The tiers in this list were split into groups: Top (S) High (A, B) Middle (C, D, E) Low (F, G), and Bottom (H, I, J).
A follow-up article was released on February 16, 2016, offering further explanation on the voting process, as well as insight from the Back Room about specific characters. In accordance with the most common tournament rulesets, custom special moves were not taken into account, with the Mii Fighters and Palutena assumed to be restricted to their default movesets. It was based on votes from 53 high-level players, most of them Back Room members. This is the first tier list released by the Smash 4 Back Room. First tier list (February 1, 2016) Super Smash Bros.
