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Pikachu overwhelmed a stable measuring-stick opponent in Scorpion and immediately looked near-elite. The writeup treats the result as the first major evidence that Pokémon, and Pikachu specifically, would be a serious force in the contest.

Pikachu beat a recently boosted Kratos comfortably and continued to look like the strongest Pokémon character in the bracket. The writeup treats Kratos's God of War revival as making the win more impressive than the raw matchup first appears.

Pikachu beat Yoshi in their long-awaited first direct matchup and looked like the only Pokémon character consistently meeting high expectations. The Detective Pikachu trailer arriving the same day is noted as favorable timing.

Pikachu beat Zero comfortably and won another division, continuing the mascot's standout run while most other Pokémon characters disappointed. The writeup sees Pikachu as clearly stronger than the rest of his franchise's field.

Pikachu beat Mega Man in a record-setting wire-to-wire thriller after multiple lead changes and a final late push. The writeup treats the result as the first clean 24-hour 1v1 Noble Nine break, even though Mega Man won the raw vote before registered-user weighting.

Link overwhelmed Pikachu and continued his untouchable 2018 run. Pikachu's result is still framed positively because he had already broken the Noble Nine and appeared to resist most of Link's usual same-fanbase suppression.

SFF: The writeup says Pikachu likely suffered a small amount of Nintendo SFF under Link, while emphasizing that Pokémon resisted the effect unusually well.

Mega Man reversed his earlier loss to Pikachu and controlled the rematch after the opening minutes. The writeup calls the revenge satisfying but less meaningful because it happened in the losers bracket.