It’s kinda sad that J.Wong has to tell people about Zero but he’s also the same guy that had to tell people about Wolverine I guess. Which was legitimate since at the time people didn’t really consider how strong left/right mix ups would be in this game and how an invincible berserker slash was probably going on the best special move in fighting game history.
This is not like that though because plenty of people on SRK argued Zero’s dominance before J.Wong even said anything in Ultimate.** He only brought this shit up about Zero a week ago when people were talking about it for months in Vanilla. He’s just finally realizing what others have been saying SINCE VANILLA.**
It’s not like some shit he just popped off with like Super SFIV Adon or Vanilla Wolvie (wrong about Adon, almost correct about Wolvie if he didn’t say number 1 is Wolvie). Whether Zero is number 1 or not is arguable and could probably be arguable forever but nobody else right now that I can see in this game has a better chance of being the best at controlling matchups in this game than Zero on point lathered with good assists. It’s just going to be really consuming for every other character eventually.
One of my friends who talks with J.Wong regularly has always told me that J.Wong never thought that Iron Fist was actually that good and just picks him for the asian thing. He’s never said anything about Iron Fist being gdlk. From what I know he simply has just said that Iron fist is a fun, average character that fits the characters he likes to play. People would have blown up J.Wong a long time ago if he said something like “OMG Iron Fist is top tier”. Iron Fist does come with a really slept on solid assist though despite how good or not good people think he is on point. Part of why his assist is so good probably has to do with purposely limiting him on point any way.
The only thing I see immediately holding Zero back now is the loss of invincible assist but that’s just something Zero players are going to have to get over since he basically got even more tools to cover himself without an assist. He’s just the type of character that’s going to eventually get to the point where he shuts down most of the shit in the game that doesn’t lame out at the top of the screen. If your character has to fight around regular jump space to win…eventually it’s going to be good fucking luck start of round vs. Zero. The only way to reliably beat Zero at close range is to force him to block something but he can put hit boxes on screen way too often for that to be anything more than like fishing.
Right now Zero players get beat by poke fishing but, it’s just going to be too easy for some high level Zero player to play Zero to an effectiveness where he doesn’t get hit by attack/throw fishing start of round.
Talking about how he requires effort just isn’t good enough. In every fighting game there’s always that 3S Yun or GG Eddie that takes work but once somebody good puts them together…every other character in the game has problems. Even his bad matchups (certain lame out type characters) if he has any can never really be that bad because if he closes the gap he’s basically top tier vs. everybody any way. That’s definite sign of character that will eventually dominate the game when they have a position they can be in against pretty much the entire cast and it’s always favorable for them.
There are too many other characters that require work and are just not as cheap as Zero. They have decent strong things that can kill Zero off if they hit him but in reality Zero is just going to have way too many bases covered in the future that top players will take advantage of. Just like Vanilla it’s only a matter of time.
The only thing you guys really seem worried about is people jumping the bandwagon with Zero online…which is typical forum/stream monster problem stuff. Just gonna have to get over that one. While I was playing Super SFIV anytime a weird character did well or won a tournament (Fei Long, Adon, Guile etc). the next hour the forum was flooded with 730 something viewers for that character. Sure people rocked them online for a while but that’s not really the problem with Zero at all. The problem with Zero in general is not really that big of a deal outside of the highest level of play any ways. Wolverine and Wesker will always be bigger problems at lower levels of play simply because they are more accessible characters.
Just like how Ken was the most effective character at lower levels of play in 3rd Strike back in the day. Chun Li was probably easier to play overall than Ken minus having to build meter for her but Ken just had more random shit you could throw out if you weren’t that good. In 3S Yun of course dominated the game and won most tournaments in the US (well also Chun) but the level of play required to make Yun top tier was something above anything Zero has to do in this game to dominate the game any way. The average US player just did not pick Yun period but everyone knew how stupid he was. Mainly because the top level US players that did main him pretty much took control of tournaments for the game. You could probably argue that Zero isn’t a great US character but those types of characters never end up not controlling the game eventually by smart players.
**What I like about Marvel though is that no matter how cheap Wesker, Wolverine, Zero, Dorm, Doom or any other higher tier character gets…they’re still only one character and overall you have to make a team cheap to really matter anyway. It’s almost like a forced balance if anything. **
**Honestly…who cares if Zero becomes number 1 or 2 or 3 in the game? **
There’s always some character that’s the best and if it’s like Vanilla it’ll probably just be some guy that uses solid fundamentals and uses almost none of the shit you guys post in this thread to win a big major(s). Flocker placed within top 32 at Evo and won Seasons Beatings almost using none of the stuff you guys posted in this thread any way. Whoever becomes the Flocker (or better) of Ultimate is most likely just going to show people that Zero’s tools once he enters a certain range just do way too good a job of shutting everyone else down with solid assists.
Long as you have fun playing the character who cares what tier he is or who bandwagons? If the character is fun play him to the best of your ability and screw the rest. He doesn’t have to be of a certain tier or certain popularity for you to appreciate him.
