Board 8 > ~*~Zen Anal-yzes the Summer 2013 Contest - 5 Years Too Late Edition~*~

(+) Yeah! (+)

it's contest season and some of you recently answered a poll saying that you don't even want a contest, what is up with that? you can't see it but I'm gesturing wildly to the name of our board, it's "GameFAQs Contests," why are you here if you don't want a contest? let's talk about contests. let's talk about Summer 2013.

disclaimer: I barely remember anything from the Summer 2013 contest, so a lot of this will be you imaging me making a really constipated face as I try to recall any minor details about some of these matches, hence why I am calling this "Zen Anal-yzes." I will also be poking fun at bad match pictures, some of which are mine

Pre-Contest

What can I say about Summer 2013? Arguably the most polarizing contest ever. Ever in history. I am including all contests ever held by man since the dawn of modern civilization.

I don't remember much about the pre-contest outside of the kick-ass Smash Bros Dojo style reveal thing Allen was doing for the characters, slowly going seed by seed to reveal the 200+ characters that made it in. Except Liquid Snake, what the hell?

I also remember he didn't use my banners that I made because there were no user-submitted banners which got me really PO'd: https://imgur.com/a/bQwW8

But what I remember most is how polarizing the 3-way format was, or "menage-a-trois" as we called it here on Board 8 (nobody called it that). A lot of people were stoked to mix things up, but a bunch were vocal that they just wanted a traditional character battle because Rivalry Rumble had sucked ass. On the other side of that coin at least we were getting a character battle that was NOT Rivalry Rumble because it sucked ass.

Regardless, the Character Battle Dojo updates got people pretty hyped, and Allen tried to make the contest a partial celebration of Board 8 by including a lot of our weird meme characters (does anyone remember Spring Breeze Dancin' and Chester?) as well as making the 8 Seed up of characters that only Board 8 nominated or liked. Can't fault the guy for caring even though we all piss in his cereal every morning.

During the nomination people, I had a conversation with @KamikazePotato about nominating Draven, who may or may not have had an official rally at that point. He had convinced me to nominate Draven based on his potential contest strength based on the huge LoL fanbase. I don't think it was KP's idea originally, he was just into LoL at the time.

We didn't really talk about "rallies" back then the way we do now (in hushed tones peppered with tears), because no rally had ever really been successful on a grand scale. I don't count L-Block because everyone was happy to see it happen for the most part, it was kind of a joke everyone was in on as opposed to just one community.

The most you would get when you used to rally was one dude going to another board and asking people to vote for Thrall because "LINK ALWAYS WINS!!!" and then having half of the people on that board say "i voted for Link cuz I like him lol thrall suxxxxx"

I eventually deleted my nom for Draven because I came up with the idea of nominating my boy Metal Sonic, but it was too late (but not this time! Nominate Metal: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/76868408).

I didn't think much of it at the time, but when I saw Draven get revealed as a 3-seed, I was happy that KP or whoever had actually rallied him had pulled it off. I don't blame anyone who had nominated Draven. Nobody knew how far the "joke" was going to go and how much it would tear this board apart. Most of us thought he was going to lose to Chie.

How wrong we were.
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tag

I don't remembering advising people to nominate Draven. Definitely didn't start the rally (I had him losing to Jak in my bracket oops).
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I missed Zen posting a lot
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Oh yeah here was the official banner for CBIX: https://imgur.com/j3vpa5v

Allen did a cool minimalist thing, I like it. Still should have used my overproduced trash, though.

ps I plan to update this topic as often as I can, but if it's still not done before the actual contest starts then I am going to quit

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(1)Link vs (18)Isaac (Binding) vs (27)Tingle 2013

https://imgur.com/teGzqVi
https://imgur.com/J9VrBNE

ok yeah it's Link. He got 73% in the opening round against Tingle and Isaac. Does that mean Link is weak? Snake confirmed new strongest Noble Nine member? People jumped to a lot of conclusions because Link didn't absolutely stomp Tingle in this showing. A lot of people said that Link was just past his prime, but I really blame the dip in votals and general lack of interest in contests. Link thrives on that casual vote. The only people left on this site are weirdos like us, and Isaac and Tingle are weirdo icons.

