M. Bison and Chun-Li rise to the top as Street Fighter V tiers congeal

Have you latched onto a loser?

I take my fighting game tier lists with a grain of salt, and not the upset/bitter/meme kind. This is not any sort of distrust in the peer-developed meta, though it can be “wrong,” or at least narrow-minded, with alleged balance issues sometimes working themselves out with new counter strategies and so on. No, my grain stems from the fact that my fighting game character choices are always aesthetic. Who looks the coolest, basically. I am shallow like that.

There’s some grandfathering going on, too, which is why I continue to main Ken for the better part of a couple decades and despite the fact that he is currently 13th out of 16 in Event Hubs’ community-culled tier list.

2016 Steven probably wouldn’t touch Ken, especially not this yoga’d out, man-bun version with a stupid top, but as the Ryu underdog of Street Fighter II, he comes with some nostalgia. Not to mention that Dhalsim is probably Street Fighter V‘s best design — his throw is amazing and the much springier animation in his trademark extendo-limbs is welcomed. He sits just outside the top 5 in the tier list, which goes:

1. M. Bison
2. Chun-Li
3. Nash
4. Karin
5. Vega

Laura, whom I considered as an alternate main, is good for 15th best out of 16. Did I mention my SFIV alternate main was Sakura? I got a thing for underdogs, I guess. Though I was considering giving Chun-Li a shake, which would put me on the right side of power. Anyways, it’ll be fun as this all gets flipped on its head down the line.