Lurker > creativename

Lopen posted...

Vader is about as much style as Sephiroth is in terms of appeal. Vader has a story under there. So does Seph. No one cares about either one much compared to their style

Vaders story is much more important to his popularity than Sephiroths.

Thats true of video game characters as a whole. Appealing design and being part of a game with great gameplay can take you very far. Link for example.

Characters in other mediums will always rely more on other things. Simply because other things are more important to those mediums, since they arent interactive.

Logience posted...

Dude, all of Vaders scenes in Rogue One were just awful fanservice.

If by awful you mean successful, sure. They were definitely fanservice.

Seanchan posted...

Who are the "Noble 9" of fictional characters?

Batman
Joker
Superman
Spider-man
Iron Man
Goku
Vegeta
Darth Vader
Yoda

...no, that doesn't look right. Gotta be some easy ones I'm missing.

Wolverine probably.

Seanchan posted...

NowItsAngeTime posted...

I would put Han Solo before Yoda personally

Yeah, that sounds like it could be true.

What other major properties could have contenders?

Cartman
Homer Simpson
Bart Simpson
The Terminator
Alien
Predator

Neo?
Simba?
Genie?

...now I feel like I'm really reaching.

I wouldnt trust any of these characters to be strong, other than maybe Homer.

red sox 777 posted...

Batman and Darth Vader are going to have the same issue Crono and Megaman have, that of being much weaker in the rest of the world than in the Americas.

Good point actually. Wouldnt be as extreme though. And theyd be absolute powerhouses in the US.

Nanis23 posted...

>Darth Vader being considered strong
He would be the Sephiroth of GameFAQs Character Battles if we had him from the beginning
Cool to like in the past, too edgy to like now

Yeah, no.

The main reason Rogue One was a hit is Vaders presence and the thing people remember most about it is 90 seconds of Vader kicking ass. Maybe less than 90 seconds.

I love Sephiroth, but hes all style.

Vader has one of the most epic character arcs in cinema history.

If anything would hurt him it would be Ani. Not being edgy. His character is dark and depressing, not edgy, and his story is now pretty much *the* archetype of a fallen hero.

Its never not going to be cool to like Vader, thats just not going to happen.

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

I've never see creativename be this militantly stupid and wrong about something.

Well I suppose being militantly wrong is the specialty of some people around here... ;)

Do explain why you think such a contest would be less fun. If Im being so stupid, it should be easy to explain how Im wrong.

Not_Wylvane posted...

Batman would struggle to get 45% on Alucard. The only people here anymore are those that really care about video games, many of them more than other media. Batman or Darth Vader won't do shit. Goku's the only one I could see threaten the lower Noble Nine-tier characters, and possibly even the highest non-Link tier if he gets a bandwagon going.

But we really don't need fictional characters since we just had a damn contest that was exciting and unpredictable and wasn't majorly affected by rallies. Next contest still has a lot of unanswered questions, and if we do another Games contest or GotD before then things could still change dramatically.

e: Plus they'd be bigger rally targets, and we all know how much this board loves rallies.

Batman should obliterate Alucard. What in the world. You actually believe this??

And theres no way in hell Goku is stronger than the likes of Batman and Darth Vader.

Also your definition of dramatic change seems awfully loose. Zelda boosting is the most dramatic change we saw, and in absolute terms its really not a huge shift.

Seriously, how many vanilla character contests do we really need?

BarbaricAvatar posted...

creativename posted...

BarbaricAvatar posted...

Amused at all the projection going on as to my taste in games.
And "best ever" of anything is ALWAYS subjective, stop pretending it's anything else. But the variety of salty responses all but prove my point about the cabal of fanatics who can't handle people liking other things.
It's a guarantee that every contest will go one of three ways: Zelda, Final Fantasy or Nintendo in general. I'm cool with that otherwise i wouldn't frequent this site, but you're kidding yourselves if you think these contests are neutral from the outset.

Errr...you sure seem salty that people like other things than you. Like, what?

Youre free to not like Nintendo and Final Fantasy, but to get salty about people liking those things, then mock people for getting salty that people cant handle others liking different things - this is a no go bro.

