Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 116 ft Vault Boy, Vyse, Elizabeth

(+) 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 115:

Winnie the Pooh (Disney/Kingdom Hearts) is High Fodder
Chair (Final Fantasy VII) is Low Fodder
Missile (Ghost Trick) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Vault Boy (Fallout)
Elizabeth (Bioshock Infinite)
Vyse (Skies of Arcadia)
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nominate Aika (Skies of Arcadia)
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Nominate:
B.J. Blazkowicz (Wolfenstein)
Leisure Suit Larry
T-Rex (Jurassic Park)
The Terminator/T-800 (The Terminator)
Aragorn (Lord of the Rings)
Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings)
Seifer Almasy (Final Fantasy VIII)
Ultimecia (Final Fantasy VIII)
Locke Cole (Final Fantasy VI)
Maya Fey (Ace Attorney)

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Vyse:

Fodder line

It needs to be this way
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Vault Boy (Fallout) - Mid fodder

He looked like a decent low-midcarder or so back in 2010 but Fallout enthusiasm was probably at its height back then, Fallout and Bethesda's reputation has gone to hell since then, and there doesn't seem to be any actual substance to the character, so a very steep drop is in order.

Elizabeth (Bioshock Infinite) - High Fodder

Was probably more like Fodder Line in 2013 but her game was new back then. Don't think she's maintaining that.

Vyse (Skies of Arcadia) - Low Fodder

His game has more or less maintained its strength and it feels like it should be the kind of guy that makes mid fodder but for some reason he keeps performing awfully whenever he gets in! You could sort of make excuses for some of those or argue they're borderline low-to-mid but it really comes down to whether or not you BELIEVE. @Glenn_and_Toad already overloaded the BELIEVE though so I'll go with NOT.

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Vault Boy: Fodder Line. Iconic image, but just that one. I see him advancing in many circumstances unless he gets a rough draw against Sonic, simply based on recognition alone. He only made a bracket once via vote-in and lost to Leon in round 1, so that's not good for his chances, but Leon is (and was at the time too) a Midcarder so... [EDIT: Okay, maybe he's High Fodder. I thought the non-76 Fallout games still had a good reputation... but did 76 kill everything?]

Elizabeth: Fodder Line. She got a good first-round draw in 2013, thus advancing, but I think she's considerably weaker now that her one game is older. She does have plenty of fans but I don't see her having made much in the way of lasting impact on anyone else. She'd advance with the right draw, but one-game characters don't do too well

Vyse: Mid Fodder. Hasn't advanced since 2004. Didn't even make the bracket last year. People legit do not care about Skies of Arcadia anymore, and only will if there's a remaster. He badly needs that, and the game needs to have held up well enough (I haven't played it, but from what I hear, the gameplay won't but the story will) for him to contend again.
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Nominating Sylveon(Pokemon X/Y)

High Fodder for Vault Boy and Elizabeth. Vault Boy will definitely suffer from the reception of 76, and Elizabeth is well-liked but it has been a while since her single game.

Mid Fodder for Vyse, barely. He looked pretty bad in CB9 and its telling that he didn't even make CBX.
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Mid Fodder for Vault Boy. I agree with Axem's basic logic that as Fallout goes, series symbol Vault Boy will inevitably go, and the series' reputation is currently at an all-time low.

High Fodder, barely, for Elizabeth. BioShock Infinite's reputation has also plunged since 2013, as evidenced (to name just one way) by her failure to make CBX after a 3-seed in 2013, but I'm counting on TJF to just barely keep her decline to one tier.

Mid Fodder for Vyse. His 2013 match was a nightmare scenario where Adol sucked up the dedicated RPG fan votes, while Ammy appealed to everyone else. It also doesn't make sense that such a universally beloved protagonist should be so much weaker than his game. At the same time, there's only so much I can ignore his universally lacking results/representation with far fewer excuses for it than Banjo, so I'm erring towards the high end of Mid Fodder.
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Change my Vault Boy vote to Mid Fodder then. I didn't realize that '76 damaged the entire series' reputation that badly. Guess I've been living under a rock!

And yeah, change my Elizabeth vote to High Fodder - I think I confused myself since she was a high Fodder Line last time.

Keep Vyse as Mid Fodder, since that's what he clearly is.
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I think Fallout 4 also kinda underwhelmed people and were about a decade removed from the glory days of fallout 3 and new Vegas. I think the site also might just be less hospitable to Bethesda than it used to be. Dragonborn dropped from 30% on Yuna and Tifa combined in 2013 to 31% on Leon in 2018 - a Leon barely stronger than Tidus.

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AxemRedRanger posted...

Dragonborn dropped from 30% on Yuna and Tifa combined in 2013 to 31% on Leon in 2018 - a Leon barely stronger than Tidus.

Yikes. So he went from taking advantage of FF waifu SFF to the same percentage in a 1-on-1 against Leon's weakest outing? Leon is certainly stronger a year later (a new game will do that) but yeah, ouch.

Bethesda's reputation isn't what it used to be. And frankly, I never saw why they deserved all the accolades they got. They made good games, but did shit like Horse Armour at the same time. Also, Fallout 3 is overrated imo - never really liked that one.

So yeah, Mid Fodder sounds right for Vault Boy, especially if Dragonborn is Fodder Line on the best day in Skyrim.
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Day 117 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78039467
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