Official 2015 Melee Tier List & Community Lists Released

Over the past few years top players have pushed the metagame for Melee to new heights. As new techniques have been discovered and old techniques have been perfected and applied more consistently; match-ups have been taken into new directions and the dominant characters have changed. Smashboards polled played ranked in the Top 40 of either the Smashboards or MeleeItOnMe rankings during 2015 and complied the data to create the next official update to the tier list for Super Smash Bros Melee. The previous release can be found here for reference.

Official 2015 Melee Tier List​

Top
SS
S
High
A
B
High Mid
C
Mid
D
Low Mid
E
Low
F
Bottom
G

The full details for the 2015 Melee Tier List can be found here. Statistics for the character placements and separations are available, with individual votes from the top players to be posted individually over time. Please note that this list is for NTSC. Earlier this year the third official PAL tier list was released on SmashEurope.

In addition, two other lists have been created as well. While the main tier list only features the votes and opinions of top level players, the other lists highlight a more broadened community opinion. The official tier list uses votes of twenty-four players ranked in the Top 40 of either the Smashboards or MeleeItOnMe rankings. The "Community Panel" list is less restrictive and utilizes the votes of sixty players who appeared ranked in the top thousand on the Smashboards rankings. This generally means they are at minimum tournament goers of a moderate skill level, but also includes high level talent not quite up to the Top 40. The final list is an all-inclusive "Community" list where lists from the community at large were accepted, regardless of tournament results or attendance. This means that viewers and theorists could have their opinions weighed in as well. This list features the votes of over one thousand smashers. The full release for the community lists can be found here thanks to the efforts of @Sveet.

Official | Community Panel | Community
SS | SS | SS
S | S | S
A B | A | A
C | B | B
D | C | C
E | D | D
F | E | E
G | F | F

Despite these differences in methodology, the lists are quite similar. What this means is that after fourteen years of experience with the game the community at large has a well-informed understanding of how characters operate in the metagame. Despite this the game has continually seen more techniques come into play over the past few years in the current era and an important part of understanding the metagame is understanding that there is still more to learn and discover. Will this be the last update to the Melee tier list? Likely not as the scene continues to grow and match-ups that once appeared set in stone have been shaken up. Top Tier characters and lower tiered characters alike have seen advancements and we are likely to see changed to our current understanding of the metagame in the future as strategies evolve.

 

Pichu is wayyyy better than mewtwo.

I'd love to see Doc in C tier I truly think he has what it takes, but we are at a complete loss of Doc mains in the community. Still though, he's a pretty solid character minus his recovery. Pills alone are enough to put him up there with Samus IMO.

Pretty accurate overall though, just throwing my opinions out there. I can agree with this list.

The best player in Denmark is a Doc main. He's ranked 25th in Europe which means he is 150-200th best in the world...

 

Called it. Fox is top, not Marth

 

Pichu is wayyyy better than mewtwo.

I'd love to see Doc in C tier I truly think he has what it takes, but we are at a complete loss of Doc mains in the community. Still though, he's a pretty solid character minus his recovery. Pills alone are enough to put him up there with Samus IMO.

Pretty accurate overall though, just throwing my opinions out there. I can agree with this list.

shroomed should have not skip from doc to sheik...what a mess...

 

Pichu at the bottom? Disliked, flagged,unsubbed.

 

I was about to complain that Samus went down a space, but then I realised I was being stupid and that she is actually up a place. I noticed Marth up a place too. Though non of this really matters much, I at least get joy out of seeing my mains rise a space.

 

Called it. Fox is top, not Marth

That's not an accomplishment.

 

Pichu is slowly clawing his way out of Bottom Tier. I still think hes at the least better then Zelda and Ness. Maybe even better then Roy and Mewtwo.

 

I actually main Doc, but I haven't been to any tourneys yet. /(._.)/

 

Remind you people. Just because has his own tier doesn't make him in the slightest. He's not perfect, but clearly has more favorable matchups than most of the cast.

 

As long as it keeps getting patched, probably never.

Shouldn't be too much longer now

 

Remind you people. Just because has his own tier doesn't make him in the slightest. He's not perfect, but clearly has more favorable matchups than most of the cast.

Precisely. Due to being a light character with extremely fast falling speed he is hands down the easiest character to combo in the game.