Plus, I think the last Zelda game to have come out at this point was Skyward Sword, the one we don't talk about anymore because it was so bland. Hey, remember that time Miyamoto tried demoing SS at E3 and he couldn't get it to work and it was super embarrassing? something something metaphor for this match

Also Isaac showed up I guess. The only thing people debated here was whether or not he'd be so weak that he would lose to a heavily SFF'd Tingle. There was an "Expert Mode" this year or w/e it was called so that you'd get more points if you predicted who got 1st, 2nd and 3rd correctly. It was a cool secondary contest and might have been more fun than making a bracket. It kept people interested and debating all the way through.

Anyone nominating Isaac this year? I know people still play his game, it's on every system ever. Let's see him come back and get his ass kicked again.
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XIII_rocks posted...

I missed Zen posting a lot

I miss you guys too, I took an extended sabatical because I graduated college and got a middle management job at Amazon which consumed my life and turned me into a Bezos-fueled POS toolbag that didn't care about silly video game character popularity contests

KamikazePotato posted...

tag

I don't remembering advising people to nominate Draven. Definitely didn't start the rally (I had him losing to Jak in my bracket oops).

I'm pretty sure it was you, you and Cloud and Squall were the only ones I talked to at that time, I think we were just chatting and you mentioned it to me on AIM or something. Did we still use AIM? What the hell did we use to talk back then?

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(6)Raiden vs (13)Waluigi vs (22)Alan Wake 2013

https://imgur.com/UlJaZCJ
https://imgur.com/S7qD2ax

Alan Wake is literally just "white dude plaid shirt" holy shit. I've never played his game but I saw my friend playing it once and it looked alright. I think those devs made that game, uh, Quantum Break. That's the name? Right? Is the protagonist also a bland white dude?

https://imgur.com/lhkuneK

is that fucking Iceman? what the hell happened to you? X-Men 3? good excuse

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/news/microsoft-not-interested-in-alan-wake-and-quantum-break-sequels-remedy-1885726

shit just keeps getting sadder.

Anyway, Alan Wake showed up, yeah, but the real match here was Waluigi vs Raiden. I remember there was a tiny bit of debate as to whether or not Waluigi could be the next L-Block or something, but nobody was super serious about that.

Fast forward to 2018 and people are super serious about that, but more in a Draven context than L-Block. Poor Sakurai has to endure all this harassment because he doesn't put Wario's doubles partner in a video game representing Nintendo's all-stars. Christ, Waluigi is even on ice skates in his match pic.

Raiden was coming off of (cult?) smash hit Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which still has a huge legion of fans. He didn't exactly impress against Waluigi, and if this match had happened now, it might have been much tighter.

What can we expect from Waluigi this year? Well it depends on the anti-rallying measures Bacon puts in place, but I guess he could get a big push from 4chan and reddit. I think people are over the initial outrage of his snubbing from Smash 5, so it would be hard to stir up the pot again unless a portion of tomorrow's Nintendo direct is pre-recorded footage of Sakurai taking a dump on a picture of Waluigi while looking straight into the camera.
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(9)Yoshi vs (10)Solaire of Astora vs (19)Demi-Fiend 2013




Demi-Fiend got into a contest?? Holy shit I really don't remember anything about 2013 at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO6LWQhvzRw" data-time="

Listen to this track. It is absolute fire and I am too white to be saying that convincingly.

Yoshi's unimpressive contest history continues. He's given a round 1 match against two jobbers so that he can march off to get spanked by Link in Round 2. I vaguely remember Ulti once saying Yoshi has never been out of R3 and he never will. I kind of believe that. He's Yoshi. People know him. Girls play as him in Mario Party. Nobody really cares, though. Most people use him as an extra platform to jump off of.

I think the real thing to talk about now is Solaire in 2018. Dark Souls has absolutely blown up. Normalcools talk about Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Who would have thought a difficult game could be well received by audiences of all kind?

Could Solaire have entered the realm of a low-midcarder? Could he ever be rallied into winning a R1 match? Actually... He might. GameFAQs hasn't played any games past, what, 2007? It seems the big exception is Dark Souls. If Solaire or another DS rep pulled a high seed and a decent matchup he might be able to just pull it off, especially if the votals are low.

I legit forgot who the third character in this match was for a second. I sat here trying to remember without scrolling up. It was Demi-Fiend. I have that fire track paused in another tab. How did I forget already?

