This year i was a little disappointed to find out that the MPGR Top 100 decided to only give bullet points for the players ranked 100-51, as it took away one of the few opportunities that players had their stories to be told to a larger audience. I decided (as an amateur writer) to take it upon myself to write blurbs myself. I simply tried to highlight each player’s journey throughout 2018 as well as any notable performances they had. This is my first time doing something like this, so please understand there might be a few awkward steps along the way. Without further ado, lets hop into the list!



Starting off the MPGR top 100 is Norcal Falco/fox player Azel. The youngest player to debut on the top 100 this year, his 2018 performance as a whole is a testament to his dedication to improve. After a less than stellar 129th place finish at Genesis 5, he began improving at a rapid rate. Less than 2 months later he would end up winning the 5th Norcal Arcadian (a tournament with 273 entrants) over other Norcal up and comers like Kevbot, Wavebringer and Rymo. He would be ranked #15 in Norcal during the Spring 2018 season.



While many would be happy with this improvement Azel sought to go even further, with solid wins and performances during the summer, such as beating Bizzarro Flame to place 9th at The Even Bigger Balc and scoring a win on Zhu at Evo 2018. This along with local wins on players like Spark, NMW, Darkatma and Ralph would cause him to move up to #10 on the Norcal Summer 2018 power rankings.



The last few months of the ranking season were easily his strongest, defeating a slew of top 50 spacies like Medz, Professor Pro and Ryan Ford to attain high level results at The Roast of Hugo Gonzalez and Don’t Park on the Grass 2018.



To be honest I didn’t know much about Azel prior to writing this, but now I’m very curious and excited to see where 2019 will bring him.



Though Samus main Morsecode762 has been a member of of the upper echelon of the Michigan melee scene for quite some time, some might be more familar with his high level placing within the Project M scene. That is, until Low Tier City 6 in July, when he would score a 3-0 victory against rising star Bananas on his way to a 13th place performance.



However this wasn’t Morsecode’s only success, as he had a solid performance at Smash N’ Splash 4, placing 33rd. He also exhibited strong mental fortitude at the National Melee Arcadian earlier in the year. after getting sent to losers he would win 5 straight sets to place 7th at the event.



At his last major of the year he picked up a win on Kels at The Big House 8, showing he has significant potential to cause upsets and compete with the best. Coupled with local wins on the likes of Duck, Reeve, and PRZ, Morsecode is a breath of character diversity in a landscape of lessening character choices. With players like ESAM and Darrell mostly falling off the map, I’m glad to see another player show what Samus is capable of at the highest level.





Speaking of Character diversity, nobody exemplifies this better than nebbii, the 2nd ever Yoshi player to be ranked within the Top 100. Hailing from the Netherlands, nebbii (formerly known as Avalancer) first got the attention of the international community when he took a game off Armada in Spring 2017.



As 2018 began, nebbii attended tourneys across Europe, winning brackets and scoring valuable wins over the likes of Amsah, Mahie, Vanity Angel and Professor Pro.



At perhaps the most important EU tourney of the year, nebbii placed 17th at Heir 5, perhaps a tad underwhelming considering previous success at other tourneys.



In December nebbii was able to travel to the United States to compete in a gauntlet of tournaments located in the Pacific Northwest. First at Bridgetown Hyper Blitz he scored a 2-0 victory against Zamu in winners bracket. In losers he would score a 3-0 victory on Iceman, going on to place 5th at the tourney.



On the week leading up to DPOTG there was a series of nightly locals that the top players used as warm ups for the main event. He used these locals to pick up wins on Hax, Ka-Master and FatGoku. Finally at DPOTG he scored wins on Stango and Ralph, placing 25th overall. If you’re looking for a EU player to put on a compendium, look no further than nebbii.



Magi is also a quickly improving Falco player, this time from Louisiana. Though they have moved up the Louisana PR steadily until reaching the #1 spot for the past year, 2018 marked an ability to travel to several OOR events. The first half of the year was mostly quiet with the exception of winning a bracket over A Rookie. Only with Dreamhack Austin did people start to take notice. After dropping a set to La Luna, Magi went on to beat Uncle Mojo, Albert and Ka-Master to place 5th at the event.



