Rising stars, old faces, and a comeback five years in the making culminate in today's article.
Welcome everyone to another year of PMRank! PMRank is a panel-based Power Ranking of the Top 50 Project+ players in North America. We're excited to put together another list of the best performers throughout the 30+ eligible events this year, covering Exodus 2023 through Honeypot 6. Initially, 76 players were qualified to be ranked based on their placings and attendance at major Project+ events throughout 2023. Panelists were tasked with reviewing this data and ranking each player in order, from #1 to #76. For each player, the highest and lowest rankings on all panelists’ lists were removed when averaging votes to reduce variance. After an initial ballot, panelists were given time to discuss the aggregated results and move closer to consensus in the case of players with high standard deviations. Then, panelists submitted a second and final ballot to determine the placement of our PMRank Top 50.
This project would not have been possible without the dedicated volunteers who helped us engineer spreadsheets, track down tournament data, construct head-to-head charts, create and revise ranking ballots, write and edit player summaries, and gather photographs. A number of photographers have given us permission to use their high-quality photographs of Project M/+ players for the purposes of this project as well.
The full list of eligible events and eligibility requirements for PMRank 2023 can be found on our start.gg hub.
Think of any hat in the Project+ community and Motobug has probably worn it. Be it tournament organizer, video editor, custom build designer, member of the PMRank staff and the Project+ development team, Motobug continues to be one of the most dedicated and hard-working contributors to our scene. You would think all this wouldn’t leave any time for competing, but Motobug has once again found themselves on the annual PMRank for the third iteration in a row, continuing to show the effectiveness of their Sonic & Knuckles dual mains. Starting off the year with a bang at Mile High Club, Motobug defeated Star, Dr. Grin, and fellow statesman Flarp to make top 8 at the biggest tournament of the year. For fans of the always burgeoning Midwest P+ scene, Motobug was also a mainstay of their multiple majors this year, accruing wins on Not Chris, grealy, guttey, Ripple, and mawwwk throughout Motobug’s three trips to the Midwest. Once again, Motobug has shown through thick and thin that they’re always ready to step up to the plate for Project+, be it behind the scenes or at the top level of play, and we’ll be lucky to have them around for many more years to come.
Written By: Flarp
Massachusetts' very own Luigi main Flarp has once again piloted the Green Missile to land back in the PMRank taking the position of #29. Taking a short trip down to New York, Flarp really cracked the ice at the Lake George Snowdown by beating Gallo, Mr.Watch&Learn, and Bongo. Maintaining a love for cold weather, Flarp traveled out for Mile High Club, where he made sure to show his skills while trying to claim the summit. Starting off strong in pools, Flarp beat Colorado’s hidden boss, Arcana, and then he beat Potatoes in a close game three to make it into the top 32. Flarp was put into the lower bracket by Blue, but he was not done yet as he tore through Qtip and Polear, but he was stopped short of top 8 by Motobug. On his home turf at Blacklisted 8, Flarp soared his way into top 8 beating Wombat, Mira, and Young Quaff before the flight ended in a very close game five set with Shiny Zubat, securing his placement at seventh. Flarp maintained a season of single digit placements at majors with the underappreciated Brother, while showing us Luigi is number one in his heart!
Written By: [Fleabag]
It’s impossible to talk about Samantha without mentioning her meteoric rise through the ranks. Ascending to #28 on PMRank within two years of putting on the gloves isn’t just rare, it’s virtually unheard of. Not only that, she didn’t drop a single set to anyone below the top 50, demonstrating marked consistency in her performance. Despite a lack of access to reliable Netplay and entering few locals, Samantha has achieved this consistency mostly through thinking about situations in her idle time. This simple but efficient method of improvement has become her biggest strength, helping her to become a multi-game talent capable of reaching the upper echelon of competition in myriad titles across genres, such as Valorant, osu!, and Anime Music Quiz. The skills absorbed from multiple games in tandem with her clairvoyant theorycrafting bestowed her the power to best top-level opponents such as mawwwk, evil lesbian, grealy, Veka, ORLY, and Dirtboy two times with cold and calculating precision. Will Samantha react her way to the top in 2024?
Written By: evil lesbian
Originally a solo Lucas main, Av added Kirby to his repertoire in 2022, and he used both characters to earn a spot on PMRank 2022 at #46. At the start of 2023, Av continued to dual main Lucas and Kirby, but as the year progressed, the squishy star warrior grew on him, with Av switching mains to Kirby as he realized the fun Kirby had to offer. Even with multiple top 16 placings at major events including fourth at Against All Odds, Av wasn’t satisfied but still proud of wins on players such as Chaloopy, Cloudburst, and grealy,. No one can deny Av’s insane dedication and grinding mindset as seen in the more than 20 WNF x NorCal Online P+ brackets he entered and won in 2023 alone. NorCal can be a brutal competitive scene but with them pushing him to get better everyday, NorCal can proudly stand behind the incredible player known as Av.
