Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 26 ft Harry Potter, Popeye, Paddle

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is a 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. If there are more than 3 I will pick randomly. 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. 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 average all the ratings given to a character to come up with their final ranking. I have included a highlighted entrant from Character Battle X on each tier of the strength rankings below, to provide a baseline for each.

Current Character Strength Rankings: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P1AIhHywBiLd6VAMZMNEGX-HW2td8u1D0Iw_tzHsORw/edit?usp=sharing

Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KnSBDzppzPK5Ug1zmx8_x0bG4tqFDMPPH2k8J3s8sk/edit?usp=sharing

Results from Day 25:

Professor Oak (Pokemon) is a Low Midcarder
Robo (Chrono Trigger) is Fodder Line
Cappy (Super Mario Odyssey) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Harry Potter (Harry Potter series)
Popeye (Popeye)
Paddle (Pong)
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Harry Potter: Low Midcarder - He doesn't have a truly popular game, and I don't think his design is conducive to bringing in the votes you might expect. It seems about right to me that he'd have a very close match with Jill Valentine.

Popeye: Mid Fodder - Game history buffs still remember that Donkey Kong was originally going to be a Popeye game, and that Nintendo eventually made one of their own. He's also iconic, which should help keep him out of the basement.

Paddle: Mid Fodder - Jokes are dead on GameFAQs; in my estimation, that goes for the Paddle as well, despite being perhaps the most universal of them all.
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Harry Potter is a Low Midcarder. Nostalgia for the books and some of the early games really helps push him above the fodder line along with the movies. However he isn't as relevant now as he was 10-12 years ago, and doesn't really have a standout game that people like. And not everyone cares for Harry himself.

Popeye is High Fodder. He hasn't really been relevant in recent memory, and the main game he is known for is too old for Gfaqs to care about. But there is probably some nostalgia for the cartoon out there thanks to reruns on Cartoon Network, and most people on Gfaqs know him since the site trends older. Though the younger crowd might legitimately have no clue who he is.

Paddle is Mid Fodder. Another character who could have had joke potential in a previous contest. Nowadays though Paddle will get just enough votes to beat weaklings.
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MetalmindStats posted...

Harry Potter: Low Midcarder - He doesn't have a truly popular game, and I don't think his design is conducive to bringing in the votes you might expect. It seems about right to me that he'd have a very close match with Jill Valentine.

Popeye: Mid Fodder - Game history buffs still remember that Donkey Kong was originally going to be a Popeye game, and that Nintendo eventually made one of their own. He's also iconic, which should help keep him out of the basement.

Paddle: Mid Fodder - Jokes are dead on GameFAQs; in my estimation, that goes for the Paddle as well, despite being perhaps the most universal of them all.

I second all of these with the same reasoning.
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Noms:
Cammy
Tony Hawk
Chrom
Dyna Blade (Kirby)
Waddle Dee (Kirby)
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Nominations:

9S (Nier: Automata)
Akuma (Street Fighter)
Arthur Morgan (Red Dead Redemption II)
Elsa (Frozen)
Jaws (Jaws)
Ken Masters (Street Fighter)
Marcus Fenix (Gears of War)
Pauline (Mario)
Tracer (Overwatch)
Venom Snake (Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain)
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nominations:

John Wick (John Wick)
Mei Ling (Metal Gear Solid)
Karen (Harvest Moon)
Lucca (Chrono Trigger)
Tracer (Overwatch)
Mallow (Super Mario RPG)
Arthas Menethil (Warcraft)
Cartman (South Park)
Rose (Street Fighter)
Dr. Eggman (Sonic series)
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Harry Potter (Harry Potter series) - Low midcarder. Similar problem as a lot of Disney characters; broad appeal among the public and among both genders of similar age to the gamefaqs audience doesn't mean he's going to resonate strongly on a site of male nerds generally focused on games. Actually, he probably made it huge a little later than would have been optimal for the site, too.
Popeye (Popeye) - Low fodder. His importance to gaming is pretty much a footnote from before most of gamefaqs' time that nobody really goes back to, and there's just been not much done with him in general since the 1980 live action movie that I don't think anyone cares about. He strikes me as a character gamefaqs would generally recognize but not care about at all. Could conceivably get 90-10ed against a sufficiently strong and not anti-voted Noble Niner.
Paddle (Pong) - Low fodder. Joke character from a pretty weak game with what respect it gets coming almost solely from historical importance, meaning nobody would care about its "characters" even if they weren't jokes.
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Harry=Low Midcarder
Pepeye=Low Fodder
Paddle=Low Fodder
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Day 27 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77812133
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