And what does neutral even mean? What are you talking about?

I guess you haven't read the other responses to my initial post. I don't have a problem with people liking things, i just can't see how this contest is anything other than a fanclub which doesn't allow outsiders to take part.
Neutral means having a setup that suits everyone, not just the fans of the things oneself likes. So (for example) instead of putting everything together and then seeing the resultant whitewash consisting of Zelda, Final Fantasy or general Nintendo characters come to the finals (because those are the favoured games of this site). You'd force a situation where voters have to choose between their favourites in order to find the most popular 3 or 4 which then go into a pot with the same number of characters from other systems and genres.
Sure, the end result will probably be Link again but it would have gone through a much fairer and transparent process to get there. Rather than 1 or 2 of the popular characters from mainstream gaming losing to secondary, tertiary and lower characters from one of the three aforementioned sections simply because those games are more popular around here than shooters or slashers.

Outsiders have hijacked these contests on multiple occasions.

I legitimately dont even understand your supposed neutral setup.

I also think you fail to understand the concept of a popularity contest. You act like popular characters winning a popularity contest is a bad thing.

And fair to you is rigging the system against popular characters? What are you, a commie? Do we need to toss you from a helicopter ;)

squexa posted...

creativename posted...

squexa posted...

Wow you really are against a movie idea huh.. tell me why this is a bad idea. We'll have 0 xstats and it will be cool to see which movies this site likes, since the field is completely open.

Why is contest with fictionals not more fun.

Tell me. Go on. Im waiting. Since thats what your post seemed to be implying.

I'm only proposing a movie contest, as a counterpart to the games contest.

Idea: Best movie (with video game adaptations).
- It's related to video games because the movies must have an official game based on it
- Most movies aren't even eligible. Casablanca? Citizen Kane? No games, no entry.
- Most post-90s action movies are in
- Movies are f***ing awesome

1 v 1. 24 hours. We can have a loser's bracket with proper seeding.

Field is open. 0 x-stats. Anyone can win. I have yet seen anyone counter this idea with anything other than asking an unrelated question.

So you cant explain how a fictionals contest would fail to be more fun. Yup, thats what I figured.

AxemRedRanger posted...

I'd like to see an all-fictional contest but can everyone drop the ridiculous pretense that these characters' video game appearances actually matter much? That's not why you want them in and that's not why they could potentially be strong. You're not fooling SBAllen or helping your case!

(I recall ngamer being particularly bad about this)

Pretense? Obviously the video game appearance thing is why theyd be relevant to the site. You wont see me arguing for the inclusion of characters whove never appeared in a game, because that would be silly. The game appearance requirement is just a way to avoid silliness, basically.

But in no way is Spider-Man or Batman irrelevant to gaming. You could say some fictionals would have trivial game appearances that are irrelevant, but most of the powerhouses will probably have had some significant game appearance.

Of course their game appearances arent why they would be strong. I dont really see the importance of this.

Also the game appearance requirement would help to limit fodder as any character worth anything should have been in a game. Also real life figures should be fodder so you want fictionals only.

I could definitely see the argument to limit this to game originals only in 2K3. In 2018, I just cant see the point.

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

creativename posted...

HaRRicH posted...

Please keep these contests to just video game character-originals, thanks.

Please make these contests ten times more interesting rather than the same old crap weve seen a bazillion times, thanks.

The people whining and demanding Link be removed from the bracket should be demanding fictionals.

God, such a contest would be SOOOO much more interesting that its just outrageous. That people would be against this is just weird to me. I highly doubt most would be against it.

Certainly the activity level in these topics would go up a lot if we had a fictionals contest. There would be so much more to discuss.

There seems to be no downsides except maybe for some strange sense of conservativism or traditionalism that some might have.

I mean, you dont actually believe such a contest would be less FUN right?

So if it would be more *fun* - why are you against it?

And if you really do think it would be less fun - how could that possibly be? How is Wolverine vs. Sonic and Spider-Man vs. Snake not more interesting than same old, same old...?

What is sooo great, so amazing about the same group of ten elites dominating everything all the time, with Link a virtual lock to win? I would very much like to know what you think is so wonderful about this.

