GameFAQsContests.com

Cloud controlled much of the match before Mario mounted a comeback aided by unusually favorable circumstances and outside attention. The close finish, enormous board reaction, rallying, and unresolved cheating allegations made the match the writeup's choice for the greatest contest match ever.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup credits Mario's comeback partly to a Planet GameCube link and widespread vote solicitation, explicitly treating those efforts as rallying. It also describes alleged proxy voting and supposed vote-stuffing admissions, while emphasizing that the cheating claims were never proven.

Melee ended Starcraft's Cinderella run in a chaotic divisional final dominated by outside promotion, flame wars, and a detected cheating surge. The writeup remembers the match as both a strong Melee win and a damaging controversy around Starcraft's run.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup says Starcraft was promoted through Battle.net and multiple Starcraft sites, while a separate sudden proxy-vote surge was identified as cheating. The controversy cast doubt over the legitimacy of parts of Starcraft's run even though Melee still won.

Snake controlled the match, while Mega Man and Weighted Companion Cube fought for the other advancing spot. The Cube's late surge completed another inanimate-object upset and ended Mega Man's run.

Rally: The writeup explicitly says Weighted Companion Cube rallied during its fight with Mega Man, producing the decisive swing that carried the Cube into the next round.

Draven built a huge rally-driven lead, Link mounted two enormous comeback pushes, and a lengthy site slowdown became the center of a bitter controversy before Draven survived. The writeup treats the match as one of the most consequential and divisive events in GameFAQs contest history.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup describes enormous organized rallies for both Draven and Link throughout the match. It also alleges obvious late vote stuffing from Link's side, while quoting SBAllen's analysis that found no evidence of massive systematic stuffing overall.

Mewtwo crushed Sonic in a result made even more shocking by Sonic's failure to mount his usual daytime comeback. The win turned Mewtwo into the preferred anti-Draven hope for the remainder of the contest.

Rally: The writeup says rally spillover from the Link-Draven battle materially boosted Mewtwo, with Zen arguing that Sonic probably wins without that outside support.

Mega Man survived both Zero's overlap and Charizard's late lead, then completed a furious final push to take the match. The writeup remembers the finish as the long-awaited close-match breakthrough for a character with years of contest heartbreak.

LFF · Rally: The writeup says Zero clearly drained Mega Man through their heavy overlap. It also describes a massive late Mega Man fan rally that overturned Charizard's lead in the final minutes.

Chrono Trigger looked ready to crush Melee until Smash fans mobilized across Reddit, social media and community sites. The rally flipped the match and stopped each comeback, ending Chrono Trigger's apparent path toward the championship.

Rally: The writeup says a rapidly spreading Smash community rally erased Chrono Trigger's large early lead and repeatedly countered every later Chrono comeback attempt.

Final Fantasy VI's early board-vote resistance quickly disappeared as Final Fantasy VII took control. Spillover from the Melee rally widened an already likely FFVII win and erased hopes based on an earlier non-contest poll.

Rally: The writeup says the simultaneous Melee rally favored Final Fantasy VII over Final Fantasy VI and amplified FFVII's existing lead, helping turn the match into a larger rout.

Pokémon RBY appeared to have finally stopped Undertale after building a massive lead while matching its early rallying. A sudden late social-media flood then overwhelmed Pokémon and turned the match into one of Undertale's defining comebacks.

Rally: The writeup describes a full rally war: Pokémon built a huge lead with its own outside support, then an enormous late Undertale Twitter surge erased the deficit and reversed the match.

Super Mario 64 beat Skyrim comfortably while the neighboring rally war boosted Mario's support. The match remained stable despite the outside traffic and ended Skyrim's respectable run.

Rally: The writeup says the simultaneous Pokémon-Undertale rally traffic favored Super Mario 64 and inflated its showing against Skyrim, even though it did not change the winner.

Majora's Mask rode spillover and presentation advantages to a large early lead, but A Link to the Past slowly erased it and won with the morning vote. The match became a clear demonstration of how quickly rally spillover could fade.

Rally · Pic: The writeup says rally spillover from the previous Undertale-Pokémon match strongly favored Majora's Mask early. It also says Majora had a clear picture advantage over A Link to the Past.

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.