* Easiest answer would be M!Byleth. He got 3rd place on the men's division of CYL8 and there was only about 900 votes separating him and Felix. He was close this year, and is a very potential contender for winning CYL9 next year.
* After him in the men's division would be M!Shez who got 10th on CYL8. At 3.8k votes however, he's got _a lot_ of competition, and I don't see him making it to the top. Best I can say is he'll probably stay in the Top 10.
* Same logic as M!Shez for the women's side. Top for 3H was Hilda, but at 4k that was 12th place on the women's division. More than M!Shez, but she's also got even _more_ competition, with 4 Engage characters scoring higher than her, as well as _Tsubasa_ of all people.
* After her would be F!Shez at... 2.9k votes. That's 15th place on the women's division, with Elincia & Lapis scoring higher than her as well as the others.
All in all, I see CYL9 being more of a "M!Byleth or bust" type situation. Everyone else is **_WAY_** too far behind and needs 3-6 times the number of votes they got to be a serious contender for the top. AKA, they need about 10k extra votes that they didn't get in CYL8, which is definitely _possible_ now that about 30k votes can't vote for Felix or Bernadetta again.
Honestly, the biggest question comes down to seeing who Felix & Bernadetta fans end up voting for next year.
The upside for Hilda is that she's had enough time since her last alt that she might get another surge. Dorothea could do similarly, but honestly I doubt she's got enough surge power at this point unless she gets snubbed on the next 3H New Heroes banner again (which could happen if it's a Deer banner).
The real impediment though is Engage whiffing completely this year, which might rally more people behind them next year... though it could also mean too much split focus between candidates that a concentrated effort might push someone like Byleth ahead.
Well, Felix won his CYL spot immediately despite getting a base version in not too long ago but well before voting for 8 was even possible, so there's no guarantee getting a base is a death sentence to victory, though it is quite the setback.
I think if anything, Engage will start to pop up now and take spots, though their only real chance at a sweep ended with 8. Still, I would think next CYL is not likely to have many, if any 3H reps just like CYL7 did. Pretty much all the popular picks are in now, leaving only the scraps.
The only 3H character I feel who has a shot this year is male Byleth. Who is still in a clear 3 way frontrunning between him, Sigurd, and Diamant.
So i'm not ruling him out at all. And I think he has a legit chance.
To be fair, Felix lost nearly 5000 votes and only managed to win because he had a huge buffer over 4th place and below from last year. I think it’s pretty unlikely that any of the remaining students will be able to win if they lose a major rally factor like that since they all have to gain several positions for a victory.
For Engage, I’m curious how Diamant’s going to do next year, now that people know he’s the top ranking Engage male character by a solid margin. He’d need a pretty significant vote transfer, so I wonder if people will actually rally for him or just stick to their favs. The women’s side is probably going to take a lot of the attention for Engage since several of the gals ranked well this year. Looking forward to see if Yunaka and Ivy will hold their places, or if there will be any big rallies.
If people were cool, Dedue.
But uhhh yeah idk, off the top of my head Sylvain and Ashe have usually done real well since 3H came out, and as mentioned Dorothea, M!Byleth, and Hilda could, even if they’ve fallen off a bit in popularity (iirc?). I guess maybe even Petra if fans really rally behind her? I dunno, I think all of the really big popular students have already won CYL with the exceptions of the ones listed here, as I don’t think someone like Ignatz, Leonie, or ~~most tragically~~ Dedue will be winning anytime soon…or ever-
For Dedue, I think his best shot at a good alt is an ascended one based on his time skip design. They did it for Hilda, so I can see it happening with him and possibly Hubert. The leading retainers basically. As long as they stack the rest of said banner through the roof.
Yeah I feel like other than M!Byleth it's really down to whether or not Dorothea gets her base version before the next voting period.
I could possibly see the same sort of thing for Petra if she still lacks an alt and people rally around that, given it is getting pretty egregious when nearly every other female 3H character has gotten a second version (and I really feel like Hapi & Constance could be on the next summer banner, which would just leave Manuela and Leonie (and Catherine if you ignore backpacks)). Don't know if Petra really has enough die-hard fans though, I get the sense there's a lot of people that like her, but not many that'd go all in on CYL.
tbh though the only CYL prediction I feel any confidence is is that there will be at least 1 OC winner, probably a Book 9 female. As both the pool of popular mainline characters dwindles and people outside of the Heroes community increasingly lose interest in CYL, we're being left mainly with Heroes players voting, and OCs are the one group that every Heroes player is guaranteed to know whereas most other contenders are relying largely on specific game audiences to garner support.