I mean Im genuinely curious. Whats the logic here?

I find it impossible, absolutely impossible that such a contest wouldnt be more fun.

Make contests great again!

I'm sorry but you're wrong. Change for the sake of change is never a good thing. This contest was fascinating from start to finish, despite the numerous bullshit rallies

Explain how adding popular characters to a popularity contest in a way that would increase the fun, interest and discussion levels, could possibly be characterized as change for the sake of change.

This contest was better than the last few ones, but come on. It would have been radically more fascinating with fictionals.

I dont see how the idea of yet another vanilla contest with these same characters, and a static userbase whose preferences dont change much, turns anyone on.

Whats so hot about another vanilla contest? Does Cloud vs. Samus really seem more sexy to you than Samus vs. Batman?

You seem to want to resist improvement just for the sake of resisting change.

squexa posted...

Wow you really are against a movie idea huh.. tell me why this is a bad idea. We'll have 0 xstats and it will be cool to see which movies this site likes, since the field is completely open.

Why is contest with fictionals not more fun.

Tell me. Go on. Im waiting. Since thats what your post seemed to be implying.

Safer_777 posted...

Came back from work, checked the results. This is what I have to say.

Final match=Cloud above 40%! Oh yeah.

Also I have said so many times that EVERY character that has appeared in a videogame should be eligible. It is the ONLY way to have interesting matches any more. Lincoln, Superman, Vegeta, Chuck Norris, John Cena and there is no limit.

I think we should however have them at a limit, I mean for example half characters in a bracket should be from videogames only and half should be from any video game ever, and have them in the 1st round at least to face each other.

This will make everything excited, because we will not know the power of these characters and they might even catch a rally!

Im totally against the real life figures because theyd almost certainly be joke turbofodder. Plus they wouldnt have fan art pics, and real life pictures in match pics would be very out of place.

I agree about the 50/50 bracket and mixed first round. Ive had those ideas myself.

squexa posted...

Let's just have a best movie contest featuring characters that have at least some ties to video games. We'll have 0 xstats and it will be very fresh. Anyone against it is against fun.

Back to the Future vs Iron Man II let's go.

Sigh.

Why do people keep twisting this into a parody concept about Abraham Lincoln or movies, then attack the parody, rather than attempting to voice reasonable criticisms of the actual concept being promoted?

Makes me strongly suspect these reasonable criticisms dont actually exist. Maybe someone will voice one, but I havent seen it yet.

Go ahead. Tell me how this contest *wouldnt* be more fun with fictionals, since thats what you seem to be implying.

Mr Lasastryke posted...

creativename posted...

What is sooo great, so amazing about the same group of ten elites dominating everything all the time, with Link a virtual lock to win? I would very much like to know what you think is so wonderful about this.

i mean, having a link/zelda final was pretty interesting to me.

i'm not against a contest with non-game characters but there was enough interesting stuff happening this contest for me to still like game character contests.

Oh I definitely liked this contest.

The lack of ridiculous uber-rallies for turbofodder made it much more fun. Small dualing rallies between similar level opponents are fun. Massive guaranteed win rallies for turbofodder are pretty boring to me.

But while this contest was more fun than any weve had for some time to me, it definitely wasnt at the level a fictionals contest would be.

Frankly, I think the people who are against this idea would come around and embrace it once the official bracket came out and they realized how much more interesting things had gotten.

I mean, just think about a totally random match like Yoda vs. Sonic or Pikachu. Or Han Solo vs. Ryu. Iron Man vs. Squall. How are these not more interesting than the same old stuff?

With how static the user base of this site is, these characters really dont shift in strength all that much, so even our shocking results are actually not all that shocking in an absolute sense.

I do think most people who might be reluctant now - I suppose due to instinctual territorialism or something? - would change their minds once things actually got official and tangible.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I can kind of understand where the purists are coming from but I am up for anything that makes contests more interesting.

Well personally Im pretty baffled.

I am extremely curious to know the mindset there, because I am afraid I genuinely do not understand.

BarbaricAvatar posted...

