INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Day 2! Here, we get into the real meat of the region ranking.

For more information, including an outline of the methodology used, see Day 1:

https://intheloop837.wordpress.com/2017/12/25/librarank-day-1-intro-methodology-41/

Let’s get into it!

#40 – HOKKAIDO

Final Score: 103.1382

Highest Scored Player: Nariyasu (19.92)

Lowest Scored Player: Hakadama (111.29)

Players used in final ranking: Nariyasu, Obarin, Hakadama

Best Placement: 49th, Sumabato 19 (Hakadama)

Potential Rating: D

Hokkaido is a region that likely would have been ranked higher, but is marred by a near lack of any notable players. Out of every region on this list, Hokkaido has the lowest number of used players – 3 – which resulted in a very significant penalty of 80% to its initial score, with another 10% tacked on for no supermajor attendance.

Hence, it gets a more stable potential rating, with players like Nariyasu being a potential candidate for future breakouts.

#39 – MIDDLE EAST

Final Score: 101.522

Highest Scored Player: Madara (50.02)

Lowest Scored Player: AAA (175.98)

Players used in final ranking: adom , Madara , Lord Snackington , Prado , Galaxy Space , MyLife , SSS

, Madara , Lord Snackington , Prado , Galaxy Space , MyLife , SSS Best Placement: 9th, Syndicate 2017 (adom)

Potential Rating: D-

One of the late additions to the rank, it was decided early on that adom would be grouped with the region. Despite this, and due to quirks of mixed national attendance vs. insulated results, adom was not the highest ranked.

The decision to grade the region a D- is mostly based on the difficulties the region has had this year in making upsets outside of adom’s run at Syndicate. Dubai Dojo 2, OUGaming, Nemesis, and VGBootCamp X Dubai were all examples of tournaments used that involved international talent, with the only significant upset coming in XF0 defeating Mr R early in Nemesis. (Mr. R later won this tournament, 6-0ing Madara)

We’ll see in the future if the region can float among higher leveled players, as it’s one of the most internationally active on this portion of the list by virtue of hosting a number of tournaments and having contact with many different areas of the world. This may prove to be a boon in the future for the region’s ability to grow.

#38 – CENTRAL AMERICA

Final Score: 91.62

Highest Scored Player: Yei (22.84)

Lowest Scored Player: Randy (152.25)

Players used in final ranking: Yei , Luisfer , ShinyMark , Ero619 , Randy , Emile

, Luisfer , ShinyMark , Ero619 , Randy , Emile Best Placement: 4th, PG Key: Wifi Warriors September (Luisfer)

Worst Placement: 385th, EVO 2017 (Randy)

Potential Rating: D+

As with many regions, there are some unique attributes to how this was ranked. In cases where a region or player’s results were scarce, I was willing to dig into their results at a number of large online tournaments across 2017.

In this case, Yei proved to be the most consistent (also being the undisputed champion of Costa Rica) while Luisfer earned the highest peak in spite of greater inconsistencies. Honorable mention to ShinyMark, who placed 5th at Naifu Wars: World War 3.

If it were just these three, there’s plenty to rave about and probably good reason to send all three out to a major and expect some upsets. However, the gap is very clear, even as directly as Costa Rica, where the country’s #2, Emile, completely bombed early in the year at both 2GGC: GENESIS Saga and GENESIS 4, placing 193rd at the former and 257th at the latter.

Ero619, one of the players listed, will be attending EVO Japan. This will be handy in giving out data for 2018.

#37 – AUSTRIA

Final Score: 81.524

Highest Scored Player: Luigi player (26.4)

Lowest Scored Player: Sword (144.54)

Players used in final ranking: Luigi Player, cFive, vyQ, Ryser, Velogy, Raaban, Klemenz

Best Placement: 17th, Syndicate 2017 (Luigi player)

Worst Placement: 193rd, Super Smash Con 2017 (cFive & vyQ)

Potential Rating: D-

A lot went into this, and one of the largest scale projects within the greater project was a definitive ranking of Europe. Austria, unfortunately, turned out on the bottom as far as Europe was concerned.

It’s hard to know what may limit the region’s capacity, but it suffers from a common problem of having 1-2 exceptional players (exceptional being a strong word for this region’s best achievements) but a much poorer backing with a variety of players that simply drown in pools on a regular basis.

#36 – SOUTH AMERICA

Final Score: 77.7932

Highest Scored Player: VeXx (37.67)

Lowest Scored Player: Dragon (60.5)

Players used in final ranking: Nathan , VeXx , Dragon , Phantom

, VeXx , Dragon , Phantom Best Placement: 49th, The Big House 7 (Dragon)

Worst Placement: 193rd, EVO 2017 (Dragon)

Potential Rating: D+

As this was the last region added to the ranking, some trouble arose due to low international presence, as well as time limitations on my part that more or less had me stopping short of placing Firehao and a few others on the ranking.

The biggest story here is Dragon, a Chilean Sheik & Cloud player, who actually started the year by taking Dabuz to Game 5 in losers at 2GGC: GENESIS Saga. While he never seemed to follow up on this accomplishment, he attended a large number of tournaments throughout the year and managed to get the best placement among the four ranked.

