Four Horsemen
The Four Horsemen, known as the Four Emperors in the Japanese Ultimate scene,[1] is a term used in the competitive Super Smash Bros. Ultimate community referring to acola, Sparg0, Sonix, and Miya due to their overall dominance throughout competitive Ultimate in 2023, being the 4 best players in the world by a large margin. This is following the decline in results from players like MkLeo and Tweek who dominated the scene in the early metagame. The term was coined by PracticalTAS after the results of Watch The Throne, and has been compared to The Five Gods of Super Smash Bros. Melee.[2]
Etymology
The "Four Horsemen" originally refers to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the New Testament's Book of Revelation. They are commonly interpreted to be the personifications of Death, Famine, War, and either Conquest or Glory depending on interpretation. In modern day, the term has become a common internet meme, often referring to an undesirable but inevitable quartet of events or individuals.
History
The rise of the Four Horseman was the result of several shifts in the metagame. First, the increased attention to the online metagame as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic gave players opportunities to compete against others from all around their country, or even the world, without having to travel. As such, this period saw the rise of several newcomers and players who did not travel often. Most notable among them were the Four Horsemen, who dominated their respective region's online competitive play: Sparg0 was ranked #1 on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v6 and v7; Sonix was regularly ranked top 5 on the same ranking; both players regularly fought in Grand Finals at Coinbox events; and both acola and Miya each were ranked on top of the Smashmate ladder several times.
In addition, the metagame following the online metagame slowly shifted to a more campy playstyle as a result of the rise of several characters including Steve, Sonic, and Kazuya, all characters that require a great amount of patience to either play or fight against. The metagame shifts greatly favored the Four Horseman, as they either played such campy and patient characters (acola, Miya, Sonix) or played characters that could counter them (Sparg0).
Finally, the new metagame saw the decline of some of Ultimate's old guard. The most notable case was MkLeo, the greatest Ultimate player of all time, who by 2023 had lost his dominance on the rest of the Ultimate scene. As such, 2023 marked the first year where MkLeo was not considered the best player in the world, allowing the Four Horsemen to take his place.
For the 2023 season and for majors where at least one of them were in attendance, the Four Horsemen won a combined 31/37 (83.78%) throughout the LumiRank 2023 season,[3] and 18/19 (94.75%) throughout the second half of 2023.[4] Each of the four also won at least one "Premier" tier event in the LumiRank 2023 season, the highest tier given to a tournament. In the event that one of the four didn't win the tournament, at least one would make Top 4, with the sole exception being Crown the Third, and with Watch The Throne being the first time that they all made Top 4.[5] Akin to the Five Gods, they rarely see upsets from non-Horsemen, and acola, Miya and Sparg0 have the most major wins out of all Ultimate players behind MkLeo. Notably, the Four Horseman each had a score above 95 on the LumiRank 2023, with the next highest being Glutonny with a score of 84.78.
As of now, only two players have defeated all the Horsemen at least once, and only Shuton has done so at ranked events. Below, only the first win is listed, and bold represents the final Horseman defeated.
| Number | Tag | acola | Miya | Sonix | Sparg0 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | Date achieved | Event | Date achieved | Event | Date achieved | Event | Date achieved | ||
| 1 |  Shuton |
Maesuma Offline | February 26th, 2022 | Sumabato SP 9 | November 10th, 2019 | Scuffed World Tour | December 18th, 2022 | 2GG: Prime Saga | April 13th-14th, 2019 |
| 2 |  Glutonny |
BOBC5 THURSDAY PRE-LOCAL | May 18th, 2023 | Scuffed World Tour | December 18th, 2022 | Pound 2022 | April 22nd-24th, 2022 | Delfino Maza RETA 2022 | April 1st-3rd, 2022 |
acola
acola is widely considered one of the best Smashmate players of all-time, ranking 4th on kenniky's Top 50 Smashmate Players of All Time by the 22nd season. Although having attended a few small offline events prior, acola's offline career began after being invited to the Maesuma Offline invitational, where he placed 2nd after defeating several of Japan's established players. Since then, he has seen dominance in both Japan and around the world comparable to peak MkLeo, placing top 8 at every ranked event he attended outside of Seibugeki 12. This dominance included winning his first major (Maesuma TOP 7), his first supermajor (Kagaribi 7), and his first overseas event (The Gimvitational).
acola is considered the best of the Four Horsemen in terms of overall consistency, with no losses outside of the top 50, and as such is ranked 1st on the LumiRank 2023. However, acola's record against the rest of the Four Horsemen is noticeably weaker, as he failed to defeat both Sonix and Sparg0 throughout the 2023 season, and despite ending with a positive record on Miya, three of their last four sets of the season went in Miya's favor.
Miya
Miya is the most recent of the Four Horsemen to rise into the top level. Although a familiar face in Japan's online scene due to his high placements on the Smashmate ladder, he was initially a relatively unknown player to the global scene. As such, Miya shocked the community by unexpectedly winning the major Kagaribi 8, which not only marked Mr. Game & Watch's first-ever major win, but was an achievement that the then-best Mr. Game & Watch player, Maister, did not have. Despite some inconsistency, especially in the two months immediately following Kagaribi 8 and in the first two months of 2023, Miya ultimately became the second-best player in Japan after acola.
Miya is arguably considered the best player in the world in the latter half of 2023, with alternate global ranking LunaRank Zenith ranking Miya as first. However, Miya has the worst statistics compared to the rest of the Four Horsemen, having negative records on the other three and having the worst losses in the 2023 season, with 2 losses outside the top 100 (Ezs and Metara) and 2 additional losses outside the top 150 (Futari no Kiwami Ah~! and Sriks). As such, he is ranked the lowest of the four on the LumiRank 2023.
