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Ryu was a fashionable upset pick before the contest, but Samus controlled their match from the start. The result confirmed that her earlier win over Ken was not misleading and sent her toward an expected meeting with Sonic.

Ryu upset a Dante whom both the board and bracket field had largely treated as the obvious winner. The writeup remembers it as a surprisingly quiet upset because Ryu stayed in control and the board generated little outrage.

Sonic beat Ryu without serious danger, but the writeup saw the performance as insufficient to threaten a surging Samus. The result reinforced the sense that Sonic had remained steady while Samus had improved.

Bowser beat Ryu without the close fight that had once made the matchup a major bracket debate. The writeup treats the anticlimax as one more piece of evidence for a site-wide Nintendo boost and another failure of the Gauntlet hype.

Mega Man beat Ryu, but his steady loss of ground was another warning that his old strength was fading. The writeup says people initially blamed the poor showing partly on his bad picture, only realizing later that the decline was real.

Auron looked excellent, but the lasting story was Ryu beating Bowser again even after the Nintendo overlap from their earlier meeting was gone. The writeup finds the result difficult to explain beyond the volatility of the four-way format.

Crono and L-Block advanced in a much quieter sequel to L-Block's chaotic opening match. The defending champion looked strikingly ordinary, creating the first real sense that the repeat bid might be beatable.

Most of the writeup recounts the Canada-USA Olympic hockey final, then uses the game to explain the 'Hockey Factor': Dante improved while North American voters were occupied, before Ryu recovered after the game ended.

Draven transformed from a low natural share into an overwhelming rally-powered winner over Mega Man X and Ryu. The performance convinced much of Board 8 that he had become a credible threat to win the entire contest.

Rally: The writeup says massive League of Legends rallying turned Draven into an overwhelming force and drove historically enormous vote totals.

Ryu crushed Commander Shepard and made Mass Effect's character decline look severe. The writeup treats Ryu's Smash exposure as part of a broader rise while Shepard never recovered old strength.