The ratio system
Owing to the many years of a solidified "top tier" meta in competitive MVC2 centered around extremely strong teams an alternative set of rules for team building has risen known as "ratios". In general it works like this: Each player has a point budget they may spend on the team of 3 characters to select before gameplay. Strong characters cost the most points while weaker characters cost less points usually divided by cost groups.
The cost groups are generally designed to make it impossible to pick a team of 3 top tier characters, and incentivize carefully picking characters that are considered weaker without risking an entire team on the survival of a single strong character and two other comparatively useless characters.
The first appearance of a ratio chart for MvC2 appears to be Shaowebb's graphic from 2018. Shaowebb's approach makes a unique decision to allow a player an additional point if Roll is on the team (meaning her cost is -1 or +1 to the player's budget). The concept took off in popularity following Justin Wong's proposed system on March 16, 2021.
Justin Wong's system
Considered the "standard" by the MVC2 community and most popular variant. This system allocates 7 points to each player and divides characters into the following groups:
- 5 points: Cable, Iron Man, Magneto, Sentinel, Spiral, Storm.
- 4 points: Blackheart, Cammy, Captain Commando, Cyclops, Dhalsim, Doctor Doom, Psylocke, Strider, Tron Bonne, War Machine.
- 3 points: Colossus, Guile, Jill, Juggernaut, Mega Man, Omega Red, Rogue, Ruby Heart, Silver Samurai, Silver Surfer.
- 2 points: Akuma, Anakaris, B.B. Hood, Charlie, Felicia, Gambit, Hulk, Jin, Ken, M. Bison, Marrow, Morrigan, Ryu, Sabretooth, Sakura, SonSon, Spider-Man, Thanos., Venom, Zangief.
- 1 point: Amingo, Captain America, Chun-Li,, Dan, Hayato, Servbot, Shuma-Gorath, and both Wolverine variants.
- 0 points: Roll.
This system makes it impossible to pick more than one of the characters considered "God" or "Top" tiers while positioning Roll as the "empty" or "useless" pick. One observation about this spread is that many tier lists place Wolverine much higher in traditional tiers than his companions in the 1 point group. A mod has been created to enforce the rules of this system on the Character Select screen for the arcade version.
Shaowebb's system
The first public record of this ratio system is in a tweet from 2018.
This is the system that appears in Justin Wong's Youtube video where he enters an online tournament using a ratio system. Though Justin claims Roll was counted at 0 points for that tournament, the original system places her at -1 cost but kept everything else from this graphic. This system allocates 7 points to each player and divides characters into the following groups:
- 5 points: Cable, Cyclops, Doctor Doom, Magneto, Sentinel, Storm.
- 4 points: Dhalsim, Strider, Psylocke, War Machine, Spiral, Tron Bonne, Iron Man, Blackheart, Captain Commando.
- 3 points: Anakaris, Cammy, Colossus, Gambit, Guile, Juggernaut, Marrow, Mega Man, Omega Red, Rogue, Ruby Heart, Silver Samurai, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Venom and both Wolverine variants.
- 2 points: Akuma, B.B. Hood, Captain America, Charlie, Felicia, Hulk, Jill, Jin, Ken, M. Bison, Morrigan, Ryu, Sakura, SonSon, Zangief.
- 1 point: Amingo, Chun-Li, Dan, Hayato, Sabretooth, Servbot, Shuma-Gorath, Thanos.
- -1 point: Roll.
- This means that if you pick Roll, you are given an extra point instead. In this configuration you can do otherwise impossible teams such as Sentinel, Juggernaut and Roll (8 points).
