So Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition is out, non-binary ex-bosses and all. And one of Asia’s top SFV players has dished out his own tier list after months of play.

RZR|Xian said on a OneEsports piece that this version of Street Fighter 5 is the most balanced so far. He added in obvious top-tier folks like M.Bison (Dictator), Urien, and Rashid, but also makes a case for middle-tier fighters like Birdie, Sakura, and Lucia.

He also mentioned that guys like Falke, F.A.N.G (his previous main character before Ibuki), and Alex are still reserving their spot at the lowest part of this tier food chain. The fact that there’s no S+ character prove that there is no single overpowered character with a bad matchup at all.

Regardless, the list is viable and is a good reference point to see how your main stacks up in the new and ever-growing SF meta. Let’s break it down, complete with Xian’s quotes. Tiermaker pic at the bottom.

S-

• Urien
• M.Bison
• Chun-Li
• Rashid
• Kolin

“Each of these characters has a strong V-Trigger, a good neutral game, and very few bad matchups. Disclaimer: Chun-Li is here because everyone says she’s top-tier right now. She has the tools to remain there.”

A+

• Ibuki
• Akuma
• Necalli
• Abigail
• Laura
• G
• Zeku
• Guile

“The majority of the fighters here were either Season 4 top tier material with new nerfs, or characters with significant buffs. Despite Ibuki’s nerfs, her V-Skill 2 opens up an entirely new playstyle worthy for tournament play. You’ll definitely be seeing some surprises from myself when the next Capcom Pro Tour starts!”

A-

• Blanka
• Birdie
• Poison
• Kage
• Karin
• Cody
• Karin
• Cammy
• R.Mika
• Ed
• Gill
• Lucia
• Sakura
• Zangief
• Menat
• Vega
• Balrog
• Ken
• Juri

“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. 

Honourable mentions should go to Cody and Poison. These two have a lot of potential to climb higher up the tier list as time goes by. R.Mika is still annoying due to all of her 50-50 mixups; however, she’s not good enough to go up to A+.

B

• Ryu
• Nash
• Falke
• Sagat
• F.A.N.G
• Dhalsim
• Alex
• E.Honda

“Good luck winning a tournament playing any one of these guys. You’ll never know though; miracles do happen!”

Do check out the rest of his insights here.