After Dreamhack, they continued to travel to events over the summer and into the fall. After a 9th place at Optic Arena, they traveled to CEO and after being sent to losers fairly early, they upset La Luna and beat Sinbad to end at a respectable 17th place.



At The Big House 8 Magi would go on to score a win on Blea Gelo and place 49th in the final bracket. Coupled with local wins on Bananas and DJ Nintendo, they seem to be able to adapt and are assembling all of the pieces to be a successful top tier player. I look forward to seeing them develop as a strong regional threat within the Southeastern United States.





Long considered to be a hidden boss of Tri State, Vortex truly turned heads when he defeated Westballz at The Big House 7 and placed top 64. Seemingly following this momentum into 2018, Vortex began to bring his Sheik/Fox combination to several more majors.



First starting at Genesis 5, he defeated Free Palestine and upset Medz, before losing to La Luna in winners. He took another top 100 win in the form of Ralph to place 49th at the event. Vortex was quiet for the next few months with the exception of CT Gamercon 2, trading sets with Kalvar and defeating Slox to ultimately place 3rd. In this time period he would also place a relatively underwhelming 25th at the stacked regional Pound Underground and 33rd at Omega 2.



However this would all turn around at Super Smash Con 2018, where after falling to MDVA veteran Vist, Vortex won a staggering 5 sets (7 counting DQs) while adding a 3-0 victory on Ginger to his resume. He would ultimately place 13th, his best placement of the year.



Other than a quiet appearance at Shine 2018, there was a pause in notable tournament appearances until the month of December, where he placed 7th at The Fireside Open and 13th at the NYXL Pop-Up. Along with being #10 on the most recent NYC PR, Vortex has continually been ironing out his gameplay and becoming even stronger in the process. Though this year has had ups and downs for him, Vortex seems poised for success at a local and national level in the coming months.





Iceman has dwelled in the top tier of the Pacific Northwest melee scene for a few years now, while performing fairly well at regional events within the region. 2018 however, marked several opportunities for him to pick up important wins on players from around north america.



Starting out the year, he attended the Pacific Northwest regional Emerald City 6, where he would place 4th. For this event the top 16 seeds were floated to play each other in round robin pools, and Iceman scored victories on Phil and Fauxhebro. In the final bracket, he would be sent to losers 2-1 by Spud, but would win five straight sets, including 3-0 victories on both iBDW and NMW. Later, Iceman defeated Spark at Genesis 5, ultimately placing 65th at the incredibly stacked event. Capping off the first half of the year, Iceman would also attend Flatiron 3, placing 33rd



The 2nd half of the year marked an uptick in appearances at major tournaments, Iceman placed 33rd at Runback 2018 and 65th at Evo 2018, scoring wins on Tai and SK92 at the latter. At The Big House 8, he would have his best placement of the year, scoring 33rd while beating Reeve, Heartstrings and Zeo. at Bridgetown Hype Blitz he would also place a respectable 9th. At the back to back Parking Lot tourneys, he would take sets from Nebbii, Moky, and Free Palestine. Ending the year, Iceman would place 65th at DPOTG 2018.



Iceman frequently performs quite well at regionals, though 2019 will see if those performances can be translated over nationals and super majors.





Hailing from Kentucky, Cob is an improving Peach player who’s risen to be one of the premier floatie players in the midwest. This year he attended several important tournaments of varying size, and scored some impressive wins over the course of the year.



His year started at Cincinnati Smash Classic VII, scoring a 3-0 victory on Boyd and placing 3rd. In the first quarter he attended a handful of midwest regionals, scoring wins on players Zamu and Papa. in Mid February he won the ETSU-Con 2018 regional. After being sent to losers, he beat players like Yort, Davemon (the one who sent him to losers), Mewwy and Sharkz twice to win the 140 man bracket. He also placed 9th at the National Arcadian after beating SK92.



Moving into summer he began to perform better. While placing 17th at Fight Pitt 8, only a month and a half later he would also place 17th at Smash’N’Splash 4, obtaining a huge win on Lucky. A few weeks later he would also defeat Papa, Kels, and DaShizWiz to place 5th at Smashville 7.



His next big performance came at The Big House 8, where he beat Wenbobular, 4est, Tylenol and Flipsy to place 33rd at one of the biggest events of the year. Before the end of the year Cob also would take another set from Kels at House of Paign 19, placing 7th.



