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The first four-way contest match immediately showed how different the new format could be. Yoshi took first comfortably, while Knuckles survived Rikku after major voting swings and Vaan's shared fanbase hurt Rikku in the fight for second.

LFF: The writeup explicitly identifies Vaan as the contest's first clear LFF case, saying his shared Square support drained enough from Rikku to cost her an advancing spot.

Mega Man took the expected first place, but the real story was KOS-MOS advancing while Diablo and Arthas split overlapping support. The writeup treats the result as the match that taught Board 8 how LFF worked in four-way polls.

LFF: The writeup says Diablo and Arthas weakened each other by sharing the same Blizzard fanbase, allowing KOS-MOS to advance despite neither Blizzard entrant being individually helpless.

Ryu took first in a result that surprised many bracket players but made sense once Bowser's two fellow Nintendo entrants were considered. Bowser still advanced, but the writeup treats his weak showing as a serious warning for later rounds.

LFF: The writeup says Bowser was weakened by sharing Nintendo support with both Mewtwo and Toad, allowing outside entrant Ryu to take first place comfortably.

Kratos took first in a result that surprised many casual brackets but looked straightforward to the writeup. Donkey Kong still advanced, though sharing Nintendo support with Marth made an already difficult matchup much worse for him.

LFF: The writeup says Donkey Kong and Marth drained each other's Nintendo support, making outsider Kratos's first-place finish effectively inevitable.

Pikachu took control while Arthas converted a favorable draw into a surprising advancement. The result also punctured another piece of the pre-contest Brawl hype surrounding Ike.

LFF: The writeup says Pikachu's overlapping Nintendo and Smash support put Ike in a bad LFF situation, helping Arthas take the other advancing spot.

Big Boss delivered a result the writeup remembers as almost unimaginable at the time, beating a heavily favored Kirby outright. The upset immediately turned Big Boss into one of the contest's biggest talking points.

LFF: The writeup says Jinjo and Lucas hurt Kirby by splitting Nintendo support, though it also stresses that this alone cannot explain the scale of Big Boss's upset.

Pokémon RBY overwhelmed Majora's Mask in a matchup many expected to be close, immediately elevating Pokémon into the contest's top tier. The two other N64 games were largely squeezed out of relevance.

LFF: The writeup attributes Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark's weak showings partly to heavy N64 and Nintendo overlap in a field led by Majora's Mask and Pokémon.

Kingdom Hearts took first comfortably, but Vice City overturned the expected Nintendo advantage and beat Metroid Prime for second. The writeup treats Paper Mario's presence as the key reason Prime could not capitalize.

LFF: The writeup says Paper Mario leeched enough Nintendo support from Metroid Prime to cost Prime the second advancing spot against Vice City.

Call of Duty 4 decisively beat Super Mario Galaxy in a result that immediately damaged Galaxy's pre-contest reputation. Even allowing for Pokémon overlap, the writeup sees Galaxy's performance as a major warning before facing Brawl.

LFF: The writeup treats Pokémon Diamond and Pearl's overlapping Nintendo support as a major factor in Super Mario Galaxy's unexpectedly weak performance.

Fallout 3 and Halo 3 advanced in a nearly perfect staircase, making the final first-round match one of the contest's least eventful. The shared Xbox and genre-heavy field produced very little movement.

LFF: The writeup attributes some of Mass Effect's weak showing to overlap with fellow Western RPG Fallout 3 in an unusually homogeneous field.

Kirby won, but Terra's performance was the surprise as she benefited from Peach draining Nintendo support from Kirby. The writeup treats Terra's Dissidia-era strength as increasingly legitimate.

LFF · Pic: The writeup says Peach LFFed Kirby, helping Terra look unusually strong against him. It also explicitly calls Kirby's simple spherical design a major picture advantage.

Mr. Game & Watch upset Lee Everett despite sharing part of his natural novelty audience with Meat Boy. The writeup treats the result as another example of recent Western-game popularity failing to translate into character-contest votes.

LFF: The writeup says Meat Boy's similar oddball appeal stole support from Game & Watch, and argues that Game & Watch would have beaten Lee much more decisively without him.

Nathan Drake survived a long, slow fight with Pac-Man, while Steve's presence is blamed for helping keep Pac-Man from completing the upset. The result stayed close enough to preserve Pac-Man's reputation as a dangerous wildcard.

LFF: The writeup says Steve stole votes from Pac-Man through similar broad casual appeal and argues that Pac-Man likely wins the matchup without Steve in the poll.

Ezio beat Tails and Bomberman after a short early challenge, with the writeup blaming some of Tails's weakness on the similar third entrant. The result also undercut attempts to revive Tails through old extrapolated statistics.

LFF: The writeup says Tails and Bomberman had overlapping appeal and that their shared support helped Ezio pull away after Tails briefly led.