image credit: Arc System Works illustration by Kenta Asano
Before showing the tierlist, a small introduction will be necessary to explain what it represents, and the method used to achieve it. There will also be some reading keys, to explain some unusual thirds for the genre.
Methodology used
During the Strive Cup which took place throughout the month of February, the results of each match were scored based on the characters. Later in the article, the individual statistics of each character will be given to you in the form of tables. Based on the different results, a trend was found for almost every one of them (except Baiken and Anji which were not played). At the same time, tournaments in other regions were watched to adjust the trend and check if top tiers were dominating elsewhere, and if characters with good stats but too few matches for a viable sample were performing elsewhere in the game. world. The stats were also smoothed by the popularity and status of the character in the rest of the world. For example, Giovanna has mediocre stats but one main Giovanna (TY) won the ARCREVO Japan and Korea, while a second hand Gio made top 6. There is also a Giovanna qualified for the USA finals of the ARCREVO America, so the Brazilian (and Rei!) have been re-evaluated a bit. On the other hand, Happy Chaos has the best stats in the tournament (in terms of win percentage), but was released quite recently, and hasn’t been played very much at the highest level yet. He is therefore down a third compared to his stats, to avoid getting too excited, even if his evolution on the professional scene will be to be watched. On the other hand, a single player performing with the character (like Daru I-No with the guitarist, or Kazunoko with Jack-O) was not enough to bring him up, in this case, the player was considered the exception confirming the rule.
Other important details, the Strive Cup took place online. It’s not impossible that the tierlist would have been a bit different in an offline environment, allowing for better player reaction. Even if Strive’s online is excellent, there is still a certain ping between players who are very far apart geographically, which can hinder certain reactions. The general popularity of the characters was also taken into account. For example Sol is known to be very strong since the game was released, so each of the players knows the match up well, while a match up against Faust is certainly less mastered for the majority of them. Finally, this tierlist takes into account the highest European level, it should not be considered as a guide to climb the ladder easily. You can still use it for this purpose, but then also take into account the difficulty of mastering certain characters. Last thing, it was chosen to use a particular notation for the tierlist, for the simple reason that all the characters of Guilty Gear except three of them (Millia, Anji and Baiken which was just released) have at least one player who qualified them in one of the regional finals. Rating the “bad” ones as A is one way characters stay viable, they just have fewer broken tools than their competition, but are still fully playable at the highest level. Despite no stats, Anji went to buff me plz, the character was there Day1, and no one is actually performing with him, so he probably needs a boost.
Individual stats per character on the Strive Cup
Just for information, the scores taken for the mirrors are not exact. Since this would necessarily lead to a tie, they are used to indicate the number of mirror matches that there have been per character. For example for Sol, there is 1-1, which means that there was a mirror match in the competition, and it does not matter if it was a 3-0 or a 3-2, since the percentage would remain a 50%. Besides, we didn’t take mirrors into account in the total stats, to avoid lowering or increasing them with additional matches.
Sol Badguy
Ky Kiske
Nagoriyuki
Leo Whitefang
Chipp Zanuff
Axl Low
Potemkin
Ramlethal Valentine
Giovanna
I-No
Zato
May
Faust
Happy Chaos
Jack O Valentine
Millia Rage
Goldlewis Dickinson
Baiken
Taking advantage of Baiken’s release, Arc System Works made a very small patch for Guilty Gear Strive. However, not everything works as expected, and a fix has been announced.
esports
The finals of Guilty Gear Strive’s official circuit, the ARCREVO 2021, for the EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) region will take place on the 1st weekend of March 2022. Arc System Works has chosen to organize them in France. Find all the information, schedules, dates, streams, players and results.