So Guilty Gear Xrd Version 1.10 comes out tomorrow, and I felt inspired to write this after seeing some random tier discussions on my timeline. I have posted many of the notable character rankings made for this game before, and there should also be a compilation topic on Dustloop. Anyway, the most recent is Woshige’s tier list for the console version, which is the only one that has Leo somewhere. As usual, there is no difference in ranking going horizontally.
S Zato Millia Faust Ramlethal Elphelt
A Sol Ky Chipp I-No
B May Venom Bedman Sin Axl Leo Potemkin Slayer

Most other lists are fairly similar. I’ve noticed for a while now that the accepted rankings are quite different from the raw matchup data. Just like Accent Core Plus R and many other arcade games, Xrd has a player card system that tracks every player’s wins and losses. These win/loss statistics are then compiled and displayed as a national matchup diagram every time an Xrd cab is idle. The official Player’s Guild Website also has the data, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the actual chart. You only get to see the overall data. You might be able to see the actual chart if you catch a recent arcade GGXrd stream and just wait for the cab to go into Attract Mode. As I’m writing this, it is currently:
Venom 71.9
Faust 70.7
Zato 70.1
Ky 65.4
Sol 65.1
I-No 65
May 64.6
Slayer 64.1
Axl 64.1
Potemkin 63.6
Ramlethal 63.5
Bedman 61.4
Chipp 60.5
Millia 60

Yeah, lots of differences. The biggest discrepancy is probably Millia. Xrd is the only arcade game I’ve seen where a supposed top tier character has the worst global win/loss statistics. It’s not even like the +R Baiken situation, where there was only one high ranked player with the character. Millia is quite popular in Xrd as the usage statistics show, and she is the character who has the most representation in the top 20 PSR players list.

The obvious first explanation is that despite her strength, her extremely low defense modifier makes it very difficult for people to be consistent with her. This also explains why Chipp is right behind her in the stats.

You could also argue that it is because the global stats include data from EVERY player. Like I mentioned earlier, Millia is one of the most frequently played characters in arcade Xrd, much more than in previous games as her Xrd visual redesign is quite popular and her learning curve has been decreased significantly. So a lot of random players and beginners would play her and bring down her win/loss statistics. Of course, this doesn’t explain why Sol and Ky are still so high up…

Then there is Venom, who is generally considered to be an ok character in Xrd. He is at the top of the raw matchup chart, and I would say that the main reason for this is because he is a complex character. Venom is a charge character, which is already a turnoff for many players, and he is one of the more difficult characters in the game. So, in the arcade environment where you have to pay money to play, most of the people who pick Venom are people who are serious with the game. A beginner or someone who is playing GG for the first time is more likely to pick someone like Sol, Ky, or Slayer instead of Venom. You might recall a similar thing happened in the tier post that I wrote for AC+R. In that game, Justice, who is widely regarded as one of the weakest characters, was at the top of the matchup chart for much of the same reasons. She is not a character who gets picked frequently by beginners: most of her players are people who actually know how to play the game.

Anyway, that was just some food for thought. I am pretty interested to see how Version 1.10 will change things.