Part 1 will cover the 17 players who were voted in to the B and C tiers of the European PGRU Contenders Tier List. These are among the top threats our assembled panel of experts expects to compete for high rankings on the next PGRU from the region. The Ultimate EU ranking will continue Thursday with the 15 players voted into the S+, S and A tiers.
The Middle East’s greatest player, from one kingdom to another, eMass travels from Saudi Arabia to the United Kingdom to reside in London for his studies. Within just a few month, he made a name for himself within the European scene.
Before actually living in the UK, eMass brought attention to himself for his outbreak European performance at ULTIMATE WANTED #3. Seeded 150th out of the 525 names in the bracket, he took an early loss in pools falling to Mazzer, then went on the losers run of a lifetime, beating Mazzer in the runback to make it out of the pool and taking out names such as Oryon, Neeroz, Jeda, Ramses and MoDzai to climb all the way up to 5th place.
This run was all we needed to understand that eMass, and likely even the Middle East as a whole, has what it takes to give Europeans a run for their money. If this was not enough eMass has also made stellar performances at UK tournaments with wins on Bloom4Eva, CurryGovernor, Streakz and Luugi while also taking names back in France every now and then such as winning HEXAGON #1 over PeW, Oryon and Maeda.
Although eMass is a claimed Brit for time being, he is still a Saudi through and through and there’s no doubt the Middle Eastern scene are proud of what he has been able to accomplish during his already short time in Europe. With many bright years ahead for him, eMass is hope for what other Saudi smashers are capable of.
To any of the more seasoned competitors in Europe, the name of Cédric ‘Homika’ C will be familiar, as he’s been around as a top active competitor since the early days of Smash 4. The interesting thing about Homika is that while he may not always be competing at full power, when the chips are down, you know for a fact he will show up and put the work in with his trademark Rosalina.
Homika’s results in 2021 aren’t the most numerous, but that doesn't mean there's a lack of strong wins. At WANTED Season 4, he made an incredible losers run defeating TriM, Raflow, Neeroz and Leon to finish in 4th, and took the top spot at Dose2Sel Invasion with wins on Raflow and RyuKai on the way. As a player who's nearly unstoppable on a good day, we can only expect good things from Homika going forward.
Javier "MVL" Ureña, a Spanish prodigy player at an age of 19, could be climbing the ranks even higher if he was able to attend more tournaments this season. He is well known for playing various characters and constantly changing mains. After history with Wario, Young Link and others, MVL is currently a superb Diddy Kong player, one of the best in his home nation.
MVL only went to two of the most important tournaments in Europe in 2021: Ultimate WANTED 3 and Temple: Hermès Edition, placing 33rd at both tournaments with wins over good players. He also earned solid results at regionals, most notably coming in 2nd place at MST 4 beating not just some of Spain's strongest players, but some of Europe's strongest in AndresFn and Marcbri. A truly talented player, many agree MVL has the potential to earn even better results with more opportunities in 2022 and beyond.
Arguably the best Banjo & Kazooie player on the planet, OwlBBs had been the United Kingdom’s hidden boss for a long, long time. Recently, he has been able to travel a lot more and has cemented himself as a top 5 player within the country. Breaking the Banjo stereotype, Owl performs some of their trickiest tech and inputs so consistently that it’s almost inhuman, one of the few continuing to push the character’s meta.
Some may remember Owl from his victory in 2020 during lockdown upon winning The Quarantine Series: Europe Edition and the many online tournaments he entered in the meanwhile with his self-proclaimed “WiFi main” Bayonetta, but his offline record with Banjo & Kazooie has proven he is capable of making himself and the character a continental threat. Despite a 7th place in his initial post-lockdown tournament, Invasion 2021, Owl has since landed top 3 at every tournament he has attended from locals to nationals, having placed 3rd place at BIG LAB: Awakening, DAT BlastZone 31, WaveSmash Ultimate 8 and BOSS BATTLES: The Resurrection with wins on Bloom4Eva, Luugi, Streakz, DarkStalker and RAMBOSS.
Unfortunately, like a few of the UK’s top talent, travelling out of the country is very difficult for him, so we are yet to see how he would compare against other top players within the continent offline, but he has already received high praise from a handful of these players. For Owl, it's only onwards and upwards from here.
There’s a little in-joke held amongst some Tournament Organisers in Europe: Your tournament cannot be considered a national or a major unless Gregory ‘PeW’ Chapet is in attendance. Joke it may be, but it may as well be a fact as the French Ness main is seemingly in attendance at every big event in Europe. Despite having so many chances to get upset and knocked out early, it’s a rare occurrence when PeW isn’t in the latest stages of bracket.
PeW is almost always found in the Top 16 of any large bracket, and he found a big tournament win at Vulcan, where he defeated Bejay! and Tarik twice. His performance at WANTED X was similarly strong, taking 7th and a set from Mezcaul on the way. Given the sheer number of events PeW attends, we’re sure to see even more strong results and wins in the future, no matter where he may go.
