GameFAQs Contests

AxemRedRanger posted...

Guybrush has had a more recent appearance than that!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5208-character-battle-ix-division-8-round-1-ganondorf-vs-guybrush

He even got not last, even after having votes removed for stuffing!

Man, I remember feeling like an absolute genius for taking that Guybrush > Max Payne upset in the expert challenge, simply because the same 18% of this site that nominates him for every contest was never going to budge on him, and it would be enough to put away bald Max Payne.

I don't think Mario was weaker in 2013 than expected though, I just think Vivi was stronger than expected.

Crono could make for some great discussion given the right matchups after how extremely good Chrono Trigger looked last time, we'll see how it translates.

In fairness, that "extremely good" involved demolishing two weak games and then blowing out an ailing FFX that had shown nothing but weakness up to that point.

Then again Melee wasn't too impressive against KH2 and its doubling of Portal can be attributed to a Valve decline. The rest of its matches all involved rallies, which I suppose will be the norm going forward. While a contest with rallies can be exciting in its own way, it does pain me a little to think we'll likely never get a "traditional" contest again.

My logic for picking CT over Melee and FFX in that contest was that CT's contest history just looked better than Melee's or FFX's. And I think by this point a lot of the board will agree that CT would have beaten Melee without rallies "tampering" with the result.

To be fair, from that perspective we had seen Melee and FFX in one additional contest compared to Chrono Trigger. Since Ulti's analyses posit that neither game was particularly impressive in the contest for the most part (while still obviously being among the cream of the crop in the GOTD field), it's probably fair to assume that's not a particularly unpopular opinion. I think Ulti pointed to Melee bleeding so much % against Call of Duty as the point where it showed a weakness that Brawl never really did.

ZenOfThunder posted...

could Chop Chop Master Onion beat any Robot Master ever?

Not neva.

(nominate Metal Man in 20XX)

LinkMarioSamus posted...

And I think by this point a lot of the board will agree that CT would have beaten Melee without rallies "tampering" with the result.

I mean it was up 60/40 before the rally started so yeah it wouldn't have even been close

actually the saddest thing about that rally is that it cost me my chance to be completely right about Melee and FFX still being very close in strength since CT was 60% and climbing during the Power Hour so it was probably headed to a 62-63%+ victory

f***

Rallies

CT would have won that contest

imo

The Mana Sword posted...

CT would have won that contest

imo

I haven't even played Chrono Trigger (yet) and I agree.

The Mana Sword posted...

CT would have won that contest

imo

it had a real chance and it's a shame we'll never know for sure

hello it's me, zen, i'm back, and i'm wearing my old GameFAQs t-shirt and watching a Strong Bad Email playlist. Talking about the 2002 character battle. at a ripe 26 (almost 27) years old in the year of our lord 2018. i wouldnt have it any other way

Dante
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite (2017), Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (2015), DmC: Devil May Cry (2013)

There's constant rumors of Devil May Cry 5, I believe some large DMC fan community came together recently saying that they KNOW DMC5 is coming and the announcement has been pushed back multiple times and they are super pissed. Also apparently it'll be at E3 this year?

If that announcement is right, it might help make Dante a little more relevant again. he has his MvC appearances, but Infinite currently has a record negative three people playing it right now, and the DMC4 SE was good but too long ago to keep Dante hot.

But he's gotta be better than he was in 2013. That contest was fresh after the release of DmC, which might have been the most hated game on the site at that very moment. I don't blame him for getting punked by a cartoon turtle.

Could Dante beat Squirtle without the DmC anti-vote? Maybe not right now. Pokemon is on the rise and Dante is stale, but he'd probably put up significantly better numbers, and he would definitely be closer to Squirtle than he was to Zidane this time around. Let's see if the rumors are true and we get a DmC5 announcement around the time of the contest to start getting Dante back to form.

