GameFAQsContests.com

Chrono Trigger opened the 2015 game contest with a far stronger blowout than many expected and immediately looked like a true title contender. The writeup treats the result as the first major sign that older games would dominate the bracket.

Dragon Quest VIII overturned the prevailing Persona 3 lean after an initially close start and gradually pulled away. The writeup folds the upset into Board 8's long-running joke that the second match of a contest is cursed.

Mega Man X won a debated 12-over-5 matchup far more comfortably than Batman supporters expected. The writeup treats the result as another failure of licensed-game hype to translate into contest strength.

Final Fantasy X handled Half-Life without suspense, but looked much less impressive than Chrono Trigger had in the same division. The writeup treats that comparison as the first clear warning for their coming matchup.

Melee beat Portal comfortably in an otherwise uneventful opener, with its usual early strength followed by percentage bleed. The writeup says the result gave little hint of how badly a later Chrono Trigger matchup would go.

Pokémon Gold and Silver overwhelmed The World Ends With You in one of the round's cleanest blowouts. The writeup treats the result mainly as confirmation that GSC remained a major Pokémon game on the site.

Kingdom Hearts II beat Metal Gear Solid 4 decisively and immediately established the latter as part of a broader Metal Gear decline. The writeup views the result as a major reversal from MGS4's stronger reputation in earlier years.

The Last of Us doubled Halo 3 in a straightforward blowout. The writeup treats Halo's poor showing as another chapter in the series' long history of underperforming on GameFAQs.

Final Fantasy VI crushed Assassin's Creed II and looked dramatically stronger than its older comparison with Wind Waker. The writeup treats the performance as early proof that 1990s Square games were operating on another level.

Paper Mario built an early advantage over Tales of Symphonia and never truly surrendered control despite several small cuts. The writeup calls it the contest's first close-looking match, though the result felt decided well before the finish.

KOTOR beat Xenogears in a debated matchup, but Xenogears stayed close enough to suggest it had more hidden strength than its old bad draws implied. The writeup argues that reversed seeding might even have changed the result.

Wind Waker beat Pokémon X/Y comfortably, while the writeup rejects the idea that Pokémon suffered meaningful SFF here. The result kept Wind Waker respectable but still left Final Fantasy VI favored for the next round.

Smash 4 crushed the obscure Planescape: Torment and looked like a legitimate modern Smash entry rather than a repeat of Brawl's stigma. The writeup treats the match itself as essentially content-free.

Mass Effect erased Galaxy 2's early lead, spent hours in a deadlock, then pulled away during the afternoon. The writeup remembers it as the contest's first genuine close match and a major embarrassment for the Board 8 consensus.

Halo held Minecraft to a steady loss and prevented the rally-driven title run many bracketmakers had feared. The writeup notes that people correctly anticipated an outside-rally threat in the contest, but targeted the wrong game.

Final Fantasy VII demolished Journey and looked every bit like a championship contender. The writeup treats the blowout as a welcome return to straightforward elite-level dominance.

Super Mario Bros. 3 delivered one of the contest's largest blowouts, exactly as expected from a top seed against weak opposition. The writeup notes with hindsight that this would be Mario 3's only win of the contest.

Pokémon RBY beat Tetris comfortably, but many observers wrongly interpreted the margin through old Nintendo SFF comparisons. The writeup explicitly argues that Pokémon showed little or no SFF here and was stronger than the raw comparison suggested.

Sonic 2 turned an early deadlock with Portal 2 into a comfortable win and overturned the pre-match favorite. The writeup treats it as another example of Portal 2 lacking the original game's old internet buzz.

Uncharted 2 doubled The Walking Dead in a matchup the writeup considered predictable from the start. The result is used mainly to argue that licensed popularity rarely translates into GameFAQs contest strength.

Fallout 3 was cruising on the release day of Fallout 4 until Undertale rally spillover suddenly made Life is Strange much stronger. The winner remained safe, but the late bleed exposed how vulnerable Fallout could be to outside traffic.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale's simultaneous outside rally spilled into this poll and directly shifted votes toward Life is Strange, sharply reducing Fallout 3's percentage without threatening the result.

Undertale transformed a routine loss into the largest comeback in contest history once outside support arrived late in the day. The win launched the rally-driven run that would eventually decide the entire tournament.

