I was always baffled by the fact that it never got huge pot bonuses like the other games did.
The whole trend of massive pot bonuses by companies kinda started after the game started waning. Besides who was going to provide pot bonuses for the game, Capcom and Disney? Please, Capcom didn't even put the game into the CPT yet tried it with SFXT one time.
Back to TODs, I think there is some incorrect stigma to it when related to Marvel (or 3 v 3 games). In some cases, TODs are fine like when you are spending XF or 3-4 meter into a combo. That's a lot of resources on one character that can hurt you in the long run. It's similar to KOF13 where you could dump a ton of resources if you wanted to in order to kill a character.
The subject of TOD becomes sketchy when stuff like this is possible:
*TOD off of a stray jab anti air. Game is supposed to have heavier scaling starting from lights but it's not strong enough to deter big damage off of safe/fast moves. It's not just lights but someone can throw a projectile across the screen and combo off of it into and TOD like Zero.
*TOD off of a grab. Grabs are supposed to be heavily scaled and for the most part many characters do not kill off of a throw but some do and they represent some of the strongest characters in the game. In addition this is an issue when throws can be OS'd with powerful heavy moves and are instant. The game was obviously designed to have TODs off of clean heavy hits but it clearly was not designed around Zero killing you off of a throw using a single meter.
*Long combos that build 2 meter and can finish with a lvl3. Bigger issue than high damage combo is long ended combos that build a ton of meter and then dump that meter at the end of a combo. This is something that MVC2 does a bit better when pseudo infinites aren't involved. It also messes up the meter economy in the game when Zero can spam Sogenmu to dominate neutral and still build enough meter to kill you with then spend another meter on sogenmu to lock down the incoming character.
And on the talk of character balance, game is more balanced than people give it credit for and the character variety is enough where you see various playstyles, teams and strategies. You can look at all the top 8 EVOs and see the trends, more characters are used than some games have total rosters.
However, Zero is clearly the best in the game and most people agree on it. He represents much of what is wrong with the game. He skewers the resource management in the game, the scaling system, the risky/reward in neutral of using projectiles and has the most powerful incoming mix up game that isn't a straight up unblockables which leads to the classic Zero play.
Zero is the type of character that a player who isn't quite at the top of the top can get great results with because you can just have that "Zero" set where you rollover the opponent. That rollover quality is strongest with Zero, only rivaled by Firebrand. That's why you have some EVO top 8s with a random Zero player.
Thankfully the game has enough strong characters to deal with Zero in the neutral and can TOD him too. He still abides by similar rules. He may not be 3S Chun tier but he's definitely the best.
