#15: WattPheasant | Average: 14.82
Arizona native Sabrina “WattPheasant” moved to Chicago in late summer of 2024, and after an up and down first season in the city, has sharpened her skills against the Windy City’s best, making her debut on the CLM PR at 15th. At RPM specifically, WattPheasant has piloted Marth to capture multiple season best placements, with a pair of top three finishes at RPMs 27 and 37. Each of her best RPM runs has featured strong wins on Chicago and beyond’s best, helping her achieve strong records against many of the region’s up and comers such as Fry and Jisp.
While she may more frequently attend locals in Lincoln Park, WattPheasant makes the occasional trip out to Logan Square for Midlane, where she’s managed to take down a handful of Chicago’s strongest competitors. On top of playing gatekeeper to many of the scene’s rising stars, WattPheasant was able to defeat Chicago Falco mainstay Killablue twice, across back to back weeks at Midlanes 171 and 172. While she may still be relatively new to the scene, and the Power Rankings, WattPheasant has shown growth in the short time she’s attended events in our community, and will surely remain a fierce competitor and friendly face in the scene for many seasons to come.
Kevin “tenacity”
#14: Jisp | Average: 14.00
After years and years of attending locals in Chicago and its suburbs, “Officer” Jisp has finally made their way onto the CLM PR, here to wrangle up spacies, swordies, and mid-tiers alike. They paved their way to 14th on the PR and a 14.00 flat voter average with a strong season that reminded voters why they’ve been a top competitor in Wisconsin for years now, while introducing the uninitiated to their technically inclined gameplay at the same time.
Across the first four months of the year, Jisp demonstrated the depth of their matchup knowledge, defeating a myriad of characters in key sets through wins against players such as Latin (1-1), Scooby (2-0), Casual, Fasthands, Knubs, Fry, Dragoid, Unsure, and many more. With this kind of range at their disposal, it was only a matter of time before Jisp would make it to enough events and put together a resume representative of their skill for voters to see.
Their place among Chicago’s elite competitors has been realized and appreciated, alongside their dedication to communities both at home in Milwaukee, and here in our scene. It’s easy to root for and respect Jisp both as a player and person; they’ve always been welcoming to CLM whenever a visit is made to MKE, and will always be welcome here when they visit Chicago.
Kevin “tenacity”
#13: Killablue | Average: 13.47
What would a CLM PR be without Enrique “Killablue” Carvajal? The two words that immediately came to mind were “boring” and “strange” (no hard feelings Act 3 of 2024). Without Killablue, who would be around to have game 3 bangers with Grunker, cleanly take down Pleeba in a sweep, and defeat “Cody Schwab” in pools of Midlane? No one, that’s who.
After 16 events and over 100 sets, Killablue managed to come up with another solid list of wins, including dz, Frost, ORLY, Peanutphobia, Forest, Fry, Dragoid, Ferocitii, and many more. With these players and a slew of others defeated, Killablue once again earned his place among Chicago’s elite after taking a season off.
With the ability to scare practically any player in the city with his gameplay, all he needs is a little consistency in his ability to practice to retake his spot in the top 10. Should he ever have access to a reliable netplay setup, Killablue will have a chance of adding your favorite player to his list of wins in PR blurbs to come.
Kevin “tenacity”
#12: Fry | Average: 13.06
In Act I of 2025, Chris P. Fry cemented himself in Chicago’s Peach pantheon. He maintained his dominant records against Chicago up and comers in mase (1-0), Ashley (2-0), Surskim (3-0), and Jisp (3-1), and had equally impressive performances vs. PR players of his tier: anxious (5-0), Unsure (2-2), Kels (1-0), Dragoid (1-0), and Killablue (2-2). His peak performances in this act included wins against max, Latin, Eggy and a back and forth record vs Chicago’s own GI0GOAT (3-4) .
Fry is a wonderful, calming, hilarious, charming and revered character in CLM. He’s been known to speak like he’s from another planet, casually debate you into caring about something you didn’t know you had a strong opinion on, comfort you after a loss, befriend people new to the scene, and laugh as he crushes your soul set after set.
In this Act we saw his attendance drop, down from 28 tournaments attended to a measly 27—still more than any other player in CLM. His presence at any tournament engenders a familiar and warm air, and it brings great comfort to know that whether you are a regular, new to the game, or back after a long break you can count on a pleasant conversation with Fry at the local. Showing sparks of brilliance, we have high hopes for Fry. We have to hope he never completes the Binding of Isaac, as we might find our scene under the rule of a king no one would want to get rid of.
Euphonic
#11: ORLY | Average: 12.18
For just about as long as Chicagoland has ranked its Melee players, ORLY has been seen among its best, and while newfangled developments like Project Slippi and some podcast called “The Yard” have brought new demographics into the game, Uncle O remains a fixture of Tripoint Smash’s weekly brackets.
