Match-ups
Matchups are a calculation of a character fighting another character with different types of strategies and advantages. For example, Meta Knight with Snake, Meta Knight can easily combo Snake and can KO with just a few attacks, giving Meta Knight a 55 with Snake. Out of all the characters, Link is the most unusual since he has 45 with Snake and this can cause Link to switch in the tier list, possibly a lot.
In SSB
In Super Smash Bros, there are no match-ups but there is a percentage table in the Records file, and when you choose your character, you will see percentages in a table below the character,deciding the character match-up. This is the only Smash game where the tier list does not decide the match-ups. For example, Link is a bottom tier character but if you know how to use him, his match-up with Pikachu is in the 90%, giving him a high match-up with Pikachu.
In SSBM
This is where the match-ups start appearing. In this game, the match-ups are heavily decided by strategies. Sheik is chosen 1st in the tier list mostly because of her strategies with most characters in the game but in the final tier chart, she lost to Fox because of his more powerful potential and strategy. This may be because Fox's fast falling speed and very quick attacks(making him easier to combo characters)make him more dangerous then Sheik. This reason may cause Link to be placed higher in tier then in Super Smash Bros. and in Brawl.
In SSBB
In Brawl, match-ups are very different and are based off the metagame of the characters. Ganondorf is the worst character because he is terrible in comboing and this is because of his very slow speed and this caused his metagame to decrease strongly. The same happen to Captain Falcon but not because of his comboing loss, but because of the hitstun and extreme loss of priority. Out of all the F tier, Link has the highest priority (along with Jigglypuff) and his metagame is below average and his match-ups with characters are somewhat below average (especially with Snake). Because of this, Link is the most tier supporting character along with Captain Falcon.
Trivia
- Sonic's match-ups are somewhat strange because of his unusual skills and strategies.
- Yoshi is the only character where his match-ups are completely unknown.