Where does Ness belong on the tier list?

[ChivalRuse]

I don't think he has to have "untapped potential" to be tournament viable. On paper his biggest flaws are his lack of KO setups and his lightness (I don't rank his lack of range as a major enough flaw).

As far as KOs are concerned, you just have to become a master of his few KO opportunities.

The lightness issue just means you have to avoid the most threatening moves that can KO you. Obviously, you can't indefinitely avoid them (eventually you will get grabbed into a fair or uair). But you can still make your opponent work really hard for it. And at the end of the day, that's all you can do with any character.

 

[Weenuk]

Personally, I'd put Ness at 21 above Zelda but below Mewtwo.
(It would go something like this: )

In short all of Ness' aerials are good in some regard, his DJC is very useful alongside said aerials, his wavedash is really good, he's small and floaty causing him to escape many top tier's bread and butter combos easily, his smashes are really underrated (forward smash is a reliable kill move, down smash is good for mix-ups, and up smash can lead into the yo-yo glitch).

Most of Ness' major weaknesses come from his terrible recovery and his ****ty range which is why he's low tier. Theoretically though, if Ness never is in a position where he's forced to use his up-b then he can definitely put in some work when he finds an opening into his opponent.