Character Popularity Poll

[alwaysbebatman]

Thanks!!!!

[Peelee]

I dunno, that just looks like a horizontally flipped Redcloak.

[2.5 cats]

10 - O-Chul
9 - Belkar
8 - Monster-In-the-Dark
7 - Roy
6 - Vaarsuvius
5 - General Tarquin
4 - Bloodfeast the Extremeinator
3 - Mr. Scruffy
2 - RedCloak
1 - Demon Roaches

[DataNinja]

10P: MitD
9P: O-Chul
8P: Vaarsuvius
7P: Xykon
6P: Veldrina
5P: Tarquin
4P: Blackwing
3P: Lien
2P: Shojo
1P: Redcloak

(I must say, I'm surprised that there aren't any votes for the flumphs, after seeing a number of people celebrating their recent return. )

[Belksworth]

10: Belkar
9: Vaarsuvius
8: O-Chul
7: Redcloak
6: Tarquin
5: Miko
4: Thog
3: Elan
2: Durkon
1: Haley

[Zaclock]

This poll reminds me a lot of the "relationship" contest that happened a few years ago. I don't remember that one ever reaching an end, which might be an argument to keeping a 16-entry draw.

Sticking to only ten picks of favorite characters was extremely difficult, which tells a lot about the quality of this comic.

10P: MitD
9P: Vaarsuvius
8P: O-Chul
7P: Therkla
6P: Blackwing
5P: Elan
4P: Haley
3P: Redcloak
2P: Belkar
1P: Kazumi Kato
0P (Honorable mentions): Mr. Scruffy, Shojo, Oracle, Demon Roaches, Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator, Lien

[Luizeu]

10- Redcloak
9- Haley
8- V
7- O Chul
6- Roy
5- Belkar
4- Durkon
3- Miko
2- Elan
1- Xykon

[alwaysbebatman]

I've been giving a lot of thought to ways that we can get the whole field of characters involved (thanks for the suggestion, Bob McSurly) without it getting unwieldy.

Here's my idea: Give seeding to the 13 top point getters. Break the remaining character into two wild card blocks: call the top 1/3 the X Block and the bottom 2/3 the Z Block. Have all of the characters in X Block fight it out in one poll and all of the characters in Z Block in one other poll. Then have a 15-competitor tournament with a bye for first seed, and the winners of X Block treated as 14th seed and the winners of Z Block treated as 15th seed.

So First Seed would skip the first round and in the second round face the winner of the poll between eighth and ninth Seed. Second Seed would face the Z-Block winner, third seed would face the X-Block winner, fourth seed would face 13th seed, etc.

I've been looking for a decent bracket generator, but they all suck. So here's the brackets in a table, hopefully that helps with visualizing.

First Seed							Third Seed
Bye	First Seed					Winner if Third Seed and X Block	Winner of X Block
Ninth Seed	Winner of Ninth and Eighth					Winner of Eleventh and Sixth	Eleventh Seed
Eighth Seed		Winner of Top Left			Winner of Top Right		Sixth Seed
			Winner of Left Side	Winner of Right Side
Fifth Seed		Winner of Bottom Left			Winner of Bottom Right		Seventh Seed
Twelfth Seed	Winner of Fifth and Twelfth Seed					Winner of Seventh or Tenth Seed	Tenth Seed
Thirteenth Seed	Winner of Thirteenth and Fourth Seed					Winner if Z Block Winner or Second Seed	Winner of Z Block
Fourth Seed							Second Seed

Feedback?

[Present 2.0]

Lord Hinjo is... also a paladin. The best thing I can say about him is that he serves his purpose within the plot, is a serviceable straight man for Elan while Roy is life-challenged, and if he were more interesting, he'd distract from other characters who are the actual focus of scenes he is in.

I think, he was pretty great in the scene, where he confronted his uncle and then Miko.

Haha! 50 characters have received at least a point so far, that would be a MASSIVE tournament.

I did a Tournament with 128 Characters in an ASOIAF-Forum.

But I think, 16 is enough for OotS. 32 at most.

[Peelee]

I've been looking for a decent bracket generator, but they all suck. So here's the bracket's in a table, hopefully that helps with visualizing.

