GameFAQsContests.com

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.

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver crushed Rayman Legends and continued looking like a viable proxy for the much older Gold and Silver. The writeup treats the remake's legitimacy as increasingly hard to dispute.

Mario Kart 8 comfortably eliminated Final Fantasy XIV and continued rehabilitating its reputation after the Wii U era. The result also weakened the idea that Final Fantasy XIV's modern acclaim would translate into contest strength.

Skyrim routed Journey but looked weak compared with Witcher 3's earlier results. The match became the first major reason to doubt Skyrim's presumed path to the final.

The Last of Us beat Diablo III easily but still underperformed enough to damage its status as a likely division winner. The writeup focuses heavily on Diablo and Blizzard's damaged reputation while looking ahead to Dark Souls.

Batman: Arkham City handled BioShock Infinite more comfortably than its shaky first round suggested. The writeup treats the result as a partial rebound for Batman and another sign of BioShock's decline.

Metal Gear Solid V beat Yakuza 0 but looked weak enough to reinforce the franchise's decline. Yakuza's respectable showing also validated that its first-round success was not entirely opponent-driven.

Dark Souls obliterated Rocket League and moved from strong contender to serious semifinal threat. The writeup treats the result as another clear sign that Souls had gained enormous respect since the prior games contest.

Red Dead Redemption 2 comfortably beat Animal Crossing: New Leaf despite New Horizons hype giving the older Animal Crossing entry a theoretical boost. The match confirmed that RDR2 remained respectable even on a site hostile to Rockstar.

Portal 2 demolished Kingdom Hearts III and ended one of the more popular second-round upset picks. The writeup treats Kingdom Hearts III's disappointing reception as a major reason the series failed to retain its old strength.

Sonic Mania unexpectedly routed Super Meat Boy in what had been treated as a close matchup. The writeup attributes part of the blowout to overlapping platformer support.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Sonic Mania versus Super Meat Boy an SFF match, arguing that the two platformers share enough audience for Sonic to suppress the indie game.

Persona 5 demolished Assassin's Creed IV and reinforced the series' emergence as a mainstream GameFAQs force. The result also made Witcher 3's earlier Assassin's Creed rout look less uniquely informative.

God of War demolished Nioh and continued to look strong enough for a deep run. The writeup sees some fanbase overlap in the rout but still considers God of War's underlying performance impressive.

SFF: The writeup says Nioh was probably suppressed to some extent by God of War because both games appealed to overlapping PlayStation action audiences.

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.

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.

The Witcher 3 obliterated Mass Effect 3 and looked increasingly untouchable in the lower half of the bracket. The writeup treats the scale of the rout as partly fanbase suppression and partly genuine elite strength.

SFF: The writeup says The Witcher 3 suppressed Mass Effect 3 through what became known as Western SFF, with their overlapping Western RPG audience making the blowout even larger.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses beat Ori but again looked much weaker than expected. Combined with Xenoblade's simultaneous dominance, the result badly damaged Three Houses' status as the presumed division favorite.

Xenoblade Chronicles destroyed Overwatch and proved its first-round blowout was not merely a favorable same-fanbase matchup. The result established Xenoblade as the new favorite to win the division.

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.

Grand Theft Auto V quickly erased the much-hyped Cuphead upset scenario and controlled the match throughout. The writeup treats GTA V as clearly stronger than the rest of its historically weak contest franchise.

Super Mario Odyssey demolished Devil May Cry 5 and continued to look stronger than Smash Ultimate through the early rounds. The writeup treats the result as another major boost to Odyssey's divisional hype.

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.

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.

Smash Ultimate crushed A Link Between Worlds in a badly drawn same-audience matchup. The writeup treats the loss as unusually harsh for a Zelda game but heavily distorted by Nintendo overlap.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Smash Ultimate versus A Link Between Worlds a standard SFF match and says the Zelda game was likely suppressed heavily by the stronger Nintendo title.

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.

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.

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.

Mass Effect 2 crushed Fallout 4 more decisively than expected and repaired the concern created by its first-round performance. The writeup notes that people floated SFF as an explanation, but does not settle on it.

Dragon Quest XI demolished Bastion and proved its first-round rout was not merely a fanbase-overlap fluke. The writeup treats it as by far the strongest Dragon Quest contest showing to date.

Monster Hunter: World beat Sekiro far more comfortably than expected and ended the writeup's hope that every Souls-like game would overperform. The result is framed as a major disappointment for Sekiro and a strong statement for Monster Hunter.

Final Fantasy XV survived Hollow Knight in a matchup that came far closer to embarrassment than a mainline Final Fantasy game should have allowed. The writeup treats the win as further evidence of FFXV's weak standing on the site.

Breath of the Wild demolished Halo: Reach and joined the rare group of games producing enormous blowouts in consecutive rounds. The writeup treats the performance as confirmation that even a hypothetical late rally might not be enough to stop Zelda.

KOS-MOS upset Aqua and reached Round Three for the first time, despite much of the writeup framing her as an unlikely survivor of an exceptionally weak fourpack. The result is linked to renewed visibility from guest appearances rather than cheating.

Ryu crushed Commander Shepard and made Mass Effect's character decline look severe. The writeup treats Ryu's Smash exposure as part of a broader rise while Shepard never recovered old strength.

Amaterasu beat Lara despite low pre-contest confidence, but the writeup considers the modest margin another example of Amaterasu rarely producing decisive results. Lara's modern games are said to have done little for her contest standing.

Sephiroth briefly allowed Captain Falcon an opening before settling into the expected comfortable win. The writeup treats the result as evidence that claims of Sephiroth's collapse had been exaggerated.

