Things you thought about "tiers" before knowing about the competetive scene

[wafflini]

I know when we all first started playing we had odd beliefs about the characters strengths.

I, for one, thought ganondorf was the best character. It went so far as my (incredibly casual) friends wanted to ban him.

On the other hand, I thought metaknight was complete crap, as was marth.

 

[the8thark]

Many of the pros can make the crap characters look good though.

 

[EarthBoundRules]

I thought Jigglypuff was the worst character in Melee.

Boy was I wrong.

 

[Renji64]

I never had a issue with tier list but i believe a character should be a extention of a person. If you a master a character you can still deify the tier list AmSa is good proof of this. I thought Roy was good in melee i found he wasn't all that.

 

[Senario]

For character balance? Roy was godtier because swords and flames. Lol also sheik was very good since I played my first melee game with her she just felt strong. (Turns out i was right on this one)

 

[ミスティック Speed]

"Mewtwo? Bottom Tier? BUT HE'S THE MOST POWERFUL POKEMON IN THE WORLD!!"

ah....childhood.....

 

[TitanTeaTime]

I thought Ike, Pokemon Trainer and Bowser were pretty good.
Still do of course. Didn't care about tiers, still don't care about tiers.

 

[Alfonzo Bagpipez]

I've never taken issue with Tiers.

Even as a child, I could acknowledge that some characters were bound to be better than others

Though as a child, I also played with no items 90% the time, even with no competitive knowledge. So my mentality might have came from that.

 

[KaZe_DaRKWIND]

I never knew they existed. I just played with friends.

 

[Jellyfish4102]

The question in the title is very different from the question in the OP. I'll answer both because I feel like it.

I always figured some characters would be objectively better than others. I didn't know the term tiers was used but I accepted it immediately.

In Melee I thought Sheik was the best and in Brawl I thought Ike was the best.

 

[madBowers]

Before I had any competitive knowledge of the game I use to main as Kirby...that changed quick after my first tournament.

 

[Ehn Jolly]

I was a Marth main before tourneys, and after...I was a Marth main who was called a jerk.

Seriously, before my first real tourney, I didn't know about how good he was supposed to be, I just liked swordsmen and Roy seemed lame.

 

[Fire Tactician]

Roy >>> Marth

Heck, the fire effects were cool and I was 10. I do love me some Project M Roy though (I can play Marth fine in Brawl but I can't control him in PM ).

 

[Xermo]

Pre-Competitive: "Whatever character I'm using is the best because I'm playing them."

Post-Competitive: "Ness is a garbage character, but he's still the best."

 

[Raijinken]

I thought (and still, to a lesser extent, think) that tiers discourage experimentation on "low-tier" characters, thus enforcing their position as low-tier.

 

[Shiliski]

I thought that all characters were made equal and that any character could win because of FIGHTING SPIRIT!

I got past that while experimenting with different talent builds in WoW, actually. The difference in strength became blatantly obvious.

When I finally saw the tiers, the only thing I thought was "no wonder I can't win as Mewtwo".

 

[RascalTheCharizard]

Before knowing about the scene? Well I thought Jigglypuff was the definitive worst character in 64 and that in Brawl, Sonic was the best (in item play I'd argue he still is), Ike was ridiculously good because he's powerful like Ganondorf but not as slow (too bad he's still slow enough to ruin his viability lol) and Zelda was great because of Din's Fire camping, Meta Knight was garbage and that Jigglypuff was still the worst character.

Only the final thing on that list turned out to be even close to true.

 

[CatRaccoonBL]

Melee:
Mario was good. Jigglypuff was bad. Fox and Falco weren't that great. Bowser was better. Kirby was not at all last place. Ice Climber were terrible.

Brawl:
Meta Knight was decent, Fox and Falco still weren't that great, and Ice Climbers were still terrible.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I always hated tiers. Granted, I do nothing competitively; I just play against friends or the CPU. My big problem was that I tend to be good with a few characters, and in Brawl my characters were , so basically all bottom tier or lower.

I did notice that CPU tended to be obnoxiously harder than others, but I never chose characters based on who was 'good'. Frankly, I couldn't play to save my life. I get that tiers exist, but I won't choose a character based on it since I play for fun and only for fun. I guess it just gets annoying seeing all of my characters perpetually on the bottom.

 

[Aduross]

When I first played 64 as a wee tot, I thought Pikachu was broken because of his Down-B (turns out he was broken for lots of other reasons). As I got better, my friend and I became convinced that Fox was "da best" and we used to have Fox dittos on Corneria with beam sabres constantly. lol

When Melee came out, I though Marth was the best, because the Lv 9 CPs would just mindlessly walk into tipper F-Smash over and over again. Let's see... it's hard to remember any significant misconceptions as I discovered the competitive scene pretty early. I thought Jigglypuff was really bad and her only use was Resting Giga Bowser. I remember being shocked Kirby was so low on the tier list as I used to play him a lot. I think I'd just started maining Young Link then, and was pretty bummed at how low he was at the time. He's risen quite a bit since then.

I remember I specifically picked up Mewtwo because he was so low on the tier list. Low tier warriors FTW.

I know that when I first played Brawl, I was really disappointed with Meta Knight. I'd been really hype for his joining the roster, but I was really bad with him so I didn't think he was very good. Boy was I wrong there!

 

[liets]

I'm not saying anything about my "past tier misconceptions" because they only exist due to a certain playstyle that is competitive. It just takes the fun out of it, really. I don't pay attention because it doesn't matter to me.

 

[Prism]

I thought that the people on the top of tier lists were automatically better. It took me awhile to realize that it is possible to win with other characters, because the player's skill is important too.

