Don't you play falcon?
I'm not saying I expect Links to go around ****** good foxes. I don't really expect anything (from people I don't know) really >.>
I just don't think you should be alowed to john about character choice it all the time.
This thread is ****ing hilarious, because it reminds me of the prejudice, discrimination, and other things like that that you know, minorities face, and it kinda' seems like there's some discriminatory tension between the high tier players and the low tier players.
I know I commented on this thread before, but that was a long time ago and I forgot what I said, but I know Brawl wasn't out so I know this post isn't useless... I agree with you that it's good not to have expectations, but I do get them. Usually when I hear someone is a low tier character, I get REALLY intimidated and pump myself up to play them by constantly telling myself, "Don't worry, Fox is higher on the tier list!" Sometimes I feel like I've won when I have less skill, but the thing is if I meet a REALLY good Link player or a REALLY good Yoshi player they tend to completely SUCK with high tier characters against me.
Think about it, everyone's used to fighting Fox, Marth, Sheik, and Falco but when a really good Yoshi comes along most people are like "OMFG I CAN'T BELIEVE YOUR SECONDJUMPCANCEL GO3Z THROUGH MY FOOT WTFFF??!?1" And also, imagine a Link player using Fox, probably the complete opposite characeter. Most people stick with a low tier because they're easier to use. I stick with Fox and Peach cuz' they're the easiest to perform well with, and I'm sure Fumi, T!mmy, and Arash stick w/their characters b/c those chars are easiest to perform well with for them.
From my experience, johning about low tier characters is a single-edged sword. People complain about it when they lose, but when they WIN they never rub it in your face that you just lost to a low tier char, because they KNOW they couldn't have done any better with anyone else.
In regards to picking a char solely based on tier list location, I do find that okay to a point. I consider myself just BARELY not being a ***** in this case. In melee I used Fox, Kirby, and Game & Watch before I ever saw the tier list, and when I met Tapion he told me to stick with Fox, although I still practiced w/Kirby to use in low tier tournies. I picked up Peach and Yoshi along the way because I like their fighting styles, although I used Peach much more because she was a lot easier to win with until I started getting better at techniques related to playing Yoshi (i.e. double-jump cancel, ledge grab, egg ledge grab, platform wavedashing, etc.), although by then it was kinda' too late to get my Yoshi as good as my Peach.
That's not bad, and if someone were to have played Pikachu and Zelda (one of my friends actually) but switched to Falco as soon as he heard about the tier list and only practiced with him because he knew he was good that wouldn't be that bad either, because clearly that means he doesn't have enough fun with Zelda and Pikachu to want to keep using them.
In Brawl I use Peach because she floats my boat, and I DON'T CARE how crappy she is because she was immediately by far my best character, and hence I NEVER complain about the tier list, although I admit I picked up Snake because I knew he was good, BUT ALSO because I find him ridiculously fun (hence why I picked up him and not Meta Knight). I go with what's fun, and for me Fox, Peach, and Snake (in both games I mean) are the funnest, due in part to the fact that they win easily (for me and many others).
Your expectations are too high.
