# V2 Balance Operations

V2 publishes balance decisions as a player-facing artifact, not only as internal
telemetry. The current major patch is `patch-2026.05.s1`.

## Public Artifacts

- Official tier list: `V2/balance/public-results/tier-list-2026-05-s1.json`
- Rank-specific tier views:
  `V2/balance/public-results/rank-tier-list-2026-05-s1.csv`
- Auto-generated matchup chart:
  `V2/balance/public-results/matchup-chart-2026-05-s1.csv`
- Stage matchup variance:
  `V2/balance/public-results/stage-matchup-variance-2026-05-s1.csv`
- Frame-data diff: `V2/balance/public-results/frame-data-diff-2026-05-s1.csv`
- Public frame-data tool: `apps/v2/web/balance/`
- Raw frame-data CSV: `apps/v2/web/balance/frame-data.csv`
- Companion app surface: `apps/oshun/mobile/v2/balance`
- Public API surface: `apps/oshun/web/api/v2/frame-data`

## Cadence

Monthly major balance patches ship monthly. Minor tuning windows are bi-weekly.
Every change lists rationale, telemetry justification, PTB signal, and public
before/after data under `V2/balance/changelog/` or `V2/balance/public-results/`.

Community comment windows last 14 days after a patch. The next review cannot
close until the comment window, opt-in in-game survey, and tournament-specific
polls are summarized.

## Tier Lists And Matchups

The official tier list publishes per-fighter tier, rationale, and suggested
counters. Community polling is supplementary and never overwrites official
telemetry. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster have
separate tier views because execution burden and matchup knowledge shift by
rank.

Matchup charts are generated from match-result data and published with
per-fighter win rate, rank-tier variation, and optional stage variance notes.
Stage variance is advisory; tournament stage bans remain under esports rules.

## Frame Data

Every authored move exposes startup, active, recovery, on-hit, on-block, damage,
ruleset, and build branch in the public frame-data tool, companion app, raw CSV,
and public API. Patch diffs show exactly which fields changed between versions.

## Pro Feedback And Freeze

sponsored pros and accredited tournament organizers receive pre-patch
consultation. A published summary appears after the patch. Major tournaments use
a two-week balance freeze; emergency hotfixes are limited to crash, exploit, or
game-breaking infinite fixes. Pro-event tier list publication requires pro and
tournament organizer sign-off.

## Recommender And A/B Testing

The ML balance recommender trains on patch deltas, match outcomes, community
feedback, PTB surveys, and public replay tags. It suggests buff or nerf
candidates with confidence scores, but designers review every candidate and no
recommendation is auto-applied.

Balance changes can run through PTB A/B tests before live rollout. The framework
requires a public result URI, rollback runbook, PTB signal coverage, and minimum
sample size before a recommendation can graduate to accepted.