BH: Sam Gamgee - I like Frodo a lot as well, but Sam seems to find himself in more of my decks.

BI: Legolas - Legolas is a lot more fun to use than Beregond. Despite being from the core set, he is still one of the game's premeiere attackers.

BJ: Elrond - Why is there a Gandalf hero? I'm still not sure. What I am sure of is that Elrond is awesome (even without Vilya) and deserves to win.

BK: Aragorn (T) - Yeah, Theoden makes the Rohan deck work well.... but Tactics Aragorn is just so fun to play!

I'm really hoping that Elrond can overcome Gandalf here; I enjoy decks with the master of Rivendel quite a bit more. If not, Sam Gamgee for the win!

It's really cool, that we have two Oldies (Legolas, core set. and Elrond, shadow and flame) against to comparable fresh heroes (even though Sam is much older than Théoden (S) release-wise), what shows, that the community likes their old toys as much as their new ones.

Yeah, we actually have one hero from three of the four saga boxes. And, at least one hero from every deluxe/cycle combination except VoI/Ring Maker. That's a pretty awesome distribution!

BH: Sam Gamgee
BI: Beregond
BJ: Gandalf
BK: Théoden (S)

I am throwing my support fully behind Gandalf now. I think he deserves to be the first repeat champion.

He wouldn't be repeat yet-- Legolas won 2013 and Galadriel in 2014.

Don't vote for Gandalf he has already won this whole tournament.

It is sad that Elrond is getting eliminated here

It is sad that Elrond is getting eliminated here

It's sadder that Galadriel, Loragorn, Grima, Faramir and Arwen already got eliminated previously.

I want to see Sam win the whole thing. He came so close against Legolas in 2013, and he hadn't received wide release yet!

I want to see Sam win the whole thing. He came so close against Legolas in 2013, and he hadn't received wide release yet!

I think it is pretty certain he will. The only hero I can see beating him would be Tactics Aragorn and that's just because he is new and shiny and there is no guarantee that Aragorn is going to beat Theoden this round. Our next round is going to be:

Sam v. Beregond

Gandalf v. Aragorn/Theoden

Edit: Although, I just looked at past brackets and people tend to value Beregond way higher than I do so maybe he could do it too.

I really enjoy the hero championship but I feel like people are just voting for personal favorites or with a bias to remove a really power hero (spirit Glorfindel). I choose to vote for the heros I feel would give me the best chance of winning against a difficult scenario unseen and try to leave personal bias out. Personally, I really love Frodo Baggins but no way does he deserve to be in this late.

Edit:Suggestion for the next hero championship-Group the heros by sphere so we are voting for who the best heros are to represent each sphere of influence (keeping Gandalf out because we all know he deserves to be in the top 5) and let the top hero from each sphere duke it out against each other.

I really enjoy the hero championship but I feel like people are just voting for personal favorites or with a bias to remove an really power hero (spirit Glorfindel). I choose to vote for the heros I feel would give me the best chance of winning against a difficult scenario unseen and try to leave personal bias out. Personally, I really love Frodo Baggins but no way does he deserve to be in this late.

If that had been outlined as the official criteria for this championship, that would be a fair complaint. But here's the official criteria:

Vote for your favorite hero as they enter their match-ups in the responses below. Vote on whatever criteria you desire - this is very informal.

I'm voting for Santa Theoden all the way, because it's Christmas. And by the ground rules given, that's an equally valid criteria as yours.

I really enjoy the hero championship but I feel like people are just voting for personal favorites or with a bias to remove an really power hero (spirit Glorfindel). I choose to vote for the heros I feel would give me the best chance of winning against a difficult scenario unseen and try to leave personal bias out. Personally, I really love Frodo Baggins but no way does he deserve to be in this late.

Well, that's what is kind of interesting. People have different views on what constitutes strong, but if we only voted based on strength (which this tournament isn't), imo we could just not hold this tournament and crown Dain the winner every year. He is basically a 25 willpower, 25 attack, 3 defense, 6 health hero. And that's just in single player

So I think it is fine to have people vote on whatever criteria they want. However, Frodo is easily one of the best defenders in the game. Although, his match ups throughout this tournament have been relatively easy.

I'm hoping Scorpagorn goes all the way! So far he's taken out the father/daughter, only to face off against Theoden Mk II! He's a one man, Rohan wrecking machine!

I really enjoy the hero championship but I feel like people are just voting for personal favorites or with a bias to remove an really power hero (spirit Glorfindel). I choose to vote for the heros I feel would give me the best chance of winning against a difficult scenario unseen and try to leave personal bias out. Personally, I really love Frodo Baggins but no way does he deserve to be in this late.