Sonix
Sonix is the oldest of the Four Horsemen and the first of the four to have notable results outside their region, with Sonix's first notable event being the Smash 4 major Shine 2017. He was dominant in Ultimate's online metagame but was never ranked first, instead ranking 2nd on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5 and v7. Offline, he became the first solo-Sonic player to win a major in Ultimate after winning CEO 2022, and consistent strong placements afterwards allowed him to dethrone KEN, the first time since early-Smash 4 where KEN was not the best Sonic player.
Despite this strong performance, Sonix notably struggled against Aegis players, especially Sparg0 and MkLeo. As such, he did not establish himself as a Four Horseman until the second-half of 2023, where he placed top 2 at every major for the rest of the year aside from Super Smash Con 2023 and saw him overcome his Aegis roadblock and trade more sets with Sparg0. He ultimately ended the 2023 season with a negative record on Sparg0 and the least major/supermajor wins of the four for that season (at 3), but on the other hand had a positive record over the two Japanese players and the second-best consistency among the four.
Sparg0
Sparg0 is the first of the Four Horsemen to establish himself in the top level offline. As the best player in North America's online scene, many players were expecting Sparg0 do bring this dominance into the offline metagame, and following a few underwhelming events, he was able to do just that. Sparg0's breakout event during this time was Smash Ultimate Summit 3, which began his streak of top 3 placement at majors that lasted well into the following year. As such, he was the first of the four to be ranked in the top 10 on a global ranking, ranking 2nd on the OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse.
Sparg0 is often considered to be the best of the Four Horsemen in terms of peaks, being the only player of the 2023 season to have two premier-tier wins (Kagaribi 10 and Battle of BC 5) and having positive records over the other three. However, he is also considered the least consistent of the Four Horsemen in terms of raw placements, as he has the most amount of major finishes outside the top 8 in the 2023 season at 4: Smash Ultimate Summit 6, Crown the Third, Super Smash Con 2023, and Port Priority 8.
Offline head to head
| acola | Miya | Sonix | Sparg0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| acola | — | 9-4 | 0-2 | 1-7 |
| Miya | 4-9 | — | 1-3 | 0-3 |
| Sonix | 2-0 | 3-1 | — | 7-10 |
| Sparg0 | 7-1 | 3-0 | 10-7 | — |
List of majors and supermajors with at least one of the Four Horsemen in attendance
Bold denotes supermajors.
2023 Season
| Tournament | Date | acola | Sparg0 | Sonix | Miya |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JAPAN 24 | December 24th-25th, 2022 | 1st | N/A | N/A | 2nd |
| Let's Make Big Moves 2023 | January 6th-8th | N/A | 2nd | 3rd | N/A |
| Umebura SP 9 | January 7th-8th | 1st | N/A | N/A | 13th |
| GENESIS 9 | January 20th-22nd | 7th | 5th | 4th | N/A |
| Kagaribi 9 | February 4th-5th | 1st | N/A | N/A | 49th |
| LVL UP EXPO 2023 | February 17th-19th | N/A | N/A | 3rd | N/A |
| Maesuma TOP 11 | January 11th-13th | 3rd | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Collision 2023 | March 10th-12th | N/A | 3rd | 5th | N/A |
| Seibugeki 13 | March 12th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Smash Ultimate Summit 6 | March 23rd-26th | 1st | 13th | N/A | N/A |
| MAJOR UPSET | April 1st-2nd | N/A | 1st | N/A | N/A |
| KOWLOON 5 | April 8th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Maesuma TOP 12 | April 30th | 1st | N/A | N/A | 2nd |
| DELTA 4 | May 4th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Kagaribi 10 | May 6th-7th | 2nd | 1st | N/A | 7th |
| Battle of BC 5 | May 19th-21st | 2nd | 1st | N/A | 5th |
| Crown the Third | June 3rd-4th | N/A | 9th | 13th | N/A |
| Maesuma TOP 13 | June 24th-25th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Seibugeki 14 | July 1st | 1st | N/A | N/A | 4th |
| UltCore | July 22nd | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Get On My Level 2023 | July 21st-23rd | N/A | 2nd | 1st | N/A |
| Smash Factor X | July 28th-30th | N/A | 1st | 2nd | N/A |
| Super Smash Con 2023 | August 10th-13th | 1st | 49th | 25th | 3rd |
| Delfino Maza 2023 | August 18th-20th | N/A | 1st | N/A | N/A |
| Tera | September 1st-3rd | N/A | 3rd | N/A | N/A |
| Maesuma TOP 14 | September 3rd | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Sumabato SP Ultimate | September 16th-17th | 1st | N/A | N/A | 3rd |
| DELTA 5 | September 23rd-24th | 1st | N/A | N/A | 3rd |
| Kagaribi 11 | October 7th-8th | 2nd | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Rise 'N Grind 2023 | October 13th-15th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Seibugeki 15 | October 28th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Luminosity Makes Moves Miami 2023 | October 27th-29th | N/A | 1st | 2nd | N/A |
| Maesuma TOP 14.5 "in Hyogo" | October 29th | 1st | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Port Priority 8 | November 11th-12th | 3rd | 17th | 1st | 2nd |
| Maesuma TOP 15 "FINAL" | November 25th-26th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| Watch The Throne | December 8th-10th | 4th | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| The Coinbox IRL | December 17th | N/A | 2nd | 1st | N/A |
2024 Season
| Tournament | Date | acola | Sparg0 | Sonix | Miya |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luminosity Makes BIG Moves 2024 | January 5th-7th | N/A | 3rd | 2nd | N/A |
| Umebura SP 10 | January 6th-8th | 1st | N/A | N/A | 2nd |
| KOWLOON 9 with Sumabato | January 13th-14th | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
