The Phoenix Blue Rankings finished ranking the top 50 Super Smash Bros. Melee players in Europe on Aug 9. Red Bull published the reveals beginning on Monday, Aug 5. Ten players were revealed every day, starting at No. 50 and going all the way down to No. 1.
As the midway point of the year, these past several weeks have seen the reveals of many ranking lists. This includes the PGRU for Smash Ultimate, the MPGR for Melee, and even the WWRv3 for Ultimate wi-fi warriors. Now, the Phoenix Blue Rankings exist to recognize European Melee players. Here are the top 50 Super Smash Bros. Melee players in Europe:
- William “Leffen” Hjelte
- Álvaro “Trif” García Moral
- Mustafa “Ice” Akçakaya
- Amsah Augustuszoon
- Aaron “Professor Pro” Thomas
- Roberto “Overtriforce” Iglesias
- Robby “Vanity Angel” Gee
- Jacob “Daydee” Stenberg
- Conor “maXy” Maxwell
- Tommy “Pricent” Lindås
- Adam “Setchi” Farmer
- Ben “nebbii” Wolthuis
- Dominik “Nicki” Kunze
- Elliot “Frenzy” Grossman
- Timothej “Timi” Patocka
- Yann “Jah Ridin'” Girardin
- Christopher “MINT” Montgomery
- Ville “Levingy” Miekk-oja
- Linus “Pipsqueak” Nordin
- John “JohnnyFight” Rundlöw
- Andreas “Jadde” Henriksson
- Andreas “voff3” Vågran
- Niklas “Poppmaister6000” Hallgren
- Jonas Kellner
- Christopher “Humpe” Falck
- Sverre Vinje
- Stephan “gLory” M.
- Mahieddine “Mahie” Tsouria
- Kim “Eekim” Ervasti
- Adam “Moe” Holst
- Artur “Charon” Balajan
- Erling “NintendOrk” Lysaker
- Dujuan “Alpha Dash” Planter
- Robin “FA0” Castlin
- Vetle “Widl” Hovland
- Ross “UnHaven” Mitchell
- Faed “SchlimmShady” Shadid
- Sebastian “Blaze” R.
- Lucka “Fatman.Spam” Pintag
- Lukas “Kaese” K.
- Alex “R23” Watson
- Arttu Paju
- Isdsar Inath
- Manuel Däumling
- “FrozenLight”
- Sander “Fout NL” Weber
- Konstanti “Kobobi” Heck
- Simon “Random-Ness” Drugge
- Charles-Andre “Charlon” Assus
- Jonathan “Sharp” Larsson
A closer look at the Phoenix Blue Rankings
Any fan of Melee could have predicted the top two finishers on these rankings. Leffen and Trif were ranked No. 4 and No. 12, respectively, on the Summer 2019 MPGR. In addition to their dominance in Europe, both of these players have had tremendous results globally.
Leffen boasts winning records over Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma, Zain Naghmi, Justin “Plup” McGrath, and Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto. He has additional wins over Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson and Joseph “Mang0” Marquez. Meanwhile, Trif is up against Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman, aMSa, Cody “iBDW” Schwab, Kurtis “moky” Pratt, and Avery “Ginger” Wilson. He is also even in sets against Zain this year.
Europe’s top two players have undoubtedly seen worldwide success. However, the continent as a whole has not been as relevant internationally in 2019 as it has in years past. No. 3 in Europe, Ice, is a microcosm of this fact. Ice has not been to a tournament in the United States since Super Smash Con 2018, which was over a year ago.
Even so, some European Smashers have snagged wins against high-level players across the globe. Professor Pro has won sets against Te Tuhi “Spud” Kelly and Nicholas “NMW” Whittier. Overtriforce is 2-0 in sets against Kalindi “KJH” Henderson. And though he lacks good wins outside of Europe, Setchi notably holds a winning record against Trif.
