GameFAQsContests.com

The Witcher 3 beat Skyrim comfortably in the semifinal after spending the entire contest steadily overturning pre-contest expectations. The writeup attributes Witcher's rise to several reinforcing factors, including Netflix exposure, broader respect, Switch availability and Bethesda fatigue, while treating possible SFF as only speculative.

Breath of the Wild demolished Smash Ultimate in a semifinal and continued its run of overwhelming late-round victories. Even accounting for heavy Nintendo SFF, the writeup treats the performance as extraordinary.

SFF: The writeup explicitly calls Breath of the Wild versus Smash Ultimate a bad case of SFF, with Zelda's place atop the Nintendo hierarchy suppressing Smash.

Zelda beat Mario after leading essentially the entire match and pulled away late to deepen her extraordinary 2018 run. The writeup treats the win as a genuine strength result even though some outside rallying also occurred.

Rally: The writeup explicitly says Zelda received porn-site rallies during the match, while also stating that she was strong enough to beat Mario without them.

Link continued the long-running Link-Cloud rivalry with another dominant win and looked more overwhelming than ever. The writeup treats Cloud's inability to threaten him as evidence that Link remained completely untouchable without extraordinary outside intervention.

1998 comfortably eliminated 1994 in a semifinal that was notable mainly for how predictable the contest had become. The writeup uses the result to compare late-round blowout records rather than to describe any real competitive drama.

2001 pulled off what the writeup considers one of the most inexplicable non-rally upsets in contest history. After a long early struggle, 2001 controlled both the overnight and daytime portions and never allowed 1997 a real comeback.

Ocarina of Time demolished Super Mario RPG in a semifinal that everyone expected to be one-sided. Early spillover inflated turnout but did not create a meaningful competitive effect, and Mario RPG's miracle run ended quietly.

Melee and Undertale mobilized massive outside communities and produced one of the highest-profile matches in site history. Undertale finally won the rally war after repeated swings, while a caught botting attempt added another layer of controversy.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup describes an enormous two-sided rally war between Undertale and Melee. It also quotes the administrator saying an attempted automated vote-stuffing operation for Melee was caught and its fraudulent votes ignored.

Link and Ganondorf demolished Cloud and Sephiroth so badly that the writeup treats the match as final proof Link should be retired. Cloud's late recovery merely kept the final percentage from looking even worse.

Red and Blue stayed even with Mario and Bowser for roughly the opening hour before Mario pulled away across the rest of the day. The trainers lost, but the writeup still regards them as the contest's breakout stars.

Final Fantasy X controlled much of the first half, Majora's Mask mounted a huge daytime comeback, and FFX nearly answered again late. The writeup calls it the best match of the contest and a throwback to the site's classic close-match era.

Rally: The writeup says Majora's Mask was rallied more heavily and that its fans pushed harder during the decisive stages of the close semifinal.

Fallout 3 performed far better against Brawl than the writeup expected and resisted even Brawl's normally dominant daytime strength. The result is framed as an excellent loss and as evidence of growing voter fatigue with Nintendo and Square dominance.

Snake spent hours trading the lead with Cloud and even stalled through Cloud's normally dominant overnight period, creating genuine upset hope. Cloud's morning strength finally broke the deadlock and ended Snake's deep run.

The rematch of the original character-contest final produced much the same hierarchy, with Link suppressing Mario and winning comfortably. The writeup notes that even widespread anti-Link sentiment did little to change the matchup.

SFF: The writeup invokes Link's 'King of SFF' reputation to explain why Mario again performed much worse against Link than people hoped.

Ocarina of Time secured first easily, while Final Fantasy X erased Metal Gear Solid 4's early lead overnight and advanced to the championship. Brawl's run ended under an especially unfavorable Nintendo matchup.

SFF: The writeup says Ocarina of Time SFFed Brawl out of contention, leaving Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 4 to fight for the other final spot.

Final Fantasy VII and A Link to the Past advanced from a semifinal the writeup considered nearly predetermined. FF7's dominant showing became the main talking point heading into the championship.

SFF · LFF: The writeup says Nintendo SFF inflated Final Fantasy VII's advantage, while the split between the two Mario games helped Link to the Past secure the other final berth.

Snake converted the divided field into a surprise first-place finish, while Cloud recovered enough to secure the other final berth. Sephiroth's collapse and Kirby's early pressure made the semifinal far stranger than expected.

SFF · LFF: The writeup says Kirby SFFed Sephiroth badly, leaving Sephiroth unusually weak. It also says Sephiroth leeched enough Final Fantasy support from Cloud to keep Cloud from catching outside contender Snake.

