LumiRank 2024.1 | 1 - 10
Welcome to LumiRank 2024.1, the premier Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ranking for the first half of 2024. Join us this week as we reveal the 50 players who went above and beyond the competition over the past several months, from December 18th, 2023 to July 15th, 2024.
For information on LumiRank 2024.1, check out the landing page here.
.png)
The second fans heard those first few notes of Corneria in the reveal video, they knew that Light, perennial contender for best player in the USA, was back in the world top ten. Light certainly made a strong case for himself this season, ending the ranking period with positive records against other players vying for the title of strongest in America, like Tweek, Zomba, MuteAce, and up-and-comer SHADIC.
But perhaps the Fox main’s most impressive accomplishment this season is holding a winning record against both Miya and Maister, the consensus best two players worldwide of one of Fox’s worst matchups, Mr. Game and Watch. Light’s wins over Miya in particular come on the back of his best event win of the season, the Litvitational 2, where in an explosive grand finals Light overcame both Miya’s Game and Watch and his Steve, demonstrating once again what Light has proved over and over during his career: that despite Fox’s volatility, and even when hounded by his hardest matchups, Light has what it takes to succeed against the odds. No matter the venue, if he shows up, you’d better get ready, because Light’s out to win.
— Vincent “SelfDestructGambit” Chow
It’s no secret that Sparg0 had a bit of an off-season. But how do you define that? What does it say about you if TOP 10 ON THE PLANET is considered a low?
Sparg0 has spent the last couple years showing the world just how good he is. While he may not have performed like the invincible god he’s shown before, there isn’t a doubt in anyone’s mind as to what he’s capable of. Don’t forget, he still won a supermajor this season in Collision 2024.
It’s Smash Ultimate. If you think you’ve mastered the Steve and Mr. Game and Watch matchups, there will always be a low-mid tier ready to check you at any time, no matter who you are. Sparg0 didn’t dominate Japan as he did in 2023, but I’d argue that it just demonstrates how strong everyone else is becoming. What matters is how he responds, and with the right course of action, it’s clear that he can and will reach the peaks and consistency he once saw. It’s just a matter of time.
— Nathaniel Starr
For the first time since Smash 4, we see a return of Bayonetta to the top 10. There were many candidates for this, and many still could grasp for it in the future — but few, if any, expected TamaPDaifuku to be the one to crack the drought.
Emerging in mid-2022 as a hidden boss, TamaPDaifuku would narrowly make 2023’s top 100 with a mixed set of performances. Like many in Japan this year, TamaPDaifuku would utterly destroy expectations with incredible bookends to his season — second, then first, at a Kanto major event.
An early win against Miya and resilience against North America proved helpful for building his season’s records, but of biggest note is probably his incredible 4-0 record over Shuton — a player that has had a great season in his own right. This keystone of his season is where he finally won major event Seibugeki #17 and sealed himself in the top 10.
— Joshua “Barnard’s Loop” Craig
The rise of SHADIC should be studied in history books. Once that blue-haired 9 year old you’d find at Texas locals playing his favorite character, now a multiple-time major winner and Top 10 player in the world.
The beginning of the season saw nothing short of single-digit placements. 9th at Luminosity Makes Big Moves. 7th at Genesis X. 3rd at Litvitational 2, foreshadowing his first big win at Cirque Du CFL 3. A 2nd at Collision 2024, and then right back up to another major win at The Luminosity Invitational, securing his first two wins on Sonix.
SHADIC refused to let anyone stop him, no matter how good those that stood in his way might be. Racking up wins on three of the “Four Horsemen” from last season in Sonix, Sparg0, and Miya, SHADIC continues making “Strides” to be the absolute best of the best, innovating Corrin day by day. Supported by the talent-packed state of Texas, his powerful Stride teammates, Corrin fans around the world, and his father/biggest fan DADIC, the cards are lined up for SHADIC to reach for even higher heights than he’s reached already.
— Nathaniel Starr
Easily one of the most accomplished players in all of Smash Ultimate and one of the most consistent ones too, Shuton makes his way into the top 10 for a sixth straight year. Despite attending a total of 12 ranked events this season, Shuton barely dropped any sets to players outside of the top 20. Not only that, only a single loss he took was to a player not ranked in the worldwide top 50 this season: his loss to long time practice partner and rival Kome.
As we’re used to from the Olimar and Aegis phenom, Shuton showed up big time when it mattered the most. At the 4 Premier tournaments he attended, he only missed top 8 a single time — his 9th place finish at Genesis X. Listing his top wins for the season would be a daunting task, as he took down both a rogue’s gallery of Japan’s finest and also racked up a laundry list of western wins. Perhaps his most impressive performance of the season was his 3rd place at DELTA #8: not only did he take down Hurt, who is one of the only people in the world to outrank him, but he also continued the long standing tradition of not dropping games to MkLeo.
Unfortunately, as tends to often be the case, the duo of Acola and Miya proved to be too much for Shuton and 3rd was as far as he went at DELTA #8. While he did not win a major this season, it was by the tiniest of margins.
Game is Game was the second largest tournament Europe hosted this season, and while it just barely missed out on major status, it was just another proving ground to Shuton, who once more showcased why people have talked about EU vs Olimar for years now.
As impressive as Shuton’s season was, his impossible peaks are even higher. If Shuton manages to add yet another major win to his ever growing trophy case, he could very well reenter the top 5 next season — or go even further.
