Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 205 ft Jade Curtiss, Octorok, May

(+) 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 204:

Mithos (Tales of Symphonia) is Low Fodder
Laguna Loire (Final Fantasy VIII) is Mid Fodder
Hermione Granger (Harry Potter) is High Fodder

Re-Ranking Result:

Goomba (Mario series) is now High Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

May (Pokemon RSE)
Octorok (Legend of Zelda series)
Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss)

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Nominate:
Thrall (Warcraft)
Tali'Zorah nar Rayya (Mass Effect)

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May is High Fodder for waifu-related reasons. Also I would guess that she was the more popular choice for a player character over Brendan. Not sure if she benefits from the Pokemon anime, but it's possible she could. And I expect at least 5 threads will pop up on B8 titled She's TEN during her contest match.

Mid Fodder for Octorok. Basically the Goomba of LoZ. It might get some points for design, but I don't think most voters will care due to seeing Octorok as little more than an annoying weak enemy that appears in nearly every game.

Jade might have had a legitimate case for law fodder ten years ago, but he looked to have boosted since then in his 2013 appearance. He is solidly Low Fodder now.

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May: Mid Fodder - I don't think waifuism is going to sway very many votes here, and gen 3 is too late for nostalgia to help much.
Octorok: Mid Fodder - It's not half as iconic as the Goomba, so it should by all rights be weaker, but I have too much ZeldaFEAR to call that.
Jade: Low Fodder

Nominate Koopa Troopa for re-ranking just to get it done, even though I agree with the original ranking.

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May (Pokemon RSE) - Mid fodder

I had very little confidence in Ethan, so yeah, don't think much of May either. Prominence in the anime might make her her sort of recognizable but most people of gamefaqs age had already jumped ship so I don't think they'll care much. Certainly better than Brendan though; I would low fodder him.

Octorok (Legend of Zelda series) - Low fodder

I think Zelda enemies aren't actually much like Mario enemies. The latter have relatively consistent character designs and get frequently put into spinoffs and are sometimes even playable in them, plus their species get to be party members and NPCs in the RPGs. Most of the Zelda reoccurring enemies are just kinda there and often aren't easily recognizable as being the same species from game to game. The generic Zelda things people might actually care a little about are more likely to be Gorons and Zoras, I think.

Frankly I probably wouldn't even remember that those things are called Octoroks if it weren't for CDI Zelda and even then "I'm so hungry I could eat an Octorok" isn't much.

Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss) - Low fodder

Solid low fodder at this point, yeah. Not sure I trust those fourway polls where he got last place factored as saying much even back then although he was so miserably awful there it does seem likely he boosted at some point. Maybe the 3DS port helped.

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Day 206 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78299106

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