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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.

A heavily debated 8/9 matchup ended almost immediately when Alucard took control and never yielded an update. The writeup treats the rout as further evidence that Magus and Chrono Trigger had continued to decline.

Pokémon Trainer Red built an early lead, lost it overnight to Ocelot, then erased Ocelot's advantage with a late-morning surge. The close comeback established Red as legitimate and reinforced Pokémon's powerful daytime trend.

Mega Man X won comfortably in a matchup the writeup considered badly misseeded. Captain Price performed somewhat better than expected, but never made the result competitive.

Luigi won comfortably, while the writeup focused more on Meta Knight's repeated bad bracket luck than on the match itself. It argues that Meta Knight was stronger than the result made him look.

SFF: The writeup calls the matchup another Nintendo SFF-fest and argues that Meta Knight's strength was hidden by being repeatedly drawn against overlapping Nintendo opponents.

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.

Weighted Companion Cube overwhelmed Sandal in a deliberately silly matchup. The writeup attributes the scale of the rout more to Sandal's weakness than to any revival of the Cube's old championship-level bandwagon.

The Boss took an early lead over Nathan Drake and held a remarkably stable advantage for nearly the entire match. Drake's Uncharted 2 boost made him respectable, but not strong enough to avoid the upset.

Sonic defeated a character whose game had not yet released in North America, but looked much weaker than expected while doing it. The showing immediately triggered serious talk of Ganondorf or Kirby breaking the Noble Nine.

Knuckles eventually pulled away from Cecil, but the match stayed far too close for far too long given Sonic Team's daytime advantage. The writeup treats the result as another major embarrassment for the Sonic cast.

Ganondorf defeated Mewtwo in an uneventful all-Nintendo matchup and landed close to expectations. The writeup nevertheless saw the showing as too ordinary to support growing hopes of an upset over Sonic.

Wesker led much of a close, heavily quoted match before Ken's California-heavy afternoon vote finally carried him past. The writeup explicitly rejects the routine cheating accusations and remembers the contest mainly for how much fun Board 8 had watching it.

Kirby beat Rikku almost exactly as expected in a match with little suspense. Because Kirby needed an overperformance to sustain hopes of challenging Sonic, the merely routine win was treated as disappointing.

GLaDOS defeated Fawful easily in a low-turnout matchup. Much of the writeup is devoted to rejecting the idea that GLaDOS should be classified as a joke character rather than discussing any real competitive drama.

Vivi and Donkey Kong essentially replayed their 2004 matchup, with almost no change in the underlying result. The writeup treats the uncanny repetition as more notable than the match itself.

Altair destroyed Liquid Snake in a matchup where the stats had favored Liquid, producing one of the round's strangest results. The writeup highlights Altair's presentation as an important part of the surprise.

Pic: The writeup says Altair's excellent match picture gave him a major advantage, especially against a Liquid Snake image that inspired little confidence.

Mario overwhelmed Falco and delivered one of the rare extreme blowouts of the contest. The writeup treats the result as a straightforward display of Mario's fanbase dominance.

SFF: The writeup says Mario dropped an SFF nuke on fellow Nintendo entrant Falco, producing one of the contest's largest blowouts.

Big Boss crushed Miles Edgeworth and became the only Metal Gear character the writeup thought looked genuinely good in the opening round. The dominant win briefly restored some pride to the series.

Zidane beat Claptrap comfortably, but not by anything close to the margin expected against such weak opposition. The underperformance sharply reduced enthusiasm for a second-round upset of Ike.

Ike followed Zidane's weak showing with an even more disappointing performance against Prinny. His strong afternoon vote improved the final appearance, but the writeup still treats the match as a major embarrassment.

Mega Man handled Cid comfortably and continued a broader rebound for the Mega Man cast. The writeup uses the result to argue that Mega Man had returned close to his old contest strength.

A matchup that drew substantial pre-match debate turned into an easy Zack win almost immediately. The writeup treats the result as further confirmation that Zack's 2008 run was legitimate and that Yuna remained overrated.

Ryu Hayabusa beat Crash but looked far weaker than expected and even lost the morning vote. The result initially killed much of the hype for a second-round upset over Master Chief.

Master Chief beat Spy but spent the entire match looking much weaker than expected and never produced his trademark afternoon surge. The writeup calls the showing an embarrassment despite the comfortable win.

Rally: The writeup says 4chan mounted a massive rally for Spy, helping drag Master Chief down throughout an already disappointing performance.

