Character question

To the OP: I recently went through a process of choosing a main, and settled on Ryu, because he suits my playstyle, is quite well rounded and has a bit of everything. He's also a huge amount of fun to play with and doesn't have a huge execution barrier to get to a half-decent level. I'm currently busy burning his moves & combos into my muscle memory. I'm still rubbish, but I'm improving....

If you're trying to settle on a main, i would look at tier lists like this one from arcadia magazine in Japan recently, and play around with characters in the upper half of the table, looking for one that suits your style.

Personally speaking, I would steer clear of the lower tiers. Not everyone will agree, but i figure, why handicap your chances of doing well right from day 1 by picking a bottom tier character?

PPC wrote: »

At our level of play it doesn't make too much of a difference what tier you pick.

I don't agree. Sure there are a lot of finer points to any tier list that come into play at very high levels of execution, but you don't have to be at the very top level of play to feel the advantage/disadvantage you're at by picking a low/high tier character, otherwise you would see Dan winning regional tourneys and casuals games all over the place. I think as long as you're at a reasonable level of competency where you can exploit weaknesses in matchups, tiers will have some effect on the success you can expect to see.

For example, I started this game maining deejay, who is generally regarded as not really being a contender tier-wise, and switched to Ryu, and saw an instant improvement. Deejay doesn't have the tools to deal with a lot of stuff that happens very often in this game, regardless of player skill, hence he's lower tier. Ryu does (at least moreso), and as a direct result i was in a better position to compete, without undergoing any improvement in my own individual ability.

Besides all of this though, don't you play a game like Street Fighter with the intention to improve and eventually attain a higher level of ability? Maybe even get to the top level or near it? I do, and putting myself at a disadvantage from day one by picking a lesser character just seems strange to me. I'm not saying that's not valid, there are lots of different ways to approach picking your character, but for me, character design alone isn't enough.

UberPrinny_Baal wrote: »

Good tier lists are written by all the top players, coming to some kind of consensus. Arcadia magazine tier lists are only ever written by one person (so are way more flawed and biased), and THAT particular tier list is uncredited, so we have no idea who wrote it

No to split hairs with you, but i wasn't recommending that tier list specifically. I was just making the point that having an idea what the general concensus was about who was upper/lower/middle tier, and having an idea about a character's general limitations before choosing to main him or her was a good idea, rather than just saying "ooh i like the look of this smiley guy's pink outfit and his funny throw, I'll learn all his moves".

I agree with you that tier lists change over time, and will vary from source to source in their accuracy and impartiality, but they are also a good indicator of a wider concensus, once you read enough of them, from various sources.