First Seed							Third Seed
Bye	First Seed					Winner if Third Seed and X Block	Winner of X Block
Ninth Seed	Winner of Ninth and Eighth					Winner of Eleventh and Sixth	Eleventh Seed
Eighth Seed		Winner of Top Left			Winner of Top Right		Sixth Seed
			Winner of Left Side	Winner of Right Side
Fifth Seed		Winner of Bottom Left			Winner of Bottom Right		Seventh Seed
Twelfth Seed	Winner of Fifth and Twelfth Seed					Winner of Seventh or Tenth Seed	Tenth Seed
Thirteenth Seed	Winner of Fifteenth and Fourth Seed					Winner if Z Block Winner or Second Seed	Winner of Z Block
Fourth Seed							Second Seed

Feedback?

This may be because I'm not a big sports guy, but it took my way too long to realize how to read that. And in the meantime, my only feedback was going to be, "yeah, format it."


Anyway, looks good!

[dps]

OK

10P Malack

9P Blackwing

8P Redcloak

7P Roy

6P un-named Cleric of Loki from the Greysky City arc

5P Shojo

4P Belkar

3P Gannji

2P Durkon

1P Haley

[alwaysbebatman]

Here are the top 13 seeds based on ballots through Luizeu's:

Rank )	Name :	Points ,	Ballots ,	Average ,	10s
1 )	Vaarsuvius :	223 ,	32 ,	6.97 ,	7
2 )	Redcloak :	221 ,	32 ,	6.91 ,	3
3 )	O-Chul :	202 ,	29 ,	6.97 ,	5
4 )	Roy Greenhilt :	167 ,	27 ,	6.19 ,	4
5 )	The Monster :	167 ,	24 ,	6.96 ,	7
6 )	Belkar Bitterleaf :	146 ,	25 ,	5.84 ,	6
7 )	Elan :	129 ,	23 ,	5.61 ,	2
8 )	Durkon Thundershield :	118 ,	22 ,	5.36 ,	2
9 )	Xykon :	110 ,	19 ,	5.79 ,	1
10 )	Haley Starshine :	105 ,	22 ,	4.77 ,	0
11 )	General Tarquin :	82 ,	17 ,	4.82 ,	0
12 )	Lord Shojo :	59 ,	13 ,	4.54 ,	0
13 )	Celia :	52 ,	7 ,	7.43 ,	3

Wildcard Block X:
Miko Miyazaki
Malack
Lien
Thog
Blackwing
Right Eye
Therkla
Mr.Scruffy
Veldrina
Sabine
Beatrix "Bandana" Secundus
Ho Thanh
IFCC

Wildcard Block Z:
Kazumi Kato
Lord Hinjo
TVFKA Durkon Thundershield
Julio Scoundrél
CPPD Chief
Gannji
Nale
Exarch Gontor Hamerfell
Inkyrius
Tsukiko
Laurin Shattersmith
Enor
Ian Starshine
Bloodfeast the Extremeinator
Prime Minister Jirix
Leeky Windstaff
Demon Roaches
Oona
Wrecan
Odin
Soon Kim
Greyview
Qarr
Jiminy (of Poleaxe Emorium)
The Oracle of the Sunken Valley

[Bob_McSurly]

I've been giving a lot of thought to ways that we can get the whole field of characters involved (thanks for the suggestion, Bob McSurly) without it getting unwieldy.

Here's my idea: Give seeding to the 13 top point getters. Break the remaining character into two wild card blocks: call the top 1/3 the X Block and the bottom 2/3 the Z Block. Have all of the characters in X Block fight it out in one poll and all of the characters in Z Block in one other poll. Then have a 15-competitor tournament with a bye for first seed, and the winners of X Block treated as 14th seed and the winners of Z Block treated as 15th seed.

So First Seed would skip the first round and in the second round face the winner of the poll between eighth and ninth Seed. Second Seed would face the Z-Block winner, third seed would face the X-Block winner, fourth seed would face 13th seed, etc.

I've been looking for a decent bracket generator, but they all suck. So here's the brackets in a table, hopefully that helps with visualizing.

