Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in competitive play: Difference between revisions

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→‎Rise and fall of the Four Horsemen (2023-2024)

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 The effects of the controversy was felt throughout the ''Ultimate'' community. The cancellations dampened any excitement going into the end of the year: although it was made up with the replacement event {{Trn|Scuffed World Tour}}, without the two major offline finales, many players believed MkLeo had already cemented himself as the #1 player due to his run at Ludwig Smash Invitational. In addition, Panda's implosion led to the uncertainty of Panda's properties, especially the [[PGRU]] and their database website [[PGStats.com]]. The former was later addressed with a collaboration between the creators of [[OrionRank]], [https://ssbdatarankings.wordpress.com/ EchoRank], and [https://omegarank.com/ ΩRank] to create [[UltRank]], which eventually evolved into the de-facto ranking used in subsequent years. Finally, the loss of Panda and {{Team|VGBootCamp}}'s decreased activity weakened North America's dominance in the ''Ultimate'' community, especially with an environment unfavorable to esports and the disbandment of {{Team|Beyond the Summit}} within the next few months, allowing Japan to eventually take its place as the center of competitive ''Ultimate''.
-===Rise and fall of the Four Horsemen (2023-2024)===
+===Fall of MkLeo and the dominance of the Four Horsemen (2023-present)===
 marked the first year where MkLeo was not considered the unanimous best player in the world: although he won {{Trn|GENESIS 9}}, the entire year saw MkLeo's results slip further and further to the point where he was even having trouble placing top 8 at majors. With MkLeo no longer considered a top 5 player, let alone the best player in the world, many new candidates began competing for the throne.
 The earliest frontrunner was {{Sm|acola}}, who won many majors in the season's early months. Most notable among these was {{Trn|Smash Ultimate Summit 6}}, where after falling to losers early in the final bracket, he ran through the entire losers bracket to eventually win the tournament. With strong performances in both Japan and in North America, many players considered acola to be the new best player in the world within only a few months of the new season. However, later developments in the season cast doubt on these claims. Although he had a relatively weak start of the season, {{Sm|Sparg0}} quickly shot up to be a contender after his victories at {{Trn|Kagaribi 10}} and {{Trn|Battle of BC 5}}, which were not only two of the largest events of the first season, but also saw him easily defeat acola four times. This dominant record over acola led many other players, especially in North America, to argue that Sparg0 was the best player in the world. UltRank, now called [[LumiRank]] after their partnership with {{Team|Luminosity Gaming}}, ultimately ranked acola #1 on the [[LumiRank Mid-Year 2023]] due to Sparg0's weaker consistency at majors, making acola the first new #1 player in ''Ultimate''. acola eventually cemented himself in this position following his continued consistency throughout the year, placing top 8 at every event he attended and winning {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2023}}, while further underperformances from Sparg0, especially after his devastating run at Super Smash Con, knocked him out of contention.
-Aside from acola and Sparg0, two other players also began dominating their respective metagames. Despite having a weak start of the season, {{Sm|Miya|p=Honshu}} ended the year with the most major wins out of anyone, winning a total of 11 majors and supermajors. His performances especially took off in the latter half of the year, where he won most of his majors, including his biggest win {{Trn|Kagaribi 11}}, and even became a bracket demon for acola. In North America, {{Sm|Sonix}} emerged as a contender for best player in North America after defeating Sparg0 at {{Trn|Get On My Level 2023}}, and regularly making it to Grand Finals at majors in second half of the year, later winning {{Trn|Port Priority 8}}. Collectively, these four players won a combined 30/37 majors (81.08%) throughout the [[LumiRank 2023]] season, including all but one major in the second half of the season with at least one of them in attendance and all but one of the year's "premier-tier" events. This dominance culminated in their performances at the final supermajor of the season, {{Trn|Watch The Throne}}, where the four of them took the top 4 places. Recognizing their dominance in the metagame, players began calling the four players the '''Four Horsemen''', with the term taking off after Watch The Throne. This is reflected on the [[LumiRank 2023]], where the four players were ranked top 4 and had a score above 95, with the next highest being {{Sm|Glutonny}} with a score of 84.78.
