GameFAQsContests.com

Breath of the Wild destroyed Final Fantasy XV and completed three straight overwhelming wins. The writeup considers the result historically dominant while treating possible fanbase overlap as too uncertain to explain much.

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.

Smash Ultimate crushed Spider-Man in a predictable divisional semifinal, but once again looked less dominant than Super Mario Odyssey. The comparison further fueled upset talk for their coming head-to-head match.

Super Mario Odyssey demolished Shovel Knight and produced a third straight performance that looked stronger than Smash Ultimate's. The writeup notes the conspicuous absence of the developer rally that had saved Shovel Knight previously.

Persona 4 Golden beat Grand Theft Auto V from wire to wire and completed another bracket-busting win without current-match rally assistance. The result established Persona 4 Golden as the contest's most surprising divisional finalist.

Xenoblade Chronicles crushed Fire Emblem: Three Houses and completed the collapse of the pre-contest division favorite. The writeup sees some same-audience suppression but puts more emphasis on anti-voting and Xenoblade's genuine rise.

SFF: The writeup says Three Houses was probably SFFed to some extent by Xenoblade Chronicles, although anti-Fire-Emblem voting and general overestimation are treated as larger factors.

The Witcher 3 beat Super Mario Galaxy 2 after a briefly entertaining opening and again looked stronger than expected. Galaxy 2 still performed well enough to confirm that its earlier blowouts were not purely weak-opponent artifacts.

God of War beat Fallout: New Vegas in a match that was never seriously in doubt, though New Vegas remained respectable. The result sent God of War into the division final with little hope of stopping Witcher 3.

Persona 5 annihilated Sonic Mania and continued to look like the clear class of its division. The writeup treats Sonic's run as mostly bracket-driven while emphasizing Persona's modern mainstream strength.

Portal 2 beat Red Dead Redemption 2 in a closer-looking divisional semifinal that remained under control for most of the day. The result validated Portal 2's hidden strength and ended the author's overconfidence in newer games.

Dark Souls repeated its 2015 win over Metal Gear Solid V with a much larger margin. The writeup treats the widening gap as a clean combination of Souls rising and Metal Gear declining.

The Last of Us beat Batman: Arkham City but again failed to look strong enough to threaten Dark Souls. The result left its popular pre-contest division-win pick effectively doomed.

Skyrim beat Mario Kart 8 but looked weak enough to become a serious target for later upset speculation. The writeup treats Mario Kart's prior SFF history as irrelevant to this current matchup.

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.