If it means anything, I found this poll off of another site (taken post-E3) that asked the users to vote for whomever characters they'd like most in Smash Ultimate. Phoenix was pretty much in third place for most of it, besides an "other" option...and Doomguy. He now rests in 4th place, two shy of Crash Bandicoot, with a total of 278 votes (of course it'll probably change after I've reposted it but hey what are you gonna do). Phoenix seems to me like the most popular Capcom rep in the Smash community at this point, and he's always placed pretty high on polls.
https://www.strawpoll.me/18164750
And he's now back in third. I don't know if it was due to our influence, but I doubt it - I, for one, didn't vote, at least.
This is good, though. Now, of course, perhaps the site from which these numbers were taken is biased toward Phoenix in some way, but even disregarding that, it's excellent for us that the only concrete character above him is Doom Slayer.
Firstly, because I'd also like Doom Slayer in Smash.
But more importantly, because he has such an infinitesimal chance of making the cut, being from a Western company and from a game notorious for ultra-violence, at that, as well as one with no significant presence, historically, on Nintendo platforms. Given the choice between that and a character from a charming mystery series with an almost two-decade relationship with Nintendo and vocal fan support, on loan from a company which has shown itself to be extremely cooperative with the Smash team... I think we'd have pretty good odds.
And that's to say nothing of the fact that there are still
two available slots for DLC fighters, so nothing is stopping both Doom Slayer and Phoenix from getting in (not that I think such a combination is likely).