LumiRank 2024.1 | 21 - 30
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.
Some players have an explosive rise. When Carmelo rose, it was a lit fuse, tongues of flames trailing toward the inevitable. He rocketed up Smashmate’s rating ladder and won his first big online tournament in August last year. He took names and made himself known in Japan’s online scene before eventually finding his groove offline.
As the fire was lit and the fuse sparked, the Enderman main would outperform his seeding over and over again, by four, five, six placements, piling up win after win. With stronger and stronger placings, the build-up was clear. Finally, Carmelo arrived at supermajor KOWLOON #9 with Sumabato. He’s seeded to place 97th.
The fuse burned away, and came closer to its end.
Carmelo lost, as expected, to Snow. That was it, then. In the deadly losers bracket, surely he’d falter and place 65th or 49th. A respectable finish for sure, continuing his trend of overperformances. Nothing too special, but a continuation of the norm.
The fuse reached its end. Carmelo refused to lose. Winning six consecutive sets in the losers bracket, he made his name known. Blazing through the bracket to 9th place, he beat Glutonny, Ron, and karaage and defied all expectations.
Repeating his Glutonny win months later and boasting an ever-growing repertoire of wins on the best of the best, it’s just a matter of time before Carmelo is a name you won’t forget. This flame isn’t burning out anytime soon.
— Rose “Rosebloom” Kermode
Though this season has been Riddles’ first since splitting his focus between both Street Fighter and Ultimate, he has demonstrated he is still more than ready for his next battle. After opening the year with a pair of 9th place finishes at premier Genesis X and supermajor Luminosity Makes Big Moves, and a 13th place at supermajor Collision, Riddles found his footing.
He proceeded to not miss top 8 a single time at a ranked event the rest of the season, and only missed top 4 at an open bracket once, placing 5th at Battle of BC 6. Riddles most impressive performance this season came in his home region of Ontario, at Get on My Level X. There, Riddles beat Remrin, Steffen, Marss, Sonix, and Big D before losing to Tweek and Sonix for 3rd. After recementing his status at Canada’s top player, Riddles turned his sights to CEO, where he beat Kola, BeastModePaul twice, and head event organizer Alex Jebailey (in Street Fighter 6) en route to a 2nd place finish. This next season, Riddles will undoubtedly keep causing his opponents to ask if they’re ok, as he seeks to continue his reign over the competition.
— Ritual
As the clock ticks down, there are few who loom as ominously across the stage as KEN. Initially known for Sonic before his days co-maining Sephiroth, this season saw a return to his roots for one of Tokyo’s finest, selecting the blue blur in 88% of his sets. KEN started his season at premier UmeburaSP#10, where he defeated players like Akakikusu, Ouch!?, Toriguri, and Umeki for 5th out of 1167. This run marked his best result of the season and oddly served as a bookend with his worst, a 33rd place at Seibugeki #17.
However, outside these bookend events to his season, KEN displayed an unwavering consistency which is only becoming more uncommon as a new wave of talent rises. Finding a way to place 9th at 3 consecutive premier events is no easy feat, and KEN tore through KOWLOON #9 with Sumabato, Genesis X, and DELTA #8 to do so. The lone other major KEN entered this season was premier Kagaribi #12, one of the most stacked ultimate events we’ve ever seen.
There, KEN continued his consistency, defeating a surging Glutonny to place 7th in a bracket littered with upsets, and made more impressive by its occurrence only 3 days after his DELTA #8 placement. As he attempts to restart his methodical onslaught through some of the world’s best this upcoming season, KEN continues to demonstrate that with enough patience, no opponent is unvanquishable.
— Ritual
When he first started attending offline tournaments in 2022, at the time Wi-Fi Warrior Toriguri showed quite some promise to observant viewers. Despite wielding what was at the time universally considered a low tier at best, the Banjo & Kazooie rarely if ever took a bad loss and consistently placed well. After some time of adjustment to the offline scene as well as honing his craft with the bear and bird, TG debuted on the global ranking with a 54th placement at the end of 2023. Ever diligent and with no intent of slowing down, the past season sees him improve upon himself massively, rewarding him with a top 30 ranking.
