LumiRank 2024.2 | 31 - 40

It’s that time of the year again. Welcome to LumiRank 2024.2, the definitive Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ranking for the second half of 2024. Join us in celebrating the 50 players who set themselves apart from the field as some of the strongest in the game right now.

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For information on LumiRank 2024.1, check out the landing page here.

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To those unfamiliar with MASA, I implore you to watch his set vs Sparg0 at Kowloon x Kagaribi this season. While he ends up losing a close 5 game set, nothing embodies MASA more than the gameplay in this match. The patient waiting and usage of Side-B is nothing like the approach of any of his Falco peers, of which there are more every season. Despite his unconventional playstyle, his ability to get results is by no means any less efficient. The former 3DS Ness main has been a top 50 staple since his breakout at the first edition of Kagaribi all the way back in 2020.

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While MASA’s story this time is one of consistency, he started the season with an outlier. On the opening weekend of the second half, he attended Hokkaido’s main regional series Kyokkan. After getting upset in his round 2 by Masamune’s Hero and Donkey Kong, he embarked on a 9 set loser’s run where he took down several of Hokkaido’s finest like tama and Tsu, and even scored a victory over 2nd seed Asimo.

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MASA showed up when it mattered this season, with 9th and 13th place finishes at the Japanese premiers, and his best event being supermajor Sumabato SP 52. Here he would take down Gorioka, defending champion Asimo and Yoshidora en route to winner’s semifinals, where he would unfortunately be defeated by the debut of the Raru Kazuya.

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As Falco continues to rise and has slowly become one of the most meta relevant characters in Smash Ultimate, MASA continues to succeed and show us that he’s not going anywhere.

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— Alice “AliceLen” Len

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WaKa is a player who might’ve caught some by surprise: despite being globally ranked in the top 100 since 2022 and never placing outside of top 24 in a major across three years of offline competition, it’s rare to see his name come up in discussions of top smash talent. To be fair, he’s never been able to attend a major outside his home country of Mexico, and is only occasionally able to travel outside his home region of Baja California, but those in the know can tell you that this top 50 finish has been a long time coming. As a player, WaKa’s greatest strength is his frankly absurd level of consistency. Across a season consisting of 15 events, WaKa never placed lower than 3rd. He took only 13 losses the entire season: one to SoCal Game & Watch Monte, 1 to ShinyMark, 4 to AlanDiss, and a whopping 7 losses to Sparg0. This means not just that WaKa only dropped sets to top-level players for the entire season, but that more than half of those defeats came at the hands of the #1 player in North America.

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But in addition to his exceptional loss quality, WaKa also won the majority of the events he entered this season: 8 out of 15, the largest of which was B+ tier Legends 5, the biggest event of the year in Central America. The narrative with players like WaKa is often that they’re big fish in small ponds, successful at home but unproven on a global stage. But I say this as someone who often shares this manner of skepticism towards less-travelled players: go back and watch WaKa’s Legends 5 VODs and you will believe. Not only did WaKa handily defeat MKBigBoss, a fixture of Mexico’s top echelon, he also triumphed over rising Guatemalan phenom ShinyMark, 3-0ing him in both Winners and True Finals. And before you write it off as a Luigi main doing Luigi things, WaKa only hit ShinyMark with two 0-deaths off grab across both sets, instead achieving victory through measured and precise play that made him look like a veteran of top level competition.

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To those who remain unmoved in spite of all this, I understand. WaKa attended no majors this season — it’s only due to a late change in attendance requirements that he qualifies to be ranked at all. But if and when the day comes that WaKa travels to major tournaments north of the border, there’s no doubt in my mind that this big fish will plunge right into the deepest waters and emerge just as strong as ever.

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— Vincent “SelfDestructGambit” Chow

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Who do you think of when you see the fastest thing alive in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Sonix? KEN? Maybe Wrath? You might miss the sleeping giant that is Taikei, the Sonic main who has always lurked just outside the global Top 50.

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For most of the season, it seemed the blue blur was always close to a big run, finding upsets on Kaninabe and Karaage at Umebura SP11 before a loss to familiar bracket demon Shuton. He even picked up two wins on KEN’s Sonic in the mirror match at Sumabato SP 51 and Togenkyo, cementing his strength at majors in a longtime local head-to-head between the Kanto Sonic mains. But it always seemed like he was on the precipice of something bigger.

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His last tournament of the season, Sumabato SP 53, was something bigger.

