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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.