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Super Smash Bros. Melee pulled away from Vice City after an early deadlock and survived another difficult matchup. The writeup gives Vice City credit but says the weak turnout and Melee's repeated struggles left the division without an obvious favorite.

Final Fantasy X beat Tactics Advance as expected but again failed to deliver the dominant performance its supporters wanted. The writeup says the result deepened the sense that Division 128 had no trustworthy favorite.

The Wind Waker beat Metroid Prime after the two Nintendo games stayed relatively close until the morning vote created separation. The writeup views the SFF matchup and weak turnout as further signs that Wind Waker was the vulnerable member of Zelda's otherwise dominant contest run.

SFF: The writeup groups Wind Waker versus fellow Nintendo title Metroid Prime with the contest's other SFF matches while discussing its unusually weak turnout.

StarCraft beat Kingdom Hearts from start to finish and proved that its Halo victory had not been a fluke. The writeup casts Kingdom Hearts as the contest's biggest disappointment and StarCraft as a fanbase that could no longer be dismissed as a novelty upset.

Ocarina of Time crushed the highly regarded Super Mario 64 and added another emphatic result to Zelda's unbeaten run. The writeup treats the same-fanbase matchup as evidence that Ocarina might be closer to Final Fantasy VII than earlier results had suggested.

SFF: The writeup explicitly describes Ocarina of Time versus fellow Nintendo icon Super Mario 64 as a match riddled with SFF when comparing it with Final Fantasy VII's same-round result.

GoldenEye comfortably beat Symphony of the Night and ended the elaborate pre-match debate over that portion of the bracket. The writeup says Castlevania's earlier struggle with Perfect Dark had already revealed the mismatch and confirms GoldenEye as the clearly stronger property.

Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy Tactics traded tiny leads throughout an exceptionally tight match before Metal Gear Solid escaped at the end. The writeup considers the finish controversial because a large site advertisement and a suspicious late vote jump left the author unwilling to treat the result as fully credible.

Cheat: The writeup calls Metal Gear Solid's late push suspicious, questions the credibility of the final result, and says the unexplained last-minute vote jump should have been investigated, while acknowledging there was no proof of cheating.

Final Fantasy VII overwhelmed Xenogears in another routine step toward the expected Ocarina of Time showdown. The writeup treats the only real drama as measuring how convincingly the tournament favorite could dispatch familiar Square opposition.

Final Fantasy VI handled Doom as expected, but the important story was how closely its apparent strength now matched Chrono Trigger and A Link to the Past. The writeup says the division had become a genuine multi-game race rather than the expected two-game collision.

A Link to the Past demolished Super Metroid and delivered another startlingly strong Zelda result. The writeup says the margin transformed widespread Zelda confidence into genuine concern that the series might overwhelm the entire contest.

Super Mario World crushed Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in a matchup many had expected to become the classic Mario-Sonic duel. The writeup treats the decisive result as proof that Mario World was a genuine threat to Chrono Trigger.

Chrono Trigger beat Super Mario RPG but again lost substantial strength during the day. The writeup says the recurring pattern kept alive doubts about Chrono Trigger's ability to survive stronger opponents later in the division.

Tetris comfortably beat Pong in an otherwise forgettable match. The writeup remembers the poll primarily for the widely loved paddle-versus-block match picture and for another weak turnout in a division already viewed as filler before the heavyweights met.

The Legend of Zelda flattened Donkey Kong and extended the series' unbeaten, dominant start. The writeup portrays Donkey Kong as an especially unreliable Nintendo property and says the result made an all-Zelda late bracket feel increasingly plausible.

Final Fantasy handled Contra convincingly and continued to look stronger than its place in the bracket suggested. The writeup emphasizes how much faith bracketmakers placed in the Final Fantasy name and builds anticipation for its meeting with Mario 3.

Super Mario Bros. 3 demolished Metroid and reclaimed the apparent favorite's position in the old-school division. The writeup treats the result as a straightforward show of strength before the eventual clash with Zelda.