With Street Fighter V: Champion Edition releasing this week, I thought I’d share my current tier list along with some thoughts on why I put certain characters where they are.

S+

I haven’t put any characters in the S+ category. In my opinion, this category is reserved for characters that do not have a single bad matchup, and I don’t think that’s true for any character in Season 5.

S-

These are the strongest characters in the game right now. Each of them has a strong V-Trigger, good neutral game, and very few bad matchups. Okay disclaimer time: Chun Li is only here because everyone says she’s top tier right now. Personally I’ve yet to see her power in action, but she definitely has the tools to belong here.

A+

Most of these guys were either top tier in Season 4, but got nerfed down a bit, or characters that got strong buffs. You’ll notice I put my own main, Ibuki, here, despite the nerfs she got this season. Despite the nerfs, I think her V-Skill 2 actually opens up a new playstyle for her, and puts her in a good position. That’s all I’ll say for now, because I’ve got to save some surprises for when the CPT starts!

A-

This is basically a list of characters that everybody likes to use as their secondary. Most of the top players will be able to fall back on one of these characters to cover any bad matchups on their main.

Most of them are pretty good overall, and some are really strong in certain matchups.

Honorable mentions go to Cody and poison. In my opinion, these two have a lot of potential to climb higher up the tier list as time goes by and people work out everything they’re capable of.

Mika is still a really annoying matchup due to all of her 50-50 mixups, but she’s not good enough to go up to A+.

B

Big shoutout to these guys. Other than Nash and Ryu in Season 1, these guys have basically all been stuck here forever. They say the rich get richer, well, in that case, these guys have to be the poorest in the game.

Good luck winning a tournament playing just one of these guys, although you never know, miracles do happen.

Final thoughts

Generally, I feel pretty confident saying most tournaments will be won this year by S- or A+ characters.

However, I will say that this is probably the most balanced SFV has ever been. I wouldn’t put any characters in S+ or C tier, and the gap between everyone is actually pretty close.

I also think with all of the new V-skill 2 moves, we’ll see some new tech develop which may move characters up or down as time goes by.