Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 107 ft Donald Duck, Altair, Epona

(+) 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 106:

Raiden (Metal Gear) is Fodder Line
Delita Hyral (Final Fantasy Tactics) is Mid Fodder
Falco Lombardi (Star Fox) is Fodder Line

Here is today's trio to rank:

Altair (Assassin's Creed)
Donald Duck (Disney/Kingdom Hearts)
Epona (Legend of Zelda series)
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Nominate Piranha Plant

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Altair - High fodder

His series has fallen from grace due to overuse and people dont like the character or his game as much as the Ezio stuff. He still looks cool and should have decent recognition though neither is probably worth as much as it used to be. Ezio is probably fodder line so this one seems simple enough.

Donald Duck - High fodder

Everybody knows who this is but he hasnt really done much outside of KH within the last few decades that the average gamefaqs user is at all likely to care about. Probably has a killer Europe vote though. Feel like he shouldnt be worse than Goofy.

Epona - Midcarder

harrich you monster

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Altair: High Fodder indeed. AssCreed has fallen due to the annual releases, and I don't see him edging Lara Croft again. He has some recognition, but his game is getting up there in years and there are other AssCreed protags people would nominate. He didn't even make the bracket last time.

Donald Duck: Low Midcarder, but BARELY. He's likely stronger than Goofy because people have additional associations with him, such as DuckTales (which got rebooted recently) even though he's not really in that. I think he can beat up on pretty much any fodder based on recognition alone. I'd say he beats Altair in a 1-on-1 by 60-40 at least, and I do think that is because of the International voters. I see him advancing a round or two depending on who he draws.

Epona: Low Midcarder. She's only made a bracket once since Zelda fans always prioritize other characters and forget about her, and that one time was because of us. She managed to look pretty respectable, though, because she's been in three Zelda games and people know who she is. Despite not having been in Skyward Snore or Breath of the Wild, I think she's dropped one tier at absolute most. It would be nice if we had additional data for her, but alas, we don't.
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I will agree with High Fodder for Altair, but I almost want to go mid fodder. I just don't think the site cares about the AC series nearly as much as it did in 2013. It's hard to judge this by Ezio's performance in CBX though, since he was up against the newly elite Zelda. Ezio I think is slightly stronger than Altair.

Donald Duck I think just barely makes Low Midcarder. He is more iconic and popular than Goofy, and the Europe vote puts him over the fodder line.

Fodder Line for Epona. Not being in BOTW hurts her a bit, and I think she was a low midcarder in CB9. Again it's hard to tell, but Ganon seemed to drop a bit due to having a limited role in BOTW so I figure the same will happen to Epona.
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nominations:

Dawn (Pokemon)
Raine Sage (Tales of Symphonia)
Treecko (Pokemon)
Valerie (Pokemon)
Victreebel (Pokemon)
May (Pokemon)
Ampharos (Pokemon)
Prince (Prince Interactive)
Goldar (Power Rangers)
Koffing (Pokemon)
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Altair: High Fodder - Ezio looked seriously bad in 2018, but I don't think Zelda is a good opponent for him to shine against in this day and age. Also, the assassins should still derive most of their appeal from the series and general character design aspects, so I doubt Altair is much weaker than Ezio.

Donald Duck: High Fodder - He'll be stronger than Goofy, but he has the same problem - why would GameFAQs voters care?

Epona: Midcarder - First off, this is about where she looked to be in 2013, and I'd be interested in hearing the argument for how she was only a Low Midcarder. Second, the sprite round messing things up makes it debatable how much Ganondorf weakened, if at all, so extending a whole tier reduction to Epona (and calling her only barely stronger than Tingle) seems like a stretch. It's also worth noting that, while Epona herself wasn't in BotW without Amiibos, horses in general were a prominent gameplay element in it.
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Nominating Kid(Chrono Cross)

Day 108 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78017169
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