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The strangest first-round pairing briefly became a 4chan target, but the rally faded once it was clear the upset was not happening. Sora and Riku recovered comfortably, closing a first round the writeup considered deeply disappointing.

Rally · Pic: The writeup says 4chan rallied the Wolfenstein side hard enough to drag Sora and Riku down temporarily. It also says the Wolfenstein team had a picture advantage because the Sora/Riku image looked poor.

After briefly praising Dante and Vergil's enormous win, the writeup turns mostly into a long rant about the direction of Devil May Cry and other games.

The writeup is mostly an extended defense of Ramza and Delita as genuine rivals, with only a brief note that the Soul Calibur pair advanced.

Squall and Seifer advanced but looked much weaker than expected against Laharl and Mid-Boss. The writeup retrospectively treats the performance as an early warning that the next Kingdom Hearts matchup could be far more dangerous than assumed.

Snake and Liquid comfortably ended another Crono run despite the source saying Crono had a major picture advantage. The writeup treats the loss as a bleak sign that Crono's old Noble Nine strength was gone for good.

Pic: The writeup says Crono and Lavos received one of the most unbalanced picture advantages imaginable, favoring their side even though Lavos remained too large an anchor to overcome.

Pac-Man and Blinky advanced in a very low-turnout match that the writeup never regarded as a serious tossup despite pre-match debate. Crash's faded relevance and Pac-Man's presentation both made the result feel inevitable.

Pic: The writeup says Pac-Man was effectively guaranteed the better picture and treats his favorable classic sprite presentation as another factor making the matchup feel predetermined.

Kratos and Zeus advanced without difficulty, though the writeup notes Kratos's characteristically poor board vote. The bracket placement made the result largely irrelevant beyond that observation.

Cloud and Sephiroth won easily, but the writeup considers their showing shockingly weak for a top pairing and immediately writes off their chances against Link. The broader explanation is growing anti-Final-Fantasy-VII voting.

Frog and Magus advanced but looked weak enough to keep the Southwest wide open. The writeup notes that Raiden and Vamp had shown some legitimacy in the vote-ins and treats the next Portal matchup as genuinely uncertain.

Chell and GLaDOS advanced, but the writeup found the performance difficult to interpret and weaker than expected after Portal 2's release. Most of the enthusiasm is reserved for the match picture rather than the result.

Alucard and Dracula comfortably beat a Shepard side dragged down by Saren. The writeup again uses the match to argue that a strong individual could not reliably carry an unbalanced rivalry team.

Phoenix and Edgeworth finally gave Phoenix a meaningful contest win by beating a Gordon Freeman side crippled by Dr. Breen. The writeup treats the result as one of the best demonstrations that two coherent rivals could overcome one much stronger character paired with an anchor.

Mega Man and Wily advanced comfortably, while the writeup laments that Banjo again received a matchup that obscured his standalone strength. The result is framed as another wasted opportunity to test Banjo fairly.

SFF: The writeup says Banjo has faced Nintendo SFF in every contest match and treats Mega Man's Nintendo-adjacent fanbase as another case suppressing Banjo and Gruntilda.

Zidane and Kuja won, but the writeup considers their performance terrible and directly attributes part of the weakness to the match picture. The source treats this as unusually visible evidence of picture factor.

Pic: The writeup explicitly says Zidane and Kuja performed better before the match picture appeared, then dropped immediately once their unattractive Trance artwork was shown.

Amaterasu and Orochi advanced despite Orochi being described as a major anchor, while Tom Nook and Crazy Redd benefited from a joke nomination campaign. The source does not describe that campaign as a match-vote rally.

Link and Ganondorf opened with the expected rout, but the writeup again focuses on poor turnout and a widely disliked match picture. Neither issue is presented as threatening the result.

Big Boss and The Boss won a heavily debated opener despite The Boss being viewed as the weak link of their pair. The writeup again blames Tidus's persistent anti-voting for preventing the Final Fantasy X rivalry from converting its individual strength.

Chris and Wesker demolished Dan and Sagat, turning a Board 8 joke-nomination success into one of the writeup's biggest disappointments of the contest. The rally discussed in the source concerns getting Dan and Sagat nominated, not match voting.

Terra and Kefka produced an unexpectedly enormous blowout that the writeup celebrates as evidence that Dissidia had finally made the Final Fantasy VI cast contest-relevant. Any possible SFF against the weaker side is treated as secondary to that broader revival.

Samus and Ridley overwhelmed the joke-game pairing and gave no early indication that Ridley might later hold Samus back. The writeup treats the result as another example of how easily a strong rivalry could destroy weak opposition.

Fox and Wolf beat a side built around the stronger Yuna but weakened by Seymour, which the writeup uses as another example of a balanced rivalry beating a star-and-anchor pairing. Much of the commentary also revisits the controversial match picture without claiming it changed the vote.

Ryu and Ken delivered a dominant opening that initially looked even more impressive than the Pokémon trainers' first-round result. The writeup later treats that comparison as misleading once the rest of the bracket played out.

Luigi and Waluigi survived what became the closest match of the contest's early rounds, while Cecil and Golbez performed far better than expected. The writeup uses the matchup as proof of how little competitive drama the format was producing.

Red and Blue still faded substantially after a huge start, which the writeup found surprising given how favorable their picture was. The showing is treated as an early hint that the trainers relied heavily on momentum.

Pic: The writeup says the match picture was heavily in favor of Red and Blue, giving the Pokémon trainers a clear presentation advantage over Raynor and Kerrigan.

Sub-Zero and Scorpion won comfortably, while the writeup spends most of its match analysis arguing that Leon and Ada were never a real rivalry. The result is presented as another failure of the bracket's rivalry concept.

Donkey Kong and King K. Rool settled a heavily debated matchup quickly, with the writeup crediting K. Rool as a genuinely liked partner while Rodrigo Borgia dragged down Ezio's side. The result becomes an example of rivalry quality overcoming a stronger individual character.

Bartz and Gilgamesh comfortably advanced while the writeup again complains that Guybrush keeps receiving nominations despite repeated weak contest performances. The match itself produced little suspense.

Mega Man X and Zero produced one of the strongest opening-round performances and validated the guru effort that had helped nominate them. The writeup also considers them one of the bracket's genuinely strong rivalries.

Sonic and Robotnik dominated as expected, but the Catherine pairing still produced a respectable showing for such a niche Atlus entry. The writeup treats that result as a small feel-good story rather than a competitive threat.

Kirby and Meta Knight turned a debated opener against Jill and Nemesis into a rout. The writeup remembers the match mostly for a disastrous guru pick and for how quickly the supposed uncertainty vanished.

Ike and Black Knight quickly ended a matchup that had received more pre-contest debate than the writeup thought it deserved. Conker still managed one of his better contest showings before another hopeless bracket draw.

Mario and Bowser opened the rivalry contest with the expected blowout, but the writeup focuses on the embarrassingly low turnout even for a marquee Nintendo pairing. It blames the contest format rather than overall site traffic.