Lloyd Irving's Contest History

Who is Lloyd Irving?
Lloyd Irving is the main hero of Tales of Symphonia, though his demeanor is far from the standard archetype that is seen in most RPGs. Lloyd is... freakishly optomistic and oblivious, to the point where many people playing the game feel that Lloyd is an absolute idiot.

Not that Lloyd does much to stem these accusations. He takes the self-righteous "I want what's best for the world" act much too far at several points in the game, to the point where it almost looks as if Lloyd feels there are no drawbacks to any action. This mentality costs the party on several occasions.

Lloyd was separated from his parents at a very young age, and was taken in and raised by a dwarf named Dirk. Being raised by a dwarf allowed Lloyd to become a very good craftsman, and for the most part he lives a good life with his adoptive father. Nearby Dirk's hut is a village named Iselia where Lloyd goes to school, and his outgoing nature allows him to make a few friends fairly easily. Together with his friends Colette and Genis, Lloyd and company seem like three normal kids going through school like everyone else.

Unfortunately for all of them, there's a lot more to it than that. Colette eventually decides to go on a World Regeneration Journey so as to help the world of Sylvarant get back to its former glory, which would in turn wipe the Desians who keep raising hell on Sylvarant out of existence. Lloyd desperately wants to go with Colette on this journey, but both her and a mercenary named Kratos Aurion tell Lloyd to stay home as he would only get in the way.

Lloyd plans on going anyway, and Colette knows this. As such, she lies to Lloyd about her time of departure for his own sake. But before Lloyd can go after Colette, Genis convinces Lloyd to help a friend of his currently stuck in a Desian Human Ranch. Lloyd does so, and the Desians level Iselia as a result. Lloyd and Genis are exiled from the town, and Lloyd has no other choice but to go after Colette.

Thus begins Tales of Symphonia, but like most Japanese RPGs, things aren't nearly what they seem at the beginning of the game. The further Lloyd and company go along with Colette in her journey, the more that some party members begin to realize that something just doesn't click...

"Two swords means twice the power, right?" - Lloyd Irving

Lloyd Irving's Contest History
Win-Loss Record: 1-2

Summer 2005 Contest - Mushroom Division - 2 Seed
 * Mushroom Round 1 --- Defeated (7) Albert Wesker, 46373 [54.69%] - 38421 [45.31%]
 * Mushroom Semifinal --- Lost to (3) Zero, 23938 [26.75%] - 65557 [73.25%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 58th Place [15.73%]

Summer 2005 was the year in which Tales of Symphonia characters made their debut in the field, and the first to show their stuff was Lloyd himself.

And Lloyd tanked. Badly. He defeated Wesker with minimal effort, but given Wesker's performance in Spring 2005, Lloyd's match with Wesker suggested that Lloyd was barely stronger than Mithos in a contest setting. And no one likes Mithos, which means that either something very odd happened with Mithos/Wesker/Kefka/Lloyd, or Lloyd is an absolute weakling.

It may be a little of both. Lloyd went on to lose to Zero, though the final stats may not show Lloyd's true strength. Zero was likely behind SFF in his match with Mario, and the stats don't make an SFF adjustment for Zero's loss. But even still, Lloyd went out and proved himself to be absolute fodder and that the TOS hierarchy doesn't work nearly as normally as other games with many characters do. Kratos is easily the strongest character in the game, and Zelos Wilder and Sheena Fujibayashi may also be capable of outdoing Lloyd in a match.

Whatever the case is, Tales of Symphonia has proven that it has a very dedicated, but very small fanbase that can't make much of a difference in contests. Lloyd was so disappointing in fact that he may be lucky to ever see a contest again.

Summer 2007 Contest - Division 4 - Fourth Group
 * Division 4 Round 1 --- 3rd place, 25863 [20.22%] - Zero, 50230 [39.56%] - HK-47, 27044 [21.30%] - Jak, 24030 [18.92%]

After a very disappointing 2005 contest, Lloyd was placed in the midst of a weak fourpack. Even so, he seemed to be the weak link. But when the match started, he managed to jump out into second place. He eventually gave way to HK-47, but he stayed close the entire time. Although he didn't make it out of the first round, Lloyd managed to redeem himself a bit. Coupled with Wesker's surprising performance, perhaps it's possible that he was actually rather underrated in 2005.