As always, dividing his attention between Melee and Project +, ORLY’s domain in Act I was primarily Tripoint Smash, where his rivalry with Michael continued to rage on, although this season the Falcon player was only able to take a single set off of the enigmatic Jigglypuff player. Some other players’ returns to the fray, namely Dz, did give ORLY some trouble, the Yoshi winning all three of the sets the two played.
For those looking to make their way into Chicago’s high ranks, though, ORLY was a big mountain to climb in Act I. The Falcon took two unanswered sets off of Jisp, and another one off of CLM newcomer WattPheasant. Against the returning PR mainstay Eggy, ORLY got two valuable wins as well.
Unc has still got it, even while continuing to play Captain Falcon in a way that feels pretty abnormal in today’s metagame, and as one of the players who lost to ORLY this season, I must say that I enjoyed every minute of it. He’s interactive, creative and funny in and out of the game, and we’re definitely lucky to have him around.
Matthew “Dr. Hunk” Koester
#10: Forest | Average: 11.88
Returning to the Chicagoland PR in 10th, Thomas “Forest” Zhang demonstrated once again why he’s been one of Chicago’s swiftest swordsmen for some time. With the most recent season of Survivor complete, Forest might be on the brink of breaking through into the single digits, and breaking through as Chicago’s next top Marth.
Forest managed to punch above his weight according to his rank this season with wins on dz and Casual, while still gatekeeping the top ten with wins against WattPheasant, Fry, Killablue, Jisp, Dragoid, and anxious.
Forest repeated his best ever placement on the PR this season, and managed to show what may be a peek at what’s to come; as he took both Ober and Michael to the brink in sets with two of Chicago’s best. He might be just a few key games away from taking down two of the city’s top three players, and maybe just a few seasons away from joining them on that podium.
Kevin “tenacity”
#9: Eggy | Average: 10.29
Also known as BestPrincess, Eggy was indeed Chicagoland Melee’s best Peach in Act I of 2025. This player’s strong year thus far includes a strong record of set wins over penultimate Peach Fry (5-1), an unanswered win on Chicago’s best Yoshi, dz, and encouragingly, a win over Danny Phantom, a player who gave him a good deal of trouble in prior years, at Out of the Blue 4.
It wasn’t all peachy keen for the Chicago PR veteran — losses to ORLY and DoctahDylan suggest that he might have a Falcon problem — but against space animals who aren’t GIOG0AT, Eggy was unstoppable in Act I. As the year beats on, will we see the return of Top 100 Eggy? I don’t know, but either way I hope the PR Mainstay continues to turn up.
Matthew “Dr. Hunk” Koester
#8: Frost | Average: 9.18
If you saw Alex “Frost “ Ronquillo at an event while not in bracket, you may assume he was a Puff main, due to him finding a cozy corner of the venue, and settling in for a quick rest. While it’s often joked about how he can fall asleep anywhere at a tournament, the truth is that he makes himself comfortable, has a good time, and brings a pleasant presence to the scene regardless of where Melee and his iconic Samus take him.
On the other hand, if you saw some of the sets Frost has played in bracket this season, you’d question how he sleeps at all, with some of his sets requiring stamina and perseverance unmatched within Chicago. It’s these key attributes that helped him take down some of the most fierce opponents the Windy City has to offer, and return to the PR in the single digits.
Over 9 events, Frost accrued a handful of key PR wins that brought him back to the CLM PR at 8th, with his prowess against Fox and Peach bolstering his resume significantly. Specifically, his 3-0 record against GI0GOAT, 1-0 record on Eggy, and his 4-0 record on Fry kept him in the conversation for single digit placings. His out of state performances were nothing to scoff at either, taking sets off Ferrety and Baron at Pour Melee Advice in Michigan.
Whether it’s home or away, Midlane or RPM, you can be sure to find Frost at a Melee event soon, with a friendly disposition and smile on his face. He’ll be ready to have a friendly chat with you at the setup, either before or after destroying your stocks, and your hopes and dreams of continuing in the bracket.
Kevin “tenacity”
#7: Scooby | Average: 8.65
Returning to the PR, New England native, Scooby brutally gate-kept the upper echelons of CLM. Against rising stars in the scene they maintained effectively perfect records: surskim (5-0), Ashley (1-0), doctahdylan (2-0), and WattPheasant (2-0). More impressively, in the tier above, they showed no sign of slowing down, beating Unsure (1-0), anxious (1-0), Killablue (2-0) and Fry (5-0). Along with this incredible consistency we saw Scooby score impressive wins against GI0GOAT, dz, eggy, casual and Latin.
If you run into Scooby at a local and are blessed with the opportunity to ask them about the game, you are guaranteed to receive thoughtful feedback that will make you a better player. You might imagine that with such a skill they would be cagey to give information to their competitors, however you will find that they are open, easy to talk to, and make you feel like you’ve known them forever. Chicago has improved hugely with the addition of Scooby, and while we empathize with New England’s loss, we hope to keep them in our scene forever.
With two RPM wins, and placements above 3rd in all but one of the RPMs they attended, we imagine Scooby will reach greater peaks and maintain their RPM dynasty next Act.
