I saw this post recently so I'll probably release my personal tier lists in both Melee and Smash 4
Melee:
Viable Tier
S:
A:
B:
Semi-Viable Tier
C:
D:
Un-Viable Tier
E:
F:
Smash 4:
Upper Top Tier:
S:
Middle Top Tier:
A+:
Borderline Top Tier: (Can Be High Tier If Debatable)
A-:
(
=
)*
Upper-High Tier:
B+:
Middle-High Tier:
B:
Borderline High Tier: (Can Be Upper-Middle If Debatable)
B-:
(
/
)**
Upper-Middle Tier:
C+:
Middle-Tier:
C:
(
=
)*
Lower-Middle Tier: (Can Be Low Tier If Debatable)
C-:
(
/
)**
Upper-Low Tier:
D+:
(
***)
Middle-Low Tier:
D: (
***)
Basically Low Tier:
D-:
(
***)
* Both Marth/Lucina and Pit/Dark Pit are clones, meaning that they have the same moveset between each other with slight differences. Both can be put into one.
**Interchangeable By Any Means.
***No Customs, just 1,1,1,1
Character Notes:
: ZeRo retiring doesn't truly mean that Diddy Kong is going to drop. Representation-wise, rising stars such as MVD, dyr, and Shoyo James showed that Diddy Kong CAN do stuff. Result wise, sure ZeRo definitely carries the Diddy meta but MVD has shown some stuff with Diddy especially in Big House and GENESIS 5. MU wise, he received one of the better MU spreads in the game. His MU is not top 3 though (He struggles against lower-tiered characters such as Pac-Man and Mega Man while the top 2 doesn't have any bad lower-tiered MUs.) but he can easily overcome the bad-MUs by his fantastic neutral game.
: Ryu is an interesting character for me. One, he has great potential. He has god-like combo game and damage-input. But he has some holes to lead people to question Ryu in the current meta-game. Ryu's results, while having fantastic peaks in tournaments, is too inconsistent for being a top tier. Trela did well, but he went inactive. Locus made a fantastic start in later-2016 and first half of 2017 by applying fantastic results to major tournaments (placing top 8 in Civil War), however, he dropped significantly in the second half of 2017 by only applying mediocre results. Darkshad made a good performance in 2017 but he is inconsistent with it and had random losses. Match-up wise: He's good but it wasn't too good to be a top tier though. He is short-ranged and struggles against characters with multi-hit hitboxes and big swords such as Marth and Sonic. He made evens against lower-tiered characters such as Samus and Ness and had mostly losing MUs against the top tiers. He can be top-tiered once again but with inconsistent results and representation alongside his MU being high-tier, it's safe to say that he is high tier for now.
/
: Ness and Lucas are potent characters in the current meta, however, they struggle with their glaring weaknesses. Ness has a terrible recovery and Lucas is poor at approaching opponents and getting in the lead. In advantage state, both can do exceptionally well since both characters have fantastic combo game and damage input (Ness is more consistent with it though). I do believe that these characters are not garbage unlike most people and that they can do well in tournaments.
: However, in the current meta, people push too hard towards Lucas and receive regional bias towards him. People think of Lucas mains as Taiheita copy-cats and they could do footstool combos efficiently (Not true). People overthink Lucas's strength and overlook his weaknesses too much though. It can't be said when you have a character that people claims that it has potential yet doesn't receive any notable wins and placings at all outside of one point. Taiheita, while performed very strong in 2016, struggles to keep up with his inconsistent attendance and results in 2017. Taiheita has some high-highs (such as his top 8 placings in every Karisuma ever), he has some low-lows (65th at Umebura 26, 49th Umebura Japan Major 2017, 49th at Sumabato 19, 17th at Sumabato 15, and 25th at Sumabato 21.). From this, he dropped from 9th to 15th to 16th to 28th in Japan Rankings. This means that Japan has kept up from the Lucas meta; Lucas' results in Japan began to flicker. In internationally, he performs worse. Outside of Mekos, rarely any Lucas mains showed up in major tournaments. Mekos, while a strong Lucas player, is very inconsistent in each tournament he showed up in 2017. Mekos has one good win against Nairo, he hadn't made that peak ever since. Recently, Aghasama, the second-best Lucas, enter his first major tournament ever in the US, which is GENESIS 5, but he drowned. Comparing to the second-best Ness at the time, Gackt, he placed 17th in his first major tournament ever in the US by beating ANTi, Locus, and Mistake at the Big House 7. Lucas's MUs, while having better MUs against higher tiers than Ness, struggles against lower tiers even more than Ness. However, I'm not too harsh with Lucas, it's just that he is a bit-overrated at times and people overlook his weaknesses too much. Placing him 29th is a good-spot to me though since he is still a potent character with a fantastic grab game.
inb4 Trash talk here: Please be nice and please note that this is my opinion. None of it matters to you if you disagree with my list. Take it with a grain of salt.