I prefer this manner because it shows that the creators of the list took the time and effort to consider every single match-up in the game in order to create a best-to-worst list. Most official fighting game strategy guides that feature tier lists calculate their rankings in this manner. While there are many ‘mathematical’ ways of creating a tier list, I put the most weight behind tier lists presented in the ‘grid’ format pictured above. These lists ultimately mean nothing if they don’t explain why every character is ranked where they are. I generally recommend avoiding any tier lists that simply list the best-to-worst characters without any sort of rationale behind their choices. Whenever you look at a tier list, regardless of how credible that source might be, please review it with a grain of salt, as their is no way to truly quantify anyone’s tier list as fact. I have specifically underlined that last point, as many people get hung up on tier lists to the point where it completely guides their experience through any given fighting game usually to their own detriment.

Regardless of how scientific of an approach one uses to create one, their list will never truly be defined as ‘fact’, as rankings are ultimately defined by personal opinion. There are a number of different ways that people use to create a tier list. Before you cling to a tier list written by a random message board user as fact, let’s take a moment to learn what tier lists are, how they work and what they’re good for.įor fighting games, a tier list is used to list all of the characters in that game from best-to-worst. In today’s world of online discussion and information transfer, you’re just a Google search away from finding dozens of different tier lists for any given fighting game written by players with various levels of understanding. For better or worse, their presence in the competitive fighting games can’t be understated. Tier lists are a hotly-debated topic in any sort of competitive game. For a handful of seriously dedicated individuals, you may have even gone through the painstaking process of trying to mathematically calculate that pecking order. You may have tried to rank these characters from best to worst. If you’ve ever played a fighting game with another person before, I’m sure you’ve discussed the hot-button topic of which character is best.

Trading tier list a universal time