I do kinda suspect that we'll get the first wave of Ballot DLC not long after the Ballot ends if we don't get it right out the gate like Lucas, Roy, and Ryu. If anything it'll probably be out before November.
So...who do you suspect will be the first characters announced?
I'm pretty certain Wolf will be one of the confirmed characters. (He's one of the veteran characters outside of the Ice Climbers who I'd like to see come back.) If Shovel Knight wound up working out, I'm not gonna be surprised to see him, either. Basically, I'm guessing two first-party characters and one third-party character.
edited 11th Sep '15 4:27:30 PM by kablammin45
"I'm glad I don't wear shoes or else I'd have to always get shoes in two different sizes. ...If you know, you know!"Like I said before, I really don't see them releasing DLC so soon after the ballot. Late November at the earliest.
And while Wolf seems like everyone's pick for a guaranteed DLC fighter, I don't see it happening at all unless he really pulled in votes. Wolf doesn't have the same following that Roy and Lucas did. And for ballot fighters, I'd hope they'd give preference to newcomers over veterans.
As far as the ballot goes, I actually think Paper Mario has a pretty good shot at being picked if there's more than one character like I think there will be. He's pretty popular in every region of the world, Paper Jam is coming out soon, and he'd probably sell pretty well.
From looking at polls based in Europe, NA, and Japan, my current prediction is Wolf, Paper Mario, Dixie Kong, and either Bandanna Dee or Isaac. Honestly I don't know who they'd really pick though.
"And kung fu is a terrible way to run a company" - alliterator

I too understand the feeling of seeing a character misunderstood based on iffy reasons.
Anyway, fingers still tightly crossed for Shovel Knight. I feel like he'd make a wonderful addition to the cast, and his amiibo already existing is certainly a positive for his favor. We won't know for quite some time though.
I do think Sakurai and the team are already working on DLC based on the most popular votes as of now. The ballot might still be going, but we're nearly mid-September, so I'm sure the results they have now aren't going to drastically change, nor would the data they continue to receive be put to waste. After this ballot is over, people are going to want characters very soon. They don't have much time to wait before people get too angry.
I'm pretty sure the concept of Law having limits was a translation error. -Wanderlustwarrior