He may be representative of what would happen if South American players were to travel in larger numbers: Low albeit very possible chances of upsets being caused at major tournaments. ZeRo is obviously very exceptional, but there’s probably some untapped potential in places like Chile, Brazil, and Venezuela.

#35 – SWITZERLAND

Final Score: 72.72

Highest Scored Player: Zudenka (39.609)

Lowest Scored Player: Kepler (125.16)

Players used in final ranking: Zudenka, Destany, Mute, Wave(s), Sylph, Smuff, DeepFreezeIV

Best Placement: 97th, EVO 2017 (Zudenka)

Worst Placement: 65th, PPT Winter (Smuff)

Potential Rating: D-

Switzerland is a decently active country as far as Europe is concerned, but lacks very good international results, both in-Europe and out of Europe, with Destany’s 4th at PPT Winter (a Category 2 tournament) being one of the only results even worth mentioning.

Hence, I give it a D- rating – reflecting the fact that, while they attend, there’s a pretty extensive list of very poor results, with a 65th at PPT Winter really only being the absolute worst among many poor results.

#34 – CHUGOKU

Final Score: 67.27

Highest Scored Player: Ron (10.29)

Lowest Scored Player: Parme (88.45)

Players used in final ranking: Ron, Lagnel, Parme, Osushi, Paru

Best Placement: 1st, Sumabato 18 (Ron)

Worst Placement: 129th, Umebura Japan Major (Parme)

Potential Rating: C+

Another example of a region largely limited by its lack of players, Chugoku would’ve been a bit higher on the list and clearly holds a very good player in Ron. However, the penalty for not meeting the 7 player baseline – 20% per, pushes the region near the back of the ranking, saved from further difficulty by virtue of Ron’s incredible performances in Japan.

Honorable mention to Lagnel, who placed 25th at The Big House 7, marking a top 32 internationally from the region alongside the untapped international potential of Ron, who many believe could top 8 a U.S. major. However, the region stumbles beyond these two players.

#33 – ATLANTIC CANADA

Final Score: 63.1587

Highest Scored Player: Asprey (38.63)

Lowest Scored Player: Adamant (100.32)

Players used in final ranking: Raziek, Asprey, Vapor, Croi, Freye, Catalyst, TehBlueOne

Best Placement: 17th, DreamHack Montreal (Raziek)

Lowest Placement: 97th, Get On My Level 2017 (TehBlueOne)

Potential Rating: D

In an interesting quirk of the ranking, one potential (namely for the lowest ranked regions with scarce data) is that certain unlikely players may score better by virtue of lacking the same attendance as a commonly accepted best, in this case, Asprey (38.63) slightly nudges in over Raziek (42.12) due to this.

Beyond that scarce-data driven oddity, there’s not a lot to say. The region’s best accomplishments are similar in and out of Canada, with their most traveled player (Raziek) giving some major Europe attendance that saves it from further penalties and roughly matches his Canadian performances this year.

#32 – OKLAHOMA

Final Score: 57.06

Highest Scored Player: Chuck Nasty (19.60)

Lowest Scored Player: Kaze (72.18)

Players used in final ranking: Chuck Nasty, Muse, Hertz, Muj, Zurge, Kaze

Best Placement: 13th, Low Tier City 5 (Chuck Nasty)

Worst Placement: 97th, Super Smash Con 2017 (Muj)

Potential Rating: D+

Oklahoma being made its own region was more or less a necessity based on my efforts to sort regions in the past. It’s pretty isolated, really only tying itself to Arkansas and occasionally Texas in terms of regional attendance.

Despite that, OK actually managed to rank ahead multiple countries & larger nations in spite of the clear limitations it has. Low Tier City 5 acted as a central hub for a chunk of the region, giving room for Chuck Nasty to slide in with an impressive 13th at the event.

Based on UGC in 2016 and that, one could assume Chuck is a decent contender for potential future upsets. There’s obviously Muj, too, who is the most traveled among the players here, and made his name by upsetting Dabuz at SSC 2017 in pools before ironically still making the worst placement of anyone in his region.

#31 – HAWAII

Final Score: 56.33714

Highest Scored Player: WAR (43.88)

Lowest Scored Player: DanM (192.75)

Players used in final ranking: WAR, Rush, Brigade, Dren, Tropical Pyramid, FruitBasket, And

Best Placement: 49th, 2GGC ARMS Saga (Dren)

Worst Placement: 385th, EVO 2017 (k0rean)

Potential Rating: F

As Day 2 draws to a close, Hawaii rounds out the rating, managing to slip in this high by virtue of lacking in penalties, having the full 7 players needed to avoid it, and having average scores that largely ranked 40-70, resulting in a very stable region that otherwise lacks potential, based on available data.

Due to this, it ties Alaska as the region with least potential going forward, but I’d give it better chances of improving going forward with its ties to SoCal. VoiD, for example, originated from Hawaii, and went on to become an incredible player.

#30-#21 coming tomorrow!