Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 120 ft BJ Blazkowicz, Maya Fey, Kerrigan

(+) 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 119:

John McClane (Die Hard) is Mid Fodder
Ultimecia (Final Fantasy VIII) is Mid Fodder
Arthas Menethil (Warcraft) is Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

B.J. Blazkowicz (Wolfenstein)
Maya Fey (Ace Attorney)
Sarah Kerrigan (StarCraft)
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Blazkowicz: Mid Fodder, IDK. Might be swayed. I don't know enough about his series.

Maya: High Fodder. Phoenix and Edgeworth are great at making brackets, so there's a lot of supporters for the Ace Attorney bandwagon. Due to its many ports, it's nearly impossible to have not had a chance to buy the original Ace Attorney trilogy at this point. And Maya is just one of those characters you can't not like. Sure, Edgeworth has never advanced - but look at his draws. Link, Cloud, Luigi, Big Boss when MGS was relevant... I'd say he's potentially Fodder Line himself.

Kerrigan: Mid Fodder. Recognizable, but losing to Missile in 2013 and not making a bracket after that is pretty telling. With Blizzard not really being favored around these parts anymore, I don't think she has a chance in Scoria.
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Wasnt BJ already in in rivalry rumble (with Adolf)
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greengravy294 posted...

Wasnt BJ already in in rivalry rumble (with Adolf)

Doesn't matter. We're doing characters who didn't make the most recent Character Battle. A lot's changed since even 2013.
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greengravy294 posted...

Wasnt BJ already in in rivalry rumble (with Adolf)

Pretty much any character who wasn't in CBX and has appeared in a video game is fair game for this series.

B.J. Blazkowicz: Low Fodder - I can't believe that any great amount of voters would opt for him just because he's been the protagonist of recent games other sites have liked.

Maya Fey: Low Fodder - She's very much a tertiary Ace Attorney character as I understand it, more along the lines of Godot (who looked like Low Fodder in CBX) than Edgeworth. You can sort of excuse the latter's result against Luigi by calling SFF, but there's no excusing getting tripled by even a Near-Elite Big Boss or practically getting doubled by Morrigan Aensland (in 2013). Similar to Axem's vote on Vyse, I could maybe see Maya being Mid Fodder, but Andy already overloaded the BELIEVE here.

Sarah Kerrigan: Low Fodder - See Arthas, except at least a few people still like/care about him these days. She's never been worth much, and she ought to be worth even less nowadays, when looking at similar characters' trajectories.
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MetalmindStats posted...

She's very much a tertiary Ace Attorney character as I understand it

Not true. She appears as Phoenix's assistant in every case he heads. Case 2 in each of the three games is dedicated to her in some shape or form. She gets a crap ton of development in the other cases, too.

Godot is a one-game character. Maya's been in four, including the most recent.
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BlueCrystalTear posted...

Not true. She appears as Phoenix's assistant in every case he heads. Case 2 in each of the three games is dedicated to her in some shape or form. She gets a crap ton of development in the other cases, too.

Godot is a one-game character. Maya's been in four, including the most recent.

For the record, what I meant by "tertiary" is that Phoenix is the primary character, Edgeworth is secondary, while everyone else is noticeably less significant.

At any rate, I don't think this all matters enough to change my vote. Is Maya actually as important in the series as Edgeworth, who unlike Maya, has had at least one game devoted to him? Is she really as beloved as Edgeworth? Juxtaposing their nomination history, not to mention the results of tazzy's project, suggests the answer to the latter is no.
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MetalmindStats posted...

Is Maya actually as important in the series as Edgeworth, who unlike Maya, has had at least one game devoted to him? Is she really as beloved as Edgeworth?

Yes and yes. Without Maya, the series never becomes what it does. And she's extremely well-liked in the fandom. A lot of people were happy to see her back in Spirit of Justice, myself included. She is NOT Low Fodder.
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and tbh Maya's even more critical to the original trilogy's story than Edgeworth is. I'm serious.

