Introduction
Below you will find the 2013 tier list for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Unlike last time, this iteration is once again based on votes only. This wasn’t entirely by choice, as we were faced with the unfortunate reality that monetary data is no longer updated and matchup chart v3 will probably require at least another month before completion. Not all is the same as the tier lists of old however, as this time around we opted to ask the community for their opinion. Major thanks to Kewkky for overseeing this:Official BBR's Community Tier List Voting
The above list was added to the 29 BBR votes and counted 5 times, meaning it ended up as roughly 1/7 of the total vote. In the Excel file below you will find the ordered list of characters with their point total, the standard deviations and highest and lowest ranking, in addition to the gaps between characters. Note that for each character the highest and lowest placing were not counted to somewhat correct for outlier votes.
Excel file with final results: http://www.2shared.com/file/6hr0fu9a/Tier_List_Statistics.html
This resulted in the following tier list:
SWF Tier List v8
Top Tier
SS:
(±0)
S:
(+2)
A+:
(-1) (-1)
A-:
High Tier
B:
(±0) (+1) (-1)
Upper Mid Tier
C+:
(±0) (±0) (±0)
C:
(±0) (+1)(-1) (+1)
C-:
(+1) (-2)
Mid Tier
D:
(±0) (+2) (±0) (+1) (-3) (±0)
Lower Mid Tier
E:
Low Tier
F:
Condensed version:
SS: Meta Knight
S: Ice Climbers
A+: Olimar, Diddy Kong
A-: Marth, Snake, Falco
B: Pikachu, Zero Suit Samus, Wario
C+: Lucario, King Dedede, Toon Link
C: Wolf, Fox, Mr. Game & Watch, Pit
C-: R.O.B., Peach
D: Kirby, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Ike, Sheilda, Sheik, Ness, Yoshi
E: Luigi, Pokémon Trainer, Lucas
F: Mario, Samus, Bowser, Captain Falcon, Link, Jigglypuff, Zelda, Ganondorf
The rules we applied were the following:
-No single character tiers past top tier.
-For the top tier (S-A), tier gaps were placed wherever character gaps exceeded 1.
-For high and upper mid tiers (B-C), tier gaps were placed wherever character gaps exceeded 1.25.
-For mid tier and below (D-F), tier gaps were placed wherever character gaps exceeded 1.5.
-Sheilda was fixed in place directly above Sheik, as the benefits to the combination make that entity marginally better.
The gradual increase in character gaps was implemented under the assumption that we can be less specific about character potential as we move to the lower parts of the list. Those characters are typically represented significantly less at a high competitive level than their higher tiered brethren.
With Zero Suit Samus moving up, we found it was time to re-evaluate our tier labels and started high tier past the top 7, whereas before it started after Wario. We did this based on how people discussed the characters as well as where those who included tier labels in their vote put them. It was a somewhat tough call to make as the intuitive gap between Falco and Pikachu for many people is less pronounced than that between Wario and Lucario. However, the alternative would be to have a whopping ten characters considered top tier and have high tier reach even further, which seems like a stretch considering how few characters have solo success at the highest level. The ten characters currently considered top and high tier have an impact on the metagame and can be expected to place well in capable hands, a quality that quickly diminishes after.
Finally, the tier list allows for more freedom for mid and low tier tournaments, as for the first you could opt to also include at least the C- tier, whereas for the latter you could opt to include the lower mid tier.
Previous BBR Tier Lists
v1 (September 1, 2008)
v2 (January 1, 2009)
v3 (June 5, 2009)
v4 (February 26, 2010)
v5 (September 25, 2010)
v6 (July 4, 2011)
v7 (April 28th, 2012)