The Last Straw: Bowser Junior on Zero's Tier List

It's been a good while since I posted something meaningful here on amino, but a tragic event has brought me out of the darkness to address a grievous error that an esteemed member of our community has made.

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I'm gonna start this off with a little background to help you all understand what this post is about and why I'm writing it.

So, as a famous plumber once said,

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Everyone knows Zero. He's this guy :point_down: 🏻

He's been a wall to my smash bros viewing pleasure ever since I became a regular spectator. You see, I like to root for players in the top 15-30 range. You're Fatalities, Esams, Elegants, and Locuses of the scene. And whenever they go on a crazy run in a tourney, I get pumped.

However, once one of my favorites reaches around top 8 or so, one very large opeeenion is there to greet them. At this point a scenario much like this goes on in my head.

Me:

*ahem*

"um....hey Zero? Yea hi, I was just uh wondering if you could maybe just this once for a little bit possibly let my buddy FatEsaEleCus win this ti-

D1:

"And Zero takes a quick 3-0 over FatEsaEleCus to progress closer to yet another tournament win!"

Me:

Basically, I'm not Zeros biggest fan.

*HOWEVER*

I have the utmost respect for Zero as a player and content creator, and I have never been a Zero hater.

*A SECOND AND VASTLY MORE IMPORTANT HOWEVER*

His placement of my favorite character and main, Bowser Junior, on his tier list is unacceptable. My buddy Bj is NOT bottom 3. In the second half of this blog, I'm going to discuss why I think Zero put him there and why he's completely wrong.

First off, here's his tier list.

At first glance, it looks like Bj got it pretty good. I'd never thought I'd see him in midtier of a Zero tier list, but there he is. Of course, this mid tier is meaningless because of how many characters are in it.

The Problem

My main gripe is the two characters placed above Bj: Dedede and Ganandorf. These two characters do not deserve a spot above bowser Junior for a multitude of reasons. So, I'm going to go over why I feel these 3 characters have been misplaced.

Ganandorf's Goofs

Sure he's got power, but he's so dimma damn slow that he can't utilize it very much. All you can do as Ganon is hope to catch people off guard with your few quick options or maybe get a few hard reads. Another thing against Gannon is his abysmal tourney results. Other than a notable 17th place at Japan Major, no one has gotten anywhere with him.

Dedede's Dilemma

The King Penguin shares a similar situation: lots of kill power with no speed or frame data to back it up. He does have grab follow ups, but without a kill throw he doesn't have any reliable kill options. However, I do believe D3 has more up his sleeve than Ganon with his multiple jumps, back air, and gordo traps to go along with his crazy kill power, but I have yet to see a solo D3 make it anywhere in tournament. With the only prominent penguin players (BigD and Girthquake) not going to many or any tourneys, Dedede just dededoesn't have results.

Bowser Junior's Case

Now I'm not gonna try to tell you Bj is a great character. He's just not. In fact, I believe he belongs at 48th on Zero's list. That aside, Bowser Junior has tools that are more useful in his kit. Mecha koopa set ups, kart combos/mixups, powerful and short hop cancellable aerials, and other tools give him a half decent neutral game. His smash attacks can kill early and aren't too laggy either (except down smash. It succs.) He is hurt by his oh so exploitable recovery, weird hurtbox, and lack of grab combos, but his kit is much more viable than Ganon's or D3's. Not only that, but Bj actually has some results.

Back in the day, Tweek did work with bj, going as far as to win MDVA's Xanadu and place well before he reached deep into his pocket and never looked back :disappointed:

Even today Bj player Vicegrip does well at the always stacked tourney MsM in Cali, repping the Ludwig and getting some results, even making it to grands. Taternator also does well in the same region, making it to grands of a Super Smash Sundays. Bj player Jade even beat Trela at CEO 2016.

.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

So at this point you must be asking,

"Hey JoJ, if this is all true, why did the Scarfed Wonder place Bj so poorly?"

Well confused citizens of amino, I have a theory.

The Opeenion Conspiracy

When looking at this tier list it's important to that Zero's umble opeenion is a large factor on who gets placed where. Because he is ze best, Zero's opinion means a lot, so this tier list is gonna have some weight.

Here's where this comes into effect. Zero has in the past year played against 2 skilled players who main 2 of the 3 characters discussed.

Go on, guess which 2.

If you guessed Ganon and D3, you'd be right.

At the Chicago weekly, Ignition, Zero faced off against 8 inches, a solid Ganon player. He won the set 2-1, losing a Ganon ditto (lol Zero's ego.) He has met this player a few times now as he attends more Ignitions.

Here's the set for your viewing pleasure.

If you frequent Zero's YouTube channel you'll notice two episodes of friendlies with Girthquake, a Dedede player (who you should all check out he's awesome) They played many matches as Girthquake explained D3's stuff.

The point is, Zero has played against some of the best Ganon and Dedede players out there, so he knows what they can do. Yet he hasn't played any notable Bowser Juniors to my knowledge. This is why I think Zero's opinion of these characters is skewed higher than that of Bj, and why he placed Bj below them.

Closing Thoughts

As a consumer of Smash, I love Zero's tier lists. I especially liked this one because it allowed me to discuss a part of the game that I have a decent grasp of. Also, considering I main Bowser Junior, I realize this was kinda bias, but Zero's list was also a bit bias as I pointed out, so think of it as a fun counter bias.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this blog. I now realize with how busy life can get that I won't be writing these as often as I would've hoped, but you'll be seeing some more stuff from me in the future.

:large_orange_diamond: :small_orange_diamond: Thanks for reading :small_orange_diamond: :large_orange_diamond:

Peace :v: