GameFAQsContests.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.