Free Step Dodge

Gimme a minute

Why would a high-tier character making top 8 at a tourney be a miracle?

I've never seen Zack in a top 8. And it's too early to say if Zack is high tier

No it isn't. And if it were, it would also be too early to say it would be a miracle for him to make top 8. Catch 22

I said that because Zack was considered low-tier in vanilla. So where's the tournament footage of Zack in top 8?

The tier considerations in vanilla were laughable, and are also irrelevant to 5U. Zack typically doesn't make top 8 because people don't like/use him, not because he's anything short of an incredibly strong character for those who do.

So how do you know Zack is so high-tier then?

Same way you know how any character holds up. You look at their tools, consider their match-ups and analyze fights with highly competent players to test your analysis. You know this.

You didn't even answer the question, what tools does Zack have that are so good to make him top tier

He's mid-tier at best. GBs aren't giving you shit so frame advantage is out the window and his juggles aren't blowing you mind. He's got a lot of moves and it's harder to guess where he's going to land (low or high) than other characters. Add speed to that and he's a handful if you don't predict right.

But his game is based around risk....lots of tools, nothing really incredible.

What? I'm supposed to do an entire write-up with a full match-up breakdown to explain myself every time I propose whether a character is strong or not? Well too bad. I frequently explain myself only to have everyone disagree for a while until they eventually come around months later and agree with me claiming it was their own idea.

Dude all I asked you was to list some tools that you think made Zack so top-tier, don't make claims if you can't back them up. And Julius is right anyway

No, he isn't. Zack has great, fast mix-up potential on almost all hit levels, great crushes, delays and free-cancel abilities like a pro, reset throws for frame advantage, is one of the few characters to truly retain viable FT option, etc.
Seriously, ask around. Zack is beast. Open him up and you'll figure it out for yourself.

Zack doesn't have great crushes. The upper cut is his best and it isn't great. His reset throw is ok. His juggles aren't great. Zack has speed and is somewhat safe but he can't put raw damage on you quickly.

A lot of may matches that Zack loses look the same too. Zack is standing in front of a character, trying bait out a stun...slowly chopping away at the life bar. Eventually you're crushed or blown back and then you're on defense and Zack doesn't have much when you're in his face.

Zack isn't a high tier character, he's mid and that's fine. He's got great tools but he's weak in enough areas that you can construct a game plan to exploit his short comings.

He's right brute. I would know too.... Its evident that most people that don't play Zack can only look at him at an out of the box view. He's a beast at close up offense with albeit weak damage for a Muay Thai fighter. At defense...... not so much....

And then it just points back to what Julius said about risk. Couple his defensive skills with the great risk behind it.... he will get opened up to what would be one of his greatest weakpoints.......a character with greater evasion.