Toriguri would start the year off strong with a top 16 finish at premier event Umebura SP 10 with wins over invader Zomba and Snow, but would only continue to pick up speed as the season kept going. In March he would make his international debut at Battle of BC 6, defeating not only BassMage and Big D but also GOAT of the game MkLeo himself. Despite attending his first overseas tournament, the only two players he ended up falling to were both Japanese.
During Golden Week, he took an unfortunate 49th placement at DELTA due to running into zackray in losers, but he redeemed himself immediately at Kagaribi #12 a mere two days after. At the biggest event of the season he extended his dominant record over North American competitors with a win over none other than Sparg0 himself.
Despite struggling some at smaller tournaments due to the inconsistencies of his characters, Toriguri top 8’d two more majors at the end of the season, and showed everyone that Banjo can more than do it — as long as he’s being wielded by Toriguri, that is.
— Alice “Alice” Len
Japan’s resident egg-slinging blue dino Yoshidora has shown us another season like we’ve come to expect: filled with crazy combos, defensive play, and consistency, even in one of the most chaotic seasons we’ve seen. He shone the brightest at his lone overseas performance: Battle of BC 6. There he was able to roll through opponents from around the world; defeating Doramigi, Toriguri, Ouch!?, and Raflow on a run to 3rd; and only being double eliminated by tournament runner up Sparg0.
Outside of this lone venture, Yoshidora spent the rest of his season home in Japan. There, one of his best showings was an immaculate 6 set losers run at UltCore Third, in which he trampled through the competition. After an early loss to Shirayuki, Yoshidora defeated DIO, kept, Akakikusu, Toriguri, Shirayuki, and Asimo before finally losing a nail biter game 5 against Raru for 3rd. In an increasingly deep Japanese talent pool, this season has also shown Yoshidora newly prone to the occasional stumble in the road, such as unfortunate losses to 2nd and 3rd for 9th at Sumabato SP 47. Despite this, Yoshidora continued a reign of consistency that could only be considered rocky by his own lofty standards. As he looks to return to his status as an immovable top 8 placement from previous seasons, Yoshidora still holds a titanic presence within the scene. With a resolve as unshakeable as his shield is unpokeable, it’s certain we will see Yoshidora take the crown soon enough.
— Ritual and Rose “Rosebloom” Kermode
MkLeo is the greatest player in the history of Smash Ultimate, he has nothing left to prove to anyone. But over and over again he lets everyone know that even if he isn’t the beacon of consistency he once was, a locked-in MkLeo is just as beautiful and dangerous as ever.
The obvious point of emphasis here is the first-place finish at the 840-entrant King Con in Europe. Leo has long been Europe’s final boss, showing up to their biggest tournaments to unceremoniously punish Europe’s best players for thinking they could win a bracket on their home turf.
But the world tour was not finished, Leo finished 9th or better at events in five different countries in the first five months of the year. He got wins over Kuroponzu and Rarikkusu in Japan, Monte and M0tsunabE in Canada, Sparg0 and Raflow in France, Maister and Sparg0 again in Mexico and Dabuz, Lima and more in the United States.
MkLeo is Smash Brothers, his presence warped the competitive scene around it for nearly a half-decade. Whatever he does, wherever he goes, we will root for him.
He’s earned it.
— Jack “Trash Day!” Clifton
If there’s one thing that the 2024.1 ranking season proved about Maister, it’s that he’s entering this new year with a renewed motivation for becoming the best player he can be.
Maister started off the season with a tremendous 5th place finish at LMBM 2024, kicking off his year right. And from here, it was off to the races.
