Arbaro's Rankings for the October 2024 Premiere Poll

September was DAS season, crowned by the new Jonas Cup this past weekend. Masters and two big CTW events still provided some rolling action, as well as a compelling Challengers tournament that showcased a returning champion and a newer player making a huge step forward.

Numbers in parentheses refer to the ( Premiere Poll ranking | my ranking ) for September. NR stands for "Not Ranked". If you're a Premiere Pollster and want to share your reasoning for your rankings on this blog, or if you're a reader who just wants to pitch in your two cents, feel free to join our Discord.

1 BLUE SCUTI (2 | 2)
When Scuti won his first Masters title back in December, he had to survive deciders against Andrey and Andy to get a shot against Alex T. This time around, he's going into the semifinals from a position of dominance, netting a 1.9 in both bracket games. Back-to-back CTL championships and an incredible decider win against Alex T in the August CTM Semifinals mean that he's earned his spot at the top of the list.

2 ALEX THACH (1 | 1)
Alex and Scuti had an instant-classic Masters semifinal match early in the month, and though he came out on the losing end, he had plenty of spectacular moments. He's taking a well-deserved month off from Masters, and there's no doubt he'll continue to tear it up when he returns to open-playstyle competition.

3 SIDNEV (5 | 6)
Sidnev's first Master's win has to feel like a huge weight off her shoulders, and winning CTW against one of the most stacked fields in history proved that it's not a fluke. The floodgates could now be open.

4 TRISTOP (3 | 4)
Tristop was the only one stopping Sidnev from completely running away with the CTW title, and played phenominally to move past a high-performing Allenbot and get another shot at his first CTM title. Topping out three times in a row to hand Sodium the win in the CTL playoffs wasn't great, but he doesn't look to be making it a pattern.

5 DOG (4 | 3)
Dog has had a few games this month that weren't up to his normal caliber, especially pre-29, and he couldn't make any noise in the CTW finals as a result. He's still very much in the top group of players, though, routinely rolling over and making deep tournament runs.

6 MYLES (6 | 5)
Myles seems to be in a similar position as Dog. His ability to put up big numbers is undeniable -- he had two 1.7's in his CTM run this month -- but lost his CTM set to Noah and the CTL finals to Scuti due to pre-29 struggles. Signs continue to point up, though, and his play this month has further solidified his position among the game's elite.

7 THEDENGLER (7 | 7)
Early topouts continue to be Noah's bane, but his opponents can very well suffer the same fate trying to keep up with him -- just ask Myles. Forcing his oppents to play from behind more often than not is a potent advantage, especially when his 29 is good enough that even players at the top of the top can't guarantee that they'll catch up. It's been enough to make two semifinals in a row.

8 FRACTAL (8 | 11)
The rust is all but gone after Fractal's return to comp, as evidenced by a massive round 2 challengers performance. It's a lot more crowded at the top than it was during Fractal's period of dominance early in the year, though, and he'll find that he's going to have to be that much better if he wants to challenge for the number one spot against the likes of Alex and Scuti. (And though this is an open-playstyle ranking, it's still worth mentioning that Jonas Cup win.)

9 NEK0 (13 | 8)
Another month, another great set from Neko, getting D on the screen three times while pushing Dog to a decider in a hard-fought second-round bout.

10 IBALL (9 | 10)
IBall took DAS season off, but his August was good enough to keep him in the top ten.

11 GERALD FREEMAN (11 | 9)
Players may say they're retired, but we're not going to actually count them as retired until they've resisted temptation to play for three months. A couple great CTM sets against Dengler and Alex T still fall in the eligiblilty window.

12 TOMMYNTG (14 | 15)
Tommy was a nonfactor in the CTW finals, but the fact that he made it there shows that he has the potential to do some damage. Tommy plays less than a lot of other players on this list, but hopefully he can get a big statement win soon.

13 SODIUM (15 | 13)
In order to look like you're playing well, you often need to have your opponent play well, too. Sodium made Scuti play out all his games to great effect in this month's Masters, and, as Tristop learned in the CTL playoffs, he's more than capable of punishing a top-tier player having an off day.

14 DANV (10 | 12)
Dan almost ended Scuti's CTL champtionship defense in the first round of the playoffs, netting a 1.4 before sputtering out. He has been a bit hit-and-miss, particularly post-29, but he can be terrifying when he's on his game.

15 SVNESTRIS (12 | 14)
SV's Masters run didn't go how he wanted this month, bowing out in the first round to Allenbot after using some defective controller pads. He played much better after spending the time to switch them out before game 3, though, so expect him to roar back soon.

16 COALBUCKET (NR | 25)
New-look Coalbucket is real. Coal responded to being left off of last month's list by making the Challengers finals, where he lost to a certain CTWC (and now Jonas Cup) champion, and winning against Huff in a hard-fought CTW live event. His match against Lazer was especially fearsome, where his opponent got three consecutive 1.2's and still got swept.

17 HUFFULUFUGUS (16 | 16)
The CTW live event finals turned pretty quickly into a two-horse race, but it was a fun one, with Coal eventually gaining the edge. His Minneapolis sets were consistent, and though there weren't any huge numbers involved, it was enough to get him one game away from the finals.

18 MEME (20 | NR)
Meme's name is starting to appear everywhere. She's made it to Masters for the first time in a year, put up a killer set against Fractal in Minneapolis, and, though it doesn't really count for these rankings, made the semifinals at the Jonas Cup.

19 PORTALLL (18 | 17)
September is a good month to take off. Portal is always fun to watch in CTL, so hopefully we'll see him there again when Season 27 starts back up in October.

20 LAZER (25 | 20)
Getting back-three-back 1.2's in Challengers and still getting swept is brutal, but Lazer has built up a long resume of good, consistent comp play by now.

21 ALLENBOT (22 | 22)
Allen has the ability to shift up a gear or three when the moment is right. While he didn't exactly get another 1.8, he looked legit in his rematch against Tristop, and he shouldn't be underestimated.

22 COBRA (NR | 21)
Cobra made his first non-MM Masters appearance this month and almost caught Neko off guard, playing consistently enough to push him to a decider.

23 VICIOUS RHUBARB (24 | 24)
Rhubarb's 1.2 was enough to steal a game off of a rampaging Scuti in his only set of the month.

24 DAVIDMJ (23 | 19)
No rolling matches this month; dropping him this far feels rough, but it has more to do with the other players impressing.

25 CHEEZ (19 | 23)
There were no matches from Cheez in September, though his Minneapolis performance still stands out.

FIRST FIVE OUT: RAHMATIONS, TUGI, OPAUX, TIMMYKIM, KUNFUSINGPOKE