Written By: RAVN
From the 2022 Edge of Glory to full blown ranker, Shadowhawke reeled himself into #26. Shadowhawke made an impression last year in his buildup to qualify for and then win the National Arcadian, The Fight at Fireside. He then made his breakout performance at Shine Out of Shield claiming the event as his own and making waves on the way to top 8 of Honeypot 6. At Shine Out of Shield, ‘hawke took notable sets off Flarp and grealy on his ascent up, then soared through Foxy Grandpa twice, and then onto Aklo in Grand Finals where he reset the bracket to win the tournament. After COVID prevented Shadowhawke from attending Blacklisted 8, which would have been the last event he needed to qualify for PMRank, there was a fire in ‘hawke to make it out to the last event of the year, Honeypot 6. There, he powered through his pool, only losing a single game to MVZY, and he continued onward to take sets off Lord Wavy, metroid, and Veka, to secure his spot in top 8 of this stacked bracket. Going from holding edge to securely positioning himself center stage, ‘hawke has claimed his spot as 2023’s #26.
Written By: [Fleabag]
Being in the medical field, Ellipsis is a very busy man. While it’s hard for the Mr. Game & Watch mainstay to find time to attend events, he was able to make great runs at the tournaments he did attend. Starting the year at Joey’s Birthday Bash 2, Ellipsis earned victories over Nave, wren, Boat, and guttey for a seventh place finish at the 100+ person event. At Invincible VII, Ellipsis bowed out early to MVZY and Veka, but Undertow 2023 was a grand return to form. With impressive wins over Samantha, Motobug, WouldSmokeCraq, and Comb, the Game & Watch only fell to a red-hot Jagz$ for third place in a notoriously difficult matchup. Finally, at the invitational On The House 2, he defeated fellow top Michigan player Dirtboy while falling to regional titans Morsecode762 and techboy for another top three finish. It’s admirable to see a veteran of the character carrying the torch for Mr. Game & Watch in the modern era, and Ellipsis being able to balance a medical profession and top-level Project+ performances is a feat that has to be respected.
Written By: Motobug
Milking cows at the Lon Lon Ranch isn’t the only farming Suvir does — Suvir farmed wins to cultivate himself as one of the top P+ Sheiks in 2023. He started the year off with Exodus 2023 and landed a solid 13th place finish despite falling at the hands of up-and-comers Nerfy and Zaza. This event left Suvir unsatisfied and eager to prove himself as he traveled to the Mile High City for Mile High Club. As he fought through bracket, Suvir defeated Studebacher Hoch and PMRank 2022’s #47, Anday. Suvir earned a solid 17th place with losses to Ice Climbers specialist Serb and Washington’s #1, Pikmon. At this point, Suvir found himself feeling as though he was struggling with constant tournament nerves and inconsistency. Taking some time to work on mentality and practicing everyday leading up to the Texas major, The Back Hit. This was a milestone event for Suvir where, despite falling into losers in pools at the hands of Jhamp, he had a chance to show his mentality that his work had paid off. Suvir tore through the bracket and placed fifth while taking down top competitors Dr. Grin, Twisty, Fury, Comb, and Chaloopy along the way before falling to Link master Blue. It was this tournament where Suvir found his competitive groove and the momentum to carry his confidence through the rest of 2023. Taking a short competitive break, Suvir showed up next at Blacklisted 8. Here, Suvir suffered a tough loss at the hands of Ness connoisseur Mira, but he climbed through the bracket taking names such as ~CP9~, Thalia, and Gclem. Eliminated by Comb in a runback from The Back Hit, Suvir earned a ninth place finish. Finishing the year off at Against All Odds, Suvir beat top PNW player Catosat before he faced 2023 up-and-comer and another one of the game’s top Ness players, WouldSmokeCraq. Suvir showed drastic improvement in his approach to the Ness matchup and closed out a tight game five set victory. He then fell to his NorCal co-competitor SipMastah and Lucas expert grealy, earning a seventh place finish. With Suvir’s work on the PMRank team, the Lon Lon Ranch podcast, and his skills in brackets, Suvir is proving to be an admirable community contributor and showing a lot of promise as one of the next top Sheiks in P+.
