Criticism over the newest Melee Tier List

[Flint]

This is the first tier list to not be made be the SmashBackRoom, a group of professional Smashers that include high level tournament winners but instead we have fans who voted for this list. I have 2 complaints about the newest Melee tier list. 1 large complaint and 1 small complaint.

This is the newest tier list for Melee that was released a couple days ago.



Here is my large complaint.

1. Fox is considered an SS tier character. I do not believe in the slightest at all that Fox deserves his own tier. While I do consider Fox to be the best character in the game, the margin isn't large. Along with a lot of professional characters not considering Fox to be the best. Mango has stated in the Smash Summit that he believes Marth to be the best in the game along with Westballz also stating Marth to be the best. Mew2King who is an actual Marth main, considers Falco to be the best character in Melee.

M2K's Tier List:
http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2014/may/02/kirby-and-zelda-are-two-worst-characters-melee-pichu-highly-underrated-mew2king-discusses-his-super-smash-bros-tier-list-pt-1/

http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2014/may/05/peach-vs-falco-even-match-captain-falcon-top-level-inconsistent-mew2kings-super-smash-bros-melee-tier-list-pt2/

http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2014/may/08/if-final-destination-was-only-stage-melee-marth-would-be-best-character-mew2kings-top-5-super-smash-bros-tier-list-pt3/

Mango's thoughts: https://youtu.be/RRFkMlMxKq4?t=5m18s

Westballz: https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/24hx8n/hi_im_westballz_i_like_red_falco_ama/ch7cjrh

Melee's metagame is not as polarizing as Smash 64 or Brawl. In both Smash 64 and Brawl, it was undeniable that the best game in both games was Pikachu in 64 and Meta Knight in Brawl. In Melee, it's not so easily to just say Fox and expect people to agree. Since the beginning of Smash 64 and Brawl, Pikachu and Meta Knight respectively were considered the best and have always been considered the best since the beginning of tier lists. In Melee, it was actually Sheik that was considered the best in Melee, and she kept that title for a long time. 2002 being the first Melee tier list released, in order from the top 4 best was:

1. Sheik
2. Falco
3. Fox
4. Marth

It wasn't until 2006 where Fox was considered the best character in the game. And not even by a huge margin, Marth and Falco were also given a huge consideration of being the best characters in the game as well. While I think Fox is the best character in the game, he is far from the easiest, Fox is undoubtedly the hardest character in the game to use. Combined with his weight, fall speed and gravity, Fox and Falco are characters that get combo'd easily from a lot of characters.

This was the tier list before the current tier list.



As far what I can do to change this list, I'd swap the placements of Sheik and Marth, swap Mario and Yoshi, and put Doctor Mario under Ganon.

This is the Melee tier list that I subscribe too.



While Fox doesn't have any negative match-ups in the game, he is not untouchable. He gets chaingrabbed extremely easy, his weight and fall speed have him susceptible to the "Hunger Strike" technique with Jiggly, which instantly kills him, a recovery that if read correctly will be the end of you off stage, and overall the hardest character to play.

What I feel helps my point is that the only other character to receive a double SS ranking on a tier list was Meta Knight in Brawl. There exist a hefty amount of Meta Knight banned tournaments, a lot of stages in Brawl are dependent whether or not Meta Knight is legal, double Meta Knight in teams is banned, and the reason why many stages are dependent on Meta Knight's legality, it because many of these maps were considered instant win for Meta Knight. Fox does not share any of these traits, so it makes it all the more weird how Fox is double SS.

Another complaint on the subject is that Fox and Falco should always be paired side by side by each other. If Fox is an SS tier, Falco deserves to also be in that position with Fox. Although in preference, I'd prefer if this tier list didn't have the SS tier since it would be ignorant to think only 1 character is the best in the metagame. At the absolute least, there are 3-4 best characters in the game at the same time.

Fox may be the best character, but he is not the best by a huge margin. Putting him in his own tier is stupid and uncalled for.

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Here is my small complaint.

2. Ice Climbers is considered better than Captain Falcon. I think this not accurate. Captain Falcon not only is a counter against Ice Climbers but strive well in Ice Climber's weak match-ups such as Peach and Ganon. While Ice Climbers do have a better match-up against Sheik, I don't believe this is the only reason that they should be a spot higher.

Conclusion: Fox is not an SS character and shouldn't have his own tier to himself.

If anyone has any criticisms or questions, I'd love to hear it.