Mega Man X overwhelmed Ocelot and finally produced a clean comparison that made X look near-elite. Ocelot's poor showing added to the wider Metal Gear decline narrative.

Tifa crushed Mewtwo in a matchup many had once imagined favoring the Pokémon character. The writeup uses the result to reject Mewtwo's rally-inflated 2013 reputation and to establish Tifa as a serious threat.

Tails upset Master Chief and controlled the match from early on, turning a fan-favorite gamble into one of the writeup's most satisfying picks. The result also continued Master Chief's long contest decline.

Luigi beat Frog comfortably in a routine matchup that offered little suspense. The source's 'Green SFF' line is a color joke rather than a substantive claim about shared fanbases.

Sub-Zero doubled Claire in the straightforward result the writeup expected from this fourpack. Claire's easy defeat is used as another example of Resident Evil's damaged contest strength.

Auron comfortably beat Vincent and reinforced the writeup's view that Vincent had fallen sharply from his mid-2000s peak. Board 8 overwhelmingly expected the result despite old faith in Final Fantasy VII's intra-series strength.

Bayonetta beat Pac-Man in a match that stayed close by percentage but never developed into an actual rally or comeback. The writeup is more puzzled by Pac-Man's unexpected strength than impressed by the drama.

Simon led early and kept Geralt tied for hours before Geralt took control late at night. The writeup celebrates the match as another close, entertaining step in Geralt's newcomer run.

Aerith beat Captain Toad without much movement and became the first 15-seed to win three matches. The writeup treats her run as a historic seeding oddity even though the path itself was unusually weak.

The writeup is mostly an enormous political and Blizzard retrospective; the actual match is summarized as Fox crushing a weak D.Va after the feared rally never appeared.

Zelda crushed The Boss and made her coming match with Squall look increasingly favorable. The writeup treats Breath of the Wild and broader Nintendo momentum as convincing explanations for Zelda's dramatic rise.

Squall beat Garrus as expected but failed to dominate as strongly as the writeup anticipated. The result is remembered as an early warning sign that Squall's top-seed run was much shakier than it appeared.

Kirby demolished Isaac in a matchup the writeup considers heavily distorted by shared Nintendo and handheld appeal. The blowout further strengthened Kirby's status as a division favorite.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Kirby versus Isaac an SFF match, arguing that Kirby's handheld-heavy Nintendo fanbase strongly overlaps with Golden Sun's audience.

Phoenix Wright narrowly advanced over Ike because registered-user votes counted double, even though Ike won the raw vote. The writeup treats the result as a rules-driven flip and another major disappointment in Ike's contest history.

Bowser decisively avenged his old loss to Charizard and ended hopes of another deep Pokémon run from the dragon. The writeup treats Bowser as fully legitimate and Charizard's earlier peak as heavily timing-dependent.

2B upset the Board 8 favorite Ness and established herself as a legitimate midcard character, though the writeup still considers her badly overseeded as a top seed. The win is attributed to real strength rather than any outside intervention.

Kefka followed his first-round escape with a routine blowout of Bomberman. The writeup finds the near-repeat of Kefka's prior percentage on L-Block funnier than the actual match.

Alucard beat Yuna far more comfortably than pre-contest expectations suggested and continued his recurring habit of producing deep contest runs. The writeup treats Yuna's loss as another sign of Final Fantasy X's long-term decline.

Big Boss barely beat Crash in a matchup that was expected to be routine, turning a presumed blowout into another warning about Metal Gear's collapse. The writeup gives Crash substantial credit for his continuing nostalgia-driven rebound.

Red built a large lead, watched Sora erase much of it, then survived with help from a late Pokémon subreddit push. The writeup treats the match as both a legitimate close contest and a direct example of a small rally deciding the outcome.

Rally: The writeup says Pokémon Trainer Red was rallied through posts to the Pokémon subreddit during Sora's comeback, and explicitly states that the outside traffic made the difference.

Pikachu beat a recently boosted Kratos comfortably and continued to look like the strongest Pokémon character in the bracket. The writeup treats Kratos's God of War revival as making the win more impressive than the raw matchup first appears.

Yoshi crushed Velvet in another unusually lopsided later-round match, though the writeup warns that both of Yoshi's opponents had been extremely weak. The result leaves his true strength unresolved heading into a much harder matchup.

Wario comfortably eliminated Master Hand after the joke and rally support some expected for the Smash boss never appeared. The writeup treats Wario's first deeper run as more a product of bracket luck than newfound strength.

Zero beat Knuckles by almost exactly the sort of margin historical strength estimates suggested, ending another unlucky Knuckles run against elite opposition. The writeup treats Knuckles as legitimate despite yet another early exit.

Donkey Kong upset Leon in one of the contest's most surprising veteran-versus-veteran results, punishing an overwhelming expert lean toward Resident Evil. The writeup treats the match as clean evidence of Nintendo's rise and Leon's weakness.

Vivi demolished Aya Brea and looked much stronger than Ganondorf had in the neighboring match. Because Vivi's first two opponents were both weak, the writeup still hesitates to declare exactly how strong he really was.

Ganondorf beat Chun-Li but looked far weaker than expected for a character many had viewed as a likely division winner. The writeup treats the poor performance as a major warning, while explicitly dismissing earlier complaints about his sprite picture.

Dante opened the next stage by comfortably eliminating Lightning, whose Final Fantasy XIII baggage left her unable to threaten him. The writeup treats the result as another solid Dante performance without much suspense.

2003 handled a matchup some had worried about and advanced without serious danger. The writeup mostly uses the result to emphasize how hopeless 2003 looked against 1998 in the next round.

