January 2023 SSBM Tier List 

bold decision to put all the characters in D tier, claiming that all players are "bad"

It's crazy how far Peach has fallen without Armada as a rep. That man made Peach-Fox match-up look unwinnable for Fox.

Mekk wants to make it happen with ganon now. I think he's crazy but I would love to be proven wrong

I agree with these twelve characters being the only ones on the tier list, that said, Franz makes me want to dream. I think Doc is a natural 13th if there were ever going to be one. If someone as dedicated as Amsa pushes for a character, I think there are still many possibilities.

"Fox at Number 1 is a lock, for the rest of eternity." Never has such a close-minded statement been so completely correct and incontestable.

Far into the distant future: The year is 20eggseggs. Yoshi has finally reached the S-Tier in a Hax tier list video beside Fox and Falco (the only other two viable characters). Everyone grinds 30 hours a day. Far gone are the years of gaining an advantage via superior controller motherboards like Goomwaves. The new meta is who has gotten the best reconstructive hand surgery. Closer and closer are we getting to the idea that sets are essentially only won by games of rock paper scissors. Leffen still complains to this day, however, the content of his ramblings has changed. His main gripe is about the RPS meta being rock, claiming that "I would've won of it weren't for unbalanced mechanics!" Melee isn't even played on Slippi or in-person anymore. President Elon Musk 3000 has successfully installed Melee into every person's brain on the planet and we are now able to play through the nation-wide free wireless internet. Every time we play melee, our dopamine receptors are forcibly fired. This was Elon 3000's secret plan to advance the Melee meta to what it is today. 9/10 people are addicted to Melee. We don't need to eat or sleep anymore with contemporary scientific breakthroughs & there's nothing else to do besides play Melee. One's status in society is solely based on rank in Melee. The dark, decrepit alleyways are filled with bronze Falcon, Marth, and Sheik players, sickly and pale. Silver through high diamond is filled with Jigglypuffs. The reason for this is because many Fox and Falco players just quit the match because they don't want to waste their time playing against that low-tier. The decadent and ornate homes across the way are assigned to each of the top 200 players. 199 of those 200 players are spacies. Foxes and Falcos playing to speedy TAS levels of perfection. The one and only character that isn't an intergalatic animal is aMSa's iconic red Yoshi. For this reason alone, Hax had no choice but to include aMSa and his crimson dino in the upper echelon; alongside the Corneria Boys.

Last time solo Yoshi won a major was 2022. Last time solo Sheik won a major was 2004.

it's crazy how far Yoshi has come, thank you based aMSa

I was just wondering why Ganondorf is in the very middle of the tiers. Before I get into what I mean, allow me to first put out there that I have been playing for years, and I have watched MANY videos of the tournament masters. My brother and I found out, through years of play, literally EVERY advanced technique in the game, except the wavedash, which we stumbled upon, but wrote off as simply hilarious. I was surprised to find that all the wacky observations we have encountered and adapted are actually defined in the glossary in the sticky topic above! Three of the particularly surprising terms that I could not believe had been widely known and utilized were the Phantom Hit (I just thought I had a glitchy game) and that effect where recovering at the right time from attacks that sent you flying results in an upward boost if you jump out/air dodge/whatever early enough (I cannot remember what it was called in the sticky), and the waveland. Now, I have been using Ganondorf against my brother lately, and he cannot seem to beat me. We think we know why, and we think it puts Ganon at the top of the tiers. I will be brief. Ganondorf has his air forward. We call it 'The Punch.' It has that special hitbox like a sword, hence it goes right through anything except an attack with that same type of hitbox. It does 17% max, is relatively fast executing, has basically instant recovery on a barrier cancel, and is quite massive, killing at rather low percentages. If he misses, he can just do his A punch if the opponent tries to retaliate, or shield/roll. I am telling you, Ganondorf is a crazy meat mountain who crushes bones with many attacks doing 15+%, survives to insane damages thanks to his weight, and has ridiculous horizontal recovery (Double Jump, Ganondorf Kick Down B, ANOTHER Double Jump, ARE YOU SERIOUS, Up B). Next, check his roll. It goes like half screen. It makes him rather fast, nearly eliminating his speed problem on the ground, and a great character when it comes to the defensive game. It pretty much eliminates the need for his wavedash, which, with Ganondorf, who needs to do most of his attacking from hops, is pretty much useless already unless you are looking to smash attack. Wavesmashing, however, in my opinion, is also a bad idea, because, in the time and damage it takes you to actually land a smash, you could have just used The Punch and killed you opponent by then. Even though he has to fight mostly in the air, 3 of his 4 air attacks are pretty fast, and are quite massive. A major advantage he has is that nearly all his attacks move the opponent considerably, and can topple him from 0%, so his opponent gets little to no counterattack opportunity. The only explanation I can find for why he is low on the tiers is that no one has used him seriously. I think he really keeps up, if not tops, the top tier characters. I really do not like to simply shoot my mouth, and I am not one who thinks it right to shower a character in encomium, and never actually prove anything. Is there online for this somewhere, or is that simply wishful thinking? If not, please do not yell at me and stuff until you at least check out The Punch. Goes right through projectiles, goes right through attacks, goes right through faces. Please just give Ganondorf another shot and tell me what you thnk. Final Comment: People have a tendency to think that posts from newcomers to a board but veterans of its respective game are saying they are better than everyone else, regardles of what the post actually says. Please note that I did not say 'I am better than you' or 'Ganon is better than Fox.' I said, essentially: 'Ganon seems to be great. These are his strengths. He may top Fox. Check him out and see if you agree.' I will say, however, that I am a full master of Ganondorf. Please give Ganondorf a second look before responding so you know where I am coming from!

