Uprise: The Revenge of the Low Tiers

[Teran]

Link to original post: [drupal=842]Uprise: The Revenge of the Low Tiers[/drupal]



Competitive Smash, as we all know is heavily influenced, and arguablt rightly so, by the tier list system. We love 'em, hate 'em, criticize their accuracy, and marvel as our mains make their arduous journey through the rankings.

Immediately everyone shifts their eyes to the top tier, and looks to see which characters they're most likely to be taking on. Countless hours of Meta Knight, Snake and co study, trying to pick them apart in the hope they can beat them down.

Now comes the fun part. Playing a friend recently, I start off with my main, Falco, and take on my friend's Kirby. A close match, that he wins in the end. No matter, so next match, he sticks with Kirby, and I go for Captain Falcon *alarm bells ring*. I win, not exactly with ease, but it wasn't a nailbiter. He goes Meta Knight next, and I go Sheik. I win again, this time it wasn't even close. Travesty! He must really suck as Meta Knight right?

Or maybe now every single possible strategy concocted against the top tiers is so thoroughly studied, that you'd have to be pretty darn good with them to win a match with them. Theoretical matchups aside, think about it this way. Is the Meta Knight player really going to know as much about the MK v Sheik matchup as the Sheik player? For the most part, the simple answer is no. Who cares about Sheik? What threat is she to MK? The Sheik player will definitely want to put up a good fight against MK, because he's a likely opponent, so the matchup is well known to the Sheik player. This means the MK player will have a rough idea of what he/she has going for them against Sheik, but the Sheik player knows EXACTLY what to look out for, where MK will make them suffer, and what they can do to somehow defeat the beast. The end result? MK player gets more than they bargained for, and may end up being defeated, despite the theoretical advantage.

Matchup ratios and Tier Lists are absolutely great, if you use them correctly that is. By that I mean, don't go to the Fox boards because you have an irritatingly good Fox maining friend or whatever, and choose Pikachu because his matchup is written as "LOL" without actually reading what's been written. "But I don't do that!" You'd be surprised, just don't complain when you lose to Fox as Pikachu because you though it was probably Dsmash spam that gives the giant advantage.

Brawl is far more balanced (yes I know you know), so you're going to be facing way more characters than in Melee. Middle Tiers and even Low Tiers could put up a nasty fight. Hell, some current Low Tiers put up an awesome fight. (Yoshi and the Earthbound boys anyone?)
So what's the point of all this nonsense I've been typing? The answer is, do your homework, on EVERY character. That's right, study them all, just as hard as you would Meta Knight, otherwise, you may find yourself falling to Captain Falcon, and going "What? That's gay! H4X!" instead of realising that the Captain Falcon player probably knows how to cover for his weaknesses better than you do for your main.

I'm not saying Tiers don't exist, they sure as hell do. I'm not saying matchup ratios are poorly thought out and inaccurate, because they definitely aren't, but some of us may miss the core point of them. Advantageous matchup ratios indicate the balance of a match in favour of a certain character provided BOTH players have equal knowledge of the matchup and are equally skilled with their character. Tiers are there to indicate the potential of characters played to their MAXIMUM potential. Going "lulz MK pwnz he be teh top tires" gets you nowhere, and going "Falcon Pawnch! They'll all be shocked when I pull him out! Surprise tactics ftw!" is just as ineffective.

Wow, that's a lot for a first blog >__>, but I suppose I'm just tired of ignorance of character matchups for anyone under Marth in the tier list causing people to make excuses for when they lose. Low and Mid Tier, they're coming for you, dismiss them at your peril.

Any discussion, criticism and especially flaming will be greatly appreciated, and my heartfelt thanks to those who read through this giant wall of text. Take care SWF members!

~Teran~

 

[Umby]

No disrespect, but I was enjoying the read, and almost stopped when you mentioned Brawl was more balanced than Melee.

Something I'd like to seriously touch on, though, at the end, you mention how just whipping out a low tier as a surprise tactic is ineffective. Well when you first mention the scenarios where you are using Sheik and Captain Falcon, you may have better knowledge of the matchup of your opponent, but how do you know that surprise didn't factor into the match as well?

