The Reason Mortal Kombat's Sheeva Has Been A Controversial Character For Competitions
Mortal Kombat has been about splashing buckets of blood onto players' screens since 1992. Designers Ed Boon, John Tobias, Paulo Garcia, and John Edwards pooled their talents together with other developers to produce the most violent fighting game of all time. And over the years, Mortal Kombat has evolved by offering improved visuals, game changing mechanics, the addition of weapons, and so much more. While the series' story may be a bit hard to follow for some, it still manages to be interesting enough to keep fans invested.
On a competitive level, top fighting game community members battle for top honors in Mortal Kombat games. Currently, Mortal Kombat 11 is currently the title delivering the most intense competition among a flood of quality players. Popular competitors such as SonicFox, Ninjakilla_212, and A F0XY Grampa regularly beat each other to a digital pulp in MK 11. But back in 2011, a reboot of Mortal Kombat released and brought the franchise back to mainstream prominence.
One character in 2011's Mortal Kombat was not considered a worthy choice for competitive play, however. That combatant just so happened to be the lady Shokan warrior, Sheeva.
Sheeva had some issues in the Mortal Kombat reboot
Fighting game players usually refer to ever-evolving "tier lists" for their fighters of choice. In the case of 2011's Mortal Kombat, one of the more definitive tier lists compiled by fighting game website EventHubs listedthe game's roster in its entirety from strongest to weakest. And at the very bottom of that list was Sheeva.
According to a video by TrueUnderDawgGaming, there was a big reason for her disappointingly low ranking. Applying her skillset during casual play against friends was a good move to make since she was capable of landing useful Frame Traps and powerful overhead attacks. But most players of the game passed over her when it came time to hop into a pro set of matches where money and pride were both on the line.
When pitted against much of the game's roster, Sheeva was unable to string together many of her combos due to her having unavoidable hitbox issues. Even the Frame Traps pro players relied on were unusable against several top-tier roster members due to that hitbox error. Sheeva was rarely seen during high-level tournament play for 2011's Mortal Kombat due to that alone.
Thankfully, it appears that Sheeva's return in Mortal Kombat 11 has made her a more viable option for pro players. According to another EventHubs tier list made specifically for that game, she sits at the 18th position on a list of 34 characters.