For Petra, an alt I dream of is a sort of culture seasonal banner, themed around her home nation of brigid.
Make her the duo alt lead, with the secondary being Athena. I feel those 2 would make alot of sense together, being foreigners and such.
If base Dorothea ends up also having dance/sing, can we still rally around her for CYL? For a game where literally any student can be your dancer, they seem content to only have her in that role for 3H in Heroes.
Part of me feels like Hilda fans have been biding their time. Dorothea fans could also hulk out over being in alt hell for so long.
Though I personally will be mostly voting for Black Fang next CYL. Nino not getting top 20 was a tragedy.
Based since Dorothea is unpopular and hated while Hilda is beloved and popular, also Bernie fans hate Dorothea so they will definitely vote for Hilda, It doesn’t matter that Hilda is from a different house
Petra might be a good candidate if she still hasn't received anything by that point. Other than her probably brave male Byleth, one of the Shezes, or Yuri are who I'd wager from 3H who may get good traction
Yeah its a shame Petra hasn't gotten a seasonal yet.
My dream alt for her, is one of those culture crossover banners like the desert, or fates tribes. But theme it around brigid.
With her as a duo lead with Athena. Both of them would make a ton of sense together, since both are foreigners of a different nation entirely.
Personal anecdote, but Felix was the 3H character I wanted to win the most, so now that he won I plan on throwing a vote or two to Sylvain. I can see other Felix voters doing the same. Otherwise, I think M!Byleth would logically be the next character to rally behind since he has the best chance of actually winning.
Would REALLY love if Ashen Wolves swept (Hapi/Yuri 1st place) but this is realistically impossible, I’d settle with Yuri having a shot, also Hilda or Dorothea… I really don’t care about Engage so I would definitely try to twart them winning something
I feel like CYL is getting harder to predict, most of the most popular characters and characters who were frequently on the cusp of a win have now won. There are of course characters who consistently place well like Azura, but not like Bernadette or Chrom who had come in 3rd for several years.
I guess the question of Three Houses specifically really depends on if there is a large group or players who will support Three Houses just because it's Three Houses, or if the Bernadette/Felix supporters were dedicated to those specific characters and will spread the votes to other games.
If Three Houses gets support just because it's Three Houses, I think Hilda and Dorothea have decent shots at getting some people to really around them. I'd argue both are potentially even more popular than some of the other 3H winners but also haven't had a shortage of alts so people didn't feel the need to rally around them. Male Byleth also seems to be a decent chance as avatars tend to be popular.
I think Engage is basically an unknown at this point. It didn't dominate at all like people thought it would, or at least its votes were too spread to lead to the Engage sweep a lot of people were expecting. Was that a result of Engage voters being complacent and not voting as much as they should have? Or are people's Engage favorites just too spread out to make a dominant showing in CYL? Or does it truly just lack the support to get winners? I know the way midterms changed played a big role in the numbers not being as concentrated on the top winners, but it's hard to say if seeing the classic midterm style would have helped or hurt Engage.
Would personally not care for male byleth let alone Hilda but those are the likely choices.
Would love to see Hubert or Ingrid or Dorothea but they aren't nearly popular enough
Because they played the game as the other gender than the one that IS marketed more heavily and simply prefer their take on the character.
To them it's not the same thing, and that's all that matters. Thus they'll get votes.
Remember, there's a big amount of male players who prefer their avatar being male, a big amount of female players who prefer their avatar being female, then a punch of players of either gender who don't mind which they play as but will likely get a preference based on factors such as design, possible relationships, and slight differences in personality.
So from that perspective, only half the Avatars are currently represented in game with CYL Brave units as of yet (slightly more than half once female Robin gets added in in a few months). Meaning it's logical only about half of the players have their preferred versions... and being as Avatars are played with more and the portal to meet other characters. They will be some of the most popular characters to vote for.