1998 demolished a year centered on A Link to the Past and produced what the writeup calls the best performance of the round. The result is treated as conclusive evidence that only a major rally could stop 1998 from winning the contest.

1994 comfortably beat 2011 and looked substantially stronger than 1991 had in the neighboring matchup. The writeup treats the result as confirmation that their next-round debate was already effectively settled.

1991's weak performance against 2002 immediately damaged the author's upset hopes for its next match. The writeup argues that the contest's year format had made normal transitive strength comparisons almost useless.

The match stayed close overnight before 1996 pulled away once the morning vote arrived. The writeup considers the final result tainted by a picture policy that failed to represent 2000's strongest possible lineup.

Pic: The writeup says 2000 was effectively denied a fair chance because Pokémon GSC was omitted from its match picture while 1996 received an unusually strong set of representative games. It explicitly argues that the picture imbalance likely decided the match.

1997's rout looked like a championship-quality performance at the time and seemed to set up a serious challenge to 1998. In hindsight, the writeup treats the result more as evidence that 2007 was unusually weak.

2001 crushed a 2008 lineup the writeup considered legitimately solid, reinforcing how extreme the contest's round-to-round blowouts had become. The result also made the coming 2001-versus-1995 matchup look heavily tilted toward 2001.

1995 advanced but looked far too weak for the overall top seed, stalling for hours against 1987 before finally separating. The writeup treats this as the point where its anticipated showdown with 2001 stopped looking competitive.

StarCraft seemed to have revived its old rally magic before Mass Effect 2 answered with an even stronger counter-push. The repeated swings made this one of the round's best matches and ended with Mass Effect 2 winning the rally war.

Rally: The writeup describes a sustained rally war: StarCraft first erased Mass Effect 2's lead, then Mass Effect 2 counter-rallied and eventually pulled away after its subreddit allowed rally threads.

Metal Gear Solid 3 built an early lead, then spent most of the match unable to extend it as BioShock's rally support surged. MGS3 survived, but the unusually close finish became another major warning about Metal Gear's strength.

Rally: The writeup says BioShock was boosted by both direct rallying and spillover from the StarCraft-Mass Effect rally war, allowing it to run even with Metal Gear Solid 3 for much of the day.

Shadow of the Colossus won comfortably and revived memories of its earlier Metal Gear upset run. Red Dead Redemption's respectable showing was helped slightly by rally spillover, but the next-round Shadow-versus-Metal-Gear debate remained intact.

Rally: The writeup says Red Dead Redemption received a small boost from the simultaneous StarCraft and Mass Effect 2 rallies, slightly improving its showing without threatening Shadow of the Colossus.

Metal Gear Solid advanced, but EarthBound came much closer than the writeup thought a former top-tier game should allow. The result reinforced the contest-wide impression that Metal Gear had declined while EarthBound had gained real strength.

Resident Evil 4 beat New Vegas comfortably, but both analyses retrospectively treat the result as the first real warning that RE4 had lost strength. Fallout 4 hype made New Vegas look stronger, which helped hide the warning at the time.

Metal Gear Solid 2 narrowly beat The Witcher 3 despite widespread attempts by Witcher fans to attract outside support. The writeup stresses that the hoped-for developer rally never materialized, making the result a case study in how difficult successful rallying can be.

Chrono Cross comfortably upset San Andreas and completed a second straight demolition of casual-favored opponents. The writeup attributes the result to GTA's severe anti-voting and Chrono Cross receiving the perfect bracket path.

Super Mario RPG beat the top-seeded GTA V exactly as Board 8 expected, turning casual bracket confidence into another easy target. The writeup treats the upset as obvious to experts despite the seeding.

Majora's Mask handled Final Fantasy XII easily and became the only Zelda entry the writeup thought looked genuinely strong in Round Two. The result largely validated its prior Game of the Decade strength.

Super Metroid crushed Super Mario Galaxy and finally broke the long-standing expectation that Metroid would collapse against Mario. The writeup treats this as a landmark result that ended much of the site's belief in automatic Mario dominance.

Dark Souls comfortably eliminated Metal Gear Solid V and confirmed that the new Metal Gear entry had never gained meaningful contest strength. The writeup treats Dark Souls as a rare modern game capable of surviving NostalgiaFAQs.

A Link to the Past beat Final Fantasy IV easily, but the writeup still considered the performance too ordinary for a championship favorite. The result joins Ocarina's showing as evidence of growing Zelda fatigue.

Symphony of the Night handled Banjo-Kazooie comfortably despite some pre-match upset buzz. The writeup treats the result as another demonstration of how much internet respect the Castlevania classic had accumulated.

Donkey Kong Country 2 survived another close match, this time against Fire Emblem Awakening, and continued one of the contest's most unexpected runs. The writeup explicitly frames DKC2 as resisting the Nintendo SFF reputation rather than suffering from it.

Final Fantasy IX beat Okami comfortably enough to confirm its modern rise in strength, while Okami again avoided being completely blown out. The result sent FFIX into Round Three with more credibility than in older contests.

Ocarina of Time beat Suikoden II but looked shockingly weak for the site's traditional top game. The writeup interprets the performance as the first strong evidence of widespread anti-Zelda voting and contest fatigue.

Twilight Princess doubled Persona 4 and exceeded its old Game of the Decade comparison. The result validated Persona somewhat while still leaving the writeup convinced Mario 64 was far stronger.

Super Mario 64 crushed Final Fantasy Tactics, though its percentage bleed gave a small opening for later Twilight Princess speculation. The writeup otherwise treats Mario 64 as the obvious division heavyweight.

