Seeing some recent doubles upsets at Blacklisted 4 got me thinking about how, barring common consensus, there’s never been any sort of ranking for top level Project M doubles teams. So, I decided to change that. In this article I’ll explain what went into my rankings, who was eligible, and then jump right into the first third of my PM Doubles 2017–2018 rankings, which will be concluded in a future article.

The biggest difficulty in creating a ranking for doubles is that, unlike singles, there’s an endless number of new and different competitors to evaluate in doubles brackets, some of which cannot possibly be compared to each other, because teams are comprised of two players. You will have team compositions appear between two top players who perform well and never team again, and you will never know how that team would perform against either of those players with other teammates, because there is no way for that scenario to play out. It’s very similar to situations that might occur in singles rankings if some inactive former top player like Darc were to re-appear at a major, place top 8, then return to inactivity. We know that loss is respectable for the players he beat, and that beating him is impressive, but we have no way of placing his sets in context of other tournaments with other players because it’s such a one-off situation. That’s very rare in singles, but exceedingly common in doubles. As a result, your skill level in doubles isn’t just based on your ability to beat the other “static” top level teams, but any combination of players that you may have never encountered before and might never encounter again. For the purposes of these rankings, I considered teams based on their placements at a list of tournaments provided below that took place in 2017–18, their head to head records against other teams considered for this ranking, and their performance against both lower-level unranked teams and strong one-off teams. This format of ranking does not necessarily indicate individual skill level at doubles, since it only rewards players who consistently do well with one partner, so I would like to quickly shout out Blank, XYK, Sneez, MorKs, and Dumshiny for consistently performing well in doubles with a variety of partners.

All teams considered for this ranking must have teamed together at 3 notable events in 2017 and 2018. This requirement is to ensure that I have at bare minimum enough data with which to adequately rank each team, although it does unfortunately require the exclusion of excellent static teams such as Tealz/YadoR due to inactivity. Players who have multiple consistent teammates they have teamed with in the last two years were asked to choose which team composition should be considered for this ranking. I would like to make clear that unlike PMRank or most official rankings, this project did not include either a formula or a panel of balloters, and the rankings are entirely my own. All of the data I considered for this project, including the list of tournaments observed and tabs for each static team observed, can be found here. A number of notable tournaments are not included on the first tab of the document, this is because while they had several PMRank-level singles attendees, there was not one or more relevant static teams in attendance.

Once I have released the second half of these rankings, I will also be making a video on the common subjects of contention in rankings, many of which made themselves present as I worked on this project, so I will go into a bit more depth on issues such as eligibility requirements and how the same results could be weighed many different ways and how I approach them in that video. Without further ado, let’s kick off the rankings with teams #15–11.

#15: Cala & Jfyst

Region: South Florida

Starting off the list is “Fast Grass,” the Ivysaur and Sonic team that defended their region at Tipped Off 12 and put on an impressive showing at The Even Bigger Balc. Cala and Jfyst suffered an early loss in pools to Noghrilla and TomBoComBo at Tipped Off 12, but took home 4th place after eliminating BaconPancakes/Hyperflame from the tournament. More notably, Florida’s finest defeated Cloudburst/Bstuk and Heyseuss/Fashoomp to make top 16 at Even Bigger Balc, then swept Matasd and The Doctor for 9th place at the biggest PM event of 3.6. Cala and Jfyst had some of the most limited data of any team that met the eligibility requirements, but their impressive wins stood out above the other teams which could have crept onto the bottom of this list.

#14: BaconPancakes & Hyperflame

Region: Maryland/Virginia

Although they haven’t appeared at a major together in 2018, MD/VA’s top two players were a force to be reckoned with in 2017, with wins over some of the best teams to ever do it. This team had a disappointing start and end to 2017, with 5th place finishes at Philadelphia Championships and Tipped Off 12 and losses to teams including Dingo/Wampuh and Soulpech/Shiny Zubat, those valleys are more than matched by their impressive in-region peaks. They won Immunity over GP/StereoKiDD and Goode/Satoshi, and and traded sets with the fearsome team of dvd and Envy to take second place at Project M Showdown 6. Although Lucas isn’t considered all that strong in doubles, and both of these players have teamed with a lot of players over the last two years, when BaconPancakes and Hyperflame put their heads together the results are nothing to scoff at.

#13: Gallo & StereoKiDD

Region: New York

Two of the oldest-school members of the New York scene, Gallo and StereoKiDD have been teammates for as long as I’ve followed Project M. The Free Saltines team remains strong even in today’s meta, with top 8 finishes at events like Philly Championships and Supernova 2, and their run at The Bigger Balc solidifies their place on this list. After defeating Matasd/The Doctor and Burntsocks/Sneez to make top 16, they 2–0’d Twisty and Silver to guarantee themselves 5th at the event before falling to Malachi/Sosa and Aidan/Blank. Their only event together of 2018 was at We Tech Those 3, where they placed a disappointing 17th after being upset by Dumshiny/L_Pag and LUCK/Umbreon, but I have little doubt that this storied team can bounce back in the future if they so desire.

#12: Ivayne & Sugydye

Region: Northern California

If there’s one team in the world that brings a genuine force of personality to their sets, it has to be this pair of friends from Elk Grove. Long before Ivayne broke out as a top-level singles player in 2018, Elk G’s incredible run at The Bigger Balc cemented them as one of the best doubles teams in the world. As one of the lowest seeds of top 32, Ivayne and Sugydye upset Big Balc champions Hyperflame and iPunchKidsz early in pools, before taking down Morks/N0ne, Dirtboy/Ripple, Silver/Twisty, and Emukiller/Switch on their way to 4th place, NorCal’s excitement growing with each victory. Since Bigger Balc, this team has placed 5th at both Fair and Balanced and its sequel, with respectable wins and losses, but suffered a shocking upset at The Even Bigger Balc at the hands of Zork and Tavi which led to their lowest major placing of the last two years at 17th. While Elk G has yet to recapture the magic of their Bigger Balc run, their consistently impressive teamwork and strong placements help them stand out as the 12th best team in the world.

#11: Matasd & The Doctor

Region: Northern California

While some PM spectators may have first heard of the team known as “Cancer” after their Low Tier City 6 bracket run, where they placed 2nd over Arsenals/Lunchables, Fearless/LUCK, BaconPancakes/Tealz, and other strong teams, but this NorCal duo has been putting up strong results for quite awhile. These two kicked off 2017 with a bang, taking second place at Smashed Bros’ Double Shot after double-eliminating Ivayne and Sugydye and defeating Aion/Dumshiny, and made up for placing 25th at The Bigger Balc with a first place victory at Balcy’s Palace after 13 tense games against ThundeRz and Sneez. Despite a disappointing 13th place finish at Even Bigger Balc after losses to Dirtboy/Techboy and Cala/Jfyst, the team bounced back at Fair and Balanced 2 with wins over Ivayne/Sugydye and BaconPancakes with Arsenals’ newly minted Wario. Overall, this team showed impressive peaks and a reasonable degree of consistency, making them a strong gatekeeper for any team hoping to break into the top 10 in 2019.

Congratulations to everyone who made it onto this portion of the list, #10–1 will be published tomorrow.