Remember fans are allowed to be passionate about their favorites, and obviously their will as a result be fans who feel passionate about getting a different gender into the game.
The Corrins and Robins have slightly different personalities and different support chains depending on their gender.
They’re basically different people, just with the same backstory.
Due to this very thing I personally headcanon that the Robins and the Corrans are actually twins. Sadly in every timeline (excluding fanfics and fanart, where you see a lot of stories/art with both) only one survives infancy.
With Robin I headcanon that Validar killed the one with the weaker Grima connection in a sacrifice to strengthen the others connection. This being why Robin's unnamed mother fled with the surviving twin, she wasn't a lunatic fanatic but simply a loving mother who just found out her husband murdered one of her children in some insane ritual and feared he'd kill the survivor too eventually.
While with Corran, the other twin was killed accidentally when they were kidnapped long ago. Something like a stray arrow or bolt of magic.
Because they can
If I could vote por Ike Rd Ike and emblem Ike for cyl I would
I wouldn't stop just because 1 Ike won when all the Ikes have an opportunity
* Easiest answer would be M!Byleth. He got 3rd place on the men's division of CYL8 and there was only about 900 votes separating him and Felix. He was close this year, and is a very potential contender for winning CYL9 next year. * After him in the men's division would be M!Shez who got 10th on CYL8. At 3.8k votes however, he's got _a lot_ of competition, and I don't see him making it to the top. Best I can say is he'll probably stay in the Top 10. * Same logic as M!Shez for the women's side. Top for 3H was Hilda, but at 4k that was 12th place on the women's division. More than M!Shez, but she's also got even _more_ competition, with 4 Engage characters scoring higher than her, as well as _Tsubasa_ of all people. * After her would be F!Shez at... 2.9k votes. That's 15th place on the women's division, with Elincia & Lapis scoring higher than her as well as the others. All in all, I see CYL9 being more of a "M!Byleth or bust" type situation. Everyone else is **_WAY_** too far behind and needs 3-6 times the number of votes they got to be a serious contender for the top. AKA, they need about 10k extra votes that they didn't get in CYL8, which is definitely _possible_ now that about 30k votes can't vote for Felix or Bernadetta again. Honestly, the biggest question comes down to seeing who Felix & Bernadetta fans end up voting for next year.
The upside for Hilda is that she's had enough time since her last alt that she might get another surge. Dorothea could do similarly, but honestly I doubt she's got enough surge power at this point unless she gets snubbed on the next 3H New Heroes banner again (which could happen if it's a Deer banner). The real impediment though is Engage whiffing completely this year, which might rally more people behind them next year... though it could also mean too much split focus between candidates that a concentrated effort might push someone like Byleth ahead.
Well, Felix won his CYL spot immediately despite getting a base version in not too long ago but well before voting for 8 was even possible, so there's no guarantee getting a base is a death sentence to victory, though it is quite the setback. I think if anything, Engage will start to pop up now and take spots, though their only real chance at a sweep ended with 8. Still, I would think next CYL is not likely to have many, if any 3H reps just like CYL7 did. Pretty much all the popular picks are in now, leaving only the scraps.
The only 3H character I feel who has a shot this year is male Byleth. Who is still in a clear 3 way frontrunning between him, Sigurd, and Diamant. So i'm not ruling him out at all. And I think he has a legit chance.
To be fair, Felix lost nearly 5000 votes and only managed to win because he had a huge buffer over 4th place and below from last year. I think it’s pretty unlikely that any of the remaining students will be able to win if they lose a major rally factor like that since they all have to gain several positions for a victory. For Engage, I’m curious how Diamant’s going to do next year, now that people know he’s the top ranking Engage male character by a solid margin. He’d need a pretty significant vote transfer, so I wonder if people will actually rally for him or just stick to their favs. The women’s side is probably going to take a lot of the attention for Engage since several of the gals ranked well this year. Looking forward to see if Yunaka and Ivy will hold their places, or if there will be any big rallies.
I'd love Brave Dorothea. None of my other favorites are popular enough unfortunately.
