Template:Simon and Richter in competitive play (SSBU)
Use this template to store information relevant to the metagame of Simon and Richter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Simon players (SSBU); Category:Richter players (SSBU)
- Noxumbra - The best Belmont player in Europe. His 4th place at Ultimate WANTED 3 is considered one of the best tournament runs of the character, beating top players such as eMass and Homika. He was ranked as high as 22nd in the country during the OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse Europe ranking.
- Riddles - The best Belmont player during 2019. His 13th place finish at Super Smash Con 2019 remains the highest solo placement for the character at a supermajor and has beaten Dabuz and Scend. He was also the first Belmont player to place on a global power ranking with his 47th on the Fall 2019 PGRU. He switched off the character after Terry's release and now mains him and Kazuya.
- T3 DOM - The current best Belmont player in the world. He has been the only Belmont player to reach the same peaks with the character, having major placements of 13th at Glitch - Infinite and 17th at Double Down 2022 and is the only other Belmont player to be comparably ranked internationally with 60th on the UltRank 2022.
- TRIGGER - The best Belmont player in Japan. He is one of the only players to have represented Simon throughout the whole game's lifespan. He has made multiple top 64s at supermajors, with 33rd at Kagaribi 5 and EVO Japan 2020, marking some of the best Simon results in the meta.
- YoseFu - The best Simon player in the United States. He managed to place 9th and beat MuteAce at CEO 2023 and also placed 25th and beat KEN at Mainstage 2022, the latter being the best solo Simon result at a supermajor. He was also one of the most active Belmont players online during the pandemic, placing in the Area 51 section on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v6.
Tier placement and history
When the game was released in December 2018, Simon and Richter attracted interest due to their unique attributes, including extremely long reach, an array of powerful projectiles, and ledge trapping potential; many players initially viewed the Belmonts as a high tier, or potentially a top tier character because of their spacing and zoning ability allowing them to play an effective defensive game. Simon and Richter were also notable counterpicks against certain characters, such as Olimar, that struggled with their range and keep away game. During the early stages of the metagame, the Belmonts were relatively popular characters, with Riddles being their highest level representative. However, their weaknesses were soon discovered to be perhaps too significant to overcome, most notably a notoriously poor recovery due to short-distance recovery moves with mediocre protection that left them severely vulnerable to gimping, but they also suffered from significant KOing inconsistency, mediocre frame data, vast difficulty in hitting agile small characters with their attacks predominantly having thin hitboxes, and very poor all-around mobility. Thus, most of their playerbase, including Riddles, eventually dropped them for other characters and their results fell off as a result. Because of this, the consensus about the Belmonts shifted, with most players viewing them as mid tier or low tier characters.
During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Belmont playerbase experienced a small resurgence, with players such as T3 DOM, Noxumbra and TRIGGER rising to prominence with decent results both online and offline. The Belmonts have also received buffs in update 9.0.0. However, these buffs made little to no impact in fixing the main weaknesses of the characters, ultimately leaving them placing 68th on the first tier list and falling to 74th on the second and current tier list.