Now that everything has calmed following Evo 2017, three of Japan’s strongest Street Fighter V players — Red Bull’s Bonchan and GRAPHT’s Haitani and Razer’s Fuudo — sat down to take stock of the Season 2.5 landscape on the July 25th episode of Kachitagari TV.
Ranking the entire cast from A to D tier, the trio’s high placements of characters like Ibuki, Balrog, Akuma, Cammy and Necalli, while placing the likes of Juri, Alex, Ed and Kolin towards the absolute bottom of the pack isn’t surprising. While Juri and Alex will probably stay in bottom tier until a future balance patch, Ed and Kolin do have the chance to rise up, as they are still under-explored compared to the rest of the cast.
While it’s important to note that this list is just the collective opinion of these players, and should in no way be seen as the absolute final word on where these characters rank. Nevertheless, it’s a great look at how the competitive meta is shaping up following the mid-Season balance changes, and it will be interesting to see how if Abigail’s arrival will drastically change this list. You can see the full list below:
A: Ibuki, Balrog, Rashid, Cammy, Karin, Necalli, Akuma
B: Zangief, Guile, M. Bison, Urien, R. Mika, Birdie, Laura
C: F.A.N.G, Ken, Ryu, Nash, Vega, Chun-Li, Dhalsim
D: Kolin, Ed, Juri, Alex
Uni_Papapapa also clarified a few things about the placements on Twitter. Noting that the group originally had Laura in C Tier, but decided to eventually move her up to B, as Fuudo mentioned that she beats B-ranked Rainbow Mika two times in a row. Though it’s not clearly defined, a character’s placement on the list was mostly based off of whether or not they have a lot of disadvantageous match-ups, as well as each warrior’s current success in recent tournaments. Javits Arias also compared it to his own Season 2.5 tier list he made back in late June, specifically noting how similar their top tier picks were, particularly when it came to Cammy. You can see the Tweets below.
2017/07/25 KachitagariTV（Fuudo,Haitani,Bonchan） SFV chara tier pic.twitter.com/yAvGO8DQcp
— 白水(shiramizu) (@shirauzutaisa) July 25, 2017
They first put Laura into C, but eventually moved her to B because Laura beat Mika, ranked B, two times in a row including Fuudo haha.
— うに (@Uni_Papapapa) July 25, 2017
It's not precisely defined. They mentioned: if having disadvantage match-up to any character(s); success in tourneys… probably that's all.
— うに (@Uni_Papapapa) July 25, 2017
My SF5 Season 2.5 tier list from a month ago is actually super close to the tier list by Japanese top players. Lol at "Cammy not top 5" guys pic.twitter.com/xpdBSpu06z
— Javits Arias (@jav1ts) July 25, 2017
Do you agree or disagree with this list? If so, how exactly do you believe the SFV cast stacks up to each other at this point in Season 2.5? Let us your thoughts and leave your own personal tier lists in the comments section below.
Sources: TOPNAGA TV; shirauzutasia (Twitter); Uni_Papapapa (Twitter); Javits Arias (Twitter)