Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 440 ft Coco Bandicoot, Nidoking, Stan Lee

(+) 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 439:

Strago Magus (Final Fantasy VI) is Low Fodder
Haunter (Pokemon) is High Fodder
Sandy Cheeks (Spongebob games) is Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Coco Bandicoot (Crash Bandicoot)
Nidoking (Pokemon)
Stan Lee (Marvel games)

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Coco Bandicoot (Crash Bandicoot) - low fodder

Not in Crash 1, in Crash 2 but totally unimportant, but you do play as her in a few levels of Crash 3. I assume shes playable and stuff in spinoffs and Crash Team Racing, at least, is pretty well liked.

I think the most fitting comparison for her is Roll. If youre at all into their franchise you know who she is but shes so completely peripheral to why you care that even diehard fans may not vote for her. Roll was lucky to even be ranked mid fodder; you basically have to assume her 2006 result was SFF, female bracket wonkiness, or just so long ago that its no longer relevant to how gamefaqs may vote for her now. Reasonable imo but worth noting. And even with his recent upswing, Crashs franchise is no Mega Man so yeah.

Nidoking (Pokemon) - High fodder

People like Nidoking. Its spiky and you can get it early and it can learn a ridiculous number of good, useful TMs.

Stan Lee (Marvel games) - Mid fodder

R.I.P.

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Yeah I'll agree with Low Fodder for Coco. She's just not a Gfaqs type of character and I think nostalgia is the main reason the site cares about the Crash series, and Coco is not very prominent in the original trilogy.

I will say Fodder Line for Nidoking. It is a very popular Pokemon and was used a lot in RBY for its versatility and ease to obtain.

Agree with Mid Fodder for Stan Lee. I expect the Gfaqs demographic will give a good amount of respect votes to the late comic legend.

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Nominate Austin Powers.

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I think Stan Lee could have reached Mid Fodder when the sting from his death was at its peak. Now, he'd definitely still get some respect votes, but I don't think they'd quite be enough to compensate for the 'real-life person in a video game character contest' factor anymore. Thus, Low Fodder is my vote.

I will agree with High Fodder for Nidoking (it's certainly popular, but it's hardly some top-tier fan favorite) and Low Fodder for Coco, though. I'll also nominate Austin Powers.

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Day 441 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78942061

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