Demi-Fiend is cool but there are way better reps for the SMT series... If you count Persona characters. I don't know if anyone from Apocalypse or SMTIV would be a better rep but I can't imagine they'd do much better than the Fiend. Persona is its own thing now and everyone loves it, but its parent series remains decidedly niche. Maybe we'll see SMT break into the mainstream someday like its counterpart, but without high school handholding hijinks, that may just be the dream of an ideal world.
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which is why we should get Jack Frost in a contest so he can pull from both SMT and Persona
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ZenOfThunder posted...

got a middle management job at Amazon which consumed my life

those were the days huh
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Heyyy if you're actually reading this, why don't you tell me about how you first came to Board 8? https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/76878386

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(2)Commander Shepard vs (17)Captain Olimar vs (26)Kain 2013

https://imgur.com/nHZkyov
https://imgur.com/BLg6Fjp

Jeez, these matches are getting more votes than the opening one with Link. He just can't pull in a crowd anymore, huh?

iirc Ulti was obsessed with getting a pic of Femshep on the front page. She had just received official art in ME3 for the first time so he finally could do it. I think he has a crush of Jennifer Hale or something.

This was a pretty respectable outing for Shepard, I guess. He couldn't double a low-tier Smash character, which is sad, but lesser Western characters would have fallen in this same spot. Like Kain.

Why Kain? Why not Raziel? Who nominated Kain in 2013? We hadn't seen Kain since 2004, and he hasn't had a game since... that cancelled 360 game that got leaked to the internet. How did Kain get more noms than Liquid Snake?

Does anyone want to talk about Mass Effect 3's ending still? I do! At the time I was super upset by it, but it's been 6 years, and now I can barely remember what got me so mad. I still remember the worst parts and I remember Kai Leng being awful, but it all seems so distant now. In 2013, the hatred was still strong though, and Ulti choosing a picture associated with the cover of ME3 probably didn't do Shepard any favors.

Anyway, this was a match that happened.
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ZenOfThunder posted...

Does anyone want to talk about Mass Effect 3's ending still?

no

I will gladly talk endlessly about anything else from Mass Effect 3 though!

top ten game of the ever
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tag
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Should be noted that the Shep/Olimar/Kain match happened just days before Olimar was revealed on the Dojo for Smash 4. I wonder if that would have boosted him to like 35% or so.

Also I recommend using imgtc so you can embed them directly.
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Arti posted...

which is why we should get Jack Frost in a contest so he can pull from both SMT and Persona

I AM A BIG MOTHMAN FAN PERSONALLY, BUT I LIKE YOUR IDEA. Did anyone make a rally yet?

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(5)Tharja vs (14)Juliet Starling vs (23)Tiny Tina 2013




I don't remember exactly how people were predicting this match, to most people it was a battle of TJF between Tharja and Juliet, with people giving Tharja the nod because she was the hot new Nintendo girl at the time.

And I mean hot



yowza

That is the only time an officially licensed Nintendo product has made me sweat

other than this:



Ganondorf action figure I blame you for the present-day mess that is my sexuality

Anyway, back on track. Kind of. I recently replayed Borderlands 2. All of it. By myself. I had a ton of free time and I remembered that I had never played the DLC, so I got the Handsome Edition and gave it another shot.

Is there anything, anything more dated than Borderlands 2's humor?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2GGUTuns20" data-time="

People voted for this character. People think this is funny. To be fair, Tina's voice actress is pretty funny. Or at least she was in 2011 internet humor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHgxtu7Upd8" data-time="

Mike Haggars' mustache I blame you for the present-day mess that is my sexuality

Anyway, back on track, Borderlands was a surprise hit on the FAQs, and it shows here. I meant, Shooty McSplodeFace or whatever his name was made the field this year. The games are good! The writing is kind of bad though. I wonder if anyone will nominate a Borderlands character this year seeing as the series has been on the backburner while Gearbox throws away its money putting the iconic Battleborn characters into Ready Player One.

Juliet Starling was the main character of the flavor-of-the-month game Lollipop Chainsaw which got mediocre reviews but was (and still is) the best-selling Suda51 game. It had a huge marketing campaign and Juliet was at the forefront. There's an embarrassing picture of me with Jessica Nigri dressed up as Juliet Starling floating around the internet somewhere.

Jessica Nigri as Juliet Starling I blame you for the present-day mess that is my sexuality

So yeah this match was way closer than anyone thought it would be but these three are all basically fodder anyway. People overestimated Tharja but she still pulled it off. There's not much to say here, it seems like a close and interesting match but when you try to break it down you end up analyzing your sexuality instead.
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Underleveled posted...

I recommend using imgtc so you can embed them directly.