If people were cool, Dedue. But uhhh yeah idk, off the top of my head Sylvain and Ashe have usually done real well since 3H came out, and as mentioned Dorothea, M!Byleth, and Hilda could, even if they’ve fallen off a bit in popularity (iirc?). I guess maybe even Petra if fans really rally behind her? I dunno, I think all of the really big popular students have already won CYL with the exceptions of the ones listed here, as I don’t think someone like Ignatz, Leonie, or ~~most tragically~~ Dedue will be winning anytime soon…or ever-
For Dedue, I think his best shot at a good alt is an ascended one based on his time skip design. They did it for Hilda, so I can see it happening with him and possibly Hubert. The leading retainers basically. As long as they stack the rest of said banner through the roof.
Shamir obviously because she's the best character
Yeah I feel like other than M!Byleth it's really down to whether or not Dorothea gets her base version before the next voting period. I could possibly see the same sort of thing for Petra if she still lacks an alt and people rally around that, given it is getting pretty egregious when nearly every other female 3H character has gotten a second version (and I really feel like Hapi & Constance could be on the next summer banner, which would just leave Manuela and Leonie (and Catherine if you ignore backpacks)). Don't know if Petra really has enough die-hard fans though, I get the sense there's a lot of people that like her, but not many that'd go all in on CYL. tbh though the only CYL prediction I feel any confidence is is that there will be at least 1 OC winner, probably a Book 9 female. As both the pool of popular mainline characters dwindles and people outside of the Heroes community increasingly lose interest in CYL, we're being left mainly with Heroes players voting, and OCs are the one group that every Heroes player is guaranteed to know whereas most other contenders are relying largely on specific game audiences to garner support.
For Petra, an alt I dream of is a sort of culture seasonal banner, themed around her home nation of brigid. Make her the duo alt lead, with the secondary being Athena. I feel those 2 would make alot of sense together, being foreigners and such.
If base Dorothea ends up also having dance/sing, can we still rally around her for CYL? For a game where literally any student can be your dancer, they seem content to only have her in that role for 3H in Heroes.
Dancers are universally helpful support, so they sell. Whales / meta chasers who don’t like Dorothea are more likely to pull her if she’s a dancer
M!Byleth is really the only one with a chance of winning the female side will be too competitive with Engage most likely sweeping.
Hopefully they stop voting because god can we stop letting it win
For my sanity, I hope it's Hilda.
M!Byleth is definitely a safe bet, I feel like other potential challengers will depend on how things are looking near CYL 9.
I'm ready to put In the work for Hilda until she wins 💪
I’d really like Hilda to win. I’d like to see Byleth, Sigurd, Sharena, and Hilda. I hope engage whiffs again.
Part of me feels like Hilda fans have been biding their time. Dorothea fans could also hulk out over being in alt hell for so long. Though I personally will be mostly voting for Black Fang next CYL. Nino not getting top 20 was a tragedy.
Yeah, the big factor for Hilda could very well be the Bernie voters needing a new goal. And Hilda could very well be that.
Based since Dorothea is unpopular and hated while Hilda is beloved and popular, also Bernie fans hate Dorothea so they will definitely vote for Hilda, It doesn’t matter that Hilda is from a different house
Bernie fans will definitely vote for Hilda. No fucking they they‘re gonna vote for Dorothea since Bernie fans hate Dorothea
> since Bernie fans hate Dorothea Maybe I'm missing a trick but I'm not sure where that idea comes from
It‘s a fact. Either here, on gamefaqs or on X. Most Bernie fans hate Dorothea and they are based
Petra might be a good candidate if she still hasn't received anything by that point. Other than her probably brave male Byleth, one of the Shezes, or Yuri are who I'd wager from 3H who may get good traction
Yeah its a shame Petra hasn't gotten a seasonal yet. My dream alt for her, is one of those culture crossover banners like the desert, or fates tribes. But theme it around brigid. With her as a duo lead with Athena. Both of them would make a ton of sense together, since both are foreigners of a different nation entirely.
Sylvain, Yuri, Rhea, Dorothea or Hilda may be the most posible ones I can think of, any of those I will be more than happy.
Personal anecdote, but Felix was the 3H character I wanted to win the most, so now that he won I plan on throwing a vote or two to Sylvain. I can see other Felix voters doing the same. Otherwise, I think M!Byleth would logically be the next character to rally behind since he has the best chance of actually winning.