Me: (nowhere near even mid level competitive play) "hmmm yes, I agree with the melee man. mmmhmm. I concur."

Feel like doc could squeeze in but only time will tell

I predict that Doc will crack the C tier on Hax's next tier list, possibly also DK depending on how Ringler and the other top DKs do in 2023

i'd be curious to hear your reasoning as to why doc specifically is in a distinctly lower tier than luigi

Though this was the first tier list, SmashBoards was rife with discussion about tiers long before the Melee Back Room released its "MBR Tier Averages". The term "F/F/S" (short for "Falco, Fox and Sheik") was popular as a quick reference to Melee's top tier. Members on Smashboards, perhaps in backlash against novice sentiment towards Roy and Link, generally disdained those characters, and generally favored the game's fastest characters. Members on Smashboards largely contested this tier list's placement of Mewtwo, which they felt to be too low. Many Smashboarders considered Mewtwo a low- or even middle-tier character and were bothered that it, despite its great recovery and powerful throws, was placed at the bottom of the tier list, where most people believed Bowser or Pichu belonged.

For 3 of Hax's tier lists now, I've been thinking "This seems close, but Yoshi > Puff for sure.", and for 3 tier lists, I've been watching Yoshi go up. I guess aMSa hasn't pulled off enough sick parries and stored power shields yet, then Hax will agree with my sick theory. For proof, go watch aMSa stall out Hbox on Dream Land at BH10. The only winning stage Puff has is FD, and Yoshi clearly has better S tier match ups. Also, I don't think Yoshi > Peach is controversial, llod has been saying it for a long time.

Yoshi is also the only character who can timeout puff

So because I'm at a point where I hate serious Melee tier lists -- I think the placements are very settled by now -- I skipped to the end. Then I saw Puff's placement being where I once put her, so my first thought was, "Which of us is smoking weed?"

I still find it incredibly funny that Hax$ didn't even bother to put ganon on the tier list, and then proceeded to lose to Mekk in bracket

What do you think about characters like Dr. Mario and DK? Franz has decent success with the character, so I don't know if I'd call him borderline unplayable at top level. Same with Ringler.

Always love seeing the updates as your thoughts change, keep em coming!

i sure hope ganon makes it on the next list! hax knows a lot about ganon

The fact that a few years back, we had yoshi down there with gannon, is… look I’m just saying… c’monnn mannn Kirby ain’t that bad!

Real ones remember when Hax was saying Yoshi has room to go up the teir list in the future.

Fantastic video as always. I did want to ask if you ever plan on making a theoretical TAS-tier list? I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on all the characters at theoretical level and if Yoshi winds up being top 2 or top 1 in the game. Plus it would be a very fun video for content, I don't think anyone has ever discussed it on RU-vid at all.

Feel very similar, and loved the explanation for why. I think you hit the nail on the head, especially for those characters that are borderline. I am holding out for Doc though. I have a soft spot for him but also I just can't look at Luigi and say he's a better character or has more potential than Doc.

Tier list are always how good the players are with a character rather then how good is an actual character.

The only problem 1.3 has is it's not stealthy for streams. If commentators are in fear of mentioning UCF, I don't see them putting a whole mod on stream.

I agree with this overall, except I think Peach could rise higher, and I think that the meta for certain relatively unexplored characters has potential to change in a way similar to that of Amsa's Yoshi.

