Board 8 > "How Fucked Are We?" - The Comprehensive 2018 Rallying Handbook

(+) Yeah! (+)

By far the most common question I've seen thrown around since the contest announcement has been: "who is getting rallied?" Not 'if' - 'who'. Kind of seems like an inevitability these days, doesn't it? It's not really, but I'm still expecting a lot of people to roll the dice on a random rally to try and push their bracket to the top. Problem is, honestly speaking, I don't think most of B8 actually keeps up with a lot of popular trends in games or even understands why rallies happen in the first place. So here's my 100% foolproof guide on choosing between the big rally candidates this year! Feel free to follow my advice. You know, if you want free money.

Fortnite / PUBG Character
Rally Chance: Very Low
This is one I see thrown around a lot. Fortnite and PUBG are the two hottest things on the market right now, so they're going to steamroll our little corner of the internet, right? Well...not exactly. For a rally in a character battle to happen, there needs to be an actual character to get behind. L-Block was the closest an entrant can get to not having a character and still being rallied, but he got by on being a really funny entrant and literally everyone having played Tetris as some point. Fortnite and PUBG don't have characters, they have generic character avatars and classes with none of the personality of, say, the Team Fortress 2 cast. Despite what Link may have led you to believe, characters aren't automatic contest stand-ins for games. PUBG/Fortnite avatars don't have personalities, or names, or even defined visual appearances. Steve from Minecraft had it better than that and he still got demolished. I don't even know if it's possible for PUBG/Fortnite to get a valid entrance into the contest, let alone one that would get enough popular support to be rallied.

Any League of Legends Character
Rally Chance: Very Low
League is no longer the 'it' thing in game. It's still extremely popular and actually has a higher playrate than Fortnite, but it's not exciting anymore. It would be difficult to energize the base enough to get them to try and mess with yet another GameFAQs Contest. Draven was also a lightning-in-a-bottle character in that he was both universally loved and a huge LoL meme at the time. No one else could have gotten the universal support he did. His time has past, and no other character has been able to fill those shows. LoL simply has too many characters for people to choose from; you'll never get everyone to agree on just one anymore. The final nail in the coffin is that the League subreddit doesn't allow rallying anymore, which...I could've said from the start and saved you all some time. Oops!

Reinhardt (Fire Emblem Heroes)
Rally Chance: Low to Medium
Fire Emblem Heroes is a surprisingly popular game with a large & active subreddit, and Reinhardt is their poster boy. He's a Draven-type character in that almost everyone likes him...and he's a huge meme. Reinhardt is basically a Fire Emblem Heroes original character, coming from a previous FE game that no one played, allowing him to be molded by the community. He's extremely powerful and useful, is used on a ton of teams, and gets loooots of fanarts/memes/ect. of him made. It may seem silly to mention those, but they matter. A lot. If Reinhardt got in, I have zero doubt that the FEH Subreddit would immediately throw their support behind him. The saving grace is that the FEH subreddit isn't *that* big, so even if Reinhardt gets rallied it probably won't be enough to shut out the contest, but considering that votals decrease each contest...it's something to be wary of.
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Geralt of Rivia (Witcher)
Rally Chance: Low to Medium
The Witcher 3 is somehow still selling a shitton of copies and The Witcher is somehow getting a TV show, so the series is still relevant. More importantly, CD Projekt Red has openly stated that they like to rally for Witcher stuff. The only reason that Witcher 3 didn't get rallied in the last contest is because they missed the memo. If they don't miss the memo this time, we could be in trouble. Simple as that.

Sans (Undertale)
Rally Chance: Medium
Sometimes lightning strikes twice. Undertale's fanbase is not nearly as rabid as it used to be, but Sans as a character has surprisingly been able to stay among the public consciousness (to a degree). Mostly due to memes about him 'potentially' being in Smash, but yeah. The Undertale fanbase adores Sans, so I wouldn't be surprised if they throw their support behind him if he gets in. The main reason I don't put him rated as 'High' is because Undertale already won the Games Contest, and the feeling of "we've done this before" matters for rallies. L-Block and Missingno are proof of this - they grow weaker every year.

Tracer / DVA / Mercy (Overwatch)
Rally Chance: Medium
Probably the highest chance of a rally catching fire would be one of these three characters. Overwatch is still super popular and has a very active online presence (the subreddit is enormous). The game has a variety of characters, but not so much that the core favorites aren't clearly defined, those being Tracer, DVA, and Mercy. Those three are all extremely popular, with Tracer being the poster girl and DVA/Mercy being...different kinds of posters girls. The Overwatch fanbase loves them just a little too much, so don't be surprised if people come over in droves to vote for their waifu.

