Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 312 ft The Traveler, Blade, Vaan

(+) 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 311:

Quistis Trepe (Final Fantasy VIII) is Mid Fodder
Lt. Surge (Pokemon) is Mid Fodder
Barry B. Benson (Bee Movie Game) is Low Fodder

Re-Ranking Result:

Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2) is now Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

The Traveler (Journey)
Blade (Marvel)
Vaan (Final Fantasy XII)

Today's Re-Ranking is:

Claptrap (Borderlands)

---

Nominate Ephraim (Fire Emblem)

---

Nominate Alex Kidd (Alex Kidd)

---

The Traveler (Journey) - Low fodder

It's got a reasonably good design and Journey's recent performance on Skyrim probably indicates it's not quite as pathetic as it was in 2015 so LAW is out of the question.

Blade (Marvel) - Low fodder

The movies are old and I don't think they really mattered much to people long-term.

Vaan (Final Fantasy XII) - Low fodder

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2863-division-1-round-1-knuckles-rikku-vaan-yoshi

I actually don't think his one result there was that bad - he probably got SFFed in a match where the one SFFing him was in a close match and needed every vote they could. And his game's prominence suggests he'd be above low. The issue is that people are almost universally apathetic at best on the guy (AT BEST) and FFXII has gone pretty cold at this point. Without relevance I don't trust him to stand up to anyone people have heard of and care even the slightest bit about.

Today's Re-Ranking is:

Claptrap (Borderlands) - Low fodder

Borderlands box dude thing in 2020.

---

agree with Axem's votes. The Traveler himself has little to do with the praise Journey gets for being game as art. Everyone else is quite weak or hated in the case of Vaan.

nominate Ephraim (Fire Emblem) and Alex Kidd (Alex Kidd)

---

Agree with Axem. Also nominate Ephraim and Alex Kidd.

---

Low fodder for all three, but maybe Blade gets bumped to mid fodder once Mahershala Ali finally dons the gear

---

Day 313 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78607285

---