LumiRank 2025 Summer | 11 - 20
Hello everyone! Welcome to LumiRank 2025 Summer, the premier Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ranking, this time covering the first half of 2025. Join us leading up to Supernova as we unveil the order of the best players of the last several months.
For information on LumiRank 2025.1, check out the landing page here.
Six players have never been ranked outside the top 25 in Smash Ultimate’s 6-year competitive history: MkLeo, Tweek, Shuton, Glutonny, Light and Tea. It’s impossible to overstate how impressive that level of consistency is. Tens of thousands of players have given their hearts to this game, and competed to the fullest lengths of their abilities, and almost none of them will ever come close to the level of excellence that Tea has lived at for years now. After his lowest-ever ranking last season, he’s back in the safety of the top 20, and it’s like he never left.
Despite only playing in four ranked events this season, Tea is the same force we all know and love. His fifth-place finish at Genesis X2 was the highlight of the season, the golden duo of Kazuya and Pac-Man were able to get a win over Toriguri and avenge a previous loss to BeastModePaul from the year prior. Throw in a 3-1 drubbing of Sonix at Kagaribi #13 en route to a 17th place, and you have another excellently consistent season from one of Ultimate’s most reliable faces.
One day, decades from now, when we’re all old and find other things to do with our lives, we’ll remember our favorite game and all the memories it's given us. Our fingers will ache when we hit the buttons, and we’ll watch in awe as the younger generation pulls off things we’d never thought of doing.
Tea, however, will still be the ninth-best player in the world.
— Jack “Trash Day!” Clifton
Ouch!? does things to his own groove, and it turns out, his own way works pretty well. Though the rankings haven’t seen him return to the top 50 since his initial debut until now, anyone who watched his gameplay could see that it was a matter of when, not if, the B.C. Wolf main joined the game’s top echelon. Despite what it may seem, Ouch!? didn’t change his approach to travel from past seasons, entering 3 (4 with Best of the West) major events this season, with only GOML: Forever occurring off the west coast. Rather, Ouch!? established that he is the PNW’s final boss beyond all doubt.
Opening the season with Battle of BC 7, Jay Jay achieved a +5 SPR with home field advantage, narrowly dropping a harrowing 5 game set to MkLeo before rattling off an impressive seven set losers run over Apple Review, MKBigBoss, Ryuoh, Toriguri, Miya, Monte, and acola, beating two of the best players in the world before falling in another tense game 5 to Syrup. This event set the tone for Ouch’s season, but near major Best of the West III: Climhazzard was where he cast any doubters aside, winning the event with wins over ΩRugal, Lemmon (his region comrade, whom Ouch!? is 23-6 on), Many, AlanDiss, and Cosmos twice over.
Though LVL UP EXPO saw Ouch?! place 25th, losses to Shuton and ShinyMark and a win on zackray still demonstrate an impressive showing.
Though his season ended unremarkably at 17th at GOML, Ouch!? demonstrated that great things come in small quantities. He may not enter often, but if he does, the game’s flashiest Wolf player can beat anyone in the world, especially if the BC crowd is cheering him on.
— Ritual
For the past two years, the best player in Guatemala has been a question mark, an undeniably impressive upstart hampered by his limited ability to travel to events. His record in the first half of 2023, where he won every one of the few events he entered besides Comicpalooza Fight Club — where he got upset twice for 33rd — famously resulted in one of the LumiRank algorithm’s best scores ever, although attendance penalties wound up lowering him to 18th place on the ranking.
Thankfully, having finished school, ShinyMark finally got the opportunity this season to compete at his full potential, attending as many majors in the past 6 months as he did the full 2 years before that — and in doing so, he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he belongs in the top echelon at Smash Ultimate.
Taking wins on the likes of Onin, Syrup, MkLeo, Ouch!?, and many more, finishing in the top 8 at 4 of his biggest events, ShinyMark’s season is a sight to behold; a fact made all the more impressive when you consider that he might’ve pushed these runs a lot farther if he didn’t twice run into demons Zomba and Sparg0.
Fittingly, his season culminated in ShinyMark’s second ever major victory at Comicpalooza Fight Club, where he’d defeat Lima, Marss, Light, and win both sets of grands against Peabnut, turning what was the weakest event of last year’s season into his strongest of the present. ShinyMark clearly still has a lot of room to grow as a player, but he’s on an upward trajectory that shows no signs of slowing down. As ever, this Pikachu player’s future is still shining bright.
— Vincent “SelfDestructGambit” Chow
At this year’s edition of Get On My Level, MkLeo held a panel with Hungrybox and Daigo Umehara, in which he stated that he wants to be remembered as the greatest Smash player of all time. At that same event, Leo would turn an early upset to Duck Hunt main zawg into a breakaway 8 set losers run that saw him defeat Lemmon, Vendetta, ApolloKage, Shuton, Wildz, Hurt and Kola, finishing the tournament at 4th place.