Amused at all the projection going on as to my taste in games.
And "best ever" of anything is ALWAYS subjective, stop pretending it's anything else. But the variety of salty responses all but prove my point about the cabal of fanatics who can't handle people liking other things.
It's a guarantee that every contest will go one of three ways: Zelda, Final Fantasy or Nintendo in general. I'm cool with that otherwise i wouldn't frequent this site, but you're kidding yourselves if you think these contests are neutral from the outset.

Errr...you sure seem salty that people like other things than you. Like, what?

Youre free to not like Nintendo and Final Fantasy, but to get salty about people liking those things, then mock people for getting salty that people cant handle others liking different things - this is a no go bro.

And what does neutral even mean? What are you talking about?

HaRRicH posted...

Please keep these contests to just video game character-originals, thanks.

Please make these contests ten times more interesting rather than the same old crap weve seen a bazillion times, thanks.

The people whining and demanding Link be removed from the bracket should be demanding fictionals.

God, such a contest would be SOOOO much more interesting that its just outrageous. That people would be against this is just weird to me. I highly doubt most would be against it.

Certainly the activity level in these topics would go up a lot if we had a fictionals contest. There would be so much more to discuss.

There seems to be no downsides except maybe for some strange sense of conservativism or traditionalism that some might have.

I mean, you dont actually believe such a contest would be less FUN right?

So if it would be more *fun* - why are you against it?

And if you really do think it would be less fun - how could that possibly be? How is Wolverine vs. Sonic and Spider-Man vs. Snake not more interesting than same old, same old...?

What is sooo great, so amazing about the same group of ten elites dominating everything all the time, with Link a virtual lock to win? I would very much like to know what you think is so wonderful about this.

I mean Im genuinely curious. Whats the logic here?

I find it impossible, absolutely impossible that such a contest wouldnt be more fun.

Make contests great again!

Averia posted...

Maybe I'm overestimating DroneFaqs but I'm pretty sure no one could challenge Link without rallies.
Batman would be 40-60ed by Link too.

Back in the mid-2000s, I would have confidently taken Batman over Link. Batman has more fanboys than any character ever.

Now though all the casuals are gone, and this site is super hardcore gamers with massive nostalgia goggles. I have a lot less confidence in Batman now.

But if you think Batman couldnt get bandwagon or rallied past Link, I mean...come on. Its certainly far from a lock, but one has to acknowledge the possibility.

Its freakin Batman.

Literally Batman. The most fanboy worshipped character ever.

I think Batmans popularity has actually declined somewhat due to the popularity of the MCU. He isnt so much *the* superhero now. But hes still Batman.

Also the thing about fictionals is the ridiculous depth. Marvel and Star Wars alone probably have a ton of characters whod be lower midcard or better.

Then youve got random stuff like LOTR and DBZ. Id say were long past peak DBZ, but some characters could still do OK. But the point is the crazy number of universes to draw from.

I wonder how Game of Thrones characters would do. I think theyd do less well than LOTR because of their...realness, I guess. I have less confidence in them because they seem more like normal people than archetypical characters. But maybe Im wrong and Tyrion Lannister or Jaime or Ned would do well. But Id expect Gandalf and Aragorn to do better. Also I think having real actors in match pics would be very bad IMO - it just looks awkward. LOTR would be more likely to have fan art than actors.

But, I think the comic characters would be the strongest, along with Vader. The Joker would likely do very well. Magneto too. Spider-Man, Wolverine, Thor, Iron Man should all be strong. But Batman and Spider-Man should be the strongest.

Id pick Batman, Vader and maybe Spider-Man to be the strongest.

I mean, do you seriously think Sonic can beat Spider-Man or Darth Vader? I think theyd beat him easily.

TheOneAboveAll posted...

creativename posted...

Yuri_LowelI posted...

Can we not have one wih non exclusive game characters? Its been nearly 20 years surely we can do one with non exclusive game characters? It would be way more fun.

This would be the best scenario.

I dont really understand the reluctance from Allen.

All the people complaining about Lets remove Link from the contest! Hes too stronkkkk!!! Should be asking for a fictionals contest. Add Batman and Darth Vader into the mix. Suddenly Link doesnt look so safe.

Also even if Link is naturally stronger than Batman now, would it be a shock if Batman wins via bandwagon or rally? I dont think so.

