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1998 ended the contest with a historically dominant championship performance and completed the run the writeup had expected from the start. The analysis turns into a long celebration of the year's unusually deep lineup and of many beloved games finally being attached to a contest winner.

1998 comfortably eliminated 1994 in a semifinal that was notable mainly for how predictable the contest had become. The writeup uses the result to compare late-round blowout records rather than to describe any real competitive drama.

2001 pulled off what the writeup considers one of the most inexplicable non-rally upsets in contest history. After a long early struggle, 2001 controlled both the overnight and daytime portions and never allowed 1997 a real comeback.

1998 produced another enormous late-round blowout and made 2003 look completely outclassed. The writeup treats the result as the year-contest equivalent of a dominant same-fanbase Zelda matchup.

SFF: The writeup explicitly likens 1998's rout of 2003 to a Zelda SFF beating, with Ocarina of Time effectively suppressing a Wind Waker-centered year.

1991 won the opening board vote and then was steadily run over by 1994. The writeup's main story is anger that system releases were omitted from a contest supposedly about entire gaming years.

Pic: The writeup argues that excluding console launches from every match picture unfairly hurt 1991 in particular because the Super Nintendo was one of its strongest assets. It says 1994 may still have won, but the picture policy made the matchup fundamentally unfair.

1997 crushed 1996 and appeared almost as dominant as 1998, making a 1997-versus-1998 final feel inevitable. The writeup stresses how impressive such a blowout looked this deep in the bracket.

1995 briefly made its matchup with 2001 look like a classic before 2001 began pulling away and never looked back. The writeup explicitly calls it a fair fight and rejects picture excuses for the result.

2003 handled a matchup some had worried about and advanced without serious danger. The writeup mostly uses the result to emphasize how hopeless 2003 looked against 1998 in the next round.

1998 demolished a year centered on A Link to the Past and produced what the writeup calls the best performance of the round. The result is treated as conclusive evidence that only a major rally could stop 1998 from winning the contest.

1994 comfortably beat 2011 and looked substantially stronger than 1991 had in the neighboring matchup. The writeup treats the result as confirmation that their next-round debate was already effectively settled.

1991's weak performance against 2002 immediately damaged the author's upset hopes for its next match. The writeup argues that the contest's year format had made normal transitive strength comparisons almost useless.

The match stayed close overnight before 1996 pulled away once the morning vote arrived. The writeup considers the final result tainted by a picture policy that failed to represent 2000's strongest possible lineup.

Pic: The writeup says 2000 was effectively denied a fair chance because Pokémon GSC was omitted from its match picture while 1996 received an unusually strong set of representative games. It explicitly argues that the picture imbalance likely decided the match.

1997's rout looked like a championship-quality performance at the time and seemed to set up a serious challenge to 1998. In hindsight, the writeup treats the result more as evidence that 2007 was unusually weak.

2001 crushed a 2008 lineup the writeup considered legitimately solid, reinforcing how extreme the contest's round-to-round blowouts had become. The result also made the coming 2001-versus-1995 matchup look heavily tilted toward 2001.

1995 advanced but looked far too weak for the overall top seed, stalling for hours against 1987 before finally separating. The writeup treats this as the point where its anticipated showdown with 2001 stopped looking competitive.

The feared Undertale rally never mattered because 2015 was immediately placed against a year the writeup considered much stronger. The result closes an opening round the author regards as one of the least entertaining in contest history.

A heavily debated year matchup became straightforward once 2003 established control. The writeup says a mainline console Zelda title gave 2003 the decisive edge over 2013's strong but less imposing lineup.

The writeup uses 2016 as an example of why rally potential depends heavily on bracket placement, arguing that no outside push could realistically save it here. It then frames 1992's lineup, led by A Link to the Past and Sonic 2, as overwhelming.

1998 is presented as the overwhelming contest favorite and treated as championship caliber from its first appearance. The writeup deliberately saves most of its 1998 retrospective for the final while giving 1993 credit for several beloved cult games.

A debated matchup stayed competitive early before 2011 took control and pulled away. The writeup argues that 2011 was simply the deeper and better year despite 2006's Zelda and Kingdom Hearts headliners.

The writeup calls this the first match where casual brackets were badly burned, with 2004 inflated by World of Warcraft and other mainstream names. It treats 1994 as vastly deeper and more aligned with GameFAQs tastes.

The writeup is mostly an extended anti-Warcraft 3 and anti-2002 rant, with only a brief argument that 2010 had the better overall lineup.

The writeup finds the scale of 1991's win surprising because much of its lineup looks mid-tier outside Super Mario World. It treats 1988 as an awkward year of sequels and experiments that was far weaker than the Zelda name alone might imply.

1996 is portrayed as a thin year carried by a few excellent games, while 1989 is described as even weaker outside Mega Man 2. The writeup is especially personal, using Mario RPG and Diablo as anchors for memories tied to the year.

The writeup says the rotating-picture format made year depth much more important than expected and turned the author's original 1990 pick into an obvious mistake. Most of the commentary then celebrates the unusually deep lineup and personal memories attached to 2000.

2007 beat 2012 in a matchup the writeup views as more an indictment of 2012 than a celebration of 2007. Portal, BioShock, Mass Effect and several other strong releases gave 2007 enough depth to win comfortably.

1997 comfortably beat 1999 because the writeup sees it as having far greater depth beyond its marquee releases. Final Fantasy VII, Symphony of the Night, GoldenEye and Star Fox 64 gave 1997 too many major anchors for 1999 to match.

2008 beat 2009 with a lineup the writeup considers clearly stronger, led by Brawl, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Fallout 3. Most of the commentary is a retrospective on notable releases from the two years rather than any uncertainty about the result.

2001 demolished 2014 behind a lineup the writeup considers overwhelmingly deeper, including Melee, Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2 and many other major releases. The commentary finds little reason to regard 2014 as competitive.

1987 beat 1985 decisively, with the writeup reducing the matchup to the site's familiar Zelda-over-Mario fanbase hierarchy. It still gives 1985 considerable sentimental credit for Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt and Oregon Trail.

SFF: The writeup says 1987's Zelda-centered strength SFFed the Mario-centered 1985 side, treating the matchup as effectively Zelda 1 versus Mario 1.

1995 opened the main bracket with the contest's largest blowout over 1986. The writeup treats 1995 as an exceptionally deep year led by Chrono Trigger, Yoshi's Island and EarthBound, while also lamenting very low turnout and the use of American release dates.

2005 crushed 1978 in the final wildcard matchup, though the writeup argues that 1978 deserved more respect for foundational arcade games such as Space Invaders and Breakout. The scale of the blowout reinforced how poor the play-in seeding was.

2006 easily beat 1981, and the writeup argues that 2006 never belonged in a wildcard poll at all. It still gives 1981 credit for an unusually strong arcade lineup built around games such as Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga.

1989 comfortably eliminated 1983 in another predictable wildcard matchup. The writeup frames 1983 primarily through the North American video-game crash and finds little competitive case for it.

The first wildcard poll produced extremely low turnout and an entirely predictable win for 2009 over 1979. The writeup focuses on how weak the contest's vote totals had become and on the new head-to-head play-in format.