GameFAQsContests.com

Breath of the Wild demolished Halo: Reach and joined the rare group of games producing enormous blowouts in consecutive rounds. The writeup treats the performance as confirmation that even a hypothetical late rally might not be enough to stop Zelda.

Final Fantasy XV survived Hollow Knight in a matchup that came far closer to embarrassment than a mainline Final Fantasy game should have allowed. The writeup treats the win as further evidence of FFXV's weak standing on the site.

Monster Hunter: World beat Sekiro far more comfortably than expected and ended the writeup's hope that every Souls-like game would overperform. The result is framed as a major disappointment for Sekiro and a strong statement for Monster Hunter.

Dragon Quest XI demolished Bastion and proved its first-round rout was not merely a fanbase-overlap fluke. The writeup treats it as by far the strongest Dragon Quest contest showing to date.

Mass Effect 2 crushed Fallout 4 more decisively than expected and repaired the concern created by its first-round performance. The writeup notes that people floated SFF as an explanation, but does not settle on it.

Horizon Zero Dawn upset Borderlands 2 and never looked back after seizing control early. The Bloodborne rally in the neighboring match added a small extra boost to an already convincing Horizon win.

Rally: The writeup says the simultaneous Bloodborne rally boosted Horizon Zero Dawn further after it had already taken control of Borderlands 2.

Resident Evil 2 beat DOOM in a debated matchup and confirmed that DOOM's first-round destruction of INSIDE had overstated its strength. Rally spillover helped DOOM somewhat but never threatened the result.

Rally: The writeup says DOOM was performing worse before the simultaneous Bloodborne rallies arrived and boosted it against Resident Evil 2.

Bloodborne beat Fire Emblem: Awakening and then pulled away sharply once its subreddit rally gained traction. The match established Bloodborne as both naturally strong and capable of meaningful outside mobilization.

Rally: The writeup says Bloodborne fans organized subreddit rally threads that materially increased its margin over Fire Emblem: Awakening, turning a closer natural win into a much larger one.

Smash Ultimate crushed A Link Between Worlds in a badly drawn same-audience matchup. The writeup treats the loss as unusually harsh for a Zelda game but heavily distorted by Nintendo overlap.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Smash Ultimate versus A Link Between Worlds a standard SFF match and says the Zelda game was likely suppressed heavily by the stronger Nintendo title.

Marvel's Spider-Man beat Minecraft and validated the experts who had trusted its natural strength over casual recognition and rally fear. Simultaneous rally traffic helped Minecraft somewhat but did not change the outcome.

Rally: The writeup says rallying in the simultaneous Octopath Traveler versus Shovel Knight match shifted support toward Minecraft and reduced Spider-Man's percentage during this poll.

Octopath Traveler and Shovel Knight traded momentum for nearly the entire day before outside support became decisive late. After Octopath's pinned subreddit rally gained control, an official Shovel Knight developer push reversed the match and stole the finish.

Rally: The writeup describes sustained two-sided subreddit rallying and says Yacht Club Games' late official Twitter push decisively swung the finish toward Shovel Knight.

Super Mario Odyssey demolished Devil May Cry 5 and continued to look stronger than Smash Ultimate through the early rounds. The writeup treats the result as another major boost to Odyssey's divisional hype.

Grand Theft Auto V quickly erased the much-hyped Cuphead upset scenario and controlled the match throughout. The writeup treats GTA V as clearly stronger than the rest of its historically weak contest franchise.

Persona 4 Golden led from the start but repeatedly needed outside support to repel Red Dead Redemption's pushes. The final score was close even though Red Dead never actually took the lead.

Rally: The writeup says Persona 4 Golden received repeated Reddit and Board 8 rally support, plus some rally spillover, and argues that the outside help likely made the difference in its narrow win.