Seriously, everyone wanting Link removed from the bracket - because hes too popular to be in a popularity contest - should instead be demanding a contest with Darth Vader and Batman and Spider-Man.

The reason is obvious. Then it's not a video game contest anymore. It's a random popularity contest, and it doesn't have anything particularly to do with GameFAQs other than being hosted by it.

Like, if we're gonna go with a "fictional characters" contest, why not add historical characters? Abraham Lincoln vs Batman would be one heck of a battle, no?

Of course a contest with fictional characters that have appeared in games would have something to do with video games. Video games are not limited to things original to gaming.

Because people *want* a cool fictionals contest, and they do not *want* a stupid historical figures contest?

People *want* to see Spider-Man and Darth Vader. Characters that would be strong on their own, and potentially get rallies of real supporters. They do not *want* to see a stupid historical figures contest, where only trolls would rally the figures for the lulz.

The entire point is that Abraham Lincoln vs. Batman would NOT be a heck of a battle, because Batman would be a monster and Lincoln a joke entrant.

Why are you conflating something people would *want*, with something they do not *want*?

Popular potential monster characters with joke entrants?

AdamantRock posted...

Cloud, Mario, Samus, and maybe Zelda are too close to be put in a rigid hierarchy, IMO. Excepting the seeming strongest (Cloud) versus the apparent weakest (Zelda), any match between two of the four could go either way.

1. Link (obviously)

2. Cloud
2. Mario
2. Samus
2. Zelda

6. Snake

7. Crono

8. Mega Man
8. Sonic

10. Sephiroth (poor Sephy...)

(This is kinda random, but the image in your sig, Yuri, is a dead ringer for the Orphen opening.)

Would you really be shocked if Snake beat Cloud though?

I think that Samus match is really messing up peoples views of Snake. Especially as Samus might just be that damn strong, and only gets messed up by Mario.

I think Mario thrashing Samus in 2K5 caused people to underrate Samus in terms of the perception of her strength, since it was such an embarrassing and notorious defeat. I think you can see this in how continually surprised we are when Samus stomps other elites.

I think getting beat down by Samus is causing people to underrate Snake.

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

garetha200 posted...

If Tifa is legitimately stronger than Sephiroth, then Samus had a stronger round 1 of the Legends Bracket than Mario did. And since that's the only round where you can compare them and they seemed pretty even directly, saying Samus is stronger indirectly makes a lot of sense.

Only problem with that is I don't buy for a second that Tifa beat Seph. I trust Tifa/Samus as most of the weirdness this contest has been hentai rallies and the general SJWFF we saw in a few matches. If you trust Tifa/Samus and Tifa/Seph, that puts Ryu at a really really weak level which makes zero sense. The only explanation that makes sense across the board is the following:

- Sephiroth is around Mega Man/Crono level
- Zelda is also naturally around that level and benefitted greatly from her bandwagon and hentai rallies
- Samus/Mario 1 is an accurate representation of Samus
- Snake is the only real outlier here as Snake/Samus and Snake/Sonic can't both be accurate and still make sense in the grand scheme of things

Are you trolling?

Because if you legitimately believe Mario is indirectly stronger than Samus, you are out of your damn mind o_O

_SecretSquirrel posted...

creativename posted...

_SecretSquirrel posted...

creativename posted...

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Finally found the match pics.

https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/images/x/user/link-f-boss-f.png (WHAT)

Thats Link? What is this? Is this mislabeled?

Wasnt this being used for Zelda too?

No, that's Link wearing Zelda's dress, opposite Cloud in a dress.

Why does he have green hair? Why is he in a dress? What game is this?

Im so confused.

http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Legendary_Dress

Thanks.

But...why is his hair green??

Yuri_LowelI posted...

Can we not have one wih non exclusive game characters? Its been nearly 20 years surely we can do one with non exclusive game characters? It would be way more fun.

This would be the best scenario.

I dont really understand the reluctance from Allen.

All the people complaining about Lets remove Link from the contest! Hes too stronkkkk!!! Should be asking for a fictionals contest. Add Batman and Darth Vader into the mix. Suddenly Link doesnt look so safe.

