SilentDeadbolt
Smash Cadet
The point of this thread is to express your thoughts on why certain characters are at the top of the character usage charts but may or may not be top tier characters in themselves. If you look at the statistics I've compiled you can see that our community doesn't really just play top tiers but is actually very diverse. The top two tiers, S+ and S only comprise 24.21% of tournament entrants meaning the other 75.79% of the community plays using A tier and below.
It seems that people are led to believe that Fox is absurdly popular and that you need to value his match up more than others. While he is the most used it isn't by much and there are many other relevant matchups for players to learn in PM as I believe this list shows.
I took the tournament entrant numbers off of Smashboards itself and I'm using data from tournaments after 11/15/2014 (Only PM3.5 Data). I'm also using Strong Bad's 3.5 tier list to compare their positions. I understand if you disagree with his tier list but I believe it is the most accurate one currently out. Please refrain from arguing about the tier list itself as that is not what this thread is for.
Usage Statistics
Percent of players that use a spacie: 12.99% (Fox, Falco, or Wolf)
%Usage by Tier:
By Total Number of Entrants:
Top 16 Usage:
Top 8 Usage:
1st Place Usage:
Tier Position Gap:
The position gap shows the difference between that characters tier list position and its usage position. A positive number means that it is that many positions higher on the usage list than its position on the tier list while a negative number represents how much lower it is. For example Marth is 15 on the tier list but is the second most used character meaning 15-2=13 so he is 13 places higher in usage than the tier list would suggest he should be. In general a character with a positive number is used more than expected and a character with a negative number less than expected.
Strong Bad's tier list (for reference)
It seems that people are led to believe that Fox is absurdly popular and that you need to value his match up more than others. While he is the most used it isn't by much and there are many other relevant matchups for players to learn in PM as I believe this list shows.
I took the tournament entrant numbers off of Smashboards itself and I'm using data from tournaments after 11/15/2014 (Only PM3.5 Data). I'm also using Strong Bad's 3.5 tier list to compare their positions. I understand if you disagree with his tier list but I believe it is the most accurate one currently out. Please refrain from arguing about the tier list itself as that is not what this thread is for.
Usage Statistics
Percent of players that use a spacie: 12.99% (Fox, Falco, or Wolf)
%Usage by Tier:
Click to enlarge
By Total Number of Entrants:
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Tier Position Gap:
The position gap shows the difference between that characters tier list position and its usage position. A positive number means that it is that many positions higher on the usage list than its position on the tier list while a negative number represents how much lower it is. For example Marth is 15 on the tier list but is the second most used character meaning 15-2=13 so he is 13 places higher in usage than the tier list would suggest he should be. In general a character with a positive number is used more than expected and a character with a negative number less than expected.
Click to enlarge
Ice Climbers were positioned as if they were broken.
Ice Climbers were positioned as if they were broken.
Strong Bad's tier list (for reference)
Please note that I did not make this tier list nor the explanation for it. Everything below is Strong Bad's work.
Okay so I put a decent amount of time into this tier list, starting from two lists I had made in January and February. I ordered characters within tiers, but denoted (several) ties with | when I didn't care to order them. When ties are denoted, I ordered them alphabetically.
S+
S
| |
| |
A
| |
| |
B+
|
| |
|
B
|
| Fixed
| |
| |
B-
| | |
| |
| |
(Arguable C-Tier gap)
I had them ordered by a lot more initially, but decided that similar to Lunchables' tier list, the list serves its job of indicating character power through gaps instead of a fully ordered list, where the gaps between characters are not indicated and thus ambiguous, subject to interpretation by individual readers.
Characters are generally ranked based on a general feel for their matchup spread, and the popularity of the characters they lose to, giving a general idea of how likely that character is to perform well. For example, Roy loses to Jigglypuff and Dedede, but there are between 0 and 1 players who play those characters at the level of play that we see Roy showcased by players like Sethlon and Lunchables. By having "unpopular" bad matchups, Roy is more likely to perform well, despite having a numerically similar MU spread to others who are ranked below him. This is also why many characters' placing is influenced heavily by their MU with Fox; while there are usually between 0 and 2 players of any given character that can compete with top level players of any other given character, Fox has something like 10 or 15 players that can be described in that way. Having a matchup close to even vs Fox therefore significantly improves the character's ability to perform well in a given field that is properly representative of the metagame.
Some characters' placings I'm more sure of than others (such as characters immediately within my local metagame or characters I play myself), but I don't think that's particularly useful to the reader to know, so I'll leave it as is.
Okay so I put a decent amount of time into this tier list, starting from two lists I had made in January and February. I ordered characters within tiers, but denoted (several) ties with | when I didn't care to order them. When ties are denoted, I ordered them alphabetically.
S+
S
| |
| |
A
| |
| |
B+
|
| |
|
B
|
| Fixed
| |
| |
B-
| | |
| |
| |
(Arguable C-Tier gap)
I had them ordered by a lot more initially, but decided that similar to Lunchables' tier list, the list serves its job of indicating character power through gaps instead of a fully ordered list, where the gaps between characters are not indicated and thus ambiguous, subject to interpretation by individual readers.
Characters are generally ranked based on a general feel for their matchup spread, and the popularity of the characters they lose to, giving a general idea of how likely that character is to perform well. For example, Roy loses to Jigglypuff and Dedede, but there are between 0 and 1 players who play those characters at the level of play that we see Roy showcased by players like Sethlon and Lunchables. By having "unpopular" bad matchups, Roy is more likely to perform well, despite having a numerically similar MU spread to others who are ranked below him. This is also why many characters' placing is influenced heavily by their MU with Fox; while there are usually between 0 and 2 players of any given character that can compete with top level players of any other given character, Fox has something like 10 or 15 players that can be described in that way. Having a matchup close to even vs Fox therefore significantly improves the character's ability to perform well in a given field that is properly representative of the metagame.
Some characters' placings I'm more sure of than others (such as characters immediately within my local metagame or characters I play myself), but I don't think that's particularly useful to the reader to know, so I'll leave it as is.
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