# (1)Zero vs (9)Knuckles the Echidna 2018

_source: (1)Zero vs (9)Knuckles the Echidna 2018 (revid 83779)_

## Ulti's Analysis

We knew this after round one, but this match confirmed it. Knuckles is freaking legit, and it's a crime he's never made it into round 3 in one of these contests. The dude has an 8-1 record in round one, and the worst luck on the planet in who he gets for round 2. Check out this ridiculous list, in order.

-Solid Snake

-Solid Snake

-Solid Snake again

-Squall

-Yoshi, Mega Man, and KOS-MOS

-Fei Fong Wong, Mario, and Zelda

-Sonic the Hedgehog

-Samus

-Zero

I mean seriously, look at this damn list. There wasn't one year in there where he could draw Aya Brea, Serious Sam, Aqua, or Sandbag in round two? I honestly blame CJayC for this because of his dumb idea to feed Knuckles to Snake three years in a row. Two years in a row I can understand, but by 2004 he couldn't have just swapped places with Jill Valentine or something? Dumb. The closest he came was against Squall in 2005, where he had a small bandwagon behind him after upsetting Magus. He got 46% in that match. We got Tails into round 3. My new crusade is getting Knuckles in there. Dude deserves it for being awesome for 25 years.

As for Zero, he did what he always does. He's always around 20-25 in the LOL x stats, never really moves, and is remarkably consistent year to year. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the guy and love him for all the same reasons I love Knuckles. He's a stone cold badass when I don't have to hear a terrible voice actor doing terrible voice actor things. I just wish Knux could catch a damn break one of these years. ONE round 3 run. It's all I ask.

## Safer777's Analysis

This match was never in doubt of course. Zero would win. And he did, duh. The question is, is this a good victory? I think it is good. Knuckles isn't that weak. He was never strong true but not weak either. As I said above almost all his victories are against FF characters. So Zero did good here. Nice win for Zero! That proves that Zero isn't a zero! Okay yeah I am stupid. What else? I know him from the Project X Zone games myself. Haven't played a MM game ever. A fun thing is that Knucles ALWAYS get strong opponents in Round 2 that are out of his league. Man has to be a record for bad draws in the matches!

## Tsunami's Analysis

Both entrants in this match are red anti-hero rivals to blue heroes from the mid-90s, which is honestly a more interesting bit of trivia than anything in this match.

Well, that's not quite true.

Zero (2010c) has a strength of 31.71 against Base Link. Knuckles (2010c) has a strength of 27.79 against Base Link.

Zero wins with 56.18% of the vote!

I usually don't trust adjusted X-Stats as far as I can throw them (and seeing as how they're an abstract concept, I can't throw them at all), but that's only 0.03% away from the actual result and Knuckles literally faced *Sonic* in 2010. And then Sonic got blown out by Link, making the entire division look pitiful in the raw X-Stats when in fact it was full of reliable midcarders such as Ganondorf, Mewtwo, Vivi, Kirby, and Knuckles himself, in addition to others such as Donkey Kong (who is not reliable, but made Round 3 this year), Altair (who as I noted in my write-up of Ezio's loss has *never* lost in Round 1, and this is the first time since his debut that he missed the field entirely), and Rikku (who frequently misses the field but always performs well when she makes it).

And yes, I feel like we can call Knuckles a "reliable midcarder" even though he's never made it to Round 3. He's been in 9 out of the 10 contests (only missing 2006 because half the field was reserved for females), and he's only lost in Round 1 *once*, and that was when he had to deal with Mario and Zelda in a 4-way. He's almost certainly the strongest character to never make Round 3. Early on, CJayC was entirely to blame (stupid gimmicky bracketmaking), but as time has gone on, it really just does feel like he's been unlucky. Far weaker entrants have made it to Round 3 due to soft placements, including one from the same series as Knuckles. (At least I'm assuming Knuckles \> Tails. That might actually be a match worth seeing, though!)