GameFAQsContests.com

Fallout 3 opened the Game of the Decade contest with a dominant win and immediately established itself as a serious entry. The writeup notes the unusual absence of Nintendo from the traditional opening slot.

Deus Ex upset Rock Band 2 and joined the long tradition of second-match bracket wreckers. The writeup says the apparent closeness was misleading because Deus Ex built a lead early and merely gave some of it back later, while Europe's stronger support proved important.

Batman overwhelmed Psychonauts in a match the writeup considered almost entirely devoid of useful information. Psychonauts was simply too weak to reveal much about Batman's later prospects.

Team Fortress 2 and Fable traded the lead repeatedly for nearly the entire poll, producing one of the closest wire-to-wire matches the writeup could remember. Team Fortress 2's dedicated fanbase and bracket support proved just enough to survive.

Uncharted 2 beat The Legend of Dragoon, but the writeup considered Dragoon's respectable showing proof that its vote-in success had been legitimate. Uncharted remained on course for the deeper run many expected.

Street Fighter IV upset Sonic Adventure 2 in a result the writeup treats as both long-overdue redemption for the series and a harsh verdict on 3D Sonic games. The match also became a major guru failure.

Halo 3 beat Super Mario Sunshine and immediately punctured the strong pre-contest hype behind Sunshine. The writeup treats the result as the beginning of a rare positive contest for Halo.

Halo: Combat Evolved handled Ninja Gaiden without reproducing the character-contest chaos associated with Master Chief and Ryu Hayabusa. The straightforward result instead set up the more meaningful Halo-versus-Halo comparison ahead.

Metroid Prime opened the Northeast with the dominant performance expected from a divisional favorite. The writeup treats the match mainly as confirmation that the real questions would come against the stronger games later in the bracket.

Devil May Cry 3 won comfortably but looked much weaker than the writeup and prediction community had expected against an unreleased-in-America Mother 3. The result made DMC3 one of the round's clearest underperformers.

A widely debated tossup became much less dramatic once Mega Man 9 took control early. The writeup remembers the match more for how thoroughly it punished a substantial expert lean toward the other side than for any sustained suspense.

Okami handled the match exactly as expected and continued its steady rise in GameFAQs legitimacy. The showing also sharply reduced any remaining belief in a Mega Man 9 upset next round.

Tales of Symphonia survived a matchup where Resident Evil 5 had become a fashionable upset pick. The writeup sees the result as the beginning of a genuinely competitive lower half of the Northeast bracket.

God of War produced a stable, unsurprising performance against weak opposition. Its clean result made the upcoming Tales of Symphonia matchup look more favorable for God of War than it had before the round.

Grand Theft Auto III briefly inspired exaggerated early-match hype before settling into a much more ordinary performance. The writeup treats the final impression as further evidence that Half-Life 2 was the stronger lower-bracket threat.

Half-Life 2 looked extremely strong in an intrafran­chise matchup and became the clear favorite to emerge from the Northeast's lower half. The writeup also uses the result to fuel speculation about a later Metroid Prime comparison.

SFF: The writeup explicitly frames Half-Life 2 versus Left 4 Dead 2 as an SFF match, with the stronger Valve title suppressing the weaker one.

Melee delivered one of the contest's largest blowouts and immediately framed the East as a coming Melee-versus-Brawl showdown. The writeup also treats the result as further evidence that rhythm games had collapsed on GameFAQs.

Morrowind came back from a bad opening to win a close PC-versus-PC matchup that Board 8 had leaned the other way on. The writeup is especially amused that a Blizzard game lost a close contest without the expected rally magic.

Perfect Dark advanced through a matchup the writeup considered almost useless for strength analysis because of the N64 overlap. The commentary finds the presentation more memorable than the competitive result.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Perfect Dark versus Conker an N64 SFF match, with the stronger shared-console title suppressing the weaker one.

Call of Duty 4 won but performed far below the enormous casual confidence placed in it. The writeup treats the showing as another clear example of GameFAQs hostility toward the Call of Duty series.

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum looked much weaker than expected against Metroid Fusion. The writeup treats the result as an early warning that the post-RBY Pokémon games had lost strength rather than as a fluke.

A matchup that had attracted some Board 8 debate turned into a complete Fire Emblem rout almost immediately. The writeup treats the result as proof that wrestling games had very little contest appeal.