Not to mention that his recovery isn't really THAT good. If the opponent knows what he's doing, edge guarding fox is pretty simple once he's been sent off stage.

Fox may be the best character in the game, but he's not broken. Not by a long shot.

I love how melee bashers are so stupid they'll compare brawl's metaknight to melee's fox. Not even close to the same thing.

 

You know what, it's official, I'm giving up on all hope for the competitive scene. What's the point to it when a tier list comes out and your character isn't doing well because of under-representation?

The under-representation excuse has been used since the beginning of fighting games. It's been true maybe once. Plus, Melee has been out fifteen years, every character possible has been represented.

Stop using that excuse, and stop being a baby.

 

Precisely. Due to being a light character with extremely fast falling speed he is hands down the easiest character to combo in the game.

Not to mention that his recovery isn't really THAT good. If the opponent knows what he's doing, edge guarding fox is pretty simple once he's been sent off stage.

Fox may be the best character in the game, but he's not broken. Not by a long shot.

I love how melee bashers are so stupid they'll compare brawl's metaknight to melee's fox. Not even close to the same thing.

Really though, the biggest reason Fox isn't at the level of MK is that Fox is just a damn hard character to play. For example, imagine if a Fox could multi shine perfectly. An extreme example yes, but the point still stands that Fox could potentially do extraordinarily broken things like that. A Fox that never flubbed his tech skill would be the single most broken thing in all of Smash, but that's just not humanly possible (not until the year 20XX at least). That's why it's okay for Fox to be so good, because how good he performs is 100% skill (except for the Sakurai Combo, jab-up smash, and arguably shine spiking, those are just stupid).

 

Any reason why on both other lists ganondorf is in a higher tier than the official one? I think he should be up there.

 

puff should be in s, she beats shiek, beat falco (imo), and is pretty even with marth.

definitely doesn't beat Falco, and even PP thinks Marth shouldn't be losing to Puff. Puff doesn't have any overwhelmingly favorable matchups against good characters unlike S SS tiers.

 

Are they going to post an updated matchup spread? The wiki is still using the old one

 

1. The community tier list on the right is almost identical to my opinion.
2. What does Young Link do so much better than Link that he's preferred?
3. It's finally time for Ness to leave the bottom tier! YES
4. 20XX has arrived, everyone. Fox is SS tier. Does this mean he'll be considered bannable at some tournaments?

 

4. 20XX has arrived, everyone. Fox is SS tier. Does this mean he'll be considered bannable at some tournaments?

SS tier does not = broken. Fox is way too much of a glass cannon to be banned. He gets combo'ed harder than any character in the game, dies horizontally at low percents, has a not-so-good recovery, and has an extremely high learning curve.

Until 6 or more players in top 8's are always Fox mains and until Fox wins 3/4 of all tournaments, like Meta Knight in Brawl, then you're never gonna see him banned.

And 20XX is only when everyone mains Fox, and that hasn't happened. You have a severe lack of knowledge of the Melee scene, so do some research.

 

My only problems with this list are Sheik being so low and Doc being higher than Luigi. I rate 7.8/10 Sheik too low

 

DK is more than considerably an F Tier character; all he is is a better version of Bowser, but not by much really. The fact that people think he's better than Link is rather horrifying though and shows the gradual downfall of the legitimacy of tier lists.

What makes people see that DK is somehow better than Link?
Also, how come Link's higher in the latter two lists while in the former, he's worse than DK?
What does Young Link have that Link doesn't?
How come Captain Falcon is lower than the ICs in the official list, but higher in the other two?

This "official" tier list is just a bunch of lies. Why should anyone take this new one seriously? It's a conflicting and contradicting tier list!

 

DK is more than considerably an F Tier character; all he is is a better version of Bowser, but not by much really. The fact that people think he's better than Link is rather horrifying though and shows the gradual downfall of the legitimacy of tier lists.

What makes people see that DK is somehow better than Link?
Also, how come Link's higher in the latter two lists while in the former, he's worse than DK?
What does Young Link have that Link doesn't?
How come Captain Falcon is lower than the ICs in the official list, but higher in the other two?

This "official" tier list is just a bunch of lies. Why should anyone take this new one seriously? It's a conflicting and contradicting tier list!

DK can combo and chaingrab, and isn't any slower than Link, and faster than Ganon and Bowser. DK more than considerably is significantly better than Bowser.

