Photo Credit: Jeff Mahieu​

Aion

Dr.

Jason Waterfalls

Marshall

Rest of the List

Credits

Adam “ Strong Bad ” Oliver

” Oliver Brennan “ FlashingFire ” Connolly

” Connolly Cody “ Yata! ” Anderson

” Anderson Devin “ Reslived ” Gajewski

” Gajewski Ryan “Sabre” Weinberg

Anna “ Kumatora ” Mayorskiy

” Mayorskiy Cody “ Yata! ” Anderson

” Anderson Courtney “ Zesty ” Coffman

” Coffman Eric “FingerStripes” Bohorquez

Brennan “FlashingFire” Connolly

Adam " Strong Bad " Oliver

" Oliver Ahmed “ Apollo Ali ” Akbar

” Akbar Anna “ Kumatora ” Mayorskiy

” Mayorskiy Cody “ Yata! ” Anderson

” Anderson Kyle "Pegthaniel" Guo

Welcome to the maiden voyage of, hosted by SmashBoards!... Well, almost. Before we set sail to find out who the top 50players of 2017 are, we’ve decided to pay tribute to a small number of players who just barely didn’t make the cut. These players are sharp competitors, and manyfans will easily recognize them as standout players of their respective characters. But for one reason or another, they all find themselves barely lacking the performances necessary to push them over the edge and into this year’s top 50.: Sonic: Southern CaliforniaSonic sensation Seth "" George is in a similar boat to JFalls in that he has few major losses, but also lacks a robust number of strong wins. In 2017 he’s been able to beat JFyst, The Doctor, and Filthy Casual. However, of those players, Aion only holds a winning record against JFyst. Aion also holds losses to Mr. Watch & Learn, Westballz, and Dumshiny at regionals and nationals. His relative lack of data outside of SoCal, combined with middling head-to-head results, prevented him from making it onto the final list.: Zelda: Central CaliforniaUp-and-coming Zelda main Daniel “” Piescer boasts a respectable amount of high-profile wins this year, taking names both in and out of his home region. Filthy Casual, ilovebagelz, Jose V, Pikmon, and more have fallen in bracket to Dr.’s lightning kicks. However, he failed to make it onto the list due to losing many sets to players ranked outside of the top 50, such as prem, Vari, Matasd, and SK92. This inconsistency relative to most of the rest of the players in his skill range, alongside mixed records against players such as Dadpool and Sugydye, prevented Dr. from making it higher up on this year’s list.: Zero Suit Samus: Southern CaliforniaJason “” Treul was unable to compete in a number of notable events near his home region of SoCal due to being the TO of those events. While his service is incredibly valuable to the health of his local scene and the surrounding regions, an unfortunate side effect is that he participated in fewer brackets and was unable to pick up enough wins to be comfortably ranked this year. However, JFalls did earn notable victories over Luck and an ascendant Fuzz, and his only losses to player outside this year’s top 50 were to Dadpool, Red Ranger, and JuSt. The consistency of this Zero Suit Samus player shows that he still has it in him to be ranked in next year’s top 50 should he travel more often.: Game & Watch: WisconsinConsidering his explosive top 3 placing at Smash ‘n’ Splash 2 and other impressive feats in 2016, it’s a bit of a surprise that Marshall “” Stock was unable to make top 50 this year. Despite a moderately strong set of wins over XYK, JJK, Flarp and Dirtboy (with whom he has an even set count), Marshall wasn’t able to match his previous peaks in large-scale brackets. Losses to Dusty, metroid, Cloudburst, and Kumatora also hold him back. It remains to be seen whether the Wisconsin Game & Watch player can return to form in 2018.We hope that this taste oftalent has you excited for the players yet to come. Join us tomorrow and for the next several days as we unveil the top 50 of: Kumatora and FlashingFire