Nov 8
The end of the year is fast approaching - with that comes more and more discussion on the year end rankings for Project+, PMRank. In past years, the public has generally been left in the dark over the process of rankings, including what events qualify. But in 2023, the PMRank team announced strict guidelines for its qualification process, and for the first time ever, events that qualify for PMRank are known to the public beforehand.
@@ -34,17 +33,134 @@But an interesting note is these top player slots can also go to “PMRank Potential Players”, a title attained by defeating 2 or more PMRank 2022 members. This new qualification allows players that have made waves this year add to a tournament’s importance. But who are those players? There’s nowhere public that holds all the list of these candidates, and viewing who they are can give an insight into who could appear on this year's PMRank top 50. So without further ado, let's look at PMRank 2023’s potential candidate list.
In an attempt to garner interest in the event, I’ve always tried to fly out one out of region competitor. For Honeypot 2, that player was Motobug; for Honeypot 3 it was Envy; and Honeypot 4 had Stango. They all made each event special, and definitely did the trick for getting people to come out to the event. Each time my expectations for the event have been blown out of the water, and I only have the people who came out to those events to thank for it. Even though I was somewhat absent for Honeypot 5 due to work, I was still so thankful that the event continued to persist and grow while I was away.
- - - -I want to make this very clear: Honeypot Project+ as it is would not exist without RosiYY, Che, and UGS. Each tournament ran smoothly and was a pleasure to view because of them. When start.gg went down during Honeypot 4, RosiYY started writing down paper brackets to ensure the event continued on time. She has been the reason these brackets have run the way they have, and I can’t thank her enough for it. Che has always been there to stream the event, and clutched up a stream setup when we thought we weren’t going to have one for Honeypot 5. He’s done an amazing job running the stream, and has always made it a treat to watch.
-Honeypot 6 is looking to be a great time, and this is the most stacked bracket the tournament has ever seen. The out of region talent is higher than ever, with Rongunshu descending from Ontario to tear up another bracket, and SipMastah hot off of a win from Against All Odds. With the series shifting to a two day format, we worried that the event attendance might take a hit, but thankfully we were very wrong. At the time of writing registration hit over 70 entrants for the event, with every coast coming out to the Putnam museum in the outskirts of Iowa. I’m so thankful to everyone who’s making the trip, and everyone planning on watching the event from afar on ProjectMNexus. Honeypot would not be where we are without you. Thank you.
+Anyone paying attention to P+ this year should see Phresh’s name here as no surprise. Ranked #15 in 2017’s PMR, Phresh has returned to the major tournament scene with a bang, earning a major victory at Lake George Snowdown, and just nabbed a 2nd place finish at Blacklisted 8, one of the largest majors of the year.
+The 11th best Melee player in the world has made insane waves in the P+ scene this year with Fox and Link. In a shocking victory over Dirtboy at Tipped Off 12, Aklo continued his tear on P+ at Shine Out Of Shield, placing 2nd place at the Shine shadow major. Aklo unfortunately still needs to enter one more P+ event to qualify for rankings this year, so all eyes are on the spacie player to see if he can have one more strong showing.
+Samantha is one of the strongest new players to come out of the post-quarantine era. Piloting the new P+ exclusive character of Knuckles, her calculated and terrifying punish game have made her one of the Midwest’s biggest threats and earned her top 8 performances at Undertow 2023 and Invincible VII.
+Last year’s National Arcadian winner barely missed out on cracking the top 50 of PMRank 2022, but at Shine Out of Shield, the Lucas main made certain that he would make his mark on P+ by securing a first place victory out of 81 entrants. While he missed out on Blacklisted 8 due to COVID, Shadowhawke is registered for Cream of the Crop and Honeypot 6 looking to earn his final qualifying events for rankings this year.
+Much like Phresh, Shiny Zubat is one of the main standouts of P+ in 2023, and unsurprising to see on this list. The Yoshi player not seen on PMRank since 2016 has had incredibly impressive performances, including a top 8 finish at Blacklisted 8 and getting 2nd at Cream of the Crop (June), where he earned a stunning victory over Malachi.
+Formerly known as AssTAStic (and potentially soon to be known as Corduroy Condoms?), the New York/Connecticut Ness player earned a spot in the 2021-2022 Mid Season Contenders list, but didn’t meet the activity requirements for the year end PMRank 2022. Looking to ensure that he will certainly be on the list this year, WouldSmokeCraq has had four separate top 8 finishes at PMR events this year, and is confirmed to be attending Against All Odds later this season.
+The voice of countless Melee major top 8’s, Studebacher Hoch has shown to be a consistent threat on the sticks in P+ along with his casting talent. A top 8 finish at Shine out of Shield and 9th at Warp Zone 2 were some of the highlights of the Falcon main’s greatest year in P+ yet.
+Star had one of the strongest starts to 2023 for an unranked player, seemingly earning new top 50 wins with each tournament she attended for the first half year. The Lucas/Fox/All Star Random player has also entered a shocking 11 PMRank events this year and counting, including an impressive top 8 at Joey’s Birthday Bash 2.
