EURank 2024: 40-31
Today's batch of players brings us the first ever Italian Melee player on a European ranking. Congratulations to everyone who made it - I'll see you all in bracket!
EURank2024 Honourable Mentions
#40: Mezzy
Score: 39.88
Mezzy is an intriguing figure within the Dutch Melee scene. He emerged during the pandemic era as an ex-Ultimate player who grew tired of the necessity to learn a plethora of character matchups in that game. Leveraging his solid fundamentals from his Ultimate years and a very strong work ethic, he quickly rose through the ranks of the Dutch scene. However, after a very active 2022 in which he attended all the major European tournaments, Mezzy suddenly entered a period of inactivity that lasted until the start of 2024.
Upon his return, to be frank, things didn’t start off strong. He spent much of the first half of 2024 suffering early bracket upsets and subsequently getting blown out of losers’ bracket by top seeds who had also fallen early in winners’ bracket.
Thankfully, the second half of the year saw a major turnaround. Instead of plummeting into grim-looking losers’ brackets, Mezzy avoided early losses altogether and reached winners’ finals at the last two Dutch nationals he attended. These strong performances netted him several notable victories, including his best win of the year against Skullbro, as well as wins over Dutch sub-top players like Nuckels and Happymealz. He even secured one of his only international wins of the year by defeating Velani.
- nago
#39: Noxxa
Score: 39.25
Melee is a scene composed of passionate competitors, hardcore data enthusiasts, regional tournament organizers, and advocates for the game at large. Rarer still is the individual who somehow does all of these things at once—this is where Noxxa comes in. When they’re not encoding lions into a Scribblenauts TAS, Noxxa the competitor has continued to take names across Europe. Much of that proverbial name-taking happened at home; Noxxa’s biggest standouts this year all featured big losers’ runs at Dutch regionals.
The first of these was at Vinyl Destination #3. After beating noon in pools and losing to Risc in the winners’ side of the bracket, Noxxa went on a tear. Outside of beating Xin, Noxxa would defeat both noon and Risc in the runback, adding a Happymealz win to-go before finally falling to Skullbro in grand finals. Noxxa would later parallel this losers’ run at FOXXON Boulevard #6, defeating Risc, Velani, noon, and Mezzy before losing to $TYN in grands. As a cherry on top, Noxxa’s Endless Melee #3 run featured a victory (three years in the making) over long-time bracket demon ThommyN.
Simply put, there’s no problem Noxxa can’t solve. Just add spreadsheets, ISOs, and more lions.
- NotEnder
#38: ILikeTurtles
Score: 38.45
The French Melee scene is in a strange state right now. The powerhouses that were raoul and Mahie have hung up their controllers, and old-school legend Tekk is likely soon to follow in their footsteps. The Slippi kids have taken the country by storm, spearheaded by i4's Sheik. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Slippi kids. Well, not entirely... One single veteran player still holds out against the invaders. His name? ILikeTurtles.
ILikeTurtles first played Melee as a kid, all the way back in 2002. He loved the game casually, oblivious to the existence of a competitive scene. Years went by, and when he stumbled upon the game again in 2018, he knew that, this time, he wanted to get good. Attending his first offline tournaments in 2019, just months before the COVID pandemic, he rode the Slippi wave alongside kids who hadn’t even been born when he first laid hands on a GCC.
A few years later, ILikeTurtles has become a staple of the French community, dominating the Paris scene in 2024 and winning on his turf against the likes of Madness and LunarySSF2. Always eager to improve, he traveled to Valhalla IV and SAPF, taking sets over $TYN, GG, and Parsecco in the process. Keep an eye on him, because he’s only getting started.
- Triangulum
#37: Wolf
Score: 37.40
Just like in 2023, the 2024 rankings feature a player from Toulouse, France. However, it is not the veteran Falcon, chaos6, but his newly found rival, the Falco main Wolf. The two consistently meet in the grand finals of Dice Dance, La Ville Rose's monthly tournament, with the Falco player holding a solid 6-1 set count over the past year.
Unlike his elder rival, Wolf represents the new generation of French Melee. A member of team Bagarre Gang alongside NekoKaze and Metarix, he dazzles his opponents with a solid neutral game and clean combos, honed over countless hours of practice with his teammates on Slippi.
Starting his career as an online warrior, Wolf attended his first French major at HFLAN 2022 but waited until this year to make his international debut at FESTA 2024. There, seeded 30th, he shocked everyone with a 5th-place finish, defeating max, saftblandarN, Happymealz, and Eekim against all odds, and losing only to Daydee and Fat Tino.
While his SAPF run wasn’t as spectacular, Wolf is still at the dawn of his Melee career, and his bird is poised to soar to new heights in 2025.
- Triangulum
#36: Smarted
Score: 36.35
Smarted loves rhythm. The wobbling inputs are like a melody to his ears and soul—so much so that he even created a Geometry Dash level centered around emulating it. The thing is, wobbling isn't a thing anymore. But who cares? It's handoff time, and Smarted excels at it. Therefore, it's no surprise to see him cement his place as Europe's #2 Ice Climbers player, lurking in the shadow of Nicki. The crazy part? Two mere tournaments were enough for this.
First, at The 2nd Gallery, the man who reigns uncontested over Italy hammered down Xin and Madness on his way to a 9th-place finish. Impressive, but it was nothing compared to the fantastic showing that would follow at SAPF shortly after. In Hannover, Smarted tore through a Spacies gauntlet, defeating Parsecco, Nobody, Happymealz, and Wolf twice. He only fell to German powerhouses irfan and Squiltendorf, earning a 13th-place finish at the biggest European tournament of the year.
Be warned: as long as Smarted's love triangle with Popo and Nana endures, he will continue making waves in the European scene, grabbing his opponents and sending them into oblivion.
- Triangulum
#35: Kaese
Score: 36.10
After being retired for the better part of the post-COVID era, this self-proclaimed casual gamer started feeling the heat again at some point during last year’s ranking season. Kaese's Sheik showing up at a qualifier tournament for Germany's Neue Deutsche Melee circuit struck fear in the hearts of many competitors in the German community.
People in the know weren’t surprised by this, however, as Kaese became a very likely opponent to run into on ranked and unranked. Whether it was him trying to shake off the dust, practicing his secondary Fox, tryharding to get into the zone again, or just playing a drinking game with his best friend—where they tried to win a game with every character against unranked opponents—Kaese found himself playing a lot of Melee for someone who calls himself a casual gamer.
Because of this emerging pattern of becoming more and more active, people stopped being surprised when they saw him show up to more and more tournaments throughout the year, especially in Germany. He won the Melee Singles event of NRW-Cup over semi-active German Peach legend Kellner as well as King and finished an agonizingly close second place to Rikzz at Himmel un Äad in Cologne, along the way taking wins over Blaze and maxono. His biggest accomplishment came in the form of a quick 2-0 and a handshake over the Netherlands’ finest in Skullbro at Melee im Kornspeicher, but he also took sets from saftblandarN and Psylo in 2024.
The list of accomplishments is indeed one of the longer ones; it just hasn’t all come together in one monstrous tournament run yet, but rather spread out over the year. This panel thinks, however, that it is only a matter of time until we see him establish himself among the best of the best in European competition.
- yung Ullrich
#34: Risc
Score: 35.88
The lovable DK main entered 2024 having just placed 26th on the 2023 EURank, thanks to an extremely impressive 13th place finish at Fête 3. He faced the difficult task of trying to follow up that year while also juggling a PhD and other "adult life stuff," in his own words. Impressively, he seemed to be on track throughout the first half of the year to make it happen, bolstered by strong results at Dutch regionals and an explosive run at Avant Deux in Oxford, England.
He swept his pool but stumbled in bracket against Joefish. Undeterred, he marched through the losers’ bracket, fighting his way all the way to top 8 before losing a heartbreaking reverse 3-0 against Isdsar to place 7th. Along the way, he picked up notable wins over noon, Laurster, Squeachu, and LunarySSF2.
Unfortunately, two months later, he announced his indefinite hiatus from Melee, citing a busier personal life and a lack of motivation to keep competing. Despite this, he attended SAPF afterward, where he performed well in Doubles and Crews but was upset early in singles bracket. He then faced a nightmare first-round losers’ matchup against Rikzz, who had also been upset early on.
- nago
#33: Tony Bomboni
Score: 33.53
The inner machinations of Tony Bomboni’s mind remain a mystery to the average Melee player. Watching him play, you might catch yourself asking, “Why would he do that?” or “That made absolutely no sense”, caught in a sense of loss by the daring and unpredictable feats he performs without a second thought. With the Melee cojones he so evidently displays, one might be surprised to learn that he only fits a UK size 7 shoe. After spending some time around the man himself, I can confirm that Bomboni has absolutely no idea what compels the whims of his gameplay either.
Having consistently stunned opponents who naively underestimate him, perhaps this enigmatic nature is the key to his success at home and across Europe.
Despite a relatively quiet 2024 in terms of attendance, Tony posted very respectable results and continues to lurk in the shark-infested waters of top 32s, ready to snap up any of your unassuming favorite top players.
- sp0derr
#32: GG
Score: 33.30
What has not already been said about GG? Once again, she is undoubtedly in the top 5 of Europe’s “most memorable bracket opponents (for better or worse)” tier list. Regardless of your skill level, running into someone who can—and perhaps will—character counter-pick you 2–3 times during a set is an experience that will stick with you for quite some time. For some, it’s a fascinating challenge that compresses a variety of Melee bracket experiences into one best-of-5 match. For others, it’s a traumatizing ordeal. But one thing is for certain: everyone walks away with a story to tell.
In this role as a player who thrives on character matchups, GG acts as a quasi-gatekeeper within the UK scene. One cannot pass her in bracket without answering her “character riddles three.” But don’t be fooled into thinking she’s just a player who beats down on those ranked below her—she’s proven herself across the European continent and even in Canada, defeating top players across the character spectrum. These include top 10 Sheik max, German stalwart Peach main Blaze, and Bristol’s hidden boss and Fox main, Luke.
- nago
#31: Blaze
Score: 32.97
Blaze is one of the names we just can’t imagine German Melee without. And we can call ourselves lucky that we don’t have to, ever since the Peach player found an alternative controller for his cracked playstyle that doesn’t destroy his tendons.
Blaze has sailed right back to his old form using a B0XX-style controller, landing himself above his 2019 rank of 39—this time in a far more advanced playing field. \At the 2nd Gallery, a major in Zürich with around 40 EU Top 50 players in attendance, Blaze made a huge run into the Top 8 with wins over Happymealz, RestlessWhale, and Calvin.
Blaze’s playstyle is one of a kind for Peach players. He focuses on precision in movement techniques like slap dashes, double jump wavelands, and subfloats, making it nearly impossible to predict when and where you’ll be able to hit him. This ability is especially effective in doubles, where he and his teammate irfan attended four EU majors this year, earning bronze medals at three of them and a formidable 4th place at SAPF.
With Blaze, the only times we haven’t seen him improve rapidly were when he had to take breaks due to hand problems. With that issue out of the way, it’s impossible to predict what to expect from him in 2025.
- lil froozy
We're entering the top half of the ranking soon. Who will get to call themselves a top 30 player in Europe? Check back in tomorrow to learn about some of Europe's top character specialists.