HDRank 2024: 31-40
HDRank 2024 is a list of North America's best HewDraw Remix players in the year 2024. From February 17th to February 26th, the top 50 HDR players will be revealed as we celebrate their accomplishments this past season.
#40: essy
Photo Credit: @JOEYFIGHTING
The HDR scene received a gift near the end of 2024 in the form of God Gamer essy. A perennial Top 100 Melee player, she’s proven herself in an increasingly stacked Melee era with her arsenal of different characters. Now a rising star and national threat in the P+ scene as she makes waves as one of the top Lucas players, it’s no surprise a similar game like HDR would pop on essy’s radar.
Despite being from Ohio, you could find essy practically anywhere in the country, as long as there was a PMRank event in the area. At one of her P+ adventure stops, she decides to try her hand at an official HDR bracket, specifically Undertow. She immediately caught the eyes of everyone at the venue with her Lucas, resembling her P+ gameplay with her consistent combo game and insane call-outs. Many people expected essy to easily make a run, but on the morning of the final day, essy was nowhere to be seen in the venue. When she eventually got in contact and was asked if she was going to play, she responded with, “consider that it is so warm and i am so tired” from her hotel room bed, marking the end of her run at 33rd.
essy’s only ranked as low as she is this year due to how late she got her hands on HDR (and the Undertow DQ certainly didn’t help), but there is no off button for essy’s competitive drive. She’ll continue taking names and making waves in both Melee and P+, and there’s a strong chance 2025 will truly be the start of essy’s HDR career where she can truly blossom to her full potential.
~ Re:Cupid
#39: sinbad
Photo Credit: @RedShirt__
Since Rivals of Aether 2’s release, sinbad has been a formidable threat, showing his mastery of Maypul at Luminosity Make Moves Miami without dropping a single set. With his skill in Rivals 2, it should be no surprise he can also hang with HDR’s best. As the only Incineroar on the rankings, sinbad has accumulated an impressive resume at the few events he entered.
At Blocked the Schmix, he fell to losers at the hands of HDRank 2023 top 10 player Kryu, then ran through devmin and DavidComic before he took revenge on the top Robin main to place second at the Florida regional. He followed up this excellent finish by winning Smash Bros Rescue X4 with two wins on fellow top Floridian Rivals player (and his roommate) Ant. For the rest of the year, he would only get to play partial brackets before DQing out at both The Underground and Beachin’, but he still picked up a win on Mooch while rocking the competition at the latter. Though HDR may not be his main game, he’s a force to be reckoned with when he’s not tearing it up in Rivals.
~ Kumatora
#38: NadiA
Hailing from Sasketchwan, Canada, the best Ultimate player in the province, NadiA, makes their debut on this year’s HDRank. He is already established in the Ultimate scene with his electrifying Pikachu, now expanding his horizons to HDR with a flashy Wolf.
NadiA made his way to both the west and east side of Canada to test his skill out in both competitive titles. Going slightly west, NadiA tore through the Alberta audience at Lacombe Dome, with the sneaky Sonic main StirFryTy the only one able to stop him. At Perfect Pivot in the east, he placed 4th after only losing to Blitz and Mangachu, some of Ontario’s best. Making his way to Canada’s supermajor Get on My Level for Ultimate, NadiA also showed his face at the HDR shadow major Get Out of My Venue. New York’s best Ultimate and HDR player Average Alex, as well as one of Tristate’s pillars Anchor, were both caught off guard as NadiA earned wins on both alongside a 7th place finish at the event.
The States didn’t get to see NadiA, as he mostly stayed near his Saskatchewan turf. However, if NadiA ever decides to make the trip down, it’s very possible that he’ll make more upsets and add some more names to his bounty counter.