Sora beat Midna comfortably but again failed to produce the huge blowout expected from a top seed against weak opposition. The writeup treats this as a stable feature of Sora's highly anti-voted 1v1 profile.

Laharl won an otherwise low-interest matchup between two cult characters and finally earned his first contest victory. The writeup finds the structural similarity to his 2004 match with Vyse more interesting than the vote itself.

Kefka completely dismantled a heavily favored Arthas and turned a major guru pick into a rout. The writeup treats the result as both a Kefka revival and another warning against translating four-way strength directly into 1v1s.

Bowser beat Frog almost exactly as expected, giving little new information about Bowser's next matchup. Much of the writeup instead argues that Frog's reputation had been inflated by suspicious results from earlier contests.

L-Block beat HK-47 comfortably but looked like a normal, transitive midcard entrant rather than the unstoppable joke champion of 2007. The writeup sees this as the clearest sign that the old bandwagon had permanently faded.

Isaac overwhelmed Professor Layton in a match with virtually no competitive suspense. The important storyline was that Isaac finally earned his first contest win after seven years of appearances.

Charizard ended a surprisingly persistent pre-match debate almost immediately by crushing Duke Nukem. The writeup says Duke's weakness limits what can be learned, but Charizard still looked clearly legitimate.

Kratos defeated Tails but looked badly underwhelming for a highly seeded character, especially because his usual daytime strength never appeared. The showing made Charizard look much more dangerous for the next round.

Samus overwhelmed Prince of Persia from the opening vote and never gave the match any suspense. The writeup treats the dominant start as the beginning of an especially strong run for Samus.

Jill Valentine crushed Niko Bellic and looked stronger than expected, while Niko continued the pattern of Grand Theft Auto characters fading quickly from relevance. The writeup also identifies the match as early evidence of a broader Resident Evil boost.

Roxas remained in control, but Heavy's 4chan support produced the only real movement in an otherwise straightforward match. The morning vote restored most of Roxas's lost ground.

Rally: The writeup says 4chan mounted a large rally for Heavy, pulling Roxas down substantially for part of the night without ever making the match competitive.

The writeup treats Tidus as chronically overrated and views this as another supposedly winnable matchup where he never seriously threatened. Sub-Zero's performance is presented as part of that larger pattern rather than a surprise of its own.

Phoenix was a Board 8 favorite in a heavily debated matchup, but Jecht took control quickly and removed the hoped-for rally scenario. The writeup treats Jecht as a legitimate newcomer and Phoenix as disappointing in a match he could plausibly have won.

Ratchet finally earned a contest win against exceptionally weak opposition. The writeup's main takeaway is less Ratchet's strength than how poor Eddie Riggs looked.

Zelda advanced comfortably but looked weaker than the writeup expected, while Travis benefited from recent No More Heroes visibility. The result did little to alter Zelda's projected path.

A brief poll glitch and name correction made the opening messy, but Ezio eventually pulled away from Simon Belmont. Even so, the writeup considers Ezio's showing poor enough to kill serious upset hype for his next match.

Cloud looked unexpectedly vulnerable for much of the match, prompting concern that he had lost strength. Ridley's showing is treated as surprisingly good even after allowing for the favorable picture situation.

Pic: The writeup says Cloud received a bad picture while Ridley was finally recognizable, presenting those image conditions as part of why Cloud looked weaker than expected.

Chris Redfield won a straightforward match that landed close to the writeup's expectations. MacMillan's result did little to reverse the broader impression that Call of Duty characters were performing badly.

Pic: The writeup says the poor match-picture situation likely helped Captain MacMillan perform slightly better than expected.

Riku handled Ramza without major difficulty, though not as comfortably as some expected. The writeup sees the performance as perfectly respectable and gives no warning of Riku's later upset.

The writeup is mostly an extended attack on Wander and Shadow of the Colossus, with Captain Falcon's easy win serving mainly as an excuse for that rant.

Vault Boy performed much better than the writeup expected and is defended as a legitimate Fallout representative rather than a joke entrant. Leon's unusually weak-looking win is treated as further evidence that his strength behaves strangely within the Resident Evil cast.

Sackboy decisively beat the guru-favored Kratos Aurion, with the Super Bowl creating an unusual temporary trend swing. The writeup also treats the result as evidence that LittleBigPlanet had previously been held down by difficult poll company.

Most of the writeup is a broad rant about Final Fantasy XII, with Ryu's easy win over Balthier receiving only brief attention.

Dante exceeded the comparison the writeup had set using Ryu and looked clearly superior going into their anticipated meeting. Axel's weak performance also added to growing concern that Kingdom Hearts had declined.