Also even if Link is naturally stronger than Batman now, would it be a shock if Batman wins via bandwagon or rally? I dont think so.

Seriously, everyone wanting Link removed from the bracket - because hes too popular to be in a popularity contest - should instead be demanding a contest with Darth Vader and Batman and Spider-Man.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

creativename posted...

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Finally found the match pics.

https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/images/x/user/link-f-boss-f.png (WHAT)

Thats Link? What is this? Is this mislabeled?

Wasnt this being used for Zelda too?

No, that's Link wearing Zelda's dress, opposite Cloud in a dress.

Why does he have green hair? Why is he in a dress? What game is this?

Im so confused.

The_Ctes posted...

I imagine Cloud only really doing better than last time at first. For most of the day it's probably not gonna be any real difference.

Yeah.

To go with a theme others have mentioned, the early voters are smarks who vote based on the kayfabe contest narrative.

L-Block was an example of the half the site buying into the kayfabe and creating a babyface superstar, though he didnt last long. A rapid rise and rapid fall, like the Ultimate Warrior. U-L-timate Warblocker?

Hmmm. This is fun!

Link would be Hulk Hogan of course, no selling eveybody and refusing to job. And going from babyface to heel but remaining the top guy. With a swerve face turn against Draven, like Hogan being face in the eyes of the fans at Wrestlemania 18. But still losing.

xp1337 posted...

I'm on Team Samus for #2.

Maybe this current iteration of Cloud could beat her with his momentum, but neutral field I'll take Samus without much hesitation. tbqh, I'd take Mario too, I think there was a real factor coming from that Samus match.

True. Its quite possible Mario wouldve edged Cloud out if he hadnt faced Samus first.

Though the match was close enough that random variation and pics could flip the result.

OFool posted...

Cloud would have clutch beat Samus in this contest, lets be honest.

Samus might come out better against many characters, but she wouldnt have taken down Cloud when push came to shove.

Why would Cloud clutch Samus?

I dont think that match would be close enough for him to clutch.

You could say maybe something was off about her match with Snake (Smash SFF or whatever), but I think its clear shes at least a couple points stronger than Mario indirectly. Cloud barely beat Mario.

I dont think hed beat Samus. Not this contest anyway. Next contest it could change, though Id expect the advantage to move in her favor if anything.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Finally found the match pics.

https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/images/x/user/link-f-boss-f.png (WHAT)

Thats Link? What is this? Is this mislabeled?

Wasnt this being used for Zelda too?

Link - 59.74%

LusterSoldier posted...

Legends and Loser Bracket, Round 3 and later

Cloud Strife vs. Mario
Registered Vote Result:
Cloud Strife - 4320 (47.73%)
Mario - 4730 (52.27%)

Anonymous Vote Result:
Cloud Strife - 6027 (54.33%)
Mario - 5066 (45.67%)

This was almost nearly a 7% difference between registered/anonymous users, but the reason for this huge difference was the rallying for Cloud. Based on the percentage of registered user votes after 12 hours into the match, we were on pace to finish around 46.75% registered users. This allowed me to estimate that there were about 800 rallied votes, with an estimated split of 600 for Cloud and 200 for Mario. There were some rallies for Mario, the most successful one being on the Mario subreddit where the topic did manage to reach the number 1 spot at one point.

Without any rallying, Mario probably would have won by about 250 votes and finished with about 50.50% on Cloud. The results at the 12 hour mark had Mario with 51.91% with registered users and 46.63% with anonymous users, which is only around a 5% difference instead.

Extra info and past results - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O1QuDMeK4VhHOia7bdBgtVp_F3kRTnGkkjtR0zRyudw/pub

@LusterSoldier

Thats interesting.

Does your projection of how many registered voters we would have finished at, take into account that the first half of the match probably has more registered users?

I think maybe not many have talked about Cloud rallying, is that the entire notion of FF7 rallying past freakin Mario is so absurd that it hasnt sunk in yet.

Though I think a lot of it would be a lack of rallying for Mario, as the people that would normally rally him probably saw him as the villain this time.

UltimaterializerX posted...

KamikazePotato posted...

