Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 233 ft Ashley Graham, 9S, Rambi the Rhino

(+) 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 232:

Megaman.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network) is Fodder Line
Vulcan Raven (Metal Gear Solid) is Low Fodder
The Kid (Bastion) is Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Ashley Graham (Resident Evil 4)
9S (Nier: Automata)
Rambi the Rhino (Donkey Kong Country)

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I think Exe should actually make Low-Midcarder thanks to your Midcarder vote?

Ashley Graham (Resident Evil 4) - Low fodder

I think she works well enough in the context of RE4's "most of this is really stupid and we're going to make you like it" story but... "Ashley from RE4 is a great character I really care about," said no one ever. She's gonna have some haters too. "Between apathy and annoyance" is not where you want to be, especially not when your game's strength seems be heading slowly south.

HELP ME LEON

9S (Nier: Automata) - Mid fodder

2B's 2018 performance was absurdly good for a newcomer and while a lot of that was undoubtedly character design, I'm going to presume marginal respect for her supporting cast until being given a reason not to.

Rambi the Rhino (Donkey Kong Country) - Mid fodder

Donkey Kong has clearly gotten stronger over the past decade and DKC2 by itself looked like a midcarder in 2015 and there's lots of other DKC stuff. On the other hand, I think emotional attachment to particular DKC animal partners is gonna be exceptionally low. Feel like people on gamefaqs at least should generally recognize who Rambi is and maybe remember enjoying crashing through enemies and stuff so he might not be too bad.

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Mid Fodder for all. I agree with the reasoning for 9S and Rambi. Ashley I think sneaks into Mid Fodder on account of being a major character in the strongest RE game on the site, and being attractive. I think that overtakes the "annoying damsel" anti-votes she will get from some fans.

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AxemRedRanger posted...

I think Exe should actually make Low-Midcarder thanks to your Midcarder vote?

This.

As for today, I agree with Axem's votes and reasoning for Ashley and Rambi, especially in a time when RE4 is far from its peak.

For 9S, I will vote High Fodder, because his game presence is on par with 2B's, and I get the sense his popularity is at least close to 2B's, both unlike Atreus to Kratos.

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fixed EXE ranking on the doc

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Ashley is DEFINITELY low fodder. Non-Leon/Jill RE characters have never done especially well. Even characters that people LIKE like Wesker, Chris and Ada struggle. And Ashley is overwhelmingly hated.

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Day 234 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78369409

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