If some random player came out tomorrow and started winning 6 tourneys in a row with Raphael, we'd see tons of people start preaching about how "Raphael was secretly top tier the whole time" or "Raphael has to be moved up the tier list a few places due to so-and-so's performance" when the character's tools haven't been changed at all.
there are reasons because that won t happen....
there are 2 facts that some players ignore but is really wrong:
Some characters (see those you never see placing in tournaments and many of them) lacks fast mid threats.
Considering damage output, in scV in some matchup you can literally gamble crouching to avoid high because you don t risk that much if opponent doesn t have a fast mid that deals serious damage. (risk 20 to deal 120 seems good to me).
Some characters have almost only lows and highs mixups/threats :| (raph on his side suffers also steps so its really difficult to win if you have 1 out of 4 chances to deal few damage and risk to whiff paying half bar :|)
Second thing, this game is made of broken moves....every character has them....even bottom tiers.
Instead of balancing old scIV system they gave most character broken BE, CE and moves in general (for example imho raph CE is horrible broken*....being raph bad, most people don t notice that).
Also i think when link (or whoever was i forgot it) won with Ivy, watching vids, was clear that it wasn t due to the character brokenness.
Also:
What this game needs is a serious damage nerf for most characters, nobody should be able to win a round by guessing correctly 3 times , like NM or Mitsu.
In fact asta can win guessing correctly only 2 times :D
*see i12 backstep, Tech Crouch, slightly tracking mid...
P.S. a note for astaroth players that ask for lows...
The mixup is MID/throws
If people stand you can THROW, if people crouch you go MID and asta for sure has plenty (also low throws).
He doesn t need lows (despite having a couple that are not bad that should be 3A and 1K i i remember the commands).