The Smash community rarely discusses the hierarchy of players in doubles as much as they do singles, but for good reason. It's difficult to evaluate an individual player's skill in doubles. Players switch partners frequently and it becomes difficult to fully determine how much a player affects the overall outcome of a game. Sometimes, one player could be doing most of the work, while the other player reaps the benefits. Certain players only thrive with particular teammates and falter when they don't have a strong partner that plays a particular style. Other players only play with weaker partners, so their results may not be as strong as another player who partners with elite talent. Editor's Picks Warriors co-owner Q&A: 'Esports is running in the Kentucky Derby'

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Given these constraints, I evaluated individual players based on the following criterion

Recent Results

How well has a player performed overall in 2016 doubles events?

Impact

This is the "eye-test." Is the player outputting damage and kills? How are they defensively?

Are they losing or winning skirmishes? Sometimes, they will need to play particular roles based on partners. Do they play the support and aggressor roles appropriately or do they sit back and let their teammates do the majority of the work?

Replacement Theory

Could another player see similar success if given the same opportunities? Teaming with a god-level player makes openings much easier. Does a player see a similar level of success even when teaming with less-skilled partners or do they only see results because they team with the best?

10. Mustafa "Ice" Akcakaya

Ice's confidence plays a large role in his success as a doubles player. In the grand finals of Super Smash Con, he went toe-to-toe with Joseph "Mango" Marquez in many of their skirmishes and even found some crucial shine spikes to win games. Per the style of European Foxes, Ice has an incredible playstyle that translates well in doubles. His neutral and punish game are both incredibly solid and he has a good sense of how to create opportunities that lead into punishing combos with his partner. Another highlight of Ice is that he is disciplined. Many Foxes have the temptation to stray away from their partner as they fish for openings, but this is not the case with Ice. Rarely does he overextend and get himself caught into an early unnecessary death.

9. William "Leffen" Hjelte

William "Leffen" Hjelte took down the four other gods of Smash to win Get On My Level 2016. Provided by Robert Paul

Visa issues prevented Leffen from moving much higher on this list, but he still won doubles at B.E.A.S.T. 6. Leffen's strong overall fundamentals make it difficult to leave any player to fight him for extended periods of times. As a result, this demands the attention of both of his opponents, which lightens the load for his partner. Leffen has a keen awareness of the neutral game and maximizing damage on openings while not leaving himself vulnerable. While he's not as aggressive as Zachary "SFAT" Cordoni or Mango, he holds stocks for long stretches and doesn't demand much help either. He functions very well as a supportive Fox that can extend combos and can quickly unscramble a tough situation if his partner gets hit.

8. Dajuan "Shroomed" McDaniel

In many ways, Shroomed is a very unorthodox team player. Traditionally, Sheik plays very defensively in doubles because of her inability to approach, but Shroomed makes it work. He is able to play supportive to his partners and initiate and fight for stage position against tougher teams. He is also the type of player that doesn't need much stage to thrive. He can fight through skirmishes and you can trust him to come out even or ahead against more aggressive players. His overall sense of teams is immaculate and he could easily win more events if he had a more consistent partner to build synergy with.

7. Joseph "Mango" Marquez

Joseph "Mango" Marquez at Evolution 2015. Robert Paul

Mango originated the role of the hyper-carry, demanding that his opponent saves stocks while fighting frequently in one vs. two situations against the other team. Other top players have evolved to no longer make this a viable strategy, but Mango still plays the role of carry magnificently as long as he has a partner that he trusts. Evaluating Mango in 2016 is difficult because he forfeits doubles to focus on singles very often. When he decided to play doubles, he churned good results with Johnny "s2j" Kim, winning sets over top teams such as PewFat.

Mango's ability to win skirmishes is one of his core strengths as he can control the tempo of a game and choke away space from the other team. He can play a little too greedy at times and force situations that lead into very unfavorable outcomes. However, the risks come with massive rewards as he can also single-handedly win games despite being many stocks behind. It's not uncommon to see the final box score with 700 damage dealt and eight kills under his name.

6. Kevin "PewPewU" Toy

PewPewU's Marth fills highlight reels of team montages with his crafty movement and punishes. The most important skill of PewPewU is his strong talent to support. His partners can approach confidently against tough opponents, knowing that PewPewU can quickly disengage a bad situation. At the same time, his partners know that he can create a damaging combo off of a small opening. These combos quickly turn the tides of a match as they decimate stocks in seconds. PewPewU has an uncanny ability to choose combo strings that quickly add damage and kills, whereas other players often find only one or two additional hits for significantly less damage.

Marth is a difficult character to play in teams because of his laggy movement, but PewPewU makes it work. He has a keen sense of knowing how to maximize Marth's potential by utilizing quick hits and efficient combos to cover space and add damage as fast as possible. At the same time, his strong fundamentals allow for him to know when he can afford longer kill combos.

