The majority of players who have had the opportunity to play against Yann "Jah Ridin" Girardin have come out of it wondering the same thing: Why doesn't every Luigi punish like this? Jah Ridin' brings to the table a lethal combination of a slippery neutral game and a meticulously flowcharted punish game that no one in the world has yet been able to replicate. His incredible understanding of his character and his experience in the field of psychology have helped him claim victories over some of Europe's very best players like Pipsqueak, MINT, Meady and more.
The highlight of Jah Ridin's 2021 was his 7th place finish at the Smash World Tour European Qualifier, where he defeated Europe's rising star Kins0 and stopped an on-fire Raoul on his way to qualifying for the final event in the US. A 3-0 victory over JCAM at the Smash World Tour Championships proved to everyone that Jah Ridin' deserves to be considered one of the best Luigi players in the world.
Niklas "Kins0" Vogt made 2021 his year with breakout performance after breakout performance. He won most German tournaments he entered without much effort, only placing second at HTS #7 where he reset the bracket against Nicki before falling short in the second set of grand finals. At the European Smash World Tour qualifier, Kins0 shocked the Melee world by going up 2-0 against Leffen, whom everyone expected to breeze through the tournament without much effort.
While Leffen managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, other European Foxes struggled to consistently deal with Kins0’s lightning fast Falco. Kins0 topped off his year by accomplishing an incredible second place finish at HFLAN 2020+1, defeating the UK's two best players Frenzy and Professor Pro before being stopped by Pipsqueak. Further wins over players like the previously mentioned Pipsqueak, Jah Ridin and Levingy prove that Europe finally has another top Falco, and he is not slowing down any time soon.
Ville "Levingy" Miekk-oja is one of the longest standing European players who still actively entered tournaments throughout 2021. The Finnish Falco has been part of the Melee community for more than 15 years and has had no trouble keeping up with the modern metagame. Victories over Solobattle, Jah Ridin', Meady and a game win against Leffen show that even the best of players have trouble getting in against Levingy's solid defenses.
These wins helped him place sixth in the SAME 2021 circuit -an incredible accomplishment made all the more impressive by Levingy’s longevity. If that wasn’t noteworthy enough, Levingy was juggling his Melee wins with another responsibility - he managed to get most of these wins after becoming a father!
In November, Levingy made the decision step away from competitive Melee for now, and his participation in the European matchmaking servers will be dearly missed. Europe will patiently hope for him to return, ready to welcome him back with open arms.
By Maxi "lil froozy" Rose
A debut on an international ranking like this was just bound to come for Philip "Meady" Andersson. The Marth main dominated the west coast of Sweden from his hometown Gothenburg and showed up at majors with wins over Frenzy and a 4th place finish at HFLAN Melee Edition, propelling him to the A Tier of Europe. This is especially impressive if you consider that he only started competing in mid 2017, when he quickly became well known as a regular practice partner and friend of Armada.
Having to deal with the brutal neutral game with one of the greatest players of all time on a regular basis, Meady developed a one-of-a-kind defense. Many say that every hit against him poses a challenge, which along with his immaculate punish game puts fear into everyone who has to face him in bracket. If he manages to keep up this break-neck improvement pace, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Meady in the top echelons of European Melee soon - a height only a handful of Marth players have ever been able to reach.
By Maxi "lil froozy" Rose
If there’s one thing that defines Christopher ‘Mint’ Montgomery, it’s his dedication to the craft and hard work. Despite only making a name for himself since 2015, Mint is one of the first players to spring to mind when you consider trademark European Foxes. MINT likes to push movement and punish game close to perfection, and his smart approach to improving in games makes him a competitive threat not just in Melee, but in multiple other games as well. His talent reaches over multiple genres, playing among the highest ranks in Overwatch, speedrunning Super Mario 64 on his stream, and even terrorizing the Smash Bros. Ultimate scene with his lightning fast Pichu.
The Northern Irishman is currently back on the 3rd spot on the latest UK Melee Power Ranking, a spot which he’d already claimed once in October 2017. Mint’s consistency trading blows with the likes of Professor Pro, Frenzy and all the aspiring new blood of the British Isles makes Mint’s caliber obvious, and it’s clear he’s here to stay.
