Isn't Snake supposed to be a tough match for ZSS too? This is actually just something for me to put before my quote responses but it is a legitimate question.
I'm also somewhat surprised nobody addressed my stint about Wario. I'll go ahead and somewhat respond to PhantomX while I bring him up again: Marth also doesn't have any hard counters. Marth can also avoid being grabbed rather easily, due to his range more than his unremarkable (but solid) mobility. So what makes Wario the superior character? His most notable advantage seems to be his weight/recovery but the fact Marth kills better and Wario also dies at 110 to half the cast if he
is grabbed seems like it would counterbalance that...
sorry no -- ROB's only heinous match-ups are MK and ZSS. Some argue G&W but opinions of that match-up have been steadily moving toward more neutral and MK is a bad match for everyone. ROB is one of the more neutral characters, not quite on the level of Marth/Wario but more than the likes of anyone else in the upper tiers. Dedede is especially bad in this regard, having more bad upper-tier match-ups than good ones, yet he still managed to sneak into bottom of S-Tier while ROB and G&W drop like a rock.
Mah buddy (of the robotic operating kind) just needs more tourney rep.
But then who all plays some of these other characters either?
On that note, Emblem Lord:
You lose to two or more characters in the top tier and you don't matter. That goes for blue haired swordsmen and gun totting bounty hunters with skin tight body suits.
Well first off, MK beats everybody, theoretically dumping everyone out of top tier but himself and Falco. (Wario also losing to D3 and Falco beating everyone else.) But more seriously...
Dedede gets destroyed by Falco and Olimar and still has a bad match-up with Diddy and MK... and G&W, Pikachu, Ice Climbers, and Kirby. That's 2/3 of the upper two tiers (not including himself) and even the four he has a "decent" match-up against aren't that far in his favor, if at all for ROB. He's too reliant on his CG to be dangerous but most of the upper-tier characters can't be CGed. The only thing notable about him that endures as a solid advantage over his upper-tier peers is his massive weight, since most are lightweight, but even so he's the only heavyweight of the bunch (Snake, Wario, ROB) easily edgeguarded.
But you're definitely right about the tier list meaning nothing. The game didn't change, only people's perceptions about it. I think you're a bit harsh on the whole "so-and-so can't win a major tourney," though. You might as well go so far as to say nobody but MK will ever win a national event with that attitude.