Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 59 ft Mother Brain, Cynthia, Robin

(+) 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 both members of said duo are named in the title of a game (Banjo-Kazooie, Sam & Max Hit the Road, etc).

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 that if all posters for that day unanimously agree on the LAW Fodder rating. If any rating besides LAW Fodder is given, the character will not be eligible for the tier. All LAW Fodder ratings will then count as Low Fodder.

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 58:

Blastoise (Pokemon) is a Low Midcarder
Ayla (Chrono Trigger) is High Fodder
John Tanner (Driver) is Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Cynthia (Pokemon)
Robin (DC Comics)
Mother Brain (Metroid)
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Cynthia - mid fodder. Unless Sinnoh gets confirmed. Then mayyybe a really really diet high fodder.

Robin - high fodder. Probably gets a lot of anti votes.

Mother Brain - mid fodder. Stunk it up in the weak-ass villains contest.
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I say Cynthia is High Fodder. She might be from a somewhat maligned gen 4, but she was enough of a fan favorite to appear in B/W as well. And she maintains some popularity for waifu-related reasons.

Agree with Mid Fodder for Mother Brain and High Fodder for Robin. I'm not sure that Robin will get anti-voted, but he has never really gotten a lot of focus in Batman games (except Batman Forever, but we don't talk about that). And lets face it: Robin's design has never been popular.
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Agree with half silver
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Cynthia - Fodder line. It's Pokemon, it's a waifu, and it's a beloved character from a region that... well some haven't played since it's been a long time now. But still, I think all of that is enough for her to beat most of the people we've ruled as fodder so far. She's got no chance against a Noble Niner, but could even beat Nathan Drake.

Agree with High Fodder for Robin and Mid Fodder for Mother Brain.
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I think you all overestimate the "waifu" factor for many of these female characters.
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Underleveled posted...

I think you all overestimate the "waifu" factor for many of these female characters.

She could beat a lot of what we've determined to be fodder. Like... she beats most of the folks in the High Fodder tier here. Hence why I said Fodder Line. You're saying she loses to Mai Shirauni, Bass, Rush, Catherine, and Slider Hiryu. That doesn't sound right.
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You're assuming I agree with every single placement we've made as a group, which is far from the truth. I do think a lot of characters in the high fodder and fodder line categories are overestimated.

You're forgetting though that non-Red Pokemon humans have historically failed to deliver.
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Underleveled posted...

You're assuming I agree with every single placement we've made as a group, which is far from the truth. I do think a lot of characters in the high fodder and fodder line categories are overestimated.

You're forgetting though that non-Red Pokemon humans have historically failed to deliver.

My placements were based on what we did as a group, as it is those that define the tiers.

I know that - but in this case, she beats more people than you're giving her credit for. She's probably the strongest Pokemon trainer outside of Gen 1. There's no way she beats most of the people that actually get in these contests, but still.
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I think the disconnect here is how we're tiering characters. I'm tiering everyone in a vacuum, not compared to other characters on the list. I've been using Isaac as a fodder line for a long time, and I basically judge up or down from there.
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Yeah, that's probably it. I'm defining tiers as I see them laid out by the list. Cynthia probably loses to Isaac, but not by much, so I feel comfortable putting her in the same tier as him.
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Cynthia - High Fodder. The Sinnoh generation is a little over a decade old now, and is therefore in a "nostalgia sweet spot." People are clamoring for remakes, and citing it more frequently when discussing their favorite Pokemon generations. Furthermore, Cynthia is a well-liked character with an aesthetically pleasing design, whether you give a toss about "waifus" or not. I think she'd perform noticeably better than N did.

Robin - High Fodder. He's very recognizable, which would allow him to glide past lower fodder. I also think he'd top most characters in the High Fodder tier. But, being a cornball and having a limited connection to gaming would prevent him from doing any real damage.

Mother Brain - High Fodder. I'm going to be bullish with the brain here. While she's not a character who generally inspires strong feelings one way or the other, I think this site's shifting demographics would really help MB out. She's an iconic villain dating back to the NES days, and Metroid looks sterling in newer contests. Just look at how much Ridley overperformed versus Big Boss last year. (I realize he was also boosted by Smash, but it's an overperformance worth noting nonetheless.)
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Cynthia (Pokemon) - Mid fodder

No confidence whatsoever. I just don't think her popularity among big Pokemon fans matters much compared to the complete apathy almost everyone else is going to have towards her.

Robin (DC Comics) - High fodder

He's easily recognizable, but I'm skeptical people actually care. He's not in the first two Tim Burton films, people don't seem to care for the Schumacher films he was in at this point (haven't seen them), he's not in the Nolan trilogy in any way that matters, and while I remember him being in Batman: The Animated Series, I...don't think he was very prominent? I don't actually remember anything he did there. Don't recall him even showing up in Justice League either but I guess it's possible he could have? Maybe I just blocked out or didn't see all the DCAU episodes where Robin was important. Never played any Batman games but people itt are claiming he's not important in those either. The Teen Titans cartoon is the only reason I have any fondness for this character and I think a lot of the gamefaqs demographic is going to be in a similar boat.

Mother Brain (Metroid) - Mid fodder

Outside of Captain N and (I assume?) manga, Mother Brain is just the inanimate object you fire missiles towards at the end of original Metroid/Zero Mission, a pretty cool final boss in Super Metroid, and is in a dumb cutscene at the beginning of Other M. Ridley's got a lot more appearances than Mother Brain does and a more appealing design. The Villains Contest suggests that Ridley has always been much stronger.
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nominations:

The Dog (Duck Hunt)
Tabuu (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
Space Michael Jackson (Space Channel 5)
Namine (Kingdom Hearts)
Marche Radiuju (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance)
Liu Kang (Mortal Kombat)
Sol Badguy (Guilty Gear)
Frank West (Dead Rising)
The Undertaker (WWF/WWE games)
Snow Villiers (Final Fantasy XIII)
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could you get away with nominating the duck hunt dog as "Duck Hunt" because of his smash appearance
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Cynthia - Mid Fodder

If N is Low Fodder, than Cynthia is probably a decent step above N. We already saw N (a Gen 5 character) back in 2013 and he was pretty weak (under 20% on Solid Snake through Bayonetta). Putting Cynthia any higher than Mid Fodder means she's too close to Misty, who I had pegged at the Fodder Line. Misty at least has the advantage of Gen 1 factor plus the anime.

Robin - Mid Fodder

Compared to other superhero characters, he's way down in recognizability to characters like Batman, Spider-Man, or even some of the Marvel superheroes. I highly doubt he would be worth much at all, but he could beat some really bad fodder.

Mother Brain - Mid Fodder

A character who is already outclassed by Ridley in terms of strength.
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I think that naming the dog Duck Hunt would include the duck in there as well, which I don't think adds much overall. And the dog is recognizable enough that he doesn't need the name change.

Day 60 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77892633
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