That polarized, improbable run felt to me like an encapsulation of the current era of Leo’s career, one in which he ended the season negative on the top 20 but positive on the top 5, where he took multiple losses outside the top 100, but also finished undefeated against the likes of Hurt, Glutonny, and perhaps his greatest demon, Shuton, who he beat for the first time this year in 3-0 fashion.
MkLeo feels like he exists in a place outside of the present, perpetually breaking new ground even as he occasionally stumbles in the modern meta, always a threat to top 8 a major even as this season marks more than a year since he last won one. That major win is coming, though, he’s clearly shown himself capable given the right bracket; and yet, Tweek’s surprise retirement this May serves as a reminder that nothing in this game can last forever. So I’m thankful for this current era, where longtime Leo fans can once again feel what it’s like to root for an underdog, and watch him pop off as he reverse 3-stocks Raru or clutches a last-hit game 5 on Hurt. Because MkLeo continually finds greatness in Smash, and however long he plays for, he’ll always carry it with him.
— Vincent “SelfDestructGambit” Chow
Light had a classic season to start the year, marked by local rivalries and huge wins. While his incredible top 10 streak has come to an end, Light held nothing back this season, proving both his dedication to the game and his ability to adapt against new and old opponents alike. Indeed, Light’s revenge sets are really the story of his season, often not even letting a tournament finish before striking back. Lose early to Dabuz at LMBM? Chase down block in loser’s quarters. Lose to Tweek at Roundtable 3? Clap back in losers finals. Upset by Susu? Make the run to sweep him right back. Quidd, Syrup, Raru, Lima. All of them felt the wrath of Light’s vengeance.
Light also provided plenty of classic sets against northeastern rivals and up-and-comers alike, going viral for a loss to New England Lucas main Bubbs (that he would thoroughly avenge, of course), duelling Syrup, Dabuz, and Tweek, and making sure to give the people our semi-annual dose of Zero Suit-Fox entertainment against Marss.
The matchups keep stacking up against him. More and more characters and players are learning how to explode a glass cannon like Fox. But Light still kept up this season, taking each tournament one set at a time, never letting a little thing like a loss set him back mentally. As new generations of smashers rise, one thing is for certain. Light will be there to figure them out, week in and week out.
— James “Doxazo” Rivers
The past year and a half has seen the rise of one of Japan’s biggest hidden bosses: Carmelo. Now, he’s far more than a hidden boss. In the past six months, he’s taken down top player after top player and built a powerful resume.
He’d start the season with a huge win over Miya at Maesuma’TOP #1, made even more impressive by the Game & Watch main’s recent success against acola. Over the course of the next couple months, he’d pick up big wins, even using Aegis and Shulk to take down 33peranBOX and M0tsunabE in matchups where his Steve struggled. Carmelo placed in the Top 8 at three supermajors, an incredible level of consistency. But he wasn’t satisfied with that. The Steve main was looking for something more.
Absurdly stacked superpremier Kagaribi #13 offered that something more. There, Carmelo would take down Sonix and Shuton to claim another Top 8 finish. But it still wasn’t enough.
At supermajor Sumabato SP 57, Carmelo lost 1-3 to Asimo in Winners Semis. In losers, facing a long road to victory, Carmelo figured something out. Making it back to Grand Finals, he would wage a war of adaptation against Asimo. Set one came down to a fifth game, but Carmelo came out on top. The second set, too, went all the way to the brink. After the dust cleared in the tenth and final game, Carmelo was a supermajor champion.
Not a single placement below 7th. A supermajor victory. Countless wins on some of the best players in the world. In two years, Carmelo has gone from just another depth Smashmate Steve, to one of the best players in the whole world. He’s only gaining momentum, and it doesn’t seem like anyone can slow him down.
— Rose “Rosebloom” Kermode
These days, TamaPDaifuku is busier than ever. His attendance was cut in half after his historical top 10 season in 2024.1, and after halving once more this year he barely met the minimum attendance requirements for this season.
TamaPDaifuku only shows up at the biggest events the Japanese scene has to offer, only having attended one tournament tiered lower than S in the past year. Showing up to an incredibly low number of events, and having them be the most difficult tournaments while at that, sounds like a recipe for disaster for anyone’s chances at ranking high. Not for TamaPDaifuku, however; no matter how tough the competition, he did not make a single misstep all season.
