Introduction
Welcome to the 2022 ΩRank Top 100 Players in the world! This is an algorithmic ranking of players from post-Smash World Tour 2021 in late December of 2021 through the weekend of the Scuffed World Tour 2022. ΩRank is an iterative algorithm that ranks players based on their wins, losses, and who they outplaced and were outplaced by throughout the season. For details on how the algorithm works, see our newly updated methodology page.
Why top 100?
While the original plan was to do a half-year top 50 for events after Double Down, a summer covid scare in Japan combined with the unexpected cancellations of both Smash World Tour 2022 and the Panda Cup meant that there was not as much data as expected to produce an accurate top 50 using events from the back half of the year only. A twitter poll conducted in early December confirmed that a full year top 100 was the best option, with two thirds of voters supporting it. Besides, a full year top 100 is just cooler. Going forward the plan is to do a mid-year top 50 and an end of year top 100 in 2023 and future years.
What’s changed in the algorithm?
A number of significant changes were made to the ΩRank algorithm following our Spring 2022 release to improve the accuracy and objectiveness of the rankings.
1. Barriers to event qualification were lowered.
In order to ensure notable events weren’t being excluded, barriers to qualifying for the ranking were lowered across the board, especially for the mainland United States. The drop off in value from a top 5 player to a top 250 player was lessened, such that players in the 151-250 range now contribute twice as many qualification points as before. The number of qualification tiers was reduced, such that there are now only two tiers: One for the mainland US, Kanto, Kansai, and France (300 points required), and one for everywhere else (225 points required). Notable non-local events which didn’t hit this threshold were manually qualified if they could significantly impact the rankings, and this standard was also applied to events from the Spring 2022 season that had the potential to significantly impact the rankings. As before, qualification points are not used in the algorithm, with event weightings for the final ranking being determined using retroactive retiering.
2. International multipliers have been removed.
These didn’t have a huge impact on the Spring 2022 rankings and were always somewhat arbitrary, so they’ve been removed. The algorithm doesn’t care if an event happened in the US, Japan, Mexico, the UK, France, or Australia; it’s now treated equally regardless.
3. Outplacements matter more, but they’re now scaled based on peak wins.
The biggest problem with using placements for rankings in smash has always been the inconsistent difficulty of different players bracket paths to get a particular placement, thanks to upsets and DQs. This is best exemplified by the tale of two 9th place finishes at Super Smash Con 2022: Quandale Dinglelingleton got 9th by beating Brr, JeJaJeJa, and Apple, while Regalo did so by beating Sisqui, yonni, and ApolloKage. Under the Spring 2022 version of ΩRank, both would have gotten the same number of outplacement points from this (though Regalo would get far more win points). Under the new version of ΩRank, the outplacement points a player gains from an event are scaled by their best win at the event, in order to deal with these “unearned placements”. Thanks to this, Regalo now gets 2.8x as many outplacement points as Quandale Dinglelingleton. In fact, many players who placed below Quandale Dinglelingleton still got more outplacement points at SSC than him, such as Mr. E (who placed 25th with a win on Sonix).
4. Regionals are weighted higher in averaging measures.
When determining a player’s average worst loss and average peak win across the events that they attended, previously an S+ tier would be weighted nearly 6x as much as a C-tier would be. This was a greater differential than was intended, and it’s been reduced such that now an S+ tier is weighted only 2.7x what a minimum value C-tier is.
5. Wins on players are now adjusted based on volatility.
Some top players in Smash can beat anyone and lose to anyone; others who might be similarly ranked don’t get quite as high peaks, but also almost never get upset. Scoring an upset on a player in the latter category is often more impressive than beating a similarly ranked player in the former category, and the algorithm now reflects this by giving slightly more points for beating players with a low volatility, measured based on the difference between a player’s worst losses and their best wins. High volatility players have a very large difference between the scores of their worst losses and best wins, while low volatility players have a very small difference between them. The least volatile players have worst losses that are better than their best wins, though no top 100 players in 2022 achieved this.
Bans, suspensions, and attendance cuts
Players who have the results to be ranked in the top 100 may still be excluded from it if they fit into one of three categories:
1. Players who are serving an indefinite ban from their local scene and/or from majors are excluded from the ranking entirely and will not be mentioned on playercards or blurbs.
2. Players who are serving temporary bans with defined expiry dates, or who are known to be under active investigation for serious misconduct are suspended from the rankings. They are not ranked themselves, but may be mentioned on playercards or blurbs.
3. Players who failed to meet the minimum attendance requirement of 3 tournaments (including 2 majors) or 4 tournaments (including one major) are excluded from the top 100, but are still given playercards and blurbs if their results placed them in the top 100.
Players in all 3 categories are treated as top 100 wins or losses for a player if the algorithm put them within the top 100, so the number of players who count as top 100 wins or losses is slightly more than 100.
