MK had no high level player during Apex, he got top 15 at CEO and top 20 at EVO. Both was by Tyrant who didn't use his Diddy at all, just MK.
Why do you think Kirby is top tier? I really wanna know.
The moment 90% of Smash players struggled to do basic SRK inputs(even though Sakurai made it easier to pull off) was the moment i knew Ryu was in for a bumpy ride.
Excerpt from a 20-paragraph thing explainig Kirby.
The first thing I'll say is Throws. They are amazing. His down throw and forward throws are good combo starters. His back throw and Up throw are great at KOing, and he has one of the best and fastest Pummels in the game. All of them rack up damage and half of the, have great KO Power, and another one is great for comboing. Only one is useless. That is rare in this game. Kirby is differant. They are an essential part of his metagame and are greatly good.
Another great thing about Kirby is his air combat. NONE of his air attacks are useless. You will be in the air a lot as Kirby. His neutral air is good for comboing, and has good KO Power. It is a good Combo starter.However, it has ending lag. But it doesn't matter too much, due to its good KO Power.His up air has GREAT KO power, and is good to end a combo. His down air is great for starting a combo,and using an up tilt on the opponent. It also can do a lot of damage. His forward air is good for comboing, and getting damage on an opponent. It also has good KOing power. His back air has NO Startup, starting VERY quickly. When you hit with it, it has AMAZING KO power. It has a GREAT chance of killing. It is a GREAT move. Kirby has one of the best air games.
He has good tilts, as well. His side tilt... Isn't impressive. I guess it could be used to get an opponet away from you. His down tilt can trip opponents and is good for edgeguarding, and to make things not predictable. But most important is his up tilt. It is GREAT for comboing, and is a perfect move. it has good damage, can start combos (Such as U-tilt to D-air), or keep it going after a down air. It has good damage, can sometimes KO, Start an up air, or....... Just do anything, I guess.
And, speaking of comboing, he is GREAT at comboing. He can start a combo from down air, neutral air, a throw (Mainly down), or an up tilt. And they're all really good at doing a combo, which can end with a KO move and do a lot of damage during the combo. His combos can also finish with his Final Cutter custom (3 I think, don't remember what number. It's the one that cuts once, then leaves you helpless as you fall down).
Those are his great strengths. Except for one thing - I'll Mention that later. For now.....
I want to mention everything in this, so I'll mention Jab now. His Jab is a jab locking type. And it's really good; You can't escape it until you get out of range, which takes long enough to get the final hit on the opponent. It also does a great amount of damage. His dash attack seems good too. It has good damage, some (but still little) KO Power. That's it. Amazing right? Not.
His Smashes are pretty good, too, but not as good as his Up tilt, Up B Custom, Air attacks, throws or comboing. Better than jab and dash attack too, I just mentioned them because I want to mention every attack. His up Smash has great KO Power and great upwards range. His down smash is good for gimping, and has some good KO power. His best one, however, is his forward smash. It's a great attack. GREAT KO Power, A lot of damage, and equal range to other characters (Lol that's supposed to be good for Kirby, more of that later.)
He also has good specials. His Hammer (Side-B) Has GREAT KO power, GREAT damage.... and both endlag and startup. Yeah..... I did say his specials are only good. There is a hammer custom that helps this, but it still has some startup, and can't be charged. Oh yeah, there's a risk with charging a hammer (It most likely will make you miss and make you lose a ton of damage while walking it around, since it damages yourself when fully charged and still being held). His Stone move is good for getting back onto the ground....... but that's for glory. OTHERWISE, It can KO VERY well if you time its usage correctly. Although it's rare. Final Cutter is fairly good for recovery (Well vertical, but recovery will be mentioned later), and can sometimes be used for KOing. However his Up-B Custom (The one that does one hit up, and sends you down helpless) is a GREAT finisher and has great KO power.
There is one I didn't mention yet. Inhale. Amazing without customs, thrice great with. Without customs, He stands in place opens his mouth, and eats a character. If you hit B again to spit him out (A spits an opponent out. Only do that on walf-offs, oh wait,everyone hates walf-offs), Try to use it again. It's somebody else's Neutral Special. For example, if you inhale me, You turn into a physcho, like me right now. Normal, then Physcho now. ANYWAY.......... You can use the other's neutral special. It's useless sometimes, Great others. Now customs is thrice better, because some characters aren't worth Inhaling. His second custom is called Ice Breath. Freezes an opponent instead of copying their abilitys. Good for characters like Bowser Jr. and Jigglypuff, where neutral specials aren't good. Freezing is a great power to have. Another greast Power is stealing good neutral specials. If they have a GOOD neutral special *cough* shulk *cough* fox *cough* then The Jumping inhale is good, same as inhale, but you jump after it, giving you more recovery, and making Kirbycides ten times easier. More recovery is always good.
Speaking of recovery, it's pretty good without customs. Six Jumps, and a Final Cutter, Fairly good vertictially, but great horzintatly, although not Jigglypuff-like, since Kirby has less air speed. He gets a new recovery option for horzintatel with Jumping Inhale with customs, though, and his vertictial recovery is higher with up special custom I mentioned muitiple times but don't know the name of number of. With customs, he has great recovery.
Also, each character has start-up and end lag. Honestly, half of his moves have startup and/or ending lag, and the rest don't. I mentioned it if the lag is bad, and mean something. That can't have its own paragraph. So i'll say his speed too. Not that good. Not bad. Not good. For the ground at least. I don't know how his air speed compares to everyone else. But I do know his ground speed is average.
Also, his matchup spread. It's..... GREAT!!!! He has an even matchup aganist Sheik, Advantageous matchups aganist Fox and Zero Suit Samus, some even saying Kirby's one of Zero Suit Samus's worst matchups, and some even say his matchup aganist Rosalina is even or in Kirby's favor!! His only horribly bad matchup is Yoshi, as well, everything is 40:60 or better.Middle tiers never have matchups like that. Which is proof. That Kirby is good.
However, each character has a weakness, except for the very best. Kirby's is range. His range is terrible. A LOT of his moves have bad range, and the ones that don't still are only average or slightly good. He also can have trouble starting combos too occasionally due to this. But honestly. This is the only. only. only. ONLY. ONLY REASON. that people think he's middle tier. But that isn't bad enough to warrant that. He'd need way more weaknesses than that. Much more. Look at videos. He does fine, still, customs or no customs. Yet, only three people use him in major tournaments. He is HORRIBLY under-Representated and underated. A top tier - and almost never used. Zero even said Kirby is potentionally top tier with customs, but can't place him there in his tier list because of low representation. Wow. Is he that underated to the point where Zero can't place him to his potentntial? Yup. He is.