If that had been outlined as the official criteria for this championship, that would be a fair complaint. But here's the official criteria:

Vote for your favorite hero as they enter their match-ups in the responses below. Vote on whatever criteria you desire - this is very informal.

I'm voting for Santa Theoden all the way, because it's Christmas. And by the ground rules given, that's an equally valid criteria as yours.

I guess it pays to read the criteria

I'm hoping Scorpagorn goes all the way! So far he's taken out the father/daughter, only to face off against Theoden Mk II! He's a one man, Rohan wrecking machine!

He probably didn't appreciate being in a Thicket of Spears

I really enjoy the hero championship but I feel like people are just voting for personal favorites or with a bias to remove a really power hero (spirit Glorfindel). I choose to vote for the heros I feel would give me the best chance of winning against a difficult scenario unseen and try to leave personal bias out. Personally, I really love Frodo Baggins but no way does he deserve to be in this late.

Actually, I don't have any special fondness for Frodo, I've been voting for him primarily based on how powerful he is. Given Seastan used him to solo Carn Dum, I think he definitely fits the criteria of 'best chance of winning against a difficult scenario'. On favouritism I'd be voting for Sam, but for chance of winning I'd back Frodo against most of the other heroes in the game.

In the end though, those are not the criteria anyway. Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but I assume at least a lot of us vote like me based on a mixture of how we perceive the power level of the hero, how much fun we have playing with them, how much we like the character, how much we like the design, and so on. So I voted against Glorfindel because I find him boring, I voted against most Dwarf heroes because most of them only work in Dwarf decks and I like to play a bigger variety of stuff, I voted for Beorn because while he's not the most powerful hero he is incredibly fun to play around with, I'm voting now for Frodo because he's incredibly powerful and for Gandalf because he's incredibly powerful and fun and versatile. Sometimes favouritism will outweigh objective assessment of power level, but not always. And for that matter, we all have vastly different play experiences, so it's questionable as to whether we actually can give completely objective assessments. As already brought up, you try to vote entirely based on who you think would give you the best chances of winning and think Frodo shouldn't have made it this far, but I would back Frodo against most other heroes in the game on those criteria. Clearly we have wildly divergent experiences of playing with Frodo.

I've made a couple of posts complaining about 'the wrong heroes winning', but in the end we all have different views on things, and that makes it interesting. I don't harbour any genuine negative feelings towards the many people who repeatedly vote the wrong way, so long as we all remain nice about it and don't go too far in deriding each others' favourite heroes.

BH: Frodo Baggins
BI: Legolas
BJ: Gandalf
BK: Théoden (S)

My votes aren't careful. I see a matchup and pick the one I "like" the best. It's a big synthesis of art, theme, how the ability works, how much fun I've had using that hero...

I think power is one of the least important criteria for me. I enjoy flexible heroes who tend not to be the most powerful, and underplayed heroes who present unique deckbuilding challenges.

I voted against Frodo this round because he ran into Sam, but Frodo absolutely deserved to go this far. His ability is arguably the strongest, most creative, and fun ability in the game.

BH: Sam Gamgee
BI: Beregond
BJ: Elrond
BK: Théoden (S)

Well, at least half of those I voted for advanced. The rest were just completely and utterly obliterated, it seems. On to this round:

BH: Sam Gamgee - Sam is just a great option for most any deck whilst Frodo requires a little more tinkering in order to fit.

BI: Beregond - with so many attacking options out there, Legolas is becoming more generic, although his progress-placing ability can be quite useful at times. On the other hand, who can turn down a powerful defender like Beregond?

BJ: Gandalf - Istari. Enough said. (plus, Shadowfax, Wizard Pipe, Flame of Anor, Gandalf's Staff, etc.)

BK: Théoden (S) - this was probably the hardest choice to make, mostly because I would rate these two as about even. Nevertheless, Théoden's ability allows for a greater usage of the Rohan archetype.

Good luck to all the competitors! May the best Man, Elf, Hobbit, or Istari win! (sorry Dwarves; you didn't make the cut this time. Maybe next year)

BH: Sam Gamgee
BI: Beregond
BJ: Elrond
BK: Aragorn (T)

BH: Frodo Baggins

BI: Beregond

BJ: Elrond

BK: Théoden (S)

BH: Frodo Baggins
BI: Beregond
BJ: Elrond
BK: Théoden (S)

BH: Sam

BI: Legolas

BJ: Gandalf

BK: Theoden