~ Re:Cupid
#37: Blitz
Project+ extraordinaire and fan favorite Blitz makes his debut on this season’s HDRank. Ontario’s (second) favorite swordie player made himself known in the HDR community despite almost only competing at tournaments in the land up north. Earning wins on NadiA and Mangachu for a second place finish at Perfect Pivot, Blitz would continue his hot streak with a top 8 finish at GOML, prevailing over fellow Candians Dope and NadiA once again. The end of the year is where Blitz shined brightest though, as he won back to back Condo of Blood events over the likes of Erg, Titanium, Mangachu, and Cresso. Only dropping two games total at the two events, his dominance over the Ontario scene cannot be overstated.
Although Blitz’s hatred for HDR’s overtuned characters burns strongly, his love for his friends is even stronger. Oftentimes you’ll find Blitz attached at the hip with Rongunshu, heckling for his fellow Canadian and swordie enthusiast with all of his effort. When Rongunshu qualified for Ludwig’s LACS Rivals event, Blitz was in tow for the trip across the border to California.
Blitz will be the first one to say his rank doesn’t come close to how good he is at HDR, and without him getting the chance to prove himself at an American major, maybe that’s true. However, he is undoubtedly the best in the world at two things: hating Meta Knight and, just like his signature Ike, fighting for his friends.
~ Anchor
#36: Riz
A Brawl and Smash 4 veteran is a rare breed in the HDR scene, but Riz was determined to show that he’s still got what it takes in Smash’s newest mod game. The Tristate resident asked his good friend and local top player Arhungry who was broken and easy in HDR, leading Riz to pick the same mains as Arhungry: Sheik and Meta Knight.
Riz wasn’t super active this year, only attending three HDRank events. However, Riz made the most of those opportunities, including a shocking run at the largest event he attended Get Out of My Venue. He started off by immediately making a major upset against upstate New York’s best player and #13 on 2023’s HDRank Average Alex before losing to Face. He wasn’t done yet though, taking out fellow Tristate players Nintoonist and Jut as well as one of Ontario’s best players in Blitz before losing to the sleeping giant Rongonshu for 5th place.
It’s unfortunate Riz wasn’t more active in 2024, but as a busy accountant he’s unavailable to compete during tax season. Hopefully his schedule clears up more in the new year so he can get more chances to showcase his signature Bouncing Fish edge-cancels and Meta Knight Shuttle Loop shenanigans.
~ Re:Cupid
#35: StirFryTy
There is an unfortunate limitation in ranking the top 50 players of a game as small as HDR where not every region is equally represented at the biggest majors of the year. Enter StirFryTy, a truly impressive Sonic player from Alberta who distinguished himself over his region throughout the year, boasting an undefeated record on HDRank player NadiA as well as Alberta’s top talent like Zain, STLTS, TheReek, Sesquip, deflateddolphin, and Smear. This dominance culminated at The Black Market, where he took one of Canada’s biggest events by storm, once again beating just about everyone in his path on the way to 2nd. The only person that could stop StirFryTy from a perfect season in region, and the only person he dropped sets to, is the combo extraordinaire BlueZone.
Without many sets against other players in the top 50, it is uncertain how StirFryTy would stack up against the greater scene. Despite this, if you ever find yourself in western Canada, StirFryTy is a major bracket threat you cannot sleep on.
~ Kumatora
#34: Re:Cupid
Blazing out of the state of Washington just like his Falcon Kicks, Re:Cupid burst onto the HDR scene from the underrepresented Pacific Northwest region in 2024. He set out across North America to face the strongest competition the game has to offer, and as the only PNW player to make the top 50 this year, Re:Cupid has clearly proven his worth.
On HDR’s biggest stage at Undertow, Re:Cupid qualified for top cut of the event after defeating Gamerdog, Androos, Truthsinger, and Tyroy. Re:Cupid’s results continued to heat up in the desert later that year, where he took down essy and ilovebagelz at Arizona’s Five Nights at Fingy’s 2 regional before losing to ilovebagelz in grand finals. With a drive to travel more than ever in 2025, Re:Cupid plans to keep adding wins to his list with his signature Falcon.