By Maxi "lil froozy" Rose
It’s hard to imagine the landscape of Top EU Melee without Elliot ‘Frenzy’ Grossman, even though it feels like just yesterday that he cemented his place there. Frenzy constantly innovates and pushes the meta, making him the top performing Falco in Europe for the last two years. The creativity of the beloved Falco Main from Bristol matches up to that of his fans, who seem to come up with a new crowd chant for every tournament he goes to.
Frenzy is one of the few Europeans to be a regular at US majors, where he made a name for himself with impressive wins and placings like his 9th place at Super Smash Con 2018. Despite his familiarity across the pond, he was still able to exceed everyone’s expectations at the Smash World Tour Championships. With decisive wins over Aura, Jmook and Panda and coming a single edgeguard away from a Mew2King win, Frenzy shocked the North American scene, before falling to his peer Pipsqueak just outside of Top 8. When opportunities to compete on the world stage arise, Frenzy shows up, leaving spectators of the scene with high hopes for a bright future.
Mustafa "Ice" Akçakaya has been hailed as one of European Melee’s greatest players for the better part of a decade, and, in 2021, he demonstrated why he should also be counted as one of the world’s best.
Before he even made his official comeback to in-person Melee, Ice racked up an impressive list of wins over top European players in Nicki, Frenzy, Pipsqueak and Professor Pro.
Ice’s first offline tournament of the year was the SWT: Europe Melee Regional Finals. At the tournament, Ice had to cross controllers with rising Swedish Fox main, Pipsqueak. Pipsqueak had recently become a bracket demon for Ice, as he had previously defeated the German in their past six meetings. However, that losing streak wouldn’t extend to seven, as Ice took down Pipsqueak, 3-1. Ice would end up placing fifth after losing to both Leffen and Proffesor Pro in the championship bracket. Though he may not have placed first, Ice still showed with his win over Pipsqueak that he wasn’t going to allow the next generation of top European players to push him out of the way.
By Maxi "lil froozy" Rose
When people say that all things come to an end, they would usually exclude the everlasting reign of Ice as the clear-cut numero uno of German Melee. After 10 long years of the #1 spot being frozen in place, the one to challenge this status quo was Dominik “Nicki” Kunze, who couldn’t be a more exciting addition to the top tier of Europe. While he manifests the European Fox spirit of being efficient and technical, he does put an almost mystifying spin on this archetype. Nicki’s strength lies in being extremely observant, which enables him to purely outpace everybody’s adaptation. He seemingly calls out habits in spots before his opponents are even aware that they exist.
The icing on the cake for his already impressive year was his performance at the Smash World Tour Championships, where he was able to defeat Fiction in a nailbiter set. He also got to show off his secondary Ice Climbers as a counter pick for Final Destination in other matchups, further underlining his range as a player and deep understanding of the game. Arriving in the S-Tier of Europe marks another huge milestone of Nicki’s steep path to the top, and there’s no end in sight.
By Maxi "lil froozy" Rose
He may be European and he may main Fox, but Aaron ‘Professor Pro’ Thomas’s playstyle couldn’t be more different than the one usually associated with these two attributes. It’s not just that he’s been around for long enough to have developed his own school of Fox. For Professor Pro, there’s soul and expression in his play that still makes him a fan favorite. It’s easy to understand why the energy in the room changes when he steps up to the setup in a Top 8.
As one of the only Europeans to ever take sets off of the prestigious ‘Big 6’ by famously beating Hungrybox and Leffen, Professor Pro scored a well deserved 67th spot on the Melee Stats All-Time Top 100 list in 2021. Nevertheless, looking at his recent results, which included 4th place at the SWT Europe Finals and 17th at the Championships and wins over Ice, Zamu and Jah Ridin, it doesn’t look like he is planning to rest on his laurels any time soon. Prof is still active as ever, and continues to throw himself into the mix, bringing something new to the table every time his iconic green Fox appears on screen.
Jigglypuff has historically been a rare sight in Europe. By the middle of 2019 both Tekk and maXy were no longer as active as they used to be, laying the cute pink Pokémon mostly to rest. However, Finland knew something that the rest of the world didn't. Their best player by far was a Jigglypuff, Juhana "Solobattle" S. Solobattle dominated Finland, winning every Finnish Melee tournament he entered and leaving the rest of the continent wondering: How good is Solobattle actually? Surely he's good, but can he actually hang with Europe's reigning top players?
