Board 8 > Character Contest Strength Ranking Topic - Day 1

(+) Yeah! (+)

Way before the 2018 Character Battle came to a close, it was obvious that a lot of things had changed since the last contest. Vote totals are low and the power of Nintendo and Smash is at an all-time high. So I thought it was time to make a new topic to rate the contest strength of potential newcomers in the current contest environment.

I will pick the characters to rate and discuss for each day from user nominations - whoever the 3 most nominated characters are at that time. You can nominate any number of characters at any time, but you cannot nominate the same character twice. All characters who were present in the 2018 Character Battle will NOT be eligible. Otherwise you can nominate any character that has appeared in video games; even comic book characters. This will exclude real-life athletes who have only appeared in long running sports series, however I will accept those who have their own games such as Shaq. I will accept nominations for iconic gaming duos too, if both members of said duo are named in the title of a game (Banjo-Kazooie, Sam & Max Hit the Road, etc).

Each day will have a separate topic, and nominations will carry over; I will make a Google doc or something to keep track of nomination totals. As far as actually rating the character's contest strength; I ask that users rank a characters potential strength with one of the following qualifiers - Low Fodder, Mid Fodder, High Fodder, Fodder Line, Low Midcarder, Midcarder, High Midcarder, Near Elite, Elite, LAW Tier (capable of beating Link). I will look into stats for 2018 for a character to provide the baseline for the Mid Fodder to Near Elite ranks and include them on later topics. I will average all the ratings to give a final result for each character.

As for Day 1, I will pick 3 random characters from the list I came up with for this topic. I will officially nominate characters from my list over time to build up the pool. Here is today's trio to rate:

Yukiko Amagi (Persona)
Robin (Fire Emblem)
Batman (DC Comics)
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1. Batman (Near Elite) [I think this is the natural ceiling for any character who doesn't originate in video gaming, and Darth Vader, Spider-Man, and Goku are the only other ones I could see reaching it]
2. Robin (High Fodder) [true story: I thought this was the DC Robin at first]
3. Yukiko Amagi (Mid Fodder) [I could go either way on mid versus low fodder, but Chie fared acceptably against Jak in 2013]

Nominate:

Charles Barkley (Barkley, Shut Up and Jam! Gaiden)
Dark Link (The Legend of Zelda)
Dark Samus (Metroid)
Goku (Dragon Ball)
Iron Man (Marvel Comics)
Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)
Paper Mario (Mario)
Sheik (The Legend of Zelda)
Simba (The Lion King)
Superman (DC Comics)

I'll stick to ten nominations per day at most.
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Bump.
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Nominate:
Kyle Hyde (Hotel Dusk)
Ignis (FFXV)
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may as well offer my thoughts now.

Batman: Near Elite - I could see him challenging Sonic or Crono potentially, but other Elite level characters would be too much.

Yukiko Amagi: Mid Fodder - She is a bit of a polarizing character among the fanbase, so she'll be weaker than Chie.

Robin: Fodder Line - honestly I can see Robin's strength being dependent on the match picture and other factors. I could see Robin dropping to high fodder if the male Robin is alone on the match pic. I think female Robin or both Robins together would have low midcarder strength. So I'll go between both of those.
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Batman - Elite - I think Batman vs. Snake is more debatable than Batman vs. Sonic.

Robin - Fodder Line - Probably around Lucina's level?

Yukiko - Mid Fodder - Probably a little bit weaker than Yu?
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I'll put in 10 nominations for this round:

Dark Link
Dark Samus
Charles Barkley (Charles Barkley Shut Up and Jam)
Goku
Sheik
Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy)
Tina Armstrong (Dead or Alive)
Madeline (Celeste)
Cortana
Akuma (Street Fighter)
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Yukiko Amagi - Mid-Fodder. Not particularly beloved party member from a decently strong game. She should be weaker than Chie and this is the tier I'd have put Chie in but I could see her still beating the true losers out there.

Robin - Fodder-line. Smash appearance plus being from a non-trivial game keeps them out of the basement. I should probably play Awakening.

Batman - High-Midcarder. It's been several years since he's been hyper-relevant and after how Nintendo clowned on most of the field last year that probably matters. Arkham City was 2011 and I don't think anything Batman's done in games since matters much. Dark Knight Rises was 2012 and the DC Cinematic Universe has been kind of a joke, or at least the parts involving Batman have been. I mean, Batman will still always be Batman but at this point we're potentially looking at a not-particularly-relevant Batman rather than the one people have been hyping for years who had massive movie and gaming successes recently.
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MetalmindStats posted...

2. Robin (High Fodder) [true story: I thought this was the DC Robin at first]

I suppose I should explain why I have Robin in the High Fodder category. Simply put, Lucina is right around the Fodder Line based on CBX, as someone (I feel at least) people actually care about, unlike Robin.
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bump - I'll give a bit more time for ratings on these characters
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Topic for Day 2 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77726804
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