Spyridon
But then these players would have to play out of their comfort zone and how many people out there are willing to do that?
You are correct to a point, and I completely understand what you are saying. but some players actually do play lower tier chars and try to win. Sometimes the well known pros do it (as I mentioned before I'm newer in this community, but in Marvel JWong played Iron Fist for a looong time). You actually gave a great example of this as well about Sinestro.
I'm not the only one who thinks that tier lists at this point are way too early and it's all about logic. There was a guy who made a brilliant comment in the first tier list thread
Well, that's why I'm working to differentiate this from a tier list! This list has some very notable differences from a tier list.
1) A tier list typically discourages players from playing anyone from the top few characters. This list instead gives players comfort that if their character is one of the majority not on this list they can become a top player if they try hard enough, as well as giving people a reason to work on tech for these characters. Effectively encouraging player of
all characters, rather than the few of a tier list.
2) Tier lists are based upon opinion that can never be proven true or false and are 100% speculation. This list consists of opinions that
can be proven false, and challenging players to attempt to prove it false is actually encouraged. If you prove this list wrong, it means it was a
success!
3) As one of the points you mentioned, tier lists (especially early ones) often organize characters by how easy they are to play. This list is not about how easy one is to play, but if one is even possible to play at the highest level. There are high execution or harder to play characters in any game that find success, just as well as there are easy to play characters that dominate new players but don't succeed in play at the highest level. Since this list is based on success, rather than pure opinions or difficulty to play, it should be considered different from a tier list.
4) Tier lists are almost completely non-constructive. They serve no purpose but to argue over which characters are best and who should be placed where. This list is created with constructive intents - to get more attention to the characters that need help, to point out what characters need new tech the most, to challenge players to do good with these characters if they disagree with their placement, to give us a place to discuss what the non-competitive characters might need, and hopefully give NRS some good feedback on what characters need the most work.
For a perfect example of these points, just look at Doomsday's performance in todays tournament! All the word going around was that he was a weak character and needs buffs, but some players still stick to him. If this were a tier list and Doomsday was low tier and won, it encourages nothing but arguments about his placement. But this list? It's awesome for this list that Doomsday won - it immediately removes him from this list, and you can't build a strong argument against actual results. And Doomsday used to be a fairly popular character, but most players consider him too weak to be able to get results (meaning harder to play). But he did it, and that's awesome! And if anything it should stress the biggest differences between this and a tier list.
I'm not qualified to say that Bane is good enough to get into the TOP 8, nor am I qualified to say that he isn't - but there is nothing that restricts me from saying that there MIGHT be some stuff we don't know yet and to discover that stuff we need dedicated players like
RYX who invest time and thoughts into the characters.
That's the thing about this list, you don't "have" to be qualified to share your opinions like you do with a tier list. Because you are not trying to "be right". In the end you can
share your thoughts in hopes that you are wrong. I hope we're wrong about every single character on this list. I hope there are new stuff to discover about these characters. And I hope that if a dedicated player reads this post and thinks they can tear the place up with Bane or Harley I hope this gives them a little bit of encouragement to do so. To those dedicated players like
RYX, I hope they see this post, and if they disagree with the placement of anyone here, prove it! Try to find new tech! Share it with others! Work as a community to try to prove this list wrong and get that character in the top 8!
And we're not going to get that from high level players, because they always use the strongest characters, which is totally fine in the end of the day.
We shouldn't generalize. Everyones opinion of the strongest characters could potentially be different. Some high level players don't play only high tier characters. Most people thought Doomsday was trash, but apparently Reggie disagreed and thought he was one of the strongest characters, and took him to great success!
But what that means is that the "unviable" characters are only not viable, because tournament players are not picking them up, because there are few specific, stronger and easier-to-use characters.
Your generalizing again, that's harmful to constructive discussion! Once a player feels comfortable enough to bring a character in a tournament they will - sure more people play easier characters but not everyone! Also keep in mind that as time goes on players are going to branch out from the "easier" characters same as they do in every game.
When other people finally unlock the potential of "low tiers" we will see quite some new stuff, even in tournaments I hope.
I hope so too! Before this post I'm not sure if you realized, but that's the intent of this list. I hope I explained things well, and I hope you understand a bit better that there's no reason to be ashamed to add someone to this list, because it should only encourage new stuff for these characters, and we should all be hoping the characters will be removed from this list soon!
Sorry for such a long winded response, I just wanted to try to explain the topic a bit more thoroughly because I really do intend for this to be constructive discussion. I hope after this we can focus back on that constructive discussion without further explanation getting in the way
And please, don't let not feeling qualified get in the way, if you know any character decently well and feel they deserve to be on this list, please participate! There's no shame in adding someone to this list hoping they don't belong here