VG Character of the Year

VG Character of the Year is a Board 8 contest hosted by Xcarvenger. The contest was inspired by Smurf's astoundingly successful User of the Year contest and uses the same format to crown the board's favorite video game character. The contest was a follow-on to TimJab's Game of the Year contest and began in 2011. The first incarnation of the contest was invitational only, but future contest will be opened to all video game characters (which may include any fictional characters to have ever appeared in a video game), and not just to those created in that calendar year.

VG Character of the Year Winners

 * 2011: Solid Snake (Runner up: Kirby)
 * 2013: To Be Determined (Runner up: TBD)

VG Character of the Year 2011
Welcome to the first ever Board 8's Video Game Character of the Year Contest! Yep, another spin-off of the ever-so-popular User of the Year contest, but instead of users battling for e-pop, it is now a battle arena for 242 video game characters you have come to know over the years! The Year 2011 here does not mean only characters that were created in 2011 are eligible for this contest (we probably couldn't even fill the minimum 220 entries in that case). Like User of the Year, it's just a contest where Board 8 collectively vote for who they deem to be their best video game character in the Year 2011!

For this first ever VG Character of the Year Contest, it will be "invitational" only, i.e. no nominations! All characters that have appeared at least once in the official GameFAQs Character Battle are eligible. However, it turns out there were more than 270 characters that had seen the Character Battle! Therefore, I had to cut 'em down to the standard 220 entries for the purpose of this contest. I first cut down the relatively unknown characters that had only appeared once in 2002 contest, then those characters that only got in because of certain gimmicks (villains, female), then lastly forgettable/support characters with generic names. Oh and of course major proxy such as the various forms of Link and Mega Man X were disregarded as well. At the end, I was unable to cut it down to 220, so the next best option would be to let 242 characters into the contest! So for Round 1, each division will consist of 11 characters and 4 will be eliminated from each division. The rest of the contest should follow the standard User of the Year format we've all come to know and love!

For the divisions, I selected 22 characters that are/were among the most popular characters as voted by visitors of GameFAQs.com to be the head of their own division (based on achievements and diversity rather than purely on their "true" strength). It would be interesting to see how these super popular characters perform in this kind of format in Board 8 setting. The rest of the characters were put in alphabetical order and then sorted randomly through random.org three times (I found doing it once often occurs in collusion in list this large), then I put every 10 characters into a division in order from top to bottom.

Top 50 finishers this year will automatically be granted entry into the next one, while the rest will have to scramble with nominations. Adding in new characters and the likely return to 220 characters next contest (and potential of adding non-VG characters into the mix), getting to the top 50 may be crucial for getting into the next contest for many of these characters!

The Rankings
These were the final rankings for VGCotY 2011:


