Leonardo “MKLeo” Lopez is the top-ranked Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player in the world for a second straight season after winning five major tournaments in the second half of 2019, Panda Global announced today.
Outside of the obvious top rank, the top 10 of the PGRU season two rankings didn’t see a lot of movement. Only three new players joined the absolute top tier that the competitive scene has to offer. This is also only the second grouping of the list that’s mostly made up of North American players, and even then, it’s a six to four ratio compared to being eight to two last season.
From Evo 2019 until the end of 2019, these are the 10 players who absolutely dominated Ultimate at the highest level.
| Rank | Player | +/- for Season 2 |
| 10 | Paris “Light” Ramirez | No Change |
| 9 | Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby | -2 |
| 8 | William “Glutonny” Belaid | +6 |
| 7 | Sota “Zackray” Okada | +5 |
| 6 | Enrique “Maister” Hernández Solís | New |
| 5 | Tyler “Marss” Martins | -2 |
| 4 | Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada | +4 |
| 3 | Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey | -1 |
| 2 | Ezra “Samsora” Morris | +1 |
| 1 | Leonardo “MKLeo” Lopez | No Change |
Leo completely dominated the season, placing first at five different Majors, including Evo and Super Smash Con 2019, which were both Super Majors. He even managed to get second place at Shine and Mainstage, which more than secured his top spot for the year.
He has yet to attend a tournament in 2020, but that will change this weekend when he’ll play at Genesis 7.
The only other player who’s rank remained the same was Light. He only missed the top eight at one S-tier tournament throughout the second half of the year and nearly won Glitch 7 after taking big games off of Dabuz and Samsora, which is exactly why the top Fox remained in the top 10.
Dabuz ended up dropping two spots purely because of his performance at Super Smash Con, where he placed 45th, and the fact that he’s yet to win a Major. But just because he had a few hiccups doesn’t mean his slew of top-eight and second-place finishes didn’t easily lock in his top rank.
Glutonny and Zackray are the two new players on this list who were previously ranked just outside of the top 10.
Gluto took the title as the best Ultimate player in Europe and managed to make the list thanks to an increase in NA tournament appearances and constant top-five finishes. His biggest accomplishment was placing third at Evo, almost taking down MKLeo and securing some massive wins.
Zackray made top eight at Evo, but the 17-year-old also won his first S-tier at The Big House 9, where he beat a handful of top players like Tweek and Dabuz two times each. With the deepest character pool in the game and some solid Japanese Major wins under his belt, Zackray will likely continue to rise up the list.
Maister had a breakout year and jumped straight onto his first PGR list at rank No. 6 in the world. The Mr. Game & Watch main single-handedly made the community hate his character by dominating the competition and earning several top finishes at S-tier events.
Marss made top cut at every Major he attended, but he failed to complete any S-tier runs, with his highest placement being first place at DreamHack Atlanta, which was A-tier. He’s the highest player on the list without either an S-tier win or some insanely close second-place runs. This isn’t a knock against arguably the best Zero Suit Samus in the world, but it did drop him a few spots.
Nairo is back in the top five thanks to an incredible set of S-tier finishes that easily made up for his 17th-place showing at Evo. He came in first at Mainstage, third at Shine, fourth at Big House, and fifth at Smash Con. That’s a stellar lineup that could’ve easily earned him third on the list if it weren’t for his Evo placement.
Once you break into the top three, you’ll only see a single time one of the players missed out on the top eight of an S-tier event. But the quality of wins easily make up for that.
The last drop on the list was Tweek, moving from second to third despite placing second at Evo and 2GG: Kongo Saga. What hurt him was his lack of an S-tier win and his inability to actually take a series off of Leo. His only straight-up victory came at Low Tier City 7.
Lastly, Samsora rose up the ranks and challenged Leo for his top spot, going as far as beating him twice to win Shine and taking two sets off of him at other events. He actually cleared the high tier gauntlet, beating Leo, Tweek, and Marss who were all ranked just above him, which led to his jump from fourth to second.
Leo’s dominance could stretch into the third season of the PGRU, but there are several players in that next tier who are just itching for a chance to take him down. Genesis 7 will be the first big test for the No. 1 player in the world when it begins on Jan. 24.
