Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 456 ft Snow Villiers, Duck Hunt Duck, Vahn

(+) 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 455:

Ryuji Sakamoto (Persona 5) is Mid Fodder
Kangaskhan (Pokemon) is Mid Fodder
Marin (Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Snow Villiers (Final Fantasy XIII)
Duck (Duck Hunt)
Vahn (Legend of Legaia)

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Nominate:
Caeda (Fire Emblem)
Clair (Pokemon)
Cpt. Martin Walker (Spec Ops: The Line)
Electrode (Pokemon)
Dry Bones (Mario series)
Exodia the Forbidden One (Yugioh)
Geese Howard (King of Fighters)
Hulk Hogan (WWF/WCW/WWE games)
Johnny Gat (Saints Row)
Lolo (Adventures of Lolo)
Lunafreya Nox Fleuret (Final Fantasy XV)
Mitsuru Kirijo (Persona 3)
The King (Sneak King)
Undyne (Undertale)
Chain Chomp (Mario series)
Hammer Bros. (Mario series)

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Nominate:
Mike Ehrmantraut

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Snow Villiers (Final Fantasy XIII) - Low fodder
He seemed to get a lot of hate from what I could tell, although not as much as Hope.
Duck (Duck Hunt) - Mid fodder
People don't really care but it's still a recognizable gaming icon of sorts and (half of) a playable Smash character.
Vahn (Legend of Legaia) - Low fodder
I figure the game is well-liked and played enough on this oldass website to maybe save him from LAW but probably not by much. I'd favor him over Caim I think?


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Nominate:
Decoy Octopus (Metal Gear)
Kazuhira Miller (Metal Gear)

Kingdoms of Amalur is currently the #2 game on the site. Does it have any halfway worthwhile characters?

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I wasn't aware that Snow received any hate back when FF13 came out; I mostly saw Hope, Sazh, Vanille and Lightning take the brunt of it. If he got any it must have been minor in comparison. His relationship with Serah was a big part of the FF13 trilogy and he seems like the most relatable of the major playable characters, so I will give him Mid Fodder. I expect he'd be a very weak mid though.

I will say Low Fodder for the Duck. The Ducks in Duck Hunt are little more than glorified targets, with the Dog being the actual memorable character from the game. It is one part of the Duck Hunt Duo in Smash, but I don't think that alone is enough to get it to mid.

Agree with Low Fodder for Vahn.

Nominate Decoy Octopus, Kazuhira and The Fateless One (Kingdoms of Amalur)

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Low Fodder for all. Smash gives you a decent baseline floor for contest strength here, sure, but I'm not convinced that floor would be Mid Fodder even for a proper playable character. Meanwhile, Legend of Legaia appears to have quite a high playrate and be fairly well-liked here, and most importantly, it came during this site's prime JRPG nostalgia phase - I'd sooner consider Vahn for Mid Fodder than LAW Fodder.

Third Decoy Octopus and Kazuhira Miller, and second The Fateless One.

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Day 457 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78975331

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