Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 459 ft Sylveon, Kadabra, Wobbuffet

(+) 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 458:

Doctor Cid (Final Fantasy XII) is Low Fodder
Bubbles (Powerpuff Girls) is Mid Fodder
Cpt. Martin Walker (Spec Ops: The Line) is Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Sylveon (Pokemon)
Kadabra (Pokemon)
Wobbuffet (Pokemon)

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Sylveon (Pokemon) - Low fodder
A Pokemon from 2013.
Even being an Eeveelution isn't enough to counteract that.

Kadabra (Pokemon) - High fodder
Probably not too much weaker than Alakazam. It still gets the job done pretty well if you don't manage to get an Alakazam through Trade Evolution.

Wobbuffet (Pokemon) - Low fodder
Fairly worthless and rare in-game, and, for the very few on gamefaqs who care, even in competitive battling its use was often limited due to getting banned from standard play because of Shadow Tag. Gen 3 Wobbuffet vs. Wobbuffet battles were bad times. Its presence on Jesse's team in the anime is probably a bit too late/minor to matter enough to get it mid fodder.

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Agree with Axem.

I want to say mid for Wobbuffet, but it has the same issues as Marill due to being VERY tough to encounter in Gen 2. I'm probably just biased due to being a weirdo who used Wobbuffett in-game.

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I'm going to say Mid Fodder for Kadabra, because it's very far from a fan favorite and incredibly obscure in pretty much every medium besides the games (and that one anime episode with Sabrina I guess). Its in-game strength is what would give it its sole redeeming value in a contest, as far as I see it, and I'm not sure how much stock I put into that as an influencing factor.

Agree with Low Fodder for Sylveon (it's even notoriously divisive on top of its age issues) and Wobbuffet.

I'll also nominate Link's Grandma for reranking, on the basis that she's way too dependent on getting Link in her name to have any strength at all, which is far from a guarantee. Even then, I'm hardly confident she'd measure up to Link the Goron, who comes from a more popular/nostalgic Zelda game and won't have any problems landing the crucial noun.

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second re-ranking Link's Grandma

Day 460 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78982621

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