Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 101 ft Cid Highwind, Lavos, Goofy

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is a topic to rate the contest strength of potential newcomers in the current contest environment.

I will pick the characters to rate and discuss for each day from user nominations - whoever the 3 most nominated characters are at that time. If there are more than 3 I will pick randomly. You can nominate any number of characters at any time, but you cannot nominate the same character twice.

All characters who were present in the 2018 Character Battle will NOT be eligible. Otherwise you can nominate any character that has appeared in video games; even comic book characters. This will exclude real-life athletes who have only appeared in long running sports series, however I will accept those who have their own games such as Shaq. I will accept nominations for iconic gaming duos too, if there is a compelling reason for both characters to be linked (either co-starring in a game ala Banjo & Kazooie, or always appearing together like Callie & Marie from Splatoon).

Each day will have a separate topic, and nominations will carry over. As far as actually rating the character's contest strength; I ask that users rank a characters potential strength with one of the following qualifiers - LAW Fodder, Low Fodder, Mid Fodder, High Fodder, Fodder Line, Low Midcarder, Midcarder, High Midcarder, Near Elite, Elite, LAW Tier (capable of beating Link). I will average all the ratings given to a character to come up with their final ranking. I have included a highlighted entrant from Character Battle X on each tier of the strength rankings below, to provide a baseline for each.

Note that LAW Fodder is meant to be a tier reserved for the weakest possible characters to put into a contest. A character will only be placed there if at least 3/4ths of the voters for that day agree on the LAW Fodder rating, and no ratings above Low Fodder are given. If either of those conditions are not met, the character will not be eligible for the LAW Fodder tier.

Current Character Strength Rankings: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P1AIhHywBiLd6VAMZMNEGX-HW2td8u1D0Iw_tzHsORw/edit?usp=sharing

Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KnSBDzppzPK5Ug1zmx8_x0bG4tqFDMPPH2k8J3s8sk/edit?usp=sharing

Results from Day 100:

Turok (Turok series) is Low Fodder
Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) is Mid Fodder
Claptrap (Borderlands) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Lavos (Chrono Trigger)
Cid Highwind (Final Fantasy VII)
Goofy (Disney/Kingdom Hearts)
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Lavos (Chrono Trigger) - High fodder

Was gonna go mid fodder but actual looking at who's in there and thinking "could this character really beat the final boss of top 5 game on the site Chrono Trigger?" put an end to that.

Cid Highwind (Final Fantasy VII) - Low midcarder

Cid looked pretty good in 2010. He'd do worse nowadays but I figure he's still above the fodder line. Barret was decent enough in 2013, FFVII in general didn't really look worse there than in 2018 (side characters who never get in on their own power might be faring a little worse than the ones people care about though), and any character poll the main site's held had Cid > Barret.

Goofy (Disney/Kingdom Hearts) - Mid fodder
Kingdom Hearts characters bad. I figure almost everyone in the gamefaqs demographic who care a lot about the Mickeyverse (or whatever you'd call it) Disney characters are already Kingdom Hearts fans anyways so I don't think general Disney votes bring much more to the table. I'm assuming Goof Troop nostalgia isn't a thing either?

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Lavos is High Fodder. Barely. Chrono Trigger isn't as strong as it used to be since I don't recall its last proper rerelease. It was a glaring omission from the SNES Classic and its only recent port was quickly disowned by its fandom. Because it's not overly accessible in its proper form, I think the game is starting to be forgotten by time and therefore isn't attracting any new fans (a shame), so the teenagers flocking from Reddit aren't going to recognize Lavos. That's a 10% swing not in his favor.

Cid would get a boost from hype for FFVIIR, so Low Midcarder sounds right.

Goofy is High Fodder. I don't see myself voting for him, but I see him getting enough votes based on recognition to be even with Lavos.
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Nominating Katherine McBride(Catherine)

Lavos (Chrono Trigger) - high fodder
Cid Highwind (Final Fantasy VII) - mid-carder
Goofy (Disney/Kingdom Hearts) - mid-carder
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I say Mid Fodder for Lavos. It looked fine in the villain contest, but Chrono Trigger in general was a lot stronger in 2005. Lavos nowadays I think is viewed as "non-character who happens to be the final boss of CT". I can maybe buy it being at the floor of high fodder.

Agree with Low Midcarder for Cid. Though I will say that I think Barret is stronger than Cid nowadays.

I will go in the middle of the current votes for Goofy and say he is Fodder Line. I think that Donald Duck is better liked than Goofy as far as Kingdom Hearts goes, but he has plenty more places to get votes from. Namely countless other Disney games and the Goof Troop series from the 90s. Gfaqs is the right demographic to have nostalgia for Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie, and probably identify with his fatherly role in the series.

nominations:

Katherine McBride (Catherine)
Chansey (Pokemon)
Jesus Christ (Fight of Gods, etc)
Joseph Stalin (Civilization series)
Vulpix (Pokemon)
Skarmory (Pokemon)
Broly (Dragonball Z)
Garbodor (Pokemon)
Starmie (Pokemon)
Lusamine (Pokemon)
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Lavos: __LeiaRolando__ posted...

Chrono Trigger isn't as strong as it used to be since I don't recall its last proper rerelease. It was a glaring omission from the SNES Classic and its only recent port was quickly disowned by its fandom. Because it's not overly accessible in its proper form, I think the game is starting to be forgotten by time and therefore isn't attracting any new fans (a shame), so the teenagers flocking from Reddit aren't going to recognize Lavos. That's a 10% swing not in his favor.

Did you forget this is GameFAQs we're talking about, or something? The last time we saw CT in action, it had a realistic shot to outright win a 2015 without major rallies, and CT characters looked fine in 2018. Of course, we also didn't have any major rallies in 2018, nor should we expect any for future character battles, which leaves a site where our average age is literally over 30, meaning nostalgia is king.

For Lavos, I'm going to go with Fodder Line, because CT itself has looked to be noticeably stronger of late than it was circa 2004-2005. Moreso than other CT characters, Lavos's strength trajectory should track pretty directly with his game by nature of his role and characterization.

Cid Highwind: Midcarder - In Cid's last match, Mega Man scored only 63% on him, and that was considered a good result for the Blue Bomber. A decline since 2010 is inevitable, but I'm betting that it will be of the more modest Cloud/Aerith variety rather than Vincent and Sephiroth's freefalls.

Goofy: Mid Fodder - I already overestimated one character who only has recognizability and KH (at its weakest point ever) going for him in Mickey, so I'm loath to make that same mistake again. Ask yourself who actually cares about Goofy on GameFAQs and you'll see why.
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i'll agree with metalmind, his reasoning seems sound enough even though I didn't initially agree on cid being so high

nominate Katherine, I figure now is the only time she's relevant for a rating
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Day 102 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78001483
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