Magneto, Storm, Sentinel, and Cable form the Big Four, and have a wild orgy on deck.
— Bowling Pin on Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Dan isn't god-tier. God is Dan-tier.'
Bowser: God dammit, Mario! Why can't I ever be a top-tier character?
Mario: Silly Bowser, tiers are for queers!
Mario: Silly Bowser, tiers are for queers!
—Brawl Taunts 2
"I told you Cal is just a regular nigga bro! Cal ain't built for this! Cal is just a regular Jedi named Todd. And he just so happened to get [...] thrown into a world that was beyond his Power Level."
"Speaking of characters, there are nine non-boss characters, five of which you can play, three of which you should play."
— TheoryFighter
, on Breakers Revenge
, on Breakers RevengeThough division between tiers can be somewhat arbitrary, the differences between them can often be summed up as:
- SS / Banned: These characters have been found to be exceptionally powerful or over-centralizing in competition. They may be beatable, but even in those cases their presence has been judged by the community to greatly reduce the quality of the game as a whole. In most tournaments, choosing them will result in disqualification, or be made impossible by modding.
- S: These characters have dramatically-noticeable enough advantages that the metagame is largely defined by them. The majority of their matchups against the rest of the roster are in their favor. Most tournaments will be won by these.
- A: Though not as game-defining as S, these characters have proven consistently practical to focus on.
- B: The effectiveness of these characters is volatile. They will generally do well, and may even excel against other middle-tiered or even some higher-tiered characters, but may have severe weaknesses, or be particularly outmatched in specific matchups against top-tiers.
- C: Average at best. Knowledge of how to nullify these characters' strengths is expected in high-level play. They may be overly predictable or not have particularly noticeable strengths.
- D: Only the most highly dedicated players will succeed with these. It's strongly recommended for mains of these characters to pick up secondary characters to cover matchups where their faults are the most severe.
- E: These characters are considered not viable in a competitive setting. Winning a tournament with them, while technically possible, almost never occurs.
- F: These are considered to be the worst characters in the game. They have no or almost no favorable matchups against characters placed higher than themselves. Winning with them will all but require the opponent to make devastating blunders.
- Z: A complete failure of balance has occurred here, resulting in a character that is hopelessly, comically inept. Success with them is genuinely impossible outside of casual play; their only matchup that does not predict an absolute victory for the opponent is against themselves.
— Joy Mech Fight Wiki, article for "Tier list" (emphasis theirs)
" (emphasis theirs)