Tournament Tiering Changes
A number of changes were made to tournament tiering following the mid-year release that resulted in some tournaments from the first half of the year rising or falling slightly. Calculations were changed to be somewhat more top heavy, so the difference in contribution from a top 10 player and a low top 100 player is now greater. The removal of international multipliers caused a drop in the tier of events that received the full international multiplier before such as Delfino Maza RETA 2022 and e-Caribana Invitational. Changes in the rankings of certain players from the spring release to the end of year release also had an impact. Past 400 entrants there are diminishing returns for additional entrants, with points per entrant falling from 3 points below 401 entrants to 1 point above 800 entrants. This means it’s substantially more difficult to become a major off of entrants alone if the talent level isn’t comparable to the entrant count. Lastly, the thresholds for a tournament to reach a certain tier were changed from the arbitrary thresholds used in the spring release to (still arbitrary but) consistent thresholds: C-tiers are 450 points (equivalent to 150 entrants, or roughly equivalent to a top 5 player and a top 50 player), B-tiers 900 points, A-tiers 1800 points, and S-tiers 3600 points.
ΩRank 2022: Attendance Cuts
These two players each had the quality of results to be placed in the top 50, but their low attendance throughout the year relegates them to honorable mentions.
Yuki “Etsuji” Kajihara’s appearances in 2022 were sparse and concentrated over a span of barely over a month, but the results he accrued in that time were second among Diddy players only to Tweek. At Kagaribi 7, he finished at a modest 25th, beating shori in the finals of his pool before falling in a tight game 5 set to Lea. In losers, he eliminated Lv.1 3-0 before losing to Eim 1-3. At Maesuma TOP 8, he defeated Kaninabe in winners before losing 1-3 to ProtoBanham. He then embarked on one of the most impressive losers runs of the year, defeating Motsunabe 3-0, ZAKI 3-0, Paseriman 3-2, HIKARU 3-2, and Asimo 3-1 to make top 8, where he faced ProtoBanham in the runback. Turning the tables, he defeated Proto 3-1 before falling 0-3 to Yoshidora.
Completely absent from the Japanese tournament scene after mid-June, this paucity of results might make him easy to forget amidst a sea of other rapidly improving Diddy players like Aaron, Kojika Yoshio, and Ryuoh, but make no mistake: once he starts showing up again, Etsuji is sure to make you remember why he’s considered Japan’s best Diddy and one of the best players in the world.
One of the newest top players to the scene, Desmona appears here courtesy of a top 8 finish at his first ever major and sole ranked event of the year, Mainstage 2022. First entering WiFi events in April of 2021 and offline events in March of last year, Desmona quickly rose to #1 in Wisconsin by only ever losing one of his nine attended locals. Despite strong results in-region and online, lack of offline experience against out of region players meant that he was more or less a total unknown going into Mainstage, with those familiar with the WiFi scene curious how he’d do, but few expected the incredible run that followed. Defeating Peckham in the semifinals of his pool, he then faced Riddles to make top 64, where he opened the set with a statement three stock. Though Riddles clawed back, winning the next two games, Desmona was able to close it out by getting a two stock game 4 and a one stock win game 5 to make it into top 64. He then earned a 3-1 win on Zinoto —a player who had already gotten an Onin win a few months prior—and defeated Asimo 3-1 to make top 16, where he lost 0-3 to ApolloKage. After a 3-1 win on Chag in losers, he was eliminated 0-3 by Kurama to end his run at 7th.
Desmona enters 2023 with plenty of momentum at his side, and fans eager to see if his Mainstage breakout will be repeated at future events. In a year full of Steve players bursting onto the scene, Desmona’s breakout might have come last, but it was certainly not least.
The 101st Player
When calculating ΩRank 2022, it quickly became clear that one of the tightest margins on the ranking was between who was to be #100 and #101, a margin that at times was between a 1000th of a percent. As such, the idea that one be honored on the ranking with all the bells and whistles and one not receive them became patently absurd. Though a late-breaking change to the ranking by correcting a tournament being missing and a set being erroneously counted widened the gap, it did so by flipping which of the pair made top 100 and which did not. As such, it became clear that the 101st player who just barely missed being on the rankings deserved recognition. In a year full of insane upsets and tight competition, this player came so close to placing in the top 100 but fell just short.
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The best Belmont player in the world, Dominic “CS3 | T3 DOM” Carone has been a staple presence in SoCal’s smash scene since Ultimate’s release, and has been steadily improving in the post-quarantine era. Markedly improved attendance this year and solid wins at majors nearly gave Dom a spot in the top 100, though ultimately he fell just short.
After opening the year with a solid second place finish at Festival of Fights 2022, where he earned wins on Monte and Chag, he followed it up with his first major top 16 of the year by placing 13th at Glitch – Infinite with a win on Ned. He’d falter with a rough 65th at Genesis 8, losing to ESAM 0-2 and RockMan 1-2, but bounced back at Double Down 2022, where he took down Suarez, Sticky, and scored a game 5 win on Jakal to make top 24 before falling to KEN 1-3 and Kurama 0-3. After another underperformance at Wavedash 2022, where he lost to Quinn 1-2 in winners and Hungrybox 1-3 in losers, he staged a successful campaign to get into Smash Ultimate Summit 5. Though he went 1-5 to four top 20 players and Anathema, he earned a narrow game 5 win on Dabuz, the best win of his career and his last event of the season.
Although inconsistency at big events ultimate means Dom comes up short of a spot in the top 100, he’s on a clear upward trajectory, and is poised to finally make it in 2023.
ΩRank: The Ultimate Algorithmic Ranking 