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Aeris handled Sora as expected and continued the pattern of outperforming her low seed. The writeup later came to view Sora's poor showing as an SFF result that understated his actual contest strength.

SFF: The writeup retrospectively identifies Aeris versus Sora as an SFF match, arguing that Sora's connection to Aeris through Kingdom Hearts made him look weaker than he would against an unrelated opponent.

Sora beat newcomer HK-47 comfortably, but the writeup says the matchup offered little reliable information because HK-47 had no contest baseline. Attention immediately shifted to whether Sora's previous results had understated his real strength before the next round.

Sora turned a matchup many expected Ryu Hayabusa to control into one of the contest's biggest surprises. The writeup treats the decisive win as proof that Sora had made an enormous jump in strength since the previous year.

Samus dispatched Sora without drama and quickly erased the renewed optimism around Sonic. The writeup views the match as confirmation that Samus should win the division comfortably, even if Cloud remained beyond her reach.

Sora handled Agent 47 comfortably, yet the writeup still considered the performance mediocre for the matchup. More importantly, Riku's earlier showing against Frog had already shifted the coming Sora-Alucard debate strongly toward Sora.

Sora turned one of the contest's most debated statistical matchups into a clear win over Alucard. The writeup argues that recent Kingdom Hearts momentum and Alucard's stagnation mattered far more than the old x-stats.

Snake demolished Sora after entering the match somewhat underestimated. The writeup sees the result as both a statement of Snake's true strength and an example of a broader fanbase-overlap effect working against Sora.

SFF: The writeup rejects a simple PlayStation 2 explanation but argues that a broader form of SFF hurt Sora badly against Solid Snake.

Sora beat the widely disliked Tingle in a completely stable and predictable match. The writeup finds almost no useful trend information in the result beyond another easy Kingdom Hearts win.

Sora comfortably ended Gordon Freeman's brief taste of success and then pulled farther away with the Kingdom Hearts day vote. The writeup treats the loss as another turning point in the fading GFNW tradition.

Mega Man beat Sora, but his performance deteriorated badly as the match progressed and the Kingdom Hearts day vote arrived. The writeup treats this as the match that fully exposed Mega Man's decline before his meeting with Snake.

Sora controlled the match while Wesker briefly made the fight with Lara genuinely competitive. Lara eventually pulled away, but the writeup regards Wesker's showing as surprisingly strong despite a potentially damaging picture.

Pic: The writeup says Wesker's ugly match picture may have hurt him in his close fight with Lara for the second advancing spot.

Squall took control immediately, while Sora decisively reversed his old loss to Aeris. Aeris nearly fell behind Lara as well, making the writeup treat the result as a sharp confirmation of her decline.

LFF: The writeup argues that Squall's presence hurt fellow Square entrant Aeris far more than Sora, helping Sora reverse their old matchup and advance comfortably.

Sonic held off Squall for first, but Squall remained unexpectedly competitive despite sharing support with Sora. The writeup treats Sonic's narrow-looking advantage as another sign that four-way matches exposed his weaknesses.

LFF: The writeup says Sora drained enough Square support from Squall that Squall probably would have beaten Sonic without Sora in the poll.

Sora and Fox produced the expected advancing pair in a match without meaningful swings. Chris Redfield did better than his prior contest reputation suggested, but never threatened the leaders.

Squall and Sora advanced together yet again, while Yoshi collapsed far more badly than expected. The result reinforced the strange independence of the Squall-Sora pairing and exposed Yoshi's vulnerability in the field.

LFF: The writeup says Fox's presence hurt fellow Nintendo entrant Yoshi, while Sora remained largely independent of Squall and benefited from the contrast.

Cloud dominated, while Mewtwo turned a seemingly unfavorable draw into one of the contest's largest surprises. Squall and Sora were left fighting each other for scraps behind the advancing pair.

SFF: The writeup says Cloud's presence created massive Square SFF against Squall and Sora, allowing outside entrant Mewtwo to capitalize and advance.

Sora beat Midna comfortably but again failed to produce the huge blowout expected from a top seed against weak opposition. The writeup treats this as a stable feature of Sora's highly anti-voted 1v1 profile.

Sora beat Laharl but performed so poorly relative to expectations that the writeup declared a future Bowser win virtually certain. The result is treated as part of a contest-wide decline for Kingdom Hearts.

Bowser completed a bracket-busting upset that had become increasingly predictable after Sora's poor first two rounds. The writeup treats the loss as the clearest sign yet that Kingdom Hearts had fallen sharply.

Sora beat Scorpion and Aya without any meaningful suspense, and the writeup dismisses speculation that Aya would drain enough Square support to matter. The match is mostly treated as a routine Kingdom Hearts win.

Sora comfortably beat two first-round upset winners in a deliberately uneventful match. The result was interpreted as evidence that he could survive the Pokémon-heavy matchup waiting in Round Three.

Pikachu built a large lead, survived Sora's late comeback, and won despite sharing the poll with Pokémon Trainer Blue. The result sent another Pokémon character into the contest's final stretch and underscored how little strength Sora had left.

LFF: The writeup explicitly says Pikachu resisted Blue's LFF and that the second Pokémon entrant was the main reason Sora could keep the match competitive.

Sora won easily but failed the writeup's real test: looking strong enough for a top seed before the coming Red matchup. Ryo's modest resistance immediately became another warning sign for Sora's familiar pattern of high seeding and underachievement.

Red built a large lead, watched Sora erase much of it, then survived with help from a late Pokémon subreddit push. The writeup treats the match as both a legitimate close contest and a direct example of a small rally deciding the outcome.

Rally: The writeup says Pokémon Trainer Red was rallied through posts to the Pokémon subreddit during Sora's comeback, and explicitly states that the outside traffic made the difference.