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Simon Belmont upset Ryu Hayabusa after taking an early lead and resisting a long, slow comeback. The writeup credits Simon's Smash announcement and improved presentation for transforming a historically weak character into a legitimate threat.

Pic: The writeup says Simon Belmont's new Smash design was shown especially well in the match picture and treats that presentation as part of the boost that helped him beat Ryu Hayabusa.

Kefka upset both Zack and Ryu Hayabusa in a result that wrecked the prevailing guru logic and continued his reputation for producing bizarre contest outcomes. The writeup credits Dissidia and improved presentation as plausible background factors without declaring a picture anomaly here.

Mega Man produced a third straight performance far above the writeup's expectations and overwhelmed Ryu Hayabusa. Rather than settling on SFF or picture factor, the writeup treats the streak itself as proof that Mega Man had returned near his old strength.

Ryu Hayabusa overturned a matchup that the writeup had expected Master Chief to control and turned 'Master Flop' into the dominant story. The loss is framed as another example of Chief's severe anti-vote problem in 1v1 contests.

Ryu Hayabusa beat Crash but looked far weaker than expected and even lost the morning vote. The result initially killed much of the hype for a second-round upset over Master Chief.

Snake delivered another statement performance, while Zero and Vivi fought a much more entertaining battle for the second advancing spot. Zero survived, but Vivi's late resistance made the race memorable.

Ryu Hayabusa and Zero were always the serious contenders, but Ryu's ability to take first made the match more interesting than expected. Dedede and Pit reinforced the writeup's view that Brawl alone could not manufacture contest strength.

Snake advanced easily, while Riku reversed his opening-round loss to Ryu Hayabusa and took the other spot. The writeup treats the reversal as another example of how unreliable direct comparisons could become in the four-way format.

Much of the writeup is an extended aside explaining who Haseo is; its match discussion emphasizes Ryu Hayabusa unexpectedly overpowering the split Kingdom Hearts field and making his later rematch with Riku look settled.

Dante beat Ryu Hayabusa almost exactly as the writeup's prior expectations suggested. The routine result kept Dante looking steadier than Yoshi heading into their debated second-round meeting.

Zero beat Ryu Hayabusa comfortably in a deliberately uneventful match after the previous day's chaos. The writeup nevertheless saw Ryu's late recovery as a mild warning that Zero might be somewhat overrated.

Sora turned a matchup many expected Ryu Hayabusa to control into one of the contest's biggest surprises. The writeup treats the decisive win as proof that Sora had made an enormous jump in strength since the previous year.

Ryu Hayabusa and Jill Valentine produced a celebrated marathon after a server glitch forced their fiercely contested poll to be restarted. The second poll featured another series of major swings before Ryu survived Jill's final comeback attempt by the narrowest of margins.