 

[ScubaGoomba]

My friends and I used to fight over who got to play as Link in 64 because we all thought he was the best.

 

[praline]

I've always gone by the stand point of the phrase "tiers are for... well you know."

Link and Ness are the best on 64, Dr. Mario for melee and Ike and Game and Watch for brawl.

 

[Super Writer]

I used to think Lucas and Ganondorf in Brawl were some of the best characters, especially since I wiped the floor with everyone I played against using them. I guess it's a mixture of my playstyle of finding strategic positions and casual play mentality.

Also I never thought of Metaknight as that cheap, I had no problem against him, but again, casual play.

 

[Gameboi834]

"Tiers are for queers"

 

[Alfonzo Bagpipez]

Dat homophobia

Kappa

 

[Gladiator]

In melee, I was sure that fox was good, but falco was like 50 trillion times worse because the only differences were a slower, "worse" laser, and slower running. Plus, even then I knew his recovery was garbage. I also thought the the worst characters were like Pichu < Ice Climbers <<<< Luigi < Everyone else. I thought that kirby and jiggly were top tier because they had so many jumps plus jiggly's neutral b was casually godlike.

 

[Blue Ninjakoopa]

Before I learned about the competitive scene, I thought tiers were based solely on how often a character was used (and my experience saw that Ike, Link, Meta Knight, and Ganondorf were "top tier" because nearly everyone I played at my local Youth Center used those characters, while the Ice Climbers, R.O.B., Mario, and Bowser were low because next to no one used them). I was sorta kinda right; usage does influence the tier list (many people use Meta Knight and do well with him, as with Snake and Marth, for example), but ZSS and Lucario mains are rare, and those characters are high tier, while Link mains are super common, yet Link is near the bottom.

 

[Gameboi834]

Dat homophobia

Kappa

I wish the video were still on Youtube, but it was a fairly well known video back in the day. Same guy who made the No Items, Fox Only, Final Destination videos.

 

[Mysteltainn]

There was a respectable amount of time (all through Smash 64 and a good portion of Melee), in which I didn't even know they existed. Over time though, I began to notice that certain match-ups were just hopeless.

Some of the things I used to think though...

- Not tier related, but I used to think that Samus was male (l0l, didn't play Metroid until well after that).
- Roy was better than Marth because the sword had flames.
- Mewtwo couldn't really be weak because he was Mewtwo and I was blinded by the Pokemon movie.
- Thought that Jigglypuff was bad in Melee.

 

[Tristan_win]

I really didn't think about tiers back then, in my small group of friends we only used Marth, Roy, Falco, Ganondorf, Sheik, Zelda, Link, Fox, and Samus so everyone else was kind of 'meh' because no one played them.

I don't remember much but I do recall thinking things like Marth was better then Roy, Sheik was better then my old main Link, and Falco wasn't anywhere near as good as Fox.... So 2 out of 3 isn't too bad >.<' Beyond that I'm sure I thought poorly about cutie characters like jigglypuff, kirby, pikachu, ice climbers and so on but only because they weren't 'cool' not because of how good they actually were.

 

[TacoWiiCheese]

Many of the pros can make the crap characters look good though.

Or many of us casual players make the good characters look crap aha!

 

[DakotaBonez]

Before I learned about the competitive scene, I thought tiers were based solely on how often a character was used

Wh-what!?! You mean they're not!?!
*[googling tier list definition]*

I, for one, thought ganondorf was the best character. It went so far as my (incredibly casual) friends wanted to ban him.

I know how ya feel bro, I always One-Hit KO my friends with Ganon's Meteor Smash kicks and I've convinced them that Ganon is broken.

 

[Killimano23]

My friends refused to play me when I played Dedede because even after months they could never find a way past his large ranged and I never lost

 

[DairunCates]

I was a Marth main before tourneys, and after...I was a Marth main who was called a jerk.

Seriously, before my first real tourney, I didn't know about how good he was supposed to be, I just liked swordsmen and Roy seemed lame.

Good news, then! According to early opinions of the E3 demo (which is definitely bound to change), Marth is definitely not top tier in this game. So, you can feel free to use him all you want and you can be a low tier hero now....

Although, I get the feeling most of us will just be using Lucina anyway after a decade of seeing Marth in tourneys.

 

[Blue Ninjakoopa]

Wh-what!?! You mean they're not!?!
*[googling tier list definition]*

Before I learned about the competitive scene, I thought tiers were based solely on how often a character was used [...]

 

[ChikoLad]

I never used the term for quite a while as I never heard it but when I first saw Brawl tier lists I was quite surprised. There's always something slightly disheartening about seeing your main (Sonic in this case), who you were convinced was awesome, but finding out they are considered average at best. Same applies to when I looked up Tekken Tag Tournament 2 tier lists last year.

 

[Thecombosetups]

I found tier list when I started to play brawl and it didn't effect my play style at all

 

[Raijinken]

I really didn't think about tiers back then, in my small group of friends we only used Marth, Roy, Falco, Ganondorf, Sheik, Zelda, Link, Fox, and Samus so everyone else was kind of 'meh' because no one played them.

I don't remember much but I do recall thinking things like Marth was better then Roy, Sheik was better then my old main Link, and Falco wasn't anywhere near as good as Fox.... So 2 out of 3 isn't too bad >.<' Beyond that I'm sure I thought poorly about cutie characters like jigglypuff, kirby, pikachu, ice climbers and so on but only because they weren't 'cool' not because of how good they actually were.

Similarly, my brother was convinced that Pichu was one of the best characters, because clearly if he's so strong he has to self-damage during attacks, he must by a nightmare used in the right hands.

Didn't stop him from maining Roy instead though.