Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 239 ft Zangief, Whispy Woods, Popo

(+) 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 238:

Ho-Oh (Pokemon) is High Fodder
Chester (Chester) is LAW Fodder
Mad Piano (Super Mario 64) is Low Fodder

Re-Ranking Result:

Waddle Dee (Kirby series) is now Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Zangief (Street Fighter)
Whispy Woods (Kirby's Dream Land)
Popo (Ice Climber)

Today's Re-ranking is:

Chuck Norris (Chuck Norris Superkicks)

---

Re-rank Terry Bogard

---

Nominate Betelgeuse (Beetlejuice)

---

I nomations Athena from snk

Zangief (Street Fighter) - Mid fodder

Ryu and Guile disappointed in 2018 and I'm reluctant to put much faith in Street Fighter characters. He hasn't done very well in favorite Street Fighter poll of the days either.

Whispy Woods (Kirby's Dream Land) - Low fodder

the kirby first boss guy
similar issues to waddle dee, Kirby series is kinda weak.
there's also very little reason to actually like this guy in particular. he's the first boss, it's seldom an interesting fight. also, literally a tree

Popo (Ice Climber) - Low fodder

Nobody outside Japan cares about Ice Climbers outside of Smash. I think people are apathetic enough about individual Ice Climbers for them to actually make low fodder.

Today's Re-ranking is:

Chuck Norris (Chuck Norris Superkicks)

---

Zangief I say is High Fodder. I've already gone on at length about discounting Guile's disappointing result in CBX - basically Guile is a stagnant character who sucks and hasn't been popular since vanilla SF4, and only has a few old memes going for him. I also would not put much stock into the favorite Street Fighter poll. Bison didn't do that well and he's still a decently strong character. Plus Zangief is a grappler, so he isn't a widely-played character in SF.

Gief is a staple of the series and has a lot of games under his belt, and is memorable for his over-the-top Soviet stereotype antics. Plus his quotes from Wreck-It Ralph and the Street Fighter movie Quick change the channel!

Agree with Low Fodder for Whispy Woods.

For Popo I will say Mid Fodder (barely). While Nana got beat pretty badly in her one appearance, I feel like Popo will be a bit stronger. He is the leader of the duo by default, and a big deal is made by players winning with solo Popo, often referred to as "Sopo". This is used even when the single Ice Climber is Nana.

Chuck Norris I will give Mid Fodder - Chuck Norris jokes are ingrained into popular culture and everyone knows them despite their age. Related joke threads will probably be out in force for Chuck's match on B8. That said Gfaqs isn't quite old enough for Walker Texas Ranger to factor in for him.

---

Zangief: Mid Fodder - Basically Guile minus the memes (no, half_silver's argument does not convince me that 'Gief's truly well-remembered), so he should arguably be Low Fodder if anything, but I'm biased because he's always been my favorite Street Fighter character. Also, for what it's worth, we really don't know that Bison still has strength, considering we haven't seen anything from him in the past ten years contest-wise.

Whispy: Low Fodder
Popo: Low Fodder - The Ice Climbers have become somewhat of a Smash fan favorite, true, but I'm not convinced that translates much to one solo Climber in a contest setting.

Chuck Norris: Low Fodder - If Zangief is Guile without the memes, Chuck Norris is Guile without games people remotely care about, complete with the lack of relevance such a label implies.

On that note, nominate M. Bison for reranking, because calling him almost as strong as Chun-Li and her TJF plus fan-favorite status after Ryu (and Guile)'s 2018 disappointment seems like a stretch. Arguably, he wasn't even a Low Midcarder all the way back in Villains, and he won't have gotten stronger since.

---

also nominate Betelgeuse

---

forget chuck Norris oops

Chuck Norris - low fodder

I wanted to still put him at mid fodder but...As fun as Chuck Norris jokes were, Im not sure Ive heard a single one in the past 5 years and the meme peaked well before that, even.


---

Day 240 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78383258

---