"Rinor" is a great Chrom, Roy and Min Min player hailing from Germany, well known for his abilities in the teams format as well as singles. He has considerably improved his performance this season compared to the early years of Ultimate.
Rinor played in one of Europe's most important offline tournaments of 2021, Temple: Hermès Edition, earning 25th place with wins over TriM and otek, and he placed 9th at Smash Contest: DoKomi 2021 beating his fellow German players like Komustai and Zebra. Unfortunately, his momentum would be stopped at the Smash World Tour European Finals, where he failed to qualify for the World Championships.
It would have been easy for Rinor to let 2021 end on a disappointing note. Instead, he was dominant in October, responding by winning the 96-entrant Crunch Cup Vol. 4 and placing 2nd at the 99-entrant RCADIA SMASH, losing only to Tarik. In the end, not only was this Rinor's best season yet, but he ended it looking like he can push even further.
By Joshua "Barnard's Loop" Craig
Johannes “Sintro” Teufl is currently one of Austria’s best and most well-traveled players. Ranked 2nd in his country, he has won multiple Coca Cola Breakpoint events, Austria’s premier monthly series. He has additionally defeated Austria's top-ranked player Yetey at two Austrian convention events - Hanamicon 2021 and Yunicon 2021.
While Sintro attended many of Europe’s notable major events this year, his longest run was at Ultimate WANTED 3, where he defeated Tomberry and lost only to Glutonny and Neeroz, placing ninth. At Vienna Challengers Arena, he took wins on eMass and FriskyCissin before once again falling to Glutonny for 13th.
His most significant run overall came at the European circuit finals, where he placed top 6 to attend the circuit Championships in the United States. At the European finals, he defeated SuperStriker, Longo and Snormanda to qualify. At the Championships, he notably defeated top Washington player moxi, capping his year off with some success.
Despite being on the younger side at only 18 years of age as of right now, Marc ‘TriM’ Wright is another one of those players who seemingly attends every event in sight, even travelling out of country multiple times before the pandemic hit. My first introduction to TriM was at Albion 4, where - at just 15 years of age - TriM managed to secure himself a 13th place finish at the largest stage European smash had ever seen. Although only competing in France this year, the Megaman prodigy has not slowed down in 2021.
His recent performances at the WANTED events have been astounding. Finish 2nd at WANTED X with wins on Mezcaul, Neeroz and Leon twice losing only to Glutonny, and 2nd again at WANTED PREDAT8RS just a few weeks ago, defeating Oryon, Leon, PeW, Mezcal and Raflow. With some of his best results coming in December, there’s a strong chance we’ll see more where that came from in 2022.
My first introduction to Robin ‘Darkthunder’ Kurzke was during 2019 when creating the ‘European Smash Ranking’ for that year. I was told by the German panellist that DarkThunder was "about to become one of the strongest players in Germany, and would be a major European threat once he travelled more." Whilst the pandemic may have stalled the latter prophecy, there’s no doubt that Darkthunder is one of the strongest players in Germany right now.
Darkthunder has an impressive selection of both set and full tournament wins. We saw a glimpse of his power at Smash Contest Dokomi 2020, where he won the tournament over Ryukai, Space, Ramses, Sintro and many more without dropping a single game all tournament. But more recently he won TGM eSports unlimited, with multiple set wins on Quik. With more opportunities on the horizon, Darkthunder will continue to cement himself as a top level Bowser in 2022.
By Joshua "Barnard's Loop" Craig
Jaka emerges as one of Europe’s top contenders moving forward. Absent from Switzerland’s first power ranking and appearing only at 9th on the second in 2020, Jaka’s unlikely rise to become the most accomplished Swiss player in Smash Ultimate was made even more surprising through his skilled use of Isabelle, a rare and often discarded character in the current metagame.
At Vienna Challengers Arena 2021, Jaka became the first Swiss player to make a top 8 at a European major, defeating top Spanish player AndresFN and top European Captain Falcon Ogey to get to the losers side top 8.
Jaka has also made top 8 runs at German nationals DATEV Conquest and DoKomi 2021, and with a 6-4 record on Destany over their last ten sets, Jaka is outright a contender for the best player in Switzerland.
By Joshua "Barnard's Loop" Craig
Hugo “Lancelot” Hujala, hailing from Finland, has historically been one of Northern Europe’s best players. At German national event DoKomi 2021, Lancelot squared off against much of Central Europe’s top talent, ultimately defeating DarkThunder, Jaka, Nibodax and Raphy to place second at the event, with his only losses coming to Oryon.
After returning to Finland and squarely dominating the country without a single loss, Lancelot returned to Germany at DATEV Conquest. In the invitational bracket, he defeated AndresFN and once again defeated DarkThunder, but fell to Mr.R twice.
Despite struggles at Vienna Challengers Arena, Lancelot also picked up a Jaxter win at DAT BlastZone 31, and ended his year with a clean win at Finnish regional Ostis. Despite his distance from the core area of Western Europe, Lancelot has repeatedly shown himself—and Northern Europe as a whole—to be very competitive.
