EURank 2023: 20–11
We are almost at the end, and today we have reached the part of the ranking where each one of these players is winning regionals without many issues. Congratulations to those who managed to crack the top 20!
Previous Articles:
#20: astar | Score: 20.29
The Southwest German Fox has been on the rise for years, and this time around, his efforts finally conclude in a well deserved position on the latest EU wide rankings. Having had his big-time come up during the lockdown era, he came back to in-person tournaments in late 2021, and people recognised astar’s meteoric improvement right away. Being notoriously underseeded, his wins over the likes of Kins0, Tekk, Fecfec, and GG — just to name a few — look as impressive on paper as his razor sharp punish game looks on screen. Hailing from the very quiet town of Plüderhausen, the forever 17-y/o is considered a big time homie for pretty much all of the German tournament regulars, because he rarely misses out on any tournaments. We hope to see the trend continue in 2024.
- yung Ullrich
#19: BlackH4ze | Score: 20.25
Maybe it’s playing on the B0XX, or starting out on a Xbox controller when initially getting into Melee — either way — BlackH4ze offers quite the unconventional twist to Marth and his punish game. Ever since he placed 2nd at his very first in-person tournament in Zurich and thus quickly became a local favorite, he continues to surprise even local players by confirming kills in the most obscure fashion, all while keeping his inputs airtight and lightning fast.
Although not very content with his overall results in 2023, BlackH4ze did achieve his first in-person top 8 at Somnio 4 by beating the French Luigi main Madness in a dominating 3–0. Playing in the NDM circuit, BlackH4ze qualified for the finals in Hannover by defeating notable names along the way, including Kins0 and Rikzz.
- 1tab
#18: Renzo | Score: 19.32
Happily married, homeowner and loving dog-father, Renzo might just be the most grown-up Smash player in the Netherlands. These changes have made it harder for Renzo to put all of his focus into the game he knows and loves, but when he did show up, he had a great impact. In the Netherlands, Renzo has consistently remained a top competitor, winning 4 out of his 6 attended tournaments, and achieved a solid 2nd place finish at Somnio 4 at the end of the year. Internationally, Renzo has been quite active, attending Fête, FESTA and Arcamelee. At these tournaments, he faced off with Pipsqueak 3 times, taking him to the brink in game 5 sets twice, showcasing at what level Renzo can compete.
Going into 2024, Renzo’s tournament attendance has been slightly hampered by his real life, but if you want to stay updated on the forefront of Marth technology, you HAVE to follow him on Twitter for his mind-blowing combo clips and educational content.
- Jim Morrison
#17: Rikzz | Score: 16.61
After dominating his own region and having a good showing at Avant la Fête, many Rikzz fans were shocked by the sudden retirement announcement of the best Fox main in Germany. However, the real surprise came at EISMAS, his inaugural tournament post-retirement, where he triumphed over Germany’s finest players, including a double victory over astar, securing the tournament from the winners’ side.
Despite fluctuating between retirement and comebacks, Rikzz remained a formidable presence at European tournaments. His journey featured victories against renowned players such as Irfan, Moe, Jadde, and Branspeed. Notably, in the online circuit of the German scene, he even overcame his teammate Kins0 twice.
Rikzz’ future in Melee may be uncertain, but you have to be certain that even if you have his back against the wall, you do not want to sit across him, whether he is officially retired or not, as he utters the 3 magical words: “Let’s go comeback”.
- Cyric
#16: Kingu | Score: 16.17
For Kingu, 2023 was a year of proving the naysayers wrong. At Myth 3, when he announced his full-time switch to the Fox secondary he’d once reserved for Jigglypuff and Peach, Kingu very quickly found himself at a similar level of performance he had done before, but a good bit less consistent than he was in the past. One of Kingu’s strongest international performances came early in the year at the pre-Collision Nightclub. Beating Louis and Ryobeat on top of bringing Aklo to the brink in a close game 3 led to a very strong 5th place and proved that he had the chops to perform on an international scale — something he hadn’t done prior to this.
Aside from his outing to Tristate, though, Kingu stayed in the UK for the majority of this year, attending an astounding 38 locals, regionals, invitationals and majors within his home country. The solid performances he put up throughout the year culminated in his big win at Pantheon, showing huge adaptations and edgeguarding the unedgeguardable, beating Frogchip, Jamie and Fat Tino twice after dropping a set of grands to Tino. In 2024, Kingu will be gunning for the #1 rank in the UK — his Fox is still yet to take a set off of Frenzy (though he’s shown twice that his back-pocket Puff still can), but if 2023 was any sign of Kingu’s performance, he’s just as capable as his contemporaries.
- zondy
#15: $TYN | Score: 15.89
$TYN, in large contrast to his fellow Rotterdam Fox main, Happymealz, is not much of a traveler. Since his ascension to the top of the Dutch scene, he has been sparsely seen at EU majors held outside of his native country the Netherlands. He broke this pattern by attending Fête 3: By The Sea, where he placed 25th, beating epikfaal, DonB, Branspeed, and Stranger. As usual, he claimed his strongest wins domestically, successfully defending Somnio and Boulevard #5 against the frequent invader max, culminating in a 4–2 record against the UK Sheik across the entire year.
His wins, along with his strong records against other top Dutch players such as Risc, skullbro and Aaron, have helped him reclaim the 2nd spot on the Dutch PR, despite the region only getting stronger and stronger. It will be exciting to see if we will get to see more of this elusive Fox main’s skills at the biggest stages that European Melee has to offer.