Valkyria Chronicles survived a low-interest fodder matchup that the writeup uses to popularize the 'top option' heuristic. The match stayed relatively close on paper but generated almost no rallying or broader attention.

Brawl produced an extraordinary performance against a legitimate Mario Kart game and immediately looked at least as impressive as Melee. The writeup sees the result as the stronger opening statement in their looming divisional showdown.

Super Mario Galaxy's opening performance was widely read as disappointing at the time because the opposition was assumed to be very weak. The writeup emphasizes how misleading that interpretation looked once Galaxy's later strength became clear.

A heavily debated matchup swung sharply after the afternoon vote and outside support arrived for Pokémon. The writeup celebrates the result as another humiliation for Grand Theft Auto and as a major bracket upset.

Rally: The writeup explicitly says 4chan rallied Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald during the close match, contributing to the swing against Grand Theft Auto IV.

The writeup is mostly an extended joke about a Board 8 user's long-running Dragon Age rants, with the actual match serving mainly as the setup.

Twilight Princess delivered an elite-looking blowout that triggered another round of ZeldaFAQs complaints. The writeup nevertheless treats the strength shown here as genuinely important for the later Smash matchup.

BioShock's convincing opener generated immediate speculation that it could beat both Kingdom Hearts games. The writeup sees the performance as evidence that voters were taking the 'Game of the Decade' framing seriously.

Kingdom Hearts II handled Halo 2 in a surprisingly trendless daytime match despite both series having strong expected afternoon behavior. The writeup considers the result poor evidence for comparing the two Kingdom Hearts games because Halo was so heavily anti-voted.

Modern Warfare 2 won, but Dissidia performed far better than the enormous casual confidence behind Call of Duty suggested it should. The writeup treats the result as another striking example of the site's growing anti-Call-of-Duty sentiment.

Kingdom Hearts delivered a much stronger-looking opener than its sequel had and became the clear favorite in their eventual head-to-head matchup. The writeup especially notes its powerful afternoon trend.

Final Fantasy X recovered from a weak opening but still looked less imposing than a potential contest champion was expected to look. The writeup treats the early struggle as the first clear sign that FFX was vulnerable.

Borderlands won one of the few first-round 8/9 matches that behaved roughly as expected. The writeup uses the result mainly to reiterate that Board 8 tends to overrate the Tales series.

Golden Sun looked unexpectedly legitimate against weak but recognizable opposition. The writeup immediately turns the result into a warning for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in the next round.

San Andreas produced only an average performance at exactly the wrong time, with a new Golden Sun release looming over their next matchup. The writeup treats the result as a serious blow to GTA's chances.

Knights of the Old Republic won but steadily bled strength throughout the match. The writeup sees the decline as a major warning before its projected clash with Final Fantasy IX.

Fire Emblem made a previously debated matchup with Tony Hawk look easy after its sister title had already crushed WWF No Mercy. The writeup treats the result as another rejection of sports and sports-adjacent games on the site.

Persona 3 won a low-interest tossup that the writeup again uses to champion the 'top option' heuristic in pure fodder matches. The result mattered more for bracket psychology than for either game's strength.

Final Fantasy IX handled Phoenix Wright comfortably but again displayed its famously weak afternoon trend. The writeup treats that pattern as an important warning for its upcoming daytime match with KOTOR.

Resident Evil 4 delivered the kind of emphatic opening expected from a serious title contender. The writeup argues that the 'Game of the Decade' framing may have boosted the game's already substantial respect.

Vice City performed so poorly that the writeup calls it one of the contest's biggest stinkers. The result is used as further evidence that Grand Theft Auto had become one of GameFAQs' most heavily disliked series.

The World Ends With You and Dead Rising produced a long, genuinely competitive match with several lead changes and a strong overnight Square push. The writeup treats the result as the real beginning of a tightly contested three-game section of the bracket.

Persona 4 advanced as expected but did not dominate enough to become a clear favorite over Dead Rising. The writeup sees the performance as mildly disappointing given Braid's presumed weakness.

Portal crushed a game that had performed very well in the vote-ins and immediately locked down the Southwest's lower half. The writeup sees both its cult status and recent free availability as plausible contributors to its surge.

