Raiden's Contest History

Who is Raiden?
Before Metal Gear Solid 2 was released, people didn't even know of Raiden's existence and simply assumed that Solid Snake would be the lone playable character through MGS2.

But when Snake's mission on the tanker is near-over and extraneous events cause it to sink, the scene quickly shifts to the future. The tanker site has been replaced with a gigantic oil spill cleanup facility called the Big Shell, and it isn't long before things go nuts. A terrorist group calling themselves Dead Cell infiltrates the Big Shell, abducts the President and threatens to launch a nuke if the US doesn't meet their demands.

Solid Snake being dead after the tanker incident forces the government to send in a rookie by the name of Raiden to handle the situation. Raiden looks and acts like a rookie early on in his mission, but he's still more than adept enough at the necessary stealth skills to do what is needed of him and whip Dead Cell's ass at every turn.

The catch is that as Raiden advances closer and closer to his ultimate goal of rescuing the President and liberating the Big Shell of its terrorist occupiers to avoid disasters in the environment and national security, things begin to seem very off. Raiden constantly feels alone enough as it is, and the nagging feeling that his superiors aren't telling him everything makes it worse. At one point in the game, Raiden frees a high-ranking government hostage and mentions the terrorist's random demand of 50 billion dollars. He's almost laughed out of the building, almost as if Raiden's mission is a lie.

As Raiden finishes the events of Metal Gear Solid 2, the truth is far more than he (or especially the one playing the game) could have ever dreamed of. A lot of people feel that the concluding events of Metal Gear Solid 2 are complete nonsense, but just as many feel that MGS2 is perhaps the finest example of story-telling ever. It depends on how far outside the box one is willing to think.

Raiden himself is an enigma as well. He takes on this mission as a rookie, but his skill on the field of battle indicates that he too is burying much information deep within. The revelation of Raiden's true self is another of MGS2's brilliant story-telling moments, and serves to make Raiden one of gaming's better characters. Raiden gets a lot of flak for not being Solid Snake, but he's still a great character in his own right. In several ways, he's actually better than Snake.

"I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hari Kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!" - Colonel

Raiden's Contest History
Win-Loss Record: 1-2

Summer 2003 Contest - West Division - 16 Seed
 * Western Round 1 --- Lost to (1) Solid Snake, 17480 [17.12%] - 84638 [82.88%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 59th Place [12.29%]

Though Raiden was stuck facing Snake as a 16 seed in 2003 (and expectedly suffered an SFF beating), this match is hardly indicative of his potential strength at all. Of all the potential or old contest characters, Raiden has perhaps one of the widest ranges possible -- for most characters, we already have a specific idea of how strong they are.

The issue is actually getting Raiden back into the field. He's been gone since 2003, and it may take a massive nomination rally just to get him in. From there, will Raiden get a high enough seed so as to be allowed to perform?

For all we know Raiden could turn out to be a bust after his inevitable return to the field, but he deserves a shot far more than a vast amount of the characters out there.

Summer 2007 Contest - Division 4 - Third Group
 * Division 4 Round 1 --- 2nd place, 25316 [20.15%] - Crono, 60534 [48.18%] - Sam Fisher, 24944 [19.86%] - Simon Belmont, 14836 [11.81%]
 * Division 4 Round 2 --- 3rd place, 20991 [17.26%] - Crono, 44563 [36.65%] - Zero, 39680 [32.64%] - HK-47, 16348 [13.45%]

Metal Gear Solid fans have been waiting for Raiden to make his return appearance. After all, his only match prior to this year was a SFF beatdown at the hands of Solid Snake, so there was no telling how strong he actually is. He was expected to have an easy time of things in round one, but it was a bit harder than expected. Raiden had to fight off a comeback attempt from Metal Gear Solid's rival series hero, Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher. That was a major let down from his fans who had hoped for better things from him.

Many blamed the underperformance on the Metal Gear Solid 4 picture, an image they said was not well-known enough, in addition to having a name shared by many other video game characters. Regardless, Raiden held up fairly well in the second round, not dropping off very far from his round one percentage. I guess we'll have to see what the actual release of MGS4 does for him before we can make a fair assessment of his contest strength.