And Young Link is significantly faster and mobile than Link, which gives him more versatility and better matchups.

Don't take tier lists too seriously. It's just the tier that matters, not the exact placement.

 

Fox being in his own tier, is this because of the possibility that someone can pull off 8 minutes worth of multishines? Or do people actually think he is that good in our current meta, sorry just curious.

 

To be fair, at TAS level he is near invincible....though I'm trying too hard to be fair. Hopefully melee will never get to that point.

We're 14 years in and it hasn't happened, so it'll probably be another 14 years until we reach that point. And I don't think that TAS level is even possible for humans anyway.

 

We're 14 years in and it hasn't happened, so it'll probably be another 14 years until we reach that point. And I don't think that TAS level is even possible for humans anyway.

No one should ever have that much dexterity and skill, it would be pointless to try doing it, as fox will be banned the instant someone consistently wins nationals by using it imo, though I highly doubt as well that it will happen. Idk I might be stupid, but that's what I think for the time being.

 

DK can combo and chaingrab, and isn't any slower than Link, and faster than Ganon and Bowser. DK more than considerably is significantly better than Bowser.

And Young Link is significantly faster and mobile than Link, which gives him more versatility and better matchups.

Don't take tier lists too seriously. It's just the tier that matters, not the exact placement.

But Young Link has some pretty bad moves and succumbs to the "Roy Effect" where his tip moves don't even deal as much damage as the base.

Secondly, DK is a very big target, like, very big. I don't think anyone would have a very hard time taking him out...unless you're Pichu, but that's beside the point.

I don't take Tier LIsts too seriously, but this one is just very inaccurate and it's more than a joke. It's a dead horse.

 

But Young Link has some pretty bad moves and succumbs to the "Roy Effect" where his tip moves don't even deal as much damage as the base.

Secondly, DK is a very big target, like, very big. I don't think anyone would have a very hard time taking him out...unless you're Pichu, but that's beside the point.

I don't take Tier LIsts too seriously, but this one is just very inaccurate and it's more than a joke. It's a dead horse.

After that second paragraph, it's pretty obvious you don't play melee at an extremely high level, not trying to be a douche, just a bit of a guess as well. Pichu is pretty powerful lol, and about YL, he will never face well against characters like falco, but all of his projectiles have stupid amount of hitstun, leaving floaties very vulnerable when they are hit, he arguably beats characters like jiggs and peach, almost to the point where its solid, actually is considered to beat every floaty, which is half of the D-B chart. Though I'll be honest, I thought YL was worse than Link at a time when I was new to the smash scene (I still dont know how Axe and Armada did it)

Donkey Kong is a weird one, as he is one of the most unexplored low tiers along with game and watch, only things I can say is he has one of the most remarkable grabs in the game, good range, great speed, aerials, and useful dashdance. Being an old main of him, I've got to say I know nothing spectacular about him, then again, I'm not really a great player or anything. I think it's more of Link being an awful character, you got to remember, Donkey Kong stayed at the same place on the tier list, Link got moved down. Link is too slow, he is like YL, but with less range because he can't cover the bomb and boomerang hits with speed, he has awful matchups against the top tier characters, most notably, fox.

Also, if you don't take the tier lists seriously, it's all fine, just keep an open mind about it, it changes every few or so years for a reason. I wouldn't laugh it off as a joke and probably keep a mind on it, otherwise, it'll look like melee reddit material.

 

SAUS will one day rise Link up the tier list

 

Didn't Abate get 7th as solo Luigi at Evo, the biggest Melee tourney to date? Find it odd that he's not at the top of the mid.

Also since Hungrybox got 1st at a giant Melee tourney (10k prize) recently I do think Jigglypuff is bottom of the top tier.

 

Didn't Abate get 7th as solo Luigi at Evo, the biggest Melee tourney to date? Find it odd that he's not at the top of the mid.

No... he got 7th at Big House 5, and while that was still a national, it was significantly smaller than EVO.

 

I think there are too many tiers. S/A/B/F was perfectly fine. But now we have NINE. But other than that, Fox shouldn't have his own tier. Sure he's kind of broken, but not Meta Knight broken.

My last complaint is that Luigi should be placed where Dr Mario is. Luigi has been placing higher in tournaments lately, and has dedicated mains such as Abate and EddyMexico. But Dr. Mario doesn't have many mains playing him. Sure, he definitely has some untapped potential, but none of it is shown.

