Welcome to the penultimate article for OrionRank 2017! I’ll be detailing the Top 100 player-by-player. #10-#1 will be published early on Monday morning, so keep an eye out for it!

More Information: https://intheloop837.wordpress.com/2018/01/01/orionrank-2017-top-100-announcement-information-methodology-101/

Written by Barnard’s Loop

Illustrations by Freeziebeatz

Ranking work by Freeziebeatz & Barnard’s Loop

#20 – Manny

2016 Rank: 35th (+15)

Historically speaking, Manny has been a fairly consistent Sonic throughout most of Smash 4’s lifetime. He had a slight dip in 2016 compared to 2015, but the real meat came this year, when he went back to his 2015 placements at major events in an era more competitive than any prior.

This eventually resulted in a high quality performance at Fire Emblem Saga that saw him taking down Tweek and Shuton in bracket, and was later affirmed by a victory at Florida super regional Too Hot To Handle where he double eliminated Dabuz.

#19 – Fatality

2016 Rank: 32nd (+13)

Carrying momentum from late 2016, Fatality broke the mold of having a hard time taking down top players by shattering all expectations at Civil War. He defeated both komorikiri and Nairo at the event, and later went on to take down Salem, Larry Lurr, and ZeRo in a fiery losers bracket run at MomoCon 2017.

These ended up being Fatality’s peaks for 2017, he he has otherwise been a strong and very consistent top 32 contender at events.

#18 – Elegant

2016 Rank: 36th (+18)

Showing signs of greatness at Abadango Saga, Elegant fully capitalized on all expectations set before him and became the best Luigi player in the world and a potential future top 10 player in the span of a year.

He made a number of big impressions early in the year by taking Dabuz to game 5 twice and defeating Salem at GENESIS 4, but his two defining runs that really put just how far he’d grown into the community’s eyes were his runs at GT-X and the 2GG Championships.

At GT-X, he defeated Ally, NAKAT, Samsora, ANTi, and MKLeo through winners bracket in order to take second overall after narrowly losing to Leo in Grand Finals. Two months later, he’d go on to place 5th at the Championship, beating Fatality, Larry Lurr, Nairo, Salem, KEN, and Ally.

#17 – WaDi

2016 Rank: 47th (+30)

WaDi is the most improved player on today’s list, climbing 30 spots. Now MD/VA best player by a significant margin, the R.O.B. turned Mewtwo had a shaky start to the year. However, he ultimately fell into place as one of the world’s biggest threats after good Summer & Fall seasons.

He placed 13th at EVO, taking down Earth, Samsora, 9B and Ranai – but he most notably ran through both Super Smash Con and MKLeo Saga, where defeated ZeRo at the latter. In both of his best runs however, he ended up falling to Nairo, a fact that backs him as WaDi’s primary demon.

Nonetheless, WaDi has now taken the crown of best solo Mewtwo in the world as his predecessor has moved to using multiple characters in bracket, making WaDi one of the most accomplished players of the year.

#16 – Captain Zack

2016 Rank: 27th (+11)

The other half of Louisiana’s dream team, Captain Zack became known for his more aggressive style of Bayonetta that landed him historic 4th placings at two of the largest events of the year. For the first half of 2017, it was often debated if he or Salem were the better Bayonetta player, and his peak performances ended up landing him at 7th on the PGRv3.

As 2017 rolled along, his performances became significantly more inconsistent. Despite this, he remained a tournament threat, and has sets on nearly half of the top 10 ranked players in the world for the year.

#15 – ESAM

2016 Rank: 16th (+1)

Long time Smash 4 veteran ESAM saw some improvements in 2017. You could’ve seen this coming after his performance at UGC, but his national runs largely peaked at around 13th at the largest scale majors while he managed to top 8 at CEO Dreamland in April.

He rivals Larry Lurr and Dabuz in sets and has a decent record on top Bayonetta players, ranging from wins on Salem to Zack & Mistake.

Additionally, he has done exceptionally well at regional events, including a successful solo-Samus run at Combo Breaker 2017 and a victory at Smashadelphia 2017 that saw him double eliminating long-time rival Dabuz.

#14 – komorikiri

2016 Rank: 12th (-2)

Komorikiri’s 2017 record began with a fantastic losers run at GENESIS Saga, and it quickly sped forward from there on. He placed well at a number of large events earlier in the year, marred only by occasional 17th placings, and made enough of a name for himself with his now focused Cloud that many considered him the best player from Japan for a period of time.

While his sub-top 16 placements became a bit more common later in the year, has occasionally picked his fire back up at events like Fire Emblem Saga or Shine, and continues to be one of Japan’s biggest threats.

#13 – Abadango

2016 Rank: 6th (-7)

Abadango’s early-mid year performances remained consistent, but were enough of a drop from his 2015-2016 peak that it seemed to inspire him to run multiple characters as a way to keep up with the competition.

He’s no stranger to switching characters – going from a Pac/Wario combo to Meta Knight and then to Mewtwo after Meta Knight was nerfed, and he settled on becoming a Bayonetta player. His results waxed and waned under this new strategy, with immediate benefit at Umebura 27 but less success at ARMS Saga despite high expectations.

His set record record includes a clean majority of the top 10, including multiple sets over Salem, but he is stonewalled hard by both ZeRo and MKLeo.

#12 – Marss

2016 Rank: 15th (+3)

Marss is notable for dominating most players ranked out of the top 20 with a 65%+ win record on the Top 100, making him the most successful in this area among his peers in today’s list.

New England’s Zero Suit Samus attended less events in mid-late 2017 due to losing sponsor Denial, and despite a shaky comeback at homeland New England event Shine, he made an explosive losers bracket run at The Big House 7 where he placed second. He notably defeated a number of Diddy Kong players at this event, many dominantly, including MVD, ZeRo, and dyr.

#11 – VoiD

2016 Rank: 9th (-2)

SoCal’s Sheik champion VoiD is notable for his aggressive and highly technical Sheik play. It’s netted him wins on nearly all of the top 10, outside of long-time demon ZeRo, and it has resulted in a very consistent tournament track record.

He frequently places within the top 12 at events and came within one Bats Within of winning his first major level event at DreamHack Atlanta. While he didn’t take the win at that event, it seems inevitable that he’ll eventually take some sort of major event in the future.