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Shadow demolished a heavily favored Wario in one of the board's largest first-round surprises. The writeup says Wario's poor match picture made supporters nervous beforehand, but treats Shadow's strength and Wario's failure as the main story.

Mario beat Shadow but performed so poorly that the result immediately fueled Crono upset talk. The writeup speculates that a reverse-SFF effect may explain Shadow's unusually strong showing, but treats the mechanism as uncertain.

Tidus won the contest's first heavily debated matchup, taking control early enough that Shadow's later resistance never became a real comeback. The writeup says the final closeness overstated the drama but still gave both characters credit for holding up outside their expected voting periods.

Auron took an easy first and Shadow an equally safe second, making the main result largely predetermined. The writeup instead focuses on Shadow looking much weaker than expected and Pyramid Head unexpectedly beating Chris Redfield for third.

Auron looked excellent, but the lasting story was Ryu beating Bowser again even after the Nintendo overlap from their earlier meeting was gone. The writeup finds the result difficult to explain beyond the volatility of the four-way format.

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.

Amaterasu took control early and beat Shadow far more comfortably than many expected, despite the match occurring during Sonic Team's preferred daytime hours. The result fueled the contest's early anti-Sonic sentiment.

Shadow beat Yu and Kat in a weak field that the writeup considered far less debatable than pre-match Pokémon-style fear had made it seem. The result gave Shadow a rare clean contest win without saying much about his broader strength.

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.

Ness won a debated matchup that stayed fairly close and stable, with Shadow never quite finding enough momentum to complete the comeback. The writeup treats the result as proof that Ness had quietly become a more reliable midcarder.