This list is only my opinion and open for discussion. Obviously players that have placed well in tournaments should be given special consideration. There are a few characters that I don’t know of any great players. Would appreciate everyone’s opinion whether you agree or disagree. Thanks
Abel: Juicebox
Adon: Gamerbee
Akuma: Infiltration
Balrog: PR Balrog
Blanka: T SRai
Cammy: Xiaohai
Chun Li: ???
Cody: Momochi
C. Viper: Latif
Dan: Ixion 90
Dee Jay: ???
Dhalsim: YHC-mochi
Dudley: ??? (I don’t think Marn should be included b/c he doesn’t play much anymore)
E. Honda: Mike Ross
El Fuerte: Lori
Evil Ryu: Sako
Fei Long: Fudo
Gen: Amiyu
Gouken: Infiltration
Guile: Dieminion
Guy: Phero
Hakan: Infiltration
Ibuki: Sako
Juri: Juicebox
Ken: Momochi
M. Bison: Neurosis
Makato: Haitani
Oni: ???
Rose: Luffy
Rufus: Justin Wong
Ryu: Daigo
Sagat: Bonchan
Sakura: Humanbomb
Seth: Poongko
T.Hawk:
Vega: Reiketsu or Chris King
Yang: Nemo
Yun: Kazunoko
Zangief: Snake Eyez
Chun Li is ViVi.
Oni is Wao.
Thawk is Kojikog
Momochi doesn’t really play Cody anymore except for casuals so I’d put Sasaki there.
Juicebox doesn’t play AE2012 anymore so I’d pretty much take him out entirely.
Gen is still probably Xian even after the Daigo beatdown the other day.
Hakan is Eiba as Infiltration’s Hakan isn’t particularly good but not bad either.
Guy is probably Kiryu
El Fuerte is either Iori or iPeru both are extremely strong.
Honda is most certainly NOT Mike Ross (though he is the most fun honda to watch.)
Ebi knows more cheap stuff, that´s why I would say his Hakan is better than Infiltration, however Infiltration is in terms of player skill the strongest out there. Also Ebi isn´t bad at tournaments either(he is mostly the carry of his team/Top 8 SBO 2012/won even a singles cup)
Still Infiltration was great against:https://twitter.com/ebiumino/status/356631551037018112
, who had matchup knowledge: https://twitter.com/KelvinsHouse/status/356641410289639425
Anyway, it is a bit hard to decide, for certain characters, who the best player is, since some characters are really rare on high level.
Some names, who are also really good with their characters, not necessary the best one, but still really good.
Abel: Nekojita
Blanka: NISHIKIN, also MIZOTERU and Taku
Cody: Sasaki lost the status of the top ranked Cody in the arcades btw
Dan: stormKubo
Dhalsim: Torimeshi(my favorite Sim player), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CagccmMugpw
Dudley: Kuroken
Guy: Marq Teddy maybe?
M.Bison :Dogura is also really good
Marq Teddy is working his way up there for damn sure. I don’t think he has made it quite to the level of Kiryu or NoxNox (whatever happened to him? I guess it’s hard to go to majors when you live in Kuwait. His Guy is/was godly though. Hope he still plays.)
Sasaki is still IMO the best Cody. He isn’t the #1 ranked but there was plenty of times Momochi wasn’t #1 ranked either as Cody but was still the best. One issue is that (like Hakan) there isn’t exactly a lot of top level Cody players who stuck with the character. Many abandoned ship for stronger or more consistent characters like Ken/Cammy/Sakura/Evil Ryu/Fei.
BJUnchained has been getting a lot better but he is no where near Momochi/Sasaki level yet. Harrison is always a treat to watch but again he isn’t on the same level as the top japanese Codys.
Dhalsim it’s probably YHC Mochi still IMO. But there are a number of good Dhalsims in Japan. Such a hard character to do well with in tournaments though due to many of his worst matchups being characters commonly used in tournaments. In addition he is very prone to counter picks.
I agree about Dogura’s Bison. I’d say he is just as good as Neurosis. I’d say that Ixion and Stormkubo are about equal. I’d love to see Ixion get sponsored and start going to non-euro majors more.
I REALLY feel that Infiltrations Hakan is average BUT Infiltration HIMSELF is an incredible player who can make damn near any character work because his fundamentals, reaction time, and reads are all so good it makes up for it. Ebi is def the better HAKAN but Infiltration is just the better PLAYER all around.
I’d also say ACE EIRIN/Blue Emblem is a better Guile than Dieminion, although its hard to really say if its the case because he never goes to tournaments.
Online yes ACE is amazing, but offline on tournament gameplay lvl Guile players like Dieminion, Nuckledu, Yazu and ISD are better.
Just for instance GameOuttttt has always been a very strong online Guile player, but once he did enter a tournament he didn’t make it far.
IIRC he lost all his matches to MOV and another Ibuki player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a1pANxaKZQ
Well, there is footage of him in 2013. As being from Kuwait, he also needs a Visa, time and the money to enter tournaments in the US, Europe or Japan for example.
Many characters suffer from this problem tbh. While Kimo from Norcal is really good with Hakan and also became much better with him[Defeated German Luger[Claw], loses against LuckyD[Sim -.-]] at EVO and went 6-2 this year, last year it was 0-2 as far as I know), he can´t or doesn´t travel to tournaments outside of NorCal, besides Evo of course, he is in terms of player skill far away from the top players. Then there is team EG, 2-3 of them play Rufus, they are belonging to the top players in the US . It isn´t like that there aren´t any Hakan´s players out there, just none of them can really travel or are the top players, then I don´t need to wonder, why certain characters aren´t successful at high level.
Glad to see Nox still plays. I remember that Daigo actually said once that he was the best Guy player he’d ever fought which is a pretty big complement given the strength of some of the Guy players in Japan.
Kawaguuchi is the best Rose player. I respect Luffy for being so damn competitive with a character like Rose (he places pretty high in tourneys) but Kawaguuchi is still more insane.
It’s the skill displayed, not the tournament placement, that matters. I think there are a number of Guiles that are on a higher level than Dieminion…honestly Dieminion’s Guile lacks the creativity, innovation and execution of many Guiles out there, such as Yazu and Aceirin.
I think Momochi is still the best Cody. Sasaki is really strong but Momochi is on a higher level mentally.
The best Juri is Younashi…but man there is this amazing Japanese Juri online named Lutuna(I think). This guy amazes me the most.