5. Justin "Plup" McGrath

Justin "Plup" McGrath competes at Community Effort Orlando 2016. Provided by Robert Paul

Despite years of results, Plup goes under the radar in doubles discussions. He is one of the best players at controlling space and winning skirmishes as opponents have a hard time gaining stage positioning when he controls the stage. In many ways, he's so natural at teams that people tend to forget he is always in the right position to play off his partner and punish the other team.

His character variety is also worth mentioning. When he plays his Samus or Sheik, he plays the supportive position very well, holding stocks while maintaining presence in the game. His newly formulated Fox is a menace to deal with because of his sheer speed and overall technical ability (he already plays Fox at a near top-10 level). The character variety gives his teams a big counterpick advantage as they can flex pick different compositions based on the stage and their opponents.

4. Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma

Hungrybox's menacing punish game plays an even larger role in doubles. His ability to threaten the other team with rests and gimps makes it easy for him to establish stage control even with a defensive character in Jigglypuff.

Similar to singles, players find it difficult to find meaningful openings against Hungrybox because of his outstanding neutral game. His phenomenal punish game means mistakes will result in quick deaths. He can also annoy teams with his incredible spacing as he takes away space, one back-air at a time.

Playing against Hungrybox demands such great attention and mental focus, which allows his partners to find favorable opportunities. At the same time, Hungrybox can play the supportive role, finding quick kills in skirmishes that his partner sets up. No lead is ever safe when Hungrybox is still on the screen.

3. Zachary "SFAT" Cordoni

Day one at the 2016 Evo Championship Series in Las Vegas, Nevada, Counter Logic Gaming's Zac "SFAT" Cordoni takes a breather to greet fans. Gail Fisher for ESPN

SFAT is primarily known to team with PewPewU as the carry of the team. He has an uncanny ability to fight for space in close corridors. Unlike other Foxes, he can fight in one vs. two scenarios without taking heavy damage and sometimes even win the exchanges. This ability allows his partner breathing room to operate. In some sets, SFAT's presence can be felt everywhere. In one moment, he can add fifty damage to one of his opponents and then immediately run across the stage to save his partner from dying.

While he sees the bulk of his major success with PewPewU, he surprised everyone when he teamed with Kyle "dizzkidboogie" Athayde and nearly took a set off of Adam "Armada" Lindgren and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman at WTFox 2. SFAT is one of the few Foxes that can fight evenly with the gods in skirmishes and create opportunities to start team combos. Aspiring Fox players should look to SFAT to see how he takes over games.

2. Adam "Armada" Lindgren

Armada carries such a scary presence in doubles. His keen defensive intuition makes it difficult for his opponents to find openings and kills. He fights for stage positioning incredibly well while also setting up his partner for damaging team combos. It's incredibly difficult to fight Armada when he has stage control as he will choke away your team's options. Even if you find an opening, he will often trade damage to get a larger combo. Furthermore, he has a strong soccer-like sense of knowing where to position himself after the initial combo hit, seeing two to four steps ahead even before the combo begins.

Armada matches very well with his regular partner Mew2King as their playstyles mesh cleanly with their fortress-like Peach-Sheik combo. When he's not with Mew2King, he also sees success in European events with his brother, Andrea "Android" Lindgren. His ability to threaten a death combo off of tiny openings makes him a very threatening player to deal with.

1. Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman

Echo Fox's Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman (right) plays friendlies in Super Smash Bros Melee at the 2016 Evo Championship Series in Las Vegas. Gail Fisher for ESPN

Mew2King continues to surpass expectations in doubles. He has dominated the major teams events with Armada and has seen success in teaming with other partners. Most recently, he won Shine 2016 with Justin "Plup" McGrath, despite never teaming at a prior major.

Most impressively, Mew2King won Super Smash Con 2016 with first-time teammate Mustafa "Ice" Akcakaya. They started slowly and dropped some games early in the bracket, but built synergy over time as they defeated heavy-hitters Team Pewfat (Kevin "PewPewU" Toy and Zachary "SFAT" Cordoni) and Team SoCal (Joseph "Mango" Marquez and Johnny "s2j" Kim). Although Mew2King prefers teammates that play aggressively, he can also play with more passive teammates. Teams positioning is counterintuitive with Mew2King in the game. His positioning at the ledge creates so much fear that teams are willing to forgo chasing Mew2King into a corner because of his proficiency at the corner. In general, he is one of the most difficult players to hit because of his overall positioning and zone control, and his overall ability to stock-tank, extend team combos and find low percentage gimp opportunities makes him one of the most frustrating and intimidating opponents to play against.