 * 1) Solid Snake
 * 2) Kirby
 * 3) Miles Edgeworth
 * 4) Kefka
 * 5) Leon Kennedy
 * 6) Phoenix Wright
 * 7) Luigi
 * 8) Bowser
 * 9) Big Boss
 * 10) GLaDOS
 * 11) Amaterasu
 * 12) Auron
 * 13) Vivi Ornitier
 * 14) Revolver Ocelot
 * 15) Albert Wesker
 * 16) Professor Layton
 * 17) Magus
 * 18) Zidane Tribal
 * 19) Cloud Strife
 * 20) Zelos Wilder
 * 21) Carmen Sandiego
 * 22) Yuri Lowell
 * 23) Yoshi
 * 24) Mega Man
 * 25) Mario
 * 26) Alucard
 * 27) Samus Aran
 * 28) Charizard
 * 29) Jecht
 * 30) Celes Chere
 * 31) Vyse
 * 32) Ike
 * 33) The Boss
 * 34) Liquid Snake
 * 35) Guybrush Threepwood
 * 36) Tidus
 * 37) Squall Leonhart
 * 38) Captain Falcon
 * 39) Ramza Beoulve
 * 40) Rikku
 * 41) Crono
 * 42) Zero
 * 43) Kratos Aurion
 * 44) Ezio Auditore di Firenze
 * 45) Cid Highwind
 * 46) Ryu (Street Fighter)
 * 47) Manny Calavera
 * 48) Lloyd Irving
 * 49) King Dedede
 * 50) Fox McCloud
 * 51) Yuri Hyuga
 * 52) Sonic the Hedgehog
 * 53) Link
 * 54) Jill Valentine
 * 55) Donkey Kong
 * 56) Sub-Zero
 * 57) Knuckles the Echidna
 * 58) Ryu Hayabusa
 * 59) Lightning
 * 60) Balthier Bunansa
 * 61) Falco Lombardi
 * 62) Simon Belmont
 * 63) Nathan Drake
 * 64) Ken Masters
 * 65) Chun Li
 * 66) Meta Knight
 * 67) Dante
 * 68) M. Bison
 * 69) Mega Man X
 * 70) Commander Shepard
 * 71) Ganondorf
 * 72) Strider Hiryu
 * 73) Spy
 * 74) Pikachu
 * 75) Heavy
 * 76) Diddy Kong
 * 77) Kain Highwind
 * 78) Earthworm Jim
 * 79) Gordon Freeman
 * 80) Zack Fair
 * 81) Mewtwo
 * 82) Bomberman
 * 83) Cecil Harvey
 * 84) Yuna
 * 85) Duke Nukem
 * 86) Tifa Lockhart
 * 87) Sheena Fujibayashi
 * 88) King of All Cosmos
 * 89) Frog
 * 90) Luca Blight
 * 91) Agent J
 * 92) Raiden
 * 93) Marth
 * 94) Prince of Persia
 * 95) Jade Curtiss
 * 96) Lucas
 * 97) Dr. Wily
 * 98) Sarah Kerrigan
 * 99) Banjo
 * 100) Lenneth Valkyrie
 * 101) Dr. Robotnik
 * 102) Aerith Gainsborough
 * 103) Frank West
 * 104) Laharl
 * 105) Terry Bogard
 * 106) Raz
 * 107) Midna
 * 108) Morrigan Aensland
 * 109) Pyramid Head
 * 110) Geno
 * 111) Rydia
 * 112) Prinny
 * 113) Ultros
 * 114) Kuja
 * 115) Fei Fong Wong
 * 116) CATS
 * 117) Pac-Man
 * 118) Chris Redfield
 * 119) Little Mac
 * 120) Fawful
 * 121) Joanna Dark
 * 122) KOS-MOS
 * 123) Proto Man
 * 124) Claire Redfield
 * 125) Toad
 * 126) Giygas
 * 127) Pokemon Trainer Red
 * 128) Darth Revan
 * 129) Chop Chop Master Onion
 * 130) Luke fon Fabre
 * 131) HK-47
 * 132) Neku Sakuraba
 * 133) Max Payne
 * 134) JC Denton
 * 135) Tim
 * 136) Viewtiful Joe
 * 137) Aya Brea
 * 138) Rayman
 * 139) Lucario
 * 140) Isaac
 * 141) Nightmare
 * 142) Abe
 * 143) Midgar Zolom
 * 144) Kaim Argonar
 * 145) Princess Peach
 * 146) Miles 'Tails' Prower
 * 147) Felix
 * 148) The Dog
 * 149) Vincent Valentine
 * 150) Axel
 * 151) Ratchet
 * 152) Sora
 * 153) Captain Olimar
 * 154) Arthas Menethil
 * 155) Sly Cooper
 * 156) Wario
 * 157) Terra Branford
 * 158) Conker
 * 159) Sephiroth
 * 160) Ness
 * 161) Crash Bandicoot
 * 162) Missingno
 * 163) Carl Johnson
 * 164) Zelda
 * 165) Soma Cruz
 * 166) Weighted Companion Cube
 * 167) Sho Minamimoto
 * 168) Big Daddy
 * 169) Vergil
 * 170) Scorpion
 * 171) Pit
 * 172) Travis Touchdown
 * 173) PaRappa the Rapper
 * 174) Roxas
 * 175) Mr. Resetti
 * 176) Kyo Kusanagi
 * 177) Goemon
 * 178) Wander
 * 179) Tina Armstrong
 * 180) L-Block
 * 181) Serge
 * 182) Roll
 * 183) Niko Bellic
 * 184) Soap MacTavish
 * 185) Vault Boy
 * 186) Nemesis
 * 187) Altair
 * 188) Thrall
 * 189) Albedo
 * 190) Tom Nook
 * 191) Lara Croft
 * 192) Ghaleon
 * 193) Mr. Driller
 * 194) Akuma
 * 195) Ryo Hazuki
 * 196) Jak
 * 197) Jin Kazama
 * 198) Q*Bert
 * 199) Alyx Vance
 * 200) Andross
 * 201) Tommy Vercetti
 * 202) Ivy Valentine
 * 203) Ridley
 * 204) Kratos (God of War)
 * 205) Cortana
 * 206) Daxter
 * 207) Eddie Riggs
 * 208) Servbot
 * 209) Agent 47
 * 210) Nero
 * 211) Akira Yuki
 * 212) Sam Fisher
 * 213) Riku
 * 214) Mithos
 * 215) Haseo
 * 216) Spyro the Dragon
 * 217) Bub
 * 218) Nathan Hale
 * 219) Jay Solano
 * 220) Jinjo
 * 221) Master Chief
 * 222) Mother Brain
 * 223) Mudkip
 * 224) ? Block
 * 225) Serious Sam
 * 226) Diablo
 * 227) Master Hand
 * 228) Tanner
 * 229) Ellis
 * 230) Sackboy
 * 231) Princess Daisy
 * 232) AiAi
 * 233) Sandbag
 * 234) Matt (Wii Sports)
 * 235) Shadow the Hedgehog
 * 236) Captain MacMillan
 * 237) Marcus Fenix
 * 238) Captain John Price
 * 239) Gabe Logan
 * 240) Amy Rose
 * 241) Bidoof
 * 242) Tingle

