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Link's first contest match was remembered as an early warning of how dominant he could become. The writeup says the performance made the rest of his division look incapable of stopping his path toward the late rounds.

Link crushed Strider in a match the writeup considered completely predetermined. The main takeaway was that Link looked like one of the strongest title favorites while facing little meaningful resistance in his division.

Link overwhelmed Jill in another match the writeup considered a formality. His weak division had effectively handed him a direct route toward the Final Four while he continued to look like the tournament favorite.

Link destroyed Scorpion in a divisional final that the writeup saw as proof of the South's weakness. His continued dominance left Sephiroth as the only remaining opponent viewed as a plausible obstacle before the championship.

Link dominated Sephiroth from the beginning, confirming fears raised by Sephiroth's earlier struggle with Samus. The writeup treats this as the match in which Link effectively secured the championship before the final was played.

Link comfortably defeated Mario in a final the writeup considers anticlimactic. The result established Link as GameFAQs's strongest Nintendo character and closed a first contest successful enough to guarantee more tournaments.

Link opened the 2003 contest with another enormous blowout and immediately reaffirmed his status as the entrant to beat. The writeup notes that some same-company overlap may have contributed, but not enough to diminish the statement.

SFF: The writeup says Link's overwhelming result may have included a small amount of SFF because AiAi was another Nintendo character, while stressing that the magnitude of the win was impressive regardless.

Link opened the second round by overwhelming Fox and reinforcing his status as the contest favorite. The writeup acknowledges heavy Nintendo SFF but says the performance still looked dominant enough to keep repeat-title expectations intact.

SFF: The writeup explicitly treats Link's rout of fellow Nintendo entrant Fox as an SFF result, while arguing that the size of the win remained impressive despite the overlap.

Link ended the once-enormous Magus upset hype with a comfortable win, though Magus still performed better than expected. The writeup leaves the reason for that overperformance unresolved, mentioning both board hype and possible sprite-picture effects without settling on either.

Link beat Samus in a long-awaited matchup that stayed competitive only briefly before Nintendo SFF took over. The writeup considers the result another sign of Link's dominance while arguing that Samus looked weaker than she really was.

SFF: The writeup explicitly says SFF took hold after Samus kept the opening close and later argues that Link SFFed her heavily enough to distort her apparent contest strength.

Cloud shocked the contest by beating the seemingly invincible Link after taking control almost immediately and resisting the expected Zelda day-vote comeback. Heavy rallying, cheating allegations, and a disputed picture imbalance became part of the explanation for one of the contest's defining upsets.

Rally · Cheat · Pic: The writeup says both sides engaged in heavy rallying and records widespread cheating accusations, while treating those accusations as roughly symmetric blame rather than proven fraud. It also says Link's Wind Waker image versus Cloud's Kingdom Hearts image may have cost Link a small but meaningful amount of support.

Link obliterated joke entrant CATS after an early poll glitch obscured the opening votes. The writeup's main interest is that CATS gave Link and Cloud a common opponent, immediately fueling comparisons between the two championship favorites.

Link annihilated Ganondorf so thoroughly that the writeup treats the result as both a historic SFF extreme and a championship statement. Ganondorf's standalone strength effectively vanished against the flagship character of his own series.

SFF: The writeup calls Link's destruction of fellow Zelda character Ganondorf the largest SFF beating yet seen, arguing that Ganondorf's normal strength was almost completely suppressed by Link.

Link destroyed Yoshi in a predictable same-company matchup, but the degree of suppression surprised even people expecting SFF. The writeup treats the result as another intimidating sign of Link's championship strength.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Link versus Yoshi a straight SFF match and says the fanbase effect was even harsher than most expected, heavily suppressing Yoshi.

Link crushed Crono in another late-round match whose winner was never seriously in doubt. The writeup treats the result as overwhelming evidence that Link had improved and remained well ahead of Cloud entering the final stages.

Link demolished Mega Man and effectively ended any remaining uncertainty about the contest favorite. The writeup attributes part of the rout to SFF but argues that Link's broader rise in strength was the more important story.

SFF: The writeup explicitly says there was a definite degree of SFF in Link's overwhelming win over Mega Man, though it argues Link's own rise mattered even more.

Link avenged his previous loss to Cloud and confirmed the strength he had shown throughout the contest. Cloud briefly threatened a comeback, but Link's daytime surge settled the championship without the picture excuses that had shadowed their earlier meeting.