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Seeded 16th, Taikei would speed through the bracket, homing in on the first seed: Raru. In the first set they had ever played, Taikei defeated the world’s best Luigi.

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He wasn’t done with the plumber yet. Defeating 2nd best Luigi in the world Navy, he’d secure a spot in winners semis, then take even more wins over Navy again, Rarikkusu, and finally capping it off by defeating Doramigi. In spectacular fashion, Taikei reached his first ever major grand finals.

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As we enter the new year, Taikei has reached top speed, and there’s no telling how much further he can run. Blink, and you might miss him as he steps it up and takes Sonic to the next level.

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— Mira “Rosebloom” Kermode

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It’s 2024, and it might just be the year of Luigi. 

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In North America, you’ve got WaKa and GuyGuy. In Europe, you’ll find Luugi. In Japan, you might think of Raru. But an old name has returned to contend the throne.

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Scaling once more the peaks he climbed in early Ultimate, Navy is back and better than ever. 

The Luigi main was on fire throughout the second half of 2024. August saw him place Top 3 at a national, then Top 6 at a major, and yet it was only a prelude.

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September’s OH-BAI-TOH-RI 0 was where Navy was truly on fire. He’d lose to Jogibu as seeded, but it didn’t faze him. A spark was lit, and Navy became unstoppable. Umeki, Raki, Gorioka, Karaage, YamaD, Jogibu in the runback, top player after top player fell to the Luigi main’s unwavering flame.

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In Losers Finals, he’d face Snow’s Aegis counterpick, but made quick work of it. Melting Snow’s stocks one after the other, he earned a spot in Grand Finals against fellow Luigi main Raru, and it was only after an explosive five games that Navy was finally defeated. 

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Picking up win after win and outperforming his seeding again and again, Navy seems unstoppable. If his upward trend continues, there’s no one who will stand in the way of this green plumber’s touch-of-death domination.

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— Mira “Rosebloom” Kermode

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Lui$ has been a fixture of NorCal Smash for many years, starting off as a top player late in Smash 4’s metagame and becoming a consistent top 8 threat early in Ultimate’s lifespan. After quarantine, he ascended to a top 30 level player, at one point peaking in the top 20 as events returned in 2021.

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After a couple of stumbling blocks, potential seen at pre-major locals has manifested back in 2024 as Lui$ returns to the top 50. Despite the rough start at Supernova and an early upset at Riptide, Lui$ started an eight set losers run with wins over players like Wrath, loaf, and MuteAce to help set a better tone.

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Early metagame characters like Palutena had at times appeared to take a back seat, but he’s made the character look exceptionally threatening, with events like Litvitational 3 being a showcase of his strength.

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At Don’t Park on the Grass, he’d end up being one of the biggest highlights of the events, placing third after another chaotic losers run that saw him playing five game 5 sets, including huge wins over KEN and Shuton. Miya would best him once more in a last hit set, but between this and their set at Litvitational, it was made clear that Lui$ is entirely capable of defeating nearly anyone.

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— Joshua “Barnard’s Loop” Craig

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After last season, I mentioned how Wrath would climb further in rankings if he started to attend more. While I was not entirely correct, his score did increase, proving that he did, in fact, do better than last season. But, how much better did he do?

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Starting the season with back to back P-tier events, the Sonic player seemed to be off to a less than ideal start. Not necessarily placing bad at either, but not having a significant performance that we all thought he would be able to get. He would then take a short break from ranked events, entering the usual Wi-Fi brackets to prepare for the biggest tournament in the southeast this year, Luminosity Makes Moves Miami.

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The depth at this tournament would not make it an easy run, already having to go through regional PR players to make it to top 64. Here, Wrath would pick up a win that not too many others can claim, winning a game 5 set against Miya. Wrath would finish this supermajor at 5th place, but take a top 5 win home with him in the process. For the rest of the season Wrath would win 2 decently sized regionals and match his 5th place form at Coinbox IRL from last season, this time beating even more top 50 players to add to his list of names.

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Wrath’s season was, for the most part, last season but better. Better peaks, better placements, better wins. Like I said last season, his consistency matched with his attendance will only bring him higher in the future, whether it be points, rankings, or both.

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— Benny Schmid

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If you were to tell me that we would have a new major winner from Japan in 2024, I would believe you. Now if you told me that Raki would be one of the 3 players to win their first major, I would think you’re crazy. Somehow, against all odds, Raki took a major over the likes of Doramigi, 33Peranbox, Taikei, and Lv.1.