Honestly I just use imgur because I have an extension that lets me right click > rehost from the B8 wiki, I am super lazy. Is imgtc really better? Let me try it:



well it's not a fucking mess like imgur so I guess I'll take it

EDIT: oh shit it works, I had no idea. thank you for the heads up. I didn't even know I could embed media now, that's how long it's been since I've come to this site regularly.
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aaand my power just flickered, anyone else in NJ hearing this thunder? going to call it for now, i'll write more in a bit
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I forgot that Tharja won a match that year when Chrom and Lucina didn't

Totally agree on Borderlands 2's humor being super outdated. I feel the need to recommend Tales From the Borderlands, which somehow has fantastic writing despite being based off of Borderlands and made by a company with an iffy track record.
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I forgot about Tales From the Borderlands, it is in fact a very good game with better writing than the actual games

in related news the writer of Borderlands 2 will not be returning which is probably a good thing
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I think I made that Tharja pic

I hope I have time to make match pics this year it's super fun
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i think i made the Juliet pic, iirc I upped the contrast and brightened up the boob area to try to give her a fighting chance
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Zen that Ditto pic... its like you read my mind (or topic)
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I posted it in your topic!

I think I fucked up the link tho

You can use it for marketing I don't care
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Oh, so you did
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(8)Hero vs (11)Rinoa Heartilly vs (20)Aeris Gainsborough 2013




I'm going to take a second before I get into this match to point out just how awful the font is for the character names in these match pics. It's hard to tell what exactly I mean but having 3x3 little boxes for each letter makes the some letters really ugly and hard to see. I'll point out specifics if I see them. "Tina" in Tiny Tina's pic looks pretty bad.

Here's a fun fact, the font used in R1 of 2008 is called "Acquaintance" and is also the font partially used in the Angry Video Game Nerd logo:




yes these are the things zenofthunder remembers but he doesn't remember anything about 2013

OK here is an actual match anal-ysis:

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Getting Hero into a contest was not only a victory for long-time B8er Chris but also for everyone ever who has nominated someone that has a name like "protagonist" or "demi-fiend." Seriously, I can't believe we got multiple characters into this contest with BS names like "Hero."

So yeah DQV Hero finally got into a contest after a decade of rallies. All it took was a field of almost 250 characters for it to happen!

I remember thinking he wouldn't break 15%. Who cares about Dragon Quest in America, right? Especially one as old as V. But thanks to the low votals, Hero was able to ride the Final Fantasy Girl train all the way to second place. He even (just barely) managed to avoid getting doubled by Aeris.

Was Aeris always "Aerith" in these contests? Was Ceej a weeb that used the proper name or did Allen bring us into the Age of the "th?"

Yeah so Rinoa got SFF'd pretty hard and a lot of people's Expert brackets got ruined. In retrospect though would she have ever had any power in these things? She's a tertiary FF character at best, from a game people have been turning on more and more each year. Can @LeonhartFour tell us what he thinks about this girl that launches a dog like a rocket with her wrist?
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Rinoa was recently revealed to be in the new Dissidia so I think it's time to give her another shot

hopefully this time NOT against literally the worst possible opponent she could've drawn outside of Squall or maybe Tifa

I mean she probably wouldn't be super strong but man that's a bad matchup

ZenOfThunder posted...

Was Aeris always "Aerith" in these contests? Was Ceej a weeb that used the proper name or did Allen bring us into the Age of the "th?"

She was "Aeris" all the way up through 2007. Allen didn't change it to "Aerith" until 2010
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(3)Draven vs (16)Chie Satonaka vs (25)Jak 2013




it begins

kind of, just slowly at first. I remember stat junkies trying to cobble together some kind of x-stats but because of Draven's snowball rally it put Jak and Chie in like the top 5 strongest characters, I think stronger than Link even?

somewhere out there in the multiverse there is a reality where Jak really is that strong and everyone loves him and name their babies "Jak" which I bet is actually a thing that happens anyway

https://www.babycenter.com/baby-names-jak-477525.htm

What does Jak mean?
God is gracious

*looks at results*

is he tho

I think I went on the Show after this match and talked about how I thought the Draven thing was gonna blow over cuz he couldn't double Chie, and if that was the extent of the rally then how dangerous could he be?

I am going to Star Wars Holiday Special that shit and hunt down every hard drive with that episode of the Show on it and destroy it

Draven started out incredibly weak but the rally was swift and effective. This match only had 7000 more votes than the previous one, and because of that "weak" turnout I don't think anyone expected this to get as big as it did. I mean, Draven wasn't L-Block, right?

