Ohio ARMS Power Ranking

The Ohio ARMS Power Ranking is the ranking of active players in Ohio. Since its inception in 2017, it has been one of the few consistently measured Power Rankings for ARMS. This ranking takes into account offline events located in Ohio as well as the online event series The Biweekly Procrastination as it is ran by Frosty and LOSER, who both live in Ohio. Each Power Ranking is grouped into a Season. These Seasons typically last anywhere from three to five months and have an event as a Season closer.

Since its inception, the Ohio ARMS Power Ranking staff has consisted of T.O.JOE, PineappleFreak, Frosty, LOSER, and Aiakos. Initially, another Ohio player, Azilidaz, was going to be part of the team as well, but declined due to a waning interest in ARMS. The group was formed by T.O.JOE, who also created Ohio ARMS. This team of players and tournament organizers decide on who qualifies to be on the Power Ranking, what events count toward it, and how long each Season lasts. Frosty and LOSER are also responsible for all but one of the Season's Power Ranking images, with T.O.JOE making the image for Season 2.

June 16-October 13, 2017
Ohio ARMS' first Season began when ARMS first released, although no events were held until mid-July with the start of the A Call to ARMS series. This event series' entirety is within this Season and it functioned as one of the primary locals for Ohio head-to-head matchups. The Biweekly Procrastination also began in August, under the name The Ohio ARMS Online Biweekly. Despite its name, it was open for those outside of Ohio as well, but Ohio vs Ohio sets were given higher weight in terms of the Power Ranking. The RUSH tournament series, organized by T.O.JOE, also primarily took place in this Season. Many other smaller locals were also held in other areas of Ohio, such as in Columbus, but those events featured many players who were not engaged enough elsewhere to be featured on the Ranking. Season 1 ended soon after ARMS being at Nyancon 2017 and Kyo Kakuto Geemu as well as one final Ohio ARMS Online Biweekly. Compared to other Seasons, Season 1 has the highest concentration of offline events as opposed to online ones.

The Power Ranking image took 11 days to create, being officially released on October 24th. Unlike most Power Ranking images, this image (and many later ones) was made with pixel art instead of with graphics. Frosty and LOSER collaborated to bring the cast of ARMS fighters to life even including Barq among the main characters. Season 1's image is inspired by Star Fox 2 and features Hedlok prominently who has Blorbs for his ARMS, a nod to LOSER only using double Blorb. Star Fox 2 was chosen as the main inspiration due to its official release on the SNES Classic Edition console on September 29, 2017. The image also shows what controller type each player used, something that has not been shown on any other Ohio ARMS Power Ranking image to date.

October 24, 2017-February 11, 2018
Ohio ARMS' second Season began once the Power Ranking image for Season 1 was released. The start of the Season included the final RUSH events as well as the last Ohio ARMS Online Biweeklies, as the name successfully changed to The Biweekly Procrastination in late January of 2018. Due to the holiday season primarily being a break and the cold weather deterring most locals from running, Season 2 had much fewer events than Season 1. The Season closer was planned to be an event titled Curtain Call, organized by T.O.JOE, but plans for the event fell through and the Season finished after The Biweekly Procrastination 11 on February 11th.

Due to XYK's surprise activity during this Season, as well as his evident skill, he seemingly managed to place third, which would make the Ranking have six spots. In order to remain consistent, it was decided to have five players be on the Power Ranking with one other as an honorable mention. The debate for who would be placed where in the 4-HM spots was fierce and took up most of the staff's time during deliberation. Due to a combination of head-to-head ties and anomalies with tournament placements, this proved difficult and changed rapidly within the discussion. It was finally determined that LOSER would be the honorable mention due to his worse head-to-head against XYK, with Frosty and Aiakos having wins on him while LOSER did not.

The Power Ranking image for Season 2 was initially going to be made by an outside artist, but due to complications with their rates, it was determined that one of the staff members could do it instead. To give Frosty and LOSER a break, T.O.JOE crafted the image somewhat into Season 3, with it being released on February 23rd. This image was inspired by Super Mario 64 and utilized the game's paintings as a representation of the players. This is the only Power Ranking image to not indicate what fighter each player used and is also the only image to not be made of pixel art. It is also the only image to feature more than five players (when including the honorable mention).

February 18-June 28, 2018
Ohio ARMS' third Season began with The Biweekly Procrastination 12, right after the last Season ended. Unlike later Seasons, this was before the previous Season's Ranking image was released. The majority of Season 3 was Biweekly Procrastinations, but in early June there was also Smash'N'Splash 4. T.O.JOE, Aiakos, and PineappleFreak all went to said event, although T.O.JOE was running the bracket, not playing in it. Due to the Ohio ARMS Power Ranking rules dictating that an event needs at least three Ohio players in attendance (with exceptions on occasion), Smash'N'Splash counted for the Ranking. As Pineapple typically performed well in Ohio events, his performance at Smash'n"Splash was similar, with him placing in the Top 8 for the Customs bracket. Season 3 also marks when The Biweekly Procrastination moved from being Defaults only to Customs. In The Biweekly Procrastination 14, LOSER took a set off of PineappleFreak, marking the first time another Ohio player took one off him. This win gave LOSER an upper edge on Frosty in terms of head-to-head match ups, which lead to him being ranked higher. Season 3 finished off on June 28th, with Pressure occurring that day as the Season closer. The event was LOSER and Frosty's first endeavor into running an offline event and featured talent from Ohio and a few other states in the Midwest.