Rally: The writeup says a massive outside rally erased Mass Effect 3's enormous late lead and carried Undertale to a record-setting comeback.

Final Fantasy VIII beat Vice City as expected, while the simultaneous Undertale rally nudged the result further toward Square. The writeup treats Vice City's respectable loss as one of the few less embarrassing GTA performances.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale rally spillover also affected this simultaneous poll, modestly boosting Final Fantasy VIII against Vice City.

Super Mario World began with an enormous rout, but Animal Crossing suddenly gained ground once Undertale's outside rally flooded the simultaneous polls. The result stayed a blowout, yet the spillover showed how dramatically shared traffic could distort percentages.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale rally spillover strongly boosted Animal Crossing late in the match, producing unusual cuts against Super Mario World.

Phoenix Wright briefly led behind Board 8 support and Undertale spillover, but Skyrim recovered and eventually won comfortably. Even with the distorted opening, the writeup considered Skyrim's performance too weak for a serious title contender.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale rally spillover favored Phoenix Wright from the opening minutes and helped create an early lead before Skyrim recovered.

GoldenEye beat Diablo II in a debated 8/9 matchup and continued the broader old-game advantage of the contest. The writeup notes possible minor rally spillover but treats it as too uncertain to explain the win.

Metroid Prime beat Morrowind but lost substantial ground over the course of the day. The writeup treats the trend as an early warning that Prime's weak daytime vote could become costly in close matches.

Half-Life 2 handled Demon's Souls in a largely trendless and predictable match. The writeup mainly uses the result to set up the expected Metroid Prime rematch in Round Two.

Super Mario 64 crushed Mario Kart 8 and looked like a serious deep-run threat. Although one analysis calls the result an SFF beating, the other explicitly doubts meaningful SFF, so the writeup ultimately leaves the mechanism uncertain.

Final Fantasy Tactics beat Resident Evil 2 in a debated matchup that became comfortable almost immediately. The writeup also treats Resident Evil's loss as part of a broader series decline.

Twilight Princess crushed Skies of Arcadia in a predictable opener, but the result did little to sustain upset hopes against Mario 64. The writeup instead uses the match to compare Twilight Princess with Wind Waker.

Persona 4 destroyed 999 and made the weaker visual novel look like one of the bracket's lowest-tier entrants. The writeup explicitly rejects SFF as an explanation and treats 999 as simple fodder.

Ocarina of Time produced one of the contest's legendary blowouts against Hearthstone and showed no vulnerability to the rally threat some had feared. The result looked like a championship statement at the time.

Suikoden II won a heavily debated 8/9 matchup that the writeup retrospectively treats as much simpler than people made it. The result becomes another example of old Japanese RPG familiarity beating a newer unknown.

Okami beat Warcraft III comfortably and continued its unusual history of avoiding extreme 1v1 results in either direction. The writeup treats the result as another failure for Blizzard's contest strength.

Final Fantasy IX upset Kingdom Hearts after surviving the matchup phase where Kingdom Hearts was normally strongest. The writeup treats the trend reversal as a major surprise and evidence of an FFIX boost.

Donkey Kong Country 2 and Xenoblade traded tiny leads for most of the day before DKC2 finally held on through a record-setting wire-to-wire close match. The upset ruined a popular Xenoblade deep-run pick and gave DKC2 long-overdue contest respect.

Fire Emblem Awakening demolished Super Mario Maker in a matchup many expected to be close. The writeup calls Mario Maker one of the contest's biggest disappointments and treats the result as a complete collapse of its rally-and-meme hype.

Banjo-Kazooie beat Baldur's Gate II but bled enough support to kill most hopes of a deeper run. The writeup sees the win as disappointing rather than validating old theories that Banjo had hidden strength.

Symphony of the Night crushed Trials and Tribulations and clearly separated itself from the crowded midcard pack in its section. The writeup treats the blowout as the strongest first-round showing among the division's plausible contenders.

A Link to the Past delivered the second-largest blowout of the contest against Cave Story and looked like a genuine top-tier game. The writeup places the result alongside Ocarina's as a championship-caliber Zelda statement.

Final Fantasy IV turned a matchup the writeup considered completely noncompetitive into an easy rout of Deus Ex. The commentary also celebrates FFIV's durability and laments that its next draw prevented a more informative contest run.

