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Auron cruised past Big Boss in what the writeup treats mostly as a preview of Auron's coming match with Ganondorf. Big Boss's poor picture is singled out as a reason not to read too much into the size of the win.

Pic: The writeup argues that Big Boss's unrecognizable cartoon-style picture hurt him and that a recognizable Naked Snake image would have performed better against Auron.

Mario dominated as expected, but his suppression of Pac-Man made Big Boss's second-place finish much easier than many anticipated. The writeup treats Pac-Man's shared old-school appeal with Mario as the key reason the debated advancing spot became one-sided.

SFF: The writeup says Mario was an especially disastrous matchup for Pac-Man because of their overlapping old-school appeal and describes Pac-Man as being SFFed to death.

Mario cruised while Big Boss demolished Magus for the other advancing spot. The writeup treats the newly revealed Naked Snake picture as the defining factor that transformed expectations before the poll even began.

Pic: The writeup calls Big Boss's Naked Snake image one of the clearest picture-factor examples, saying the strong recognizable picture helped turn the matchup against Magus decisively in Big Boss's favor.

Sephiroth beat Mario comfortably in a result that had become predictable by match day. The more notable secondary story was Fox collapsing in Mario's presence after looking strong against Nintendo opposition earlier.

SFF: The writeup says Mario heavily suppressed fellow Nintendo entrant Fox, leaving Fox far weaker than his prior-round performance suggested.

Big Boss delivered a result the writeup remembers as almost unimaginable at the time, beating a heavily favored Kirby outright. The upset immediately turned Big Boss into one of the contest's biggest talking points.

LFF: The writeup says Jinjo and Lucas hurt Kirby by splitting Nintendo support, though it also stresses that this alone cannot explain the scale of Big Boss's upset.

Kirby advanced, but the real battle was Master Chief's comeback against Big Boss. Chief's late surge turned a long, competitive fight into another memorable rally-driven reversal.

Rally · LFF: The writeup says Master Chief's fans rallied hard enough to erase Big Boss's lead and secure advancement. It also says Raiden's near-total Metal Gear overlap drained support from Big Boss.

Big Boss crushed Miles Edgeworth and became the only Metal Gear character the writeup thought looked genuinely good in the opening round. The dominant win briefly restored some pride to the series.

Mario and Big Boss produced yet another rematch, and the writeup uses their history mainly to illustrate how unstable four-way extrapolations can be. The match itself adds little new beyond that comparison.

Big Boss dominated while Captain Viridian unexpectedly took second in the Expert Challenge ordering over Peacock. The writeup treats the lower-place upset as a minor curiosity beside Big Boss's overwhelming showing.

Big Boss and Luigi stayed tied for hours before Metal Gear's stronger late trend finally separated them. Ness's presence is treated as the key fanbase drain that prevented Luigi from taking fuller advantage of Big Boss's weak daytime vote.

LFF: The writeup says Ness leeched Luigi's Nintendo support and made the difference in a match where Luigi and Big Boss were otherwise close in strength.

Sephiroth survived an expected Kirby upset attempt after a long early deadlock, then unexpectedly dominated the morning and daytime vote. The writeup treats the result as a rare 2013 case where a Final Fantasy VII heavyweight reasserted himself.

Big Boss beat a Smash-boosted Ridley comfortably, though Ridley performed well enough to show clear improvement. The writeup frames the result as a rare case where an established non-Nintendo character resisted the contest's Nintendo surge.

Big Boss barely beat Crash in a matchup that was expected to be routine, turning a presumed blowout into another warning about Metal Gear's collapse. The writeup gives Crash substantial credit for his continuing nostalgia-driven rebound.

Red beat Big Boss but struggled enough to make both Pokémon and Metal Gear strength difficult to interpret. The writeup uses the close result as evidence that Red's multiway reputation had overstated his 1v1 power.