As you may or may not know, the BBR has been working on a matchup chart for Super Smash Bros. Brawl in the past months. The primary reason for doing this is that this type of chart is a huge staple of fighting communities, several of which even base their tier list on matchup charts entirely. While it is a little too ambitious to have it replace the tier list completely with this first endeavour, we hope it can become a staple for the smash scene as well, as it provokes discussion and critical reflection on individual matchups.
The various character boards have more or less tackled their respective characters’ matchups before, but sadly, many of them do not have their act together (anymore). We treated them as a resource for the characters with active and not completely outdated boards, but we hope this can inspire more activity in and cooperation among the individual character boards. One of the major reasons why we tackled this project with primarily the BBR is that a unified approach to the entire cast doesn’t seem very feasible any other way. We did contact many top level players and character experts over the course of the project, whom you will find credited in the second post.
As you look at the matchup chart, you will find the system we used isn’t the ratio system that seems common these days. The most important reason is that it has no clear underlying structure and most people use it as 21-tier scale with 5-point increments. While there is a rough consensus as to what specific ratios mean, can you really defend (for example) that a matchup is 90:10 and not 85:15? A large part of the scale simply is close to meaningless and it lacks elegance as well as being too specific. For these reasons, we ended up going with the scale below. While 7 or 11 tiers were (probably) viable alternatives, we went with 9 and believe it to cover all major options. It will take some effort to do away with ratio thinking, but we believe this system to be less confusing in the long run.
The Matchup Chart
[collapse=Individual Character Spreads]
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
[/collapse]
The various character boards have more or less tackled their respective characters’ matchups before, but sadly, many of them do not have their act together (anymore). We treated them as a resource for the characters with active and not completely outdated boards, but we hope this can inspire more activity in and cooperation among the individual character boards. One of the major reasons why we tackled this project with primarily the BBR is that a unified approach to the entire cast doesn’t seem very feasible any other way. We did contact many top level players and character experts over the course of the project, whom you will find credited in the second post.
As you look at the matchup chart, you will find the system we used isn’t the ratio system that seems common these days. The most important reason is that it has no clear underlying structure and most people use it as 21-tier scale with 5-point increments. While there is a rough consensus as to what specific ratios mean, can you really defend (for example) that a matchup is 90:10 and not 85:15? A large part of the scale simply is close to meaningless and it lacks elegance as well as being too specific. For these reasons, we ended up going with the scale below. While 7 or 11 tiers were (probably) viable alternatives, we went with 9 and believe it to cover all major options. It will take some effort to do away with ratio thinking, but we believe this system to be less confusing in the long run.
As for assumptions made, the ratings apply to the entire set. We assumed the stage list as put forward by the BBRC, as well as a LGL. Originally we intended to have multiple ratings for matchups with exploits which sometimes get banned, but, with MLG out of the picture and considering the BBR never condoned those rules in the first place, ended up dropping those.-4: (close to) unwinnable
-3: large disadvantage/hard countered
-2: medium disadvantage
-1: small disadvantage
0: even
+1: small advantage
+2: medium advantage
+3: large advantage/hard counter
+4: (close to) unloseable
The Matchup Chart
[collapse=Individual Character Spreads]
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-4:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
3:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
0:
1:
2:
-4:
-3:
-2:
-1:
[/collapse]