Link took the expected first position, while Crono finally reached a true contest final by reversing his old rivalry with Mario. The writeup frames it as the payoff to Crono's long redemption arc.

LFF: The writeup says Link and Samus drained Nintendo support from Mario, allowing outside entrant Crono to beat Mario comfortably for the other final berth.

L-Block's Internet momentum exploded as outside sites discovered the run, and Snake was left fighting Master Chief for the other final spot. The writeup treats this as the moment the joke had grown beyond Board 8 into a broad online bandwagon.

Rally: The writeup says outside attention from Kotaku, 4chan, Vote for the Worst and other sites expanded L-Block's support, including a visible surge after a Kotaku link.

Link and Cloud advanced through a semifinal whose top order was never seriously in doubt. Samus nevertheless outperformed Sephiroth, providing the only notable wrinkle in an otherwise predictable heavyweight match.

SFF: The writeup says Link heavily suppressed Samus through their overlapping Nintendo support, even though Samus still performed surprisingly well relative to Sephiroth.

After an erroneous opening poll was restarted, Snake took firm control and never let Sonic seriously threaten the result. Sonic recovered respectability during the day, but the writeup treats the win as the latest proof of Snake's remarkable 2006 surge.

Samus beat Zelda in a steady semifinal that never became as dramatic as the preceding quarterfinals. The writeup nevertheless sees Zelda's unusually strong showing as evidence that shared Nintendo support suppressed Samus to some degree.

SFF: The writeup says Zelda probably reverse-SFFed Samus substantially, though not nearly enough to threaten Samus's victory.

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.

Crono beat Mega Man in a close-looking semifinal without ever facing a sustained comeback threat. The writeup argues that the narrow margin did little to suggest Crono could stop the much stronger-looking Mario in the final.

Mario controlled Snake throughout the semifinal, although Snake earned the moral victory his fans wanted by stealing a handful of updates. The writeup sees the overall margin as further proof that Mario had risen sharply and was the clear tournament favorite.

Diablo's surprising run ended abruptly against Ganondorf, who controlled the semifinal from the start. The writeup sees the match mainly as confirmation that the expected Sephiroth-Ganondorf final was inevitable.

Sephiroth was always expected to advance, but Bowser briefly held him even and produced a memorable exact tie at the thousand-vote mark. The writeup treats that early moment as the real legacy of an otherwise straightforward semifinal.

Samus briefly made the semifinal look interesting with an early lead, but Cloud quickly took control and advanced as expected. The writeup treats the rest of the match as little more than preparation for the long-planned Link final.

Link demolished Mega Man and effectively ended any remaining uncertainty about the contest favorite. The writeup attributes part of the rout to SFF but argues that Link's broader rise in strength was the more important story.

SFF: The writeup explicitly says there was a definite degree of SFF in Link's overwhelming win over Mega Man, though it argues Link's own rise mattered even more.

Final Fantasy VII dispatched Melee in a semifinal the writeup considered essentially predetermined. Melee's failure to make the match competitive reinforced the contemporary belief that it could not challenge an elite game.

The hoped-for third Mario-versus-Crono-style classic never materialized. Chrono Trigger took control after the opening exchange and stayed ahead, producing an anticlimactic semifinal despite the rivalry surrounding it.

Sephiroth dominated Mega Man in a rematch that had been nearly even one year earlier. The writeup treats the dramatic swing as some of the strongest evidence for the Kingdom Hearts Factor before the all-FF7 championship match.

Cloud shocked the contest by beating the seemingly invincible Link after taking control almost immediately and resisting the expected Zelda day-vote comeback. Heavy rallying, cheating allegations, and a disputed picture imbalance became part of the explanation for one of the contest's defining upsets.

Rally · Cheat · Pic: The writeup says both sides engaged in heavy rallying and records widespread cheating accusations, while treating those accusations as roughly symmetric blame rather than proven fraud. It also says Link's Wind Waker image versus Cloud's Kingdom Hearts image may have cost Link a small but meaningful amount of support.

Link dominated Sephiroth from the beginning, confirming fears raised by Sephiroth's earlier struggle with Samus. The writeup treats this as the match in which Link effectively secured the championship before the final was played.

Crono nearly completed another remarkable comeback against Mario before CJayC intervened over fraudulent voting. The controversy ended Crono's Cinderella run but began the long-running Mario-Crono rivalry remembered by Board 8.

Cheat: The writeup says Crono's comeback included blatant vote-stuffing and that CJayC removed fraudulent votes. It also discusses later statements suggesting the amount of fraudulent voting may have been larger than the number removed during the match.