First Seed							Third Seed
Bye	First Seed					Winner if Third Seed and X Block	Winner of X Block
Ninth Seed	Winner of Ninth and Eighth					Winner of Eleventh and Sixth	Eleventh Seed
Eighth Seed		Winner of Top Left			Winner of Top Right		Sixth Seed
			Winner of Left Side	Winner of Right Side
Fifth Seed		Winner of Bottom Left			Winner of Bottom Right		Seventh Seed
Twelfth Seed	Winner of Fifth and Twelfth Seed					Winner of Seventh or Tenth Seed	Tenth Seed
Thirteenth Seed	Winner of Thirteenth and Fourth Seed					Winner if Z Block Winner or Second Seed	Winner of Z Block
Fourth Seed							Second Seed

Feedback?

Thank you so much! You are now on my imaginary list of awesome people!

And sorry if it sounded like I was complaining earlier. I'm grateful that you guys are doing this.

[alwaysbebatman]

Sharing your thoughts on what you think would be awesome is NOT complaining. Thanks again for the impetus to brainstorm something a little different.

Here's the Top 13 through dpc's ballot:

Rank )	Name :	Points ,	Ballots ,	Average ,	10s
1 )	Redcloak :	229 ,	33 ,	6.94 ,	3
2 )	Vaarsuvius :	223 ,	32 ,	6.97 ,	7
3 )	O-Chul :	202 ,	29 ,	6.97 ,	5
4 )	Roy Greenhilt :	174 ,	28 ,	6.21 ,	4
5 )	The Monster :	167 ,	24 ,	6.96 ,	7
6 )	Belkar Bitterleaf :	150 ,	26 ,	5.77 ,	6
7 )	Elan :	129 ,	23 ,	5.61 ,	2
8 )	Durkon Thundershield :	120 ,	23 ,	5.22 ,	2
9 )	Xykon :	110 ,	19 ,	5.79 ,	1
10 )	Haley Starshine :	106 ,	23 ,	4.61 ,	0
11 )	General Tarquin :	82 ,	17 ,	4.82 ,	0
12 )	Lord Shojo :	64 ,	14 ,	4.57 ,	0
13 )	Malack :	56 ,	10 ,	5.60 ,	2

At the top of the bracket: Vaarsuvius didn't hold onto the top spot long. At the bottom: dpc's strong support for Malack brought him into the Baker's Dozen, knocking Celia out.

Here's the X Wild Cards:
Celia
Miko Miyazaki
Blackwing
Lien
Thog
Right Eye
Therkla
Mr.Scruffy
Veldrina
Sabine
Beatrix "Bandana" Secundus
Ho Thanh
IFCC

And the Z Wild Cards:
Kazumi Kato
Lord Hinjo
Gannji
TVFKA Durkon Thundershield
Julio Scoundrél
CPPD Chief
Nale
Exarch Gontor Hamerfell
Inkyrius
Tsukiko
Laurin Shattersmith
Enor
Greysky Cleric of Loki
Ian Starshine
Bloodfeast the Extremeinator
Prime Minister Jirix
Leeky Windstaff
Demon Roaches
Oona
Wrecan
Odin
Soon Kim
Greyview
Qarr
Jiminy (of Poleaxe Emorium)
The Oracle of the Sunken Valley

[woweedd]

Sharing your thoughts on what you think would be awesome is NOT complaining. Thanks again for the impetus to brainstorm something a little different.

Here's the Top 13 through dpc's ballot:

Rank )	Name :	Points ,	Ballots ,	Average ,	10s
1 )	Redcloak :	229 ,	33 ,	6.94 ,	3
2 )	Vaarsuvius :	223 ,	32 ,	6.97 ,	7
3 )	O-Chul :	202 ,	29 ,	6.97 ,	5
4 )	Roy Greenhilt :	174 ,	28 ,	6.21 ,	4
5 )	The Monster :	167 ,	24 ,	6.96 ,	7
6 )	Belkar Bitterleaf :	150 ,	26 ,	5.77 ,	6
7 )	Elan :	129 ,	23 ,	5.61 ,	2
8 )	Durkon Thundershield :	120 ,	23 ,	5.22 ,	2
9 )	Xykon :	110 ,	19 ,	5.79 ,	1
10 )	Haley Starshine :	106 ,	23 ,	4.61 ,	0
11 )	General Tarquin :	82 ,	17 ,	4.82 ,	0
12 )	Lord Shojo :	64 ,	14 ,	4.57 ,	0
13 )	Malack :	56 ,	10 ,	5.60 ,	2

At the top of the bracket: Vaarsuvius didn't hold onto the top spot long. At the bottom: dpc's strong support for Malack brought him into the Baker's Dozen, knocking Celia out.
[snip]

(Emphasis mine.)
NO! Bad enough to see O-Chul knocked out of the top slot. but now this?

