PR Level competition in 2022

PR Level competition in 2022

Competition in Switzerland is fiercer than ever before in Ultimate. There might be some people who would disagree with such a statement on its own for various reasons, but my argument here is that never before in Ultimate were there so many people in contention for making it onto the PR. In fact, there were roughly 12 people in contention for the places 11 to 15, all of which were relatively close to each other in performances and algorithmic results. I want to highlight these players here, but keep in mind that there is an additional group of players who are not listed in this article that are also not much behind in terms of results and player strength based on their current or past performances. In fact, I would argue that Switzerland currently has around 30 players that could make it onto the July - December 2022 Switzerland PR with slight improvements and maybe 1 or 2 good tournament runs. But aside from having a single good run, regular attendance is obviously still one of the most important factors not only to improve as a player, but also so results can be compared and evaluated more easily. If you have never played against more than half of the established players in Switzerland, how are we (and the algorithm) supposed to accurately judge your actual strength as a player in Switzerland and whether that single good win you got was not only in a set where the stars aligned for you?


First, I want to briefly talk about the players who edged it out and made it onto the PR.


#11 SFG Byron @BronLyksa

Byron made amazing improvements results-wise compared to last year. He had always been able to get some good wins but ended up with more losses than wins against the top-end of players. Some of his inconsistency still remains but now the winning records are considerably in his favor. It will be on him to prove that he can keep this level of performance up and continue to place consistently well and maybe get 1 or 2 more upsets on the absolute best in Switzerland to rise even higher.

#12 LK Sickboy @SickBoySSB

I think nobody is surprised that SickBoy made it onto the list, he has performed at this level ever since he first made it onto the PR in 2019. Inconsistency has always been a bit of an issue for him, but his heights balance out some of his lows and show that he's capable of beating the best players, as he did this season with Karpador64, Deox6, Kepler, and mistic. In a world where Sickboy is rarely getting upset in bracket he would probably easily make it into the Top10 of Switzerland. And so, I am waiting for that day to come...

#13 Jodel @DwJodel

When you look at Jodel's performances you notice one thing: consistency. He rarely ever gets upset in bracket, but on the other hand also rarely makes an upset against the top of the top in Switzerland. As with some others mentioned here, he would benefit from traveling to more events and playing against different people, as he is only facing players from the Romandie when they travel to his region and the SBZ monthlies, while stacked events, in the end only consist of a 32man bracket, limiting not only who you play but also your number of sets in total.

#14 SBZ gaya @Liviogaya

gaya made it onto the list primarily because of his tournament win at Smash Hammered #9. His season started quite weak and even throughout the season his results have not been noticeably better than any of the other players listed here. Due to health issues he also had to DQ from a number of tournaments, limiting his results. His wins on Karpador64, Kimbo, Sickboy, Jodel, and ItseMePG with few "bad" losses overall pushed him onto the ranking.

#15 AG Fr0zen @Fr0zenSSB

When talking about Fr0zen all panelists were initially considering him among the players to make it onto the PR, but it was much closer than expected. Despite an amazing performance at the E-Caribana Qualifier some of his other results were less impressive, but maybe also less was expected from him at the start of the season as he only really came on fire during this season. The future is looking bright for Fr0zen, and I hope he can continue to impress, hopefully also at more Romandie tournaments.



There also was a considerable list of players who absolutely were in contention for the January - June 2022 Swiss PR, but barely missed out. Because of that I was heavily considering cutting the PR once again to 10 players and remove all my worries about how to put ranks on the "tier" below the current Top10 in Switzerland. But the Swiss PR has always been 15 players and especially now I also feel that this many players deserve to be placed on a Swiss PR. On top of that, with 25 tournaments counting towards the ranking there is also a reasonable data sample to put through the algorithm. The following is an alphabetically ordered list of players that came close to the PR but missed out for one reason or another. In general, I would consider all of them a solid 16th place!