Samus has proven herself to be stronger than Mario in every match that doesn't involve facing Mario and dealing with the hierarchy. That 57% on Snake is better than anything Mario could hope to accomplish.

Samus is definitely stronger indirectly. There is no denying this.

Indirectly? Hell, she was stronger than Mario *directly* their last match if you dont count double votes (who knows if we get those next time).

Unless her next game is horrid and hurts her somehow, Id say shed be the 1v1 favorite vs. Mario. Their history should also play in her favor, making her more sympathetic.

I think if we had a Linkless bracket, people would think Samus deserved to win.

Link versus Cloud posted...

Doesn't seem like it.

Mario and Cloud are on a similar level and Cloud has less SFF vs Link and yet he still failed to break 40, so no reason to think Mario would do it. We already saw that Zelda couldn't do it. Crono/MM are about the same level as Pikachu, who barely broke 31.5, let alone 40 (Crono would do better due to less SFF, but still nowhere near 40). Snake and Samus are the only ones with a shot at 40, but Samus probably gets SFF'd to hell and if Snake barely got 43.5 on Samus I don't like his odds to get 40 on Link.

Samus could conceivably avoid SFF and break 40% in a final, due to anti-votes/bandwagon.

Shed be a clear favorite over Cloud. Surprised to see people saying Cloud would win or its a toss up. Samus performance on Snake May have been wonky, but she should still be able to outdo Cloud on Snake.

Id say Snake/Cloud is very hard to call.

If Cloud wins:

Link - 60.02%

If Zelda wins:

Link - 63.06%

Zelda - 50.01%

XIII_rocks posted...

Change:

Zelda with 94.11%

@XIII_rocks

I think you want to change this!

Zelda - 50.44%

Not_Wylvane posted...

Im surprised by how hard Mario is riding the hentai rallies...!

Cloud is the trap.

Mario must be cheating.

Haste_2 posted...

48 gain for Mario? Now he just needs to repeat that like five more times. I didn't realize I was doing fairly well in the contest until I found that I was #50 today. Maybe if Mario can pull off those wins... just maaaaaybe I could win a prize if enough people did not pick Mario.

200-vote barrier cast!

ShatteredElysium posted...

It will never happen but the contest I'd be most interested in would be one with some sort of handicap like how Vegas odds work

I'd love it if the bracket-makers predicted how well each character would do, which would decide the odds and therefore the handicaps. Mega Man might be able to win a contest for once!

Youd see extra brackets made to game the system, probably.

ninkendo posted...

looks like the FF7 power hour is finally over

I guess its more like an anti-villain hour, and Mario is now a villain.

swirIdude posted...

lordjers posted...

If Link retires Zelda would get stronger and she'd win.

Proxy voting has never happened in the years where the top competitors were excluded from the main bracket, why would that change now?

Youd have to remove them from the bracket entirely for proxy voting to be a thing. Not just the main bracket.

I do believe Majoras Mask benefitted from proxy voting to a small but noteworthy extent.

Is the last discussion topic archived anywhere? It seems to have been purged.

Do we have a list of top 5 counts for this contest?

Team Rocket Elite posted...

lordjers posted...

It'd be interesting to see Mass Effect smashing Ultima just to expose the claim of people not playing new games is BS (though it'd be kinda sad).

Are we sure Mass Effect wins that one? >_>

I uh, cant tell to what degree youre joking. But Id presume Ultima would be very weak on this site.

It was before the time of most here, and from an era where the people that come to this site were all about consoles.

TheOneAboveAll posted...

I'm wondering if Monkey Island would be weaker in a series contest than Guybrush Threepwood was in Character Battles.

I'm also inclined to believe that that might be our perfect stats crossover, because those should be absolutely equal in strength.

Monkey Island should be significantly stronger than Guybrush due to respect factor. Many people that would vote for Monkey Island due to reputation have probably never even heard of Guybrush.

I do feel a lot of people underestimate respect voting factor from people who have played neither game.

MI/Guybrush should be like SOTC/whatshisface but to a much lesser extent.

LusterSoldier posted...

OrangeCrush980 posted...

Series contest could be fun. With how much this site loves Smash Bros it might be able to challenge Legend of Zelda now.