Xenoblade Chronicles destroyed Overwatch and proved its first-round blowout was not merely a favorable same-fanbase matchup. The result established Xenoblade as the new favorite to win the division.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses beat Ori but again looked much weaker than expected. Combined with Xenoblade's simultaneous dominance, the result badly damaged Three Houses' status as the presumed division favorite.

The Witcher 3 obliterated Mass Effect 3 and looked increasingly untouchable in the lower half of the bracket. The writeup treats the scale of the rout as partly fanbase suppression and partly genuine elite strength.

SFF: The writeup says The Witcher 3 suppressed Mass Effect 3 through what became known as Western SFF, with their overlapping Western RPG audience making the blowout even larger.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 still won comfortably despite rally spillover helping Stardew Valley. The writeup treats both games as respectable while acknowledging that Galaxy 2's next Witcher matchup looked grim.

Rally: The writeup says rally traffic from the simultaneous match disproportionately boosted Stardew Valley and reduced Super Mario Galaxy 2's final margin.

Fallout: New Vegas beat Dark Souls III in a debated matchup where both sides attracted outside support. The stronger New Vegas rally helped preserve a result that still broadly matched pre-match expectations.

Rally: The writeup says both Dark Souls III and Fallout: New Vegas received organized rally support, with the New Vegas subreddit push ultimately proving much stronger.

God of War demolished Nioh and continued to look strong enough for a deep run. The writeup sees some fanbase overlap in the rout but still considers God of War's underlying performance impressive.

SFF: The writeup says Nioh was probably suppressed to some extent by God of War because both games appealed to overlapping PlayStation action audiences.

Persona 5 demolished Assassin's Creed IV and reinforced the series' emergence as a mainstream GameFAQs force. The result also made Witcher 3's earlier Assassin's Creed rout look less uniquely informative.

Sonic Mania unexpectedly routed Super Meat Boy in what had been treated as a close matchup. The writeup attributes part of the blowout to overlapping platformer support.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Sonic Mania versus Super Meat Boy an SFF match, arguing that the two platformers share enough audience for Sonic to suppress the indie game.

Portal 2 demolished Kingdom Hearts III and ended one of the more popular second-round upset picks. The writeup treats Kingdom Hearts III's disappointing reception as a major reason the series failed to retain its old strength.

Red Dead Redemption 2 comfortably beat Animal Crossing: New Leaf despite New Horizons hype giving the older Animal Crossing entry a theoretical boost. The match confirmed that RDR2 remained respectable even on a site hostile to Rockstar.

Dark Souls obliterated Rocket League and moved from strong contender to serious semifinal threat. The writeup treats the result as another clear sign that Souls had gained enormous respect since the prior games contest.

Metal Gear Solid V beat Yakuza 0 but looked weak enough to reinforce the franchise's decline. Yakuza's respectable showing also validated that its first-round success was not entirely opponent-driven.

Batman: Arkham City handled BioShock Infinite more comfortably than its shaky first round suggested. The writeup treats the result as a partial rebound for Batman and another sign of BioShock's decline.

The Last of Us beat Diablo III easily but still underperformed enough to damage its status as a likely division winner. The writeup focuses heavily on Diablo and Blizzard's damaged reputation while looking ahead to Dark Souls.

Skyrim routed Journey but looked weak compared with Witcher 3's earlier results. The match became the first major reason to doubt Skyrim's presumed path to the final.

Mario Kart 8 comfortably eliminated Final Fantasy XIV and continued rehabilitating its reputation after the Wii U era. The result also weakened the idea that Final Fantasy XIV's modern acclaim would translate into contest strength.

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver crushed Rayman Legends and continued looking like a viable proxy for the much older Gold and Silver. The writeup treats the remake's legitimacy as increasingly hard to dispute.

NieR: Automata won comfortably while Divinity rallied hard enough to distort the final margin and later extrapolated standings. The push was visible but never made the match competitive.

Rally: The writeup says Divinity: Original Sin II mounted a significant Reddit rally after the opening and reduced the size of NieR: Automata's natural blowout, though it never threatened the winner.