Do Tier Lists Really Matter? (Community Discussion)

Hey guys Shiny here, back with another one of my super trigger and cringe worthy discussions that most people will end up calling cancer. But that's okay because deadpool is also cancer, and deadpool is awesome, there! Another reason as to why I love my haters :heart:

Anyway before we track off topic, let's get back to the important stuff. Please that is a discussion, so you are free to place your opinions on this topic or your view/standpoint about the topic down below in the comments section.

This discussion's question is:

Do Tier Lists Really Matter?

Now personally when it comes to tiers I never really was a fan of it. In certain games tiers are actually really helpful but in others like Smash 4 when almost every character is supposed to be "balanced" it really does become hard to make a tier list.

Something that goes into making a tier list is results. But the thing is, there are certain people who mainly play what's high in the tiers. But if everyone plays the high tiers, then the chances of a lower tier character showing results also decreases because the amount of people playing that character is so little.

Another gigantic factor that is often overshadowed is that when there are more people playing a character, there are also more people to discover cool news techs, tips and tricks! If everyone plays a certain character then the others will never truly get a chance to shine.

In Melee this is a bit different because the cast is so much smaller that the chances of you playing the same character as someone else are a lot higher and that way most characters can have their true potential carried out.

But that brings me to my next topic, the matchups (shortened to MU). If we go back to a few paragraphs ago, I said that if everyone plays a high tier the chances of a low tier winning decreases. But, this isn't entirely true. Super Smash Bros 4 has such a diverse cast of characters with different attributes that each character plays best in different manners. This is where learning the matchup comes into play.

Recently in of ZeRo's videos, he said that when he completely dropped sheik he had to learn lots of matchups over again with different characters. This is arguably the most possible reason for ZeRo losing to that Palutena from Prince Ramen.

Because there aren't many good Palutenas out there ZeRo never got to fully learn and understand the matchup inside out and lost. Thus I conclude that a lower tier character is also more likely to be unpredictable and hold tricks up their sleeves that can surprise you and even still manage to bring you high up into a tournament.

And naturally when that low tier ends up winning more he'll get placed higher into the tier list.

Lastly I wanted to talk about the buffs and nerfs that smash 4 has been getting.

In Melee tier lists can actually be trust worthy because there were no such things as patches. These patches change the way characters fight and thus can change stuff like matchups and results. Not only that but when a patch comes out the tier list has to become a blank slate once again because even changing one character can have a domino affect on the metagame.

Let's take a look at sheik for example. In ZeRo's time of reign he mainly played sheik, and very defensively at that. But when sheik got nerfed the range of her needles was shortened. This made it harder for ZeRo to space and play defensively. Due to all the patches Sheik right now is best played aggressively which ZeRo doesn't like so he ended up dropping sheik all together. (Well this is at least one of the reasons)

So in conclusion today I honestly don't find tiers necessary because they can be untrustworthy and you are often lead to believe that top tiers will get you a win easier. Not only that but at the end of the day tiers are only opinions, sooo eh. But that's just me.

I'd really love to see what you guys think about tier lists. (Hoping that I'm not the only with this opinion lel) On a serious note though, thanks for reading my blog. I hope all of you new s feel a bit inspired to write some of your own articles now :)

Until next time,,

C ya!!