Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 256 ft Tabuu, Dhalsim, Totodile

(+) 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 255:

Maleficent (Disney/Kingdom Hearts) is Low Fodder
John Rambo (Rambo) is Low Fodder
Stanley (Donkey Kong 3) is LAW Fodder

Re-Ranking Result:

Balthier Bunansa (Final Fantasy XII) is now High Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Tabuu (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
Dhalsim (Street Fighter)
Totodile (Pokmon)

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Tabuu (Super Smash Bros. Brawl) - Low fodder

He's a dozen years old, has no personality or dialogue, and his game was seen as obsoleted enough by Smash 4 that it didn't even make the 2015 games contest despite being a finalist in Game of the Decade...and now Smash Ultimate is out too.

Dhalsim (Street Fighter) - Mid fodder

I guess. Might not be far from Low but I have some faith in the first 8 playables to not be totally hopeless.

Totodile (Pokmon) - High fodder

It's not on the cover and without that or something else really special (and I think even cover bonus runs pretty thin after around gen 3), I don't have much confidence in post-RBY Pokemon. Even for GSC, when you're blatantly just the GSC version of an archetype RBY already did ("the water starter"), you're not going to hold up very well in comparison to the original. While they obviously have SFF, I think those favorites grass/fire/water starter polls kind of make the point.

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Nominate Blanka (Street Fighter)

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AxemRedRanger posted...

Nominate Blanka (Street Fighter)

We already rated him.

Tabuu: Low Fodder
Totodile: High Fodder

Dhalsim: Low Fodder - Guile looked like a scrub against Kirby, though that was admittedly an unfavorable matchup for someone who relies on memes and icon status for their strength. Dhalsim's comparative result in the latest SF2 character poll hardly gives me confidence he can match up even to that gimped version of Guile. As one of the original 8, it's close, though.

Nominate Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza.

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Nominate Rayquaza (Pokemon)

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agree with Axem's ratings

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Re-rank Mudkip.

It lost to Totodile twice in those favorite water-starter polls.

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second re-ranking Mudkip. Fodder Line is definitely too high for a non-gen 1/2 Pokemon that draws a lot of its strength from a dead meme, which most of Gfaqs likely won't look back on fondly.

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Day 257 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78423383

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