That's partially why Edgeworth got his own game. People love his character, and wanted to see how he operates from his end. With Maya, there's really not much of a game for a spirit medium, is there?
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Low Fodder for BJ Blazkowicz. I don't think Gfaqs is going too care too much for him, and I'm not putting much weight behind rivalry rumble especially since Adolf was with him.

Maya is definitely not low fodder; in fact I don't think she is far behind Edgeworth. Mid Fodder for her.

Low Fodder for Kerrigan. She lost to a dog in 2013 and if anything she'll be weaker now.
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Okay, change my BJ vote to Low Fodder. I legit had no idea what level of fodder he would be.

With Kerrigan, people do still care about the original StarCraft. That's why I said Mid.
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MetalmindStats posted...

At any rate, I don't think this all matters enough to change my vote. Is Maya actually as important in the series as Edgeworth, who unlike Maya, has had at least one game devoted to him? Is she really as beloved as Edgeworth? Juxtaposing their nomination history, not to mention the results of tazzy's project, suggests the answer to the latter is no.

Maya is probably below Edgeworth in overall popularity but she is not a significantly less important character to the first three games than Edgeworth, she's probably the second most important character behind Phoenix

Ok, I'll accept that I was wrong about the importance part. However, that's still not quite enough to sway my overall vote.

Keep in mind that, in addition to the 2010 and 2013 matches I mentioned, Edgeworth's raw 2018 result against Luigi puts him not far above the border between Low and Mid Fodder. In other words, in order for Edgeworth (let alone the less popular Maya) to be High Fodder, he has to both have suffered substantial SFF from Luigi, who only marginally SFF'd Meta Knight back in 2010, and improved significantly from the early 2010s to now, even as Phoenix's strength has stayed about the same in that time.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

With Kerrigan, people do still care about the original StarCraft. That's why I said Mid.

Also, I don't get the sense any more than a very small minority of GameFAQs users still care about the original StarCraft, but I suppose there's not much hard evidence to back up either of our assertions.
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MetalmindStats posted...

However, that's still not quite enough to sway my overall vote.

You are still objectively wrong.

Edgeworth getting the amount of votes he did on Luigi means he's High Fodder. Maya's almost as strong as he is, and the Ace Attorney fans will definitely rally behind her. She's still considered one of the top characters from that series, and people who see her and know her will vote for her. Because she's hilarious, fun, and extremely well-developed.
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...Just how strong do you think Luigi is? For several contests now, we've had a pretty reliable peg on him, right around 32% on Base Link. Using the magic of X-Stats, Edgeworth's raw value based on his Luigi match is 14.4192%, indeed not far above the boundary between Low and Mid Fodder.

Also, Ace Attorney fans will certainly rally behind her, but they did the same thing with Godot, and no one else cared. Maya will fare a bit better for sure, but I'm skeptical that there's much of a difference in terms of non-fan support for anyone except Phoenix.
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X-stats make my head hurt, and they're not always reliable as far as I know.

Maya is not Low Fodder. Facts are facts.
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BJ. - low fodder
Maya Fey - mid fodder

Edgeworths 22.53% on Luigi really isnt that good, previous performances dont particularly support that being sff, and Maya is probably not gonna improve on Edgey. Even Godot looked to be around the high end of low fodder or so though so Maya as mid fodder seems easy enough?

Kerrigan. - mid fodder

Kerrigan was pretty close in strength to Missile and we mid foddered him? If anything shes stronger because once missiles 4chan rally worse off past the first few hours, she shaved 250 votes off his lead? Seems clear enough to me. 2015 Starcraft looked decent too.

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Fine, I'll change my Maya vote to Mid Fodder now that there's no real danger she winds up as High Fodder. As I said, she's pretty much right on the border of the two for me anyways.
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B.J. Blazkowicz - low fodder
Maya Fey (Ace Attorney) - elite
Sarah Kerrigan (StarCraft) - low fodder
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Haste_2 posted...

Maya Fey (Ace Attorney) - elite

As much as I'd love this, no. She's not going to be able to beat, say, Crono or Samus. Please explain.
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It seems pretty clear to me that it was an intentional joke vote in response to my comment about how Maya would have no danger of going down as High Fodder.
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Day 121 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78049274
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