Can we discuss Smash 4's inconsistency? I've been thinking about it for a while and today Anti tweeted this out:
https://twitter.com/Anti/status/764197993570500608?lang=en
https://twitter.com/Anti/status/764148361624686592?lang=en
And I've always felt the same way when playing Brawl (and Melee/PM as well) as opposed to Smash 4. I feel if I'm better than someone in those games, I win rather easily, there's never any doubt and the skill gap really shows.
But with Smash 4, its like you have to respect almost every player no matter how good they are because they all have a realistic chance of beating you. I never feel safe and on the other hand, I never feel totally out of it either (I've taken games from players I would consider way better than me). I'm sure other people that play multiple Smash games can relate.
So I wonder what the primary factors are. Rage certainly is a factor (I've lost count of how many games I've won/lost thanks to rage cheese). 2 stock format might be another one but huge upsets have definitely occurred in 3 stock S4 tournaments as well.
The tier gap being smaller in Smash 4 could certainly play a role as well but I'm starting to doubt that. It's not like random MKs were beating top players in Brawl, or random Foxes with top players in Melee. Even if mid tiers were largely irrelevant in those games, we still should have been seeing upsets by top tier random players if that was the only difference.
Anyway, I have some more theories on what makes Smash 4 so volatile but I'm curious on other opinions first.