Feel free to suggest characters or properties and I'll give you my ten cents on whether or not they'll come over and happily ruin our contest!
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Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club? I don't buy it, but people have been bringing it up as a possibility.
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I think more than anything we need to try and move on from the narrative of rallies "ruining" the contest

I'm in no way a fan but if we go in with the assumption that a) it'll happen and b) it'll be awful, that's just going to make the whole contest worse
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Something about a FE rally doesn't feel right. It lacks the "let's crush those nintendrones" thing that rallies based on MOBAs and whatever have.

Like if people come here to talk about FE we'll hang out with them. There's no drama or hate in that.

TheArkOfTurus posted...

Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club? I don't buy it, but people have been bringing it up as a possibility.

Knew I was forgetting someone.

Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club)
Rally Potential: Low to Medium
Monika, on paper, is a strong candidate. She has the strong one-two punch of being a legitimately loved character and a meme at the same time. It's hard to beat that! Would be very easy for the fanbase to unite around. The problem is...well, the fanbase, or lack thereof. DDLC hasn't fallen off in the sense that people don't like it anymore, but it was very much a zeitgeist sort of game. Something that is extremely popular and constantly talked about for a short period of time, and then just...isn't. If this contest had taken place half a year ago, I would've listed Monika as 'High' and legitimately taken her in my bracket, but the hype just isn't there anymore. It would be difficult to mobilize the troops, especially since the subreddit isn't very big or active.
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ZeldaTPLink posted...

Like if people come here to talk about FE we'll hang out with them. There's no drama or hate in that.

Rallies don't need to be about drama or hate to succeed...but dude, people would still absolutely freak out about a total unknown FE character from a game never released in the US beating Link. People would ask "why?!" and all they would get in response are a bunch of dumb meme images.
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I dunno man it would blend fairly well among all the RPG characters we usually nominate.

I just don't.... feel bad about it. A rally has to feel bad. You know?

Like FE fans are likely to come here and... vote for Link anyway.

OMG a rally that makes Link stronger. Now I've seen everything.

this is a good thread thank you kp
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Waluigi?

(I don't really expect anything from him, but I've seen some people here talking about it a decent amount.)
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I welcome any rally, but Im apparently in the minority here in thinking GameFAQs contests are unbelievably boring/awful without them. I absolutely loved seeing Mario and Link lose to characters they otherwise wouldve 60-40d. Im probably the only guy here who would be 100% happy to see all of the N9 eliminated in R1

I hate Reinhardt but a Reinhardt rally would be legitimately funny so it'll never happen
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ZenOfThunder posted...

this is a good thread thank you kp

*high five*

Xeybozn posted...

Waluigi?

(I don't really expect anything from him, but I've seen some people here talking about it a decent amount.)

Considered this and I'll probably do a writeup later, but at the moment I'm on the fence. He's a meme right now due to not getting in Smash but do people really care that much? Will they care by the time his match is here? I don't know.
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ZeldaTPLink posted...

I just don't.... feel bad about it. A rally has to feel bad. You know?

This

This is exactly the problem
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ZeldaTPLink posted...

I just don't.... feel bad about it. A rally has to feel bad. You know?

ZeldaTPLink posted...

OMG a rally that makes Link stronger. Now I've seen everything.

I don't agree with either of these. Despite it getting hijacked somewhat in the later stages, for the most part, the Undertale rally wasn't meant to feel bad. People who get rallied also almost never vote for the thing they've been rallied against, even if it's Link.
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by the time the contest actually happens Waluigi's fire will have burnt out

also where would you go to rally Waluigi? Twitter? Get lost in a sea of a thousand other tweets?
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KamikazePotato posted...

Despite it getting hijacked somewhat in the later stages, for the most part, the Undertale rally wasn't meant to feel bad.

Disagree. It was pretentious game snobbing that gradually got less subtle over time.
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Yeah it's easy to conflate Undertale and Draven but Draven was mainly a troll effort propagated partly by some shitty people - truly toxic - whereas Undertale was just people genuinely loving the game as well as the "hilarity" of it. They weren't the same in terms of feeling or intent.

And B8's reaction to UT was due in part to lingering Draven memories. If Draven never happened, the reaction to UT would have been overwhelmingly more positive.
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The difference between game enthusiasm, which is totally cool, and game snobbing, which isn't, is the attitude.

Undertale fans were like "everyone who has played this game thinks it's the greatest of all time and the only reason you're arguing is you haven't played it (even for the people who have)" more than "you should try this game you might like it"

Would take Draven rally every time. At least they were up front about what they were doing, more honest with us and themselves.
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There is a rally-possible character for Fortnite and that's Ray.