Cfis @coluleitor

I think the best way to describe Cfis is “janky”. If there is a way for him to cheese you with Dedede, he will go for it. But that should not distract you from the fact that he actually is a really strong player with wins on Kepler, Zeno, ItseMePG, and Mirio. What he lacks is overall attendance and primarily attending events in Zurich. At times his general playstyle can also lose him a set. It would be amazing to see him attend more regularly, because if his recent results are an indicator, he clearly has the potential to make it onto the next Swiss PR.

ABFT Crow @The_habesh_Crow

Crow is another player suffering from almost never traveling out of region, which greatly limits the players he is facing as well as the number of tournaments he attends. There is a good chance he would have made it onto the PR if he had made it to Exodus 3, which he had signed up for, and performed around his expectations, maybe even getting an upset. His wins against Kimbo and Deox6 show that he has a lot of potential but is still somewhat inconsistent considering some of his "bad" losses. More traveling and maybe a bit higher consistency and Crow is guaranteed to make it onto a future PR.

LK DeepFreeze @DeepFreezeIV!

Congratulations to getting Master in League of Legends DeepFreeze! Well, as you can see, he was busy being amazing at other games and only came back to Smash at the end of May. This meant that he not only got few results, but also was still a bit rusty and did not perform to the level he is known for. That will change for sure, and I would honestly be shocked if he were to finish below Top10 in the July - December 2022 Swiss PR. This also means that competition just got even harder, because there will be one spot less on the PR for all the remaining players here.

SFG Hugeaux @Hugeaux_

Hugeaux is another amazing player from the Romandie region suffering from having traveled very little and even attending barely any tournaments outside of the weeklies before 2022. He has vowed to travel more to Swiss-German tournaments in the future and did so for Exodus where he placed a respectable 13th, beating mistic and Mirio. In the few tournaments he attended this season he was typically gate-kept by some of the other people listed here and barely got a chance to fight the very best of Switzerland, but if his results at weeklies are any indicator he is guaranteed to perform well whenever he attends more tournaments.

ItseMePG @ItseMePG

ItseMePG was certainly a person I had in mind for the PR, but with as tough of a competition as the current group of players around the PR level, he did not make the cut. Where his character "crisis" held him back in 2021 it was mostly his "bad" losses that were detrimental in the first half of 2022, despite somewhat consistent results. But ItseMePG is in for the long game, he is getting more comfortable with Pyra/Mythra, and, as he did with Snake in the past, the number of players he is losing to grows smaller and smaller over time. He might be more susceptible against Romandie players, but because of regular traveling that end is also slowly being improved upon. Whenever ItseMePG makes it back onto the PR he is likely staying there.

LK Mirio @MirioSSB

TOs can be amazing players too, as Mirio is demonstrating. He regularly places well at tournaments even though he tends to downplay his performances and the seed he should get. Nevertheless, his results speak for themselves, and he seems to more and more turn into a bracket demon for Karpador64. What he is lacking are more wins against his fellow contestants for the PR against whom he tends to lose more often than he wins. Considering he still manages to perform to the same level overall is an indicator that as soon as he gets a few more wins against some of the players here, he is bound to rise in the ranks.

Zeno @ZenoVilly

Everyone is familiar with Jaka, but there are many other Animal Crossing mains in Switzerland and Zeno is one of them (other notable ones are Ice-Walker, Zasso, and Perce, all of them not too far off from this "tier" of players!). Zeno's results are a bit counterintuitive, because he has good wins against rohan doge, Kepler, and a number of players from this group but also seems to lose more frequently to some of the players that are a bit below this "tier" of players, compared to the rest. There is no doubt that Zeno has the potential to make it onto a future PR, as he was arguably the closest of all the players listed here, all it takes is one or two more upsets and a broader set of opponents to collect data from overall.

Updated at: 16.07.22 (22:32)
Created at: 15.07.22 (11:49)
Created by: Lyamarth