Pokemon would also be a lot stronger today than we saw in 2006 - a top 3 series in strength now.

With an expanded field of 64 game series, we could fit in some more series that were introduced after 2006 such as Mass Effect, The Witcher, and Dark Souls.

I am not convinced Pokmon is clearly above each of Mario Bros., Smash, and Final Fantasy.

I think weve passed peak Mass Effect.

lordjers posted...

If Link retires Zelda would get stronger and she'd win.

Very possible. Zeldrones proxies and so forth. She might win on natural strength, but remove Link altogether and she should boost.

Samus would be her main threat probably.

Not_Wylvane posted...

Do you guys think the Planet Gamecube and Hentai rallies will offset for this one?

Cross dressing Cloud hentai rallies. Of course!

KamikazePotato posted...

creativename posted...

Luigiman59 posted...

Link absolutely needs to be permanently retired. You remove him and the contest becomes unpredictable and more fun.

Im not sure how even the biggest Link fanboys can look at his performance and be like yeah knowing who is going to win before the contest even starts is much more entertaining. Selfish.

The notion of a popularity contest with the most popular characters removed is such a silly idea.

We've done this in many brackets, and each time in resulted in a better contest than if we hadn't. All these late game matches are 1/3 as exciting as they should be because the final winners spot isn't on the line.

So give Link a bye to the last two rounds.

Removing him totally because he always wins us just stupid. Its a *popularity* contest. The most popular character *should* win.

I dont get what these matches have to do with Link being removed? These matches arent that interesting because they are losers matches. It would be different if they counted.

In actuality one of the reasons Link is less interesting now is because of the anti-votes. Watching him smash turbofodder used to be fun. Now he cant reach those heights anymore.

I think removing Link altogether would just be dumb. If you want him to not take everybody out, either:

-Give him a bye to the semi-finals

-Put the entire Noble Nine plus Zelda plus Pikachu on the opposite side of the bracket from him. This way he doesnt prevent any interesting matches between elites.

Luigiman59 posted...

Link absolutely needs to be permanently retired. You remove him and the contest becomes unpredictable and more fun.

Im not sure how even the biggest Link fanboys can look at his performance and be like yeah knowing who is going to win before the contest even starts is much more entertaining. Selfish.

The notion of a popularity contest with the most popular characters removed is such a silly idea.

Villains and females would be bad, best series boring, no point in another character contest so soon, and games should wait for GOTD.

And is quotes a joke choice...?

A best console mini contest or no contest are the only sensible options IMO.

Mario - 50.57%

Team Rocket Elite posted...

Do we know for sure it existed and wasn't a rumor? I remember hearing about it on the board but I never got to see the real thing.

Hmm. I remember either seeing screenshots or looking at the code for a form, but those could be false memories.

red sox 777 posted...

TheOneAboveAll posted...

red sox 777 posted...

Also yeah I'm not 30 yet so I'm going to go cry in a corner because Crono lost now.

You're not 30 yet?? How young were you back in 2002?

No, better question: How did someone that young end up such a Crono superfan?

EDIT: I'm also a Crono superfan. I didn't realize until after I posted this that I'm not 30 yet either. Man, I feel old.

I think my first vote in these things was Mario/Cloud. I think I was rallied from Planet Gamecube. I vaguely recall using Gamefaqs for an OOT walkthrough a couple years before that. After discovering these contests I realized they were much more fun than actually playing video games. As for Crono, um, Crono is just awesome.

You found contests more fun than games even as a kid?

I mean I like contests, but Id definitely give them up before I gave up games. And I loved games even more as a kid.

How old were you when you played CT? Did you play it on SNES or emulator?

TheOneAboveAll posted...

Team Rocket Elite posted...

red sox 777 posted...

Also, the male/female poll explains how Mario could bring in 10,000 extra votes but only pick up maybe 2,000 votes against Crono. That kind of rallying has a built in backfire rate.

I have no idea what the real code used looked like but there was absolutely no reason not to hook up both options to vote for the same character. That way there's no chance to backfire.

Let's be clear: We're not 100% positive that the random poll actually was hooked back into our contest.

Didnt it redirect to this site after you filled the form?