- nago
#14: Aaron| Score: 15.17
The currently #1 ranked player in the Netherlands has been a bit of an enigma for a few years. The Brabant Sheik main initially broke into the scene with his win at the Mission Complete Arcadian back in 2017, reaching his pre-pandemic peak at 6th on the 2019 Dutch PR. After the pandemic Aaron didn’t exactly pick up where he left off as he had attended only two domestic tournaments in 2022. He did start that year with a win at DSEA Winter 2022, but we had to wait until 2023 to see him truly leave his mark on the European scene.
In 2023, Aaron attended every large Dutch tournament and performed admirably at all of them. He managed to keep a winning record against every Dutch player not named $TYN and contested a lot of the foreign invaders at all domestic events. He successfully defended his country against the neighboring Belgian invader LunarySSF2, managing to end the year 4–1 up in sets. These and many other strong wins, including his wins against raoul and max at his first out-of-region tournament in 5 years, leave everyone just a bit more curious if we will continue to see this level of activity from one of Europe’s best Sheik players.
- nago
#13: Moe | Score: 13.68
While the American Melee scene grappled with the unexpected “Donkey Kong Renaissance” in 2023, Europeans could only nod in agreement, confirming suspicions that DK might be more than a “wack midtier”, as Moe had long been cementing his legacy across the Atlantic. Dating back to 2019, Moe had already captured the hearts of European Melee enthusiasts, as he kicked off that year by giant punching a prime Professor Pro to the losers bracket, and eventually securing his spot as #30 on the previous European ranking.
While much has changed since then, Moe’s propensity for violence against Britain’s elite Melee players has clearly persisted. His journey in 2023 featured notable set wins over Frenzy, Max, and Fat Tino, once again solidifying the blue Donkey Kong’s spot on top of the food-chain, as echoes of chimpanzee-like screams, screeches and hoots can still be heard in venues all over Europe.
This year marked another significant milestone for Moe, as he ventured across the ocean to the United States, joining his DK revolution brethren and similarly clinching multiple top-100 wins. Returning home, he could reflect on impressive victories over renowned US players like Dawson, TheSwooper, Preeminent, and JJM, showcasing the global reach of the Renaissance, and their collective ability to kick some tail. Ultimately though, it was at Super Smash Con’s “Ganondorf vs. Donkey Kong Crew Battle” that Moe truly etched his name in Melee history. As he single-handedly took down seven stocks, he outshone all of his Donkey Kong compatriots, undeniably left a mark on the legacy of the “DK Renaissance” and, perhaps most importantly, denied the Ganondorf players of 5000$ for their nefarious schemes.
- “Thore” Emil Blaksmark
#12: Kins0 | Score: 12.90
Kins0 is living proof that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Behind the facade of the somewhat reserved pun-connoisseur lies the beast of a gamer that is Kins0. Touted by many as the European Mang0, it’s hard to find someone else who makes Falco look as fast as he does. Despite prioritizing his private life for most of 2023, he still shocked everyone by delivering one of the most exciting sets on European soil that year. Having gone down 0–2 vs. Cody Schwab at Arcamelee #4, Kins0 was able to bring it back to a game 5 last stock set against the №1 ranked player. Cody Schwab ended up closing out the set, but performances like this, while painful (let’s not talk about his last couple of sets against Leffen…), show us that Kins0 can hang with the best of the best and that there’s not a lot missing for him to actually be able to take some of those sets. We hope that Kins0 continues to excite us with his gameplay and infuriate us with his bad puns in the future.
- Schima
#11: Sharp | Score: 11.90
Over the course of the pandemic, Sharp has gone from being ranked 50th in Europe to being comfortably within the continent’s top echelon. Through entering a multitude of tournaments, online and offline, they’ve grinded their way up the ladder and cemented their status among the online era’s biggest winners. Their style of fundamental mixups in neutral and conversions into advantage state, in addition to them developing a secondary Fox for Jigglypuff begs a comparison that has given them their moniker as the Swedish Armada.
Narrowly missing out on being ranked within the top 100 for 2022 meant Sharp was fairly inactive during the start of the 2023 ranking year. Despite that, Sharp showed they could still hang with the best when they took a set over Pipsqueak at Smash @ Space #2 in March, before coming back in a stretch of tournaments over the summer. Picking up wins over mordo, BlackH4ze, Risc and Moe, Sharp’s Fête 3 was among the most notable runs of that tournament with a very impressive 9th placing. Managing to triumph over the Donkey Kongs shows Sharp’s unrelenting improvement particularly well, going from a losing record to Moe in 2022 to having Moe’s number in 2023, where the record is 3–0 in Sharp’s favour. 2024 will prove to be a transitional year for Sharpmada, who’s hoping to prove that Sharpfox can do it just like the Peach has.
- zondy
That concludes ranks 20–11 of EURank 2023. Thank you for reading, and join us tomorrow when we find out who Europe’s 10 best players of 2023 are.
The EURank Team
Dominik “Nicki” Kunze — Director
Wout “Noxxa” van Poppel — Assistant Director & Data Lead
Nago — Assistant Director & Data Collection
EuO — Data Collection
Ambisinister — Data Processing
zondy — chill viber
Filip “Flippy” Tengwall — Graphics Lead
Brendan “GimmeDatWheat” Malone — Consultation