Snake won comfortably but again looked oddly weak against a Nintendo-associated opponent. The writeup uses the match to argue that some of Snake's newer support disappears against Nintendo characters.

Fox ended a long 1v1 win drought with an easy victory over Lloyd Irving. The writeup uses the match mainly to argue that Tales characters are chronically over-nominated relative to their contest strength.

Pikachu's rise from an anti-voted early-contest character to a dominant Pokémon representative is the main story. Banjo's latest Nintendo-heavy loss leaves his true standalone strength difficult to judge.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Pikachu's win an SFF blowout and says Banjo has repeatedly been suppressed by Nintendo opponents.

Commander Shepard crushed Ellis shortly after Mass Effect 2's release and looked much more credible than in his earlier contest appearances. The writeup treats Ellis as obvious fodder and Shepard as a newly legitimate entrant.

Auron performed almost exactly where the writeup expected against Aeris, which did little to resolve the larger Auron-versus-Squall debate. The writeup argues that merely meeting expectations was not enough to strengthen Auron's upset case.

Zero comfortably defeated Marcus Fenix and continued what the writeup saw as a broader Mega Man-series rebound. Fenix, by contrast, is treated as another fading Xbox-era character whose strength had not lasted.

Terra reversed the pre-match consensus and beat Revan, with the writeup attributing her new strength primarily to Dissidia's exposure of older Final Fantasy characters. Revan is defended as reasonably strong despite the loss.

Squall stayed near expectations against Akuma, providing little useful evidence for the looming Squall-Auron debate. The writeup considers the match largely inconclusive.

Sephiroth's opening performance looked weak compared with Snake's, which immediately raised concern about his path through the contest. The writeup views this as the first clear warning that Sephiroth was in trouble.

Vincent destroyed Guybrush in a match the writeup regards as proof that Guybrush was badly over-nominated and had little competitive value. The commentary is more about Guybrush's weakness than Vincent's strength.

Yoshi beat Jak in a matchup the writeup considered an easy prediction and one of the least eventful polls of the round. Jak is grouped with recognizable platform characters who never developed meaningful contest strength.

The writeup calls this the contest's defining match: Missingno built a bandwagon-backed lead, Crono mounted multiple comebacks, and the glitch character repeatedly fought them off. The upset ended the Noble Nine's unbeaten 1v1 streak against outsiders and became the centerpiece of the contest.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup repeatedly says Missingno was sustained by organized bandwagon rallying. It also records attempted cheating from both fanbases, while explicitly concluding that those attempts did not invalidate Missingno's win.

Big Daddy turned a debated matchup into an emphatic rejection of Soap's high seed and Call of Duty hype. The writeup treats Soap as one of the worst high-seeded entrants in contest history while crediting Big Daddy with real strength.

Ness overwhelmed Geno and restored confidence in himself before the next round. Geno's inability to resist even Ness's fanbase overlap is treated as evidence that he should no longer receive regular contest nominations.

SFF: The writeup explicitly says Ness SFFed Geno, using the scale of Geno's collapse to argue that he had little independent contest strength.

Tifa crushed Yuri in a result the writeup considered entirely predictable. The commentary uses the blowout mainly to continue its broader argument that Tales characters are consistently over-nominated.

SFF: The writeup explicitly describes Tifa's rout of Yuri Lowell as SFF.

A poll glitch briefly made Peach look capable of producing a historic Gordon Freeman collapse, but the problem was resolved and Gordon recovered. Even with the win, the writeup treats his final performance as weak enough to end serious upset hype against Tifa.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Luigi eliminated Weighted Companion Cube without any sign of the old joke-character surge. The writeup treats the loss as further proof that the Cube was now operating on ordinary strength rather than a bandwagon.

Years of Ganondorf-over-Sonic upset hype collapsed when Sonic controlled the match from the start. The writeup treats the result as a major correction to the idea that four-way contests had revealed Sonic to be much weaker.

Kirby beat Vivi without difficulty, but failed to look strong enough to preserve serious hopes of upsetting Sonic. The writeup treats Kirby's old four-way bandwagon strength as clearly gone.

Mario crushed Ike in a result the writeup considered inevitable once they met. The scale of the Nintendo suppression made the matchup effectively noncompetitive.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Mario's win over fellow Nintendo entrant Ike a total SFF beating.

Mega Man produced a third straight performance far above the writeup's expectations and overwhelmed Ryu Hayabusa. Rather than settling on SFF or picture factor, the writeup treats the streak itself as proof that Mega Man had returned near his old strength.

