2025 ACT 1
POWER RANKINGS

Only one player has ever been ranked unanimously in the history of CLM Stats and ballot voting. Only one player even stood a chance at challenging for rank 1 this season. Only one player could have stood at the top of the Chicagoland Melee rankings in Act 1 of 2025, looking down on all other competitors left in Ober’s wake. That one player is of course, Ober.

Across the 13 total events Ober attended both in and out of region, Ober amassed a laundry list of quality wins and strong placements, with two standout events demonstrating Ober’s capabilities both in terms of performance and stamina. At Out of the Blue 4, Ober kicked off Ober’s top cut run with an upset against Smash Papi, and then a six factor upset against the #3 seed, and SSBMRank 34, Zamu, on Ober’s way to placing 9th. At BOPME 27, Ober fell to LuigigoShard in round 1 of Top 32, before going on an absolute spree. After defeating Forest for 17th, Ober took down Life, Suidt, Killablue, LuigigoShard, Pleeba, and Reeve, to place second at the Purdue regional, falling at the hands of Coffee, in a hotly contested grand finals set.

Ober has seemed to settle into Ober’s place at the top of the CLM rankings, winning every Chicago local Ober attended except two, placing in the grand finals at each of them. After claiming rank one to close out 2024, Ober looked unstoppable in Act 1 of 2025, setting himself up nicely for the start of a top 100 campaign. If Act 1 showed us anything, it’s that 2025 might be the start to the year of Ober, and perhaps even a reign spanning far beyond that.