Top-tiered characters are also, most often, used by the game's top players.įor example, again in demo 0.9b, Bomberman was initially ranked 17th in the B tier. The top characters in all tier lists have all maintained large playerbases and excellent results in tournaments at their time, while characters directly below them also generally perform well or have large playerbases. In general, higher tournament results for characters yields higher tier placings, as winning major tournaments implies that a character has more tools to compete, and thus, a 'deeper' metagame. In Brawl, for example, one of the biggest factors when determining a character's viability was their matchup against Meta Knight. In general, higher-tiered characters have more matchups that are in their favour compared to lower-tiered characters, with matchups against higher-tiered characters having more weight behind them than matchups with lower-tiered characters. They were initially ranked 10th and 14th in the A tier respectively, but as their meta changed and people started using Zelda and Sheik interchangeably, their position rose to 3rd and 9th when separated, respectively, but to also 1st when used in conjunction.Ĭharacters' matchup spread Main article: Character matchupĪ character's matchup spread analyses how well they can perform against other characters in the game. In general, characters with 'deeper' metagames, or, more options in the game's overall metagame, rank higher than characters with 'shallow' metagames, or, fewer options in the game's overall metagame.Įxamples of a character's metagame advancing and causing them rise in the tier list are Zelda and Sheik in v0.9b. The metagame of individual characters is determined by how the players of a specific character use the character within the tournament setting, often in response to the general metagame. Faster characters with quick attacks are normally higher tier. Powerful but slow characters who are easily KO'ed are typically lower tiered. Metagames based on either the players' collective actions or a tournament organizer's rulesets can result in characters being ranked higher or lower on the tier list.

In the tier lists, these decisions help to rank characters, based on how useful they may be in tournament matches shaped around these decisions. The metagame's current state involves what tactics, characters, stages, and other factors make up the most common 'decisions' made in tournament play in other words, how the game is generally being played (fast, slow, powerful, combos, etc). The current metagame of the character in question.The current metagame of the game itself.1.4 Tournament results of a set characterĪ character's placement on the tier list is based on a variety of factors:.

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