Looking past Draven, I wonder how Chie would do now that Persona 4 has had a billion spinoffs and an anime and a half. Has the fanbase completely moved on to Persona 5? Will we ever see anyone outside of Yu from P4 in a contest setting again?

Will we even see Jak? What's that guy up to? Will he be stronger than his new Naughty Dog brethren?

Jak / Ellie / Nathan Drake, who ya got
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Tag
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nah Link's still #2 in the X-Stats because he barely lost to Draven

Jak's #3 and Chie's #6 though
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LeonhartFour posted...

nah Link's still #2 in the X-Stats because he barely lost to Draven

Jak's #3 and Chie's #6 though

Also, Phoenix Wright in the Top 10 is pretty great too.
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Worst part about Draven was stealing Jak's first win. Absolutely despicable
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C-paven
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bump, i've got work today, i'll do more after
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(4)Yuri Lowell vs (15)Ryu vs (24)Face McShooty 2013




Is Yuri the second-strongest Tales character after Lloyd? People love this dude even though Vesperia was a billion years ago. I think it got a PS4 re-release recently, so maybe his strength will stay consistent.

Anyway, not much to say here except that Face McShooty got in and finding a picture of a random side character from a miscellaneous Borderlands 2 quest was a huge pain in the ass. Seemed like any rally no matter how small paid off in some way in 2013. Gives me hope for Metal Sonic!

Yuri did pretty bad here, he couldn't double Face and got doubled by Ryu, who is a high-midcarder, yeah, but GameFAQs likes Tales a lot, and it's nice seeing these characters get a chance to spank fodder like Face.

(7)Mega Man X vs (12)Welkin Gunther vs (21)Jigglypuff 2013




who the hell is Welkin Gunther and how did he get a 12 seed? I know very little about Valkyria Chronicles, but why didn't people just focus their noms on the girl from the cover? With red eyes? I think that's a thing? Here's another question mark?

The votals here were pathetic, and Mega Man X cleaned house, almost tripling the Puff. Maybe all the theories that any Gen 1 Pokemon would be good are bullshit, cuz Jigglypuff has Smash behind her as well. Maybe Mega Man X SFF'd her? Is there Mega Man and Pokemon crossover? Who knows anymore, with this few people voting I guess everyone on this nerdo site has played everything.

Welkin was so close to 3K votes. Getting doubled by Jigglypuff and... sextupled by Mega Man X means you ain't shit. I wonder what obscure JRPG character is going to show up this year? Who will be our Welkin Gunther?

ps nominate Shellder

pps I just took a long look at Welkin's pics and boy is he lame, if he were 1 v 1 with Alan Wake I'd vote bland plaid white man any way
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(1)Sonic the Hedgehog vs (18)Fei Fong Wong vs (27)Dan Hibiki 2013




Wow I don't remember half these matches, I think everyone was caught up in post-Draven fever to pay any attention to this low votal jobber matches. At least Sonic pulls in more votes than X.

I remember some mild debate about Dan and Fei, both had been in contests before and both had looked like trash, and some people believed that Dan would win on recognizability. But with votals this low that logic gets tossed out the window and Fei was able to take the win pretty easily.

GameFAQs really doesn't seem to care about fighting game characters outside of the mascots. Ryu, Chun-Li, Akuma, M. Bison, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Morrigan, Nightmare, and... uh... are there any other fighting game characters people vote for here? I must be missing some. Leave a comment on my webzone if you know what fighting game characters people care about here.

Sonic has a great match pic here, wow. People have it in their heads that the only good Sonic is Classic Sonic, which is a bad opinion but it is a prevalent one. Nothing else really to say here, I think. It's more interesting to speculate on what you average voter feels about Sonic post Mania and Forces. Did they cancel each other out? Did the great reviews and sales overshadow the awfulness of Forces? We'll find out soon, I guess.

(6)Lucina vs (13)Dracula vs (22)Caim 2013




My boy Drac!! He was shown off in Smash today as a stage boss, and if the rumors about a new story mode is true, he might get some more screen time.

Abysmal votals here, and even then almost none of them were for Caim. 1586 votes. Holy shit. Holy shit. I think Caim was the biggest loser this tournament, right? Freaking 1586 votes.

My girlfriend just came over and asked what I was typing, I asked "what would you think of a character that looks like this?" and showed her the match/bio pictures, and she responded "these are bad pictures" and gave me my laptop back.

