Board 8 > ~*~Ranking the CBX Characters by Contest Strength: Day 3 - Upper Midcarders~*~

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hello everyone, and welcome to the project where we rank all the CBX characters by contest strength! This time, well be ranking the Upper Midcarders, comprised of the following characters:

Aerith (or Aeris) Gainsborough, Auron, Big Boss, Charizard, Dante, Donkey Kong, Mewtwo, Pokmon Trainer Red, Ryu, Sora, Squall Leonhart, and Zero*

Before we get going, heres the Rules:

1. If at all possible, please number your rankings (ex. 1 for the strongest character, etc.) - it makes your ranks much clearer, allowing me to tabulate them much easier.
2. Rankings of indirect strength are preferred, but direct rankings will be allowed, especially in tandem with indirect rankings.
3. Stick to one ranking per tier (or one ranking each of indirect and direct strength if you choose to separate them) - dont try to sway the standings with multiple accounts.
4. Youre always welcome to submit retroactive rankings if you missed one or more days, as well as change your existing rankings if so inclined, up until this project ends.
5. And most importantly, be nice to each other, even people you dont like! Discussion is welcomed and encouraged, but this isnt ultimately meant to be an overly serious project, so I dont want to see any knock-down, drag-out arguments developing in here about how someones not ranking by the stats or whatever else - use your discretion about this.

Heres the spreadsheet that Ill be using to record data for this project: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1s6rNxUlXY3kpo9Ru-Pyw9CjtGBIRasJKiUv6a7cEgEw/edit?usp=sharing

And here's our Board 8 Wiki page, where you can find the list of tiers, among other things: http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Ranking_the_CBX_Characters_by_Contest_Strength

Tomorrow night, we'll be moving on to the Midcarders, but for today, heres the Upper Midcarders listed in an easy copy-paste format:

Aerith (or Aeris)
Auron
Big Boss
Charizard
Dante
Donkey Kong
Mewtwo
Red
Ryu
Sora
Squall
Zero

As for yesterday's results, here's our current ranking of the Near-Elites:

1. Crono
2. Mega Man
3. Pikachu
4. Tifa
5. Sephiroth
6. Sonic
7. MMX
8. Bowser
9. Luigi
10. Ganondorf
11. Kirby
12. Alucard
13. Vivi
14. Yoshi
15. Zero*

Some of my thoughts:
- Once again, we saw solid participation, with 18 users posting their Near-Elite rankings before the end of the day. And remember you can still chip in, even if you missed Day 2!
- Unsurprisingly, Crono, Mega Man, and Pikachu in that order distinguished themselves as the easy top three, with Crono at #1 in particular being the strongest consensus of the Near-Elite tier.
- The next strongest consensus after Crono was Zero in last. See below for an announcement regarding that.
- Most participants ranked MMX close to Tifa, but I was surprised to see two in particular place MMX as much as ten spots below Tifa, despite their near 50-50 direct match.
- Perhaps that, like the jumble of rankings, suggests that most of the Near-Elites are very close to each other (other than the top 3 and Zero), but it's hard to say for sure.
- About that jumble: MMX and Sonic in particular had extremely high standard deviations of 2.85 and 2.72, respectively, while Crono's standard deviation wound up at just 0.46.
- Finally, the obligatory secondary Mario character ranking: Bowser > Luigi >> Yoshi.
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*If you're wondering why Zero's here again, it's not a typo. See yesterday's topic:

MetalmindStats posted...

So I'm thinking that, as these rankings are mostly reflecting, I may have messed up by putting Zero in the Near-Elite tier instead of the Upper Midcarder tier. My idea was that 44% on Pikachu was comfortably above 46% on Sonic (comparing to Auron), but in retrospect, I don't think that's so obvious that those two should be in entirely different tiers. The problem that comes with that, of course, is that a solid 6/15 participants so far have ranked Zero at not-last, particularly with Anagram and darkx putting him at 11th. What I'm thinking I'll do to solve this is have Zero as part of the Upper Midcarder ranking as well as the Near-Elite one and, depending on those results, I may shift him down into the Upper Midcarder tier.

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My ranking:

1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Red
4. Aerith
5. Mewtwo
6. Dante
7. Charizard
8. Donkey Kong
9. Sora
10. Squall
11. Big Boss
12. Ryu
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1. Zero
2. Red
3. Sora
4. Auron
5. Ryu
6. Big Boss
7. Charizard
8. Mewtwo
9. Aerith
10. Dante
11. DK
12. Squall

If we're doing Zero twice, are we doing that for any other characters? I'd take Terra and Amaterasu among others over Squall.
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squexa posted...

If we're doing Zero twice, are we doing that for any other characters? I'd take Terra and Amaterasu among others over Squall.

If enough people speak out in support of a double-ranking here, I'll go for it. Zero was just a case where I realized that I had made a fundamental mistake in tiering him so high.
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At least Yoshi didn't end up kicked out of the near-elites. Yeesh.

1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Aerith
4. Red
5. Squall
6. Sora
7. Mewtwo
8. Ryu
9. Charizard
10. Dante
11. Donkey Kong
12. Big Boss
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Zero
Aerith (or Aeris)
Squall
Auron
Dante
Ryu
Charizard
Donkey Kong
Mewtwo
Red
Sora
Big Boss (I am going to assume not Naked Snake picture, which is think is the fair and more likely representation)

Now, someone that came absurdly close to one of characters in the mix here is Terra. I don't completely trust that result, nor do I buy that she and Kefka are near equals, but I'd love to know if anyone would consider her knocking off the characters they put below Charizard.
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Kinda interesting that there's a lot of variation that stems from earlier questions (eg how much bandwagon Zelda got) that's going to snowball as we go into the lower divisions.
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1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Charizard
4. Squall
5. Donkey Kong
6. Red
7. Aerith (or Aeris)
8. Dante
9. Sora
10. Ryu
11. Mewtwo
12. Big Boss
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_SecretSquirrel posted...

