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The first contest match was treated as a predetermined Mario win, with the real question being how dominant he would look. The writeup also stresses the unusual joke-vote and early-contest atmosphere surrounding the result.

Morrigan's win surprised a board that mostly knew Spyro better and expected him to prevail. The match became memorable for spawning early Board 8 traditions such as "wait until the kiddies wake up" and TJF.

Aya's win over Terry caused the contest's first major board frenzy after many regulars had expected Terry to cruise. The writeup says the result helped popularize TJF and fed the emerging Square-versus-the-world mentality.

Donkey Kong won an obvious mismatch, but the writeup focuses on how unimpressive the performance looked for a top seed against an obscure opponent. It immediately raised doubts about his ability to challenge Mario.

Alucard's victory surprised most of Board 8 even though the broader bracket predictions were nearly split. Tails cut into the percentage at times, but the writeup says Alucard controlled the match throughout and turned an apparent fluke into the start of a real contest reputation.

Duke Nukem handled an obscure Iori as expected and looked set for a favorable second-round path. The writeup treats the match as routine and mainly uses it to frame Duke as the favorite against Alucard.

Pikachu won without being in serious danger, but most of Board 8 spent the match rooting for PaRappa. The writeup presents the poll as an early showcase of strong anti-Pokémon sentiment on the site.

A heavily hyped first Square-versus-Nintendo matchup turned into an easy Cloud win. The writeup remembers the match less for suspense than for igniting the long-running Square-Nintendo rivalry and intensifying anticipation for Mario versus Cloud.

Lara won comfortably, but the writeup treats the showing as poor for a top seed facing an obscure opponent. It argues that her first match already exposed serious overseeding and declining support.

Ryo looked surprisingly strong against Guybrush and briefly earned some respect from the early contest results. In retrospect, the writeup attributes that appearance of strength largely to very weak opposition.

Some Board 8 users thought Simon's Castlevania name gave him a real chance, while Crono was still underestimated by people unfamiliar with Chrono Trigger. Crono's dominant performance instead established him as a serious threat.

Dante dispatched Q*Bert in a match whose main significance was setting up the next round. The writeup says the result added to heavy anticipation for what Board 8 expected to be a competitive Crono-Dante matchup.

Aeris beat Kasumi without much drama, reinforcing the view that her low seed badly understated her strength. The writeup sees the surrounding part of the bracket as hers to control before an expected meeting with Solid Snake.

Tina's unexpected win began the long-running "Gordon Freeman Never Wins" joke. The writeup emphasizes how embarrassing the loss seemed for Gordon, noting that even a link from a Half-Life site failed to rescue him.

Knuckles produced the contest's first truly overwhelming blowout and briefly inspired talk of a much deeper run. The writeup mainly treats the result as an early demonstration of his potential against very weak opposition.

Solid Snake entered as one of the contest's biggest favorites and easily handled a well-supported Squall. The writeup attributes Squall's poor showing to his weak standing at the time and explicitly describes the result as non-SFF.

Pac-Man won comfortably, but the writeup saw the performance as weak for a top seed against an obscure opponent. Like Lara before him, he immediately looked less formidable than his seeding suggested.

Kyo produced another seeding upset for the early contest after other King of Fighters characters had struggled badly. The writeup interprets the result more as evidence of Abe's weakness than of Kyo's strength.

Scorpion beat Kazuya as expected in the contest's first matchup between two fighting-game characters. The writeup considers the result straightforward and mostly uses it to question how character popularity translated from their series.

Max Payne dominated an obscure opponent and looked strong enough for a deep run by early-contest standards. The writeup also notes that the poll was the contest's lowest-scoring match to that point.

Bomberman won easily, with the writeup placing unusual emphasis on Kane's disastrous match picture. It treats the result as an example of a recognizable game not automatically producing a strong contest character.

Pic: The writeup says Kane's disastrous television-set match picture hurt him badly and made Bomberman's victory look obvious before voting developed.

Kirby was a major board favorite and widely viewed as badly underseeded, but Jill took an early lead and held it throughout. The final result looked close, yet the writeup stresses that Kirby never mounted a serious comeback.

Strider and Raziel produced the closest result of the contest to that point, but the writeup says Strider remained in control throughout. The unusually quiet poll also gave Strider a long-lived record for a very low-scoring match winner.

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.

Sonic followed Link's dominant showing with another overwhelming win over obvious fodder. The writeup says there was little reason at the time to doubt that Sonic belonged with the contest's elite characters.

Tidus survived a match the writeup saw as having real upset potential because of his unpopularity and Claire's stronger-than-expected position. His Square affiliation was enough to carry him through, but the performance gave little confidence before facing Sonic.

Samus beat Ken in a routine match that mainly served as a measuring stick for an expected meeting with Ryu. The writeup says her performance made her look well prepared for that matchup.

Ryu demolished CATS after the joke entrant had drawn considerable board hype. The writeup treats the result as proof that CATS's support was largely humorous rather than evidence of real contest strength.

Mega Man produced an unprecedented blowout that immediately elevated him from a respected entrant to one of the contest's major threats. Attention quickly shifted to whether he could reproduce that dominance against Sephiroth.

Serious Sam won a low-interest match that the writeup viewed mostly as filler between Mega Man and Sephiroth appearances. Neither entrant was considered likely to matter beyond this round.

Sephiroth easily dispatched Gabe Logan while reinforcing the view that his seed badly understated his strength. The result intensified anticipation for his eventual showdown with Mega Man.

Crash won comfortably, but the writeup saw his performance against Ulala as further evidence that his high seed reflected name recognition more than actual contest strength. Sephiroth already looked far beyond his reach.

