Slhoka
Smash Lord
A few months ago, a new tier list was released for the NTSC version of Melee. However, this tier list was created a bit hastily, and a significant part -not to say the majority- of the Back Room Members did not agree with it. Therefore, a new project was launched in order to create a new tier list which could be officially endorsed by the MBR.
Reminder : What a Tier List is
This new tier list was created according to this definition :
The Method
Before the actual creation of this list, most of the debates regarding the various matchups had already happened, thanks to the making of the previous list a few monthes ago as well as the arguments following its release and questioning its validity. For this reason, we decided to use a very simple method already used for the current PAL tier list :
The Voters
Because the Melee Back Room has a significant amount of tournament organizers or players who are not experienced with Melee's NTSC version, we decided not to make the vote mandatory. In the end, 39 members cast their votes, 33 of those votes being complete lists. Here is a list of the voters :
The List
S: Fox, Falco, Jigglypuff, Sheik
A: Marth, Peach, Captain Falcon
B: Ice Climbers
C: Dr. Mario, Ganondorf, Samus
D: Pikachu, Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong
E: Link, Young Link
F: Zelda, Roy, Mewtwo, Yoshi, Mr. Game & Watch
G: Ness, Bowser, Kirby, Pichu
Table representation
Pichu and Kirby are tied for last place, but since Kirby got an higher standard deviation, we decided to rank him above Pichu.
Graphical representation (click for a bigger image)
![](http://i.imgur.com/75l0p.png)
Additional details
You can find additional details here : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10722276/Smash/Publications/NTSC_tier_list_details_all_files.zip
You can find :
These are available in .pdf, .xls (Microsoft Office), .numbers (iWork) and .ods (Open Office). However, I advise you to use the .pdf file, or the .numbers one : the original file was made using iWork and the conversion to .xls and .ods files removes most practical features.
Thanks
I'd like to thank all the Melee Back Room members who took part in this project, especially Marc, who kept pushing us during the making of this tier list, and Tero, who laid the fundations for this project and made his best to encourage the matchup debates.
Reminder : What a Tier List is
This new tier list was created according to this definition :
A tier list is a list of characters ranked best to worst in their likelihood to perform well in a tournament setting in the near future based on recent, relevant tournament results. We then separate characters at statistically significant gaps to be grouped with their relative equals, and those groupings are called "tiers". A tier list is, in essence, a "prediction" list as to how any given character will fare in a competitive setting. We naturally assume top level of play.
The Method
Before the actual creation of this list, most of the debates regarding the various matchups had already happened, thanks to the making of the previous list a few monthes ago as well as the arguments following its release and questioning its validity. For this reason, we decided to use a very simple method already used for the current PAL tier list :
- Every Back Room member was invited to cast his or her vote, in the form of a character ranking from the best to the worse.
Note : Since we found understandable that some people are not knowledgeable in low tier matchups, we allowed the voters not to give a full list if they prefered doing so. Separating the characters into tiers wasn't necessary either. - We gathered all the votes to create an average ranking.
- We set the tier separations according to the gaps between characters' average rankings, with some ajustments, for instance to avoid having too many tiers when it was possible.
The Voters
Because the Melee Back Room has a significant amount of tournament organizers or players who are not experienced with Melee's NTSC version, we decided not to make the vote mandatory. In the end, 39 members cast their votes, 33 of those votes being complete lists. Here is a list of the voters :
- Aldwyn
- Alex Strife
- Amsah
- ArcNatural
- Armada
- Axe
- D’oH
- Dr Peepee
- Druggedfox
- forward
- g-regulate
- Hax
- HugS
- hungrybox
- HyugaRicdeau
- Ignatius
- Kage
- KevinM
- Luma
- Marc
- Mew2King
- Mike G
- N64
- Omnigamer
- Pink Reaper
- Remen
- Skler
- SleepyK
- SwiftBass
- Taj
- Tero
- The Cape
- Umbreon
- unknown522
- Utto
- VaNz
- Wobbles
- Zhu
- ZoSo
The List
S: Fox, Falco, Jigglypuff, Sheik
A: Marth, Peach, Captain Falcon
B: Ice Climbers
C: Dr. Mario, Ganondorf, Samus
D: Pikachu, Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong
E: Link, Young Link
F: Zelda, Roy, Mewtwo, Yoshi, Mr. Game & Watch
G: Ness, Bowser, Kirby, Pichu
Table representation
![](http://i.imgur.com/CgMyv.png)
Pichu and Kirby are tied for last place, but since Kirby got an higher standard deviation, we decided to rank him above Pichu.
Graphical representation (click for a bigger image)
![](http://i.imgur.com/75l0p.png)
Additional details
You can find additional details here : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10722276/Smash/Publications/NTSC_tier_list_details_all_files.zip
You can find :
- Individual votes
- Lists by region
- Lists by main character
- Various statistics
These are available in .pdf, .xls (Microsoft Office), .numbers (iWork) and .ods (Open Office). However, I advise you to use the .pdf file, or the .numbers one : the original file was made using iWork and the conversion to .xls and .ods files removes most practical features.
Thanks
I'd like to thank all the Melee Back Room members who took part in this project, especially Marc, who kept pushing us during the making of this tier list, and Tero, who laid the fundations for this project and made his best to encourage the matchup debates.