Final Fantasy XII won but looked weak enough against Crisis Core that the writeup labels the result a Pyrrhic victory. The showing effectively made Portal the clear favorite for their later matchup.

Skies of Arcadia built a huge early advantage and then spent the rest of the match steadily giving it back. The writeup remembers the percentage collapse as unusually dramatic even though Baldur's Gate II never quite completed the comeback.

Mass Effect's prediction support reflected a major boost from its sequel, but the actual performance fell well short of that reputation. The writeup considers this enough to make Portal the clear lower-bracket favorite.

Metal Gear Solid 3 won easily yet still looked weak for a top seed against a vote-in survivor. The writeup calls this an early warning for the entire Metal Gear division and for the series' contest strength.

A close Mario lead gradually disappeared once the fighting-game community began rallying for Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The writeup remembers the result as one of the contest's largest public rally successes and a major bracket killer.

Rally: The writeup says Shoryuken.com organized an effective rally for Marvel vs. Capcom 2, producing the decisive late swing against New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Paper Mario looked far stronger than many pre-contest projections had suggested and immediately weakened the case for a World of Warcraft upset next round. The writeup also notes how much Katamari's old Board 8 popularity had faded.

World of Warcraft badly underperformed against one of Nintendo's weakest contest entrants despite receiving enormous bracket confidence. The writeup treats the result as a striking demonstration of how much anti-WoW sentiment mattered on GameFAQs.

Metal Gear Solid 4 won but looked substantially weaker than its 2009 form, reinforcing the emerging narrative that the entire series had declined. The writeup acknowledges the unfavorable picture while still treating the performance as poor.

Pic: The writeup explicitly says Metal Gear Solid 4 had a picture disadvantage against Assassin's Creed, though it argues that the disadvantage does not fully excuse MGS4's weak showing.

Diablo II produced a notably strong opening while the other Blizzard games were struggling badly. The writeup treats it as evidence that Diablo had benefited more than its Blizzard siblings from the contest's decade framing.

Metal Gear Solid 2 looked solid enough against Banjo-Tooie that nothing in the first round hinted at its coming loss to Shadow of the Colossus. The writeup emphasizes how misleading the opening-round evidence turned out to be.

Shadow of the Colossus handled The Sims comfortably despite surprisingly weak prediction support. The writeup stresses that the result still offered almost no reason to expect the major upset waiting in the next round.

Majora's Mask opened with a performance the writeup retrospectively identifies as championship caliber. The result is presented as the first real evidence that the supposedly secondary Zelda title could win the entire contest.

Chrono Cross delivered one of the rare first-round 8/9 results that behaved roughly as expected. The writeup mostly celebrates the absence of another bracket disaster after a long run of chaotic 8/9 matches.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Chrono Cross versus Dragon Quest VIII a JRPG SFF match, with the stronger shared-audience title suppressing the weaker one.

Mario Kart Wii needed its morning strength to escape a surprisingly persistent Phoenix Wright challenge. The writeup treats the near-upset as one of the clearest embarrassments for the Wii in the contest.

Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal won easily but bled enough support to strengthen the writeup's belief that Majora's Mask was the stronger title. The match is framed as an early warning for Pokémon's championship hopes.

Wind Waker began overwhelmingly but lost a remarkable amount of support across the match. The writeup reads the collapse as evidence that lingering hostility toward the game still mattered and that it was in trouble against the Majora-GSC winner.

Assassin's Creed II won a largely static and hard-to-read match between lightly tested games. The writeup mostly uses the result to puzzle over the relative strength of Assassin's Creed, ICO and Metal Gear.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door comfortably beat a Gears of War side that casual brackets had favored heavily. The writeup treats the result as a clear victory for expert expectations over casual name recognition.

Oblivion dispatched SoulCalibur II without the usual last-match-of-round chaos. The writeup mainly uses the quiet finish to reflect on an unusually entertaining and upset-heavy first round.

Fallout 3 crushed first-round upset winner Deus Ex and restored the expected hierarchy. The writeup briefly entertains SFF as a possibility but ultimately treats Deus Ex as simply weak and focuses on Fallout's strong daytime profile.

Batman turned a matchup that had gained upset buzz after Team Fortress 2's first-round thriller into a one-sided win. The result immediately generated a new wave of Batman-over-Fallout speculation.