Metroid Prime decisively won its rematch with Half-Life 2 and erased the memory of their much closer earlier contest meeting. The result established Prime as a credible threat to Skyrim in the next round.

Skyrim produced its strongest performance of the contest by comfortably beating GoldenEye and silencing the upset murmurs created by its weak opener. The writeup notes that this match was notably unaffected by rally spillover.

Super Mario World was already controlling Final Fantasy VIII before rally spillover made the margin substantially larger. The result fueled enormous anticipation for Mario World's coming encounter with Undertale.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale's simultaneous rally traffic heavily favored Super Mario World, inflating an already comfortable win over Final Fantasy VIII.

Fallout 3 looked safe for most of the match before Undertale's rally transformed the poll into a historic comeback and then a decisive win. The result launched the rally momentum that would dominate the rest of the contest.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale's massive outside rally erased Fallout 3's huge lead in only a few hours and continued accelerating after taking first.

Sonic 2 was already winning decisively before the simultaneous rally traffic arrived, then gained a few more points from spillover. The writeup treats the underlying result as a genuine old-games victory rather than a rally-created upset.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale rally spillover modestly favored Sonic 2 over Uncharted 2, making an already comfortable Sonic win somewhat larger.

Pokémon RBY was already beating Mario 3 before outside traffic arrived, but Undertale spillover transformed the result into a rout. The writeup treats the natural matchup as a legitimate Pokémon win and the final margin as heavily distorted.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale's outside rally spilled into this simultaneous poll and heavily boosted Pokémon RBY, turning an already likely Pokémon win into a much larger blowout.

Final Fantasy VII crushed Halo and produced what the writeup considers its strongest natural performance of the contest. The result briefly restored championship confidence before the rally-driven chaos of later rounds.

Smash 4 beat Mass Effect in a respectable but unspectacular result for both games. The writeup sees the Wii U title as legitimately strong, while Mass Effect's loss still validated its prior upset of Galaxy 2.

Wind Waker beat KOTOR by roughly the margin expected and did little to settle the upcoming debate with Final Fantasy VI. The writeup treats the result as useful mainly because the next match remained genuinely uncertain.

Final Fantasy VI handled Thousand-Year Door exactly as expected in a largely uneventful setup match. The writeup immediately turns toward the much more meaningful Wind Waker comparison waiting next.

Kingdom Hearts II beat The Last of Us comfortably and removed any realistic thought of an upset. The writeup still credits The Last of Us with impressive strength for a recent, original franchise.

Melee was already winning comfortably when its fanbase began a successful rally that inflated the final result. The writeup later treats this as an early trial run for the far larger Melee rallying still to come.

Rally: The writeup says Melee fans organized a noticeable rally despite already leading comfortably, boosting Melee substantially over its natural level against Pokémon GSC.

Final Fantasy X beat Mega Man X but looked disastrously weak relative to expectations, while Mega Man X exited with its reputation greatly improved. The result effectively ended belief that FFX could stop Chrono Trigger.

Chrono Trigger annihilated Dragon Quest VIII and produced one of the rare post-opening-round blowouts of this scale. Both analyses explicitly resist treating SFF as the main explanation and instead frame Chrono Trigger as operating at elite strength.

Zelda repeatedly looked on the verge of beating Charizard, but Pokémon's morning strength and late outside support dragged Charizard through a final-update escape. The writeup treats the win as a major warning that Charizard had been overrated.

LFF · Rally: The writeup says Donkey Kong's presence created heavy Nintendo vote splitting that badly hurt Charizard. It also says late rallies were necessary for Charizard to erase Zelda's lead and survive.

Zero won easily while Rikku gradually pulled away from Weighted Companion Cube for second in the Expert Challenge ordering. Strategic Mega Man fans voting away from Zero are discussed, but the outcome was never in doubt.

Mega Man delivered another clean top-seed performance, while Jill beat the declining Kratos for second in the Expert Challenge ordering. The writeup treats Jill's placement as an upset only by seed rather than by actual strength.

Red dominated while Wrex took advantage of Wario's severe Nintendo overlap to claim second in the Expert Challenge ordering. The result made Wrex's first-round upset look more legitimate.

SFF: The writeup says Red SFFed Wario, allowing Wrex to pass the Nintendo character comfortably for second in the Expert Challenge ordering.

Squall absorbed Missingno's expected early surge and took control far sooner than the glitch character's supporters hoped. The result ended Missingno's run and left Squall's division shaped by an awkward future matchup with Vivi.

Vivi produced one of the contest's defining upsets by holding off repeated Mario comeback attempts and finally eliminating him. Nintendo vote splitting and a modest outside push helped create the opening, but the writeup still celebrates Vivi's composure against Mario's legendary clutch.

LFF · Rally: The writeup says Ganondorf leeched Nintendo support from Mario and that 4chan also rallied Vivi during the close fight.

Tifa won comfortably while Dragonborn again looked far weaker than Skyrim's game-level popularity had suggested. Yuna's respectable third-place showing despite the Square overlap made Dragonborn's collapse look even worse.

LFF: The writeup treats Tifa and Yuna's shared Final Fantasy support as a real vote split, noting that Yuna stayed surprisingly close to Dragonborn even while Tifa was in the poll.

Auron controlled stretches of the match, but 4chan's support repeatedly pulled L-Block back and eventually carried the former champion to another upset. The result revived speculation that L-Block could become an anti-Draven rally vehicle.

Rally: The writeup says 4chan rallied L-Block, repeatedly erasing Auron's small leads before eventually pushing the former champion clear.

Samus overwhelmed Knuckles and Catherine and remained one of the few Noble Nine characters consistently meeting expectations. Catherine's respectable share is treated as proof that her first-round upset was not pure luck.

