INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Day 3!

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!

#30 – ITALY

Final Score: 46.8914

Highest Scored Player: Marth4Ever (20.40)

Lowest Scored Player: Fake (121.44)

Players used in final ranking: Marth4Ever, Sim-Max, Dinamirer, G-Danzee, Chimera, Pand, Tsurugi

Best Placement: 13th, B.E.A.S.T 7 (Sim-Max)

Worst Placement: 193rd, Syndicate 2017 (Fake)

Potential Rating: C+

Led by a player with a less-than-accurate tag, Italy has made a number of placements in Top 8s at EU major events such as Syndicate and B.E.A.S.T, giving hope to the idea that the region may eventually flourish.

It’s yet to be seen how their #1 ranked player, Marth4Ever, does at the national level. He has consistently been PR’d 2nd (when Blue Link was active) before eventually being considered the country’s best after the latter’s absence. Meanwhile, their R.O.B. player, Sim-Max, has climbed to be top 3 country-wide and carries the best national results.

#29 – TOHOKU

Final Score: 43.8457

Highest Scored Player: Some (28.18)

Lowest Scored Player: Haru3 (64.84)

Players used in final ranking: Some, Es, Hirareba7, No, Kare~, Maguro, Haru3

Best Placement: 9th, Frostbite 2017 (Some)

Worst Placement: 65th, Umeburas 27, 29, and 30 (mixture of Hirareba7 and Some)

Potential Rating: B-

Featuring one of many Greninja breakouts as their lead player, Tohoku has a mixed history this year, with Japan’s best Luigi main – Haru3 – vanishing from the scene, while players like Hirareba7 and Es have crept slightly forward, and players like Eim and Repo have moved towards greener pastures in Kanto.

Because it raised one of Japan’s better Mega Man player (Repo) and one of the best active Sheiks (Eim), one can assume- with talent like Some, former inactive talent, and upcoming talent that could break out in 2018 – that the region has plenty to offer moving forward.

A note in this regard: All players who attended from this region, including Repo and Eim, made Top 64 at Umebura Japan Major.

#28 – AUSTRALIA

Final Score: 42.064

Highest Scored Player: Ghost (22.16)

Lowest Scored Player: MM (86.64)

Players used in final ranking: Ghost, Extra, Waveguider, Luco, Boozer, Ignis, Jdizzle

Best Placement: 65th, 2GGC: Greninja Saga (Waveguider)

Worst Placement: 129th, EVO 2017 (Extra)

Potential Rating: C

One of the most unfortunately isolated regions on this list, Australia has an active, multi-faceted scene that would’ve been split into more regions had it been more successful internationally. However, it has noticeably struggled, likely due to its sheer separation from most other major scenes.

The region itself seems to acknowledge its struggles, and I believe it will likely continue to struggle until it has better online access to play with other regions or more frequent travel.

The country does, at the very least, offer a very diverse set of characters – Mr. Game & Watch, Ness, Lucas, Robin, Wario Wii Fit Trainer, Greninja, Bowser, Bayonetta, and Toon Link are examples of characters used among certain players used in the final ranking.

#27 – CHUBU

Final Score: 34.249

Highest Scored Player: Earth (20.485)

Lowest Scored Player: Fuwa (51.56)

Players used in final ranking: Earth, ikep, Sigma, DIO, NGA, Masha, Taiheita

Best Placement: 17th, 2GGC: Civil War (Earth)

Worst Placement: 33rd, Dubai Dojo 2 (Fuwa)

Potential Rating: C+

Chubu is probably best defined as a region in significant decline. While Sigma is likely the best Toon Link in the world based on his successes this year and players like Masha, DIO, and NGA have clear potential, there’s a clear slated decline both this year and likely in the upcoming year:

Earth’s results declined significantly from 2016, potentially due to the rapidly declining stature of Pit’s metagame.

Fuwa’s rise during mid-late 2016 seemed to not really go anywhere.

Neither of these players are Chubu residents anymore, both having moved to Kanto, albeit they were active enough to use for this region.

SH, while never very active, has seemed to vanish entirely.

Taiheita and ikep, both plausible top 50 candidates at one point with a history of significant upsets, had much worse performances the longer the year went on.

This is reflected is the scoring. Their placement as a region is far from poor, but departing regional heavyweights combined with less active top players & declining results indicates that this region may become increasingly quiet going into 2018 as Kanto grows ever stronger.

#26 – CARIBBEAN

Final Score: 32.784

Highest Scored Player: Headshot (19.22)

Lowest Scored Player: Naranja (90.24)

Players used in final ranking: Headshot, Sonix, SharpyZard, Digital Strider, S@nt, Excel Zero, 0mart

Best Placement: 25th, Shine 2017 (Sonix)

Worst Placement: 257th, Super Smash Con 2017 (Naranja)

Potential Rating: B

One of the least talked about regions, the Caribbean has undeniable potential due to its proximity to the very strong Floridian scene combined with viable and a very active online playerbase, which saw success when Sonix placed 25th at Shine 2017.

Remaining potential is yet to be seen, but the region is decently active and has caused a decent number of upsets or impressive performances throughout the year, such as S@nt’s victory over 8BitMan and Sharpyzard’s 5 game set with Fatality at OUGaming 2017.