Q*Bert
Last Contest: 2002
Last Game: Q*Bert (PS4 Port)(2015)

Q*Bert somehow was in two major motion pictures within the span of three years. You got Wreck-It Ralph where he was some kind of comic relief supporting character and you got Adam Sandler's Pixels where he is some kind of comic relief supporting character where in the end he turns into a beautiful woman and Josh Gad has sex with him.

I really wish I was making that last part up.

Regardless, Q*Bert is somehow more relevant than ever, but that doesn't translate into renewed contest strength. Q*Bert is like a turbo-Pac-Man, and he more has a case of "Pac-Man Chlamydia" than "Pac-Man Fever." He probably got it from Josh Gad.

Who is going to vote for Q*Bert over ANYONE else? He might be able to beat... Chop Chop Master Onion. If the Bert were to get back into a contest somehow he'd have to get super lucky and match up with some kind of generic fighting game character like Rock form Soulcalibur or something.

Kasumi
Last Contest: 2006
Last Game: Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation (2017)

what the hell is "Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation (2017)" ??? I Googled it and didn't get much info. It doesn't even have a page on the DOA Wiki. It looks like a regular DOA volleyball game but maybe it's an app or something? You know what, I don't care

Nobody else cares either, her B8 Wiki page talks more about Tina Armstrong's upset of Gordon that Kasumi herself. I think Ayane would be a little stronger than Kasumi, she's in the Ninja Gaiden games and seems to be more of a... "character"

Kasumi probably has a pretty fixed level of strength, you can figure out just by looking at her which game she's from, and that game has its fans, and those fans are unquestionably loyal to the jubblies.

i forgot she was in 2006, that female half of the bracket was such a waste. With Chun-Li in the contests, why would you ever need someone from DOA?

Aeris
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (2014)

all i think about when it comes to Aeris is *spoilers*.com, what a golden age for this board. also how every single time she has a match people slither out from their sticky nerd holes with fire in their eyes and blood running from the corner of their mouths, demanding that the baka gaijin responsible for these internet popularity polls show himself and explain why he used the inferior and incorrect "aeris" over "aerith"

Aeristh is some kind of low-key OG meme, it even showed up in the background of Wreck-It Ralph really quick. She's not Tifa or Vincent strong but she isn't Barret weak. She's probably the weakest of the FFVII midcarders before they dip down into low-midcarder territory.

With the FFVII remake on the horizon she'll probably end up getting a boost but I doubt she'll have dropped significantly.

Gordon Freeman
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Hunt Down the Freeman (2018)

Gordon Freeman is dead like GFNW. Is Gordon the new Duke Nukem? I can already imagine that whenever there's a "3" in his votals that the memes will run freely across the board.

Luckily Gordon's new level of meme-itude keeps him relevant when Gaben won't. He probably ain't gaining but he'll be sticking around for a while.

Tina Armstrong
Last Contest: 2002
Last Game: whatever that s*** I posted on Kasumi's is

See: Kasumi

but worse

are there any FPS protags she could beat?

Knuckles
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Sonic Forces (2017), Sonic Mania (2017)

the echidna, the myth, the legend.

Knuckles is the safest character in the Sonic franchise. Even people who dump on Sonic love Knuckles. That universal love and respect lead him to upsetting Magus in what is indisputably the luckiest pick I ever made in one of these contests.

Knuckles has that dumb "do you know de wey" meme and if anyone somehow forgot Knuckles was a thing they sure as hell remember now. Does that help him or hurt him? As annoying as those memes were, I am sticking to my guns here: People just love Knuckles.

If anything I believe he would have gotten stronger in the past 5 years. Not much, but a little. The general meme-i-ness of the current internet is good for Sonic characters in general. Except Tails.

Knuckles finally being playable in a good Sonic game again last year may have helped him. I'm kinda curious if Sonic Mania had any impact at all, really.

