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Horizon Zero Dawn upset Borderlands 2 and never looked back after seizing control early. The Bloodborne rally in the neighboring match added a small extra boost to an already convincing Horizon win.

Rally: The writeup says the simultaneous Bloodborne rally boosted Horizon Zero Dawn further after it had already taken control of Borderlands 2.

Resident Evil 2 beat DOOM in a debated matchup and confirmed that DOOM's first-round destruction of INSIDE had overstated its strength. Rally spillover helped DOOM somewhat but never threatened the result.

Rally: The writeup says DOOM was performing worse before the simultaneous Bloodborne rallies arrived and boosted it against Resident Evil 2.

Bloodborne beat Fire Emblem: Awakening and then pulled away sharply once its subreddit rally gained traction. The match established Bloodborne as both naturally strong and capable of meaningful outside mobilization.

Rally: The writeup says Bloodborne fans organized subreddit rally threads that materially increased its margin over Fire Emblem: Awakening, turning a closer natural win into a much larger one.

Marvel's Spider-Man beat Minecraft and validated the experts who had trusted its natural strength over casual recognition and rally fear. Simultaneous rally traffic helped Minecraft somewhat but did not change the outcome.

Rally: The writeup says rallying in the simultaneous Octopath Traveler versus Shovel Knight match shifted support toward Minecraft and reduced Spider-Man's percentage during this poll.

Octopath Traveler and Shovel Knight traded momentum for nearly the entire day before outside support became decisive late. After Octopath's pinned subreddit rally gained control, an official Shovel Knight developer push reversed the match and stole the finish.

Rally: The writeup describes sustained two-sided subreddit rallying and says Yacht Club Games' late official Twitter push decisively swung the finish toward Shovel Knight.

Persona 4 Golden led from the start but repeatedly needed outside support to repel Red Dead Redemption's pushes. The final score was close even though Red Dead never actually took the lead.

Rally: The writeup says Persona 4 Golden received repeated Reddit and Board 8 rally support, plus some rally spillover, and argues that the outside help likely made the difference in its narrow win.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 still won comfortably despite rally spillover helping Stardew Valley. The writeup treats both games as respectable while acknowledging that Galaxy 2's next Witcher matchup looked grim.

Rally: The writeup says rally traffic from the simultaneous match disproportionately boosted Stardew Valley and reduced Super Mario Galaxy 2's final margin.

Fallout: New Vegas beat Dark Souls III in a debated matchup where both sides attracted outside support. The stronger New Vegas rally helped preserve a result that still broadly matched pre-match expectations.

Rally: The writeup says both Dark Souls III and Fallout: New Vegas received organized rally support, with the New Vegas subreddit push ultimately proving much stronger.

NieR: Automata won comfortably while Divinity rallied hard enough to distort the final margin and later extrapolated standings. The push was visible but never made the match competitive.

Rally: The writeup says Divinity: Original Sin II mounted a significant Reddit rally after the opening and reduced the size of NieR: Automata's natural blowout, though it never threatened the winner.

Dragon Quest XI survived a spirited Monster Hunter rally and confirmed that its surprising contest strength was genuine. Monster Hunter still exited with more respect than expected.

Rally: The writeup says Monster Hunter: World mounted a meaningful rally that repeatedly cut into Dragon Quest XI's lead and reduced the final margin without seriously threatening the result.

Mass Effect 2 beat Horizon Zero Dawn despite rally spillover boosting Horizon. The underlying result kept Mass Effect favored for the division while also validating Horizon as stronger than expected.

Rally: The writeup says spillover from the simultaneous Bloodborne rally significantly favored Horizon Zero Dawn and lowered Mass Effect 2's final percentage.

Resident Evil 2 survived Bloodborne in the contest's defining close match after a major rally was curtailed midway through the poll. The writeup treats the moderation decision as the central reason Bloodborne failed to complete the upset.

Rally: The writeup says Bloodborne received a major subreddit rally that nearly swung the match, and that the moderators' decision to disallow rally threads midway through the poll was the decisive factor in Resident Evil 2 surviving.

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver survived an initially close NieR: Automata challenge and pulled away once the early rally pressure faded. The result closed Round Three with Pokémon still looking surprisingly legitimate.

Rally: The writeup says NieR: Automata supporters had active rally efforts during the match, including the jokingly described hentai rallies, though those pushes never became large enough to overturn Pokémon.

Xenoblade Chronicles survived Persona 4 Golden in the last truly great close match of the contest. Persona's rallies repeatedly cut the lead, and without the registered-user weighting Persona would have narrowly won.

Rally: The writeup says Persona 4 Golden received repeated and increasingly intense rally support throughout the match, culminating in a late push that nearly overturned Xenoblade's lead.

Persona 5 crushed Portal 2 after the opening minutes and won the division comfortably. A continuing Persona rally thread added a small boost but was not necessary to the result.

Rally: The writeup says the Persona subreddit maintained a rally thread and later redirected it toward Persona 5, giving Persona a small current-match boost even though the effect was not large.

The Witcher 3 beat Persona 5 after an entertaining opening and confirmed that even a major Persona push was not enough to threaten it. The result sent Witcher into the semifinal looking almost untouchable.

Rally: The writeup says Persona 5 rallied heavily from the opening and received roughly hundreds of outside votes, though The Witcher 3 repeatedly absorbed the pushes and pulled away.

Breath of the Wild completed its dominant championship run, but Witcher 3's rally made the final substantially more respectable than the opening suggested. The writeup treats Witcher as the contest's breakout star even in defeat.

Rally: The writeup says Witcher 3 fans rallied heavily throughout the final and materially cut Breath of the Wild's natural margin, even though the rally never put the winner in danger.