Board 8 > Save My Favorite Final Fantasy Characters XIX: Day 47 [smfffc]

(+) Yeah! (+)

54. ZACKSTATS

CXI - 47/75
CXII - 28/75
CXIII - 7/75
CXIV - 1/102 [308-270 vs. Squall]
CXV - 43/100
CXVI - 78/100
CXVII - 77/100
CXVIII - 54/100
CXIX - 54/100

Zack's had a fairly even distribution of finishes, sometimes in pairs! That's back to back finishes in the same spot, after nearly finishing at the same spot back to back the previous two years. He has a couple of mid-40s finishes and a couple of top 10 finishes, including a victory over Squall in CXIV. CXII is the only contest without a similar finish somewhere else, so maybe that can be rectified next year. With this performance, Zack drops nearly a full percent from 55.83% to 54.85%, falling below Cloud (of Darkness) to land at 35th place.

Zack's STATS are a little worse in the New Era. There, he falls from 50.40% to 49.83%, falling past Lulu to land at 45th place.

Numbers gotta save the other ffvii character with black hair

Not barret
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KommunistKoala posted...

Numbers gotta save the other ffvii character with black hair

Not barret

wow RacistFAQs is alive and well

(Yuffie has black hair too for the record)
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Also not tifa or yuffie

Or is their hair brown
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Damnt
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I think Yuffie has brown hair
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Tifa's hair is a very dark brown. It almost looks black in Advent Children, but it's pretty clearly brown in FFVII.
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oops
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actually Yuffie's hair looks like a really dark brown in some screenshots and artwork too

I just assumed it was black since she's supposed to be "Asian"

now I need to check and make sure Vincent's hair is actually black

looks like it is
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I agree with Koala that Numbers should save Tifa and Yuffie.
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Inviso posted...

I agree with Koala that Numbers should save Tifa

wow look at this good Inviso opinion

take it in people

(nevermind that Inviso tried really hard to counterbalance it immediately afterward)
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FFS I hate this fucking contest
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I know, right
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looks like my original post was correct

now to make it so
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I got some bad news for ya brother
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Zack gets eliminated and I get one of his 6* relics in Record Keeper sometime afterwards.

I am totally ok with this result!
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Zack has pretty much become one of the "odd" winners now. It's sad to say he's in the boat with certain others, but he just is. Is there any sort of stats on post-winner blues? I wonder if anyone, with a big enough of data set, is much worse than Zack has been since.
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I feel like Balthier is probably on a similar boat

They will probably never be booted but don't have enough interest to push forward
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Balthier has finished in the top 25 or something at least once since though. Zack barely made it across halfway, once.
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If only I could afford to save Zack

but it doesn't help when he's already won and I actually saw it
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zack is cool but also he's won
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OlDirtyNumbers posted...

I got some bad news for ya brother

y
r
p
in position
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sorry cool and good actually
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I mean Zack had the most natural build-up to a win, debuting in the middle. Then jumping 20 places. Then jumping another 20 places. Then winning.

It was just a perfect, growing storm.

But now he's a winner and everyone who helped back him has splintered off to other things. Just because he doesn't have a lefty who refuses to ever leave his side ever for any reason EVER doesn't mean he's odd. Just that he got his W.
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Plenty of winners go into slumps after they win. It's actually more unusual if they don't. There's a reason why Vivi is the only character to make it back to the finals after winning and the only character to win twice.

Zidane is probably one of the most remarkable champs in that he hasn't finished worse than 20th since he won, and that was seven contests ago now.
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Three contests after win:

Cecil: 3rd, 5th, 5th
Lulu: 12th, 40th, 57th
Celes: 9th, 22nd, 5th
Vivi: 21st, 25th, 16th
Reno: 30th, 48th, 44th
Edgar: 9th, 29th, 21st
Kuja: 10th, 7th, 18th
Balthier: 37th, 29th, 31st
Auron: 63rd, 8th, 25th
Zell: 30th, 11th, 58th
Gilgamesh: 52nd, 24th, 30th
Zidane: 6th, 12th, 3rd
Marche: 74th, 70th, 90th
Zack: 43rd, 78th, 77th
Rydia: 19th, 21st, 36th

