Christi Junior on Nostr: Can Zelda actually beat Samus though? Well, there’s definitely a good case to be ...
Can Zelda actually beat Samus though? Well, there’s definitely a good case to be made for her, even if you compare her to the seemingly unbeatable 2023 Samus: Zelda this year scored 58% on an elite girl like Ryza, very much the kind of stunning tour de force that Samus became known for – though to be fair, 2023 Samus is actually projected to break 60% against Ryza. On the other hand, breaking 53% against Misty is a win so strong that it’s worth 59% against Tamamo, who 2023 Samus “only” got 57% against. As for Zelda destruction of Mitsuru, it’s hard to say how it stacks up against Samus’s historically lopsided victory over DDLC Yuri, but Mitsuru should be significantly stronger than Yuri, so I’d say 69% on Mitsuru ought to at least be worth 73-74% on Yuri. More controversially, if you consider Mitsuru to be on par with fellow Persona girl Yukiko, you’d be interested to know that 2023 Samus is projected to score…exactly 69% against her. Of course, that was supposedly Super Yukiko, but given what 2B has gone on to do in these contests ever since, her scoring 61% against a popular Persona girl no longer looks like such a major underperformance.
Of course, until now I’ve been ignoring the elephant in the room, namely Zelda only managing 51% against Fio Germi – a girl 2023 Samus is projected to score 61% (!!) against. Even accounting for Fio being boosted and her last comeback push being perfectly timed to avoid a counterattack by Zelda, we’ve seen before that ANY sign of weakness means certain death against Samus. That said, it should be pointed out that as far as results go, what Samus did against Etna in round 1 is a FAR worse performance than Zelda essentially steamrolling an Elite opponent from start to finish. While 2023 Samus never put a foot wrong, it’s fair to say that 2024 Samus AND Zelda have both had one obvious underperformance.
But with all this talk about 2023 Samus, one must ask the obvious question: How does 2024 Samus compare? Ironically, that’s actually harder to determine than it was in the case of Zelda, because Samus this year has faced two newcomers, one greatly boosted returning character, and let’s not forget just how dramatically weakened a character like Remilia (also in the Samus eightpack) truly was. There is Pyra’s match with Samus, which going by last year should have been a 57% - 43% win for Samus, but instead ended 54% - 46%. That said, as Pyra’s #1 fanboy I can 100% vouch for Samus’s strength, because the only reason Samus didn’t win by way more was us Pyra fans desperately fighting and stat padding well after the match was effectively decided. And we really had to FIGHT as hard as we could just to bring Pyra up to 46%, so under normal circumstances Samus could absolutely have broken 57% on her. Based solely on that match, I actually think 2024 Samus has powered up to the point where she’s now just as overpowered as last year’s iteration.
I still think Zelda has a fair chance to win (unlike Tamamo last year), but she IS the underdog. Of course, both these girls are used to dominating their matches from start to finish, so at least one will finally find herself forced outside of her comfort zone, and it will be interesting to see how she responds. I also wonder if people anti-voting Samus because they don’t want a repeat champion will actually be a factor in this match, unlike in the semifinals, due to Zelda already being so close to Samus’s power level.
In the end, I think these two girls are so evenly matched that it really will come down to which fanbase wants it more, and how good they are at mobilizing fellow fans and spreading the poll.
#BestVidyaGirlContest
Of course, until now I’ve been ignoring the elephant in the room, namely Zelda only managing 51% against Fio Germi – a girl 2023 Samus is projected to score 61% (!!) against. Even accounting for Fio being boosted and her last comeback push being perfectly timed to avoid a counterattack by Zelda, we’ve seen before that ANY sign of weakness means certain death against Samus. That said, it should be pointed out that as far as results go, what Samus did against Etna in round 1 is a FAR worse performance than Zelda essentially steamrolling an Elite opponent from start to finish. While 2023 Samus never put a foot wrong, it’s fair to say that 2024 Samus AND Zelda have both had one obvious underperformance.
But with all this talk about 2023 Samus, one must ask the obvious question: How does 2024 Samus compare? Ironically, that’s actually harder to determine than it was in the case of Zelda, because Samus this year has faced two newcomers, one greatly boosted returning character, and let’s not forget just how dramatically weakened a character like Remilia (also in the Samus eightpack) truly was. There is Pyra’s match with Samus, which going by last year should have been a 57% - 43% win for Samus, but instead ended 54% - 46%. That said, as Pyra’s #1 fanboy I can 100% vouch for Samus’s strength, because the only reason Samus didn’t win by way more was us Pyra fans desperately fighting and stat padding well after the match was effectively decided. And we really had to FIGHT as hard as we could just to bring Pyra up to 46%, so under normal circumstances Samus could absolutely have broken 57% on her. Based solely on that match, I actually think 2024 Samus has powered up to the point where she’s now just as overpowered as last year’s iteration.
I still think Zelda has a fair chance to win (unlike Tamamo last year), but she IS the underdog. Of course, both these girls are used to dominating their matches from start to finish, so at least one will finally find herself forced outside of her comfort zone, and it will be interesting to see how she responds. I also wonder if people anti-voting Samus because they don’t want a repeat champion will actually be a factor in this match, unlike in the semifinals, due to Zelda already being so close to Samus’s power level.
In the end, I think these two girls are so evenly matched that it really will come down to which fanbase wants it more, and how good they are at mobilizing fellow fans and spreading the poll.
#BestVidyaGirlContest