List of tier lists for Super Smash Flash 2

Super Smash Flash 2's tier lists have been created officially since v0.6 of the demo. Tier lists are produced by the backroom, a subset of the Super Smash Flash 2 Alliance which was originally a subforum in the McLeodGaming Forums until Beta 1.0's second tier list and a subset of the Super Smash Flash 2 Union for Beta 1.1's tier list. Tier lists undergo multiple changes to appeal the new demo updates or changes of the metagame. This is a list that keeps track of old tier list revision, including the current revision released.
== v0.6 tier list 1 ==
The first official tier list was released on October 3, 2010. The method to obtaining the lists was that each member had a chance to submit a rankings list, with the characters ranked from best to worst. In the calculation process, characters were awarded 9 points for a first place, 8 for a second, etc. all the way down to 1 for a last place on a list. Each character's point totals were then averaged, with the top and bottom rankings for each character excluded to control for outliers. The characters were then organized into tiers based upon significant gaps in point averages. would take the top place in this iteration while would be "anchored" to the lowest tier by many years leading to the tier's name to be mocked on his name in following releases.
== v0.6 tier list 2 ==
Prior v0.7's release, a new tier list was released on January 1, 2011. The second list was conceived in the same manner as the first and appeared to be more accurate with the rise of to the top spot, who many members noted to be superior than .
== v0.7 tier list 1 ==
The first v0.7 tier list was released on March 19, 2011. Because of the new character additions and balancing changes, several characters' positions changed, some drastically. ascended to the top of the list, while the previous top tiers, Sonic and Link, fell to B tier. The method for determining this list remained unchanged from the previous lists.
== v0.7 tier list 2 ==
Conceived on May 11, 2011, this tier list was the first to assign rankings for characters based on simulated tournaments rather than through the backroom voting system. Tournaments involved 128 random entrants in a single-elimination bracket where the outcome of each set was determined based on the matchup data generated for each character. The total number of 1st-place finishes for each character over approximately one million tournaments served as an unbiased and accurate way to formulate a tier list. As Kirby's fourth consecutive time placing in the bottom-most tier, said tier would be jokingly called the "Kirby n' Friends", whom Kirby shared alongside .
== v0.8b tier list ==
Because of technical issues, v0.8 was split into two versions, with the former of which never seeing a tier list. Eventually, v0.8b had its tier list released on July 12, 2012. As with the previous demo change, the characters' positions were once again shuffled. Kirby, for the first time ever, was not placed in his own tier, and Wario shot up to the number one spot. Conversely, Sonic would have his worst positioning yet, falling into Kirby Tier. This is the first time that a demo did not have a second tier list.
== v0.9a tier list ==
This is the first tier list released following the merge of the Back Room into the McLeodGaming Forums. This list saw the return of Sonic to the first position, which had not occurred since v0.6. Wario dropped to the 12th position while Ness fell drastically to 22nd. Ichigo dropped to C tier for the first time after having placed consistently within the A-B tiers since the first list. As with tradition, the bottom tier is referred to as "K". Peach occupied the last position for the first time.
== v0.9b tier list 1 ==
This list shows Meta Knight jumping up to first place and replacing Sonic. Sonic drops down to B tier. Peach and Link rise out of K tier, which is no longer going to be a tier in future lists. Peach rises to B tier, while Link rises to A tier. Sora drops to C tier, a place he has not been since the demo v0.8b list. Mega Man also drops to C tier. Lloyd finally rises to S tier and becomes a top tier character instead of his usual spot of being in the middle or close to the bottom. Black Mage rises to A tier and is no longer a mid or low tier for the first time. Goku remains in A tier, but drops to the bottom of it.