Pokémon Trainer Blue dominated Nathan Drake and Mr. Game & Watch, turning earlier PokéFEAR into a concrete strength statement. The writeup treats Blue's performance as proof that he belonged among the contest's serious threats.

Sora comfortably beat two first-round upset winners in a deliberately uneventful match. The result was interpreted as evidence that he could survive the Pokémon-heavy matchup waiting in Round Three.

Pikachu decisively eliminated Crono after Magus collapsed under same-series overlap. The result became one of the clearest signs that the old Noble Nine hierarchy no longer controlled the bracket.

SFF: The writeup explicitly says Magus was SFFed into the ground by Crono, giving Pikachu the opening it needed.

Leon beat Gordon and Shadow in a low-turnout match whose trends repeatedly hinted at drama without ever producing a real comeback. The writeup suspects overlap between Leon and Gordon but leaves the explanation uncertain.

Squirtle crushed Dante and made the pre-match Dante support look wildly misplaced, while Zidane never seriously threatened either contender. The writeup frames Dante's defeat as the inevitable result of backlash against the DmC reboot.

Cloud won comfortably while Frog overcame an early Lugia lead and took second in the Expert Challenge ordering despite sharing some Square support with Cloud. Lugia's collapse weakened the broader PokéFEAR narrative.

LFF: The writeup says Cloud was stealing support from Frog, making Frog's recovery past Lugia more impressive.

Kefka completed another bracket-wrecking upset by beating both Altair and Lara, while the two Western icons fought to the final minutes for second in the Expert Challenge ordering. Altair barely survived Lara's late comeback.

LFF: The writeup says Altair and Lara likely drained each other through overlapping Western-franchise appeal, helping Kefka dominate while their second-place fight stayed unusually close.

GLaDOS won easily, but Epona stole the attention by beating an awful Ike for second in the Expert Challenge ordering. The writeup treats the result as a fittingly comic high point for Epona and a confirmation of Ike's collapse.

Snake crushed Alucard and Bayonetta in a match with almost no suspense. The performance later became important because Snake was one of the few Noble Nine members still looking consistently dominant.

Kirby won comfortably while Crash nearly completed a morning comeback on Elizabeth for second in the Expert Challenge ordering. The writeup celebrates the loss as Crash's best contest showing in years and a major warning about BioShock Infinite's strength.

Big Boss and Luigi stayed tied for hours before Metal Gear's stronger late trend finally separated them. Ness's presence is treated as the key fanbase drain that prevented Luigi from taking fuller advantage of Big Boss's weak daytime vote.

LFF: The writeup says Ness leeched Luigi's Nintendo support and made the difference in a match where Luigi and Big Boss were otherwise close in strength.

Sephiroth won a routine rematch setting while Morrigan again finished ahead of Spyro, echoing their famous 2002 upset. The writeup finds Sephiroth's modest dominance more notable than the actual ordering.

Bowser won as expected, but The Boss and Sub-Zero spent most of the match almost perfectly tied for second in the Expert Challenge ordering. Sub-Zero unexpectedly won the evening trend and finally pulled away.

Mewtwo won convincingly while Phoenix unexpectedly pushed Vincent into last place. The notorious Vincent picture became one of the contest's biggest presentation controversies and overwhelmed much of the discussion.

Pic: The writeup says Vincent received an intentionally terrible Dirge of Cerberus picture and directly blames the image for worsening his performance enough that Phoenix could pass him.

Sonic cruised while Barret only narrowly separated from Dracula for second in the Expert Challenge ordering. The weak Barret showing became another warning that Final Fantasy VII's decline had reached well beyond Cloud.

Draven transformed from a low natural share into an overwhelming rally-powered winner over Mega Man X and Ryu. The performance convinced much of Board 8 that he had become a credible threat to win the entire contest.

Rally: The writeup says massive League of Legends rallying turned Draven into an overwhelming force and drove historically enormous vote totals.

Aeris led for hours before Shepard erased the gap and then pulled away decisively, producing one of the contest's most satisfying upsets for Mass Effect fans. Tharja's presence and Final Fantasy VII anti-voting are discussed as background factors rather than formal anomalies.

Link won comfortably while Raiden secured second after Yoshi faded under heavy Nintendo overlap. The writeup also treats Link's low turnout as another sign that voters were tiring of his dominance.

SFF: The writeup says Yoshi tried to resist Link's SFF but could not stay competitive, allowing Raiden to take second in the Expert Challenge ordering.

Dante and Vergil erased Sora and Riku's overnight lead, only for Kingdom Hearts' daytime strength to restore control and secure the win. The writeup regards it as the first truly good match of the contest even though the comeback failed.

Squall and Seifer advanced without much drama, but the margin was weaker than the writeup expected from a top-seeded pairing. Because Squall's bracket path looked predetermined, the underperformance received little weight.

Snake and Liquid beat Pac-Man and Blinky in an unusually low-interest poll, but the writeup considers Snake's performance another sign that Metal Gear had declined. The result effectively killed any upset hope against Cloud and Sephiroth.

Cloud and Sephiroth dispatched Kratos and Zeus in a match the writeup barely considered worth analyzing. The only notable wrinkle was Cloud finally enjoying a relatively good board vote against an even more anti-voted opponent.

Frog and Magus held off Chell and GLaDOS in one of the contest's rare genuinely close-looking matches. The writeup celebrates it mainly because almost every other rivalry matchup had been so uncompetitive.

Phoenix and Edgeworth's huge opening board vote briefly made the matchup look interesting, but Alucard and Dracula took over and pulled away decisively. The vampires' performance confirmed their status as the division's stronger pairing.