At Solobattle’s first major international tournament, he proved the answer to that question was a resounding "Yes.” Since then, Solobattle has proven again and again that no one is safe from his rests. Solobattle’s tech chase and shield drop rests are sure to make even the most diehard Jigglypuff haters tune into his sets. Unlike other Jigglypuffs, Solobattle is more than willing to start his sets on Yoshi's Story, using Melee's smallest stage to scrap and hunt for that one big opening. With other Jigglypuff players also rising the ranks within Europe, it seems like the Jigglypuff renaissance has begun.
By Anokh "Edwin" Palakurthi
Pipsqueak once said his approach to Fox was inspired by Setchi and Chef Rach’s work on optimizing Captain Falcon. You don’t have to take his word for it - a mere glance at Pipsqueak methodically picking apart Plup’s Sheik, Tyler Swift’s Pikachu, or Polish’s Peach should do the trick. But if you want to see Pipsqueak especially in his element, it has to be in a Fox ditto, where he bullied Professor Pro and Ice to a combined 12-2 record in 2021.
Of course, you can’t talk about Pipsqueak’s career without bringing up the gigantic, dominant, and frankly annoying elephant in the room: Leffen, the “other” Fox in Sweden. Technically, Pipsqueak did already defeat him, but that was when Leffen was experimenting with a rectangle controller. At the moment, Leffen on a GameCube controller remains the final boss of Europe - the last player on Pipsqueak’s checklist before he can say he’s beaten everybody in the continent.
There was a point in time where Álvaro "Trif" García was considered the premier Peach main in Melee. The best player in Spain was a force of nature prior to quarantine, with wins over stellar players like Zain, Mew2King, iBDW, SFAT, and Ginger. But as quarantine made it impossible for Trif to compete on the highest level, the title of Melee’s best Peach became shrouded in doubt. Trif would need a stellar performance to prove to the world that he was still the best Peach in the game.
At the Smash World Tour: European Regional Finals, Trif put up a performance that proved he was still a contender for the title. Looking like the Trif of old, he blazed through everyone not named Leffen en route to a second place finish, earning his spot at the Smash World Tour Championships. There, Trif embarked on arguably his best tournament run to date; he cruised through bracket, taking down a bevy of top 15 players, including Axe, Faceroll, Aklo, and aMSa. But after falling to Wizzrobe in winners bracket, Trif came face to face with the foremost contender for his throne: Polish.
With nary a Peach to be found for practice in Europe,Trif would ultimately lose the ditto 3-0, falling prey to Polish’s incredible mastery of the matchup and ending his SWT journey at fourth. For now, Polish has the edge - but with Peach on the rise and competition restarting, the battle for best Peach in the world rages on, and Trif's 2021 performance proves you can't count him out.
2021 was an incredibly eventful year for European Melee. When in previous years it had seemed like only a small group of players was in contention for winning major tournaments, more players than ever before have proven themselves capable of consistently reaching the top of the standings and even competing with the world's best players. However, if you're ever wondering what the difference between "a top player" and "arguably the best in the world" looks like, look no further than William "Leffen" Hjelte's dominance over his continent. Some players are good at the game, whereas Leffen - no matter what type of controller he's using - appears to be a few steps ahead at all times.
At the European Smash World Tour Qualifier, Leffen had the chance to compete in person with his region's best players for the first time in more than 2 years. After ramping up on the first day of the event, Leffen breezed through Europe's very best players on day two, winning the tournament while only losing a single game. In December, Leffen squashed any doubts that this was merely a result of the weakness of his European competition, as he managed to beat multiple top players in a convincing manner at Smash Summit 12 and the rest of Europe proved their collective worth at the Smash World Tour finals.
While Leffen isn't satisfied with anything other than first place, his convincing 5-1 wins in recent showmatches over both Mang0 and Zain demonstrate that Leffen is no longer just close to the top - setback after setback hasn't stopped him, and with his visa approved, 2022 can become Leffen's year to claim the title of #1 Melee player in the world.
