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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.