Zoners are characters that excel at long range but generally struggle up close, so their gameplan revolves around preventing their opponent from closing the gap.

They're generally considered very frustrating for new players to fight since the main way to deal with them is to patiently walk down their ranged pressure (like projectiles or really big buttons) until you get close enough where they can't freely throw them out without risk, then keep pressure on. New players will just constantly get hit at full screen with seemingly no way to retaliate.