🤝 TWO GOLD MEDALISTS CAN’T BE SEPARATED TO KICK OFF THE NEW YEAR! 🤝
Here are the players that played the most in the following regions that did not make this month’s Top 15:
🍑 Atlanta: Toby O & Fady B (9 Games)
👑 Charlotte: Alex M (5 Games)
🚗 Detroit: Gift N (11 Games)
🏔️ Denver: Adam S & Zurdo G (15 Games)
🦅 DMV: Ira S (17 Games)
🎥 Los Angeles: Ahmed H (18 Games)
🍏 NYC: Andy L (17 Games)
🎢 Orlando: Izzatillo M (18 Games)
🔔 Philadelphia: Ammar K & Edwin M (13 Games)
🍭 St. Louis: Steve C (11 Games)
Congrats to these players and the many others that put in work every month in our growing regions! We see you! 🥳
A New Year typically comes with new changes and additions to our blog formatting. That being said, check out our updated ranking graphic, and be on the lookout for a pair of brand-new statistic badges: the Trailblazer and the Pioneer. We’ll be using these to congratulate and distinguish players that are the first from their region and/or country to make our Top 15. 🚩
Now that you have all that in mind, welcome to our first Players of the Month blog of 2024! We hope you enjoy it. 😄
A veteran that we’ve been rooting for throughout 2023 has finally written his name in the stars, and we couldn’t be prouder. 🌟
We hold the pleasure of finally crowning Sergio S as Players of the Month champion, but he’s not alone in this feat! The Venezuelan shares the first-place podium with fellow South Floridian Kevin D; both players played a total of 24 times to kick off 2024! 😲
Kevin - who hails from Cuba - has managed to reach the top of the leaderboard in just his second appearance in our Top 15 after only debuting in December. What makes it more special for him is that he joined the Plei App in January 2023, which means he spent an entire year building up to this moment. 💪
Back to Sergio, who has had quite a special story as well. Let’s start off by mentioning that this baller has been an active user on the Plei App since September 2019. Fun fact: we were only offering pickup games in Florida and Texas back then. We don’t doubt that Sergio has been enjoying pickup games with us for quite some time, but 2023 was undoubtedly his breakout year. 🗓️
The Venezuelan scored an 11th place finish in February to make his Players of the Month Top 15 debut, a feat nearly 4 years in the making. The next month, he appeared again, immediately increasing his personal best of 18 games to 21. Two months later in May, he managed to reach 4th place, a new record placement for him. 🆕
Missing out the next two months, he returned to the leaderboard in August in record-breaking fashion, pushing his personal best games played to 22. ⬆️
He would go on to appear in every remaining leaderboard of the year, most notably playing 25 times in October for yet another new personal record. His personal best remains the same, but playing just one less to reach the top of the pile for the first time isn’t so bad, is it? 😅
Congrats to both Sergio and Kevin! We hope you enjoy your prizes. 🏆
As per usual, two gold medalists mean we immediately move onto 3rd place. Taking bronze for January is Donald S, who made his debut last November. Two months later, he has returned, marking the occasion with a 22-game performance to secure both a new personal best and new highest placement. We hope to see more of the South Floridian throughout 2024. 🙌
Bennet is a leaderboard debutant as well, and he only joined 3 days into December! The Dallas baller was not messing about last month. He is also the first ever Ethiopian to make our leaderboard. Congrats, Bennet! 🥳
We have five Top 15 debutants to highlight, and the first of the bunch is Francisco M. The Mexican baller plays 22 times in January to finish in a commendable 4th place. His appearance is special for another reason, though. Francisco is officially the first player from our growing Chicago region to make a POTM leaderboard! Because of this achievement, he has earned a special Trailblazer badge for his efforts. We hope to see more of Chicago going forward! 💜
In 5th place, we have one of our December co-champions: Christi F! The Houston man played 22 times to secure his position in a second consecutive leaderboard appearance. A reminder that his gold medal efforts to end the year coincided with his leaderboard debut. We get the feeling that Christi may be here to stay in our POTM recaps going forward. 👀