Final Round Preview
The three I expected to make it to the final out of the remaining six for an excellent final has finally happened (except Edgeworth instead of Phoenix, but I guess they are similar enough to be considered the same popularity-wise). Let's quickly assess them one by one.

Kirby has a relatively weak start to the contest, but he's killing all his opponents in these last couple of rounds! So let's see if he can finish strong or was his super strength just the inherent advantage of multiple points format as the last Nintendo remaining..?

Miles Edgeworth always played second fiddle to Phoenix... until now, and ironically that's the thing that saved him from being eliminated last round as Phoenix took all the anti-votes. Will he retain Phoenix's power that once upon a time almost too much even for the Solid Snake or will he sit quietly in the corner as the two emerging juggernauts fight it out?

Solid Snake is the definite favorite to win the whole thing from Round 2. Let's see if he can finish the fight triumphantly or will he fall just short...

Honestly, I have no idea who will win this. Will NintendoFAQs win once again or will Board 8's "flavor of the year" prove to be unequivocally enduring or will Snake finally claim his rightful place as the winner after making a joke of the whole tournament (with a slight bump in the GP round)? Let's find out in 48 hours!

Carvey's bet: Snake: 2/1 Kirby: 5/1 Edgeworth: 6/1

VG Character of the Year 2011 And the WINNER is....
Solid Snake!

FINAL Results 59 votes

+1 Solid Snake 0 Kirby -1 Miles Edgeworth

Wow! That's what I gotta say. I don't think we have ever seen a final this intense in UotY! Very close 3-way battle all through the 48 hours? Check. All three participants being in contention to win and had taken the lead at some point during the match? Check. In fact, the winner was in doubt until the very last second! Best final I could ever hope.

Thanks to everyone for voting in the tournament!