@allstarsuperman: Did I call Sam a non-factor? If I did I take it back. He's obviously a very skilled agent. Assuming the other characters in this thread are on par with Sam, the team could very well overwhelm either one of the Snakes with their combined numbers and tactics. Both Snakes are good, but four agents of that caliber at one time is tough to keep up with. I just don't think the team can win in this scenario, and Sam certainly can't defeat either Snake one-on-one, even if he makes a respectable rival.
Looking at their respective fighting styles, CQC does take a clear advantage. It's one of the most dangerous and encompassing fighting styles in fiction. You have to keep in mind that in the real world, CQC is just a generic term denoting actual combat in close quarters. It isn't an actual style itself. However the fighting techniques that Snake and Big Boss utilize in Metal Gear Solid is not limited to any one style, whether it be judo, or jiu jitsu, or krav maga. The military advisor, Motosada Moori, takes any number of techniques from any number of fighting styles and freely implaments whatever would be the most effective in every given encounter. He'll have Snake using jiu jitsu to disarm one opponent then immediately switch to a judo attack to floor that same opponent.
This creates CQC, which in-universe is a system of combined-combat techniques taking only the most effective methods of combat and unifying them all together under one style. CQC makes effective use of pressure point strikes, joint locks, throws, holds, all for the sake of immobilizing the enemy as quickly as possible. The best part is that even though out-of-universe Motosada Moori just takes techniques from any fighting style he wants, in-universe Big Boss and The Boss are said to be the ones who invented all of these techniques. They didn't just look at judo and say "hey that's a cool move, lets incorporate it into our new style." No, every technique in CQC was originated by the two of them, from the ground up
This is why the style gets the generic title of simply Close Quarters Combat instead of something specific like Krav Maga-- because it is free to utilize ANYTHING. Krav Maga is Close Quarters Combat, but the Close Quarters Combat that Big Boss and The Boss created is much bigger than Krav Maga alone. I hope this all makes a bit of sense, it's kinda tricky to wrap your head around without actually playing the games and doing some research.
Of course other characters in Metal Gear like Gray Fox and Vamp use fighting styles besides CQC. They are never able to compete with those who have mastered CQC though, only another CQC master is able to do that. Old Snake fends off the metahuman assassin Vamp and restrains him in a hold despite being exponentially weaker, yet immediately after he can't counter Ocelot's attacks, when Ocelot is a mere human. Many people use this fact to try and downplay Snake, a regular human beats him when a superhuman can't. But that's missing the point. It's all about skill, and CQC triumphs over all. Even when Snake is facing a superhuman, the CQC style is able to counter anything. But another CQC master can counter those counters. Get it?
Snake and Big Boss have even been tested against other masters of CQC and proven to be the true masters of it within the MGS lore. Gene was Big Boss's shadow. He had all of Boss's training and skills, they held the same ideals but twisted from each other, Gene even took the CQC system that Big Boss developed and modified it into a more destructive version, which he appropriately refered to as "CQC Enhancer." And on top of all this, Gene went through the Philosopher's Successor Project and became a metahuman. He possessed ESP, telekinesis, mental manipulation, and the reflexes to weave through Gatling gun fire at close range until the chamber ran empty while moving so fast he appeared to be standing still, as well as blitz a precog faster than his thoughts could reach her mind. Like I mentioned, Gene was a master of CQC too, and this made him unbeatable against anyone who did not know CQC, which he proved by stomping fellow metahuman ninja Null. Yet when he tried to take Big Boss on, THE legendary Big Boss, greatest warrior of the 20th century... he got put in his place. Big Boss physically beat him to DEATH.
Same goes for Solid Snake. He didn't even use CQC for most of his career, he had the knowledge but was too shamed by Big Boss's betrayal to use his style. For most of his career Snake used the inferior CQB style, and look how far that took him. So imagine Snake with CQC? Well by 2014 when the world was plunged into a state of eternal warfare and mercenary companies were the backbone of the economy, CQC became mainstream among the private militias. Now EVERYBODY knew the style, so Snake started using it again. Except he was old by this point, accelerated aging put him in the body of a 70 year old man with arthritis, a bad back, an enlarged heart and inflamed lungs, the list goes on. Doctor Naomi stated that the only thing which kept Snake on his feet by that point was the sheer force of his will, and he was scheduled to die within six months. Yet even in such a horrible state, he was still Solid Snake, the legendary hero and greatest fighter in the world. Through his sheer skill he was able to make short work of up to seven nanomachine-enhanced super soldiers in Close Quarters Combat, who were all armed with rifles and had him surrounded, almost casually and without any weapons of his own (he would disarm them and use their weapons against them). Snake did this nonlethally within less than two minutes. And he STILL got fodderized by the equally old Revolver Ocelot, despite having a rifle, a sidearm, and a knife all ready to combat the completely unarmed cowboy, who effortlessly stripped Snake of all his weapons one at a time and completely brutalized him in his own style. Ocelot was such a combat prodigy, he was able to master CQC just through observation and fight one of the style's originators to a stalemate back when he was still a teenager. Yet when Snake was on willpower-overload and fought Ocelot again, both unarmed, he beat him. It was the most grueling duel of his life, but Snake beat him. He is truly the best soldier in the world.
(Also the physical difference between Sam and Dave is quite substantial to say the least)
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