Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 383 ft Gyarados, Butterfree, Gabranth

(+) 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

If you feel that a character has been over or under-ranked, or if a new development has come up that would affect their contest strength, you may nominate them for a re-ranking. You may nominate one character per day for this, and 3 votes are needed to get them on the slate. One character with 3 votes will come up for re-ranking today.

Re-ranking Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V6dx-tu-FD1rCxbX69eQwEzE7x1F6nNRNFochYHu1dc/edit?usp=sharing

Results from Day 382:

Tiger Woods (Tiger Woods PGA Tour) is Low Fodder
Slowpoke (Pokemon) is Mid Fodder
Elastigirl/Helen Parr (The Incredibles) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Gyarados (Pokemon)
Butterfree (Pokemon)
Gabranth (Final Fantasy XII)

Today's Re-Ranking is:

Cortana (Halo)

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Fodder Line for Gyarados. Its big, it's badass, hardly anyone hates it and it had a couple great anime appearances. It doesn't have the big joke appeal Magikarp has so I think it would be weaker than Magikarp, but unless given a terrible draw it could win a match. I'm not completely sure if it gets all the way up to Low Midcarder, but it could.

High Fodder for Butterfree because it had a couple very memorable appearances in the anime and I'm will to bet a lot of people have fond memories of it from back in the day.

Given Final Fantasy XII as a game is not very strong and its characters have performed much worse, I don't think Gabranth's going to be worth much. He does appear in every Dissidia game. Mid or High Fodder sounds right, probably strong Mid Fodder. Not too sure.

Cortana in the past couldve been decent, and Halo is a little more popular now than it was in the past, but I can't see her above Mid Fodder.

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agree with Ranticoot's ratings.

In previous years Gyarados could have been low mid, but I think it probably suffers a bit due to being a "edgy badass" type of Pokemon. The site has shifted older in recent years, which has not appeared to benefit that type of character.

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I'm posting this early this time so I don't miss the topic entirely.

I guess I'll agree with Ranticoot's votes for the three new rankings. Pokmon nostalgia is a force and a half here, and Gabranth is a major and seemingly well-liked character from a fairly strong Final Fantasy game, so I suppose he can reach Mid Fodder.

As for the reranking, though...

Ranticoot posted...

and Halo is a little more popular now than it was in the past

???

If you mean less hated, then sure. However, that's the only way in which Halo is more popular here, as maybe 10% of GameFAQs truly cares about the series nowadays. We actually had plenty of Halo fans back in 2006 when Cortana made her sole contest appearance (with a rather embarrassingly low seed, might I note), and indeed, 2006 Master Chief was clearly stronger than the current Chief who pretty much functions on respect votes alone. Even back then, Cortana utterly embarrassed herself by missing 40% on Joanna Dark, who proceeded to get nearly quadrupled by Yuna. I'm willing to give Joanna more credit than that by assuming Yuna inflicted some sort of weird waifu SFF there, and take her 19% on Mario from 2005 to indicate her 2006 strength. That still hardly gives Cortana a path to being Mid Fodder even back in 2006, though, let alone now.

Of course, there are two reasons Cortana could have possibly moved in a different direction from Chief. One is that she's the name of Microsoft's digital assistant, a point that no one has brought up because we all fortunately realize how evident it is that (pretty much) no one cares and no one will vote for her on that basis. The other is the TJF/waifu factor that half_silver mentioned in yesterday's topic. To that, I say that there's a distinct possibility it'll be neutralized by face shots in future contests just as it was in 2018. Even if we go back to more standard pictures (which Cortana had in 2006 only to prove hardly anyone has ever cared), a substantial proportion of this site hated Halo when they were teens and has maybe grown to grudgingly respect Chief and the original game now that they're mostly over 30. Bottom line, Cortana is almost certainly Low Fodder now, and probably not even good Low Fodder at that.

I'm not done writing just yet, though. I also wish to nominate Mr. Game & Watch for reranking. Basically, there's only so much Meat Boy could have possibly improved from 2013 without any major new releases, so G&W crushing even a weaker Meat Boy negatively impacted by match circumstances implies good things about his neutral strength. Likewise, G&W probably would have threatened 60% on Lee Everett 1-on-1 in 2013, which again is quite solid for a time when The Walking Dead was actually well-liked and generally relevant.

Additionally, I will nominate Archer (Fate/stay Night), who we seem to have missed among the veterans of pre-2018 contests. I'll also third Jessie (FFVII), Joe Musashi, and Seymour Skinner.

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I'll change my vote for Cortana to Low Fodder. It is true that her match pic very well could neutralize TJF, and the site shifts have been very unkind to Halo. I don't think she'd be terrible low fodder though.

I will also second re-ranking Mr. Game and Watch.

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I should note here I genuinely did not know Cortana has been in a contest.

Now knowing how bad she did when she was in one, yeah low fodder.

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missed Archer. Guess I probably assumed wed done him already since weve had a couple other fate characters.

Nominate Archer (fate)
Nominate Penelo (FFXII)

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Re-rank Game & Watch

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Gyarados (Pokemon) - Fodder line
Butterfree (Pokemon) - High fodder
Gabranth (Final Fantasy XII) - Mid fodder
Cortana - Low fodder

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Day 384 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78818229

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