Sonic Mania + Sonic Mania Adventures plus the great new IDW comic should help Sonic and friends but at the same time Sonic Forces was aaaaaaass

SEGA recently confirmed that the Classic and Modern Sonic games are different universes and different characters, retconning Generations. Technically we could nom Classic Sonic into a contest now I guess but Bacon probably wouldn't like it.

how I thought of it last night is that if Sonic guys get classic pictures, they're probably going to be the strongest they've been in ages. people felt good about Mania. really good.

but due to Forces and the big boost in popularity classic Sonic has gotten modern Sonic is now something almost no one will admit to liking so that one is the same or even weaker

i think sonic's current strength is going to be super debated because of Mania and Forces both being released so closely, there's no telling how the dust will settle on that one

you're right tho, if sonic gets a classic pic he'll do WAY better. we are currently in this age of nostalgia where 90s characters are getting remakes and reboots and remasters and people are just guzzling it all down

LeonhartFour posted...

actually the saddest thing about that rally is that it cost me my chance to be completely right about Melee and FFX still being very close in strength since CT was 60% and climbing during the Power Hour so it was probably headed to a 62-63%+ victory

Melee is stronger naturally and no one is convincing me otherwise.

Well, you count rallies as part of a game's strength. I don't think many people would dispute that rallied SSBM is stronger than FF10.

UltimaterializerX posted...

Melee is stronger naturally and no one is convincing me otherwise.

yeah I don't actually care to convince you of anything

just remember that unless you're willing to argue KHII > FFX, Melee can't win by that much

well at least until the fans get scared and rally LOLOLOLOLO

FFIX > KHI still the worst result

pjbasis posted...

FFIX > KHI still the worst result

in order to be the man you've gotta beat the man

Final Fantasy is still the man in the Square hierarchy

Melee was stronger than FFX in 2013, but it wasn't by much. Based on stats (that I made which means they are infallible), FFX dropped a bit from previous contests but was mostly static.

Barring Nintendo fans rallying together (which can easily happen) Chrono Trigger would have won that contest. Every result it had was far better than any of OoT's.

I don't think Sonic Mania helps Knuckles, or any Sonic character. It wasn't a wide enough or hyped enough release to make a significant impact. It takes a lot for GameFAQs to be swayed by anything that happened in recent times.

KamikazePotato posted...

It takes a lot for GameFAQs to be swayed by anything that happened in recent times.

I don't think that's true for popular series. It's tough for anything totally new to make any sort of inroads here, but an established series will do fine with new releases.

and I think you're underselling Sonic Mania a bit anyway

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6791-which-scheduled-august-release-are-you-most-looking-forward

it's not the greatest competition (although it has popular names) but Sonic usually never wins those polls

take Sonic Forces for instance later that year

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6884-which-scheduled-november-release-are-you-most-looking

SEGA went out of their way to say that Sonic Mania is their best selling Sonic game in 15 years

https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/news/sonic-mania-is-the-highest-rated-sonic-game-in-15-years-w498303

But i agree with KP that this site is full of stubborn sonic-haters

Akira Yuki
Last Contest: 2002
Last Game: Project X Zone (2015), Dead or Alive 5 Last Round (2015)

how can somebody get quadrupled by Knuckles and not be last place in the X-Stats? 2002 was full of some real winners

I think I'm pretty familiar with games and contests and characters but when I saw Akira I just went "who" and had to actually click on him to get a picture. I don't know if there's any other characters in contest history where that would happen but I guess we'll see

yeah Virtua Fighter is kinda dead, this dude was a bonus DLC character for DOA5 LR which I think is free but there are so many better fighting games and characters that could appear over him. He's probably even weaker than he was before

Solid Snake
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection 1987-2012 (2013)

what can I say about Solid Snake?

This guy was at peak strength in 2013. He managed to basically take 2013 with relative ease and put up respectable numbers against Link himself in a bonus poll.

So there's no doubt he's strong, but in 5 years, has Konami managed to damage the MGS brand enough to weaken Snake himself? What about MGSV? People are pretty hot and cold with that one, as highlighted by Survive's reception

Will Snake reserve some kind of pity boost? Has Konami's mistreatment of Kojima turned Snake into a martyr? Does such a thing exist? with a franchise like MGS, anything might be possible

At this point Snake is in the hall of gaming greats, I don't think anyone is going to forget him anytime soon. If the bracket placement is good he can still probably take a contest (assuming Link isn't involved). I'd like to see a modern Cloud vs. Snake just to see how much his strength has fluctuated. He can still probably take down Sephiroth right now.

