Here’s the first of five articles for OrionRank 2017 Late Summer Edition!

Information about OrionRank 2017 Late Summer can be found here for those who missed the announcement post.

Using data from very late December of 2016 to Shine 2017, we proudly present the Top 50! Let’s get into things.

#50 – MYRAN

OrionRank 2016: 84th (+34)

The United States’ premier Olimar main, Myran, hails from Florida and has made significant improvements from 2016. His first breakout set of the year was his 3-2 victory over Tweek at Frostbite 2017, and later, he was noted for taking eventual event winner Nairo to the brink at Momocon 2017 with his suffocating Olimar play.

Owing to his status as one of Florida’s best, he has taken a number of sets off of top players across the East Coast.

#49 – EDGE

OrionRank 2016: N/A (NEW)

A Brawl legend that may have been the best in the world during Brawl’s sunset, Edge made is name known in Smash 4 early on by being one Japan’s best players prior to playing the game less in favor of Splatoon.

In 2017, Edge changed this, and quickly became one of Kansai’s best players, being dominant for a month’s period before going off to place 13th at Greninja Saga and 25th at EVO, with him taking Nairo to the brink at the latter.

With solid wins on most of Japan’s top players – including the country’s borderline undisputed #1, KEN – Edge breaks his way into the top 50 for the first eight months of 2017. While not as a big of a name as he once was, Edge’s option coverage as Diddy Kong makes him a rising star.

#48 – TYROY

OrionRank 2016: 62nd (+14)

Powered by Midwest Mayhem, Tyroy has managed to acquire the most impressive Top 10 records in his position on this list, defeating Nairo, VoiD, and Ally twice. While his major positions are somewhat lacking compared to his 4-6 record against the Top 10 he’s faced, he has proven himself to be one of the most threatening Bayonetta players in the world.

Previously, he was best known for being one of Bayonetta’s pioneering mains, quickly becoming one of the Midwest’s most threatening players (defeating Abadango that year) until 1.1.6 dropped. Many Bayonetta players suffered stagnation after the nerfs, but Tyroy is one of the many who has successfully bounced back.

#47 – WRATH

OrionRank: 2016: 41st (-6)

A player whose patient Sonic player is only rivaled by komorikiri’s, the original pioneer of defensive Sonic play speeds his way to 47th on OrionRank. His year has been quiet, but his placements have remained consistently solid at majors he’s attended.

He snuck into Top 32 at Civil War, placed Top 24 at EVO, Dreamhack, and CEO, and narrowly missed Top 8 at Momocon 2017 after down-to-the-wire sets versus Ally and Fatality. With a major record that’s even improved compared to 2016, his slight dip can simply be attributed to a more heated Top 50 competition combined with Wrath attending events less.

While he lacks wins on Top 10 players, he is known for defeating ESAM at CEO 2017, a key set in landing him on the Top 50.

#46 – SHOYO JAMES

OrionRank 2016: 135th (+89)

One of the most improved players on OrionRank Late Summer, James blew up as a notable name at the start of the year during Midwest Mayhem 6: SoCal Invasion, where the Tristate Diddy Kong/Luigi player proceeded to massacre every SoCal invader sans Rich Brown, whom he was sent to losers by, plus a win on Ally. He’d go on to get second at the event.

While he hasn’t yet matched this out-of-nowhere run again, he has managed to maintain a relatively clean major record, with Civil War being his only sub-Top 48th placement, and with an excellent string of wins over top regional threats to land himself in Top 8 at Super Smash Con.

#45 – LIMA

OrionRank 2016: N/A (NEW)

After Trela’s retirement and Cosmos’ departure to Ohio, Lima has taken up the mantle as Texas’ best player. Perhaps strongly benefiting from his first major at Nairo Saga where he defeated ANTi, Lima would later go on to defeat one of the top Bayonetta slayers – Elegant- at 2GGC: Arms Saga, and go join many other Bayonetta players in an impressive run at EVO that landed him 9th place.

He’d later go on to join another party of very successful Bayonettas at Low Tier City 5, where he defeated Larry Lurr and ultimately placed 5th after a nail biting set versus ZeRo.

#44 – LIGHT

OrionRank 2016: N/A (NEW)

A breakout Fox main from New England, Light made his name best known at Shine 2017 where he won in a dominant fashion over VoiD. Prior to this, however, you can see him build himself up brick by brick, slowly climbing to become New England’s second best player and becoming a consistent and viable challenger to Marss.

With GENESIS 4 being the only significant blight on his record, Light’s many notable and intense losers runs have built up an impressive record over the last several months, landing him at 44th on this iteration of OrionRank.

#43 – NAKAT

OrionRank 2016: 87th (+44)

While not a player known for attending many regional events outside of Mexico, he has a stellar major attendance record. The major element that held NAKAT back in 2016 was simply that he took very few pertinent sets, but something changed.

Perhaps driven by the PGRv2 fiasco, NAKAT began the year explosively by defeating Kameme and placing 17th at GENESIS 4, one of the year’s biggest tournaments. Despite similar results to 2016 in certain places, he has vastly improved by taking sets off of numerous top level players, including huge wins over Captain Zack and Abadango at EVO 2017 – and a 13th placement, marking one of his best ever performances.

On top of this, he backed up his win vs. Kameme later in the year with an impressive loser’s run over some of Mexico’s biggest threats, capping it off by defeating Kameme in Loser’s Semis and ultimately placing third.

#42 – CHOCO

OrionRank 2016: 105th (+63)

Held back heavily in 2016 by a string of poor performances, Choco narrowly missed out on last year’s Top 100. However, things have changed, with Choco quickly becoming one of the country’s best players, only placing outside of the top 8 once this year at Umebura Tokaigi Qualifier.

This may come as no surprise to people who noted his status on the PGRv3 – he was the only player on that list to have never attended a U.S. major, further demonstrating his remarkably consistent record at stacked Japanese events. He is often argued as the third best Zero Suit Samus with the potential to go even farther, but we won’t know for sure until he attends events stateside. Until then, we can expect to see him continue to blast the Japanese scene with his explosive Zero Suit Samus.

#41 – HIKARU

OrionRank 2016: 102nd (+61)

The best Donkey Kong in the world made his name known after a very close rematch with Nairo at Umebura Tokaigi Qualifiers. Despite that loss, HIKARU went on to demonstrate his consistent ability to place well at events despite the potential pitfalls that come with maining grappler characters.

The most notable performance in this regard is certainly his run at Civil War, ended only by Abadango and Kirihara’s barrier-like Rosalina play. While he hasn’t visited the states since, he left a huge mark, with victories over VoiD, Mr. R, and a revenge victory on ESAM.

Beyond that, he’s been a consistent threat at Kansai’s weekly series – Sumabato X Cyclops – and he recently won Sumabato 19 by defeating 9B. His solid record against Japanese and international players means he’ll round out today’s 10 players.

Tomorrow, we’ll delve into 40-31! Stay tuned!