A 9th place finish at Genesis X saw Maister not only outplace Miya, but avenge him by defeating Raflow, who had just beaten the Japanese Game & Watch. Afterward, Maister managed to score top 8 finishes at three North American majors: Collision 2024, The Luminosity Invitational, and S Factor 11. In doing so, Maister achieved a level of consistency that many players look at with envy, and garnered wins over the likes of Tweek, Light, Marss, and Riddles. And even though Maister seemingly underperformed during Golden Week’s set of premiers, it’s important to note that Maister was one of the best performing invaders, being the highest placing North American player at Kagaribi #12.
For Maister, his consistency and renewed drive is suggesting that his goals of breaking into the top echelon once again, will indeed come true (if it hasn’t already).
— Matthew “RisterMice” Rice
Gackt has gone a bit under the radar this past season. While everyone knows he is good, there have been other players hogging all the attention, causing many people to leave Gackt out of the conversation for a potential top 25 spot. And to some degree, I do understand it. His start didn't exactly get off to a great start, with a 129th at Umebura being something that would ruin the season of most other players. Not Gackt however.
He bounced back expertly as he made top 8 at KOWLOON #9 with Sumabato the very next week, and then followed it up with one of the best 13th places I have ever seen. At Genesis, Gackt dropped to losers relatively after a loss to Lui$. Undeterred, he went on a 5 set losers run, with highlights being his wins on Yaura, Asimo and MkLeo. For the next few months, he put in a few more solid performances, but he would strike again in the last breath of the season. S Factor was his destination, and he left his mark on the event by finishing 3rd and knocking SHADIC out of the winners bracket.
I don’t know how he does this, but Gackt always manages to pull a top 30 caliber season, and at this point I think he’ll be able to do it for many more years to come.
— Jonas “Fortuna” Stritzinger
The star of the French Dimension made his way around the world this season, showing everyone around him just how good he is. Having attended tournaments in Japan, America, Canada, Mexico, and of course, his home country of France, he was determined to dominate every region he ventured to.
Despite hand problems and adjusting to a controller switch from GameCube Controller to Pro Controller, Glutonny remained at the top echelon of the competition with few inconsistencies. His P Tier attendances included 3rd at Umebura SP 10, 17th at KOWLOON #9 with Sumabato, 13th at Genesis X, 13th at DELTA #8, and 9th at Kagaribi #12. Not bad, right? Coupled with a win at major tournament UltCore Second, Glutonny has proven he can perform in the face of medical obstacles and countless, countless Steve players.
The start of a new season marks a clean slate. Glutonny has shown that his ambition is not bound by borders, and that he can dominate regardless of wherever in the world he might be. With a quiet Snake counterpick that’s been brewing as of late for those rather tough Wario matchups, he’s certain to become the Top 5 threat he was not so long ago.
— Nathaniel Starr
Onin’s 2023 ranking season demonstrated that they were the monarch of D and C tiers, winning a whopping ELEVEN ranked, non-major, events. But if there was one thing we were missing from 2023 Onin, it was major appearances.
Well, the Onin of 2024 certainly delivered on that wish, making a massive return to the spotlight in three standout performances: Collision 2024, Diamond Dust, and Get On My Level X.
Diamond Dust, while not a major by the slimmest of margins, was as difficult and prestigious as any A Tier. And it was this tournament that saw Onin’s highest placement, a 2nd place finish after tearing through a 5 set losers run. But Onin also placed top 4 at two supermajors, a 3rd place finish at Collision 2024 after a dominant winner’s bracket streak; and a 4th place finish at GOML X after a 7 set losers run.
During this period of time, Onin got an all-star list of wins, including Tweek, Maister, Kola, Riddles, SHADIC, Marss, Dabuz, Sisqui, and Big D (among MANY others).
Onin’s 2024.1 season saw them return to the limelight of the world stage, making a dramatic return to form at major tournaments. Onin has proved that, despite everything, they’re still the same shining star we met at Smash Con 2022.
— Matthew “RisterMice” Rice
