You can dash all day on Freddy, you AREN'T getting in man. He doesn't need ground spike, all he has to do is throw claws and you can try to dash that fool point blank after one and still get hit by the next. So once again in order to beat a character he has to take risks, he has to jump and is hoping that either that he is outside of the range of ground spike, or it's still in recovery. If it isn't well then you are at full screen all over again. What about his footsies aren't better? Faster low pokes, faster normals with great range, why do anything other than just throw out something out, and wait for a d4 or dash? Maybe I just don't know shit about the MU I wouldn't put it past me to have been playing it wrong all this time. This isn't a MU discussion thread though so I will leave it be.
I will respond to Reptile's turnout at tournies however with the fact that there used to be tons of them! Everyone moved on to characters who actually win. Most of them still use Reptile from time to time, but they still need that extra character to go for gold.