Mega Man and Wily beat Zidane and Kuja in another second-round match the writeup considered largely pointless. The picture receives more praise than the actual result.

Link and Ganondorf obliterated Amaterasu and Orochi and effectively ended remaining hopes for a normal upset of Link. The match reignited the long-running argument that Link should be retired from future contests.

Big Boss and The Boss beat Chris and Wesker more comfortably than the writeup expected. The result is presented as evidence that the Metal Gear pairing benefited more from the rivalry format than anticipated.

Samus and Ridley advanced, but Ridley held Samus down badly enough that the writeup calls the win a Pyrrhic victory. The performance made a deep Samus run look increasingly unrealistic.

Ryu and Ken handled Fox and Wolf without difficulty and confirmed that they too were receiving a substantial rivalry boost. The trainers nevertheless remained the clearer favorite for the next round.

Red and Blue crushed Luigi and Waluigi, exposing how much an unpopular partner could drag down a stronger character in the rivalry format. The writeup openly calls its own Luigi upset pick a major mistake.

Sub-Zero and Scorpion beat Donkey Kong and King K. Rool comfortably despite surprisingly low prediction confidence. The writeup treats the result as another example of Donkey Kong being chronically overrated.

Mega Man X and Zero overwhelmed Bartz and Gilgamesh in a nearly content-free match. The writeup mainly uses the result to emphasize how weak Guybrush had looked in the prior round.

Sonic and Robotnik demolished the pre-match upset case built around Kirby and Meta Knight. The writeup treats the result as evidence that iconic rivalry strength mattered more than people expected.

Mario and Bowser repeated a matchup the writeup felt had effectively happened only a year earlier. The rout is remembered mainly as another example of the bracket producing bad rematches.

Oblivion beat Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but the margin was far too small to sustain pre-contest talk of challenging Wind Waker. The writeup treats Paper Mario's resistance as another strong showing for the series.

Wind Waker began overwhelmingly against Assassin's Creed II and then bled support at a rate the writeup considered shocking for Zelda. The result both lowered confidence in Wind Waker and established Assassin's Creed II as a legitimate contest game.

Pokémon GSC answered Majora's benchmark with an even larger blowout of Mario Kart Wii. The result kept their coming matchup debatable while also extending the writeup's criticism of Wii-era contest strength.

Majora's Mask crushed Chrono Cross in a routine second-round blowout. The writeup uses the result mainly to establish a benchmark for Pokémon GSC before their anticipated clash.

Shadow of the Colossus survived an all-day war of attrition against Metal Gear Solid 2 and won by the narrowest margin in the contest. The writeup treats the upset as the launch of the contest's Cinderella run and one of its best matches.

Pic · Rally: The writeup calls Shadow of the Colossus's image the biggest picture disadvantage of the contest and says it would have won more easily under fairer pictures. It also explicitly describes a late Shadow of the Colossus counter-rally after MGS2 retook the lead.

Metal Gear Solid 4 won but steadily lost ground to Diablo II and looked far weaker than its prior-year form. The writeup also gives Diablo II substantial credit as the strongest traditional Western RPG in the field.

Paper Mario decisively eliminated World of Warcraft in a matchup casual brackets had badly misread. The writeup treats the result as the clearest humiliation of WoW's inflated seeding and popularity expectations.

Metal Gear Solid 3 beat Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but looked weak enough to worry observers who had dismissed MvC2's first-round rally-assisted upset. The writeup retrospectively credits MvC2 with more legitimate strength than it initially received.

Mass Effect ended Skies of Arcadia's upset run with a predictable blowout. The writeup treats the match mainly as confirmation of the large boost Mass Effect received from its sequel.

Portal demolished Final Fantasy XII in a matchup that had been heavily debated before the contest. The writeup celebrates the result as both a Portal statement and a decisive rejection of old four-way extrapolations favoring FFXII.

Persona 4 survived a long Dead Rising comeback in one of the round's closest races, reclaiming control late after briefly falling behind. The writeup credits Persona's more committed fanbase and possibly its picture for the narrow escape.

Pic: The writeup explicitly says Persona 4's strong match picture may deserve credit for the narrow win over Dead Rising.

Resident Evil 4 began with championship-level numbers against Vice City, then bled support for the entire match. The writeup treats the final result as a major warning that RE4's deeper title aspirations were unrealistic.

Final Fantasy IX routed Persona 3 and, unusually, avoided its customary daytime collapse. The writeup treats the result as routine but mildly encouraging for FFIX's trend profile.

KOTOR beat Fire Emblem but struggled enough to erase most hopes of an upset over Final Fantasy IX. The writeup regards Fire Emblem as respectable but not strong enough to excuse KOTOR's middling performance.

Golden Sun upset San Andreas on the release day of Dark Dawn, with RPG-friendly site conditions and a prominent home-page ad further favoring the winner. The writeup sees the timing as unusually hostile to GTA and the result as a major casual-bracket shock.

Pic: The writeup says Golden Sun's match picture looked exceptionally strong while San Andreas looked exceptionally poor, describing the image as one of several factors stacked against GTA.

Final Fantasy X delivered one of its few clean performances of the contest by overwhelming Borderlands and holding steady throughout the match. The writeup still regards the result as an exception rather than proof that FFX had fully returned to old form.

Kingdom Hearts doubled Modern Warfare 2, an especially harsh result because Kingdom Hearts rarely produces or suffers major blowouts. The writeup treats the match as another humiliating verdict on Call of Duty's standing on the site.