Caim is an obscure character from the cultest of cult games and he doesn't even look that cool. Is there even art for this dude? I think his claim to fame is that his series is distantly related to Nier.

There was some LP on SomethingAwful of Drakengard at the time and it made Caim into a minor meme. I thiiiiink KamikazePotato was into it? I read some and it was pretty funny, but it didn't make me want to... nom... Caim.

Shit, did I nom Caim? I might have. What a waste. Should have been Liquid here. Liquid/Lucina/Drac? That's a match, baby.

People thought this performance made Drac look good, but really, with votals as low as this and Caim in the match, how good of a look can you possibly get from this? Dracula is a decent midcarder and it's cool to have him in a bracket but I doubt without the power of Alucard he could ever have a run like he did in Rivalry Rumble. For someone that we tried to rally in for a while and had to get special permission from Bacon to even nominate him, was it really worth the effort?
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ZenOfThunder posted...

I think it got a PS4 re-release recently, so maybe his strength will stay consistent

Not quite yet. PS4/Xbone/Switch this winter.
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Lucina needs to get in again now that she's in Smash

Caim is a great character but man oh man should he not have been in a GameFAQs Contest
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(9)Professor Layton vs (10)Barret Wallace vs (19)Reimu Hakurei 2013




do you remember when someone made a joke topic about how "chair from Final Fantasy VII could win a match" and people unironically agreed?

this match shows how dated that statement is, here we have one of the iconic FFVII party members who is right there with you from second 1 and he can't double Professor Layton. In fact he can't even triple a Touhou girl.

I believe Barret had one the Nomination Rally Tournament, and we thought for sure he'd be the next big thing, and some people thought that Sonic had fallen so far that Barret might be able to squeak by. Then he performs like this.

Let's talk about RacistFAQs for a bit. Does it exist?

Yes.

GameFAQs doesn't care about black people.

Actually I have no idea if GameFAQs is actually racist, I mean, probably, but eh, there's no actual proof other than the results of a video game character popularity contest. It's more of a funny meme than anything. If there was ever a highly debated match with a black guy in it maybe I would actually take the other dude cuz I fear the level of racist contained within the FAQs.

I think what this comes back to though is that FFVII was no longer the shit on this site, it had fallen and fallen hard, and Barret probably wasn't strong to begin with. People had been trying to get him into a contest for years, and it took a field of 200+ and an NRT win for it to happen. Now he's finally in a contest when FFVII is at its lowest. What did people expect?

(2)Phoenix Wright vs (17)Marth vs (26)Nightmare 2013




I thought people on this site liked Fire Emblem? I guess there's some crossover with Phoenix Wright?

Jeez, look at those votals. It's nice seeing an "upset" from Phoenix, I know some people were putting him below Nightmare for some reason. Nightmare has had some decent showings before, but it was mostly decent bracket placement and taking advantage of a multi-way format that helped him out.

In the end, Phoenix's loyal fanbase (mostly us) were able to give him the win. If this match happened in 2018, who knows what would happen? I'd say these dudes are pretty close in strength, so it would be hard to predict if this happened again. Phoenix's rabid fanbase has dissipated a bit but Fire Emblem has all those games where you can make cousins fuck or some weird anime BS that people like.

Side note: I made this Nightmare pic and people HATED it because his arm wasn't in it enough and they said it would ruin his chances. I ask anyone, ANYONE who makes pics to make a Nightmare pic in those tiny, slim dimensions and make that arm the centerpiece without it looking like a weird brown blob. People are too fickle with these things, Nightmare looks like a goddamn lump most of the time anyway:


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Our boy Phoenix did himself proud in 2013
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tag
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(5)KOS-MOS vs (14)Dunban vs (23)Vincent Valentine 2013




Once upon a time Vincent/Kerrigan was a highly debated match, then he quadrupled her, and everybody laughed.

Now it's 2018 and if Vincent/Kerrigan happened again it would be a highly debated match because lawd look at those votals

Here's Vincent Valentine who was once thought to be a Noble Nine-breaking monster not being able to double KOS-MOS. And damn, look at his match pic! It's dope as hell! Not that it mattered much because most people just voted from the results page anyway. Picsmithing is a dying art. RIP.

Speaking of pics, look how anime KOS-MOS is in her pic. She just looks straight out of Evangelion. Dunban looks pretty good. Wait, who?