Uncharted 2 won, but its steady percentage loss to Street Fighter IV made the victory feel hollow. The writeup treats the result as a warning that either Halo game would be favored next round.

Halo: Combat Evolved decisively beat Halo 3 and settled the series hierarchy in favor of the original. The writeup notes that the result was not an extreme same-series suppression, but was still a clear inter-series win.

Metroid Prime comfortably eliminated Devil May Cry 3, though the winner's substantial percentage bleed kept questions alive about the divisional race. The writeup finds the match picture more memorable than the result.

Okami beat Mega Man 9 comfortably, but Mega Man still performed well above the broader prediction consensus. The writeup treats the loss as validation that Mega Man 9 was a surprisingly legitimate entrant.

God of War and Tales of Symphonia spent hours in a true deadlock before God of War's morning vote broke the match open. The writeup remembers the long stall and decisive finish as one of the contest's best matches.

Grand Theft Auto III gave Half-Life 2 a strong challenge without ever threatening the actual result. The writeup treats GTA3 as the clear exception to the series' poor contest and sees Half-Life 2's steady bleed as a warning before stronger day-match opponents.

Melee posted another blowout, but its overnight and morning trends looked increasingly unfavorable for the looming match with Brawl. The writeup treats the performance as one of several signs that Brawl had become the favorite.

Call of Duty 4 won but was badly embarrassed by an otherwise unproven Perfect Dark. The writeup sees the poor showing as further evidence of deep anti-Call-of-Duty sentiment on GameFAQs.

Pic: The writeup explicitly describes a picture imbalance against Perfect Dark and notes that Perfect Dark still performed well despite its weaker image.

Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum eliminated Fire Emblem as expected, but failed to look strong enough to support the most ambitious Pokémon projections. The writeup treats the match as bad news for hopes of a broader Pokémon surge.

Brawl demolished Valkyria Chronicles, though the writeup considers this one of the few matches where Brawl looked merely comparable to Melee rather than clearly superior. The result itself was never competitive.

Super Mario Galaxy beat Pokémon RSE but looked much weaker than expected while doing so. The writeup retrospectively treats the result as a strange outlier in an otherwise strong Galaxy contest.

Twilight Princess comfortably eliminated Dragon Age in a match whose seeding and bracket placement left little suspense. The writeup argues that Dragon Age could have done more in a less hostile part of the bracket.

Kingdom Hearts II beat a highly respected BioShock despite much of the prediction community siding against it. The writeup sees BioShock's strong loss as evidence of a contest-title boost while also noting how easily KH2 survived.

Kingdom Hearts doubled Modern Warfare 2, an especially harsh result because Kingdom Hearts rarely produces or suffers major blowouts. The writeup treats the match as another humiliating verdict on Call of Duty's standing on the site.

Final Fantasy X delivered one of its few clean performances of the contest by overwhelming Borderlands and holding steady throughout the match. The writeup still regards the result as an exception rather than proof that FFX had fully returned to old form.

Golden Sun upset San Andreas on the release day of Dark Dawn, with RPG-friendly site conditions and a prominent home-page ad further favoring the winner. The writeup sees the timing as unusually hostile to GTA and the result as a major casual-bracket shock.

Pic: The writeup says Golden Sun's match picture looked exceptionally strong while San Andreas looked exceptionally poor, describing the image as one of several factors stacked against GTA.

KOTOR beat Fire Emblem but struggled enough to erase most hopes of an upset over Final Fantasy IX. The writeup regards Fire Emblem as respectable but not strong enough to excuse KOTOR's middling performance.

Final Fantasy IX routed Persona 3 and, unusually, avoided its customary daytime collapse. The writeup treats the result as routine but mildly encouraging for FFIX's trend profile.

Resident Evil 4 began with championship-level numbers against Vice City, then bled support for the entire match. The writeup treats the final result as a major warning that RE4's deeper title aspirations were unrealistic.

Persona 4 survived a long Dead Rising comeback in one of the round's closest races, reclaiming control late after briefly falling behind. The writeup credits Persona's more committed fanbase and possibly its picture for the narrow escape.

Pic: The writeup explicitly says Persona 4's strong match picture may deserve credit for the narrow win over Dead Rising.

