LumiRank Mid-Year 2023 Rankings | 50 - 41

Welcome to LumiRank Mid-Year 2023! As the Smash Ultimate scene continues to grow and talent pools continue to deepen, carving out a position at the top of the metagame is harder than ever. We’re excited to now recognize those players that have put in the work to rise to the top.

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As a reminder, LumiRank Mid-Year 2023 is meant to be a check-in point as we continue through 2023, and our end-of-year ranking will cover the entirety of this season as well as the remainder of the year.

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For more information about the LumiRank partnership, the release schedule, and more, check out the introductory article here.

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Atelier is a player that can only be described by one word: chaos. At times, he is one of the most refined Wolf players in the world. At other times, he finds himself taking losses to relatively unknown players maining unusual characters. All the same, he has a long history in Smash, dating back to the Smash 4 days as a top 5 Rosalina player worldwide. 

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In Ultimate, his ride has been a rollercoaster, with him settling just barely in the top 50, a hair ahead of Cosmos. While there’s a lot of discussion that could be had on some of his weirder events, he makes the top 50 off a strong early season, placing seventh at Umebura SP 9 with wins over Miya, Abadango, zackray, and KEN. Just a month later, he’d also take two from Shuton.

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Whatever you might say about his valleys, Atelier’s peaks this season are impressive, and definitely worthy of a top 50 player.

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— Joshua “Barnard’s Loop” Craig

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With a shiny new sponsor behind his back, multi-character specialist Rizeasu has been more active than ever, making appearances on both ends of the Japanese archipelago as well as the major hubs in between. By and large, Rizeasu stayed fairly consistent throughout his sizable attendance; though he didn’t break out with any major top 8s or regional wins, he was able to consistently make strong runs, only sporadically falling prey to the upsets that haunted many of his Japanese peers.

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In an unusual turn of events, Rizeasu’s character pool stayed fairly consistent; instead of picking up new characters, he opted instead to hone some of his more recent acquisitions, using Cloud and Terry to take sets off of Yoshidora, Senra, Nietono and more. Along with keeping his staple Marth, Byleth, and Sephiroth in practice as well as sprinkling in some appearances from older secondaries, Rizeasu seems to have solidified his formidable roster. And that in itself is already a frightening thought for those who will have to face the multi-main master in bracket.

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— Kenny “kenniky” Wang

You couldn’t make up a better example of a hidden boss than Quidd if you tried. Though he’s been one of Tristate’s strongest players ever since tournaments reemerged from quarantine, the best Pokémon Trainer in the world has only left his region once. He made himself a household name in 2022 despite this with his stellar performances at Let’s Make Big Moves and Collision, but barely entered anything larger than a weekly for the rest of the year — so much so that he was cut for attendance on basically every end-of-year ranking. But 2023 has seen Quidd venture out more and, maybe as importantly, New York City flourish with high-level regionals, and so he’s gotten significantly more chances to prove that he really is just that strong.

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Though Quidd was unable to repeat the ludicrous heights he’d achieved last year at the two Tristate majors this season, he still emerged with quality wins over the likes of Chase and Dabuz, but it’s at regionals where he truly reminded the world that he was one of the best. Dual B tier wins at EON: Revelation and High Rez were accompanied with wins over Zomba, Jakal, Lui$, LeoN, and Quandale Dinglelingleton. With an astounding 6-1 record over the top 50, Quidd has clearly proven that he can hold his own against the strongest players in the world — and this is all while traveling no further than New Jersey. If he starts expanding his horizons, there’s no telling what heights he might be able to achieve.

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— Kenny “kenniky” Wang

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Dread it. Run from it. The zero to death still arrives. This could well be the calling card of Luugi, as no matter the state of play, the Canadian-born can and will find a way to convert a single opening into a one way ticket to the angel platform.