Mario defeated Morrigan without serious trouble, yet the writeup viewed it as a second straight underwhelming performance compared with the contest's other elite characters. Cloud's next result therefore took on added importance for their expected meeting.

Aya stunned Donkey Kong with an early lead before he recovered and completed the contest's first major comeback. The writeup remembers the match for establishing both Donkey Kong's inconsistency and the early legend of Nintendo's morning vote.

Alucard followed his surprise win over Tails by beating Duke even more convincingly, turning an obscure entrant into an unexpected divisional semifinalist. The writeup also notes that weak opposition had helped make the run possible.

Cloud overwhelmed Pikachu and looked substantially stronger than Mario had through the same stage of the bracket. The match also became notable for Solarshadow's early vote-tracking work, a precursor to later poll-update culture.

Lara beat Ryo in an uneventful match, but once again failed to look like a true top seed against weak opposition. The writeup treats the result as another warning that stronger East Division entrants were likely to expose her.

Crono turned a heavily anticipated close match with Dante into an easy victory. The writeup says the result revealed how misleading their superficially similar first-round performances had been and made Crono a serious threat to Lara.

Aeris received an unexpectedly easy path after Tina eliminated Gordon Freeman and took full advantage of it. The writeup views her low seed as misleading and her trip to the divisional semifinals as well deserved.

Minor Knuckles upset hype disappeared almost immediately as Solid Snake controlled the match from the start. The writeup treats the result as confirmation that Snake belonged among the contest's serious contenders.

Pac-Man won another match that was never seriously in doubt, but the writeup saw his performance as further proof that he was badly overseeded. His weak half of the division still appeared likely to protect him from consequences.

Scorpion demolished heavily favored Max Payne after most of the board misread their first-round blowouts. The writeup treats the result as both a major surprise and evidence that mainstream popularity did not translate cleanly to GameFAQs.

Jill handled Bomberman without much suspense after already surviving the more dangerous Kirby matchup. The writeup says her two wins helped cement her as a recurring contest presence.

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.

Sonic beat Tidus more comfortably than some upset-minded observers expected and remained an elite contender. The writeup attributes Tidus's ability to avoid a worse defeat largely to his Square affiliation despite his personal unpopularity.

Ryu was a fashionable upset pick before the contest, but Samus controlled their match from the start. The result confirmed that her earlier win over Ken was not misleading and sent her toward an expected meeting with Sonic.

Mega Man followed his first-round destruction with another extraordinary blowout, this time against an entrant who had already won a match. The writeup remembers this as the point when he became the contest's breakout star and a credible threat to Sephiroth.

Sephiroth easily eliminated the much higher-seeded Crash and left no doubt that their seeds had badly misstated their relative strength. The writeup treats the match mainly as the final setup for the anticipated Mega Man showdown.

Mario finally produced the dominant performance people had been waiting for, restoring confidence before his expected match with Cloud. The result also became an early case used to develop Board 8's SFF theory.

SFF: The writeup says Mario's unusually dominant result against the closely linked Donkey Kong helped introduce what Board 8 would later universally call Same Fanbase Factor, though it was still treated as a fledgling theory at the time.

Cloud ended Alucard's surprise run, but did not dominate as thoroughly as his earlier matches suggested he might. The writeup says that performance, combined with Mario's previous showing, restored genuine uncertainty before Mario versus Cloud.

Crono demolished top-seeded Lara after her earlier matches had already exposed warning signs. The writeup treats Lara as a seeding fraud and Crono's performance as proof that his unexpected run had become a legitimate championship threat.

Solid Snake ended Aeris's underseeded run in an expected victory. The writeup focuses less on the match itself than on how Snake's showing might translate against the much stronger Crono.

Scorpion's decisive win over Pac-Man shocked most observers and exposed how weak the entire half-division had been. The writeup remembers the fallout, including outside attention from Penny Arcade, as the moment the first contest truly became a larger event.

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.

Samus erased what had looked like a decisive late Sonic lead and won after an extraordinary closing surge. The match triggered a massive backlash, outside vote recruitment on both sides, cheating suspicions, and lasting changes to how contest results were followed.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup says Samus and Sonic supporters spammed for votes across the internet, chat rooms, buddy lists, and gaming chats. It also says many users suspected cheating behind Samus's extraordinary late comeback despite CJayC stating that no cheating was detected.

Mega Man built a surprising early lead on Sephiroth before Sephiroth reversed the match and pulled away late. The writeup considers it one of the contest's best fights, but one overshadowed by the famous matches immediately before and after it.

Cloud controlled much of the match before Mario mounted a comeback aided by unusually favorable circumstances and outside attention. The close finish, enormous board reaction, rallying, and unresolved cheating allegations made the match the writeup's choice for the greatest contest match ever.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup credits Mario's comeback partly to a Planet GameCube link and widespread vote solicitation, explicitly treating those efforts as rallying. It also describes alleged proxy voting and supposed vote-stuffing admissions, while emphasizing that the cheating claims were never proven.

Crono's earlier warning signs became impossible to ignore when he controlled a heavily favored Solid Snake. The writeup treats the victory as the culmination of an unlikely run that had grown stronger with every round.

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.

Samus surprised Sephiroth with a strong opening lead, but Sephiroth recovered quickly and controlled the rest of the match. Even in defeat, the writeup says Samus validated her earlier Sonic win while Sephiroth raised concerns about how he would fare against Link.

Crono nearly completed another remarkable comeback against Mario before CJayC intervened over fraudulent voting. The controversy ended Crono's Cinderella run but began the long-running Mario-Crono rivalry remembered by Board 8.

Cheat: The writeup says Crono's comeback included blatant vote-stuffing and that CJayC removed fraudulent votes. It also discusses later statements suggesting the amount of fraudulent voting may have been larger than the number removed during the match.

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.