Squall
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (2018)

I don't think we ever emphasize the Squall x Snake rivalry in these contests, mainly because Snake punks Squall every single time. But each time the punking becomes less and less.

Perhaps it's because the hate for FFVIII becomes less and less over time? I see a lot less hate for the game lately, it seemed to be the cool thing to do when we were all dumb high schoolers.

But has Squall continued to grow? Square keeps him relevant with appearances in side games and KH, but he hasn't had a starring role. Here's a question: In a few years if FFVII's remake comes out and sells like hotcakes (it will), will Square bother investing the money into a remake of VIII? Would they go back and do VI instead?

Squall will stay semi-relevant as long as Final Fantasy is still a big franchise, but when is his next big push? Probably never, which is sad. I think that has some advantages, though. Squall will slowly become more and more deified as the people who hate FFVIII stop caring and the people who love FFVIII keep screaming from the heavens how much they love Squall and how they're all from the same orphanage.

ZenOfThunder posted...

I don't think we ever emphasize the Squall x Snake rivalry in these contests

because I'm sick and tired of seeing it

like how many times does Squall have to face Cloud, Sora, and Snake

mix it up for crying out loud Allen

Pac-Man
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 (2016), Namco Museum (2017)

I've been talking a lot recently about "Pac-Man Fever" and how contracting it means that people care about you less, so you can probably know what to expect here

Everyone knows Pac-Man. Nobody cares about Pac-Man as a character. Smash 4 may have helped him out a little, but I don't think all his other little appearances and compilations and movie roles (Pixels and Wreck-It Ralph again) do anything to make him more universal than he already is

Pac-Man is good to have in contests but I'd be shocked if he would be able to even beat Kefka again. This is the dude that couldn't beat Midna and I'm pretty sure he still wouldn't be able to, the hype of him being in a Smash game has kind of died down

Goemon
Last Contest: 2002
Last Game: Ganbare Goemon: Toukai Douchuu Ooedo Tengurigaeshi no Maki (2005)

Goemon is a dead franchise, Cool Breeze Dancin' got doubled by Caim and almost got beat by Chester, the character that was meant to be the biggest loser in contest history

Is there nostalgia for the Goemon franchise? It has a few outspoken fans but I see it brought up less and less. He was a 16 seed in 2002 and hasn't appeared since, so if his fanbase can't even rally him into the fodder-ridden CBIX, how would he do now in 2018? Probably not well. It's hard to imagine fodder this weak becoming weaker but with Goemon I can't picture it any other way.

Abe
Last Contest: 2002
Last Game: Oddworld: New 'N' Tasty (2014)

Abe lost to Kyo Kusanagi in his one appearance 16 years ago

Abe probably just got in becomes the nom period was right after Munch's Odyssey which was one of three games on the OG Xbox

Since then all Abe has had was a remaster of his first game. Stranger's Wrath is a cult classic but it isn't about Abe, so it doesn't help him much

New n Tasty must have sold well enough because apparently a sequel is coming (Oddworld: Soulstorm) supposedly this year, but I think it's in development hell. If that game comes out and is a smash hit during the nom period maybe we'll see Abe back as a 16 seed or something, but even that is a longshot

A fun question now is "Can Abe beat Kyo in 2018?"

The only real answer is "who cares"

Kyo Kusanagi
Last Contest: 2002
Last Game: King of Fighters XIV (2016)

Kyo has one victory in contests and it's over Abe, another character who never returned. Maybe they're both potential Noble Nine breakers and we just don't know it.

Pac-Man barely managed to double Kyo, which says more about Pac-Man than it does about Kyo. Kyo is on and off the KOF "mascot" but I'd argue Terry or Geese are more popular men and Mai would be the most popular KOF character by far. Has anyone tried a Mai nomination rally?

in conclusion nobody on this site cares about Kyo and he's probably gotten weaker since 2002

...

ok i gotta go now i'll do more tomorrow

ZenOfThunder posted...