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Coming off a white-hot year with multiple major victories, Luugi had an unexpectedly slow start to 2023 as he experimented with secondary characters. However, entering Invasion: April 2023 it seemed he had finally re-committed to his namesake with incredible results, defeating AndresFn and Bloom4Eva and scoring a dominant 3-0 over Glutonny in their first ever set. This was followed by a trip wrought with travel problems to Battle of BC 5 for his one and only tournament outside of Europe, securing a win over BassMage before falling to the eventual 4th place finish and winner for 25th. Had the bracket panned out in any other way, who knows what heights we’d have seen Luugi reach. To cap off the season, Luugi showed his inspirational grit at King Of Fields 95 #3, fighting through Tarik, Space, Sisqui and quiK in losers side to reach grand finals.

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With an aggressive style of play and a smorgasbord of strong wins, this terrifying free agent has not only cemented himself as one of the best in England, but as a top tier European competitor, the strongest Luigi player on the planet today and a hard earned 47th rank on this list.

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— Tom “G-P” Scott

takera made a huge leap this season, ascending from outside the top 50 on OrionRank’s Japan regional ranking all the way to 46th place worldwide. takera’s main problem last year was his propensity for some mystifying losses. In 2023 that trend has turned around, as he placed no lower than 33rd, with his losses in these instances often coming against opponents one would not expect to meet so early in bracket. Missing top 32 at MaesumaTOP #11 with losses to Yoshidora and Yaura cannot be described as anything other than unfortunate.

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takera won the superregional Gen 1.0 over alice and Jagaimo as well as the regional NUMASUMA 9 beating Tsubaki twice, with a key win over a difficult player matchup in Japan’s notorious Little Mac Tarakotori. Perhaps takera’s most impressive performances, though, were his two 5th place finishes at supermajors MaesumaTOP #13 and DELTA #4. MaesumaTOP saw him pick up perhaps his best win of the season over Gackt, after previously losing seven straight sets against the Ness main, while at DELTA he beat a good handful of top 100 players in Toriguri, Cosmos, Noi, and M0tsunabE. With this increase in consistency giving him plenty of chances, it’s only a matter of time before takera starts making huge upsets once again.

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— James “Doxazo” Rivers

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Jakal had a rough start to his year. His first three majors of the season didn’t see the Wolf get close to top 16. He picked up some decent wins, but nothing out of the ordinary. When the A-tier MAJOR UPSET came around, we saw a new Jakal. He would suffer an early upset from Washington Mario Ludo, but then follow up with an incredible six set losers run over Lui$, Fizzmint, the runback with Ludo, and Bassmage before falling to Big D for 5th.

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Jakal is unlike many top players. He will still practice the game and go to locals very frequently. This would very quickly pay off at Crown the Third. His run there was more than just impressive: it caused everyone to turn their heads at the New Jersey native. At Crown, Jakal would overtake three people who at one point or another, were considered by many to be the best in the world. He would not only beat MkLeo, Sparg0, and Onin twice, but he would even take the runback against Shuton before falling to the champion Zomba for 2nd.

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Jakal is someone that many gloss over. He’s often overshadowed by players of similar performances. The main difference with Jakal is that despite a poor performance, he’ll just take a few weeks to grind locals or monthlies, and then bounce back stronger. He does not lose his drive, and his insane improvement shows that.

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— Benjamin “BennyTheGreat” Schmid

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Basically an unknown before this season, Tsubaki’s run at JAPAN 24 garnered a lot of attention, not only because of his flashy playstyle, but also because of his run to 5th, getting Asimo, Rizeasu and Masha wíns in the process.

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Tsubaki definitely has an argument for strongest player within his region, as he has a winning record on every top Chubu player. This includes a 2-0 on all of Masha, Sigma and DIO, as well as a 1-0 on Toura. And this is not even mentioning his sets on out of region talent, such as a 3-1 record on Shuton, wins on Nao, Karaage, Noi, Shogun, Ezs, and Toriguri, as well as his best win of the season: Miya.