== v0.9b tier list 2 ==
This tier list reflects the change in the meta over the course of seven months, from mid-April to mid-November 2015. During this period, it became quickly apparent that the top four characters were notably better than the bottom two, which caused the latter two to fall out of S Tier. Zelda, Sheik, Goku, and DK jumped up quite a few places due to players discovering how to exploit their strongest, fastest, and most disjointed moves to their full potential. Bomberman made a significant jump mostly due to the antics of WRXJoey, returning to A Tier. Meanwhile, Black Mage, Yoshi, Captain Falcon, and Link were found to be unable to live up to their original expectations, and have thus fallen drastically, with all but Black Mage falling out of A Tier entirely. By far, the most significant rise was Mega Man, who rose nine places to enter into B Tier as a result of significant discoveries in his zoning/spacing game. Since April, Mario, Peach, Ness, Jigglypuff, and Sonic have all but stagnated in terms of character development, causing them to fall into C Tier. Sonic in particular has fallen seven places, giving him the worst drop of this tier list. With new innovations appearing in Chibi-Robo's game, Sora has taken his place as the worst character in the game.
Due to the large size of both A Tier and C Tier in relation to S Tier and B Tier, they have been split into A+/A Tier and C+/C Tier. As such, the gaps between A+/A Tier and C+/C Tier are considered to be notably smaller than the standard tier gaps.
== v0.9b tier list 3 ==
This is the third and final tier list for SSF2 v0.9b. It was created as a result of the dramatic shift in the game's meta over the course of a year. Most notable on this tier list is the introduction of Sheilda, which is based on a concept from the Brawl tier lists where Zelda and Sheik are ranked as a team in addition to their separate rankings. Other notable changes include Goku rising to top tier due to the likes of Proto, Zelda rising to just below Meta Knight, and the falls of Naruto, Yoshi, and Wario, with the latter becoming the new worst character in the game. This tier list is the first to not have an S tier since the very first list, as the Backroom believes that the cast is balanced well enough that there are no characters that excel at everything. Every character has some flaws that causes them to have at least one losing matchup.
== Beta 1.0 tier list 1 ==
This tier list was created to show the community what the Back Room thought about the metagame for revision 1.0.2. Beta caused a dramatic shift in the power balance of the game, along with some bizarre changes. The outright buffs and lack of nerfs to Fox and Goku cause them to rise to the top of the list, with other top tiers like Meta Knight and Lloyd being considered top and high tier respectively due to the gain in new options and buffs to previous options outweighing their minimal nerfs. Furthermore, certain characters who were in the top and high tiers, were only marginally nerfed, with the lowest placing 0.9b top tier being in the mid tier. Many other characters, most notably Mega Man, Samus, and Ichigo, were given such substantial improvements that they landed a spot in the top and high tiers, and many other 9b characters who were ranked lower down the list such as Link and Mario made significant jumps. Most notably, former bottom tier characters have moved out of the bottom tiers, such as Sora, Wario and Jigglypuff.
However, the changes to characters led to some characters dropping drastically. Zero Suit Samus, considered the 4th best character in 9b, is now the lowest ranking mid tier character in Beta. Additionally, characters in the borderline between high and mid tier in 9b, such as Black Mage, Naruto and Bomberman, received drastic nerfs which led to them falling into the low tiers. Additionally, some lower tier characters saw very little improvement and even drops in their standing with the cast. Kirby, a bottom tiered character in 0.9b, was nerfed to becoming the second worst character in the game, whilst Yoshi, another low tier character, became the worst after a series of nerfs. Chibi-Robo lost nearly all of his kill moves, which led to him remaining in the bottom tiers and Ness' changes leave him almost exactly where he was in 0.9b.
The debut of the newcomers was generally strong. Falco, Isaac, and Pit had a very strong debut, whilst Luffy, Bandana Dee and Sandbag debuted in the low tiers. The ability to place Sandbag was heavily debated due to his highly unorthodox nature as a joke character, so the placement will likely be more extensively scrutinised.