The Power Ranking image for Season 3 marked the return of LOSER and Frosty making the images. Work on the Ranking image began on June 30th, the same day that the deliberation for spots wrapped up. Due to improper planning and difficulty with the subject matter, the image took longer than other ones in the past, taking more than a month to finish. The image was officially released to the public on August 4th with The Biweekly Procrastination starting to run more events soon after. This Season's image was inspired by Super Punch-Out!!'s fighter portraits. It was the first to incorporate the actual font of the game who inspired the image. The background for the picture was also based on font from the game, with a similar font being utilized on later projects done by Frosty. Barq also makes an appearance in this image, marking his second appearance on one of the images with the first being on Season 1's. This marked the first time a player's preferred ARMS were featured on a Ranking image, albeit only one per player.

August 12-October 6, 2018
Ohio ARMS' fourth Season began with The Biweekly Procrastination 19 on August 12th, 2018. This event was the first Biweekly Procrastination in a little over a month due to the Power Ranking image for Season 3 causing a temporary lapse in events. As with Season 3, Season 4 primarily had Biweekly Procrastinations as its means of determining the Season's Ranking. Throughout the whole Season, there were only a few Biweeklies and the length of the Season was diminutive as well. Season 4 had an offline Season closer, with Nyancon featuring ARMS once again that year. Frosty and LOSER created a unique pull string bag as a prize for ARMS there which featured a similar font to that used on the background of Season 3's Ranking image. The prize was won by PineappleFreak, who at this time had consistently won all offline events he attended in Ohio.

Season 4 was the first time a player was marked on the Power Ranking image as "Inactive", with Aiakos taking that honor. This was decided due to his consistent placements on other Rankings that warranted that he still garnered a mention. Deliberation for the Ranking spots occurred the weekend after Nyancon and resulted in a unanimous decision for the order. Due to proper planning and work done in advance of the Season's end, the image was almost ready by the end of the Season and was officially released publicly on October 10th. This image was based on a battle from Mother 3 and is the first Ohio Power Ranking image to show the players themselves instead of the fighters they play. Their outfits were based on outfits they often wear, especially those they wore at offline events. The Ranking image also prominently included Springtron with two Nades as his ARMS, a slight nod to Aiakos' signature set. The background of the piece also utilized a beta design for the bag that Pineapple won at the end of the Season.

October 20, 2018-February 6, 2019
Ohio ARMS' fifth Season began with The Biweekly Procrastination 22 on October 20th, 2018. This Season featured Biweekly Procrastinations alone as its source for data toward the Power Ranking. This marks the first Season of Ohio ARMS to not feature a single offline event. The lack of offline events is partially due to the holiday season and schedules of the players and tournament organizers at the time. It was decided to have the Season end in February as that is when Season 2 had ended. Despite being of similar length to Season 4, there were five Biweeklies instead of three. During Season 5, Frosty managed to consistently win sets against T.O.JOE, something that hadn't been seen prior to this Season. Aiakos also made a return in Season 5, taking six wins over Frosty which imposed weariness of Frosty placing second on the Power Ranking. After deliberation on February 6th, it was decided that Frosty should take the #3 spot and T.O.JOE will remain #2.

The Season 5 Power Ranking image once again showed the players instead of the fighters they played. To denote what fighter they used, the text color of the player represented their fighter. Each player was also able to choose three ARMS to be represented on the image, although LOSER and Frosty's sets contained ARMS they did not typically use as they limit themselves to one and two specific ARMS respectively. The image was teased on February 19th, with the actual image being released publicly on the 20th. This Ranking image was based on the trainer sprites from Pokemon Black & White 1 and 2 as well as the Pokedex from that generation of Pokemon. The players' respective ARMS were represented with uniquely designed Pokeballs placed near the players. The players' outfits are the same they wore in the Season 4 image, except for PineappleFreak's, which features him in a red hoodie instead of a patterned shirt. Biff also makes a small cameo in the image as an icon in the Pokedex.