Up next is Camilo P, another December debutant who returns to make yet another Top 15 appearance. He played 21 times in January, just barely beating his previous record that he established a month prior. The Colombian also matches his highest placement of 6th place. Keep it up, Camilo! 👏
Finding himself in 7th is Fabio C, who actually makes his first appearance in a POTM Top 15 since way back in October 2022! The Cuban broke onto the scene that month with a 17-game performance that saw him take 13th place. 15 months later, he’s gone and established both a new personal best of 21 games and a new highest placement. We’re glad to have you back, Fabio! 😉
Yet another December debutant is back for more: this time it’s Bennet A. The DFW baller played 21 times in January to finish in 8th place, just 3 games short of matching his personal best. He also earns himself a Pioneer badge for being the first-ever Ethiopian to make our list. 🇪🇹
He may have finished in 9th place, but if we were judging off of best profile pictures, then Santiago T takes the gold medal. The Colombian man played 19 games in December, and like many others in this leaderboard, represents our H-Town region. 🚀
Two debutants fill up the next two spots. In 9th, we have Juan C, who played 21 times in Houston to start off the year. He may be new to the Top 15, but he certainly isn’t new to the Plei App! The Mexican has been playing pickup games with us since January 2020. Celebrating 4 years with us by making your leaderboard debut; well played, Juan! 😎
Meanwhile, Uruguayan baller Chris P takes 10th, also playing 21 times. Being the first from his country to make the Top 15, he has earned himself a Pioneer badge as well! 🇺🇾
Leaderboard veterans Yussef G and Jose F take 11th and 12th place, respectively. Both played 20 times in January to start the year off strong, and we’ll probably continue to see more of them throughout 2024. A quick look at their POTM history: Yussef has made a total of 8 all-time Top 15 appearances since debuting back in November 2022. Meanwhile, Jose has made a total of 7 all-time appearances; he debuted in February 2023. ⭐
Another player has earned a Trailblazer badge for their efforts this past month. This time, it’s J S, who becomes the first Palm Beach baller to make our monthly leaderboard. He breaks onto the scene with a 20-game debut performance to finish 13th place. More of the same next month? 😜
Wrapping up January’s Top 15 are Edward V and Eduardo C, who place in 14th and 15th, respectively. Edward is a DFW baller who, like a number of others that we already highlighted earlier in this blog, also debuted this past December. He finished 5th that month with 21 games played; this time, he has played another 19 to come just 2 games of matching his personal best. We fully expect Edward to break it very soon, though. Can he do it in February? 🤔
Meanwhile, Eduardo is our fifth and final debutant of the month. Like Edward, the Mexican played 19 times in a solid January performance. 🔥
We love to highlight the growing diversity of the Plei App community. A total of 43 different countries filled up our Top 100 in January, with 7 of those countries being represented in the Top 15. Overall, 112+ unique nationalities represented the entire Plei App this past month. The “Beautiful Game” in the flesh! ♥️
We want to remind everyone that all players who make it into our monthly top 100 earn a free Plei App shirt! 🆓
🚨REMINDER 🚨: We no longer use one consistently updated link where you would all normally keep track of your leaderboard progress. Instead, a new link is provided each month. 📆
Here is the final list for the Top 15 players of January 2024!
As a reminder, here are the prizes for the Top 15 players (updated as of September 2022)!
Plei App Players of the Month
Every month, we will be celebrating our Top 15 players based on games played:
4th through 15th placed players will receive 1 free game credit and 1 free shirt
2nd and 3rd placed players will receive 2 free game credits and 2 free shirts
The #1 player of the month will receive3 free Plei App dry fits to wear at the games plus 3 free game credits
Overall, our Top 15 players played a total of 317 times between them in January. And our Top 100 players of the month played a total of 1,573 times! 🙌
We finished 2023 by crowning two new champions, and now we’re starting the year by doing the same! 😅
“In football, the worst things are excuses. Excuses mean you cannot grow or move forward.” – Pep Guardiola 🇪🇸
Will you climb to the top of the Plei App rankings in February? 🤔🥰
