- Not really, people were expecting a Gen VII Pokemon, and Decidueye was certainly in the lead during those periods. But let's not pretend that no one thought that Incineroar was 100% not happening, many people brought up the argument that Incineroar is popular in Japan as a reason for why it may get in over Decidueye. So was Incineroar unexpected in comparison to Decidueye? Sure. But was Incineroar unexpected compared to 90% of other characters? Not really. Ultimately, people were expecting a Gen VII starter, and Decidueye happened to take the lead.I guess I'll do this by paragraph:
-Pretty much everyone was expecting Decidueye until Verge gave it a hard no. Yes, Incineroar was a curve ball according to the fanbase.
-Byleth being a common pocket in tournaments is kind of the point I'm making. Online play is totally different and there's little stakes. Despite Ridley and K. Rool being kind of bad, they still get used in tournament play, a lot. Whether it's at the highest level is irrelevant, you have a lot of people who are literally paying to play tournament matches with these characters despite being unanimously subpar.
-Joker was pretty much the only unexpected character that the Smash fanbase didn't whine about. Let's be honest. Plenty of people were very openly upset about Terry, resulting in months of back and forth of people who actually knew who he was and those that thought he was a Literal Who.
-"It's too predictable." If this is who the evidence points to, why should I lie and insert other characters? For example, with Capcom, the evidence favors Dante by an absurd amount. It's such a blowout it's more believable that Capcom doesn't get a character at all than Dante, and I don't even like or want Dante. Why would I argue someone else? For the sake of spontaneity and eccentricity? Sure, I could say Phoenix Wright or Arthur but that would fly in the face of what's actually out there. "Here's who the evidence currently points to." I don't like it because it's too predictable and not wacky enough. "Um... Sorry?" I'm not going to lie about what I've found and seen to make certain characters appear more likely than they actually are. It's miserable ironic that people basically get mad at me for not lying to them in regards to this.
- Using tourneys to determine the popularity of certain characters is not a good way of doing things, in fact its quite dumb. Especially since soon after Byleth, COVID messed everything up and unless you consider online tournaments (in which case Sonic would be the most loved character in Smash), there wasn't too many chances for him to participate in tourneys compared to Ridley, K. Rool or Banjo.
But even then, you should provide evidence that unexpected characters are inherently worse in terms of usage. This is the best I could find:
https://twitter.com/LoopBarnard/status/1252705963557208064/photo/1. Contains the source of data too.
Sadly it doesn't have Byleth due to the irregular circumstance (not enough valid data); but if we consider purely from a tournament perspective. Incineroar still does better than a lot of the characters you listed (especially if we assume left to right). And in fact, beats out Banjo, Ridley, and even K. Rool (if the assumption is correct). If we consider Incineroar to be "expected" which you aren't but I am, then Joker is by far the most popular "unexpected" pick. However, Banjo, K. Rool, and Ridley are all still mid-low tier in terms of tournament usage at best. So your point doesn't really work, unless you consider online play where K. Rool tends to dominate, and Ridley and Banjo see a modest amount of usage.
- Nowadays people argue if Terry is popular or niche, not if he deserves to be in Smash or not (that argument literally gets brought up for every character, including Banjo). If we look at polls/thoughts on here, on gamefaqs, and even 4chan; Terry tends to place the highest in the "satisfaction" department, just look at the RTC thread for proof. And again, Joker still proves that the Smash fanbase can be happy with unexpected picks. You're just pushing the goalpost here.
- "It's too predictable isn't a good argument", I admit. Because ultimately, a predictable character or 3 will end up getting into Smash. What isn't good is using the argument of these characters aren't discussed in insider circles currently, ergo they can't or will not get in. Likewise sometimes characters in insider circles can just ultimately end up with nothing. That said, I feel as though there are many times where you stretch out the evidence for a character to give them even more "evidence". For example, you've been pretty open about Dante and that's fine; but ultimately all you have to say is "Dante has been heard about a lot from sources, and the timing of DMC ports lines up with Itsuno's statement with waiting for DMC ports before Dante can get into Smash". Instead, on top of that, you also mention how Kamiya's poll in 2018 somehow is also evidence for Dante getting into Smash, because now you're getting into conspiracy theory levels of reach because Kamiya has 0 control of what Capcom/Nintendo decide to put into Smash; especially when said poll didn't even feature Capcom's biggest series at the time with RE and Monster Hunter. I'm not an insider, but it's hard to tell how much evidence a character actually has through your statements. Do you think Dante is happening because most/all of your sources agree on him? Or do you think he's happening because 1-2 of your sources mentioned him, and your own research supports him? If it's the latter, then I'd say Dante is far from "confirmed".
On top of that there many times where you've literally downplayed the evidence of other characters, to push characters that you wanted. If I recall correctly you were against Erdrick getting in until he was officially revealed as a part of Hero, and you viewed Geno as more likely comparatively to DQ. At that point in time, Hero/Erdrick was pretty much dominating insider discussion so the evidence pushed him hard.
That applies to many other characters too. You think Lloyd is happening because he's been heard consistently, and this year will apparently be big for Tales according to your source (though maybe it got pushed to next year). But even then, if that's all that doesn't necessarily mean that Tales has to get a fighter in Smash.
You think Crash is happening because your sources heard him, and Crash 4 is going to come to Switch next year. On top of Crash being a popular requested character, but again the same thing applies... Are you 100% sure Crash is getting into Smash? Did all your sources or your most accurate source tell you "I am 100% sure Crash, Lloyd, Master Chief, Geno, and Dante are all happening", because it seems unlikely that after such leak preventing measures from Nintendo, that literally all the names of the Fighter Pass have been accurately leaked already.
I'm not accusing you of being a liar, and I don't think you are. But I do think you show your bias to certain characters a lot of time. I genuinely do believe that some of your list will end up getting into Smash; but I doubt it will be all of them. Unless you are 100% sure that this character will 100% get into Smash, then you shouldn't bother bringing them up here; at least within the context of "these characters are heard by a ton of insiders and are probably happening" (this place is for discussing Geno anyways).
And if you do act as though a character/something is happening 100%, while using your sources to back you up. And then you get it wrong, then you should be prepared to face some criticism for it.
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