Though some peach players might feel discouraged at the current state of the meta following the retirement of Armada, Cob is proof that Peach players are still rising, with little signs of slowing down.





Though Trulliam did not leave Canada this year, he was able to prove that he was still the strongest Falco that the icy north had to offer, with strong performances and wins from his home region.



His year started at Down To Fair, where he would place 2nd behind Ryan Ford. Placements like this would be the norm, hardly getting upset by players considered under him. The first big event of his year was EGLX 2018, placing 25th after suffering losses to Hugs and Legend. He would also place 25th at one of Canada’s premier event, Get On My Level 2018.



The summer was a noticeable improvement for the Falco, placing 4th at Saints Gaming Live 2018, beating Heartstrings, KJH and Ginger in convincing sets. Trulliam would continue this momentum into The Ryegional, where he would defeat Ryan Ford and Moky twice to win the event. However in September of 2018, Trulliam announced his retirement from competitive melee, telling people that his last event would be DreamHack Montreal. He would go on to place 7th, scoring victories on Legend and Zuppy.



Though we may not see Trulliam entering brackets anymore, he will likely still be remembered as one of best Falco players that the north can offer.





Anyone with a decent knowledge of MDVA melee can tell you about Milkman. A Veteran Fox with a wealth of strong matchup experience well suited to the current meta. Attending events of all sizes, he scored valuable wins over the course of the year, both within his home region and while traveling.



His year began with a 13th place finish at the stacked regional Smash Valley 7, with a set win over iBDW. He also attended Xanadu: End of an Era within his home region, taking 5th place after beating Cool Lime and DJ Nintendo.



Moving into the spring, Milkman began to attend many more events along the east coast. First at Pound Underground, he was knocked into losers by TheRealThing, but won four sets in losers against strong regional players like Cool Lime and ChuDat to place 9th at the event. In the following month Milkman was at Omega 2 in Long Island and later CEO in Daytona, Florida. At the former he took a set against Ryobeat to place 17th, and at the latter he defeated BIGKID to place 25th.



In the Summer he only attended one of the handful of majors during that time period, Smashcon in his home region, placing 33rd. Other than locals which culminated in wins on Junebug, Jerry and llod, Milkman didn’t go to larger events until the sequential Parking Lot locals leading up to Don’t Park on the Grass. At these locals he won victories against Zamu, Ka-Master, Iceman, Professor Pro and Nebbii. Finally ending his year he would place 25th at DPOTG.



Milkman has long existed as a strong regional threat, it is only a matter of tightening up certain parts of his play and clutching out sets that will propel him higher up the yearly rankings.





Another top 100 newcomer to come from a lesser known region, Northeast Ohio’s TheRealThing (aka TRT) was able to make waves with his Falco, upsetting highly ranked players and securing solid placings in all but a few majors, which likely served as motivation for TRT to push himself to even greater heights.



The first tournament of the year for TRT was an underwhelming result of unfortunate seeding, losing to Mikehaze and Zhu to place 129th at Genesis 5. However less than a month later at Smash Valley 7 he would defeat TheSWOOPER and win the runback against MikeHaze to place 13th.



His best performance of the year arguably came from the National Melee Arcadian, where he took down Fizz, Cob, Bananas and Reeve on the way to a strong 4th place finish. He placed 49th at Full Bloom 4 and 13th at Aegis, but his next good win would come from Pound Underground, where he placed 9th after beating Milkman, Hat and Bob-omb.



The 2nd half of TRT’s year was much quieter than the first, with another unfortunate 129th finish at Shine 2018. However he was able to make a much better run at The Big House 8, scoring wins on Ralph and Fizz to finish 49th. His year ended with a 3rd place finish at the PGH/NEOH Invitational, beating Abate and Boyd during his run.



TheRealThing’s ability to play to the strengths of Falco to win certain matchups, as well as his survivability with the notoriously glass cannon character are important components to his success, and hopefully we’ll all be seeing more of it in 2019.





Photo Credits and the original article can be found here: https://www.redbull.com/us-en/mpgr-2018-100-91

if you read this thank you so much! i’ll do my best to write the rest of the blurbs as soon as i can!