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After MkLeo relegated Joker to a secondary or even tertiary at times, someone had to pick up the mantle. While MkLeo's footsteps are certainly big ones to fill, if there's someone that can do it, it's Tsubaki. His playstyle brings a certain flair that only few people can match, and his results can only be assumed to follow suit soon. 

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Considering Tsubaki only started playing competitively in 2021, it makes sense that his results at majors would be a bit subpar. But all of his regionals point towards one thing: this kid is very good, and he's here to stay.

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— Jonas “Fortuna” Stritzinger

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Formerly known as Doraemon’s Right Arm, Doramigi debuts as the youngest player on this list at a mere 13 years of age. This does not mean he should be underestimated by any means, though. The newest addition to Maedakun’s ever growing army of teenage top players, Doramigi has been a familiar face at Kansai’s biggest weekly and monthly series, Maesuma HIT and Sumabato. His persistence has rewarded him with a steady growth, rising up the ranks quickly.

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In March, he managed to top 8 his first Sumabato, defeating Asimo along the way. While the 7th place was at the time a career highlight, it was nothing compared to what was left to come. During Golden Week, Doramigi survived the onslaught of American invaders and picked up a win on Dabuz at MaesumaTOP #12. It was at the same tournament series, however, in the Hanazono Rugby Stadium nearly two months later, that his story would truly begin.

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At MaesumaTOP #13, Doramigi embarked on a once in a lifetime run defeating a rogue’s gallery of Japanese top players. He ran through Tea, Luminous, Yoshidora and even ProtoBanham in the ditto, clearly looking like the best Min Min player in the world. To qualify for the championship finals at the rugby stadium, he managed to score a final victory over Kameme, which he celebrated like any athlete would - by running onto the field.

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While his Grand Finals Cinderella run was a miracle performance, Doramigi has no intent of leaving it at just that. Look forward to seeing the world’s most talented middle schooler continue to compete throughout the rest of the year!

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— Alice “Alice” Len

Lima’s placement here might surprise some, but he’s been working more than you might expect. He entered many C and D tier events, which further boosted his already stellar season. Of the 10 D to B tier events he entered, he made top 3 in seven of them, and these weren’t just large locals either — some big names were in attendance. He’s amounted wins on SHADIC, omega, Jahzz0, Scend, ApolloKage, Vendetta, Sonido, MuteAce, Peabnut, and Larry Lurr at these events, and that doesn’t even scratch the surface of his resume.

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Lima was among the group of players to travel to Japan for their cluster of majors. He got 17th at the two he entered, losing to three top 15 players in Shuton, Acola, and Riddles. Despite these losses, Lima picked up some of the best wins of his season. Among these wins were HIKARU and Kaninabe, two very strong players that have a history of stopping runs.

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His big event though, was Collision, where he managed a 5th place over Tweek, Ling, Kurama, and ShinyMark, before falling to Skyjay and Maister, both of whom were on some of the best runs of their lives. Lima consistently proves again and again that Bayonetta is still a powerhouse of a character, and her constantly evolving combo game is something that Lima is using to his advantage to further push himself at tournaments.

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— Benjamin “BennyTheGreat” Schmid

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Emerging after quarantine as one of SoCal’s biggest grinders, Chase has been the region's #1 for much of the past two years. And as he gains more experience traveling, he’s finally starting to convert his dominant local results to internationally relevant performances.

Chase started his year off strong with a win over Riddles at Genesis, before losing to and subsequently throwing a chair at Kola. He would later obtain his first ever major top 8 at MAJOR UPSET, where he defeated Ouch!?. It wasn’t until June, however, that Chase would have his true breakout event. At Utah supermajor Crown the Third he would take an early loss to a red hot Jakal before wrecking havoc upon the losers bracket. After a close game 5 set with Lui$ almost saw him bow out at 17th, he defeated top seeds Tea and Light back to back to make his second top 8 of the year.

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As one of the last believers in Palutena in the era of Incineroar, Chase’s hard work has finally started paying off. And knowing the competitor in him, he has no intent of slowing down any time soon.

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— Alice “Alice” Len

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