GameFAQsContests.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.