To anyone who said the WiFi warriors who appeared over lockdown would not be top players upon the return of offline, Luugi has a simple response: you are wrong. Luugi had no record of attending offline tournaments before the pandemic hit, and a shaky amount of results online even, but as soon as offline returned to the UK it did not take long before he had comfortably placed himself into consideration for a top 5 rank within the nation.
Within the first month he had already secured a few wins on DarkStalker. Within the next month he claimed wins on Streakz, Peli and Tarik. Then the months following he would continue to make high placements at regionals and nationals such as 5th at BIG LAB: Awakening with wins over eMass and Deon, 2nd at DAT BlastZone 31 with wins over Lancelot, OwlBBs, Whoopee and SBF. As of the time of writing, Luugi has just won his first national tournament, Manchester Conquest 7, held after voting for this ranking was completed.
A humble personality that prioritises his own enjoyment and acknowledges the absurd attributes and design of Luigi, Luugi still has an amazing intuition when it comes to catching onto player habits and making amazing reads on their responses. Like a good chunk of the UK’s PR-level players, he is sadly unable to travel out of the country much, but with the wins on international players such as Tarik and Lancelot at UK tournaments, we know he will definitely cause some damage once he does.
If we were to host a Smash Awards ceremony here in Europe, You would almost certainly expect to see Paul ‘Mezcaul’ G’s name on the shortlist for Most Improved. After a slew of middling results in 2020, everything clicked in 2021 as he quickly became one of the most dangerous players in France, even establishing a rivalry with Flow, currently sitting 2-2 in sets, with every battle being more explosive and tense than the last.
Mezcaul’s first major offline performance came at Tai Kai, where he defeated Flow and TriM on his way to a 5th place finish. From there he only got better. The Ridley master defeated Leon, Lancelot and Larry Lurr to finish 7th at Ultimate WANTED 3 before taking 13th at Temple with wins on Darkthunder, iStudying and Sisqui, alongside wins over Tarik and Homika at other events. The young competitor looks poised to plunder the continent with his Ridley in 2022.
Matching Lucas's trend as a rarely-seen tournament character, Scott ‘Nitox’ Gaman’s tournament appearances were few and far inbetween, only appearing at 6 tournaments in 2021 and yet to leave their home country of France. However, they prove quality over quantity by having strong showings at every event they attend.
Nitox made his first major impact offline at Helios Session #3, an invitational where he finished 2nd defeating Neeroz, Leon and Glutonny's Marth twice. He continued to put in strong results with a top 16 finish at Temple taking out Ramses, Otakuni and Homika, and hasn’t slowed down in recent months taking sets over other French mainstays such as Raflow, PeW and Mezcaul.
In a meta that more and more seems to have left the psychic blonde behind, Nitox looks poised to become the international flag bearer for Lucas mains across the globe.
One of Europe's best known names, "Ramses" Jelsma has built up international recognition as a player, coach and commentator. Despite some inactivity in offline tournaments in 2021, he remains one of the best players in the Netherlands and Europe as a whole.
He was really feeling it in those few offline tournament appearances of 2021, with a great performance at Ultimate Wanted 3, finishing 9th place with wins over strong players as Ogey and iStudying. Ramses would repeat that placing at WANTED #3 with wins over iStudying and Ogey before picking up arguably his biggest win of the season at Temple: Hermés Edition over Mr. E. Finally, he participated at VCA 2021, his last tournament of the season, where he endured a number of difficult battles and earned 25th place, including a win over Lucky.
After a busy 2021, many Smashers became familiar with his work on the microphone, but despite the many roles he plays, Ramses is still one of Europe's strongest on the sticks as well.
By Joshua "Barnard's Loop" Craig
Noah “RyuKai” Bataille comes in as one of Europe’s sole top Fox mains. One of many noted top French players, RyuKai has made his mark across the ocean of French local & regional events he has attended in the last two years. In addition to his Fox, he has a polished Wolf that has taken sets off powerful players in France.
His peak run was either his 5th at French regional Slam Basket or his 9th at European major Vienna Challengers Arena; either way, between those two events, he picked up wins on Oryon, Otakuni, MoDzai, SuperStriker and Azrael.
Locally, he has also garnered wins on top French players Leon and Flow. RyuKai's prominence within France has made him one of Europe’s foremost hidden bosses, with potential to defeat nearly anyone in Europe’s strongest region.
By Joshua "Barnard's Loop" Craig
Samuel “Samuuu” Haße is one of Europe’s premier Bayonetta players. After a brief appearance and win at the late 2018 event Pixelpokal Winter 2018 - where he did not drop a set - Samuuu vanished until 2021.
Returning in early 2021, Samuuu did well at a number online events before attending offline German regional VirtuaSmash #14. There, he defeated Ady to win his first offline event in over two years. After winning two more offline German invitationals over players like RobinGG and Ente, Samuuu attended his first substantial national event in Smash Ultimate.
Performing moderately well at the DATEV Conquest invitational bracket, Samuuu went on to place second in the open bracket, sporting a 1-2 set record against Sisqui while defeating AndresFN, DarkThunder, Jaka and Mr.R in an unexpected and dominant run.