== Beta 1.0 tier list 2 ==
Beta's second tier list corresponds to revisions 1.0.3 and 1.0.3.2, which removed the transcendent priority on projectiles and attempted to universally improve multihits. Whilst most characters benefited from these changes, the change to multihits significantly impacted Pit's viability, as it weakened his punish game significantly. Elsewhere, characters who initially relied on strong, transcendent projectiles such as Isaac and Mega Man dropped due to a mix of this nerf and poor representation. Luigi, Wario and Luffy also notably fell as their issues with port priority became much more apparent in the recent patch. Further nerfs to the top characters, namely Fox, Goku and Sheik, led to them falling down the tier list. Bowser also notably fell due to some of his worst matchups being buffed.
However, lots of characters considered low tier in 1.0.2 made huge jumps up the tier list. Chibi-Robo and Yoshi jumped 20 places after buffs to their neutral, punish and in Yoshi's case, offstage games. Peach and Bomberman made large jumps and Tails shot up into his own tier at #1. DK and Marth made significant jumps and almost all of the bottom tier characters sans Naruto made it into either mid tier or higher. Sandbag's nature as a character has been analysed much further and the Back Room is now much more confident of his placing.
This was the final tier list to be produced by the Smash Flash Back Room, as Monte deleted its Discord server.
== Beta 1.1 tier list ==
The tier list for Beta 1.1 was released by the SSF2 Union on May 3, 2019. This update introduced one new character, , who would be ranked in D tier, mainly due to lacking in range, being extremely light, having a poor up-special recovery and being outclassed overall by Pikachu. Goku received multiple nerfs to his frame data and especially his recovery, placing him in D tier, his worst placement yet, and Mr. Game & Watch and Black Mage would fall to F tier. Due to the changes to port priority and a series of nerfs, Fox fell into his worse position yet, dropping 18 spots from A- tier to B- tier, and Tails, Lloyd, Marth, Samus, Ichigo & DK dropped from the top 6, especially DK, who received nerfs in one of his best moves and in his already poor recovery. 
On the other side of the coin, Zelda, Peach, Pikachu & Sheik would rise heavily to the top 4 spots. Luffy rose to the top of C tier, almost entirely due to the universal changes to grab priority. Wario, Pit & Kirby rose to B tier. Naruto and Luigi rose significantly from the bottom 2 spots after receiving buffs to their frame data, killpower, range and mobility. 
In retrospect and even at the time, however, a lot of players noted that this tier list was very inaccurate to 1.1 itself. Mainly, many argued that the bottom 2 characters, along with Pichu, Pit, and many others are ranked far too low, and that Sheik was not the best character in the game.
== Beta 1.3 tier list ==
The tier list for Beta 1.3.0 was released by the SSF2 Alliance on August 13, 2021. At the time of its publishing, Beta 1.3.0.1 had already been released, though the online servers for Beta 1.3.0 remained active until August 16 due to the Flash Summit 2 tournament occurring at that time.
== Beta 1.3.1 tier list ==
The tier list for Beta 1.3.1.2 was released by the SSF2 Alliance on November 24, 2022. This list introduced the S+, S-, B+, B-, and D- tiers to spread characters out more. Notable changes include Ness's drop from #33 to #44, Donkey Kong's drop from #10 to #39, Gokus rise from #41 to #35, Bowsers drop from #22 to #35, Sandbags rise from #45 to #32, Naruto's drop from #19 to #30, Pikachu's drop from #15 to #29, Peach's drop from #12 to #25, Marth's rise from #37 to #21, Falco's drop from #1 to #19, Mr. Game & Watch's rise from #28 to #18, Black Mage's rise from #34 to #17, Ryu's drop from #5 to #16, Meta Knight's drop from #3 to #15, Samus's rise from #24 to #14, Sheik's drop from #2 to #12, Simon's rise from #21 to #10, Rayman's rise from #38 to #8, Sora's rise from #20 to #6, Lloyd's rise from #13 to #3, and last but not least Link rising from #7 to #1.
== See also ==
*List of tier lists for Super Smash Flash
*Tier list
Tier lists for Super Smash Flash 2
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Category:Competitive play
Category:Super Smash Flash 2
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