Name (aka Handle):
Bowler
How old are you?:
16
Which characters do you play in SSF2? Why do you play these characters? (Note: do not list characters that are not currently in the game):
I've played everyone a decent amount but I'm definitely the best with Sheik and play her in tourneys. She's fun, fast, has nice combos, good edgegaurding, and was easy to pick up so she stuck when I was looking for a main. I also have a pretty good Kirby and Pikachu when i'm not feeling like playing Sheik.

How much experience do you have with official Smash titles? (SSB64, Melee, Brawl. Include in this answer which characters you play/played.):
I play Melee on netplay occasionally but i've never entered anything for it (other then small school things). I like all the smash games (at least from a spectator view) but I definitely play the most SSF2 and Melee. I mostly play Fox and Falco in Melee.
I've also played a little PM with friends but not that much.

Have you ever attended any Smash tournaments? If so, give some details about the tournament (number of participants, which games, etc). How well did you place?
When I first started playing SSF2 in late 2015 to early 2016 I entered a lot of tournaments. Recently i've been waiting for the release of SSF2 Beta to really enter any tournaments. The tournaments I did enter for SSF2, usually had about 10-30 people, and I usually place 7-4th. i'll leave my challonge just in case : http://challonge.com/users/jadeneck

When did you start playing SSF2?
Joined the IRC Chat and started playing competitively in June 2015
What is your favorite stage in SSF2? Explain.
Tower of Salvation is my go to stage. Music never gets old, visuals aren't annoying or distracting, and it really grew on me over time since it's the map people tend to play the most online (next to smashville).
Who, in your opinion, should be placed first on the SSF2 tier list? Under competitive settings why would this character perform on a higher level than all others?
Zelda. I'd say it's a pretty close call between Zelda and Metaknight, but I lean more towards Zelda. Her recoveries amazing, kill powers insane with all of her aerials besides nair, smash attacks, and even some of her tilts. I suppose her biggest weakness would be her speed but I don't think it cripples her nearly enough to stop her from being the best. she also destroys floaties like puff and kirby with early kill moves like up air and back air. Not to mention she has a really good kill throw with backthrow.

Who, in your opinion, should be placed last on the SSF2 tier list? Under competitive settings why would this character perform on a lower level than all others?
I'd say Wario, although Sora and Chibi are pretty close. Wario feels really underwhelming, with lack of reliable kill moves, and not great approach options, it's really hard to do well in the majority of match ups with Wario. he tends to get out ranged by projectiles and disjoints and then easily edgegaurded with his somewhat linear recovery. He has some strengths, such as his waft, and decent combo game with his aerials, but his weakness's overshadow them. It's possible I would put Wario higher if he had more representation and more data on how good he really could be, but with such limited high level Wario play and his extreme weakness's i'd say he's the worst in the game and hasn't proven himself otherwise.
If you could make only one change to SSF2 as it currently is, what would it be and why?
While it wouldn't be a significant change, I would make it so you can limit online rooms to 2 people matchs (instead of the deafult 4), it would just be a nice quality of life change.
What is your view on items in competitive play?
I'd like to avoid RNG as much as possible in a competitive fighting game, especially when that RNG is so significant as to decide an entire match on just because a good item spawns next to you. I believe items should always be turned off.
Do you have or can you download Skype? You don't need a mic or webcam.
I have skype, but I would prefer to use discord.
Why do you want to join the Smash Flash Back Room? What will you contribute? Why are you an exceptional applicant? Be as detailed as possible.
I've played SSF2 a lot, like almost everyday, and it's a really fun game. But I also have a lot of experience with it and I think it would be fun to be in the BR and talk discuss SSF2 related things, such as a standard stage list and a tier list. I also know a lot of random and obscure tech with a lot of characters.
Additional information (Include in this section anything relevant to your application. This could include links to videos of yourself playing.)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsreoF1uF2ZUCvJ6KqmnDgw

Three nasty, but interesting questions.

1) By how much is tournament representation a factor in determining character viability and by how much should it be?

2) Furthermore, if representation was not taken into account, which character's tier position would benefit the most from this? Please give detailed reasons.

3) If you had to buff Sheik to make her the best character in the game, but not overpowered, how would you go about doing this? Give detail.

EDIT: That original first question sucked.

1. Well since you mean tournament representation as in tournament placings (which are usually two different distinct things), I think that tournament placings can greatly affect a character's perceived strength in the right scenario. A character who is consistently placing well at tournaments with multiple players playing this character can show that a character is stronger than originally perceived, or if 1 player is good enough with a character, they can truly change a tier list with their play and knowledge of a character. In Melee this is most obvious with Axe and aMSa, whose characters were both considered significantly worse than how they are now. Yoshi was usually ranked in the bottom tiers, alongside Roy and Mewtwo, but after aMSa was able to consistently place well with yoshi and show his true potential, he was able to show people that yoshi is a much more viable character, through his tournament performance and knowledge of the character. So I believe it is important to consider tournament placings when looking at how good a character really is. Now i’m not saying you should only consider tournament placings, but I do think they are important to an extent. However in 9b, the player base is smaller, so it’s harder to really know how accurate these placings are, but the point still stands that tournament placings can affect how good a character is considered.

2. If representation wasn’t taken into consideration, characters who have not proven themselves to be as good as they are considered and have a lot of “potential” would benefit the most. Characters such as Yoshi, Ness, and Peach would be some examples of this, and I think the most notable of those is Yoshi. Similarly to smash 4, Yoshi is a fairly good character when you look at him, however he doesn’t have much top level representation or good placings that support this. There are hardly any top level yoshi’s (or yoshi’s at all) in 0.9B that have shown he is as good as thought to be. To even further prove this point, if you look at the previous 0.9B tier lists you can see yoshi’s original high placing (9th best in the game originally) and it’s slow descent down (now 22nd best in the game, huge drop). This was also the case in smash 4 due to lack of tournament placings and representation to show how good yoshi really is.

3. This is actually a really cool question. The first thing I’d need to do is have a clear idea of sheiks strengths, weaknesses, and what she needs to be better than she already is, Without making her unbeatable or to strong. Sheik doesn’t have major flaws or weaknesses as she currently is, she’s a very well rounded character, with a decent recovery, great combo game, fast speed, and good edgeguarding. To top it all off she has a very good projectile in neutral. However one of her bigger weaknesses is killing people on stage without edgeguarding, this is a bigger problem against characters who have safer (and harder to edgeguard) recoveries, such as Meta Knight, ZSS, and Zelda. One way I could go about buffing this, is giving her a more reliable kill set up at high %’s from grabs. In melee, sheik has downthrow forward air, which kills most characters at high percent. However in SSF2, at higher percents it’s harder for sheik to confirm kills on stage. To buff this and make her stronger I would give her a better down throw to confirm kills with, similar to melee and PM. This wouldn’t necessarily make her broken, but it would make her much much stronger, and potentially one of the best in the game, giving her an easier way to kill from on stage. It’s hard to really know if she would be the best in the game from this change, but this is what I would do to buff Sheik as she is.

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