My point is: Tails is underpowered, if you have to do all that just to be equal (and even there..) to Sonic.
This doesn't really mean he's underpowered. Could be that, unlike the single player, Tails is just the hardest to use. But unlike the single player, there's no clear strength between characters.
There's actually a special CTF skill only Tails can use that enables you to cross the map at once with the flag, but it's situational, requiring a high tower and a runway, so to speak. (AKA: I kicked LXShadow's arse at Iron Turret with it in the old days... until he caught on, then I was more careful and lost more often.) And I think the official rotation may have unintentionally depreciated it (well, not many people know about it...)
But that move from TailsMasterMind looks like it can come in handy anywhere. It's all a matter of knowing how and when to use it, something only a pro Tails could actually do.
As a game-lifelong Tails player myself, I find it a little inappropriate to comment on the other characters, except how I shape up in relation to other players using them. And get this. In general, barring lag or exceptional skill on the part of others, (or massive games, don't have tactics for those ones quite as much) I do rather well. Usually winning. I am slightly weaker in Match, but I owe that to my preference for CTF more than any character based handicap.
I have considered trying Knuckles out at times, but really only to see what the hell people have been harping on about him (and improve my anti-knux tactics too)
It's true that a lot of Tails players are poor players. These people either use Tails because they like him the most, or or because they're foolish enough to think the single player splash screen's character advice holds true for multiplayer games as well. Tails is definitely the Difficult but Awesome character, and to a lesser extent, Sonic is too. But they both exercise different skills, mostly.
Knuckles is easy to use and hard to master, unlike the other two. I have used him a little myself, like with Sonic. This was back when I was finding a main, you see. His ringspam rate makes it a lot easier to hit someone, even with the red ring... if you have rings. But his gliding can be tricky to hit with (use opengl, you can see better, same goes for Tails) and his climbing just plain sucks (although this is a balancing act) and his jumping makes him need to use it more often then he used to.
The problem with comparing so-called "equal" players is that how can you tell that they're equal, or that one didn't get lucky? How can you tell it was the characters used that tipped the balance, beyond a doubt?
And Blue Warrior, skill floor =/= skill ceiling or underpowered. Knuckles' skill floor is lower than a lot of characters. Does that mean he wins among newbies? Yes. Pros? Depends on the skill level of the player, as usual. While it is true that Sonic wins in a 32 player game, say, that's because the map rotation is designed for 6-12 players optimum, and therefore being able to run fast with bounce, explosion, and auto rings will pretty much kill everyone. (Although Tails can still fly ;))
The best thing to do is find your own favourite for each situation, and then develop tactics for use against all three in all the gametypes and maps.
The maps as well, have favourite characters, so to speak. Icicle Falls is an all-time HATEHATE of mine. Not that it's that annoying a level, but it looks to be designed for Sonic and Knuckles mainly. (coughspazzocough)
That said, I'm not BAD at it. It just shows that when I normally win against an opponent set, I might see a loss here. It's the cavern that's the problem. Tends to get in the way of Tails' more complicated manoeuvres... ah well, I can still be a sneaky bugger on the level, huh?
Contrast Cloud Palace, with three stories and a clear flightpath with decent cover. AKA: Sonic dominates the ground game, Tails the air, and Knux is good anywhere. (seriously, almost nobody takes the top route there, especially with the flag.)
Super forms... I don't think any character got a raw deal there. Sonic with his well-known abilities, Knux with his retropowered infinite gliding, Tails with infinite flight and the superwhirlwind. But Tails especially wins out with the speedup. Not only does it increase his footspeed to maximum, it also effects flight. Same goes for normal speedshoes. Doubling flightspeed and drastically improving acceleration and handling, it becomes cake to avoid rails, even without epic advanced moves (but if you're Super, rails aren't very effective anyhow)
Even going
down every so often in flight can help avoid rings (especially not-rails, but rails too) as people tend to assume that Tails will always go up. Although aim-compensation and multitasking enough to be able to press jump and fire at different rates, while making sure your opponent can't do the same thing if they're also Tails is Difficult... but Awesome.
Tails is under-appreciated, because he's not as simple as firing a lot as Knux (possibly while gliding) or running and thokking as Sonic. Not a lot of FPS games really have an aerial game, and while Knuckles can be a demon when he gets up to speed, only Tails can start it from anywhere. (Not that it's always
smart, mind you.) Due to this, a lot of players can't wrap their heads around him. Every character is hard to master. Tails is kind of hard to start off with. I still haven't learned him fully yet, and I've even made some people's "most irritating player" lists. (So has Commander Hypersonic... and I managed to turn a losing game around for the... red? team once on his server with about 150 ping (that's with the ping command, not on the MS list in-game which overestimates things a little,) but that's enough about that.)
The point about this so-called "roguish" hiding is that Tails can also access pickups faster most of the time, enabling you to come back with a shield and your favourite weapons, and then use that combined with your know-how and skill to make them think this is Touhou, and not Sonic. (Not that I play Touhou, not one for shmups myself.) With a survivalist bent, you should last ages before taking the two/three hits needed to dock you of your stuff. Just keep a look out for good railers and try to snipe them first, OK?
Although picking people up without chasecam or if they're jumping (even jumping in place) is definitely way too difficult. I'll say that definitely needs buffing.