Tier list

Among the Brawl community, it is common for distinguished groups (such as the Smashboards Back Room) to create Tier lists, rankings of a character's potential in tournaments. The Smashboards tier list is generally seen as the "official" tier list, though many other groups have created their own.

Smashboards tier list
Samus Luigi OLimar

Criticism of tier lists
There are many people in the Smash Bros. community who disagree with the idea of tier lists. They believe that all characters in the series are relatively balanced in ability. Such people are known as "Anti-tierists". A common argument against anti-tierism is that it is extremely difficult to perfectly balance a cast as diverse as that in Super Smash Bros. Also, tier list has no relevance with the original strength of the characters. For example, Sonic is stronger than Pikachu, Bowser is stronger than Donkey Kong and Mewtwo is the strongest Pokemon. But in tier list, it is shown just the opposite.