By Daniel “Tafokints” Lee

Now that we’re three months into 2017, it’s time for a quarterly Smash Melee power rankings.

Though there has been a disappointing number of events in the year’s opening quarter, it’s worth taking stock of the best players.

This ranking reflects data from the beginning of January to the end of March and doesn’t include April events, such as Yahoo Esports Rivalries. Since this is a power ranking, recent tournaments are weighted more heavily than events four to six months ago. Let’s move into the rankings!

View photos Which players comes out on top of our Q1 rankings? (Nintendo) More

Tier 7

25. Hugo “HugS” Gonzalez

24. Kyle “Dizzkidboogie” Athayde

23. Michael “MikeHaze” Pulido

22. Kalindi “KJH” Henderson

KJH and MikeHaze have proven themselves as solid Foxes, with gradual improvement and solid top 20 wins. People tend to neglect them, but they have done well to earn spots in this quarter’s top 25. Dizzkidboogie put together a nice Genesis 4 run, finishing in thirteenth, but failed to follow up at BEAST 7, where he finished in 25th. Overall, he’s evolved from being just a “wobbler” to a well-rounded player. HugS closes out the top 25 for this quarter — he’s seen great improvement, especially in the past three months.

Tier 6

21. DaJuan “Shroomed” McDaniel

20. Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby

19. Joey “Lucky” Aldama

18. Mustafa “Ice” Akcakaya

17. Ryan “The Moon” Coker-Welch

16. Kevin “PewPewU” Toy

15. James “Swedish Delight” Liu

14. Johnny “s2j” Kim

In Tier 6, we have a solid group of players that can make deep runs at the largest tournaments. At the top of the pile is s2j, who has shown remarkable improvement against some of his tougher rivals, winning two sets recently over SFAT at a Power 9 event and a set over Shroomed at Frame Perfect Series 2. Swedish Delight has unfortunately run into some Sheik slayers in Michael “MikeHaze” Pulido and KJH that have ended his regional runs, but he redeemed himself with a win over Ice. However, he should bounce back quickly when he sees more favorable matchups.





PewPewU holds steady here with fairly consistent results. Fellow Marth main The Moon may have had higher peaks than PewPewU with wins over Westballz and SFAT during this time frame, but a very questionable Genesis 4 performance keeps him from moving higher up this list.

Ice had an up and down quarter with an unexpected early exit from Genesis 4, where he lost to two Ice Climbers. He recovered with a solid third place finish at BEAST 7, defeating The Moon and Druggedfox. Lucky surprised many with a quick recovery from his knee injury to finish in ninth at Genesis 4. He had a poor end to 2016, but his solid performances at regionals and stacked locals thus far this year are more aligned with his overall skill level.

Tier 5

13. Weston “Westballz” Dennis

12. Sami “Druggedfox” Muhanna

11. James “Duck” Ma

Starting at Tier 5, ranking players becomes extraordinarily difficult. No one has really stood out, and everyone has their share of decent wins and questionable losses.

Duck and Druggedfox improved considerably to bump up into this tier. Though Duck tends to struggle with local rivals Kalindi “KJH” Henderson and Drew “Drephen” Scoles, he picked up wins against Leffen, SFAT, and Shroomed. Ever since Genesis 4, Druggedfox has taken his Fox game to a new level. He performed well at SoCal locals, picking up wins over Westballz and s2j. At Full Bloom 3, he picked up two top 10 wins against SFAT and Axe to finish in fifth. Westballz rounds out this tier with a decent record against the lower tier players, but has taken a step back in the Fox matchup.

Tier 4.5

10. Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett

Wizzrobe has generally been quiet in the past three months, but a nice win over Hungrybox and SFAT with no noticeably bad losses keep him at number 10.

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