— Alice “Alice” Len
If I had a nickel for every EMG supermajor that Tweek won over Sonix in grand finals this season, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Tweek sought out to prove something this season: that his way of Smash is still alive. Opting for a largely solo-Diddy Kong season, Tweek expressed the creativity we have all come to know and love through his gameplay. Tearing through bad matchup after even worse matchup, Tweek managed to take down among the world’s best Fox, Steve, and Pac-Man, not just at prestigious brackets, but immersed in the pressure of their respective Top 8s.
Tweek continues to raise the bar, whether it be for his characters, his opponents, or most importantly, himself. A second Luminosity Makes Big Moves victory. A second Genesis top 8, improving last year’s 7th to 4th this year. A second Get On My Level victory. A tower of building blocks that keeps growing and never seems to topple. All while staying true to the way of Smash he believes in.
While the game may drag Diddy Kong down, Tweek continues to lift him right back up and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.
— Nathaniel Starr
It’s not often that you get to witness the birth of a legend. When watching a singular tournament run of a player assures you that this player will be a force to be reckoned with before long. Kagaribi #10 was exactly that for Hurt. To describe his rise in the 14 months since then as meteoric would be the understatement of the century. And while his last season was already phenomenal, this season was just on another level.
To begin with, he was the person with the 2nd most major wins this season after Miya, as he went on to win 2 more japanese majors in Sumabato SP 48 and UltCore Third after winning BOBC 6. In fact, he won 8/14 of his ranked events, placing outside the top 4 just twice. The biggest revelation was that he could defeat other top players like it was no one's business, as he dispatched of players like Sparg0, Doramigi and Zomba without much of a problem, and even managed to double eliminate acola.
Now granted, as amazing as his season was, it wasn’t without its hiccups. Hurt is still a bit upset prone, with the 49th at Seibugeki being especially puzzling. However, if he does manage to get that little bit more consistent, I think a bid for best player in the world should be well within his grasp.
— Jonas “Fortuna” Stritzinger
Unusually, Sonix actually underperformed his seed at nearly every major he attended. But like all statistics, this one requires context, and here, the reason for this is that Sonix was seeded 1st at almost all of his majors — and placed second at all of them. It’s a consistency that’s nearly unheard of, and it’s this consistency that rightfully kept Sonix at the top of the seeding rungs for the entire season and has established him as the best player in North America.
They weren’t all easy runs, either; all but two of his majors saw Sonix in losers by winners semis, forcing him to make a several-set run if he wanted to continue his grand finals streak. But make these runs he did, and in every single instance Sonix was able to win a runback set, proving beyond a doubt that the sets that he lost weren’t necessarily flukes, but certainly not a sign of any demon. In fact, Sonix did not fight a single opponent that he didn’t take a set off of this season, a testament to both his skill and his levels of preparation.
And if there’s one reason that Sonix has catapulted to the top of his continent, it’s his prep and practice outside of tournament. It’s hard to find a day where Sonix isn’t streaming VOD review, matchup practice, or labbing sessions, and there’s no doubt he’s doing even more offstream. He’s turned former demons like Light and Sparg0 into winning matchups and solidly defeated players he loses to just the tournament after. There’s no one Sonix can’t beat, and if he keeps up his grand finals streak, there’s no doubt that he’ll be the one on the winning side very, very soon.
— Kenny “kenniky” Wang
You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who is as much of a grinder as Miya. Whether he’s tearing through the bracket at a major or climbing to the top of the SmashMate ladder with any character he chooses, this Game & Watch main will stop at nothing in his endless pursuit of victory.
Though he saw some dips in results this season, he followed each up with an even stronger performance than before. No matter what you throw at him, Miya’s not one to give up or back away from a challenge. After dropping a set to French Palutena main Raflow at Genesis, he traveled all the way to Europe for French national 95 Kings of Fields #4, which he won over some of the continent’s best while dropping just a single game. After an underperformance overseas at Cirque Du CFL 3, Miya went on a warpath in Japan, winning three majors in a row with no sets dropped.
And he wasn’t stopping there.
At Kagaribi #12, he was an unstoppable force. With a Judge 9 at a crucial moment, Miya would reverse 3-0 Hurt in Grand Finals to win the premier tournament in the crowning achievement of his season.
Miya has reached the uppermost echelon of the game, and claimed his spot among the greats. Anytime he loses, you know he’ll be back with a vengeance, because Miya will stop at nothing to claim victory and be the best player the Smash world will ever see.
— Rose “Rosebloom” Kermode
How much more can be said about acola? After a dominant 2023 where he ended up running away with the #1 spot, acola came right back for more. While his attendance may have slowed down as he finished up high school, acola’s record somehow became even more pristine this season as he lost a total of four sets. That’s right, FOUR. This is an incredible statistic considering acola attended three Premiers and faced down multiple high-caliber players at his other four tournaments. Falling to Hurt twice at Kagaribi #12 is acola’s only real blemish of any kind for the season, when you consider that he immediately avenged his other two losses (to Miya and Doramigi) and won those tournaments. That loss to Doramigi at Kamisuma #24 resulted in his lowest tournament score of the season, yet even that performance was better than the average tournament of any player outside the top five.
Acola has been steamrolling the Smash world since he first appeared offline. The rivalries and storylines that have arisen around him are some of the most exciting we have, and there is no indication they’ll be coming to a conclusion anytime soon. With a fearsome character combination, unreal adaptation, and uncanny skill, acola reigns as the king of this era of Smash Ultimate, and he is ready to defend his throne for years to come.
— James “Doxazo” Rivers