So yeah, no. I think Zack is definitely on the lower end here, most champions don't fall off as bad as he did. I mean it's not good to have your closest comparison literally be Marche, as from looking at this that is the only character that's performed as poorly following directly following their win. Characters might weaken somewhat gradually and become midcarders, or they may fade entirely over time (Reno) but Zack's drop was immediate and has not really recovered in the same way as the majority of the rest of these champions. I mean even Lulu followed up her win with a great performance.
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Zack has fallen off harder than most, but a good number of the champs have hardcore supporters that have stuck by them even after winning. The ones who don't have struggled, too. Zack just isn't a primary option for anyone anymore. They got what they wanted out of him, and they're happy with that. He could do well if his fans wanted anything more out of him, but they clearly don't.
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yeah i don't think it's just winners slump. it's more, when you look at his two primary supporters during his victory -- me and brett -- i'm a weirdo who has supported someone different every single year and brett disappeared off the face of the earth after that contest. i'm sure he could still do well if i mained him to get him to top 30 or so, but y'know.

also one of those three years -- i don't remember which -- he went out while i was banned from a lawyering WHOOPS. barret, i think?
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Isn't it weird that there have been 3 Champions who start with Z, which is more than any other letter
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I mean, thanks for reiterating what I was saying anyway.

v_charon posted...

I wonder if anyone, with a big enough of data set, is much worse than Zack has been since.

It didn't take disagreeing with me just for the sake of responding, you know. I was merely comparing Zack to more of the "fad" winners than those that have hardcore fanbases, and I never really considered Zack to be in the same boat with Reno, Marche and the like. The stats suggest he is though, and I was just stating I was surprised at it.
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v_charon posted...

It didn't take disagreeing with me just for the sake of responding, you know.

you don't have to post this every time I disagree with you, you know
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MZero11 posted...

Isn't it weird that there have been 3 Champions who start with Z, which is more than any other letter

Get ready for future champion Zemus
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It's just odd to me that you said

LeonhartFour posted...

Plenty of winners go into slumps after they win. It's actually more unusual if they don't.

But then I post the stats following their wins, which contradicts this, and then you just sort of agree he fell off harder than most, which is all I said to begin with.
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MZero11 posted...

Isn't it weird that there have been 3 Champions who start with Z, which is more than any other letter

Z has a 100% success rate for contest champs so start lining up other Z characters
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v_charon posted...

But then I post the stats following their wins, which contradicts this

You also said you wanted to talk about characters over the long-term, and you went three contests out.
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Zeromus hype train
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I think there's an implication to calling him an 'odd' winner that goes beyond just 'fell off harder than most'.
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It's a lot harder to get a range of more if you go further out. It lessens the amount of characters you have. I felt 3 gave a good idea of how they performed following the win, and it gave a lot of characters to compare it too.
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Like if we want to talk about a character who hasn't done nearly as well since winning, look at Auron. He nearly got booted the year after he won, he's made the top 10 only once since winning, and actually got booted this year.

And Balthier is actually a good example because that other top 25 feels more like an outlier at this point than anything else. He's finished in the bottom half four times since winning. Rydia has slowly been dropping off ever since Shoe quit two years ago, too.

Well, that was a pretty precipitous dropoff this year.
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I feel like all that really matters is if the character gets hard booted or wins tbh

Middle ground is kinda whatever
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And nearly half of the former champs have been booted since winning, too. It's over half if we count the ones who were soft boots but actually came back (Zack and Balthier).
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tbqh I care about the soft boot mark more than the hard boot mark

unpopular characters that can't pass the hard boots were never going to do anything, and popular characters that get hard booted will come back some day

not needing to nom your characters next year is a big deal! now that I don't need to nom Layle I can devote my noms to Daddy. And if I lose Layle I may not get him back :(
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VeryInsane posted...

I feel like all that really matters is if the character gets hard booted or wins tbh

Middle ground is kinda whatever

my man
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CelesMyUserName posted...

tbqh I care about the soft boot mark more than the hard boot mark

unpopular characters that can't pass the hard boots were never going to do anything, and popular characters that get hard booted will come back some day

not needing to nom your characters next year is a big deal! now that I don't need to nom Layle I can devote my noms to Daddy. And if I lose Layle I may not get him back :(

Poor Chocobo will never have stats. :(
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I'm sure people will help you get Chocobo in for the sake of STATS next year if you're up front about it.
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Obviously Square just needs to put another Final Fantasy Fables on Switch.
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I'd buy it. I need more games for my Switch.
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actually I guess I kind of care about the middle places in that I still have my 'every primary supported character has reached top 3' thing going on. I mean I can and will continue to move the goalposts bc it used to be 'has won' and 'has reached the finals' but I still care, man.
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hopefully with Switch we can get back to having Crystal Chronicles games

dammit Wii U
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Will Project Octopath Traveller be considered a FF game
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