GameFAQsContests.com

Zelda took control early, survived Final Fantasy's night push, and finished the championship with the stronger daytime vote. The writeup treats the win as one of the era's biggest upsets and as a symbolic confirmation of GameFAQs' growing Nintendo tilt.

Final Fantasy beat Mario, but Mario's unexpectedly strong challenge convinced the writeup that Final Fantasy was far more vulnerable than believed. The result effectively transformed the coming Zelda final from an underdog bid into a highly credible upset opportunity.

Zelda comfortably eliminated Metal Gear but looked a little less overwhelming than in earlier rounds. The writeup still saw Final Fantasy as the likely favorite for the final at this point, before the other semifinal changed that perception.

Final Fantasy dispatched Resident Evil in a routine division final and completed the expected group of top seeds in the semifinals. The writeup treats the match mainly as another apparent confirmation that Final Fantasy remained championship material.

Super Smash Bros. performed far better than expected against Mario and resisted the heavy SFF that many had predicted. The writeup says the result established Smash as a major series while largely killing talk of Mario upsetting Final Fantasy.

Metal Gear beat Kingdom Hearts comfortably after a brief poll glitch mistakenly displayed Castlevania as the opponent. Once corrected, the match followed the expected pattern and sent Metal Gear into the Final Four without much drama.

Zelda crushed Metroid in the expected division final and produced another extreme Nintendo SFF result. The writeup treats the match as the latest entry in a long pattern of Samus and Metroid collapsing against stronger Nintendo opposition.

SFF: The writeup explicitly says Zelda's suppression of Metroid was severe SFF and places it in a long history of Samus and Metroid performing badly against other Nintendo entrants.

Resident Evil narrowly held off Street Fighter after a much closer fight than most of Board 8 expected. The writeup credits Street Fighter's favorable picture for helping the upset threat while arguing that current Capcom fanbase overlap ultimately leaned toward Resident Evil.

SFF · Pic: The writeup says the heavily Street Fighter-favored picture gave Street Fighter an advantage, while also arguing that Capcom fanbase overlap likely favored Resident Evil because Resident Evil 4 was then the stronger current draw.

Final Fantasy crushed the broadly defined Mega Man series in another impressive second-round performance. The writeup sees nothing in the result to weaken Final Fantasy's position as the contest favorite.

Super Smash Bros. comfortably beat Sonic in one of the contest's most debated matchups and denied another chance to see Mario face Sonic. The writeup considers the result another major Sonic disappointment after the series had appeared well positioned for the upset.

Mario annihilated Warcraft despite the outside support that had carried Warcraft past GTA. The writeup treats the scale of the beating as another strong sign that Mario had a real chance against Final Fantasy later in the bracket.

Castlevania led for much of the night and turned a previously routine Kingdom Hearts bracket slot into one of the contest's best matches. Kingdom Hearts eventually used its daytime strength to reverse the lead, while the writeup also remembers the match for exceptionally ugly board behavior from both fanbases.

Metal Gear beat Fire Emblem easily but did not dominate as thoroughly as the writeup expected. The result raised more doubts about Silent Hill's first-round strength than about Metal Gear's ability to reach the Final Four.

Metroid beat Pokémon, but Pokémon stayed surprisingly competitive and won scattered updates throughout the match. The writeup treats the result as another example of Metroid struggling inside Nintendo and as long-overdue evidence that Pokémon was stronger than its old reputation suggested.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Pokémon versus Metroid an SFF match and treats overlapping Nintendo support as part of the context for Metroid's unexpectedly weak-looking win.

Zelda crushed Mega Man X in a second-round SFF matchup and kept pace with Final Fantasy in the contest's emerging strength race. The writeup treats the result mainly as another statement that Zelda could realistically win the tournament.

SFF: The writeup explicitly treats Zelda versus Mega Man X as an SFF match, while noting that voters may differ on how strongly they associate Mega Man X with Nintendo.

Resident Evil obliterated Shadow Hearts in another first-round mismatch and nearly reached the contest's biggest vote and percentage landmarks. The writeup treats Shadow Hearts as contest joke fodder and warns against reading too much strength into such a lopsided pairing.

Street Fighter easily beat The Elder Scrolls despite loud pre-match confidence from some Elder Scrolls fans. The writeup remembers the poll largely for the ugly fan arguments it produced and for setting up a more meaningful Street Fighter-Resident Evil matchup.

Mega Man decisively beat Mario Kart after Board 8 had spent far more time debating the matchup than the writeup thought necessary. The result is presented as a case of the board overthinking how voters would interpret the broad Mega Man series name.

Final Fantasy answered Zelda and Mario's huge opening performances with a massive blowout of Diablo. The writeup still stops short of calling the contest over, arguing that Diablo's limited series depth made the result less definitive than it first appeared.

Super Smash Bros. easily dispatched Dragon Quest while the writeup spends as much time on fan complaints as on the stable blowout itself. The result kept the coming Sonic matchup uncertain rather than answering whether Smash was truly strong enough.

Sonic crushed Devil May Cry in a straightforward match that mattered mainly as a measuring stick for the coming Super Smash Bros. clash. The strong showing added momentum to arguments that Sonic could win that much more important second-round match.

Warcraft upset GTA in a close match dominated by outside-site campaigning, especially from the World of Warcraft community. The aftermath also confirmed vote stuffing, mostly for GTA, but the writeup stresses that Warcraft still won fairly without those fraudulent votes deciding the result.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup says both sides rallied heavily, with World of Warcraft forum traffic giving Warcraft the decisive outside push. It also quotes CJayC confirming egregious vote stuffing, overwhelmingly for GTA, while stating that the fraudulent votes were insufficient to change Warcraft's legitimate win.

Super Mario Bros. annihilated Madden in the contest's signature joke-fodder matchup. The writeup highlights another individual-vote record and says the performance strengthened early belief that Mario could challenge Final Fantasy.

Kingdom Hearts crushed Harvest Moon, yet the writeup says people still treated the performance as disappointing because Castlevania had just upset Halo. It rejects that panic and argues that Kingdom Hearts remained difficult to judge after its sequel.

Castlevania upset Halo and, more surprisingly, neutralized the daytime voting strength that had defined Halo and Master Chief in earlier contests. The writeup treats the result as both a satisfying upset and another exposure of Halo's unreliable contest reputation.

Fire Emblem won a matchup the writeup considered less uncertain than the near-even brackets suggested. The result is framed as a modest vindication for the growing Nintendo series and another reminder that Silent Hill remained highly niche on GameFAQs.

Metal Gear crushed Soul Calibur and made its old Spring 2004 statistical standing look badly inflated. The writeup treats the result as the first warning that several highly rated series from that earlier bracket had been overrated.

Metroid demolished Kirby and immediately killed the brief Pokémon-over-Metroid bandwagon. The writeup is unsure whether fanbase overlap mattered, ultimately leaning more toward Kirby's games simply being weaker than Kirby's character popularity suggests.

Pokémon erased years of contest pessimism by crushing Star Ocean after even its own supporters had grown nervous about the matchup. The writeup treats the win as overdue vindication for a franchise with a history of disappointing contest results.

Mega Man X handled Suikoden exactly as expected in a lopsided but unremarkable opener. The writeup mostly focuses on X finally appearing prominently in a contest picture and on the poor bracket reward of facing Zelda next.

Zelda opened the Best Series Ever contest with a routine blowout that immediately became notable for its enormous vote total. The writeup says the performance set a new individual-vote record and started early talk that Zelda might challenge Final Fantasy for the title.