+With what could be the strongest showcase of a true “Shielda” player that Project M has seen in nearly a decade, evil lesbian pilots both Zelda and Sheik, depending on the matchup, excellently. The already strong player threw the world for a loop after defeating techboy in an intense reverse 3-0 at PM Concert: Symphony, besting the Ice Climbers with Zelda and Tech’s Zero Suit Samus counterpick with Sheik.
+Not Chris was potentially one of P+’s biggest new stars from the quarantine era, top 8’ing a major in 2022 along with a plethora of crazy wins. He unfortunately barely missed out on qualifying due to attendance, and spent most of 2023 dormant. Out of nowhere, he entered The Bird House XII this past weekend, and the hyper-aggressive Ness we all missed was back. He plans to enter both the upcoming Show Me Your Moves 23 and Honeypot 6 to potentially be featured on PMRank 2023.
+Darc likely won’t be ranked this year due to attendance. The West Coast multi-main with more years of experience in competitive smash than nearly everyone showed up to the 2 P+ events in California this year, and did what he does every time - remind us all that he will always be a threat to your bracket run, no matter how good you are.
+The Lucario/Pit dual main and doubles fanatic was one of the main storylines at Joey’s Birthday Bash 2 when she defeated Illinois’ top talent Chaloopy and metroid in back-to-back game 5’s. She would go on to dominantly upset Twisty 3-0 at Blacklisted 8, cementing her as a dark horse pick for PMRank this year.
+The second half of the Brotherhood alongside Aklo also showed up big in 2023 P+. An incredibly impressive run to 4th at Shine Out of Shield showed the talented Melee sheik player could transfer their skills to P+ very well. Much like their brother, they are also missing one more event to qualify for this year’s rankings. We can only hope that they make the trip out for one more Melee x P+ clash.
+The incredibly animated Sheik/Zero Suit Samus player featured at the Project M Theatre last year started 2023 off decently well with a 9th place finish at Exodus. At Mile High Club the next month, however, he achieved one of the biggest upsets in P+ so far, defeating PMRank 2022 #5 Nogh in pools and making his mark on 2023 P+. At the same event, he defeated Av to get 13th at the largest major of 2023.
+Known for his electrifying aura cancels, the Arizona Lucario TRai started off the year with a respectable 25th at Mile High Club, but recently had an incredible performance at the Halloween themed event Five Nights at Fingy’s. There he defeated PMRank #47 Anday and #18 Sneez to a second place finish. He still is missing one final event to qualify for rankings, but is registered for the upcoming PNW major Against All Odds to fill that last slot and hopefully put up another great performance.
+Exodus 2023 was the first major to hit P+ this year. The community closely watched to see what storylines and performances would kick off the new year, but few were expecting the Luigi main Nerfy to show up at the event in such a big way. Defeating both Av and Suvir before barely losing game 5 to Ivayne earned the player a top 8 finish at a major. Since then, they have put up respectable top 5 finishes at Carnival Clash and the recent Ghost Town as well.
+The lovable longtime figurehead of Wisconsin PM has had perhaps his strongest national performances yet this year. He earned his 2 PMR wins at Joey’s Birthday Bash 2, and also put up a top 8 performance at Tripoint Smash 200. While he didn’t close out the set, he played a part in one of closest and most exciting matches of the year versus Pikmon at Warp Zone 2.
+Polear is one of the strongest players to come out of the thriving Colorado P+ scene, which housed the largest major of the year in Mile High Club. There, Polear made a stunning upset over Ivayne and ~CP9~ to continue his run to a 13th place finish. The only other event he attended this year was Honeypot 5, where he placed in the top 8 after taking ORLY to game 5. If Polear comes out to the final major of the year in Honeypot 6, he could very well be seen on the PMrank 2023 list.
+One of the main TO’s behind Cream of the Crop put up a pair of very solid performances at Joey’s Birthday Bash 2 and Grand Line 2, earning 9th place at both. He seemingly has it out for Ganondorf, as his qualifying victories were all against the king of evil. His win over Chaloopy at JBB in particular was a highlight in the Olimar main’s year.
+While old school players are certainly familiar with vortex, as they have been a part of the New York Project M scene for years, newer players (admittedly, myself included) weren’t familiar with the Sheik main until they tore through the loser’s bracket at Blacklisted 8. In their only PMRank tournament attended, they defeated grealy and Serb to earn 13th at the event. While they still need to enter 2 more events to qualify for PMRank this year, they did a great job telling the P+ scene not to sleep on them.
+These are the players that officially are the potential candidates contributing to 2023 P+ events. Hopefully to those more casually following P+, it can give a good picture of who the new talent in the scene is.
+It doesn’t tell the complete story, however. There are many players likely to be featured on PMRank 2023 who have made their showings by defeating other strong rising talent, or only one PMRank 2022 player.
+We also still have a few PMR events coming up in the next few months that could be the difference maker for many hopeful players. Stay tuned to the events coming up, and for other news regarding PMRank 2023!
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