Any "pros" care to start throwing out guesses as to which characters will be top tier? This doesn't really matter to me, as i will never be playing professionally. But i'm always curious to see what people do with the game on a professional level. It's fun to watch.

I'm more curious about the new characters. But feel free to comment on the others as well.

Sagat is still king. Akuma, Ruy, Balrog and Viper are pretty good too. There is probably a list out there somewhere, seeing as this has been out some time in arcades.

edit:
Tougeki Damashii:

S +

Sagat, Viper, Akuma, Zangief

S

Ryu, Balrog, Rufus, Blanka

A
Chun li, M. Bison, Ken, Dhalsim, Abel, Honda, El Fuerte

B
Vega, Guile

Dan.

"Dan."

"Sagat is still king. Akuma, Ruy, Balrog and Viper are pretty good too. There is probably a list out there somewhere, seeing as this has been out some time in arcades.

edit:
Tougeki Damashii:

S +

Sagat, Viper, Akuma, Zangief

S

Ryu, Balrog, Rufus, Blanka

A
Chun li, M. Bison, Ken, Dhalsim, Abel, Honda, El Fuerte

B
Vega, Guile
"

I don't understand how Ryu is better the Ken... I always play better with him, seeing as how his attacks are more aggressive.

I've never understood tiers.

I mean, if you are playing on that high of a level you already know who you are playing because you have been a Street Fighter player forever.

If you care about tiers so much just go look up the Street Fighter II list.

I guarantee you it won't be much different when some douche eventually decides to erect one for Street Fighter IV; ruining the game for the rest of time.

The list I posted is from the arcade game, so no Dan (or Fei Long, but he's just as shitty as Vega :\)
And Tier lists aren't as ostensibly useless as they might seem taken at face value. Tier lists are basically complied from probability from match-ups. So player skill is always the defining difference, but the tiers just show a rudimentary probability of who's the underdog and such. No need to give it too much though, just something to keep in the back of your mind when people rape you up the ass with Sagat.

"brent_kukost said:

"Sagat is still king. Akuma, Ruy, Balrog and Viper are pretty good too. There is probably a list out there somewhere, seeing as this has been out some time in arcades.

edit:
Tougeki Damashii:

S +

Sagat, Viper, Akuma, Zangief

S

Ryu, Balrog, Rufus, Blanka

A
Chun li, M. Bison, Ken, Dhalsim, Abel, Honda, El Fuerte

B
Vega, Guile
"

El Fuerte as an A character??? Really? I would atick El Futre below dhalsm and blanka and switch rufus and ken, thats just me. Plus dans not on that list, tsk tsk :P"

Complete SF4 console version charater ranking list from 2CH Japan:

S
Gouken, Sagat

A
Ryu, Zangief, Seth, Sakura

B
Chun-Li, Blanka, Ken, Akuma, M. Bison, Balrog, Cammy, Rufus, Fei Long

C
E. Honda, El Fuerte, Dhalsim, Vega, C. Viper, Abel, Gen

D
Guile, Rose, Dan

Rose is not that bad. I kick ass with her online.