Cloud briefly took the lead and performed better than many expected after Nintendo's huge year, but Link's morning and daytime strength eventually buried the comeback attempt. The writeup credits Advent Children with helping Cloud remain respectable in another loss to Link.

Link beat Sephiroth comfortably in a final that the writeup considered largely predetermined. Sephiroth still did better than expected, reinforcing the view that Advent Children had strengthened the Final Fantasy VII characters even though Link remained clearly on top.

The first Battle Royale largely followed expectations at the top, while Samus became the first elimination after being squeezed by the other Nintendo heavyweights. Snake finishing ahead of Mario was the main unexpected development and set up the next day's drama.

SFF: The writeup says Link and Mario SFFed Samus heavily enough to drive her into last place and eliminate her.

Mario became the second elimination as Link absorbed the Nintendo support that had been shared with Samus the day before. Snake again outperformed expectations, while Sephiroth's repeated struggles to escape last place foreshadowed the next round.

SFF: The writeup says Link SFFed Mario to death, pushing Mario into last place despite his status as a traditional heavyweight.

Snake survived Sephiroth after a dramatic late comeback attempt and another last-minute Metal Gear response. The result became the capstone of Snake's extraordinary run, while Sephiroth was remembered as the Battle Royale's major disappointment.

SFF · Rally · Cheat: The writeup says Cloud heavily SFFed Sephiroth, helping leave him vulnerable to Snake. It also describes intense late rallying and records cheating allegations around the finish, while noting that CJayC said no cheating was found.

With Sephiroth gone, the fourth day became a predictable Link-and-Cloud show and finally ended Snake's run. The writeup spends most of its attention celebrating how many elite opponents Snake had already survived before the two remaining giants eliminated him.

Link took control of the final Battle Royale matchup almost immediately and never gave Cloud a realistic chance to win. The writeup treats the result as another demonstration that Cloud was no longer a true threat to Link.

Link overwhelmed the entire field, while joke entrant Bidoof rode outside support past Miles Edgeworth for second. The writeup treats Bidoof's success as an important early step toward the larger joke-character runs that followed.

Rally: The writeup explicitly credits a 4chan rally with giving Bidoof enough support to beat Miles Edgeworth for the second advancing position.

Link and Vincent ultimately advanced comfortably, but Bidoof briefly turned the match into chaos by challenging Vincent early and even beating Link in the opening vote. The writeup remembers the surge as one of the contest's most surreal joke-character moments.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup attributes Bidoof's extraordinary early surge to suspected offsite rallying, especially from 4chan, and also records suspicions of vote stuffing.

The anticipated Crono-Vincent showdown delivered a close race for the second advancing position, and Vincent ultimately broke through. The writeup treats the result as the first true breach of the Noble Nine and a major contest milestone.

Link and Sephiroth advanced as expected, but Mario held up better against Link than many anticipated. The writeup treats Link's diminished dominance as the first meaningful encouragement for people hoping Cloud could beat him later.

LFF: The writeup says Mario clearly weakened fellow Nintendo entrant Link, narrowing Link's advantage over Sephiroth and briefly making Link look vulnerable.

Link and Cloud advanced through a semifinal whose top order was never seriously in doubt. Samus nevertheless outperformed Sephiroth, providing the only notable wrinkle in an otherwise predictable heavyweight match.

SFF: The writeup says Link heavily suppressed Samus through their overlapping Nintendo support, even though Samus still performed surprisingly well relative to Sephiroth.

L-Block completed its improbable run by beating Link in a final dominated by an enormous Internet bandwagon. The writeup remembers the result as the ultimate joke-character triumph and the defining match of the contest.

Rally: The writeup explicitly describes the final as driven by massive rallying and broad Internet support for L-Block, which overwhelmed Link's attempted comeback.

Link began his post-L-Block campaign in dominant fashion, while Zidane unexpectedly beat Shadow for the other advancing position. The writeup treats Shadow's failure as a major early bracket bust and another sign of Sonic Team's decline.

Link dominated, but the match is remembered as the real beginning of ZackFAQs. Zack's convincing advancement transformed him from a promising newcomer into one of the contest's central bandwagon stories.

SFF: The writeup says Link SFFed Wario into irrelevance, leaving the meaningful race to Zack and Zidane.

