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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.