PGRContenders
Years active	2021
Period active	2021
Region	North America, Europe
Game(s) supported	Super Smash Bros. Melee Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Producer(s)	Panda

PGRContenders, also known as thePath to the PGR: Contenders Tier List and colloquially known as thePreGR, was a list of players in North America and Europe released in January and February 2022. The list was created to highlight new and upcoming players who made their debut during theCOVID-19 pandemic and was a pseudo-ranking in the form of a tier list.^[1] The list was planned to release in January 2022 alongside the return of theMPGR andPGRU; however, due to the rise of the Omicron variant during the COVID-19 pandemic, both rankings were postponed, leaving PGRContenders to release by itself.^[2]

Methodology[edit]

The list was decided by panelists, who considered both a player's 2021 performance and their potential in the new year. Instead of a traditional ranking, a tier list is used instead in order to account for uncertainty in the scene. Each game received 2 lists: one for North America and one for Europe. Japan was excluded from PGRContenders as requested by the Japanese TOs, who believed it was too uncertain to properly rank their players in a tier list.

For theMelee rankings andUltimate's North American ranking, 50 players were chosen for the tier list, with 30 of those players being on the final list. Panelists for each game and region gave each player a rating between 10 and 4, using the following as a reference: 10-9.6 for players they believed were S+, 9.4-8.6 for S, 8.4-7.6 for A, 7.4-6.6 for B, 6.4-5.6 for C, and 5.4-4.0 for untiered. Panelists who believed a player belonged between two tiers marked the player with "x.5," and panelists were allowed to abstain from rating a player they weren't too familiar with in 2021; although the latter did not have an effect on the final score, if enough panelists abstained from rating a player, the player would be disqualified (this only happened tomoky). The scores were then normalized and the final score was calculated using a weighted average. These final scores were analyzed through K-means clustering to determine the final tiers for the list, with some tiers combined into a single tier if applicable.

TheUltimate European ranking has a different methodology. Instead of creating the tiers at the end of the entire process, tiers were created before the process began, with each tier having a set number of players and players in each tier assumed to be tied. 32 players will be on the final list. Instead of using a balloting process like the other rankings, theUltimate European ranking was created from a consensus in a group chat.

Panelists[edit]

Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

North America (17) - Aura, Cool Lime, DarkGenex, Dawson, EdwinBudding, Faceroll, Faust, GimmeDatWheat, Kaiju, Metakill, Mosh, Nickemwit, Tuesday, Weis, Wills, Zamu, Zedreo
Europe (15) - Acke, big irf, GG, Jah Ridin', King Funk, Liax, Luan, max, Moby, Nicki, Noxxa, Nuckels, Pipsqueak, Reverb, Rich

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

North America (15) - 5ebas, Barnard's Loop, Cagt, Dexy, EazyFreezie, FinallyRJ, Grayola, Kantrip, kenniky, L4st, Mistrals, moxi, Ripka, Stuart98, Toon
Europe (7) - Burning, El_Bardo, G-P, Lunner, Muk, Nives, Rinor

Rankings[edit]

Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

North America[edit]

Mango's player card

Mango was named #1 in addition to being in S+ tier.

Tier	Smasher	Character(s)
S+	Mango
	iBDW
	Zain
S	aMSa
	Plup
	Wizzrobe
A	Ginger
	Hungrybox
	KoDoRiN
	Polish
	SFAT
B	Aklo
	Axe
	Faceroll
	Fiction
	Gahtzu
	lloD
	Magi
	n0ne
	S2J
C	Albert
	Ben
	Colbol
	Kalamazhu
	Raz
	Lucky
	Medz
	SluG
	Sora
	Zamu

Hidden boss[edit]

moky did not make the list due to several panelists abstaining from voting on him.

Smasher	Character(s)
moky

Europe[edit]

Leffen's player card

Leffen was named #1 in addition to being in S+ tier.

Tier	Smasher	Character(s)
S+	Leffen
	Pipsqueak
	Trif
S	Frenzy
	Ice
	Nicki
	Professor Pro
	Solobattle
A	Jah Ridin'
	Kins0
	Levingy
	Meady
	MINT
B	Kingu
	Mahie
	max
	Raoul
	Rikzz
	Sharp
	skullbro
	Timi
C	abbearv
	Fat Tino
	Fout NL
	Fuzzyness
	Humpe
	Jeapie
	Niklas2912
	NintendOrk
	Renzo

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

North America[edit]

MkLeo's player card

MkLeo was named #1 in addition to being in S+ tier.

Tier	Smasher	Character(s)
S+	MkLeo
	Sparg0
	Tweek
S	Dabuz
	Kola
	Light
	Maister
A	Chag
	Cosmos
	Elegant
	ESAM
	Lui$
	Marss
B	Fatality
	Goblin
	LeoN
	MuteAce
	MVD
	Myran
	Riddles
	Sonix
	Tilde
	WaDi
	Zomba
C	Aaron
	Anathema
	Charliedaking
	Jakal
	Scend
	Wrath

Hidden bosses[edit]

Smasher	Character(s)
Cloudy
loaf
Quidd
VoiD

Europe[edit]

Glutonny's player card

Tier	Smasher	Character(s)
S+	Glutonny
S	Bloom4Eva
	Leon
	Mr.R
	Oryon
	sisqui
	Tarik
A	AndresFn
	Flow
	iStudying
	Neeroz
	Peli
	Raflow
	Space
	Supahsemmie
B	DarkThunder
	Jaka
	Lancelot
	Luugi
	Mezcaul
	Nitox
	Ramses
	RyuKai
	Samuuu
C	eMass
	Homika
	MVL
	OwlBBs
	PeW
	Rinor
	Sintro
	TriM

Trivia[edit]

• Glutonny is the only player to be placed in a tier by themselves (namely, S+ Tier for PGRUContenders Europe) out of all 4 lists.

See also[edit]

• BlurRank, another notable Covid era global power ranking during the same time frame.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• FAQ
• Melee lists:NA B & C,NA S+, S, & A,EU B & C,EU S+, S, & A
• Ultimate lists:NA B & C,NA S+, S, & A,EU B & C,EU S+, S, & A
• Melee videos:NA,EU
• Ultimate videos:NA,EU

• PGRU
• SSBMRank
• North American Power Rankings
• European Power Rankings