However, Washington’s best player is just as focused on growing the scene in his home region as he is competing outside of it. Re:Cupid routinely sacrifices entering his own events to take up TOing duties in order to make sure they run smoothly. After all, making sure HDR has a home at his events means there’s more people to challenge him when he gets the chance to enter tournaments in his region.
~ Anchor
#33: Abs
Before 2024, Abs was a tag that very few people outside of Pennsylvania knew about. He was a hidden boss and the ultimate homie who only attended locals. His calm demeanor can be deceiving though—under his smile is a devil that not even the Gates of Hell could contain. After hearing the online HDR community say that Kazuya is “a non-functional character who is severely nerfed from Ultimate” and “no good player would lose to him,” Abs decided it was time to travel out of his home state and prove the doubters wrong.
Tristate’s premier regional Meteor 4 was where Abs made his first splash, taking down established players in Anchor and Face. With invaders entering his home state for [bae], Abs managed to defend his home state and beat fellow Pennsylvania players GatorHotFire and Beast. Abs’ conquest over the Tristate region was not enough, so he decided to take his talents to South Beach and attend Beachin, the Let’s Make Moves Miami shadow major. There, Abs defeated multiple Florida players, with Pennsylvania players Mooch and GatorHotFire still not able to escape his wrath. The more events that Abs attended the more people realized the true power of Kazuya Mishima. More importantly, he showed the rest of the scene that he’s not really a devil, but rather one of the chillest people in the scene.
~ GatorHotFire
#32: Mr.Watch&Learn
Photo Credit: @mike_e_solinas
The self proclaimed “Michael Phelps of Modded Smash Games” Mr.Watch&Learn lives up to his title with another phenomenal year. The Project+ veteran let everyone know early on he was here to stay as he picked up wins on Air Gordon, Beast, and Jut at Meteor 4 and Aftershock. With the bird and bear in hand there was nothing that could stop this duo from reaching new highs, or at least that was the expectation. Frustrated with the direction his character was going and falling in love again with Project+ again, Mr.Watch&Learn decided to mainly compete in Project+ for the following months. As the bear and bird went into hibernation, it wasn’t until the end of summer where Mr.Watch&Learn woke up again.
While Project+ was Mr.Watch&Learn’s main focus at Garden Brawl, he also entered HDR on a whim. En route to a top eight finish with wins on Mulldrifter, a familiar foe from Project+, as well as Mr. Mojo Risin’ and GatorHotFire, Mr.Watch&Learn showed everyone the bear never fully left. For his performance Mr. Watch&Learn was awarded a medal, and he also received a medal for placing in the top four of Project+, proving to everyone his multi-game dominance.
Once again Mr.Watch&Learn has put down the bear and bird, but in return he has picked up the cape and dagger as his new focus is in Rivals 2 playing Forsburn. From one game to another, Mr.Watch&Learn will once again show a new scene just how much of a gamer he is.
~ GatorHotFire
#31: B.S
After joining the HDR scene in late April this past year, B.S made a big splash in the game’s competitive scene. He barely made it onto the New England power rankings for the first half of 2024 before proving he was one of the best in the region. Beginning his Terminal Velocity run with an early loss to fellow New Englander LuckyBee, he ran through Pip and Colorado Project+ player Whoratio before making it to Mr. Mojo Risin’, last year’s second best HDR player in North America. After a down-to-the-wire game five set, B.S came out on top to make it to top 8, ultimately placing 5th after sweeping through ShampooMaster to end his incredible run.
Combined with an impressive second place at Final Warning, beating Trusted and trading sets with both Kero and Kumatora, B.S cemented himself as the next big breakout player of the region. If you ever find him in your bracket path, good luck—you’re gonna need it.
~ Kumatora
Check back tomorrow for the reveal of ranks 21-30!
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