Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 204 ft Laguna Loire, Mithos, Hermione

(+) 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 203:

Freya Crescent (Final Fantasy IX) is Mid Fodder
Zeus (God of War) is Mid Fodder
Pok Ball (Pokmon) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Mithos (Tales of Symphonia)
Laguna Loire (Final Fantasy VIII)
Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)

Today's Re-Ranking is:

Goomba (Mario series)

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Laguna mid

I'm not too sure how to interpret Mithos' lone contest match, since it was against pre-Dissidia Kefka. He didn't do too badly though. I think Mithos has enough to be Mid Fodder. ToS is still a popular game on the site, and Mithos seems to be regarded as an effective and memorable villain by fans.

Agree with Mid Fodder for Laguna. He is popular enough to be playable in Dissidia, but he doesn't seem like the type of character that would do well on Gfaqs and does not stand out design-wise. Plus he mostly appeared in flashbacks in FF8 and had limited involvement in the main story.

Hermione will be High Fodder, based almost entirely on Emma Watson's portrayal of her in the movies. She grew out of her "little know-it-all" phase fairly quickly, and was probably crushed on by many Gfaqers as she matured in the role. Of course she also had a big part in the action of the HP series, being the brains of the Harry/Hermione/Ron trio. Nostalgia will be big here.

Goomba I will put down at High Fodder. Despite how massively iconic the Goomba is, it will likely have a hard time beating characters with legitimate strength. Generic enemies don't really get strong fanbases around them, and even Goomba, arguably the strongest one, gets overshadowed by more important characters in the Mario series.

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Mithos (Tales of Symphonia) - Low fodder

Lloyd has more or less maintained strength. Kratos has not. Do I think people care enough about Mithos that he'll hold up all these years later? Nope! Just don't think people really care about him compared to the well-liked members of the party so he's bound to collapse all these years later.

Laguna Loire (Final Fantasy VIII) - Mid fodder
Hermione Granger (Harry Potter) - High fodder

Goomba (Mario series) - High fodder

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I don't think that Kratos has demonstratively dropped since 2010, where a loss to Sackboy put him in Mid Fodder range. It is a pretty close call with Mithos but I think there isn't much of a drop-off with him compared to Kratos or Sheena. I would honestly take Mithos over any party member besides Lloyd or the 2 mentioned above.

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half_silver28 posted...

I don't think that Kratos has demonstratively dropped since 2010, where a loss to Sackboy put him in Mid Fodder range.

What? Did you forget that Sackboy scored 35% on 2010 Leon the next round? He was probably right around the Fodder Line back then, so Kratos definitely dropped from 2010 to 2013.

Mithos: Low Fodder - Right near the border between that and Mid Fodder, though.
Laguna: Mid Fodder
Hermione: High Fodder
Goomba: Mid Fodder - Slightly more iconic than the Koopa, sure, but it really doesn't have a fanbase of its own or any reason for voters to actually care in comparison.

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I was putting Sackboy at High Fodder based on his result on Leon, but it's pretty close. My main read on 2010 Leon is coming from a sprite round match against Ryu, so maybe I'm undervaluing him by not taking those factors into account enough.

So maybe Kratos did fall from High to Mid Fodder during that period. Mithos most likely took a drop in turn, but I don't think it will have been a significant one.

nominate Axl (Mega Man X series) and Iris (Mega Man X4)

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Day 205 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78296815

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