Here comes Dunban from Xenoblade, a game I played for 20 hours, then the game froze and I realized I hadn't saved in 5. So I never touched it again. Dunban was cool but he was one of those party members that was an early-game badass that eventually left and you wouldn't get him back 'til later. I remember I played the game after this contest and I was shocked that he managed to make the field as a 14 seed (versus Vincent's 23, go figure) despite barely being in the game.

But I never did beat Xenoblade, which is a shame because it was great. Took me forever to find a copy too, fuck GameStop for charging $90 for it.

Anyway yeah FFVII is pee pee poo poo now

(8)Chester vs (11)Mewtwo vs (20)Zero (999) 2013




@agasonex is banned I guess cuz I can't tag him. I wanted to thank him for creating *spoilers*.com, a site that (sadly) was a defining part of my adolescence. There may or may not be a cringey comment or two from a 13-year-old ZenOfThunder still stinking up that website.

I can never run for President.

Board 8 legend agasonex created a game called Chester, and we decided to get him in because the only thing Board 8 loves more than Character Battles is getting obscure Board 8 in-jokes into Character Battles.

And that was the entire plan, because nobody thought Chester would make it in, and due to getting an 8 seed he was actually given... a... winnable situation?

What?

Now people were conflicted: Originally the idea would be that none of us would vote for Chester so that he'd come up worse in the X-Stats than Tanner, therefore entering the pantheon of Fun Contest History Trivia, but now he was up against big time nobody and obscure visual novel villain Zero.

The day came and some people voted for Chester and a lot didn't. He ended up getting over 900 votes, some of which I guess were peeps who thought his match pic (an aga original!) was funny or to anti-vote Pokemon. There aren't 900 B8ers, right?

It all worked out though, Zero still quadrupled him, and Chester is definitely the weakest character ever in these things. Could he beat someone (Caim) someday? Maybe. Will we ever see him again? I don't think we need to.

You know, I made a game. I got it indexed on this site: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/709438-misplaced-max

The site to download it doesn't exist anymore though so I guess it's just lost media. Maybe in another reality Misplaced Max would have gotten in in Chester's place, but my legacy cannot compare to that of aga's.
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The funny thing is that Chester didn't even come in last in the X-Stats. Spring Breeze Dancin' did.
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Underleveled posted...

The funny thing is that Chester didn't even come in last in the X-Stats. Spring Breeze Dancin' did.

MotherFUCKIN

SPRING BREEZE

MOTHERFUCKIN

DANCIN
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Dunban is actually in like 2/3 of the game. It's a long game.
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In all seriousness Chester getting in was great fun

Chester as a unit of measurement was also fun
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Five years later and I am still fucking mindblown by Phoenix beating Marth

(3)Chrom vs (16)The Boss vs (25)Heavy 2013






look at all these anime boys, they are all like... the same thing. why did you do this Sakurai. ps thank you for k rool <3

I played one Fire Emblem ever and it was the first one for the GBA specifically cuz I thought Marth and Roy were dope in Melee. I think that might have been the gateway drug for a lot of people.

But unlike most people, I ended up really not liking Fire Emblem. I don't like anything with an overhead grid. FFT, Disgaea... Just not my thing. I don't like to think when I play games. Give me big dumb Gears of Halo any day.

I get why people like it, though, past the weird breeding mechanic I mentioned earlier. They're cool games. Chrom is actually pretty dope, and now he's in Smash. This match would probably be different today.

Worth mentioning is The Boss having her boobies out. Who made that pic? Why did you do it? Why? Why would the Boss need TJF?

I believe this match was debated a little bit because the Boss wasn't seen as a particularly strong character and hadn't been the focus in an MGS game in a while. Regardless, Snake was a powerhouse in this contest, and his friends benefitted. The votals here were somehow a little better than some of the fodder matches, but they were still low enough that the Boss looked good.

I wonder why Team Fortress fans never rallied their boy Heavy at all, that community is pretty crazy for those characters. I think someone tried getting Saxton Hale into a contest once but he hadn't appeared in the games first. Team Fortress is rad. The characters might not do well but it makes me smile whenever they pop up. I don't know if we're going to get one this contest, though. F

Will the Boss keep her strength in 2018? Probably not, MGS has died since this contest happened, and I'll talk about the effects of that when I get to a Snake or Big Boss match.

(4)Garrus Vakarian vs (15)Sub-Zero vs (24)Frank West 2013




Here's a match that I remember got people into some heated debates. Shepard had done pretty well in previous contests, and seeing as Garrus was a (if not the) fan favorite, he should probably retain that strength, right?