[Bob_McSurly]

Jiminy (of Poleaxe Emorium)

Technically, its the Polearm Emporium. He doesn't only sell Poleaxes :)
Edit: I suppose we haven't actually seen him SELL anything, come to think of it:). He calls it a Polearm Emporium though.

[Guinea_Pig]

This is a really fun idea! It's surprisingly hard to pick just 10 characters.

10: Vaarsuvius

9: Haley

8: Redcloak

7: Tarquin

6: Thog

5: Miko

4: MitD

3: O-Chul

2: Xykon

1: Right Eye

[littlebum2002]

10. O-Chul
9. V
8. Therkla
7. Bandana
6. Lien
5. MitD
4. Belkar
3. Shojo
2. Oracle
1. Jimminy

Wow, I had no idea how hard this would be.

[Present 2.0]

Of course it is to late to change anything now, but just out of curiosity, do you think, 20 Characters would've been feasible? Because I decided against 20 in the Beginning, because I didn't thought, there would be many users, that could pick so many characters.

[alwaysbebatman]

Since the top 13 are getting guaranteed seeding (without needing to get past a wildcard round) I might have let balloters pick a baker's dozen each, too. For symmetry.

If that had been the plan from the start, rather than an idea sparked along the way.

Also: Not much has changed with the seeding, except Vaarsuvius has taken a narrow lead again.

[Guinea_Pig]

Of course it is to late to change anything now, but just out of curiosity, do you think, 20 Characters would've been feasible? Because I decided against 20 in the Beginning, because I didn't thought, there would be many users, that could pick so many characters.

I think that picking 20 would have worked. The comic has so many characters that I'd think most forum users could have picked 20 of their favorites. Though the tough choice of narrowing your favorite characters down to the top 10 is fun too. Either way works well, in my opinion.

[white lancer]

10 pts - Vaarsuvius
9 pts - Redcloak
8 pts - Haley Starshine
7 pts - Tarquin
6 pts - Roy Greenhilt
5 pts - O'Chul
4 pts - Monster in the Darkness
3 pts - Malack
2 pts - Elan
1 pt - Miko Miyazaki

HM: Durkon, Belkar, Soon Kim, Thog, Right-Eye, Xykon, Kazumi, Blackwing, Leeky Windstaff (not really, but he does have some of the best lines in the comic)

Almost impossible to narrow it down, as should be obvious by the list of HMs. It feels wrong not having Durkon in there, and I may be doing Belkar a disservice, since he's been my least favorite member of the Order for most of the strip, but has certainly come on strong recently...I'm generally a fan of those who have had long or complex arcs, while I award "bonus points" for being entertaining. The top two have been locked in in my mind for a long time, but the rest of the list could be rearranged in a number of different orders and the last two slots could be swapped out for half my HM list. Miko is a character who I find repellent as a person but fascinating as a character/arc, so I like throwing her a bone with my last point, even if she's more minor than everyone else there.

[Kamon]

10. Malack

9. Bandana

8. Therkla

7. Shojo

6. Belkar

5. Hinjo

4. Zz'dtri

3. Former High Priest of Hel/Durkula

2. Zhou Bo

1. Celia

[Sylian]

Of course it is to late to change anything now, but just out of curiosity, do you think, 20 Characters would've been feasible? Because I decided against 20 in the Beginning, because I didn't thought, there would be many users, that could pick so many characters.