Written By: RAVN
New York’s finest Meta Knight, Boiko, makes a grand return to the top 50, joining several of his regional peers. Looking to return to PMRank since his #25 rank on PMRank 2018, Boiko returned to traveling to compete at the national level to see if this NY household name could still place among the stars. Boiko had a shaky start to the season at Lake George Snowdown where he only secured wins on fellow New Yorker Mr.Watch&Learn and later falling to Kycse and a certain obese pige…penguin on their Cinderella bracket run. Boiko quickly bounced back however at Texas’ The Back Hit with an insane losers run. After suffering an early loss to Midwest rising “Star,” Boiko tore through tia, Rise, and metroid as well as Texas’ P+ playing Melee guard of Salt and SDJ with the help of a surprise character switch to ZSS. His run was only matched and ended by fellow NYer Bongo for seventh place. Boiko then attended Blacklisted and emerged victorious over homefield defenders in grealy and Twisty, and he was only stopped by Malachi and again Bongo for ninth. Boiko rounded out his year at New York's triannual regional Cream of the Crop. Here, he took home wins over Thalia, Shiny Zubat, and finally exacted revenge on Bongo while losing only to Stango in Winners and Grand Finals on his way to an impressive second place finish. 2023 was a surprise showing from Boiko, but this member of New York's old guard showed he can still rise to the challenge and earn himself the place of #23 on this year's ranking.
Written By: Mr.Watch&Learn
The nicest man in the Midwest and Ike solo main, metroid, has successfully Aether’d himself up ten spots into rank #22 this season. He attended a grand total of eleven events, from Joey’s Birthday Bash 2 to Honeypot 6 and took notable sets at all of them. Some of those sets included two wins on Chaloopy at House of Paign 23, SoulOfficer and evil lesbian at Invincible VII, and Che and Veka at The Bird House 12. Of those eleven events, there were certain performances that shined particularly bright. At Mile High Club, metroid quickdrew his way into ninth by breezing past Domlax and Qtip in pools and Sneez and Nogh in the lower bracket. metroid had some stunning performances on his home turf as well, snagging a win over ORLY and two over Chaloopy at Honeypot 5 and sweeping through Nave, Thalia, and FlashingFire at Honeypot 6. From Aethering up and down the Midwest to Quickdrawing across the Rocky Mountains, metroid reminds everyone that he belongs amongst the pillars of PM/P+ history.
Written By: [Fleabag]
The old-school Melee legend ORLY returns this year intent on proving once and for all that an old “b*stard” can learn new “slides,” clocking in at #21 for his third consecutive PMRank placement — and his highest one yet. Piloting Captain Falcon with an electrifying, reads-based playstyle, ORLY is the yang to Chaloopy’s yin, with a resume to match. The Midwest hero started the season with a bang by earning a terrific third place at JBB2 stacked with its 110 competitors, beating out top 50 hopeful SoulOfficer and steamrolling his way through Samantha, Ellipsis, Kendrick, and Comb in an intense losers run. However, that was far from his only accomplishment this season. Despite attending a staggering eleven events this past year, his consistency left little to be desired as he only narrowly missed top 8 placement twice, and his peaks were towering, beating Comb, Chaloopy thrice, and most notably, perennial top player techboy at PM Concert. If Uncle O continues to adapt new-school tech like the Bertacchi Bounce (that’s footstooling for you non-Midwesterners) into his old-school reads-based playstyle, the sky will be the limit for this high-flying Falcon.
Written By: evil lesbian
Other PMRank 2023 Articles
1/29/2024 - PMRank 2023: The Edge of Glory
1/29/2024 - PMRank 2023: In The Margins
1/30/2024 - PMRank 2023: 50-41
1/31/2024 - PMRank 2023: 40-31
2/1/2024 - PMRank 2023: 30-21
2/2/2024 - PMRank 2023: 20-11
2/5/2024 - PMRank 2023: 10-7
2/6/2024 - PMRank 2023: 6-4
2/7/2024 - PMRank 2023: 3-1
1/29/2024 - PMRank 2023: In The Margins
1/30/2024 - PMRank 2023: 50-41
1/31/2024 - PMRank 2023: 40-31
2/1/2024 - PMRank 2023: 30-21
2/2/2024 - PMRank 2023: 20-11
2/5/2024 - PMRank 2023: 10-7
2/6/2024 - PMRank 2023: 6-4
2/7/2024 - PMRank 2023: 3-1
Last Year's Rankings
Credits
PMRank Staff:
- Che “Che” Woodson
- Brennan “FlashingFire” Connolly
- Paul “Motobug” Canavan
- Peter “Pikmon” Woodworth
Graphic Design and Character Renders:
- Paul "Motobug" Canavan
- Cosmetic Standardization Project (CSProject) & the Project+ Development Team
Editors:
- “CND”
- rye "evil lesbian"
- Artemis "[Fleabag]" Groobert
- Timothy “ilikepizza107” W.
- Paul "Motobug" Canavan
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