Now, someone that came absurdly close to one of characters in the mix here is Terra. I don't completely trust that result, nor do I buy that she and Kefka are near equals, but I'd love to know if anyone would consider her knocking off the characters they put below Charizard.

Personally, I would take Terra over Ryu and Old Man Big Boss.

Also:

Haste_2 posted...

At least Yoshi didn't end up kicked out of the near-elites. Yeesh.

It's not set in stone yet. So far, everyone's put Zero at first, and if that continues (or even if something like 3/4ths of us or more put him at first), he'll remain in the Near-Elite tier.
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1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Aerith
4. Squall
5. Dante
6. Donkey Kong
7. Ryu
8. Charizard
9. Mewtwo
10. Red
11. Sora
12. Big Boss
---

1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Charizard
4. Mewtwo
5. Donkey Kong
6. Aerith
7. Squall
8. Ryu
9. Dante
10. Red
11. Sora
12. Big Boss
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1. Zero
2. Red
3. Auron
4. Ryu
5. Aerith
6. Squall
7. Donkey Kong
8. Dante
9. Mewtwo
10. Charizard
11. Sora
12. Big Boss

No idea how to rank the bottom half, I feel slightly better about DK than the rest though since he beat Leon.
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Changing my ranking because I think I was too hasty with it at first - my big gaps between Aerith and Squall and between Red and Sora don't look right in retrospect.

1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Mewtwo
4. Aerith
5. Charizard
6. Squall
7. Dante
8. Red
9. Donkey Kong
10. Sora
11. Big Boss
12. Ryu
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1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Red
4. Sora
5. Charizard
6. Mewtwo
7. Big Boss
8. Ryu
9. Dante
10. Donkey Kong
11. Aerith
12. Squall
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1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Charizard
4. Squall
5. Mewtwo
6. Red
7. Aeris
8. Donkey Kong
9. Ryu
10. Dante
11. Sora
12. Big Boss

Waffled on Zero vs. Auron a few times because both characters probably aren't as strong as I think they are
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For yesterday, the reason I had Tifa and MMX so far apart is, as I hinted at then, is that I think a lot of those characters are very close to each other in strength. Looking back, I possibly should have had X a bit higher, but my ranking was probably a bit biased on where I live too - MM and X always do quite badly in Europe/Australia. As I think most match ups would be within a few percent between those characters, I think X would probably lose to more of the others than he would win, based on the Euro/Aus voters.

For today:

1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Aerith (or Aeris)
4. Squall
5. Ryu
6. Red
7. Sora
8. Donkey Kong
9. Mewtwo
10. Dante
11. Charizard
12. Big Boss
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1st: Squall (I hate to admit it)
2nd: Zero
3rd: Ryu
4th: Auron
5th: Aeris
6th: Mewtwo
7th: Charizard
8th: Dante
9th: Red
10th: Old Big Boss
11th: Sora
12th: Donkey Kong.
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Tag
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1. Squall
2. Zero
3. Auron
4. Aeris
5. Mewtwo
6. Red
7. Sora
8. Big Boss
9. Ryu
10. Dante
11. Charizard
12. DK

1. Auron
2. Aerith
3. Zero
4. Squall
5. Mewtwo
6. Ryu
7. Red
8. Sora
9. Charizard
10. Big Boss
11. Dante
12. DK

Top four + Everything Ganondorf on down from the previous day on my near-elite list are very close to me.

1. Squall
2. Zero
3. Ryu
4. Auron
5. Dante
6. Donkey Kong
7. Aeris
8. Sora
9. Red
10. Charizard
11. Mewtwo
12. Big Boss
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Ringworm posted...

For yesterday, the reason I had Tifa and MMX so far apart is, as I hinted at then, is that I think a lot of those characters are very close to each other in strength. Looking back, I possibly should have had X a bit higher, but my ranking was probably a bit biased on where I live too - MM and X always do quite badly in Europe/Australia. As I think most match ups would be within a few percent between those characters, I think X would probably lose to more of the others than he would win, based on the Euro/Aus voters.

By the exact same logic, you could say that MMX would beat all those characters because he does better than them in North America.
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1. Zero
2. Auron
3. Aerith
4. Squall
5. Red
6. Sora
7. Big Boss
8. Mewtwo
9. Charizard
10. Dante
11. Donkey Kong
12. Ryu
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Missed the near-elites.

1- Crono
2- Pikachu
3- Mega Man
4- Tifa
5- Mega Man X
6- Kirby
7- Bowser
8- Sephiroth
9- Luigi
10- Yoshi
11- Sonic
12- Ganondorf
13- Vivi
14- Alucard

As for the rest:

1- Aerith
2- Zero
3- Ryu
4- Squall
5- Dante
6- Donkey Kong
7- Red
8- Auron
9- Mewtwo
10- Charizard
11- Big Boss
12- Sora
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I'm making a point not to look at xstats so some of those are based on pure feeling. Might have some big deviations here.
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Here's the topic for ranking the Midcarders: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77318792

I'll leave this one open for now so darkx can get his ranking in.
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Woops! Thanks!

1. Squall
2. Zero
3. Ryu
4. Auron
5. Sora
6. Aeris
7. Red
8. Dante
9. Big Boss
10. Donkey Kong
11. Mewtwo
12. Charizard
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