GameFAQsContests.com

Mario 64 repeatedly fought Undertale back into a close match, but every meaningful threat triggered another surge of outside Undertale support. Undertale eventually pulled clear and continued toward the semifinal.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale's rally erased Mario 64's early lead within hours and repeatedly answered Mario whenever he briefly retook control. Simultaneous Melee rallying may also have helped Mario somewhat.

Super Mario 64 beat Skyrim comfortably while the neighboring rally war boosted Mario's support. The match remained stable despite the outside traffic and ended Skyrim's respectable run.

Rally: The writeup says the simultaneous Pokémon-Undertale rally traffic favored Super Mario 64 and inflated its showing against Skyrim, even though it did not change the winner.

Twilight Princess looked unusually competitive at the start, but Mario 64 recovered and settled into a comfortable win. The writeup attributes much of Zelda's early strength to rally spillover and the lopsided match pictures.

Rally · Pic: The writeup says Twilight Princess benefited early from Undertale rally spillover and from a major picture imbalance: Mario 64 received a poor image while Twilight Princess received an especially strong Link image.

Super Mario 64 crushed Final Fantasy Tactics, though its percentage bleed gave a small opening for later Twilight Princess speculation. The writeup otherwise treats Mario 64 as the obvious division heavyweight.

Super Mario 64 crushed Mario Kart 8 and looked like a serious deep-run threat. Although one analysis calls the result an SFF beating, the other explicitly doubts meaningful SFF, so the writeup ultimately leaves the mechanism uncertain.

Final Fantasy VII dominated, while A Link to the Past survived a late Mario 64 comeback by a narrow margin. The writeup also sees the result as another sign that newer voters were gradually reshaping the site's preferences.

SFF: The writeup says Final Fantasy VII SFFed Final Fantasy VI heavily, reducing FF6 to a minor factor while the real race developed between Link to the Past and Mario 64.

Final Fantasy VII dominated, while Chrono Trigger built a real lead on Mario 64 before collapsing again with the afternoon vote. Mario 64's late recovery ended another promising Chrono Trigger upset attempt.

LFF: The writeup says GoldenEye clearly leeched Mario 64, giving Chrono Trigger a much better chance to steal the second advancing position.

Chrono Trigger built an overnight lead on Mario 64, only to collapse badly once Mario's morning vote arrived. Mario 64 turned the match into a convincing win and shattered expectations for Chrono Trigger's deeper run.

SFF: The writeup explicitly says Yoshi's Island was SFFed into a very weak last-place showing, with Mario 64 providing the clearest source of the overlap.

Super Mario 64 dominated the poll, while Symphony of the Night comfortably beat Resident Evil for the other advancing spot. Kirby Super Star collapsed badly in Mario's presence.

SFF: The writeup explicitly says Super Mario 64 SFFed Kirby Super Star heavily, using Kirby's collapse to argue that Kirby's character strength does not come primarily from his games.

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.

Super Mario 64 destroyed the obscure NiGHTS as expected. The writeup's main point is that Mario 64 was badly underseeded and deserved a much better fate than an immediate collision with Ocarina of Time.