Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 386 ft Tom Brady, Joe Musashi, Valkyrie

(+) 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 385:

Min Min (ARMS) is Mid Fodder
Vaas Montenegro (Far Cry 3) is Low Fodder
Faith Connors (Mirror's Edge) is Low Fodder

Re-Ranking Result:

Captain Olimar (Pikmin) is now High Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Tom Brady (Backyard Football)
Joe Musashi (Shinobi)
Valkyrie (Marvel)

Today's Re-Ranking is:

Lilith (Borderlands)

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Everyone knows who Tom Brady is so he won't be law fodder. However he will be potentially bad Low Fodder, as only Patriots fans actually like him, and I expect him to be anti-voted by a lot of other NFL fans.

Mid Fodder for Joe Musashi. Shinobi was one of Sega's flagship series in the Mega Drive/Genesis days, and Joe was their their answer to Ryu and Ninja Gaiden. No character can go wrong being a ninja either. However like Ninja Gaiden, the Shinobi series has all but ended with the last release being for 3DS VC in 2013. But I think Shinobi was big enough in the 90s to easily boost Joe past low fodder.

Low Fodder barely for Valkyrie. Her only major appearance was in Thor 3, which luckily was a good movie. She'd easily be law if her major appearance was in Thor 1 or 2.

Lilith might be the strongest character from Borderlands and has the waifu potential, but I think even she falls to Low Fodder. Because for some reason she was never playable in the series past BL1, and relegated to an NPC in following games. I think that's too much for her to overcome.

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I will agree with all though except I think Joe is (strong) low fodder instead. We don't really care that much about Genesis games that aren't Sonic and we barely even care about those. He is someone pretty much every Sega fan loves though.

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Tom Brady - low fodder

Joe Musashi - mid fodder

Normally id put a non-Sonic Sega characters as low fodder without worrying because outside a couple Yakuza characters and Vyse (the latter mostly due to our JRPG focus) they just havent been remembered. That one dude I controlled in this pretty good less than 2 hour long game just doesnt generally cut it as a memorable character over 20 years later unless maybe youve got a ridiculous play rate but outside Sonic Sega games wont. And Segas RPGs/action-adventures back in the day generally didnt quite hit the big leagues.

But Joe Musashi is a cool looking ninja. Weve seen Hayabusa and 2002 Strider Hiryu punch well above their series weight (and we still ranked the latter as high fodder) so being the main of a sorta notable franchise plus ninja might be enough for mid? Could potentially flop but ill give benefit of the doubt to Ninja Factor.

Valkyrie - low fodder

Lilith - low fodder

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I'll agree with Ranticoot, though I don't think any major, well-liked MCU character can be anywhere near LAW Fodder here. Also, I do believe the last time any ninja besides Ryu H appeared in a contest was 2002, and Strider/Shinobi in particular have no reason to hold up well since then both based on their games and predominant cool/badass design appeal starting to age poorly as a means of strength here.

I'll also continue my impromptu week of reranking nominations with Tom Nook. To put it quite simply, we arguably lowballed Nook based on 2013 alone, but more importantly, New Horizons ought to make a major difference for him.

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second re-ranking Tom Nook

Day 387 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78825422

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