Only issue is that Fortnite is popular because of the battle royale mode and Ray is save the world exclusive.
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Any Pokemon character?
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don't Fortnite players only play BR and make fun of the single player story stuff?

although we're super lucky that this isnt a games contest cuz fortnite would just win

straight up it would win, no other options

hopefully the fad dies before the next games contest
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Most Fortnite players probably don't even know it has a Story Mode

Underleveled posted...

Any Pokemon character?

Entirely depends on what gets into the bracket.
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most Fortnite players are 12 and can't even have an account here
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ZenOfThunder posted...

by the time the contest actually happens Waluigi's fire will have burnt out

also where would you go to rally Waluigi? Twitter? Get lost in a sea of a thousand other tweets?

Depends on when they start announcing Smash DLC. If he got announced as an additional character somehow before his elimination, he would be unstoppable.

But thats unlikely because I think his window has already passed, and would he be DLC if he is already in the game as an assist trophy?
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Geralt can't happen. He comes from books.
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Sorozone posted...

Geralt can't happen. He comes from books.

Pretty good chance that Bacon won't care.
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yeah i mean Strider was banned for a while for appearing in a promotional manga for his upcoming game first, and yeah Allen eventually repealed that but if that was once even a rule then Geralt def has no shot
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Allen is a pretty strict dude, I think he would keep Geralt out as to not "open the floodgates"

although he did allow Hitler once so I guess he can be lenient sometimes

also there was one time where he had the Nom Database and let the dude from the Darkness in there despite him being from a comic and he had to be specifically told that he wasn't eligible by us, so it's also safe to assume he doesn't do too much research. Maybe Geralt does have a chance if we just keep the noise down?
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Yeah but like, that was back then. Nobody cares about the strict letter of that rule anymore. Geralt is a game character by this point.
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honestly if Bacon wants traffic at all for this contest he should play things fast and loose

it's the 10th anniversary after all, it would be good to just kind of... go balls to the walls with it. just go nuts. make it a celebration of the wackiness and unpredictability of these contests. why not?
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where is the multi billion dollar franchise poster child mash kyrielight

ZenOfThunder posted...

honestly if Bacon wants traffic at all for this contest he should play things fast and loose

it's the 10th anniversary after all, it would be good to just kind of... go balls to the walls with it. just go nuts. make it a celebration of the wackiness and unpredictability of these contests. why not?

non-game original characters when?

I wanna see if Batman can beat Link.

I mean there could be anti-rally on Link from Marvel fans.

I don't think Marvel fans and DC fans would at all be interested in rallying or anti-rallying.
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Darth Vader/Batman/Spiderman/Homer Simpson final four?
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i think a lot of the "big" non-game characters would deal with the same problems Pac-Man has where everyone knows and likes them but when they're up against a VG character they really like on this VG site they have no reason to vote for them
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Completely agree with this. I don't think Batman is that strong primarily for that reason.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Completely agree with this. I don't think Batman is that strong primarily for that reason.

As long as he's stronger than lame old spiderman
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KamikazePotato posted...

the Undertale rally wasn't meant to feel bad

well when it beats one of my favorite games it's going to feel bad

rallies never work in my favor ever
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All rallies feel bad, but my point is that a rally on a nintendo/FF game would feel less like an outside thing than anything else.

if there would ever actually be a successful rally on an FF game or a non-Pokemon/Melee Nintendo game that would be nice

although I'd still rather it not happen at all

I don't care what other sites think about our contest
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That said I thought the Undertale rally had a way more pacific reaction than the Draven one. First because the ralliers didn't actively troll us. Second because of who the people who opposed it the most were, and the reasons they gave for it, so the rest of us didn't want to side with them. And third, I guess, because after Draven we were mostly resigned by it.

Up.
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So we can't nominate Jason from Friday the 13th but we can nominate Chad, right?
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Baldi from Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning. Or someone else, all the characters in that game are ridiculous.
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DeathChicken posted...

So we can't nominate Jason from Friday the 13th but we can nominate Chad, right?

I would assume so
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The thing with Geralt is the character in the games is the same character from the books. There is a direct continuity, and those books are still popular. So yes you would absolutely be opening the floodgates and I don't think anyone wants a contest filled with characters who are eligible because they've been in some trash licenced games.

The way it currently is allows existing characters if their game version is their own distinct character (Dracula, Amaterasu), and that's fine. There's a difference between leniency and no regulation at all.
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