March 29-July 20, 2019
Ohio ARMS' sixth Season began with The Biweekly Procrastination 27 on March 29th, 2019. This Season once again primarily contained Biweekly Procrastinations, but also had Smash'N'Splash 5 in early June. At the event, the same three who attended the event a year prior reprised their role as a tournament organizer or a player. PineappleFreak managed to get 2nd in the tournament, proving that his consistent #1 spot on the Power Ranking was not just excellence against his home state, but rather the entire country. This is considering that the event was won by Shateau, a Japanese player. Initially, Smash'N'Splash 5 was to serve as the Season closer, but it was decided to extend the Season to allow for more events. Later in the Summer, LOSER and Frosty once again ran an event, Pressure 2. The event featured even more talent from the Midwest states and was the first time all five of the Ohio Power Ranking staff attended an offline event together. Pressure 2 served as the Season's closer and serves as a parallel to Season 3's end which had Pressure as a closer.

Season 6 was the first Season in which T.O.JOE did not place second, as he decided to take a break at the time. Aiakos also returned to the Inactive section on the Power Ranking due to a waning desire to entire online events. Although it was not preferred, it was decided to have a three person Power Ranking instead of five. Deliberation for the placements took place from July 25th to 27th, around a week after Pressure 2 had happened. A few weeks later, on August 16th, 2019, the Power Ranking image for Season 6 was released. This image was inspired by the NES beat 'em up River City Ransom. The title was featured on Nintendo Switch Online's NES game library on September 19, 2018, which led to Frosty and LOSER discovering it later in mid-2019. The image's background was designed to look like Via Dolce and featured Cell members fighting against the fighters used by the ranked players. This was the first image in two Seasons to feature the fighters as opposed to the players and did not have any indication of which ARMS the players used.

August 25, 2019-April 19, 2020
Ohio ARMS' seventh Season began with The Biweekly Procrastination 32 on August 25th, 2019. This Season was unique in terms of size as it was extended numerous times as to get more events to count toward the Ranking. The first extension was partially due to Nyancon 2019 not having an ARMS tournament and therefore there not being a Season closing event in Fall that year. Another extension occurred on October 20th as PineappleFreak did not have enough events to qualify for the Power Ranking at that time and the staff agreed that a two person Power Ranking would not work out. The Season was then planned to end sometime in Spring, with Frosty and LOSER attempting to get the game featured at the Lakeland Game Expo, to no avail. This event was also later cancelled in its entirety due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, but nonetheless Season 7 still ended on the very date in which said Expo was planned to occur on; April 19th, 2020.

Season 7 was the first Season to have the same exact Ranking including unique placements (HM or Inactive). Season 7 is also the longest of all Ohio ARMS Power Ranking Seasons due to the numerous extensions. Deliberation on placements took place over the course of mid-April with the image being teased on the 18th and released publicly on the 19th. The teaser image was the ranking image covered by a community meme known as M, a poorly drawn variant of Mechanica with three arms initially created by Jean Marc, but recreated by LOSER for this teaser specifically. This image was based on the NES light gun game Hogan's Alley with the targets being the fighters of the Ranked players. The image's background was based off of ARM Getter as well. This was the first image to have the start and end dates of the Season present and was also the first to only represent Inactive players with text. That also makes this image the first to show only three players visually instead of five. Ranked players were also permitted to have one of their preferred ARMS shown on the image, a concept that hadn't been featured since Season 5.

April 22-August 5, 2020
Ohio ARMS' eighth Season began with The Biweekly Procrastination 44 on April 22nd, 2019. As with many previous Seasons, Season 8 only featured Biweekly Procrastination events. This Season is different however as offline events were impossible to hold at all due to gathering restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Although no official announcement was made, it was likely that another Pressure event would have ended this Season as that had been the case with other Seasons ending in the Summer. Throughout Season 8, the Biweekly Procrastination managed to garner an unusually high amount of entrants compared to previous seasons to the point that only one event had less than ten. The first Biweekly Procrastination to reach 20 entrants, the 49th event specifically, was also within Season 8. The Season came to a close on the last day of The Biweekly Procrastination 51, August 5th, 2020 and served not only as the Ohio Season closer, but also as the North American Power ranking Season closer.

Season 8 saw the return of T.O.JOE's #2 placement after two Seasons of qualifying as Inactive. His performances against PineappleFreak resulted similarly to previous seasons where his bouts against Frosty and LOSER were successful in his favor, hence why he garnered the #2 spot once again. LOSER managed to make a massive upset in winning against MrPiedPiper in The Biweekly Procrastination 44 which would have put him above Frosty this Season, but Frosty managed to do the same feat in The Biweekly Procrastination 46. LOSER also had a very low win percentage in Season 8 which resulted in his placement at #4. Deliberation for the ranking was quick and occurred prior to The Biweekly Procrastination 51 with the ranking image for the Season being released on August 6th, 2020, the day after that event finished. This image was based on the podium ceremony from Super Mario Kart with each player's fighter being represented as a racer. T.O.JOE's heavy utilization of Dr. Coyle during this Season warranted a spot on the image, marking the first time a player had two fighters as their representation. Biff is featured in the image as a trophy cameo, HP Juice is held by PineappleFreak's Kid Cobra, and the background of the image was inspired by Buster Beach. The display of Season start and end dates also returned from the Season 7 image.