Pretty much fully agree except dk and doc are in the same tier as samus and luigi

"What if yoshi was the 7th?" -You in twitter dms in June of 2020 You literally predicted this lol

I've always thought that Fox, Falco, and Marth should be considered to have no losing match-up. They go roughly even against each other, and at least on a theoretical level, all three have all the tools required to dominate all other characters.

I like the differentiation for the splits

Hax$=🐐

We need an Abate comeback. His Luigi made headlines. I think Luigi is a fun choice but he’s understandably not great, I used to think that of Yoshi too so anything is possible.

We should ask an AI algorithm to order the next tier list

tbh c tier may as well have doc and stuff in it, i don't think samus and luigi are much better than them

Obligatory Luigi Comment: I would have liked to have seen you expound upon Luigi's match-ups against higher characters in this video. I don't disagree with you assertion that a solo Luigi can't win a Major, but I am curious why you think that. The only matchup I feel that Luigi SIGNIFICANTLY loses is into Marth. Shiek and Falcon also feel disadvantageous, but not unwinnable. Luigi feels about even into the rest (+- 10%). Peach, ICs, and Puff feel sided toward Luigi, Yoshi, Fox, and Pikachu feel about even, and Falco/Samus feel like a loss. I'm by no means a good player (I'm a Luigi main), but I think there is a lot of nuance to the character that has yet to be explored. It's not like he doesn't have the stats: he has 13-15 galint LDs, is only slower than Falcon's Dash while wavedashing, has a 3-frame nair that kills strong and confirms weak, NILs and PlatCancels on almost all of his aerials (INCLUDING nair), and chaingrabs/DI-mixups on 2 of the 3 best characters in the game. I am glad he's on this list (RIP Doc stans), I just hate that his perceived weaknesses discourage serious discussion about his specific matchup viability I guess.

2:25 Not sure if you'd ever be up to discussing more in-depth what the "super theoretical end-game" for Falco would be. But I'd love to hear your thoughts on it and maybe what you think current pros could be implementing to close that gap 👍🏼

I'd add Doc to C, but the order is correct imo. Mid-tier Peach is hilarious. Armada is our one true mid-tier hero.

With the amount of tournies that jiggs has won it just doesn’t make sense for her to be at 6th.

I'm just some scrub on the internet but in my opinion the recency bias is pretty strong here. I would say Peach and Yoshi belong in B. It's too early to say for sure with Yoshi if he should be in A or not, if amsa can keep posting results for another year then maybe we should discuss Yoshi being in A. Climbers, Pika, and maybe Samus belong in C. Peach is so clearly a stronger pick than them that they shouldn't make B. And Luigi doesn't really matter.

Overall a nice list besides the Yoshi placement. I do think Yoshi should be in the top of B tier. My argument is that Amsa's success is giving a recency bias. People are forgetting how good Armada was with peach and putting Yoshi an entire tier above Peach is kinda sus. Armada had a ton of solo Peach success until some top players properly learned the MU and I do believe yoshi is in the same situation right now. I do understand your point that Yoshi goes into A tier because he is "solo winning tournaments," but I truly believe if people learnt the mu Yoshi will have a VERY hard time. Getting past a 6-4 losing matchup against Fox, Falcon, and Sheik is rough. There is also the 55-45 losing Mu's of puff, pikachu, and peach to boot. No other A tier character has 6 bad (55-45 or worse) matchups.

Hot take: Plup is to aMSa what Hungrybox is to lloD, a bracket demon in a borderline unwinnable matchup. The only reason that Yoshi is above Peach right now is because of Plup’s low attendance, lloD’s low attendance, and other Sheik’s (namely Jmook’s) poor performance vs aMSa when compared against Plup. Peach (at least theoretically) is still better than Yoshi. I do agree that Yoshi is still in the same tier though.

I would like to see what happens with link after aklo wins Redemption Rumble

I wanna see an evolution of your tier lists as a video

I actually almost completely agree with this list. The only thing I would change is putting Falco above Marth and putting Pikachu above the Ice Climbers. I think Falco is better than Marth because I believe Falco being dominant into Captain Falcon is more valuable than Marth being dominant into Jigglypuff. I think Pikachu is better than the Ice Climbers because Pikachu's matchup spread is far more balanced (his worst matchup is maybe 35:65 whereas the Ice Climbers have multiple matchups that are worse)

so hype seeing this in recommended i checked my sound settings BEFORE starting it

I think it's more accurate to say that your tier list lines up with results as opposed to the other way around as you were saying at the end of the video. That's a fine way to do a tier list, but I felt like the distinction needed to be stated. This is a tier list based off of results more than theory. You included some theory, but it wasn't the backbone to the list.