Link continued his dominant run, but Zack became the emotional center of the match by advancing again and driving the ZackFAQs bandwagon deeper into the bracket. Duke and Altair exited with respectable runs of their own.

Link remained untouchable, while Zack made a dramatic but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to steal the other advancing spot from Mario. The loss ended one of the contest's most popular bandwagon runs.

SFF: The writeup says Link SFFed both Mario and Mega Man X, with Mega Man X falling to a distant position after initially challenging Mario.

Link took the expected first position, while Crono finally reached a true contest final by reversing his old rivalry with Mario. The writeup frames it as the payoff to Crono's long redemption arc.

LFF: The writeup says Link and Samus drained Nintendo support from Mario, allowing outside entrant Crono to beat Mario comfortably for the other final berth.

Link completed his revenge tour and reclaimed the championship, but Snake supplied the final surprise by finishing ahead of Cloud. The writeup treats Snake's run as the culmination of years of gradual growth and one of the contest's defining stories.

Rally: The writeup describes Solid Snake as the contest's biggest rallied bandwagon, saying his accumulated support carried him to a shocking second-place finish in the championship.

Link won easily, but the writeup considered the performance mildly disappointing by his usual blowout standards and attributed some of that to anti-Link sentiment. The match also marked the return of a true 1v1 contest after four years.

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.

Link advanced comfortably, but the writeup regarded the result as another slightly weak showing by his historical standards. Mega Man X's performance kept alive the possibility that Link had lost a little of his old invincibility.

Link finally produced the dominant performance the writeup had been waiting for and overwhelmed Luigi. The result largely erased doubts created by Link's earlier, more ordinary-looking matches.

Link crushed Sonic far more severely than a normal Noble Nine matchup suggested, restoring his aura of invincibility. The writeup views fanbase suppression as an important part of why the gap became so extreme.

SFF: The writeup endorses SFF as a plausible explanation for Link's unusually severe beating of Sonic, noting that Link looked invincible mainly against overlapping characters such as Luigi and Sonic.

The rematch of the original character-contest final produced much the same hierarchy, with Link suppressing Mario and winning comfortably. The writeup notes that even widespread anti-Link sentiment did little to change the matchup.

SFF: The writeup invokes Link's 'King of SFF' reputation to explain why Mario again performed much worse against Link than people hoped.

Link defeated Cloud yet again, but Cloud recovered from a poor opening to make the final much more respectable than expected. The writeup's larger complaint is that Link's dominance had become so repetitive that he no longer belonged in ordinary brackets.

Link won the three-way opener as expected, while Isaac took second in the Expert Challenge ordering after Tingle faded under Link overlap. The writeup also treats Link's less-than-total domination as another sign he had declined from his peak.

SFF: The writeup says Tingle initially competed well for second before Link's SFF kicked in and pushed him behind Isaac.

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.

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.

Link opened the Legends Bracket by crushing Ganondorf, though the margin was less extreme than their famous older matchup. The writeup treats the result as heavily distorted by Zelda-series overlap rather than a clean measure of Ganondorf's strength.

SFF: The writeup treats Link's domination of Ganondorf as a clear SFF result, noting that Ganondorf is much stronger than the raw margin suggests and that Zelda resists Link's SFF better.

Link overwhelmed Pikachu and continued his untouchable 2018 run. Pikachu's result is still framed positively because he had already broken the Noble Nine and appeared to resist most of Link's usual same-fanbase suppression.

SFF: The writeup says Pikachu likely suffered a small amount of Nintendo SFF under Link, while emphasizing that Pokémon resisted the effect unusually well.

Link continued the long-running Link-Cloud rivalry with another dominant win and looked more overwhelming than ever. The writeup treats Cloud's inability to threaten him as evidence that Link remained completely untouchable without extraordinary outside intervention.

Link erased Zelda's brief opening lead and won the Legends Bracket comfortably. The writeup treats Zelda's relatively strong same-series showing as one more sign that her 2018 boost was real.

SFF: The writeup frames Link as the site's strongest SFF character and treats Zelda's ability to retain substantial support in a direct same-series match as unusually impressive resistance.

Link beat Cloud again in the grand final and completed an overwhelmingly dominant championship run. The writeup treats Cloud merely breaking through Link's usual ceiling as the only real drama and uses the finale to reflect on the contest's collapsing turnout.