Portal demolished Final Fantasy XII in a matchup that had been heavily debated before the contest. The writeup celebrates the result as both a Portal statement and a decisive rejection of old four-way extrapolations favoring FFXII.

Mass Effect ended Skies of Arcadia's upset run with a predictable blowout. The writeup treats the match mainly as confirmation of the large boost Mass Effect received from its sequel.

Metal Gear Solid 3 beat Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but looked weak enough to worry observers who had dismissed MvC2's first-round rally-assisted upset. The writeup retrospectively credits MvC2 with more legitimate strength than it initially received.

Paper Mario decisively eliminated World of Warcraft in a matchup casual brackets had badly misread. The writeup treats the result as the clearest humiliation of WoW's inflated seeding and popularity expectations.

Metal Gear Solid 4 won but steadily lost ground to Diablo II and looked far weaker than its prior-year form. The writeup also gives Diablo II substantial credit as the strongest traditional Western RPG in the field.

Shadow of the Colossus survived an all-day war of attrition against Metal Gear Solid 2 and won by the narrowest margin in the contest. The writeup treats the upset as the launch of the contest's Cinderella run and one of its best matches.

Pic · Rally: The writeup calls Shadow of the Colossus's image the biggest picture disadvantage of the contest and says it would have won more easily under fairer pictures. It also explicitly describes a late Shadow of the Colossus counter-rally after MGS2 retook the lead.

Majora's Mask crushed Chrono Cross in a routine second-round blowout. The writeup uses the result mainly to establish a benchmark for Pokémon GSC before their anticipated clash.

Pokémon GSC answered Majora's benchmark with an even larger blowout of Mario Kart Wii. The result kept their coming matchup debatable while also extending the writeup's criticism of Wii-era contest strength.

Wind Waker began overwhelmingly against Assassin's Creed II and then bled support at a rate the writeup considered shocking for Zelda. The result both lowered confidence in Wind Waker and established Assassin's Creed II as a legitimate contest game.

Oblivion beat Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but the margin was far too small to sustain pre-contest talk of challenging Wind Waker. The writeup treats Paper Mario's resistance as another strong showing for the series.

Fallout 3 beat Batman without suspense, but Batman's respectable showing reinforced the writeup's view that Arkham Asylum was a genuinely strong new entrant. The match mattered more for Batman's validation than for the winner.

Halo transformed an almost even opening hour against Uncharted 2 into a decisive win through its trademark afternoon vote. The writeup treats the swing as a classic demonstration of Halo's unusually powerful ASV.

Metroid Prime advanced as expected, but Okami's resistance impressed the writeup and validated how far the game had risen since its earliest contest appearances. The result briefly made Prime's next match look more uncertain than it ultimately was.

Half-Life 2 immediately shut down pre-match God of War upset talk and delivered one of its strongest performances. The result turned the coming Metroid Prime matchup into a genuine tossup.

Melee beat Call of Duty 4 easily but again bled enough support to make the writeup increasingly pessimistic about its chances against Brawl. The poor bracket confidence around Melee added to the warning signs.

Brawl destroyed Pokémon DPP even in a daytime match favorable to Pokémon. The writeup treats the performance as decisive evidence that Brawl had overtaken Melee in the divisional rivalry.

Twilight Princess eliminated Super Mario Galaxy, but Galaxy performed far better than the old Mario-versus-Zelda history suggested it might. The writeup treats the loss as a moral victory that helped rehabilitate Galaxy's contest reputation.

Kingdom Hearts II upset the original Kingdom Hearts in a direct series showdown, repeatedly repelling small comeback attempts before its strong afternoon vote pulled away. The writeup treats the result as decisive evidence that the sequel had become the stronger game.

Final Fantasy X beat Golden Sun but looked embarrassingly weak early in a matchup where the writeup expected major same-genre suppression. Its overnight recovery helped, yet the result reinforced the view that FFX had declined substantially since 2004.

Final Fantasy IX held off KOTOR in a matchup that had been a legitimate pre-contest upset possibility. KOTOR's respectable loss and FFIX's predictable daytime decline left the writeup satisfied with both games' performances.

Resident Evil 4 rebounded from its weak Vice City match by crushing Persona 4. Combined with Final Fantasy X's poor showing, the result revived serious discussion of an RE4 upset in the next round.

