We are down to the final 10. It’s readily obvious who’s left, so let’s hear around the horn who deserves which spot in the bottom half of the top 10

 1.       Who deserves #10?

Charlie “Battlecow” Bullock – SFAT, of course. While he has some very impressive placings, he also has some very unimpressive ones–the curse of a fox main. He doesn’t make top 6 placings at nationals a habit like the other names on this list–and he doesn’t even win norcal locals routinely.

Lucas “Dark Hart” Portnoy – SFAT: One of my favorite Fox’s to watch.  With his technical prowess, watching this guy go back and forth with NorCal’s other top players (Zhu, PPU, Shroomed) is more than entertaining.  As well as having wins over players such as Axe, DJ Nintendo, Hax, and KirbyKaze, this Fox main has shown time and time again that he can hang with the big kids.

Doug “The_Doug”  Williams – SFAT. Well over ranked in my opinion.  Usually gets sub-par results, see Apex and Evo, when he travels out of California.  Very good teams player, high technical skill, and he dominates his region.  Because of the fact he has been beating Shroomed and Norcal’s other best players lately, I feel like an argument is being made that he deserves a higher ranking spot.  Personally I disagree.  #10 is as high as he should be for a 2013 rankings list.

 2.       Who deserves #9?

Charlie “Battlecow” Bullock – Hax. The man is a beast, and he gets top 8 placings with incredible consistency, but there are times when he looks like he can’t do anything against the big names–he’ll never beat mew2king, for example, no matter how many tristate GF’s they meet in, and he gets outclassed in sets against hungrybox and mango and sometimes PP as well. Some of the other players on this top 10 list don’t have that problem.

Lucas “Dark Hart” Portnoy – KirbyKaze:  KK has fallen of the radar as of late due to a bit of inactively in the later part of this year, but that doesn’t mean much when you consider what he’s done.  When I first heard of him, I heard was known as Canada’s M2K for his vast knowledge of the game and amazing Sheik play. A player who’s been on my Top10 list for a few years now, KirbyKaze has shown he can compete with those at the top, dominating players like Zhu, DJ Nintendo, Eggm, Westballz, Chillindude, S2J, Plup, and Silent Wolf, as well as taking wins from PP and HBox here and there. Definitely a Top10 contender.

Doug “The_Doug” Williams – Wobbles. Another slightly over ranked player in my opinion.  Obviously his run at Evo2k13 was tremendous and it’s unlikely anyone will be able to repeat such a result, but I do think Wobbles had a few key advantages at Evo that will not be present in the future of other top tournaments in 2014:
-Ice Climbers in a best of three set is almost always an advantage in itself because it is one of the least played characters on the roster.  A majority of top players do not have experience versus Ice Climbers.
-“Wobbling”.  Essentially unless an opponent can react within X frames and mash X amount of inputs in less than 1 second, then the opponent has lost a stock.  Historically and always a controversial topic, and I feel like this trend will continue for some time to come.

 3.       Who deserves #8?

Charlie “Battlecow” Bullock – Kirbykaze. There was a time when KK would have been a shoo-in for the 6 spot, rocking the 5th places like he did, and even a time when it looked like he might break into the top 5 with just a tiny little push, but the hiatus he’s taken means that he doesn’t have the recent results to back it up, and he placed second to weon-X at the most recent Toronto local that I’m aware of. No doubt he’ll be the same old threat once he pulls out the steel wool, but he’s not on the cusp of champion status anymore.

Lucas “Dark Hart” Portnoy – Hax: This EC Elite has shown time and time again that he can compete with the best of the best, including taking sets here or there from M2K.  With wins this year over Axe, Javi, Lovage, PPU, and S2J, his tricky yet calculated style of Falcon get the crowds going like no other and reigns over any other [Falcon] in the world.

Doug “The_Doug” Williams – KirbyKaze. Although he has been inactive for a lot of 2013, KK is the most solid Sheik main in North America by a long shot.  He very much deserves a spot on the top 10 because of his consistent placings at many majors, regionals, and locals. A slightly uncomfortable topic to talk about is his personal reasons for retiring from SSBM more recently:  Although it is true he may harbor sympathy votes, I do think this has detracting from how skilled a player he actually is.

 4.       Who deserves #7?

Charlie “Battlecow” Bullock – Shroomed. Eff a norcal local, we all know how training partners trade sets. This guy never doesn’t do it big on the national stage. You can call it matchup inexperience if you like (Shroomed himself often does), but matchup knowledge is a part of the game like any other.

Lucas “Dark Hart” Portnoy- Shroomed: This guy… what is there to say other than consistency. One of NorCal’s finest, Shroomed rarely disappoints at a National level, in state and out.  From the start of the year at APEX 2013, getting a solid 5th beating out players such as OverTriforce, KirbyKaze, and ColBol, to a 7^th place finish  at Evo with wins over Leffen, Axe, and Darkrain, to getting 3rd at KoC3 where he defeated Lucky, S2J and PPU.  Did I mention he did all of this with Doc?

Doug “The_Doug” Williams – Hax. Very tough to rank either him or Shroomed as the coveted #6 spot.  Hax is incredibly fast, technical, consistent, and easily the best smasher in New York.

 5.       Who deserves #6?

Charlie “Battlecow” Bullock – Wobbles. I’m kind of against including retired players on the list, because even if you can’t ever leave melee, you can definitely come back to much, much lower placings (cough cough Ken Armada PC KDJ literally everyone else ever to quit cough cough), but it hasn’t been THAT long since evo, and honestly Wobbles had a shot at 6 even before he showed that he was the only player in the world outside of top 5 who could play with them. A commanding second at Kings of Cali, a win against m2k without wobbling at apex 2012 (No johns–for all of his bellyaching and his subsequent forfeit, mew2king NEVER drops sets to non-top-5 players, and if you think the peach is an excuse, look how it handled Fly at KoC2), and the only time he hasn’t gotten top 12 in recent memory is when he had the bad fortune to run into the top 2 peach mains in the world in bracket.

Lucas “Dark Hart” Portnoy – Wobbles: Evo, need I say more? Okay I will; with his exceptional performances, from shooting through losers at KoC2 going through such WC giants as WestBallz, Fly, PPU, and Shroomed, to taking out top player after top player at Evo for a solid 2nd place (Wins over Mango, PP, HBox), I firmly believe Wobbles has done more than deserve the #6 spot below the fabled Top 5.

Doug “The_Doug” Williams – Shroomed. In my opinion there are only three reasons why Shroomed deserves the spot over Hax.
-He is the most consistent results oriented smasher out there.
-Counter picks multiple characters to win specific match ups.
-His survival DI is the best in the world.  Better than Armada’s DI which is unbelievable.