#25 – NORDEN

Final Score: 32.757

Highest Scored Player: M (10.20)

Lowest Scored Player: AirLi (181.5)

Final players used in ranking: M, ZartZu, WiiASE, Whoophee, Bryggiz, Solobattle, Lancelot

Best Placement: 3rd, B.E.A.S.T 7 (M)

Worst Placement: 129th, B.E.A.S.T. 7 (AirLi)

Potential Rating: B-

In a year of breakouts, countries like Sweden, Norway, and Finland are some of the most interesting examples, with M in particular demonstrating the capacity to very easily contend with Europe’s best.

On paper, they definitely do better as a collective set of countries than Italy does, managing to very consistently placed top 48 at EU majors as of Syndicate 2017. Sweden itself seems very top heavy with M, where Izaw comparatively scored second lowest among 11 players, while Finland and Norway seem to have a large stash of decent players making waves in the EU when they attend.

Only time will tell if they continue to grow, but Norway, Finaland, and Sweden all have active scenes and seemingly bright futures.

#24 – PRAIRIE CANADA

Final Score: 30.1928

Highest Scored Player: Strike (21.86)

Lowest Scored Player: ItsSonic (91.94)

Players used in final ranking: Strike, Dunkmaster Ragna, Exodia, Nurse, MD3, Alphicans, aMac

Best Placement: 25th, 2GGC: SCR Saga (Dunkmaster Ragna)

Worst Placement: 129th, Frostbite 2017 (ItsSonic)

Potential Rating: C

While this list has included a number of breakout regions, the Prairies are a relatively isolated region with scarce data. Ragna, known for his tag and compelling losers run at 2GGT: ZeRo Saga despite his 0-2 seeding, rounds out with a Top 32 placement at a U.S. major, while most of the region did not travel significantly.

Notably, Nurse strayed just shy of Top 96 at Civil War, and later beat Tsu in bracket at an MSM.

It’s hard to say where the region will go in the future. Strike, their best ranked player, placed 9th at GOML 2017 – shading similarly to Alphicans, but the overall attendance and data available leaves me to be skeptical until further results are seen. Despite that, the region walks away near the top of the bottom half regions due to a myriad of solid performances in Canada.

#23 – NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Final Score: 30.153

Highest Scored Player: Shaky (14.19)

Lowest Scored Player: Twan (74)

Final players used in Ranking: Xzax, Shaky, DSS, Legit, 3xA, Teb, Trevonte

Best Placement: 13th, 2GGC: GENESIS Saga (DSS) or 25th, EVO 2017 (Xzax)

Worst Placement: 257th, GENESIS 4 (Twan)

Potential Rating: B-

In one of the first surprised, analysis seems to indicate that NorCal is one of the most struggling regions in America. Shaky’s somewhat inflated score couldn’t dip the region’s score low enough, and had additional penalties been available to deduct his score to roughly match the low-mid 20s score seen in Xzax and DSS, the region could’ve fallen much lower.

This seems to stem from what could be called a “Gatekeeper” problem – where a player very frequently makes acceptable or even solid placements at 33rd or 25th, but struggles to break through top players or gatekeepers. This is seemingly an issue for the entire region, excluding a few and far between number of upsets.

By extension, the region’s depth is currently somewhat shallow, with a pretty noticeable sink past their top 5-6 players, who suffer from the same issues, if not scaling it back even further to being stuck in 49th or 65th.

I give it a B- rating since the region feels ever on the cusp of breaking through its problems and has had players ranked highly before, but we’ll have to see going forward.

#22 – SPAIN

Final Score: 29.7902

Highest Scored Player: El_Pitikla (16.64)

Lowest Scored Player: marcpq (59.88)

Players used in final ranking: El_Pitikla, Robo~Luigi, Marcbri, El_Bardo, Pefo, Pepo, MVL

Best Placement: 7th, B.E.A.S.T. 7 (El_Pitikla)

Worst Placement: 33rd, PPT Berlin (El_Bardo)

Potential Rating: B+

Probably the best looking region listed today on paper: It has a variety of very solid EU performances where some EU nations struggle, and has poised itself to potentially overcome other EU regions that it’s ranked near in the future, such as the UK.

This will depend on how their performances go in the future, but it’s clearly a region on the upswing, and we might see players come out as part of Midwest Mayhem 11’s EU Tour, where one qualifier exists in Spain. One of these listed players may soon be making a trip to the U.S., which could make or break the perception of them as an upcoming European nation.

#21 – Inland & Gulf Southeast

Final Score: 28.84

Highest Scored Player: Captain Zack (9.53166)

Lowest Scored Player: Jaehbock (117.74)

Players used in final ranking: Samsora, Captain Zack, Sonido, BrawlerG31, Makibaz, Phenom, Cheezeballer

Best Placement: 4th, GENESIS 4 & Civil War (Captain Zack)

Worst Placement: 129th, Midwest Mayhem 10 (Jaehbock)

Potential Rating: B-

Round out today’s list, we have one of the most polarized regions in the world, carrying 2 incredible players in Samsora & Captain Zack, and a massive slope downwards from there. No offense intended, of course, the gap of separation in scoring goes from Samsora’s 13 to Phenom’s 27, and largely descends towards averaging 40-50, which brings the region’s overall score down.

This could be the fault of separating the Southeast, albeit the scenes are separate enough that it seemed justified, but it’s also simply the fact that Samsora & Zack have traveled frequently ever since Clutch City Clash in 2016 where both had become commonly known players, which the rest of the loosely-defined region really hasn’t.

Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi are all somewhat insulated or may occasionally fight each other, and you can occasionally see their attendance at larger FL, GA, and TX tournies, but it’s clearly not expanding like the Coastal Southeast has in the last year.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at #20-#11, and see some big “upsets”!