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Link opened the second round by overwhelming Fox and reinforcing his status as the contest favorite. The writeup acknowledges heavy Nintendo SFF but says the performance still looked dominant enough to keep repeat-title expectations intact.

SFF: The writeup explicitly treats Link's rout of fellow Nintendo entrant Fox as an SFF result, while arguing that the size of the win remained impressive despite the overlap.

Magus survived a dramatic Ganondorf comeback after his early lead nearly vanished during the morning vote. The razor-thin win punctured the enormous Magus-versus-Link hype even as it produced one of the contest's most memorable close matches.

Squall stunned the overwhelmingly favored Luigi and immediately turned a normal match into one of Board 8's largest explosions. The upset generated extraordinary cheating accusations and permanently changed both characters' contest reputations.

Cheat: The writeup says Squall's upset of Luigi triggered cheating accusations on a scale rivaling any match in contest history, alongside mass account suicides, trolling, and other board chaos.

Samus decisively ended the brief KOS-MOS hype created by her first-round upset of Crash. The writeup saw the win as a partial recovery from Samus's disappointing opener and as evidence that Squall was unlikely to upset her next.

Cloud comfortably dismissed Auron in a match some had hoped could produce a same-company upset. Instead, the writeup says conventional SFF took over and strengthened the case that Cloud sat near the top of Square's hierarchy.

SFF: The writeup explicitly describes Cloud's victory over fellow Final Fantasy entrant Auron as an SFF beating that overwhelmed any hoped-for reverse-SFF upset effect.

Bowser quickly erased Yoshi's brief opening lead and won a matchup most of the board had expected Yoshi to take. The writeup treats the result as both an upset of prevailing assumptions and a clear SFF performance.

SFF: The writeup says Bowser caught Yoshi and then laid an SFF beatdown on him, overturning expectations built from an earlier favorite-Mario-character poll.

Aeris comfortably beat a Master Chief whose narrow escape against Felix had already destroyed most upset expectations. Chief showed some resistance after a terrible start, but the writeup treats the match mainly as another strong Aeris fourpack win.

Sonic beat Zero but looked dramatically weaker than expected as Zero steadily cut into what began as a comfortable advantage. The writeup calls it a Pyrrhic victory that effectively ended serious Sonic-over-Cloud hopes.

Mario beat Shadow but performed so poorly that the result immediately fueled Crono upset talk. The writeup speculates that a reverse-SFF effect may explain Shadow's unusually strong showing, but treats the mechanism as uncertain.

Crono obliterated a Kefka whose first-round struggle had already ended most upset expectations. The unusually severe result sparked arguments about Square SFF and set up the heavily anticipated Mario-Crono rematch.

SFF: The writeup retrospectively treats Crono's blowout of Kefka as an SFF match, while noting that Square SFF was still disputed and poorly understood at the time.

Alucard won a heavily debated match with Kirby after an almost even opening. Though the final result looked close, the writeup says Alucard established control almost immediately and captured his fourpack for a second straight year.

Sephiroth demolished Max Payne in a match the writeup considered almost entirely predetermined. Its main significance was completing the path toward the long-awaited Mario-Crono-Sephiroth endgame in the South.

Snake comfortably beat Knuckles in the first rematch in Character Battle history, producing little suspense because the same matchup had already ended decisively the year before. The writeup treats Knuckles as another stepping stone toward Snake's eventual Mega Man test.

Ryu upset a Dante whom both the board and bracket field had largely treated as the obvious winner. The writeup remembers it as a surprisingly quiet upset because Ryu stayed in control and the board generated little outrage.

Vercetti and Donkey Kong traded the lead repeatedly in one of the era's best seesaw matches before Vercetti finally pulled away with the evening vote. The near-upset completed Vercetti's fall from supposed contender to obvious overhype.

Mega Man beat Zelda without the usual overwhelming dominance associated with his early contest career. The writeup considered the result mildly disappointing while allowing that Zelda's strength may simply have been underestimated.