Pac-Man is good to have in contests but I'd be shocked if he would be able to even beat Kefka again.

I mean he didn't beat Kefka in the first place

ZenOfThunder posted...

Knuckles
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Sonic Forces (2017), Sonic Mania (2017)

the echidna, the myth, the legend.

Knuckles is the safest character in the Sonic franchise. Even people who dump on Sonic love Knuckles. That universal love and respect lead him to upsetting Magus in what is indisputably the luckiest pick I ever made in one of these contests.

Knuckles has that dumb "do you know de wey" meme and if anyone somehow forgot Knuckles was a thing they sure as hell remember now. Does that help him or hurt him? As annoying as those memes were, I am sticking to my guns here: People just love Knuckles.

If anything I believe he would have gotten stronger in the past 5 years. Not much, but a little. The general meme-i-ness of the current internet is good for Sonic characters in general. Except Tails.

Knuckles is probably another Yoshi/Frog case where people love it more than the main character from their respective series, but turns out to be weaker than the main character in the contests. The closest thing to any Sonic series character poll was this poll from 2001:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/581-

And that's only for the Sonic Adventure series alone, not the entire series as a whole. It shows Knuckles beating out Sonic, yet we know Sonic is stronger than Knuckles in the contests.

I believe 2k2 didn't have a nomination phase. CJayC might have gotten some feedback from CE for the bracket but I don't really remember.

LeonhartFour posted...

ZenOfThunder posted...

Pac-Man is good to have in contests but I'd be shocked if he would be able to even beat Kefka again.

I mean he didn't beat Kefka in the first place

oh whoops

all i remember is laughing at Lettuce Kefka

Team Rocket Elite posted...

I believe 2k2 didn't have a nomination phase. CJayC might have gotten some feedback from CE for the bracket but I don't really remember.

i wonder if anyone from CE who was around then is around now, would be great to have some firsthand accounts of the characters suggested. it would be a cool time capsule

friendly reminder that people were legitimately picking Kefka and Magus to win the entire contest in 2003

Scorpion
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Mortal Kombat XL (2016)

Finally, a fighting game character that's kind of worth something

People like Scorpion but not as much as Sub-Zero. Subby is more of a "character" than Scorpion. Scorps is more of an icon, people don't have much loyalty to him unless they are die-hard MK fans, and how many of those are there?

Scorpion notably was in 29th place in the vote-in for 2010 where the top 28 made it into the bracket. He beat Gordon by a bit in round 1 of 2008 but in round 2 he finished behind Gordon and beat Falco, but Falco placed above him in the 2010 vote-in, so it's fair to say his strength is inconsistent and highly dependent on if people actually care about the others in a match

MK has seen some kind of a light resurgence since 2013, Mortal Kombat XL is seen as a "real" fighting game, even more so than MK9. That doesn't do much for Scorpion, though, the dude is pretty well known across the board, and unless there's some kind of God of War 2018 Scorpion-centric game, I doubt he's going to do any better than he did in 2013.

Kazuya
Last Contest: 2002
Last Game: Tekken 7 (2017)

you can probably guess what I'm going to say here

At least Tekken and to some extent SoulCalibur are somewhat popular on GameFAQs. They don't have massive fanbases but they're bigger than the KOF and BlazBlue fanbases I think. Heihachi would probably do best in a contest based on his exposure but I don't think he'd pull in a ton more votes.

If Kazuya got into a contest today he'd probably do a tiny bit better, but that isn't saying much. Jin was in a contest and if you compare their performances, Jin would almost double Kazuya aaaaand I am now out of things to talk about

LeonhartFour posted...

friendly reminder that people were legitimately picking Kefka and Magus to win the entire contest in 2003

i remember people thinking ganondorf and bowser would do better than link and mario because they were "cooler" and "everyone likes the villains more"

what a time to be alive

Oh, there were definitely people who thought Luigi had a legit shot to win the whole thing, too, because he was obviously more popular than Mario.

