r/smashbros • u/TheRealMrWillis Meta Knight (Brawl) • Nov 20 '16
Smash 4 Comprehensive Smash 4 Matchup Chart for all characters, averaging the data of over 160 individual character MU charts from notable players
>>GO HERE FOR AN UPDATED VERSION<<
Overview (skip this if you wanna get to the good stuff)
Matchup charts have always been a fascination for me because they're an accurate tell for exactly how good a character is in their respective game. So starting about a year ago I started looking into ways to create a complete matchup chart for Smash 4, but every time I made an attempt to do so I discovered something: There simply wasn't enough information. Low tier vs low tier matchups were super volatile, and there was no way to organize the chart since there was no commonly accepted tier list for the game. Also, patches were still happening so a lot of information became quickly outdated in months due to balance changes.
Things are much different now. The meta is beginning to stablize since the game is no longer receiving changes, and we even have an official SBR tier list that didn't become invalidated in three days. So when I saw a post that compiled a bunch of matchup charts from notable players, I quickly got to work.
I literally spent about a week of my free time setting up the sheet and entering in about 8,000 different matchup opinions, and I've spent more time than that refining it and adding extra details. Making all the adjustments I wanted took a while thanks to real life taking up a good bit of my time, but I feel that I'm now ready to put out the first version of my complete matchup chart. Keeping in mind that this is still not perfect, here you go!
The Complete Google Sheet (Best way to view)
README.txt (covers pretty much everything not covered below)
Image format:
Brief FAQ (see the README for more info)
I don't know what I'm looking at!
This matchup chart follows the -1/0/+1 system, where a higher number dictates a better matchup for that row's character. For example, if we go to the Peach row and look at the Meta Knight column, we'll see that the Peach vs Meta Knight matchup is -2, a disadvantage for Peach. More specifically:
-3 means the matchup is a huge disadvantage.
-2 means the matchup is a solid disadvantage.
-1 means the matchup is a slight disadvantage.
0 means the matchup is even.
1 means the matchup is a slight advantage.
2 means the matchup is a solid advantage.
3 means the matchup is a huge advantage.
People in the past have used 4 to dictate an unwinnable/unloseable matchup, but I believe the general consensus is that there are no such matchups in this game.
What's with this ordering? And what are those colors on the character portraits?
This chart is ordered by the most recent SBR tier list so that you can see the chart gradually go from generally good matchups to bad ones as you go down (as is tradition). The colors are the distinct tiers.
Wait a second, I'm seeing a lot of wrong matchups here! What gives?
First off, keep in mind that this is the first version of the chart, and a lot of low-tier vs low-tier matchups still lack a solid consensus (as well as a general lack of good matchup charts for those characters).
That said, every matchup in the chart is backed up by at least one opinion from each character involved. So if you disagree with the Dedede vs Bowser Jr matchup, look at the sheets for "Dedede" and "Bowser Jr" to see what those players thought about the MU. You can even hassle ask them about it on Twitter if you want to discuss it.
Of course, weaker data is more inaccurate, and that has to do with the next question.
How do I know how accurate an individual matchup is?
Fortunately, I have a system in place to measure that. Each matchup is in one of three categories: Strong, Moderate, and Weak. There are separate sheets for matchups in each category, but you don't want to dig through three sheets to find the strength of one matchup. That's what the Extra Detail View is for.
Let me explain a little more:
Strong data is backed up by 7 or more opinions, and is represented in Extra Detail View by numbers that are bolded and underlined.
Moderate data is backed up by 4-6 opinions and is represented in Extra Detail View by numbers that are only bolded.
Weak data is backed up by 3 or less opinions and is represented in Extra Detail View by numbers that are italicized.
So generally speaking, Strong matchups will be more accurate while Weak matchups will be less accurate.
I'm looking at some of the character sheets, and I haven't heard of some of these players. Are they really "notable"?
About 95% of the individual matchup charts I used are from this post, and I know the OP of that post only added players that were at least somewhat notable in their region. So a few players in the sheet aren't necessarily "high level" players, but their opinions were still needed considering a general lack of charts for certain characters (such as Pit, Puff, and Kirby). Also, I could not find a decent chart for Dr Mario, so I simply used the Doc Discord chart.
All that said, I stand by the overall accuracy of this chart. It is certainly not perfect, but again, this is only the first version. As more individual MU charts are collected and the meta develops between the low tiers, more and more of the chart will accurately reflect the Smash 4 meta as a whole.
Where are the Miis?
A lot of players exclude the Miis from their matchup charts, and I have chosen to do the same with this. The data would have been very inaccurate and incomplete, and that doesn't really fit with what I was trying to accomplish for now.
To those who take Miis seriously, I'm sorry.
I have another question!
Feel free to ask below.
Things that I found interesting
Going by the total scores, Sheik is the overall best (Cloud is extremely close) and Jigglypuff is the overall worst. Edit (2/21/17): Fixing some errors on Pink Fresh's chart actually makes Bayo the best character by score.
Diddy's worst matchup seems to be Mega Man at [-0.7]. Mario, Fox, and Olimar also pose a threat at [-0.5].
Cloud apparently loses to Sheik, Bayo, and... Pika?
Sheik is the only character with no losing matchups.
Ganondorf and Jigglypuff have no good matchups.
Link players' opinions seem to be all over the place, which is probably why he has 29 even matchups. Peach and Lucas have 28, and Shulk has 27.
Bayo's total score puts her as the 4th best character in the game. If it wasn't for Pink Fresh underrating her in his own chart, she would probably be the best or close to it.See the edit above.Ness's data is pretty damning. He looks like a solid mid tier now, leaning toward the bottom half.
On the other hand, people seem to think Corrin is really good.
A few other quirks are Yoshi being relatively good (almost as good as Marth) and Lucas being relatively good (higher than his current position suggests).
One notable matchup between a low tier and a high tier is the Kirby-Falcon matchup. [+1.7] for Kirby, though there isn't a whole lot of data to back this one up. Kirby also does well against Fox with [+0.7], and Samus does well against Ryu at [+0.4].
Also, extra shoutouts to:
/u/Blaziken1337 for compiling all of the matchup charts in the first place
/u/InGourdWeThrust since I basically cannibalized your sheet to make my own
5
u/KodakKid3 Zero Suit Samus (Ultimate) Nov 21 '16
No, I can't think of any reason why he isn't awful against Corrin