Granted, I agree that overall, just maining Link and expecting to win due to the surprise factor is overall not what you want to rely on, but I think that for the time being, lack of knowledge about low tier matchups is what some characters have going for them right now. You've even implied it yourself that people are too busy studying MK and Snake matchups to really know what they should be doing to lower tier characters. As time goes on, this of course changes, but I'm just saying. Nice read.

 

[Mith_]

One thing I always think about this is:

ex: Meta Knight theoretically has an advantage over Sheik, but doesn't know the matchup. The Sheik player beats MK because of lack of matchup experience. MK keeps facing Sheik and eventually learns the matchup. Now Sheik is screwed because your surprise factor is gone and MK prevails once again.

 

[Geist]

No disrespect, but I was enjoying the read, and almost stopped when you mentioned Brawl was more balanced than Melee.

lol same here.

Very good post regardless. This is one thing that may give low tiers a slight advantage for some players. It still doesn't stop mk from dominating tourneys though. ;]
A skilled player will have thoroughly studied every matchup, not just high tiers. In order to be really good, you have to be able to be persistent with all matchups and be able to adapt when something unfamiliar is presented.
Low tiers probably won't be studies AS hard and thoroughly as higher tiers, but they usually have a general flaw that can be exploited.

I for one though, commonly use Zelda as a trump card vs. Marth in melee, and you'd be surprised how well it works.

 

[Binx]

That works in concept early on, except for the fact that great players will be extra, extra careful in a match up they don't know, they will learn your tricks and maybe lose by a stock 1 match but the next match they will know what to do and if they main meta for example they will know what to do and have a huge character advantage, good luck winning sets this way, especially since top tier players within a year or two will learn every character and this won't happen anymore.

Stange characters still works well in smaller tournaments though, I can vouch for that cause I'm an ice climber main in melee.

 

[Teran]

Thanks for reading guys, I appreciate it.
What I really tried to address was the hastiness of many players' Main choices and gameplans. The problem I see is that many people are guilty of lack of matchup study, whereas the best players are not. The best are the ones who don't underestimate any character, but instead just understand the advantages and disadvantages of the matchup fully, and execute an effective gameplan. That's what separates the best from the rest. I know perfectly well it pays to play top tier (hence Falco in Melee and Brawl), but I'm just tired of people only reading the Tier List and matchup ratios on the surface.

 

[Binx]

Well, some match ups are pretty self explanatory, especially say captain falcon vs any character, he is quite predictable on all levels unless you never played melee or played him in brawl, the reason he is so low on the tier list is in large part because of his lack of options and priority.

But yeah for sure not learning your low tier match ups can and will hurt you.

 

[brinboy789]

oh no...falcon is coming for me!

 

[ndayday]

Good read. Players should definitely study all the match-ups against thier characters, so as not to be surprised by the opponent's character. One thing you didn't mention is that this is a big reason dividing the good players from the great players. An experianced player will know what to do with a C. Falcon, and not be surprised, as long as they keep informed about other characters metagame and play against a large variety of players, whereas a mediocre player will be surprised and un-imformed of a characters match-up against thier own main, and as a result have a hard time or loose.

Good first blog, it made my think about quite a bit.

 

[SuSa]

One thing I always think about this is:

ex: Meta Knight theoretically has an advantage over Sheik, but doesn't know the matchup. The Sheik player beats MK because of lack of matchup experience. MK keeps facing Sheik and eventually learns the matchup. Now Sheik is screwed because your surprise factor is gone and MK prevails once again.

This is supreme truth.

My Sheik (back when I mained her) vs my friends MK (back when he mained MK)

First week or two - I won
Third Week through the first month - He started winning about 50/50
About 1 month and a half through - I stopped winning unless it was due to a great amount of luck (him SD'ing)

 

[karthik_king]

No disrespect, but I was enjoying the read, and almost stopped when you mentioned Brawl was more balanced than Melee.

Yeah me too. First match if you play as an oddball character: win (maybe)
Second match if playing against MK:Lose
3rd match:lose
Best out of 3 you lose

I mained Mewtwo and since he was the 2nd worst character noone studied him so I won most matches. People new Pichu since he was basically Pikachu.

 

[Denzi]

Good read; I enjoyed it.