Well, Sub-Zero is Sub-Zero. He's the dude who made his contest career dunking on lesser-Final Fantasy characters like Rydia and Tidus. Mass Effect is a classic western RPG, right? The Final Fantasy of America, perhaps? Just with more kissing and Seth Green.

So would Garrus beat Tidus? That's a good match. FFX has had a bunch of re-releases and has some newfound respect. Hard to believe it's now a retro game people play for nostalgia. Damn, I'm old. Mass Effect, meanwhile, has moved past the Shepard trilogy which went out with a whimper as opposed to a bang, although Garrus had some great moments in ME3. Now we have Andromeda, which... you know. I know you know. Everybody knows. Here's hoping Anthem won't be loot box-riddled garbage (spoilers: it will be)

This contest was Garrus' one shot and he blew it to Sub-Zero. I blame it partially on the Klassic Kostume pic. Sub-Zero is like 200% more deadly with his old duds on.

Speaking of pics, I made this one for Frank, I was determined to not use that one piece of art everyone always defaults to (see: his bio pic), so I used some art from Chop 'Til You Drop. I thought he looked too bland though so I added blood to his face and shirt. It came out terrible in retrospect, did I just use the spray tool? What was I thinking? I guess I technically turned it into non-official art by doing that but I slipped it past Allen and it seemed like a small victory to me at the time.

Who cares? Someone give young Zen a swirly, what a nerd.
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@Menji why did you give the Boss boobs

also thank you to everyone who is along for this ride with me and throwing in fun facts and corrections. I forgot we measured things in Chesters, that was the best. this thread is really helping me remember why I love Board 8 and the people here
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Garrus had it rough by going against Sub-Zero first. Subby is legit.

Chrom would be stronger now but I don't think he beats The Boss. She's also legit! Might be able to beat Garrus though.
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ZenOfThunder posted...

If this match happened in 2018, who knows what would happen?

Phoenix would still win

ZenOfThunder posted...

Phoenix's rabid fanbase has dissipated a bit

It has not

Phoenix's win happened before the series even revived from the dead, so if anything, he'd be stronger now
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(7)Bowser vs (12)Archer vs (21)Meta Knight 2013




oh man, did KP single-handedly get half these characters into the bracket? Like three Xenoblade characters, Archer, Zero (999), Caim... I remember having extensive conversations with him about all of these.

KP tell people to nominate Metal Sonic you clearly have some kind of magic nominating power. When is that quirk going to show up in My Hero Academia?

The only thing worth talking about here is how Meta Knight has never had a fair shake in these contests, he's always getting SFF'd in Round 1. Poor dude. He's super cool. He's freaking META KNIGHT. He does that thing where he goes "AIYAYAYAYA" and swings his sword super cool and fast and then he wins every Brawl match ever.

My dad thinks Meta Knight is cool. Why doesn't GameFAQs?

I must also mention that my dad calls him "Mega Knight" but w/e

Bowser stomped Meta Knight so hard here that it made Archer look respectable. That's also because Fate/Stay Night was the current Board 8 darling and the games and anime have a big cult following. I played the first one! It had a sex scene that was super jarring! I don't remember why it exists!

It's funny how little impact Zero and Archer made here, people were just asking the other day if Visual Novel characters were eligible as if there wasn't already a precedent set.

Yeah I'm out of things to say here, if I spend two lines talking about my dad you know the match is boring.

(1)Sephiroth vs (18)Midna vs (27)Little Mac 2013




I think I remember in 2006 when Twilight Princess came out and Inviso and I discussed Midna's midriff at length. I was 15. This is a very vivid memory I have and I am horrified that I am so comfortable posting about it on this message board. I am friends with some of you on Facebook. I am ashamed.

But not as ashamed as Sephiroth should be of these results, holy shit what an abomination of a match for the former contest champion and member of the Holy Trinity.

It's Midna.

And Little Mac.

This was before Little Mac was even in Smash.

Sephiroth should be quintupling these jobbers. I don't care about low votals. I don't care about anti-votes. Sephiroth couldn't break 60% against two Nintendo C-listers.

Also his match picture is god awful, just this gray anime smear on a gray rectangle over a gray background. Little Mac really popped here. Good job whoever did that.
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I don't *think* I have a magic Influence B8 quirk, but then I remember the Umineko phase and I don't know man

Archer did bad but I'm happy just seeing him in. That's how I feel about a lot of character I currently want in contests
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