+Aside from acola and Sparg0, two other players also began dominating their respective regions. Despite having a weak start to his season, {{Sm|Miya|p=Honshu}} ended the year with the most major wins out of anyone, winning a total of 11 majors and supermajors. His performances especially took off in the latter half of the year, where he won most of his majors, including his biggest win {{Trn|Kagaribi 11}}, and even became a bracket demon for acola. In North America, {{Sm|Sonix}} emerged as a contender for best player in North America after defeating Sparg0 at {{Trn|Get On My Level 2023}}, and regularly made it to Grand Finals at majors in second half of the year, eventually winning {{Trn|Port Priority 8}}. Collectively, these four players won a combined 30/37 majors (81.08%) throughout the [[LumiRank 2023]] season, winning all but one major in the second half of the season with at least one of them in attendance, and winning all but one of the year's "premier-tier" events. This dominance culminated in their performances at the final supermajor of the season, {{Trn|Watch The Throne}}, where the four of them took the top 4 places. Recognizing their dominance in the metagame, players began calling the four players the '''Four Horsemen''', with the term taking off after Watch The Throne. This is reflected on the [[LumiRank 2023]], where the four players were ranked top 4 and had a score above 95, with the next highest being {{Sm|Glutonny}} with a score of 84.78.
-The Four Horsemen's dominance almost immediately dissipated in the following season. All four combined only made up for a total of 10 major wins for the [[LumiRank 2024.1]] season, which was not even half the number of majors that took place that season. Furthermore, only Miya had more than 2 major wins that season, as acola's decreased activity, Sparg0's inconsistency, and Sonix's "second-place curse" meant that the number of Four Horsemen major wins that season were largely carried by one player. Conversely, this season saw a variety of other major winners, with no repeat major winners outside of Miya between [[Tournament:DELTA 7|DELTA 7 [FAT]]] in December 2023 and {{Trn|Sumabato SP 46}} in April 2024, and even saw many new majors winners, most notably {{Sm|SHADIC}} at {{Trn|Cirque Du CFL 3}} and {{Sm|Hurt}} at {{Trn|Battle of BC 6}}, two players who were not only top 10 that season, but also had multiple wins on the Four Horsemen in the same season. Due to all of this, many players questioned whether the community was too hasty in labeling the four players, especially if their dominance did not even last for a year.
+However, their newfound label came under scrutiny in the following two half-year seasons. The Horsemen won a total of 20 majors, less than half the total number of majors that took place across the two seasons. In the first season, only Miya had more than 2 major wins that season, as acola's lower activity, Sparg0's inconsistency, and Sonix's "second-place curse" meant that the number of Four Horsemen major wins that season were largely carried by one player. This trend remained in the [[LumiRank 2024.2|following season]], where only Miya and Sparg0 were regularly winning majors and therefore competing for the throne, while on the other hand, acola was only able to win a single major and Sonix remained cursed to place 2nd at best. As such, both were not contenders for #1. Conversely, 2024 saw a variety of other major winners, with no repeat major winners outside of Miya between [[Tournament:DELTA 7|DELTA 7 [FAT]]] in December 2023 and {{Trn|Sumabato SP 46}} in April 2024. In fact, the season saw many new majors winners, most notably {{Sm|SHADIC}} at {{Trn|Cirque Du CFL 3}} and {{Sm|Hurt}} at {{Trn|Battle of BC 6}}, two players who were not only top 10 at one point in the year, but also had multiple wins on the Four Horsemen. Though the four players remained ranked at the top, often next to each other, many players questioned whether the community was too hasty in labeling the four players, especially if their dominance did not even last for a full year.
 ====Steve bans====