Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 255 ft Maleficent, Rambo, Stanley

(+) 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 254:

Jenova (Final Fantasy VII) is Mid Fodder
Rattata (Pokemon) is High Fodder
Jon Snow (Game of Thrones) is Mid Fodder

Re-Ranking Result:

Tina Armstrong (Dead or Alive) is now Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Maleficent (Disney/Kingdom Hearts)
John Rambo (Rambo)
Stanley (Donkey Kong 3)

Today's Re-Ranking is:

Balthier Bunansa (Final Fantasy XII)

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Maleficent (Disney/Kingdom Hearts) - Low fodder

2002 pre-KH1 Maleficent is probably LAW fodder. I think very few even remembered her name at that point. Her big live-action movie is now several years old, probably not the kind of thing gamefaqs would care that much about anyways, and the recent sequel kinda flopped. Think she's relying a lot on Kingdom Hearts to do much and she's far enough back in people's favorites in that franchise that I'm thinking low fodder.

John Rambo (Rambo) - Low fodder

Besides the same actor, pretty much the same pros and cons as Rocky. An icon of pop culture but probably a bit too old for gamefaqs.

Stanley (Donkey Kong 3) - LAW Fodder

Most probably don't even know Donkey Kong 3 exists and basically nobody likes or cares about it. Pretty much his only other appearances are brief references in stuff like WarioWare and Smash.

Balthier Bunansa (Final Fantasy XII) - Mid fodder

He looked maybe sorta fodder line-ish in 2008 but slipped afterwards:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3776-midgar-division-round-1-ryu-vs-balthier
That is actually worse than what Yuri Lowell did against Ryu in 2013.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5164-character-battle-ix-division-3-round-1-luigi-vs-balthier-vs
Just under a tripling.

This is at worst on the high end of mid fodder. I think Zodiac Age can probably prevent further notable decline but if it made people care enough about XII to actually boost him, we'd probably have seen him again in 2018. We didn't. So I'm not inclined to be generous.

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I don't think Maleficent will be super strong, but I think she will make Mid Fodder. I mean she can turn into a dragon and dragons are cool! And if anything, the solo movies have kept her relevant while KH III significantly diminished her role in the series. iirc she had a major role in just about every Kingdom Hearts game before that.

Agree with Low Fodder for Rambo.

Agree with LAW Fodder for Stanley. He would probably be the weakest Nintendo character to ever appear in a contest (if he somehow made one).

For Balthier I am willing to give High Fodder. Zodiac Age had a good reception and I think he was close to high fodder in his 2013 match. Luigi is a very strong opponent and probably would've done better in that contest if he didn't run into smash SSF in round 2. Plus both FFXII and Beyond Good & Evil are strongly associated with the PS2, so I think Balthier lost a decent number of votes to Jade in his match.

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Nominate:
Totodile (Pokmon)
Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)
Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas/Disney Infinity)
Spike (Ape Escape)
Jean Grey/Phoenix (Marvel)
Blaziken (Pokemon)
Kyogre (Pokemon)
Groudon (Pokemon)
E. Honda (Street Fighter)
Dhalsim (Street Fighter)

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High Fodder for Balthier. That was where his 2013 match indicated he'd be, and he remains the fan favorite and only truly well-remembered FF12 character, so he should be a tier ahead of Ashe despite the latter's TJF/general design.

I agree with Axem's other votes.

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nominate Spring Breeze Dancin'

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Day 256 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78421161

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