I think saying pikachu has near unwinnable matchups vs icies/peach is slightly misplaced. 2-1 vs llod, 1-0 vs slug. Small sample, but when all three of them are equal in player skill level, saying they’re horrible matchups just isnt really backed up by much of anything

Doc is better than Luigi but yall ain't ready for that yet

Im sorry but jigglypuff is above falcon the game relased on that version thats the intended version not 1.03 thats like saying pichu is top tier in ultimate because people play on a prior version of 3.1 instead of the new version. The intended version and what the game is relased on is not 1.03 i dont agree with that.

Doc, Gannon and DK (YL if you're be really generous) have a chance of eventually making C tier in the future.

You're being delusional, just because armada don't play anymore don't make the character peach worse. You're being bias af, you have to defend this list even if Amsa stops playing. The 2:nd best peach is WAY better than... oh yeah right there is no one else than Amsa. I win against the 2:nd best yoshi in the world

Great tier list thanks hax

Samus is god tier in 30XX

Its honestly sad to see peach be put in B tier. I'm still holding out hope that triff and lloD can win a major with solo peach

Curious what you think about amsa believing that yoshi beats falco and marth (the two characters you argue have no losing matchups), Is that just over-optimistic? If he's right does that put fox in a tier of his own?

Great points , but you’re sleeping on Doc, DK and Link

stating the top 3 have no losing mus is crack insane.

Hope you reconsider Link eventually

The reason you’re putting Yoshi above Peach is because of aMSa, and that’s it. aMSa took Yoshi to another level, but I guarantee you if Armada still dominated with Peach, you would’ve kept Peach in the A tier above Yoshi. Just because one player took a character to new levels, doesn’t necessarily mean it should pass other specific characters, simply because there isn’t solid representation @ the moment (such as with Peach).

Why do we base tier lists off of being able to win a super major and not just overall character matchups in the last 30 days? I feel like there are enough variables in super major competition that we wouldn't get the whole picture. I would imagine kill-confirm percentages would become the "He gets on base!" of generic matchups.

Time to put Ganon in C tier

Hax your list looks great and love your reasoning, except perhaps ICs and Pikachu. Pikachu has only 3 really rough matchups whereas ICs have Peach, Puff, basically all the top tiers and even Samus/Ganon are problems... Is a character with a host of 70/30 matchups really better than a character with three 80/20s?

Peach is held back due to a bad wave-dash and run/dash speed

My prediction for year 2025: S- Fox, Falco, Marth A- Yoshi, Sheik, Puff, Falcon B- IC’s, Peach, Pika, Luigi C- Samus, Doc, Link

Fairly confident that sheik is gonna keep falling on the tier lists. Tech chasing 0-100% gets worse as other characters punishes improves.

*Puff not in the top 4. *Leffen has left the chat.

Yoshi is definitely better than peach and almsa's hands at this current state. I'm not sure if he's better than Falcon though.

great list

given the improvement on characters like doc, dk and leffens mewtwo, I think its a disservice to leave them completely out of the tier list. Sure they may rank all the lowest, but they are by no means less viable than some of the other mid tiers like luigi and yoshi. Yoshi is only big cuz of amsa, minor successes from some others but no one else is even close. If someone actually put in the experience they could utilize their strengths much more. Ringler is doing amazing things with DK, Leffen with Mewtwo, and Mang0/franz with doc. The ranking is close, but I think its nuts that after aMSa is finally putting up major wins that we are counting out other roster rejects. There is definitely potential.

Peach main here-100% agree with your notion on where she stands relative to the other characters. Have been telling friends in the community for a while that it simply just feels super oppressive playing against literally any high tier character. Still love her to death but it honestly feels like she's really mediocre compared to most of the dominant cast.

frankly i think luigi is cheeks and would drop him off the list

The year is 20EggEgg

Interesting list, and Yoshi having no bad matchups is a good point. However, it's pretty wild saying that there's "no chance of samus or luigi ever winning a major in melee's lifespan" at the same time as even Leffen's mewtwo is wrecking top players in Europe and definitely looks viable for getting a major win in the future.

marth doesnt lose to pikachu or yoshi anymore?

