Despite shuffles, the best players are regulars © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

The summer of Smash is officially in season and the first major event, CEO 2016, is right around the corner. What has changed in the past three months? We’ve had several events, dating back to Pound 2016. We’ve seen Canada reach record breaking numbers and also the return of William "Leffen" Hjelte in the shuffle.

As a reminder, this is a power ranking, which is much more reflective of recent results. Legacy does matter to an extent, but results take more of a precedent. Kevin "PPMD" Nanney and Aziz "Hax" Al-Yami have been removed from this edition for inactivity. I also made the decision to separate players into tiers beyond the Top 12 because of their closeness in results. So how have the players fared in the past three months?

Tier 1: Favorites to win an event

1. Adam "Armada" Lindgren

2. Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma

3. Joseph "Mango" Marquez

4. William "Leffen" Hjelte

The gap has shrunk considerably between Armada/Hungrybox and Mango/Leffen after Get On My Level 2016. After an average performance at EGLX, Leffen went on a rampage at GOML, defeating four of the gods without dropping a single set, which puts him back into contention as a prime contender for the summer majors. Mango’s consistency deserves a mention with a steady flux of second-place finishes at nearly every major. Hungrybox still has a winning record at 8-5 in sets, but Mango also has a lead on Armada in 2016.

Hungrybox carries strong wins at Smash N Splash 2, EGLX, Pound 2016 and Low Tier City 4. Overall, his 2016 campaign has been impeccable, finishing every event no worse than third place. Armada stumbled a bit in the spring with a fifth-place finish at GOML, but his overall 2016 along with a win at Smash Summit 2 keep him in first by the slimmest of margins.

Plup is dangerously close to the Melee Gods © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

Tier 2: The Dark Horses

5. Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman

6. Justin "Plup" Mcgrath

It’s been quite a roller coaster ride for Mew2King, who started off strong with a 3-0 victory over Armada at Smash Summit 2. At his peak, he can go toe-to-toe with anybody as demonstrated with his 3-0 wins over Mango and close five game sets against Hungrybox and Leffen. Still, he has shown the most inconsistency out of the Top 5 with losses to Edgard “n0ne” Shelby and James "Swedish Delight" Liu to round out his spring season. To be fair, Mew2King has been juggling Smash 4 and plays in more events that anyone else, which explains some of his inconsistency.

Plup had a rather quiet spring season, finishing fifth at Pound 2016 and Smash Summit 2, but still racked up some decent wins. He stays in sixth for now.

These challengers are right behind Tier 2 © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

Tier 3: Can they step up?

7. Joey "Lucky" Aldama

8. Weston "Westballz" Dennis

9. Jeffrey "Axe" Williamson

10. Dajuan "Shroomed" McDaniel

11. Justin "Wizzrobe" Hallett

12. Zachary "SFAT" Cordoni

This portion of the list will turn heads, but Lucky has been spectacular in the past three months. Wizzrobe and Axe are the only non-gods to defeat Lucky at a larger tournament in the past three months, but Lucky also has the 3-1 set advantage on Axe. With an overall outstanding record against the Top 8-20, he rightfully earned his spot as No. 7 for this Power Rankings.

Westballz started the spring slowly with a 33rd-place finish at Pound 2016, losing to James "Duck" Ma and Sam "Laudandus" Rohrer. After a short traveling hiatus, he recovered to finish with fifth place finishes at GOML and Smash N Splash 2. In peak form, Westballz is an incredibly scary player to play against, and hopefully he can make deep runs at the summer majors.

Axe also started the spring season slow with a 25th-place finish at Pound 2016, losing to Dustin "Gravy" White and Daniel "Chu-Dat" Rodriguez. While Axe decided to take a break to prepare for the summer, he racked up a solid win against Leffen.

Disappointed by an awful winter, Shroomed proved doubters wrong with a strong spring season. In the spring, he finished with three solid performances at Smash Summit 2, GOML and Smash N Splash 2.

Wizzrobe deserves a strong bump for his remarkable consistency, placing ninth or better at every spring tournament. The majority of his runs ended early due to fighting gods early in bracket. He deserves a better seed going into the summer and it will be interesting to see how far he can go as long as he doesn’t keep running into Mango or Mew2King to end his tournament run.

SFAT rounds out the list with a solid spring season. Other than a relatively poor performance at GOML, he has finished in the Top 8 at three other events and deserves some recognition as a Top 15-level Fox that continues to improve.

Duck has been rising steadily up the ranks © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

Tier 4 (Unordered): Veterans with some weaknesses

James "Swedish Delight" Liu

Mustafa "Ice" Akcakaya

Colin "Colbol" Green

James "Duck" Ma

Johnny "s2j" Kim

Swedish Delight deserves a large bump in this power ranking with a fourth-place finish at Pound 2016 and a second-place finish at Smash n Splash 2 where he double-eliminated Mew2King. He has developed so much versatility in the past year with a strong command of the Fox and Falco matchups and also carries a Peach secondary to handle Ice Climbers, a common weakness of Sheik mains.

Due to location, Ice hasn’t been able to do much, but has roughly performed at a Top 15 level at both the tournaments he attended in the spring.

S2J wins the PewPewU award of 2016, finding himself in ninth place at nearly every event he attends. Other than his notable weakness against Sheiks, s2j has improved his consistency significantly, rarely losing to players ranked lower than him. With a good bracket, he could see some Top 8 finishes in the summer.

Colbol has quietly cemented himself as a solid player that rarely loses to mid-tier characters such as Ice Climbers or Luigi. Even though the competition wasn’t the strongest, he won Fight Pitt 6, which included several Top 25 players, and finished in the Top 8 at Pound 2016. The big question for Colbol is whether he can hold his own against top Fox and Falco players.

In the spring, Duck has accumulated strong upsets with one set over Leffen and two sets over Westballz. His matchup spread has been fairly consistent with great records against Fox, Falco, and even Sheik. He has a notable weakness against Falcon with several losses to Wizzrobe, s2j and n0ne, so his summer performances will also depend on who he plays in bracket.

These players can wreck a bracket © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

Tier 5 (Unordered): Players that can make big upsets

Edgard "n0ne" Sheleby

Michael "Nintendude" Brancato

Mccain "MacD" Lavelle

N0ne turned heads with an impressive GOML run, defeating PewPewU, Hugs and Mew2King. With stellar all-around performances, he deserves a big bump into the Top 20 for the summer. MacD started slow with a questionable Pound performance, but redeemed himself with a fourth place at EGLX. Nintendude rounds out the Top 20 with his overall consistent results.

Honorable mentions

Robert "Wobbles" Wright

Otto "Silent Wolf" Bisno

Sami "DruggedFox" Muhanna

Kevin "PewPewU" Toy

Hugo "HugS" Gonzalez

Up ahead

The summer of Smash has already started with majors occurring every weekend. CEO 2016 will be the first significantly large event, and Evo, Super Smash Con and Shine are just around the corner. With everyone in full practice, who will stand out in the next two months? Only time will tell in yet another exciting season of Smash.