What are Tiers?
Can someone explain to me how tiers work? Example chart http://iplaywinner.com/super-street-fighter-4-tiers/
Responses (1 total)
A tier chart displays individual match-ups between all the different characters in the game, as viewed from the perspective of high-level players who both have equal knowledge of the match-up. The matchup statistics are designed to take player skill out of the equation, and attempt to evaluate how each character fares against every other character in the game, all other factors being equal.
An individual matchup is listed as the number of matches a character would win out of 10. For example, a matchup where neither character has an advantage over the other would be "5-5", i.e. both characters win 5 matches out of the total 10. Slight advantage would be 6-4, heavy advantage would be 7-3, and 8-2 would be overwhelming advantage. Mirror matches are always 5-5, obviously.
So, for the chart you've linked to, Rufus would win (on average) 5.5 matches out of ten against Akuma, and conversely Akuma would win 4.5 matches out of ten against Rufus. In the end, all of the matchup stats for a character are totaled up (all of the numbers on each horizontal row) and the characters are ranked in descending order to come up with the approximate character ranking from strongest overall to weakest. Obviously, these are purely subjective and that's why tier lists are constantly changing and always the subject of intense debate.
High tier placement doesn't always guarantee that a character is a good tournament character, as even high-tier characters can struggle terribly if they have a few terrible matchups, falling victim to counter-picking. (See: Zangief in old SF4)