Yoshi has been a theoretical S tier masquerading as a mid tier for years. But I think optimizing him is the most difficult out of the tournament viable characters which is why from a human standpoint, he's top tier though not quite S tier. If there were more Yoshi mains in the top 100, you could maybe argue him for even higher on your list but the learning curve is currently too steep. Perhaps as new players join the scene, some of them will outright choose to main Yoshi and they'll be starting from a better place of knowledge because of Amsa. It also helps that Yoshi has no truly terrible match up. He can hang with any of the other characters. However, I think you have Puff rated too low and despite your criteria, solo Sheik hasn't won a major in almost 20 years. Puff should be the highest in A tier.

We need DK

franz out here beating fiction and kodorin and making top 16 of majors and doc's still not relevant huh lol

You're saying Falco doesn't lose to Jiggs lol?

hey hax can I pay you to coach me at dr mario? I promise to spend countless hours fully dedicated to the craft of advancing my mans as long as you will also help me focus them in such a way that doc can reach his right place of #1 over foxmcfraud on the communities sham tierlist

I disagree with one point of your tier list as according to your list: Character A loses to Puff, Icies, and Fox but can be argued to beat Marth, Falco, Falcon, Yoshi and Peach Character B loses to Puff, Icies and Peach but can be argued to beat Marth, Falco, Falcon, and does better vs Fox than character A If your tier list argues character strength based on how well they do vs these top 12 characters with a bias towards beating the S tiers, then why is there such a gap between Sheik #4 (Character A) and Pikachu #10 (Character B). I think its because you are overrating Peach. Unlike Pikachu, Peach can't be argued to win a single S tier matchup and only can be argued to win one A tier matchup which is Yoshi. Next we must bring up the fact that neither Pikachu nor Peach are solo viable as they both have an unwinnable matchup which leads to them having to pick up a secondary Fox. In a tournament setting, switching between Pikachu and Fox is easier due to how similar they play compared to Peach and Fox. Lastly unlike Peach, Pikachu has utility as a secondary for existing S tier and A tier mains to deal with toxic stages, toxic matchups, or both vs the S tier matchups. Off the top of my head Falco mains getting counterpicked to FD by Fox; Falcon mains getting counterpicked to Fountain by Fox and Falco; and the obvious Fox, Falco, and Falcon players being able to use Pikachu vs Marth in general. On Peach's end, any utility she would have as a secondary is easily accomplished by other characters above her like Fox or Puff.

Leffen about to bring up Mewtwo as well what I time to play melee

bless

I love Yoshi he is my favorite all time character he and Knuckles but let's be real.... he isnt that high Amsa is just cracked

A Link just won a major tournament like two weeks ago lmao! Super talented people who put in the work are winning with low tiers! Yoshi ISN'T GOOD! AMSA IS A GOD!

Someone needs to pull Samus out of the cryo pod. She's been pretty asleep since Plup and Duck dropped her.

would you be able to make one for doubles or is that too difficult?

Falcon over Jiggly? No way Other than that good list.

This is one of the more sane things I've seen from hax

I feel like Peach should be in A tier, personally.

C'mon you're saying Marth doesn't have a rough matchup vs. Shiek, Pika, and Falcon also? And even Jiggs and Yoshi to some extent. Marth is best against spacies.

Where is ganon? You’ve literally lost to Mekk in the last year

Falco loses to Fox, Marth and Puff. People can dispute the last one as they tend to do, but lets see actual results to show it's a winning matchup. 2013 was a decade ago, and in that time, Hbox has ate Falco's for breakfast. Mango went Falco in all of 2018 and won 1 pools set vs him (and got eliminated by him later). Marth and Fox clearly superior too. He's 4th, maybe even in a tier of his own (considering how bad Fox and Puff beat Sheik, and how bad they beat Falcon too - note that both can beat Marth and maybe do).

Why does no one put fox and Marth in S tier alone. Clearly they're just different than the rest of the entire cast. Falcos lasers are broken but not S tier worthy. Edit: Doc, DK and Mewtwo are also going to be in the pool of viability soon I feel. Mewtwo being the most untapped character in melee IMO.

p much a perfect tier list placement more or less. Luigi is a bit overestimated imo, as I played the character when i picked the game up and slowly let go of Luigi as ppl learned the mu more. Luigi just eventually hits a hard wall where u just start thinking "man i can't do ANYTHING about this" cuz Luigi is only good at ground speed and stealing combos. Everything else just sucks, and it hits you in the face as you go against better ppl.

What is a super optimal Falco explain that in detail. I'm curious.

I think you forgot some characters…

“Every faulty mechanic fixed” you mean the game? Stop trying to push software and hardware changes because it’s hard to be consistent without them. Melee is no longer Melee.

what do you mean puff is the best charecter in the game