one thing is clear to me reading this tread, everyone keeps listing different characters as the top tier, or saying that "so and so isn't bottom".
if there is so much disagreement about who is at the very top, and who is at the very bottom, then it is clear that the difference between very high and high, and very low and low, is small.
it also shows that there is room for movement.
people also talk about peach sucking untill some pro used her a few years after melee's release. meaning, characters that suck now could join the top tier ranks later.
i don't care how good of a meta-game reader you think you are, or how skilled melee has made you at knowing what brawl will be like, it's too early to tell.
to take an abstract example, lets look at magic:the gathering, which is a game with many 1000s of people studying the meta game. A few years ago there was a card printed called tooth and nail, this card was petty much thrown away by most pros, it was considered absolute trash. while a direct comparison can't be made, think of it like ganon's Utilt, really powerful, but too slow to be of any use to pro players. One day a pro takes a deck based on tooth and nail to a tournament, it was made to do what was obvious, cast it as fast as possible, and win with it. thousand of players had looked and this card and thrown it into a pile of trash, yet some how the deck won, due to the exact way it was made, then won, and won, and won, and won.
the meta-game readers of magic have been reading meta games for well over 10 years, but no one can tell the future perfectly.
it is just far far too early to say who will be strong and who will be weak.
as for if melee or brawl was more balanced, i'd say at the moment brawl is more balanced simply because it is new, and everything is up in the air. but we can't tell for sure atleast for a few years.
