Board 8 > Hey guys! Can we talk some more about rally potential?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I don't follow the communities for most of these rally-able characters. I know Draven has been pretty neutered due to their sub reddit banning rally topics. But how about D.Va? r/overwatch has 1.5 million subs. Even if a rally topic got a little bit of traction, it could be a huge deal. My only doubt there is that their sub is basically used exclusively for match highlights. Any other topics are pretty rare. Not sure how active the Blizzard forums are.

Also, just recently learned about Monika and her game...was wondering why it was tagged with psychological horror. I basically guessed what the gimmick was. But I have no idea what kind of fanbase this game has and if they'd care about a contest like this. I'd thought she'd be complete fodder, but if she beats Wario, I think she goes pretty far.

Sans...I don't know. Unlike with Draven, I guess there's no reason why Undertale can't garner huge support again. But is this going to be like L-Block, where it was funny one time, and then kinda fell to moderate levels?

And then there's the new rule to consider. Registered voters count as two votes. But with how low the votals are, I feel like it won't really mean all that much if huge communities with hundreds of thousands of fans decide to join in.

As of right now, I'm worried mostly about D.Va. If she gets traction from any OW community, she can win the whole thing as easily as Draven did. But it's a total guess if that happens or not.

Thoughts?
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Anyone with a decent fanbase is rallyable under the right circumstances. This is not a new phenomenon.

Even in the very first contest we saw an example of an outside rally make the difference in a match that would have normally gone the other way:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/996-north-division-final-mario-vs-cloud-strife

Even with Mario Sunshine released that day Cloud was the favorite to beat Mario, but a site called Planet Gamecube linked to the poll and tipped the scale in Mario's favor.

Now let's look at a time when Mario was on the wrong end of a rally:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5246-character-battle-ix-division-8-round-2-mario-vs-vivi-vs

Under normal circumstances Vivi isn't strong enough to beat Mario, even with Ganondorf siphoning votes, but an outside push for Vivi gave him the win.

It's not just characters like Draven or Sans or Monika that get rallied, but we only seem to care when it happens with them. And I'm guilty of it too.
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Ok, that's definitely a good point. I think the key difference though is characters like Mario, or Vivi, you expect them to make it a certain distance. The results only come into question when it's going to already be a rather close match. But with these other characters, they either completely bomb because there is no rally, or they have a good shot at winning the whole thing. So predicting these guys accurately is a lot more important, point-wise.
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Im slightly concerned Yakuza fans could generate just enough buzz to turn MC vs. Goro into a nailbiter. While Ive never played the series, it seems to have solid crossover appeal while maintaining enough of a cult status feel that fans could be motivated to action. Yakuza players seem to embrace the characters and tone for striking a memorable balance of seriousness and goofiness, in stark contrast with the generic Chief.

I think Kiryu, too, could fare surprisingly well in the right context, but will fall to either L-Block or Kefka. LBlock should prove inherently weak this year but would benefit from the juxtaposition of a vs. Kiryu match pic.

D.Va has the potential to go far and should do pretty well in her earlier matchups even if no significant organized rallying takes place. D.Va > Aloy remains one of the easiest decisions on the entire bracket, imo.