Kingdom Hearts II beat a highly respected BioShock despite much of the prediction community siding against it. The writeup sees BioShock's strong loss as evidence of a contest-title boost while also noting how easily KH2 survived.

Twilight Princess comfortably eliminated Dragon Age in a match whose seeding and bracket placement left little suspense. The writeup argues that Dragon Age could have done more in a less hostile part of the bracket.

Super Mario Galaxy beat Pokémon RSE but looked much weaker than expected while doing so. The writeup retrospectively treats the result as a strange outlier in an otherwise strong Galaxy contest.

Brawl demolished Valkyria Chronicles, though the writeup considers this one of the few matches where Brawl looked merely comparable to Melee rather than clearly superior. The result itself was never competitive.

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum eliminated Fire Emblem as expected, but failed to look strong enough to support the most ambitious Pokémon projections. The writeup treats the match as bad news for hopes of a broader Pokémon surge.

Call of Duty 4 won but was badly embarrassed by an otherwise unproven Perfect Dark. The writeup sees the poor showing as further evidence of deep anti-Call-of-Duty sentiment on GameFAQs.

Pic: The writeup explicitly describes a picture imbalance against Perfect Dark and notes that Perfect Dark still performed well despite its weaker image.

Melee posted another blowout, but its overnight and morning trends looked increasingly unfavorable for the looming match with Brawl. The writeup treats the performance as one of several signs that Brawl had become the favorite.

Grand Theft Auto III gave Half-Life 2 a strong challenge without ever threatening the actual result. The writeup treats GTA3 as the clear exception to the series' poor contest and sees Half-Life 2's steady bleed as a warning before stronger day-match opponents.

God of War and Tales of Symphonia spent hours in a true deadlock before God of War's morning vote broke the match open. The writeup remembers the long stall and decisive finish as one of the contest's best matches.

Okami beat Mega Man 9 comfortably, but Mega Man still performed well above the broader prediction consensus. The writeup treats the loss as validation that Mega Man 9 was a surprisingly legitimate entrant.

Metroid Prime comfortably eliminated Devil May Cry 3, though the winner's substantial percentage bleed kept questions alive about the divisional race. The writeup finds the match picture more memorable than the result.

Halo: Combat Evolved decisively beat Halo 3 and settled the series hierarchy in favor of the original. The writeup notes that the result was not an extreme same-series suppression, but was still a clear inter-series win.

Uncharted 2 won, but its steady percentage loss to Street Fighter IV made the victory feel hollow. The writeup treats the result as a warning that either Halo game would be favored next round.

Batman turned a matchup that had gained upset buzz after Team Fortress 2's first-round thriller into a one-sided win. The result immediately generated a new wave of Batman-over-Fallout speculation.

Fallout 3 crushed first-round upset winner Deus Ex and restored the expected hierarchy. The writeup briefly entertains SFF as a possibility but ultimately treats Deus Ex as simply weak and focuses on Fallout's strong daytime profile.

Tifa ended Gordon Freeman's run in a match the writeup viewed as predictable after Gordon nearly lost to Peach. Gordon's weak showing also undercut the significance of his recent outside-contest success.

Big Daddy overcame an early Ness lead and turned a close start into a comfortable advancement. The writeup highlights the striking contrast in their match picture but does not claim the image decided the result.

Yoshi resisted the Missingno bandwagon far better than expected and held the lead for hours, but Missingno eventually broke through during the Pokémon afternoon vote. The writeup insists the win reflected legitimate strength more than a joke rally.

Rally: The writeup says rallying aided Missingno's decisive sequence of afternoon gains against Yoshi, while also stressing that rallying was not the main reason Missingno won.

Sephiroth failed to suppress Vincent nearly as hard as expected, and the writeup explicitly rejects ordinary SFF as a sufficient explanation. It instead frames the result as evidence that severe anti-voting had become a structural weakness for Sephiroth and Final Fantasy VII.

Squall won comfortably but looked surprisingly weak against Terra despite his history of crushing lesser Final Fantasy characters. The result reopened doubts about whether Squall was safely above Auron.

Auron won about as comfortably as expected, which the writeup saw as insufficient evidence for an upset of Squall. Zero's respectable showing instead reinforced the idea that his recent weakness had been exaggerated by bad Nintendo-heavy draws.

Pikachu won without the dramatic daytime surge often associated with Pokémon, while Shepard continued his enormous improvement after Mass Effect 2. The writeup treats Shepard's respectable loss as one of the more impressive growth stories in the field.

Snake again started poorly with the board vote before recovering into a solid win. The writeup finds Fox a difficult measuring stick because so many of his prior losses involved Nintendo overlap.

Most of the writeup recounts the Canada-USA Olympic hockey final, then uses the game to explain the 'Hockey Factor': Dante improved while North American voters were occupied, before Ryu recovered after the game ended.

Leon handled Sackboy without much difficulty, but the writeup thought Leon still looked slightly off compared with expectations. That muted performance ended most remaining hype for him upsetting the Ryu-Dante winner.

Captain Falcon finally received a clean 1v1 opportunity after years of bad Nintendo-heavy draws and used it to beat Riku convincingly. The writeup treats the result as both Falcon validation and another sign of Kingdom Hearts decline.

Cloud rebounded from his weak first-round showing and dominated an RE5-boosted Chris far more decisively than expected. The writeup treats fanbase overlap as the most plausible explanation for Chris collapsing so badly.

SFF: The writeup says Final Fantasy VII-over-Resident Evil SFF is the likeliest explanation for Chris Redfield performing worse against Cloud than Ridley had.

Zelda erased the pre-match upset hype almost immediately and won comfortably. Ezio's later daytime gains were respectable but never made the contest meaningfully competitive.