I mean it should have been obvious but this site man

There are 71 new posts in the topic you are tracking, "Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1278"

New contest?!?!

*checks*

Zenalysis! Almost as good!

I think I remember reading something about the fighting game board helping CJayC decided who made it into the 2002 contest? Would definitely explain all the wacky fighting game fodder.

Oh, and as for why Chop Chop Master Onion made it in:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/787-which-parappa-character-is-your-favorite

Every retelling of the story I've hear says that it was CE who gave CJayC ideas for the 2002 field. But it may as well have been the fighting game board given how many of those fodderous characters were included.

Team Rocket Elite posted...

I believe 2k2 didn't have a nomination phase. CJayC might have gotten some feedback from CE for the bracket but I don't really remember.

He made a topic on CE and he himself is a big 2D fighting game fan.

LeonhartFour posted...

Melee can't win by that much

I never said the gap was big. It'll never be more than 52-48 or so, but Square is very very slowly dying on this site while Nintendo holds steady. FFX's best shot would have been 2008-ish.

UltimaterializerX posted...

I never said the gap was big.

okay

so you agree with what I said then

swirIdude posted...

There are 71 new posts in the topic you are tracking, "Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1278"

New contest?!?!

*checks*

Zenalysis! Almost as good!

Thanks I have no idea what I’m talking about but I miss contests

Please Bacon

Please

He already said the next contest will be in the summer so the wait should only be a few more months.

Yeah, CJayC did like his fighting games...

You can tell CE wasn't a fan of Nintendo characters. Only eight in total and Fox, Kirby and Little Mac were given very low seeds. A bunch of series got multiple characters, but only Mario made it from his.

I did, but Melee is still stronger BRUH

hey it's me Zen and I'm supposed to take my girlfriend for Indian food but she's taking forever so I'm going to try to speed run a bunch of these

Max Payne
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Max Payne 3 (2012)

I can't believe MP3 was so long ago, I remember playing it all night and... not really enjoying it that much. It was alright I guess. Recently the girlfriend was in Forever 21 and I wandered into the ever-shrinking men's section and saw a loud tropical shirt that reminded me of Max Payne's shirt in MP3. I bought that shirt.

That insignificant story is the most relevant Max Payne has been since MP3. In 2013 he managed to slip into the crowded field and he lost to Guybrush Threepwood, proving he had no real established fanbase on this site. We won't be seeing him again and if we do again he'd probably do worse

Dirk the Daring
Last Contest: 2002
Last Game: Dragon's Lair Trilogy (2010)

I remember there being a reboot in the works for Dragon's Lair so I looked it up:

On October 26, 2015, Bluth and Goldman started a Kickstarter campaign to create a teaser for an animated feature-length Dragon's Lair prequel film, their first feature film since Titan A.E. The Kickstarter funding was canceled when not enough funds were made close to the deadline, but an Indiegogo page for the project was created in its place. On December 14, 2015, the Indiegogo campaign reached its goal of $250,000 to produce a teaser, 14 days after the campaign launched, and got more than twice the budget on January 16, 2016.

so I guess Dragon's Lair's fanbase is in some kind of shambles if Don-freakin'-Bluth had to try twice to get $250,000. Meanwhile SWERY just has to ask nicely and people will throw him at least that much to another failed campaign twice: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/476090608/the-good-life

Yeah Dirk got tripled by Max Payne, it's not happening again for this guy. I don't even know what constitutes "happening" for someone like Dirk the Daring. If he were to get rallied into a contest again he'd be bottom 3 of the X-Stats, guaranteed.

ok my girlfriend is done I think, I asked her if she had anything to say about Dirk the Daring and she said "who?"

I miss the days when Max Payne/Dirk the Daring was the lowest voted contest match of all time

Why is Lara Croft more of an icon than Max Payne? Wasn't Max Payne that revolutionary game with Matrix-like physics?

because people actually remember who Lara Croft is