Tier list

A tier list is a list of playable characters of a video game ranked by their respective viability in competitive settings. Characters listed high on a tier list of a specific game are considered to be powerful characters compared to lower-scoring characters, and are therefore more likely to be used during tournaments. Tier lists are popular in fighting games such as the Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros. series, and MOBAs like League of Legends and DotA 2.

Methodology

When a competitive game gets an update, a question that arises is how the changes in the game will affect the tier list. Even when no balancing changes actually took place, the inclusion of new characters or new systems can have an impact on tier lists. In fighting games, the strength of a character is always held relative to that of other characters, meaning that something that is strong in one fighting game does not necessarily have to be strong in another. The metagame may swift over time as dominant strategies get overturned using less popular characters.^[1]

Tier rankings may be listed using letter gradings. The competitive community surrounding Guilty Gear Xrd, for instance, ranks characters as 'S', 'S-', 'A+', and 'A', where 'S tiers' are particularly powerful and 'A tiers' less so.^[1] Major video game news websites such as The Daily Dot and Kotaku may publish their own tier lists for popular games.^[2][3]

For a game like Super Smash Bros. Melee, which was released in 2001 and has not been updated since, but is still popular in tournament settings, characters originally overpowered are still broken. Different versions of the game may have different tier lists as well. The website Smashboards bases its yearly tier lists for the Super Smash Bros. series on polling results.^[4]

References