1. Mav and Aki. This was a hard situation. Upon analysis of the Panel, both of these players were extremely even. Although Aki has the superior head to head record (10-6), Mav has better records vs pretty much everyone Aki has lost to, plus outperformed him when they both went out of region. Because of this, it was hard to determine a clear cut winner. There is also another issue: Aki will be leaving us soon to head back to Japan. If we did a normal 1st/2nd, Aki would leave a huge void in our rankings, regardless if he was 1st or 2nd. Ranking him like this gives him the top player status he deserves, while at the same time not causing a power gap in the rankings that could hurt our region’s out of area seeding. If you want this tie to be different, just convince Aki not to leave us that's all.....frown emoticon
2. Phoenix: Phoenix has had an extremely consistent season. Although he slid some when he started playing cloud more, he still has respectable records vs pretty much the entire PR, and finished strong at the last vp, securing his 2nd spot.
3. Space Thing: Space thing, although yet to claim a singles tournament win, is the model of consistently. Constantly top 5s events, and has a great resume: almost .500 vs aki, has strong wins vs out of region opponents, and no real bad losses. He has struggled vs some opponents, particularly Mav, but his great placings and solid play from both Greninja and Bayonetta lock up 3rd for him.
4. Chrome Kingfisher: Chrome hit his stride this season, getting 2nd at a VP, as well getting a very impressive 9th at shuffle VIII, and wins vs a lot of the PR. He has good out of state wins as well, and good records vs much of the PR. He also has a winning record vs Aki, but a losing record vs Mav. The deal breaker between him and Space Thing was slightly less consistently in results and losses.
5. Col: Col finds his spot here, in the middle of the rankings. Like Chrome, he had a very strong 9th place performance at Shuffle VIII. He has extremely good records vs the lower half of the PR, but his record suffers slightly vs the upper players. Also, Col suffered unfortunate losses early in winners bracket in a couple vps, but then put together impressive losers runs to make up for it. He has also had a few super clutch sets this season, bringing back sets that seemed out of reach.
6. RA: RA is an interesting case. He’s been on an absolute tear the past month or so, racking up wins vs the majority of the PR. However, this season was a marathon, not a sprint. RA was not quite as potent earlier in the season, but still had respectable top 10 placings. Ra should be a heavy favorite to be a top 3 player next season.
7. Leo: Leo has shown massive improvement this season, and checked his ticket onto the PR thanks to his consistent top 8 placings at VPs. In addition, he has gathered wins with other ranked players, with wins over Aki and Phoenix, to name a few. He also made it into bracket at Shuffle VIII
8. Perkinips: Perky returns to the PR from the pmoal days, bursting back into the discussion with a 3rd place finish at a VP. Although he has been up and down in his results, he’s had a couple really good events, including and additional 4th place, as well as PR wins, and he made it into Shuffle Bracket.
9. SoL | Midnight: Midnight has been putting in a lot of work recently, and combined with a main switch, it has paid off in spades. He has managed a few top 10s, as well as a 5th place finish at VPs. The thing that makes Midnight stand out though are his losses. He has no major losses that would hurt his standing. He is almost always taken out by a highly ranked player, and rarely has fallen to unranked players. This includes his lesser placings as well.
10. VapeGod: Although VapeGod has not been to the past couple VPs, he posted a great record in the string of 5 or so VPs he went to in a row. He did not place below 9th in any of these events, and has wins vs ranked players from then (and the current list). He also has some notable out of region wins, from when West Virginia/Ohio would enter a VP.