Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 206 ft Monkey D. Luffy, Garnet, Nier

(+) 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 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

If you feel that a character has been over or under-ranked, or if a new development has come up that would affect their contest strength, you may nominate them for a re-ranking. You may nominate one character per day for this, and 3 votes are needed to get them on the slate. One character with 3 votes will come up for re-ranking today.

Re-ranking Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V6dx-tu-FD1rCxbX69eQwEzE7x1F6nNRNFochYHu1dc/edit?usp=sharing

Results from Day 205:

May (Pokemon RSE) is Mid Fodder
Octorok (Legend of Zelda series) is Mid Fodder
Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss) is Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Garnet/Dagger (Final Fantasy IX)
Nier (Nier Gestalt)
Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)

Today's Re-Ranking is:

Koopa Troopa (Mario series)

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Garnet low

Garnet I will say is High Fodder. She is the focus of the plot of FFIX for much of the game, but it seems like she gets overlooked quite a bit compared to Zidane or Vivi. I almost never hear anyone talk about her, so I think the overall response to her as a character is lukewarm. But enough FFIX fans will vote for her that I believe she'll beat most fodder. Also, her butt

Nier is definitely Low Fodder, and would be in consideration for law fodder if not for sharing the name of his series.

Luffy I will give Mid Fodder. He is the MC of an incredibly popular anime and is recognizable enough to not be low fodder. But I don't think he's anywhere close to being a well-liked character within the fanbase. I could see him getting some joke votes based off of 4Kids anime dub memes though.

Koopa I will put at High Fodder this time around. He's about as iconic as the Goomba, but has a much longer history of being playable in spinoffs - dating back to the original Mario Kart. I think that gives Koopa enough of a potential fanbase to tip him up to high fodder.

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Garnet/Dagger (Final Fantasy IX) - High fodder
Nier (Nier Gestalt) - Low fodder
Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece) - Low fodder

One Piece didn't really hit hard among more casual anime fans in the U.S. back when it would have counted. A majority of the site probably likes or liked anime pretty well at some point. My confidence is low that a significant amount watched and cared specifically about One Piece.

Koopa Troopa - High fodder

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Garnet: Mid Fodder - I'm not that confident in random FF9 party members, though Garnet's certainly more likely to be strong than an anthropomorphic rat.

Nier: Mid Fodder - His 2013 match wasn't atrocious, especially considering the circumstances. I'm confident both the game and especially series value of Nier has soared since then, which should translate into a big boost for the eponymous character.

Luffy: Low Fodder - What are the anime series GameFAQs cares about anyways, besides the various permutations of Dragon Ball?

Koopa: Mid Fodder - See my line about the Goomba. People care a bit more about it as a character, but I don't think that's quite enough.

Nominate Naruto for re-ranking just because I wouldn't take this site to have particularly positive opinions about the character or the anime in general.

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Dragon ball is probably the only anime franchise thats both very widely watched here and still actively cared about. Pokemon (of course), Yugioh, Sailor Moon, and Digimon should have decent-to-very high rates of having been watched at some point. In general I dont trust stuff that only aired on Cartoon Network nearly as much. Naruto might be worth mid fodder or so, although hed be depending an awful lot on gamefaqs younger half; actually having good games helps though. Besides adult swim nostalgia, Full metal alchemist Is boosted by actually still being popular and well-liked by current anime fans (though technically its brotherhood rather than the first anime that current fans like). Cowboy bebop had reruns for years and years and massive critical acclaim and just seemed like the coolest thing ever hence why I put spike at mid fodder.

thats about it imo. Bleach was maybe worth a little several years ago but sure as hell isnt now. Death note probably hit too late and too briefly to matter much but it might be worth a little? I give minimal chance of anyone from anything else breaking low fodder. Would be very impressed if anything modern managed it.

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Day 207 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78301533

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