20 sounds pretty doable. Order of the Stick, 6. Redcloak, O-Chul, Right-Eye, Xykon, Monster in the Darkness, 5. Nale, Thog, Zz'dtri, Sabine, 4. Tarquin, Malack, 2. That right there is 13 characters that many would automatically include in their top 20. Then you have a bunch of other characters that might fit into top 20, such as Miko, Hinjo, Lord Shojo, Bandana, Therkla, Lien, Blackwing, Celia, Tsukiko, etc. Granted, it might be hard to order them, but 10 characters seemed a bit on the low side in my opinion (6 spots taken by Order of the Stick, and Redcloak probably gets the 7th, leaving only 3 spots for other characters). Maybe 15 would've been a good compromise?

[alwaysbebatman]

2. Zhou Bo

Who? My Google Fu has failed me.

Also: No big changes in the Baker's Dozen.

Here are the wildcard blocks:

X Block:
Miko Miyazaki : 55
Celia : 53
Therkla : 41
Blackwing : 36
Lien : 35
Beatrix "Bandana" Secundus : 35
Thog : 34
Right Eye : 28
Mr.Scruffy : 22
Veldrina : 20
Sabine : 19
Lord Hinjo : 17
Ho Thanh : 17

Z Block:
IFCC : 14
TVFKA Durkon Thundershield : 14
Kazumi Kato : 13
Gannji : 11
Julio Scoundrél : 9
CPPD Chief : 9
Nale : 8
Exarch Gontor Hamerfell : 8
Inkyrius : 8
Tsukiko : 7
Laurin Shattersmith : 7
Enor : 6
Greysky Cleric of Loki : 6
Ian Starshine : 4
Bloodfeast the Extremeinator : 4
Zz'dtri : 4
Prime Minister Jirix : 3
The Oracle of the Sunken Valley : 3
Leeky Windstaff : 3
Demon Roaches : 2
Jiminy (of Polearm Emorium) : 2
Oona : 2
Wrecan : 2
Odin : 1
Soon Kim : 1
Greyview : 1
Qarr : 1

[2D8HP]

10. Greyview

Also Greyview. Did I mention Greyview? Because Greyview!

9. Haley Starshine

8. General Tarquin

7. Gary Gygax

6. Dave Arneson

5. Celia

4. Eric Greenhilt

3. Julio Scoudrel

2. Veldina

1. Bandana

---

(Honorable mentions)

Durkon Thundershield

Vaarsuvius

Redcloak

O-Chul

Roy Greenhilt

Belkar Bitterleaf

Elan

Did I mention Greyview?

Because...

Greyview!!!

(Greyview worked hard for a treat)

Nod for Greyview!


Greyview!

Greyview!

Greyview!

Greyview!

Greyview!

Greyview!

[Ruck]

I'm curious, why 13 automatic seeds, when 12 would be symmetrical (and give a bye to the top seed in each "region")?

[Present 2.0]

Who? My Google Fu has failed me.

A character from O-Chuls Story.

[Peelee]

Who? My Google Fu has failed me.

Spoiler: How the Paladin Got His Scar

Show

Soldier in Azurite Army. She inadvertently became O-Chul's de-facto lieutenant.

[alwaysbebatman]

@ PeeLee and Present2.0: Thanks for the clarification. I can't wait till that book becomes available to non-KS folks.

@Ruck: Yeah, let me explain my thought process more. When I realized that people would enjoy having the characters with low points involved in some way, the first thing that occurred to me was to put them all in one big poll for a wildcard slot.

But then I thought "those at the top of the wildcard rankings should get some advantage, how can I do that?" And my first thought was to break the wildcards in two groups and make the top group smaller. Fewer competitors, (although tougher) less likely to get lost in the crowd.

So that gives me two wildcards, so my next thought was "a couple of the top seeds are getting the advantage of facing a wildcard, why don't I make that seeds 2 & 3, and give the top seed an even bigger boost: a bye!"

So with seed 1 getting a bye, that leaves 15 tournament slots to fill. With the bottom 2 going to wildcards, that leaves 13 slots to fill.

Your question makes me reconsider, though: why give the top 3 seeds something special, but nothing for the 4th seed? Maybe I should split the wildcard competitors into three blocks instead of two. And if I'm changing things, I have some new ideas on how to split the wildcard field into blocks that might be more fair (and interesting!) but this is already a big wall of text, so I'll go into that next time.