 

Both the Community Panel and Community tier lists have Link above DK, yet DK is still above Link in the official one......

Link should be next to Young Link and D.K behind.

 

What makes Falcon better than Icies?

He's dependent and doesn't need another character to recover horizontally (even if Falcon's worse) and also knee.

 

No... he got 7th at Big House 5, and while that was still a national, it was significantly smaller than EVO.

It's true. There were 500+ more Melee entrants at EVO 2015(Biggest melee tourney of all time) than TBH 5(Second biggest melee tourney of all time).

But, in any case, making it to top 8 in a tournament of over 1000 competitors in the year 20XX with a luigi is saying something.

 

He's dependent and doesn't need another character to recover horizontally (even if Falcon's worse) and also knee.

Falcon needs to start putting up better results in order to justify him being better than the Eskimos right now.

Oh, and the solo Ice Climber doesn't need Nana to recover horizontally. The side-b Squall Hammer does plenty of horizontal distance without her and is as good if not better than Falcon's horizontal recovery. Don't talk about how your character is better than Ice Climbers until you have an ounce of knowledge.

 

Falcon needs to start putting up better results in order to justify him being better than the Eskimos right now.

Oh, and the solo Ice Climber doesn't need Nana to recover horizontally. The side-b Squall Hammer does plenty of horizontal distance without her and is as good if not better than Falcon's horizontal recovery. Don't talk about how your character is better than Ice Climbers until you have an ounce of knowledge.

I'm so stupid... I meant vertically. You don't win this time.

 

The main reason Falcon is so low is that he gets countered by Fox and Falco. Peach and IC are only soft countered by Fox, and can be considered even with Falco. While I might not agree with it, putting Peach and IC above Falcon does make sense.

Many high ranking players agree that Pichu has a lot of untapped potential, and he has had some representation, but never for a full set. However, the few matches where is he brought out show promising potential, and he is a lot more common than many other low tiers. I cannot support placing him any higher, however, as no one mains him; he is only a pocket character.

DJ Nintendo is the only reason Bowser is higher than Kirby. That representation alone is enough to be placed higher than Kirby. If Kirby had a decent up b OoS, he would be placed higher than Bowser.

Most Doc mains have moved on to Fox, but Luigi still has a decent amount of representation. I have a hard time judging which one should be placed higher. Moving Doc two spaces and a tier is, in my opinion, all that should be done for how recently Doc mains have dropped him. If no one continues to play him, the next tier list should have him below Yoshi.

No one seems to be talking about Game and Watch switching places with Zelda. I'm not too sure what to think of this, other than mentioning Zelda has the best down b in the entire game.

 

The main reason Falcon is so low is that he gets countered by Fox and Falco. Peach and IC are only soft countered by Fox, and can be considered even with Falco. While I might not agree with it, putting Peach and IC above Falcon does make sense.

Many high ranking players agree that Pichu has a lot of untapped potential, and he has had some representation, but never for a full set. However, the few matches where is he brought out show promising potential, and he is a lot more common than many other low tiers. I cannot support placing him any higher, however, as no one mains him; he is only a pocket character.

DJ Nintendo is the only reason Bowser is higher than Kirby. That representation alone is enough to be placed higher than Kirby. If Kirby had a decent up b OoS, he would be placed higher than Bowser.

Most Doc mains have moved on to Fox, but Luigi still has a decent amount of representation. I have a hard time judging which one should be placed higher. Moving Doc two spaces and a tier is, in my opinion, all that should be done for how recently Doc mains have dropped him. If no one continues to play him, the next tier list should have him below Yoshi.

No one seems to be talking about Game and Watch switching places with Zelda. I'm not too sure what to think of this, other than mentioning Zelda has the best down b in the entire game.

Well, technically fox is a high tier character until you apply his down b, making him the best in the game

 

I think Luigi should be higher then Doc, we see way more Luigi representation than Doc, and because of Abate

 

Well, technically fox is a high tier character until you apply his down b, making him the best in the game

I... uh... didn't talk about Fox in my post. Like, at all. I mentioned Falcon loses to Fox, but I did not talk about Fox being placed in his own tier. Are you sure you responded to the right person?

 

What is it about sheik that keeps her higher than puff? is it the matchup or representation? because i don't think sheik has won anything in a while, when puff has won a few major tournaments in the past few years.