# (5)Terra Branford vs (12)Charizard 2018

_source: (5)Terra Branford vs (12)Charizard 2018 (revid 83695)_

## Ulti's Analysis

People are going to look at Pikachu's run and think Pokemon had a good contest, but in reality outside of Pikachu Pokemon had a terrible contest. Remember when the bracket came out and people thought Charizard or Mewtwo or Pokemon Trainer Red would go on these insane runs? That was put to bed pretty early this contest, and this match was one example why. I'll delve into all the FRAUDULENCE later when we get into how Mewtwo did, but for Charizard this was one of the worst wins for a hyped character I've ever seen. He struggled early, and though the match would never end up being in any real danger for him, Terra was able to make a lot of major cuts all throughout the match.

I don't know what happened to Charizard, but this is clearly not the same version that won four matches in 2010 or the dude that would have gone on a good run in 2013 had Mega Man not been rallied. I know there was a close Zelda match in there, but Zelda is pretty legit these days.

As for Terra, she's one of those characters that doesn't win much but always finds a way to make hyped characters look awful. Outside of one blowout loss to Dante in 2005, she always manages to look good. Kerrigan was hyped once upon a time. Terra embarrassed her. Darth Revan was hyped. Terra embarrassed him too. She even held her own against Kirby and Samus once. But this is probably the best Terra has ever looked. In an era when Square routinely looks like hot garbage and Nintendo dominates this site, we got this result. It's going to be forgotten in the ether, but this really shouldn't be some randomly forgotten contest match. 47% on Charizard given all the outside factors is no joke given all the hype he had.

To put this a different way, the Oracle people routinely guess the final percents within razor thin margins. The consensus for this match was Charizard getting 62.52%. The lowest pick was Charizard with 56%. This was a bad match for the dude and all but cemented he had no chance against Bowser next round.

## Lightning_Strikes 's Analysis

**What happened?:** Good goddamn question. This match seemed open and shut. Nintendo has been beasting, Final Fantasy has been not, Charizard has looked great twice in earlier contests, Pikachu looked great, Red looked great. Then this match starts.. And it's neck and neck during the board vote? What? Terra then spent a long time over 47%, looking like she might take the whole thing during the power hour. Then things started to go Charizard's way and he began winning updates consistently, and Terra never really got it back. It is very interesting that Terra was best during the Power Hour here, and the match was relatively stable otherwise. Charizard didn't have the 3-5% losses that other Pokemon characters have shown, instead only bleeding less than 1% from his peak. Lastly it's really significant that the match was effectively tied between anonymous voters with the registered boost helping Charaizard keep clear. It didn't change the result, but I wonder if it hadn't happen, would there have been rallies to push Terra over? Who knows.

**What could this mean?:** A lot of people are calling Charizard and Pokemon/Nintendo/whatever a fraud, I dunno. Both Nintendo as a whole and Pokemon more specifically have looked consistently great, including in this match. Really I think this is just Terra. She didn't act like most Square characters have, though it's likely no coincidence that the closest comparison is Kefka. I think a lot of this is on her strength. FFVI has been growing over the last several years, and she likely earned that 5 seed. It would be interesting to see Terra put up against some typical midcarders, she could probably do a lot of damage. As for Charizard, well I suddenly feel glad I have Bowser, but a lot of that is to do with the next match.

## Safer777's Analysis

Look at this result! Just look at it! Charizard is a fraud confirmed! Probably? Charizard in the 2010 contest was massive power house. Just look at the percentages of his wins back then! He did amazingly back then. At 2013 he did really good too. SFF helped him a lot there too. But now? And he is the 3rd most popular Pokemon too! As for Terra she never does good in these things unfortunately. She does have power but she just can't win. Now in this contest either Terra is strong or Charizard is weak. But I guess both. Pokemon isn't as big as it used to be back in the day but still they do good. Still I feel bad for Terra. No matter what though really bad result for Charizard. Still a win is a win I guess.  Even a win such as this one. Pikachu seems to be the strongest of the Pokemon. Makes sense since he is the mascot.

## Tsunami's Analysis

This was the match where everyone started crying out that Charizard was a fraud. And with good reason, I suppose, even if all of those "awful" 2013 results suddenly looked really good by the end of this contest. Terra continues to look extremely good in these contests for no discernible reason, though obviously there's that whole thing about females boosting all over the place this year.

Obviously Charizard was in trouble against Bowser next round but honestly we all knew that his win in 2010 was a fluke. So I guess technically Charizard is a fraud, the same way Shadow and Tidus and Magus all overperformed in *their* contest debuts. There's another fraud worth mentioning but I'll save it for his first-round match.

Finally, take note of what the seeding is in this match. A 12-seed upsets a 5-seed and everyone feels that the *winner* did horribly? Granted, all this really proves is that the seeding was nonsensical (and it was; Terra is a 5 now?), but it's still worth noting that a 12-seed beat a 5-seed and everyone takes it as proof that the 12-seed is not as good as they thought it was (which wasn't necessarily true; the 5-seed was better than we'd thought. Probably.)