Board 8 > Fourpack of Fun: Ryu Hayabusa/Altair, Lara Croft/Raiden

(+) Yeah! (+)

four characters who are often inconsistent and sometimes unpredictable
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Most years I would say Hayabusa > Lara, but with Tomb Raider being good/fairly popular again in the last few years I think Lara takes this one.
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Huh, no clear favorite early on, although no one yet believes both Altair and Raiden will win their first match.
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Before submitting my vote (Lara > Hayabusa), I was sure Hayabusa was going to be in the lead. I guess her new games may give her a boost.
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Do people really have that much faith in Lara? Raiden seemed really strong in 2013, maybe because of Metal Gear Rising, but still.

Also I'm pretty sure Ryu is nowhere near as strong as he used to be, hes pretty irrelevant and Altair crushed Ratchet in 2013, where a lot of Playstation mascots were pretty strong if I recall correctly.
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BetrayedTangy posted...

Do people really have that much faith in Lara? Raiden seemed really strong in 2013, maybe because of Metal Gear Rising, but still.

Also I'm pretty sure Ryu is nowhere near as strong as he used to be, hes pretty irrelevant and Altair crushed Ratchet in 2013, where a lot of Playstation mascots were pretty strong if I recall correctly.

I mean Lara did fairly well in 2013, too.

Case in point:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5236-character-battle-ix-division-4-round-2-altair-vs-lara-vs
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Although in the case of PS mascots doing well, it's largely because they got pretty favorable bracket placements (except for Ratchet, sadly, and Sly Cooper, too, but who cares) and faced some really weak characters. Ratchet is probably the strongest of them all at this point though since he's the only one who still continues to be relevant.
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Lara probably wins?

I tried looking up some of Ryu H's matches to get a better sense of his strength, since it had been a while, and somehow I'm even more confused
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Yeah, Hayabusa is up there as one of the most confusing characters in contest history. Kefka gets a lot of credit for being wacky, but Hayabusa's not far behind.
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Ryu > Raiden

Lara looked like crap in the 2013 contest.

Lara outclasses all of these guys. The Crystal Dynamics trilogy has made her quite a bit stronger, whereas these other guys haven't gotten the same kind of bump. Only Raiden has anything but... he's not Lara strength at this point. Five years is a long time.
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Lara > Ryu

Lara is going to be the best one tapping into both nostalgia and current relevance. Raiden would definitely be my second choice, but I don't think MGS is going to be all that hot this year, save for Snake himself due to his upcoming Smash return.
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Lara is the favorite, huh? She hasn't made the third round since 2002, when her first two opponents were Chop Chop Master Onion and Ryo Hazuki.

Granted, she's had some tough draws since then (Zelda and Samus chief among them), but still, it's kind of nice to see her get some respect again.
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Lara > Ryu H

FWIW I would pick Ezio to win the four pack. Altair has mostly design going for him and Ryu H outdesigns him by being a ninja

Then again Altair always manages to win a debatable round one only to disappoint round 2 so... that can definitely happen
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Yeah, I almost put Ezio in here instead, but I went with Altair just because of the direct match with Lara.
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Speaking of AC protags, would Edward Kenway or Bayek have the potential to beat Altair?
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Hey just want to say that I'm enjoying this series of polls. I'm enjoying learning about the history of the tournaments and who is strong and who isn't and these help me to do that in a fun way. I'm excited to fill out my predictions!

Do you mind if I make a poll?

Oh. Oops, uh...which Raiden? You meant MGS, right?
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VeryInsane posted...

Speaking of AC protags, would Edward Kenway or Bayek have the potential to beat Altair?

I kinda doubt it. I think people mostly stopped caring about AC after the Ezio ones. The GOTY and "Which game are you most looking forward to" polls seem to bear that out, too. Actually, AC3 seemed to do all right on GOTY polls, but that was a pretty weak field. But either way, I wouldn't expect any AC characters other than Altair or Ezio to be worth anything.

WitcherGeralt posted...

Do you mind if I make a poll?

Yeah, go for it.

azuarc posted...

Oh. Oops, uh...which Raiden? You meant MGS, right?

Yeah, I assumed everyone would know it was MGS Raiden, but I guess I should've clarified.
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Raiden feels like he has to win over these people, I dunno. I guess the idea is that in 2013 he looked weak because he didn't beat SFFed Yoshi by as much as he should've? I feel like 2011 Raiden looks stronger than this pack too though and Raiden's received Rising (which is well received enough that I think you may not even have seen all its effects even in 2013) since then.

I guess Lara has had some well received games recently but Raiden > Hayabusa fairly decisively still feels right to me.
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Went with Raiden > Hayabusa. I might be letting my personal opinions cloud my judgment, but I think Lara would be weaker now since there was no excitement here for the last two Tomb Raider games. I think people are a bit sick of where the series is.
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Lara Croft is not beating Raiden, lol. Could maybe take Altair.
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https://www.pcgamesn.com/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-sales
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Ninja VS Boobs? Yeah I'll go with the ninja.
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October 1 seems like a good day for at least a bracket teaser
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Up we go.
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Last bump.
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