Metal Gear Solid V beat Perfect Dark but looked far weaker than expected for a recent mainline Metal Gear release. The writeup treats the result as another sign that the series had declined rather than received the hoped-for boost.

Dark Souls comfortably doubled Civilization V and immediately looked capable of exploiting Metal Gear Solid V's weakness in the next round. The writeup treats the showing as an impressive debut for a recent game.

Super Metroid demolished Call of Duty 4 far more severely than expected and transformed its contest reputation overnight. The writeup treats the performance as evidence of both Call of Duty decline and a major Super Metroid resurgence.

Super Mario Galaxy handled Dragon Age about as expected, but Super Metroid's simultaneous blowout made the win look ordinary by comparison. The writeup immediately shifted the next-round favorite toward Super Metroid.

Final Fantasy XII beat the newer Bloodborne in a matchup the writeup uses as another example of nostalgia overpowering recent-game acclaim. The result also continued the perfect first-round run for Final Fantasy entries.

Majora's Mask crushed Valkyria Chronicles in a routine top-seed blowout and largely matched its prior contest reputation. The writeup's main complaint is that the bracket wasted Majora by placing it near another Zelda heavyweight.

Grand Theft Auto V beat Shenmue but looked embarrassingly weak for a top seed against such limited opposition. The writeup treats the result as immediate confirmation that GTA5 was doomed in Round Two.

Super Mario RPG won a heavily debated matchup with Oblivion and became the clear favorite to escape the surrounding eightpack. Its severe overnight percentage bleed is attributed to the game's historically poor European availability rather than a real comeback.

San Andreas beat Shovel Knight but again looked far too weak for a major Grand Theft Auto title. The writeup treats the result as another clear demonstration of the site's long-running anti-GTA sentiment.

Chrono Cross comfortably upset World of Warcraft despite overwhelming casual confidence in WoW. The writeup celebrates the result as an expert-friendly rejection of casual brand recognition and a perfect bracket break for Chrono Cross.

The Witcher 3 crushed The Binding of Isaac and looked unusually strong for a current-year release. The writeup also flags the game's known rally potential as a future threat, but no rally was needed in this match.

Metal Gear Solid 2 beat Resident Evil but bled support throughout the match and continued the series' disappointing contest. The result made the coming Witcher 3 matchup look much more dangerous than expected.

Fallout: New Vegas beat BioShock Infinite in a matchup the writeup felt had been settled by fresh Fallout 4 attention and BioShock's weaker sequel reputation. The result stayed close enough to be respectable but never looked like an upset.

Resident Evil 4 beat Paper Mario but lost enough support to create an immediate warning about its deeper prospects. The writeup uses comparisons with other Mario RPGs to argue that RE4 already looked weaker than its prior contest form.

Metal Gear Solid crushed Splatoon and became the only Metal Gear entry the writeup thought looked genuinely solid in Round One. The result offered a brief exception to the series-wide decline narrative.

EarthBound overturned the Board 8 favorite and crushed Borderlands 2, finally translating its cult reputation into a meaningful contest win. The writeup treats the result as one of the clearest signs of the contest's enormous SNES and nostalgia boost.

Shadow of the Colossus demolished Team Fortress 2 and revived memories of its earlier deep run. The writeup immediately began looking ahead to whether it could again challenge Metal Gear opposition.

Red Dead Redemption beat Bayonetta 2 comfortably after the writeup had overthought the possibility of a Wii U upset. The result validated RDR as a legitimate midcard game while further embarrassing the Wii U.

Metal Gear Solid 3 beat Mother 3 by a wide margin but still performed far below what the writeup expected against a Japan-only title. The result became another major warning that the entire Metal Gear series had weakened.

BioShock beat Silent Hill 2 in a straightforward matchup, though Silent Hill performed better than its old contest history suggested. The win set up a more interesting test against a vulnerable Metal Gear Solid 3.

StarCraft destroyed Destiny far more decisively than expected and suddenly looked capable of threatening Mass Effect 2. The writeup treats the blowout as a welcome revival for a game with an old rally-driven contest legacy.

Mass Effect 2 demolished Virtue's Last Reward in the final match of Round One. The blowout itself was routine, but the writeup saw StarCraft and Metal Gear Solid 3 as meaningful threats waiting in the division.