Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 549 ft Sakura Kasugano, Darkwing Duck, Axl

(+) 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 548:

Juri Han (Street Fighter IV/V) is Low Fodder
Mr. Sandman (Punch-Out!) is Low Fodder
Pidgeot (Pokemon) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Sakura Kasugano (Street Fighter)
Darkwing Duck (Darkwing Duck)
Axl (Mega Man X series)

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Nominate:

Arya Stark (Game of Thrones)
Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones)
Cersei Lannister (Game of Thrones)
Tyrion Lannister (Game of Thrones)
Tywin Lannister (Game of Thrones)
James Raynor (StarCraft)
Arcturus Mengsk (StarCraft)
Edmund Duke (StarCraft)
Judicator Aldaris (StarCraft)
President John Henry Eden (Fallout 3)
Bitores Mendez (Resident Evil 4)
Las Plagas (Resident Evil 4)
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)
X-Wing (Star Wars)
TIE Fighter (Star Wars)

Re-rank: Reyn (Xenoblade)

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

Nominate:
Tyrion Lannister (Game of Thrones)
James Raynor (StarCraft)

These 2 were already rated. James was nominated as Jim Raynor.

Second President John Henry Eden (Fallout 3)

I will say Mid Fodder for Sakura. She is a huge fan favorite and was in pretty much everything Street Fighter-related from the mid 90s to the early 00s. She was also one of the first inclusions in SF4 and was an early DLC inclusion in 5. However I'm hesitant to put her at high since I don't think "generic" schoolgirls are Gfaqs type of character, and because she wasn't in Street Fighter 2.

Mid Fodder (barely) for Darkwing Duck. He hits the prime nostalgia zone for Gfaqs (early to mid 90s) and got a lot of games during that time as well. The thing that puts him over for me is that DD is relevant in several episodes of the recent Ducktales series.

Low Fodder for Axl. Basically he came into the series too late for me to have confidence in him.

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second Arya Stark, Sansa Stark, Cersei Lannister and Millennium Falcon

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Sakura - low fodder

it was borderline but I dont trust traditional fighting game characters much outside the icons and 2020 suggested to me that however much they might have enjoyed certain fighting game franchises back in the day, the average gamefaqs voter doesnt really care what those franchises are doing now.

Darkwing Duck - low fodder

Im not convinced many on gamefaqs are watching the new Duck Tales series but maybe Im out of touch.

Axl - low fodder

Hes basically just in X7 (hated game), X8, and Command Mission but he at least looks like an MMX character. I think he avoids LAW.

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Re-rank Banjo

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Agree with Axem I guess, though I could see Sakura or Darkwing going either way.

Rerank Piranha Plant, on the basis that the now long-dead surprise value of its inclusion in Smash won't be enough to put it on par with Bowser Jr. and Daisy, fellow Mario Smashers with actual characterization and major appearances in non-Smash games.

Also, nominate V (Cyberpunk 2077) and Johnny Silverhand (Cyberpunk 2077).

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second re-ranking Piranha Plant

Day 550 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79194056

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