Jecht advanced as expected but looked surprisingly weak against Ratchet, who performed far better than his old contest history suggested. The writeup credits Ratchet with finally showing some real improvement.

Sub-Zero beat Roxas comfortably and became one of several low-prediction entrants to reach the third round. Roxas's late-day improvement is treated as one of the few positive Kingdom Hearts trends in the contest.

Samus overwhelmed Jill early and still finished with a strong enough performance to make a potential upset of Cloud feel plausible. The writeup treats this as the start of an especially impressive Samus run.

Charizard turned a heavily anticipated upset attempt into a convincing breakthrough over Kratos. The result launched a serious deep-run scenario for Charizard and confirmed that his first-round strength had been meaningful.

Rally: The writeup explicitly says both Charizard and Kratos were heavily rallied, though Charizard's support proved much more effective.

L-Block beat Isaac in an almost motionless match, but the writeup argues that the former champion had become much weaker and was surviving mainly through favorable bracket placement. A mistaken Isaac picture was corrected but is not said to have affected the vote.

Bowser eventually handled Kefka, but the writeup focuses on how well Kefka held up early after years of weak or badly presented performances. It treats Kefka's broader contest run as a notable revival.

Sora beat Laharl but performed so poorly relative to expectations that the writeup declared a future Bowser win virtually certain. The result is treated as part of a contest-wide decline for Kingdom Hearts.

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.

Mega Man exceeded expectations against a legitimate Zack and reinforced the impression that his series had returned to stronger form. The writeup treats the result as a major statement rather than a routine advancement.

Ike beat Zidane in a close matchup the writeup says was strongly shaped by the daytime schedule. It argues that a night match would likely have favored Zidane instead.

Mario and Big Boss produced yet another rematch, and the writeup uses their history mainly to illustrate how unstable four-way extrapolations can be. The match itself adds little new beyond that comparison.

Vivi decisively beat a heavily hyped Altair, reversing the impression created by Altair's first-round rout of Liquid Snake. The writeup views Altair and Liquid as especially unreliable contest reads after the result.

Kirby beat GLaDOS in a predictable match but fell far short of the strength his prior contest run implied. The writeup treats this as the point where serious Kirby-over-Sonic upset hopes collapsed.

The writeup gives Ganondorf's easy win over Ken only brief attention before turning into a long aside about why the author dislikes Street Fighter IV.

Sonic comfortably suppressed Knuckles and used the result to undercut the idea that single-series favorite polls translate directly into contest matchups. Knuckles's brief early lead supplied the only real drama.

SFF: The writeup says Sonic easily SFFed Knuckles despite Knuckles having won an old Sonic-series favorite poll.

Weighted Companion Cube beat The Boss but looked ordinary doing so, which the writeup takes as proof that another major joke-character bandwagon was not developing. The match also illustrates how much harder 1v1s are for novelty entrants.

Luigi won, but Amaterasu resisted him far better than expected and continued her reputation for outperforming difficult draws. The result also made earlier Sonic Team losses to her look less embarrassing.

Mega Man X controlled the match, but Red still impressed enough to establish himself as a legitimate midcard entrant. The writeup treats the performance as further evidence of Pokémon's broad contest surge.

Link beat Alucard comfortably but looked weaker than the writeup expected for a second straight match. The commentary identifies growing anti-Link voting as a new factor even though it was not yet threatening his championship path.

Metal Gear Solid 4 and Fallout 3 advanced in an orderly match with little suspense, while Portal briefly made the lower positions interesting. The writeup treats it mainly as a quiet setup for later rounds.

Brawl annihilated Galaxy and sent Call of Duty 4 through in second, turning Galaxy's disappointing first round into a full collapse. The writeup elevates Brawl into serious finals contention after the result.

SFF: The writeup calls Brawl's suppression of Super Mario Galaxy one of the most meaningful SFF beatings in contest history.

Twilight Princess won, but Resident Evil 4 and Kingdom Hearts II again produced a close fight for the other advancing spot. RE4 survived a late collapse, while Twilight Princess itself looked less dominant than a finalist was expected to look.

LFF: The writeup says Twilight Princess absorbed enough of Kingdom Hearts II's usual day-vote support to help Resident Evil 4 survive another close rematch.

Metal Gear Solid 3 won comfortably, while Oblivion survived a long duel with World of Warcraft for second. The writeup notes multiple rally attempts but concludes that none meaningfully changed the result.

Melee won easily, while Diablo II repeated its first-round success and comfortably advanced again. Halo collapsed to last behind a SFF-affected Wind Waker, producing another major embarrassment for the series.

SFF: The writeup says Melee SFFed Wind Waker, though Wind Waker still held up better than expected and even finished ahead of Halo.

Final Fantasy X won a crowded all-PS2 field, while Kingdom Hearts comfortably beat Metal Gear Solid 2 for second. Kingdom Hearts' strong showing and FFX's modest margin made the winner look less secure than the placement suggested.

StarCraft briefly revived memories of 2004 by taking an early second-place lead, but Final Fantasy VIII erased it quickly once the overnight vote arrived. Ocarina of Time dominated throughout.

LFF: The writeup says Final Fantasy IX leeched support from Final Fantasy VIII early, briefly allowing StarCraft to threaten the second advancing position.

Metal Gear Solid won, but Pokémon RBY remained impressive despite sharing the poll with Gold and Silver and Majora's Mask. The result made MGS look vulnerable for the next round while rehabilitating Majora's Mask somewhat.

LFF: The writeup says Pokémon Gold and Silver leeched heavily from Pokémon RBY and cost the older generation first place against Metal Gear Solid.