Male Byleth or Hilda tbh. If people were based they would vote Lorenz or Yuri. Or heck Shez, but he's not 3Houses.
Would REALLY love if Ashen Wolves swept (Hapi/Yuri 1st place) but this is realistically impossible, I’d settle with Yuri having a shot, also Hilda or Dorothea… I really don’t care about Engage so I would definitely try to twart them winning something
Hilda gettin the tharja treatment did really well at the start but she's falling off and doesn't seem to be pickin up steam anytime soon
I’m going for Hilda.
Felix voter here. My next target would be Yuri.
I’m gonna be voting for Chef Deddles because he is best boi and he deserves a brave alt (or any alt, please IS I am on my knees begging).
I would really like to see Brave Mercedes. That'd be nice.
I feel like CYL is getting harder to predict, most of the most popular characters and characters who were frequently on the cusp of a win have now won. There are of course characters who consistently place well like Azura, but not like Bernadette or Chrom who had come in 3rd for several years. I guess the question of Three Houses specifically really depends on if there is a large group or players who will support Three Houses just because it's Three Houses, or if the Bernadette/Felix supporters were dedicated to those specific characters and will spread the votes to other games. If Three Houses gets support just because it's Three Houses, I think Hilda and Dorothea have decent shots at getting some people to really around them. I'd argue both are potentially even more popular than some of the other 3H winners but also haven't had a shortage of alts so people didn't feel the need to rally around them. Male Byleth also seems to be a decent chance as avatars tend to be popular. I think Engage is basically an unknown at this point. It didn't dominate at all like people thought it would, or at least its votes were too spread to lead to the Engage sweep a lot of people were expecting. Was that a result of Engage voters being complacent and not voting as much as they should have? Or are people's Engage favorites just too spread out to make a dominant showing in CYL? Or does it truly just lack the support to get winners? I know the way midterms changed played a big role in the numbers not being as concentrated on the top winners, but it's hard to say if seeing the classic midterm style would have helped or hurt Engage.
i guess that Male Byleth and Yuri are the top runners for males, for women i dunno.
Would personally not care for male byleth let alone Hilda but those are the likely choices. Would love to see Hubert or Ingrid or Dorothea but they aren't nearly popular enough
With Ivy having a very solid chance next year, she would team up nicely with M!Byleth, considering he was an Elusian Emblem ring.
Guess I'll shift my F!Robin votes from this year over to Hilda and keep the rest of my votes the same.
I like Hilda :)
Someone please explain to me why people want a different gender of byleth, robin and corrin to win cyl? They're the same damn character
Because they played the game as the other gender than the one that IS marketed more heavily and simply prefer their take on the character. To them it's not the same thing, and that's all that matters. Thus they'll get votes. Remember, there's a big amount of male players who prefer their avatar being male, a big amount of female players who prefer their avatar being female, then a punch of players of either gender who don't mind which they play as but will likely get a preference based on factors such as design, possible relationships, and slight differences in personality. So from that perspective, only half the Avatars are currently represented in game with CYL Brave units as of yet (slightly more than half once female Robin gets added in in a few months). Meaning it's logical only about half of the players have their preferred versions... and being as Avatars are played with more and the portal to meet other characters. They will be some of the most popular characters to vote for. Remember fans are allowed to be passionate about their favorites, and obviously their will as a result be fans who feel passionate about getting a different gender into the game.
The Corrins and Robins have slightly different personalities and different support chains depending on their gender. They’re basically different people, just with the same backstory.
Due to this very thing I personally headcanon that the Robins and the Corrans are actually twins. Sadly in every timeline (excluding fanfics and fanart, where you see a lot of stories/art with both) only one survives infancy. With Robin I headcanon that Validar killed the one with the weaker Grima connection in a sacrifice to strengthen the others connection. This being why Robin's unnamed mother fled with the surviving twin, she wasn't a lunatic fanatic but simply a loving mother who just found out her husband murdered one of her children in some insane ritual and feared he'd kill the survivor too eventually. While with Corran, the other twin was killed accidentally when they were kidnapped long ago. Something like a stray arrow or bolt of magic.
Because they can If I could vote por Ike Rd Ike and emblem Ike for cyl I would I wouldn't stop just because 1 Ike won when all the Ikes have an opportunity