Euphonic
#6: Casual | Average: 7.76
Casual is perhaps one of the most involved members of the Chicagoland Melee community. From coming in and out of retirement, to traveling in and out of state for locals, and volunteering in any of the aforementioned scenarios, Casual, AKA CLM Punk, is sure to be a lively presence in whatever aspect of the community he chooses to be a part of. This season, he added consistent competition to the list of ways he interacts with the scene, through the 9 events he attended.
In those 9 competitive endeavors, he shook that retired rust off and managed to take many impressive set wins against players such as GI0GOAT (4-2), dz (1-0), Scooby (2-1), Frost (1-1), WattPheasant (1-0), Fry (2-0), Killablue (1-0), among others. On the other hand, Casual’s losses help to highlight how consistent he was throughout the first four months of the year. His worst losing record, according to CLM Stats, came at the hands of Kels, one of the few players actually more retired than Casual himself.
Casual has already made great strides towards breaking into CLM’s top five in the Act 2, and he has been patiently waiting to see what rank he has achieved after a spectacular showing in Act 1 of 2025. With a positive outlook for Act 2, we can only hope he can make it to enough events next season to push even further, should his cat, work, or Risk of Rain fail to stop him.
Kevin “tenacity”
#5: dz | Average: 5.06
With Peanutphobia’s midseason move back to MD/VA, Mitch “dz” Dzugan found himself burdened with the responsibility of carrying the Yoshi yoke alone this season, carving out an impressive showing amidst the chaos of Act I. Despite sparse attendance later in the season, he still managed to prevail in multi-set rivalries against Killablue (5-1), ORLY (4-0), Forest (3-1), and GI0GOAT (3-1).
He also proved himself a heavy-hitter at out-of-state events, scoring wins on star talent such as Fro116, RapMonster, and HPR. Though the absence of his friendly demeanor, musings on the WNBA, and blistering technique on the sticks was noticed the past few months, dz has been recently seen attending locals again, championing his character and taking down the city’s finest with a confidence he never lost.
Rocco “Latin” M.
#4: GI0GOAT | Average: 4.00
Reaching new heights on 2024’s Act III PR, Giovanne “GI0GOAT” Dattalo could have done as many successful Melee players do: rest on their laurels. This season, however, would see quite the opposite. Ruling RPM with an iron fist, the passionate Fox accrued dominant records versus anyone who dared challenge their throne; they finished the ranking period 4-1 against Scooby and 5-1 on Eggy.
Between locals and majors, Gio dashed the dreams of out-of-staters like Lunar, Ryse, and DannyPhantom, and scored an incidental 9th in doubles at Full Bloom 2025. The crowning jewel of their resume though was their electric victories over Pleeba (3-1) and Ober (2-1). With a rejuvenating holiday in Japan under their belt, and “Amtrak Summer” already underway, there’s no telling just how far a red-hot GI0GOAT will go in the coming months.
Rocco “Latin” M.
#3: Michael | Average: 2.82
After a strong year and a return to the global rankings in 2024, Michael’s Act 1 of 2025 was relatively chill in comparison to his previous few seasons. With only 9 events attended, instead of the 17 and 14 of the previous seasons, his lack of attendance doesn’t indicate a lack of form. Across those events, Michael built up a record of 31-3 in Chicago, only losing to Pleeba and Zamu at Out of the Blue, and ORLY at TPS 266.
Michael’s dominance this season over the suburbs of Chicago may have been lighter than in previous seasons, but he was still comfortably at home at TPS whenever he attended. He cleanly took down players such as Blue, dz, Forest and more to keep up appearances as the city’s top floatie, and is closing in on a flawless season against ORLY, who always seems to steal a few sets from the former rank 1.
It remains to be seen if Michael still has the desire to drive to the city to face off again with the likes of Ober and Pleeba, the region’s current top two, or if he is content in terrorizing TPS for the rest of time, and keeping himself in the conversation for top three off almost that alone.
Kevin “tenacity”
#2: Pleeba | Average: 2.53
Chicago’s premier Sheik is back! After a three-year stint of inactivity, Grant “Pleeba” Donahue became a Midlane regular once again this season, wasting no time in reclaiming his place among the uppermost echelon of CLM. In fact, renewed vigor for competition led him to positive records on a majority of the ballot, and a career-high rank 2.
Collecting further wins on Grab2Win, Majersk, and Lord English, he consistently outplaced his seed at larger events like BOPME 27, Full Bloom 2025, and Out of the Blue 4, where he defeated long-time demon Michael for the first time. With his muscle-memory now properly flexed, and a potential move into the city on the horizon, it’s very possible Chicago could see a new contender poised to claim number 1 on the PR.
Rocco “Latin” M.
#1: Ober | Average: 1.00
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.
Kevin “tenacity”
Thank you for checking out the 2025 Act 1 Power Rankings for Chicagoland Melee. Once again thank you to all those involved in making this possible. Join our Discord for updates and if you still haven’t seen it, check out the interactive PR graphic.
