30-21
2/2/2024 - PMRank 2023: 20-11
2/5/2024 - PMRank 2023: 10-7
2/6/2024 - PMRank 2023: 6-4
2/7/2024 - PMRank 2023: 3-1
Last Year's Rankings
Credits
PMRank Staff:
- Che “Che” Woodson
- Brennan “FlashingFire” Connolly
- Paul “Motobug” Canavan
- Peter “Pikmon” Woodworth
Graphic Design and Character Renders:
- Paul "Motobug" Canavan
- Cosmetic Standardization Project (CSProject) & the Project+ Development Team
Editors:
- “CND”
- rye "evil lesbian"
- Artemis "[Fleabag]" Groobert
- Timothy “ilikepizza107” W.
- Paul "Motobug" Canavan
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