Nobody likes losing, of course, but it can be an entirely different experience when you lose to a character who has some sort of an unfair advantage or cheap gimmick that ultimately sends the two of you to respective win/loss screens that are undeserved.
In our latest episode of Talk and Block, Catalyst and I both come up with tier lists for the current cast of Street Fighter 6 with the aim to denote which characters have garnered the most hate and which have widely flown under the radar.
It all but goes without saying that this is subjective opinion, and could very well be informed by personal or perceived communal opinions. We’re not trying to etch law in stone here, but rather aiming for some fun conversation that could lead to widening perspectives, or at least some entertaining back and forth with friends.
What exactly tends to drum up hate for a character? Being oppressively top tier is an easy start, but there’s often more to the picture when it comes to developing bad reputations.
Character design, while not always prioritized at the top of competitive play, can be a major factor in this particular process. Luke, for instance, is one of the more obvious picks for most hated in SF6 both because of his conspicuously powerful abilities, but also (at least for some) because of how punchable his face is.
E. Honda isn’t regarded as a very effective character relative to the majority of his roster mates, but his more spammable Sumo Headbutt and Sumo Splash specials can serve as frustrating tests on one’s reactions.
Now that Street Fighter 6 is going on eight months its characters have had some time to develop reputations and levels of charisma among fans and players.
Ryu, for instance, is both one of the most recognizable figures in all of gaming and not all that powerful in SF6, thus he’s a good bit easier to root for than his top tier counterpart, Ken, for a lot of people.
Catalyst and I go back and forth sharing our two cents on the general hatred levels for all 20 characters, placing them across four different tiers.
You can zip right to our final results by clicking the thumbnail below and seeing both of our completed tier lists, but if you’d like to hear all the dirty details and explanations as to why we placed each character in their respective spots, the entire episode is available as well.
Please note there are time stamps so you can jump around the conversation to hear about the characters you’re most interested in, and we’d really like to hear your thoughts on the subject in the comments (both here as well as on the YouTube video directly).
Click images for larger versions
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
02:07 – Ryu
03:21 – Ken
06:03 – Chun-Li
07:39 – Juri
10:20 – Jamie
12:43 – Guile
15:09 – Blanka
18:19 – E. Honda
20:36 – Zangief
23:21 – Kimberly
26:28 – Raptor Downplays JP
30:17 – Dhalsim
32:27 – Marisa
35:27 – Lily
38:40 – Dee Jay
43:07 – A.K.I.
45:42 – Luke
49:21 – Cammy
53:43 – Rashid
56:38 – Manon
58:37 – Final Lists