Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 262 ft Marvin the P. Android, Spike, Etna

(+) 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 261:

Trevor Belmont (Castlevania III) is High Fodder
Kyogre (Pokemon) is Mid Fodder
E. Honda (Street Fighter) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Marvin the Paranoid Android (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
Spike (Ape Escape)
Etna (Disgaea)

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Nominate Zero (999)

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Low Fodder for all three, though I'd guess that Marvin and Spike aren't far above LAW, whereas Etna should be close to Mid.

Second Axem's Zero (999) nomination.

Also, nominate Tanner for re-ranking. He was infamously atrocious in his only contest appearance, even if part of that was due to SFF, and there's no reason to expect him to improve now that Driver is irrelevant.

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Marvin the Paranoid Android (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) - LAW Fodder

Outside Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and the Bible, I doubt there's a single (non-school-required) book or franchise out there we can take for granted has a read rate above 10%. And on the commonly-taught-in-schools books, I don't think they'd amount to much either.

Hitchhiker's in other medium isn't gonna help much. And if Marvin looks particularly good in anything, I'm not aware of it.

Spike (Ape Escape) - Low fodder

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/4365-which-unannounced-sony-franchise-would-you-most-like-to-see

surprisingly non-abysmal but probably speaks to a level of apathy towards most of those franchises in general. Votals are really low for the era too. I don't think people ever cared much about Spike himself either and later games have other mains.

Etna (Disgaea) - Low fodder

probably around the low-to-mid boundary. Will tiebreak by looking how Laharl did in last character battle:
He missed it. Aside from 2006 because of the female bracket, he hadn't previously missed a character battle since the first Disgaea came out in English. Low it is!

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Sure, re-rank Tanner.

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Agree with Low Fodder for Marvin and Spike.

I will say Mid Fodder for Etna. She has a decisive lack of TJF, but she is a fan favorite in the Disgaea series rivaling Laharl himself. She's been present in every Disgaea game as either a supporting or optional character, and is in all the crossover and Prinny spinoff games. Her design definitely stands out too. Finally there is an alternate route in the first Disgaea game that makes her the main protagonist instead of Laharl, which I think could be big.

nominate Zero (999) and nominate Mudkip for re-ranking.

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About Tanner, at this point his series is probably better known for Driv3rgate than anything else.

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I'm definitely thinking Marvin would be LAW. The series was always pretty niche and it really hasn't seen a lot of love in the last decade or more.

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nomation Kim possible from Kim possible

I will change my vote on Marvin to LAW Fodder.

Day 263 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78436588

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