I can't believe that Sonya is being downplayed so bad in the same thread where those same people are bitching about how tuff she is.
First off, learn your match ups. EX Kartwheel can be low-poked out of, even during armor by pokes that travel on the ground. The AI does this to me constantly. One day when
Aidan was over, he was showing me some MU stuff with KL and we found that the only low poke Sonya has that gets blown up by Spin is D4. So when I say that Sonya edges out KL for 3rd place, I mean exactly that.
Now, about Riu's vid. The biggest tragedy about that vid is that it made Sonya players afraid to use strings at all. Sonya has arguably the best footsies in the game to set up favorable conditions for her strings where the opponent is forced to block or worse on a bad read. And let's be real here; the timing for walking out of Sonya's gaps isn't large. Her fists are moving fast enough that unless you are well practiced in doing so, it's a significant risk to try it on reaction. Just like how Sonya can F4 over Low hat but you never see it tournament because the timing is risky.
I have always felt that the purpose of tier lists was to give players an indication of how hard their evening is going to be compared to their own character. Nothing more, nothing less. In that respect, tier lists allow for player skill in that the character itself might be ass but lack of MU knowledge and a skilled player can most certainly make a character look better than they are.