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Now while Raki’s season may revolve around this defining moment, in retrospect, it does not seem super surprising. Other than finally defeating a bracket demon in Doramigi, stopping an 0-6 set record against the Min Min, he wasn’t heavily unfavored in pretty much any of the sets he won. The stars just aligned perfectly that day.

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Unsurprisingly, there was also some buildup to this monumental win for Raki. His season was pretty good, and would have still landed him pretty far into the top 100. He attended a total of 20 ranked events, giving himself a very long list of wins, and even made 9th at his largest tournament, Umebura SP 11. In fact, this run was even more impressive than his major win, continuing his strong head-to-head against Tea, and gaining more top wins in TamaPDaifuku and Shirayuki.

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Raki overall was a player that has always been on the radar, but further brought himself to the top with some shockingly strong performances. While his consistency may not be at the same level to that of other players up here in the rankings, his performances show that he has so much more to show in the future.

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— Benny Schmid

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You all may not know this, but Falco Lombardi is a MENACE in Japan. He’s second there in placement percentage over this past season, with more mains than the next three characters — Pythra, Min Min and Kazuya — combined. Rarikkusu has continued to show us why this season, landing as the highest-ranked Falco in the world. Rarikkusu piloted the blue bird to win after win, highlighted by his impressive 5-2 record against Raru.

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But Rarikkusu is no solo main, not by a long shot. Lest we forget, he exploded onto the international stage last season by beating Sparg0 with his formidable Donkey Kong, much to the surprise of some. If he feels like the matchup isn’t favorable for Falco, he is more than willing to try out DK or Steve and has the confidence to fully send even if things don’t initially go his way. His DK beat KEN and Gorioka this season. His Steve sees less usage, but it still beat Snow and Shupi.

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Rarikkusu also showed off the breadth of his character lineup in his first overseas tournament at Don’t Park On the Grass, with nearly two full sets of DK, a couple strong wins with Falco, and a reverse 3-0 over Ludo with Steve. With impressive rankings in the first and second halves of the year, Rarikkusu showed us that he’s officially reached the level of Ultimate’s top players. With a flashy and versatile character roster, he’s sure to stay there for a long while yet.

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— James “Doxazo” Rivers

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TamaPDaifuku shocked North America with a late push for top 10 during the first half of 2024. While his followup season has seen a bit of a fall, he remains a very strong contender, starting his season with a win at Hokkaido regional Kyokkan #6 over in-region threats like Nao, syadou, and Obi.

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While his Supernova would underdeliver, his true rough patch was a 129th at Kowloon #12 with Kagaribi, though both losses — Kurofune and Nyonoknb — would age very well in the following months. Picking up the pieces, his third P-Tier in September proved fruitful, repeating wins on Maister from his last season and managing to take down Yoshidora for 17th after losses to Raki and Akakikusu.

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By now, TamaP had steam, beating Shuton and placing 5th at DELTA #9 and later placing 7th at Chubu’s first ever S-Tier UltCore 4th, with wins on Navy, Jogibu, and Masha. It’s clear to see his slump is over, but can he reach the heights seen from the first half of the year? 

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— Joshua “Barnard’s Loop” Craig

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Switching between two different games can be tough, especially ones as different as Street Fighter and Smash. Despite this, few are able to perform at such a high level in both games. While Riddles may not be as active as he was due to focusing on Street Fighter, he still makes an effort at the tournaments he does attend. Though Riddles faltered a bit at the start and end of this season, falling short of his seed at both Supernova and Coinbox IRL, these were pretty much outliers compared to how insane his midseason was.

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Riddles started the midseason with Riptide, easily his best event of the season and probably his best event since winning Collision back in 2023, even though he was seeded a bit lower than most people would expect of him. In pools he played okay, making it out on winners side to top 64, but everything from here would be a bloodbath. After losing to Sonix in a last hit set, Riddles would be faced with taking sets against two top 50 players before even making it to top 8, where he still was able to beat Zomba and BeastModePaul to make it out at 4th in the Midwest’s largest tournament.

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If this was not already enough, Riddles would go on a 2 month hiatus before entering Luminosity Makes Moves Miami, making back-to-back supermajor top 8s and going on another losers run beating more top 100 players. While he still goes back and forth between his two games, Riddles continues to find himself in top 8s of majors and beating names that few could dream of.

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— Benny Schmid