Bowser completed a bracket-busting upset that had become increasingly predictable after Sora's poor first two rounds. The writeup treats the loss as the clearest sign yet that Kingdom Hearts had fallen sharply.

Charizard decisively eliminated former champion L-Block in what the writeup frames as a literal changing of the guard between two bandwagon-friendly entrants. L-Block's long decline was now impossible to miss.

Samus crushed Sub-Zero and briefly looked strong enough to challenge even Cloud's level. Although she cooled from that early pace, the writeup still considers the result one of her strongest performances.

Zelda advanced as expected, but Jecht performed much better than his prior results suggested and ignored the usual daytime trend expectations. The writeup suspects the contemporaneous Final Fantasy release helped explain the odd showing.

Cloud won comfortably, but Captain Falcon still performed better than several much more established characters had managed against him. The writeup treats Falcon's showing as further evidence that Cloud had weakened.

Ryu won clearly, but Leon resisted far better than the disastrous sprite led people to expect and even held up well during his preferred daytime period. The writeup leaves open whether a fairer picture could have made the match significantly closer.

Pic: The writeup says Leon's ugly Resident Evil: Gaiden sprite hurt his chances and suggests the matchup might have been different with more even pictures.

Pikachu briefly led Snake behind a strong opening vote before Snake finally took control and pulled away. The writeup remembers the opening as entertaining but ultimately sees Snake's recovery as convincing.

Squall settled a long-running near-elite debate by beating Auron in a match that finished close but was rarely in serious doubt after the opening exchanges. The writeup treats Squall as clearly the stronger of the two.

Missingno built the expected early lead through bandwagon support, but Sephiroth erased it decisively once the night vote arrived. The writeup treats the loss as the end of Missingno's remarkable run and as fuel for even more anti-Sephiroth sentiment.

Rally: The writeup says Missingno's rallying was organized in advance and powered a substantial early lead, though the push was nowhere near enough to survive Sephiroth's overnight strength.

Tifa beat Big Daddy, but the writeup thought she looked oddly weak compared with her prior performance. It attributes the flat showing to backlash from Missingno supporters after Sephiroth had eliminated their favorite.

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.

Sonic beat Kirby comfortably and completed the collapse of years of hype that Ganondorf or Kirby might break the Noble Nine through him. The writeup treats Sonic as restored to roughly his traditional place.

Mega Man's excellent run made the divisional final look more interesting than it had pre-contest, but Mario still won as expected. The writeup treats the result as another example of Mario resisting would-be upsets regardless of surrounding form.

Charizard upset Bowser on the release day of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, which the writeup treats as exceptionally favorable timing for the Pokémon bandwagon. The convincing win completed one of the bracket's least likely divisional runs.

Samus beat Zelda far more decisively than their previous meeting suggested was normal. The writeup sees a mix of Zelda decline and newly visible Nintendo suppression from Samus, further strengthening Samus's case against Cloud.

SFF: The writeup says Samus appears to have SFFed Zelda, contributing to a much stronger result than their earlier 1v1 history suggested.

Cloud produced one of his strongest matches of the contest by overwhelming the usually consistent Ryu. The writeup treats it as a much-needed reminder that Cloud remained elite despite visible decline elsewhere.

Snake improved again against Squall in their latest rematch and looked strong throughout. The writeup treats the result as the point where a Snake upset of Sephiroth became the dominant expectation.

Sephiroth struggled badly against Tifa in what the writeup calls his worst performance, framing the weakness as extreme anti-voting magnified by anger over Missingno's elimination. The result effectively ended confidence in Sephiroth beating Snake.

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.

Charizard's bandwagon could not seriously threaten Mario, but the Pokémon star still performed well enough to complete a remarkable contest run. The writeup treats the loss as further proof that Pokémon had become one of the site's strongest franchises.

Samus repeatedly fought Cloud back to even during the opening hours and came closer to the upset than their older history suggested possible. Cloud finally took control during his strongest overnight period, but the writeup regards Samus's resistance as a major statement.

Snake defeated Sephiroth in a matchup that had shifted from pre-contest dream upset to expected result as Sephiroth deteriorated. The writeup treats Snake's control as decisive and immediately turns attention toward whether he could beat Cloud.

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.

Snake spent hours trading the lead with Cloud and even stalled through Cloud's normally dominant overnight period, creating genuine upset hope. Cloud's morning strength finally broke the deadlock and ended Snake's deep run.

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.