Many eyes were on him at KOWLOON #15 with Sumabato, as before the March supermajor he had not entered a bracket in four whole months. Few players can take a break of that length and walk away as arguably even better than before, but once again TamaPDaifuku defeated all odds with an incredible top 4 finish including a victory over top worldwide contender Doramigi.
TamaPDaifuku has become an unmissable part of the top level of Smash Ultimate, despite not being there for as long as some of his contemporaries. With his novel take on Bayonetta that makes her combo game look comparable to Smash 4, he has more than earned the many fans who cheer on his rare appearances. And while TamaPDaifuku might make his fans wait sometimes, he never leaves them disappointed.
While not quite replicating the highs of his 2024.1 season, there is clearly very little standing in the way of TamaPDaifuku. If his ever busy schedule allows him to attend more tournaments, he’s a sure-fire lock for many more top 8s to come.
— Alice “Alice” Len
Despite everything, it’s still you. After years and years of competition, through new games, new characters, and meta shifts, Glutonny has remained the same. Gluto has always been a demon on the sticks who proves his love for the game by facing every possible difficulty of health, travel, and pain. He’s been a community member who strives to help his region improve, consistently attending European locals, regionals, and nationals alike. And now and then, maybe once or twice a year, Gluto is the best player in the entire world for a night.
With past supermajor wins like Pound 2022 and Tera already under his belt, Glutonny had his eye on another at Battle of BC 7 and managed to pull off a storybook run to get there. Bad player matchups? Gluto took his second set ever from Riddles. Bad character matchups? Beating Syrup was one of his first ranked Steve wins outside of Europe. Besides that, he faced three of his all-time greatest rivals in Tweek, Miya, and Sparg0, going to game 5 with each, before cleaning Sparg0 up with a commanding 3-0 in true finals.
Despite not dominating Europe in the same way, despite not being a strict solo main like he once was, despite not being ranked as he has been during his peaks, with Glutonny, it’s never over till it’s over. I’m still going to be glued to the screen watching next time he decides to take a tournament into his character’s cartoonishly oversized hands, evaporating stock leads left and right, and I know the rest of the world will be too.
— James “Doxazo” Rivers
Whether it’s a plunger grab or the kick and slap of an aerial, the lightest touch from this purple plumber will send you spiraling inevitably toward the blastzone. Dismantling his opponents, this season saw Raru reach new peaks and take a spot among the titans of the game.
At Sumabato SP 56, he’d fall early to Jagabata, but rallied and mounted a nine set losers run. After a reverse 3-0 in the runback against the dog and duck duo, Raru swept the competition and took home a major win.
But it was merely a prelude for what was to come.
It’s the first week of May. At Kagaribi #13, the biggest Smash Ultimate tournament ever, Raru seems unstoppable. ATATA, Ryopei, AndresFn, Zomba, each fall like dominoes. Glutonny and Wrath cannot stop Raru’s greed for victory, and a run to be envied by all reaches its climax.
acola’s Steve stands in his way.
Their set history? Five consecutive losses for the Luigi main. But to Raru, none of that matters right now. Down throw, back air. Game one. Neutral air, up B. Game two. acola takes the third game, but Raru is unfazed. Game four isn’t close.
Raru reaches Grand Finals of the biggest tournament in Smash Ultimate history.
In Grand Finals, acola is finally able to find his footing, but Raru finishes out with a silver medal at the biggest Ultimate tournament ever.
With names like Luugi and Kiyarash finding their own success at premiers this year, Kagaribi #13 is a reminder to those who doubt him that Raru is no flash in the pan. He’s the best Luigi in the world, and month by month, bracket after bracket, continues to build a legacy that will long be remembered.
— Rose “Rosebloom” Kermode
Syrup had begun to make a name for himself in the summer of 2021, spawning into the New Jersey scene with a small history of local events but a long resume of online training.
Consistently placing top 4 on the power rankings as a young Ness main, he was the kid everyone knew would become a top player one day. His game sense, his flashy combos, and his lion-like mentality left no one surprised when he climbed the global rankings throughout the years.
But in this previous season, he evolved from a top player to a true global threat. Syrup’s always been capable of taking names, making large dents in his extensive set records with Tristate's best, current Top 50 players such as Zomba, Dabuz, and Jakal. But what sets this season apart for the Steve/Ness co-main is his breakthrough to threaten the absolute best of the best.
His increased usage of The Boy (Ness) has opened the door for him to take sets on two notorious Steve-slayers in Hurt at Battle of BC 7 and Sparg0 at Cavalier Clash 6, the event that would become Syrup’s first ever major win. Whether it's with Steve, Ness, or LeBron, Syrup has made it crystal clear that there are no limits to his potential and shows no signs of stopping his climb to become King of the Jungle.
— Nathaniel Starr
