Catalyst and I are back on Talk and Block to put together our final tier lists for the first season of Street Fighter 6. The game evolved a notable bit back in late February when Ed dropped, and now that we’ve had some time with these changes we’ve got updated orderings for the entire 21 character roster.
The two of us discuss and debate placements for all fighters as we argue our way through the top and bottom of the bunch. Continue on to see how things shake out.
This video dropped a few days back and we’ve had some time to see some of the reactions in the comments section. Easily the most contentious character (this was the case in the discussion as well) is JP, who was easily the biggest loser of the aforementioned February patch.
Accepted as a shoo-in for top three before the patch, JP saw nerfs to his neutral, defense, damage output, and Drive Gauge manipulation. There’s no doubt the character is worse off than he was, but to what degree?
Especially with his anti-air being nerfed, JP’s relatively slower fireballs and normal attacks leave him open to jump ins, forcing him to play more reaction-based than many of his counterparts.
Given Street Fighter 6’s naturally heavy mental stack, (the juggling act of trying to be ready for multiple potential approaches at once) there’s a conspicuous advantage to being able to make first moves on offense.
Standing on a foundation of noticeably nerfed defense in an offense-heavy game is not a good look, especially since JP has a bottom three walk speed (he’s slower than Marissa) so trying to position away from being in susceptible spots is especially difficult.
All of this doesn’t make him a bad character, but I would (and do, in the video) argue that he’s amid the mid tiers now. Catalyst (and many in the comments thus far) disagree saying he’s still widely the oppressive, privileged monster he’s always been.
If you’d like to skip right to seeing our final lists, you can do so simply by clicking the thumbnail right here. To hear all of our reasonings, arguments, and more be sure to check out the full video embedded below. We’ve also included timestamps for all character discussions so you can hop around to those you’re most eager to hear first.
Be sure to like the video and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more discussions and fighting game explorations like this.
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Timestamps:
Intro – 0:00
Luke – 01:36
Ken – 04:35
JP (Contentious) – 11:44
Chun – 27:58
Dee Jay – 31:24
Blanka – 33:58
Juri – 39:00
Cammy – 42:30
Ryu – 45:05
Ed – 48:31
Honda – 52:12
AKI – 56:07
Zangief – 1:05:42
Rashid – 1:08:45
Jamie – 1:13:51
Guile – 1:17:03
Lily – 1:19:42
Marisa – 1:24:04
Sim – 1:26:06
Kimberly – 1:27:47
Manon – 1:30:09
Final Lists – 1:34:07
