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Zelda decisively beat a Lara Croft whose reputation had already fallen sharply from her former top-seed status. The writeup frames the loss as another sign of Lara's rapid decline while Zelda benefited from intense contemporary Zelda enthusiasm.

Mega Man beat Zelda without the usual overwhelming dominance associated with his early contest career. The writeup considered the result mildly disappointing while allowing that Zelda's strength may simply have been underestimated.

Zelda turned a heavily debated matchup into an easy win, badly undercutting the statistical case for Vivi. The writeup interprets the result as evidence of both Zelda's growth and the wider Nintendo boost that was becoming a major contest storyline.

Snake quickly dismantled a Zelda upset bandwagon that had grown from mismatched old statistics and concern over his ugly picture. The writeup treats the match as another example of Board 8 talking itself into a close contest that never materialized.

Zelda demolished Carmen Sandiego in what the writeup calls one of the contest's most dominant performances. The showing immediately fueled a serious bandwagon that Zelda might threaten Samus later in the bracket.

Zelda demolished Terra far more convincingly than the old projections suggested. The writeup says the performance transformed Zelda from an obvious division favorite into a serious threat to Samus's title hopes.

Zelda looked dominant early before Aeris recovered enough to make the final result respectable, though the outcome was never in danger. The writeup mentions favorable circumstances for Aeris but leaves their actual impact unresolved.

Zelda beat Yuna as expected, but Yuna held up considerably better than the writeup had anticipated. Zelda's less-than-perfect showing also cooled some of the immediate talk that she might exploit Samus's weakness in the next round.

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.

Vincent quickly turned the anticipated contest with Zelda into a comfortable first-place finish, while Zelda safely advanced with him. The writeup notes that the genuinely close Tails-The Boss fight for third mattered little because neither advancing spot was threatened.

Link and Vincent ultimately advanced comfortably, but Bidoof briefly turned the match into chaos by challenging Vincent early and even beating Link in the opening vote. The writeup remembers the surge as one of the contest's most surreal joke-character moments.

Rally · Cheat: The writeup attributes Bidoof's extraordinary early surge to suspected offsite rallying, especially from 4chan, and also records suspicions of vote stuffing.

Mario won as expected, but Zelda resisted the feared fanbase suppression and comfortably held the second advancing spot over Knuckles. The writeup treats the result as another blow to Sonic Team's standing and a strong performance for Zelda.

Mega Man X seriously challenged Mario for first before Mario's morning surge reversed the race. Zelda narrowly escaped last place but was eliminated, while Mudkip's inability to reproduce a joke run made the match a turning point for bandwagon expectations.

SFF: The writeup characterizes the all-Nintendo field as a heavily leeched matchup and describes Zelda's elimination as another result shaped by overlapping support.

Zelda advanced comfortably but looked weaker than the writeup expected, while Travis benefited from recent No More Heroes visibility. The result did little to alter Zelda's projected path.

Zelda erased the pre-match upset hype almost immediately and won comfortably. Ezio's later daytime gains were respectable but never made the contest meaningfully competitive.

Zelda advanced as expected, but Jecht performed much better than his prior results suggested and ignored the usual daytime trend expectations. The writeup suspects the contemporaneous Final Fantasy release helped explain the odd showing.

Samus beat Zelda far more decisively than their previous meeting suggested was normal. The writeup sees a mix of Zelda decline and newly visible Nintendo suppression from Samus, further strengthening Samus's case against Cloud.

SFF: The writeup says Samus appears to have SFFed Zelda, contributing to a much stronger result than their earlier 1v1 history suggested.

Zelda crushed two Western franchise mascots and looked far healthier than she had in 2010. John Marston took second in the Expert Challenge ordering without ever threatening the winner.

Zelda repeatedly looked on the verge of beating Charizard, but Pokémon's morning strength and late outside support dragged Charizard through a final-update escape. The writeup treats the win as a major warning that Charizard had been overrated.

LFF · Rally: The writeup says Donkey Kong's presence created heavy Nintendo vote splitting that badly hurt Charizard. It also says late rallies were necessary for Charizard to erase Zelda's lead and survive.

Zelda crushed Ezio far more severely than in their earlier contest meeting and effectively ended debate about the division's natural favorite. The writeup treats the performance as another major Zelda and Nintendo statement.

Zelda crushed The Boss and made her coming match with Squall look increasingly favorable. The writeup treats Breath of the Wild and broader Nintendo momentum as convincing explanations for Zelda's dramatic rise.

Zelda destroyed Squall in the match that fully established her as the star of the main bracket. The writeup treats the scale of the win as evidence of a genuine Breath of the Wild and Smash-era boost, not a rally.

Zelda crushed Aerith and finished a division where every win had looked dominant. The writeup treats Aerith's record 15-seed run as impressive but completely overmatched once it reached Zelda.

Zelda narrowly beat Solid Snake after a long fight in which Snake repeatedly threatened to retake control. The writeup treats the victory as the match that buried the old Noble Nine order and confirmed Zelda's elite-level rise.

SFF: The writeup says Snake's Nintendo-derived support consistently abandons him against Nintendo characters and identifies that overlap, combined with Zelda's boost, as a major reason he lost this match.

Zelda demolished Sonic in the largest of the contest's Noble Nine-breaking results. The writeup treats Zelda as plainly stronger rather than rally-assisted and calls the loss one of Sonic's worst career performances.

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 erased Zelda's brief opening lead and won the Legends Bracket comfortably. The writeup treats Zelda's relatively strong same-series showing as one more sign that her 2018 boost was real.

SFF: The writeup frames Link as the site's strongest SFF character and treats Zelda's ability to retain substantial support in a direct same-series match as unusually impressive resistance.

Cloud erased Zelda's early lead with the same night-to-day trend reversal he had just used against Mario. The writeup treats the loss as Zelda finally running out of momentum after her extraordinary run rather than evidence that her breakout was false.