This is like the nerdiest analogy in the world, but I think it's kind of funny and at least partly true:
Watching a Marvel vs Capcom match is something like Dragon Ball Z. When Goku is fighting one of the main villains, they'll move around at light speed shooting powerful energy blasts everywhere, and to a casual bystander it looks like people are appearing and disappearing like magic and the earth is shaking and there's explosions in the sky and oh god what the hell is going on. But the other strong fighters will just be standing on the sidelines silently and intensely watching the match, eyes darting back and forth following it all. That's MvC. Train in it for a while and a rhyme and reason starts to emerge from all that crazy stuff. Train hard enough and you can chuck spirit bombs on fools.
But for real, I've always thought it was easier to see and understand strategy in MvC than it is in other fighting games simply because it's so much more obvious when a tactic is working in that game than it is in others. It's really the only fighting game that I "get." The basic strategy in any fighting game is (1) sticking to moves and tactics with a good risk/reward ratio, (2) limiting your opponent's options and forcing them into bad situations, and (3) converting a hit arising from 1&2 into big damage. And Marvel is just so much less subtle about this in major ways that it's just easy to follow as long as you can keep up and at least have the most basic understanding of what makes a good team.
This post hits what makes Marvel so good. It's this with a much prettier exterior (IMO) and characters I'm far more attached to.
Re: the "random" crowd
I don't get this mentality. Every character is a threat, and with the right amount of work/smart decisions, they can win. A lot of people like to say "lol so randumb" but I'm hardpressed to find a match since Ultimate's been released that you can't pinpoint the exact mistake someone made in a loss. High intensity? Sure. A ridiculous set of bad situations? Yep. But each and everyone of them could be avoided. But nothing actually random. There's a lot of piss-poor decision making out there.
Anchor Skrull? Snap him in. Dark Wesker? Make a team with some air mobility/lame play (shouldn't lose to it consistently, in any case).
Everyone who gets into a bad situation in this game deserves it really, since your team should have just as much opposing bullshit that you can run on the opponent. They just got their situation to play out and take advantage of it.
99.5% of the "random" I see in this game is chalked up to lack of experience on the part of the losing party, allowing a situation to develop in the first place or a combination of both.
In high-level Marvel, there's a lot of spacing and strategy that goes into the best players' decisions (including the use of XF in conjunction with how your/the opponent's team is set up), and I don't think the best has been seen yet. A lot of players just seem to be kinda lazy and pigeonhole a lot of different aspects of this game. Plus, the complete lack of counter teams for certain makeups is absolutely mindboggling. Don't get it.
I don't think this was a great tournament for Marvel, especially as far as Top 8 was concerned. And I still don't know how PR Balrog wins with that assistless team of his. He's clearly good, but I think it's a testament to the fact that there's definitely a lot for people to improve on in UMvC3 still -- especially in terms of actually, ya know, learning matchups and preying on poor team composition in a team game.
The only player consistently impressing me (very much so lately) is MarlinPie. He's really digging deep with his team, setups, and all-around game for different situations.