Portal beat Mass Effect comfortably, but the writeup considers Mass Effect's showing one of the best losses of the contest and clear proof of a major sequel-driven boost. Portal still looked strong, just not strong enough to threaten Resident Evil 4.

Paper Mario's run ended against Metal Gear Solid 3, but the writeup treats its performance as fully legitimate after the earlier World of Warcraft upset. It also mocks how badly casual brackets had overestimated WoW's chances in this section.

Shadow of the Colossus followed its MGS2 upset by beating Metal Gear Solid 4 and turning a possible fluke into the contest's defining Cinderella run. A late MGS4 rally cut into the lead but is explicitly dismissed as meaningless.

Majora's Mask ended the heavily hyped Pokémon GSC run almost immediately and overturned the comparisons many people had drawn from the prior four-way contest. The writeup treats the result as another major rejection of four-way extrapolation.

Wind Waker handled Oblivion without the competitive drama some had expected before the contest. Oblivion improved during the day but never became one of the Western games the writeup considered especially impressive.

The poll disappeared entirely for the opening hour, but the eventual match gave Fallout 3 its first clear statement against a proven contest game. The writeup treats the result as the moment serious upset talk against Fallout largely died.

Metroid Prime controlled the match, while Half-Life 2's late gains suggested that a different time window might have produced a much closer result. The writeup explicitly says the heavily discussed pictures did not matter.

Melee built the early lead, but Brawl's European and morning strength completed the comeback and settled the rivalry for the bracket. The writeup argues that the timing format may have mattered enough to make the result less definitive than the rivalry deserved.

Twilight Princess overwhelmed Kingdom Hearts II far more decisively than their earlier four-way meeting had suggested. The writeup uses the result as another example of Zelda's exceptional 1v1 strength and the unreliability of four-way comparisons.

The same-series divisional final was never presented as a serious rivalry, and Final Fantasy IX was simply outclassed by Final Fantasy X. The writeup mostly uses the match to criticize how easy the division had been for FFX.

SFF: The writeup treats this as a Square SFF matchup, noting that Final Fantasy IX was suppressed by Final Fantasy X even if the effect was milder than some older Square pairings.

Portal's run ended against Resident Evil 4, but the writeup still considers the showing highly respectable and much stronger than old four-way statistics would have implied. It treats Portal as one of the contest's major success stories.

Metal Gear Solid 3 ended the Shadow of the Colossus Cinderella run in a match the writeup believes was heavily shaped by being held at night. Shadow stayed close, but MGS3's overnight strength controlled the decisive portion.

Majora's Mask settled a long-running Zelda-series debate by beating Wind Waker decisively. The writeup argues the result did not require any special contest bandwagon because Majora was simply the more beloved title.

Fallout 3 survived a strong Metroid Prime challenge, with the writeup again arguing that match timing may have changed the outcome. The recent New Vegas release is also cited as a plausible boost for Fallout.

Twilight Princess briefly led before Brawl took over and won comfortably. The result made Brawl look increasingly difficult to stop and strengthened the belief that it was the contest favorite.

SFF: The writeup says Brawl versus Twilight Princess can be considered SFF because of their shared Nintendo/Wii audience, with Brawl suppressing Zelda's support.

Final Fantasy X erased the pre-match Resident Evil 4 upset hype almost immediately and produced the writeup's strongest championship-looking performance of its run. RE4 is treated as a major disappointment for failing to make the match competitive.

Majora's Mask overwhelmed Metal Gear Solid 3 and fully emerged as a credible championship threat. The writeup considers MGS3 the one quarterfinalist that looked clearly out of place this deep in the bracket.

Fallout 3 performed far better against Brawl than the writeup expected and resisted even Brawl's normally dominant daytime strength. The result is framed as an excellent loss and as evidence of growing voter fatigue with Nintendo and Square dominance.

Final Fantasy X controlled much of the first half, Majora's Mask mounted a huge daytime comeback, and FFX nearly answered again late. The writeup calls it the best match of the contest and a throwback to the site's classic close-match era.

Rally: The writeup says Majora's Mask was rallied more heavily and that its fans pushed harder during the decisive stages of the close semifinal.

Majora's Mask carried its momentum into the final and built enough of an early advantage to survive Brawl's later daytime recovery. The writeup frames the result as both a Good-vs-Evil fanbase victory and a symbolic win for older games over newer ones.