Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 155 ft Ash Ketchum, The Flash, Doc Brown

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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 there is a compelling reason for both characters to be linked (either co-starring in a game ala Banjo & Kazooie, or always appearing together like Callie & Marie from Splatoon).

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 - LAW Fodder, 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.

Note that LAW Fodder is meant to be a tier reserved for the weakest possible characters to put into a contest. A character will only be placed there if at least 3/4ths of the voters for that day agree on the LAW Fodder rating, and no ratings above Low Fodder are given. If either of those conditions are not met, the character will not be eligible for the LAW Fodder tier.

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 154:

Zant (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) is Mid Fodder
Saruman the White (Lord of the Rings) is Mid Fodder
Mace Windu (Star Wars) is High Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Ash Ketchum (Pokemon Puzzle League)
The Flash (DC Comics)
Emmett "Doc" Brown (Back to the Future)
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Ash: High Midcarder. Most people around here have some sort of nostalgia for the Pokemon anime, and with Red powering through close matches into round 4 a year ago and regularly making it deep, I don't see any reason why Ash would be much different. Might get a few anti-votes.

Flash: High Fodder. He hasn't had a movie yet, but has been in Justice League and apparently a movie is in the planning stages. People know who he is, which is enough to step on lower fodders, but there's not enough reason to care about him at this time. I err toward High Fodder since there's bound to be hype for the movie coming out in the very near future, but can see Mid as arguable as well.

Doc Brown: Mid Fodder. Love BTTF 1 and 2, and most people around here probably have seen at least the first movie at some point. He's had no impact on video games (just some 80s titles and a Telltale release), but he's an iconic character and the one people remember Christopher Lloyd for. I would think that's reason enough for him to not be Low Fodder. He could even be High Fodder, but BTTF mania was four years ago now (cripes), and not all that much has come from it.
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Ash is difficult to judge. While there is definitely a sizable amount of voters who will have a negative view of him, it really depends how much of the anime they have watched. For example, those who stopped watching around Gen 3 probably dislike Ash, while people who have watched the whole way through should have a more positive view. If they only watched Gen 1, they could go either way. Ash I think is more of polarizing character than a truly hated one.

Taking that into account along with his resemblance to Red and status as an animation icon, I think he can get to Low Midcarder.

The Flash I don't think is especially well-liked on the site, so I will say High Fodder. The most relevant Flash incarnation is probably from the Justice League cartoon, but he had to compete with a lot of other characters for screen time, so doubt he'll stand out too much. The Flash CW series won't get him many points either; it started out strong then took a nosedive as CW hero shows tend to do. The Justice League movie and Injustice probably have little impact as well.

I'm not sure if any Back to the Future games will really matter to voters, including the Telltale game. That said I will give Doc Brown Mid Fodder just based on how memorable and iconic a character he is. It helps that Chris Lloyd usually comes back to play him in pretty much every voiced media appearance, including many cameos and parodies of Doc.
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Ash - Midcarder
The Flash - Mid fodder
Doc Brown - Mid fodder

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Ash - Midcarder
The Flash - High Fodder
Doc Brown - Mid Fodder
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Day 156 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78132779
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