Lol, okay, here's the deal. It's like what was said before. Tiers are based upon tournament performance. The "How a character matches up to another" is just solely for the character matchup. There just happens to be more Fox and Falco players out there winning tournaments than there are Roy and Link Players. (JUST an example, don't thikn I'm trying to single out characters) With the exception of a few truly skilled players of "lower-tiered" characters most people who play certain characters don't place well. This is why you've got the Tier list.
Take for instance....my two friends.....one can't play melee for beans and can't learn what he needs to because he's stubborn. The other knows a LITTLE about it because he used to play 64 and abuses smash attacks. Essentially....both of them are ABOUT equal skill level, right? Wrong. The second friend of mind actually knows how to play smart when he realizes he can't abuse smash attacks. In all reality, if they had roughly the same amount of experience, a Ganondorf vs. Kirby match would obviously be the former. HOWEVER the matchup was in favor of my second friend who played Smarter and 2-stocked the Gannondorf. Had they have both not played and picked it up for the first time, the easier victory would go to Ganondorf.
A better example....My one friend has a decent Samus. My other friend who I mentioned used Kirby played him with Marth....and one. (I swear...you can gay kill him with Marth SO easily.) Why? This is because Marth>Samus. The first friend of mine is the better player by far. No matter whether it was 64 or Melee. However, Marth, being as broken as he is....helped the less experienced and....overall worse player get the victory. Tiers are where they are because of how easy it is to gain victory with them. Who is easier to be even 51 with: Fox or Mewtwo? Answer: Fox. You can Fire Fox the crap out of them to your heart's content. Now yes, there are bad matchups, like Roy vs. Jiggs. Roy>Jiggs in that matchup. Overall, Jiggs>Roy in tournaments which means that Jiggs is higher up on the Tier list. People are winning with the higher tier characters, which is why they are higher tier. When You start seeing Zeldas, Roys, Bowsers, Ness', and so on winning tournaments on a regular basis and more than the rest, then you can have whatever kind of tier list you want based upon their performance.
Best example: SSB64 Pikachu>All. It was quoted it's not Super Smash Bros., it's who has the best Pikachu. All in all, Pikachu had the best....everything, he just lacked a spike. Still, everyone was Pikachu, and Pikachu was gaining victories like Crazy. Who was under him? Kirby. And then? Ness. And then? C. Falcon and Fox. That's who was getting the victoires and they were the best characters in the game.
So: Tiers come based upon performance in tournaments. If a character is more likely to win, then more than likely they're top or high tier. Yes, there are exceptions, but they put in the time.
Big props to: Gimpyfish, Sethlon, Korn(or is is Korin?), and all the other awesome players that **** with Low tiers.
