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Mario demolished Samus in the contest's most heavily debated quarterfinal and invalidated the old statistical case for a Samus win. The writeup later apologizes for its original hostility, but still treats the result as a decisive SFF showcase of Mario's 2005 strength.

SFF: The writeup repeatedly describes Mario's victory as an enormous SFF beating that overwhelmed Samus despite pre-match statistical expectations favoring her.

Snake built a large lead before Bowser mounted a long afternoon comeback that fell just short. The writeup considers the close win a major validation for Snake and argues that his poor match picture made the result look closer than it otherwise would have.

Pic: The writeup argues that Snake's hard-to-recognize sprite hurt him while Bowser had a clear, recognizable picture, and says Snake likely wins by more with a fairer image.

Crono won without serious danger, but Vincent performed far better than comparable projections suggested and then held an unusually stable share for most of the match. The writeup treats the overperformance as a puzzle involving either reverse SFF or an Advent Children boost.

SFF: The writeup presents reverse SFF between newer and older Square fandom as one plausible reason Vincent performed unusually well against Crono, while also considering Advent Children as an alternative explanation.

Sonic and Mega Man traded control in one of the contest's defining close matches, with Sonic twice appearing ready to take over before losing momentum. The writeup ultimately frames Mega Man's narrow win as another painful Sonic choke in a rivalry between nearly equal icons.

Tifa pushed Samus to the brink and briefly took control before Samus's daytime recovery secured the win. The writeup frames it as Samus's worst performance, with picture theories and rejected fraudulent votes becoming central parts of the controversy.

Cheat · Pic: The writeup treats Samus's Zero Suit picture as a plausible contributor to her severe underperformance, while rejecting it as a complete explanation. It also cites CJayC's report of large numbers of rejected cheating votes favoring Tifa.

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.

Snake decisively reversed his old history against Mega Man after Mega's earlier warning signs finally became impossible to dismiss. The writeup treats the upset as the moment the Year of the Snake fully arrived and Mega Man's long-term decline became a serious concern.

Crono built a strong overnight lead, only for Sonic's daytime strength to erase it and carry Sonic to a major bracket upset. The writeup treats the enormous swing as the overdue punishment for Crono's chronic weakness outside the night vote.

Cloud and Samus advanced through a quarterfinal that played out almost exactly as expected. The lasting story was Mega Man's poor showing, which ended any serious argument that he still belonged alongside Samus.

Link and Sephiroth advanced as expected, but Mario held up better against Link than many anticipated. The writeup treats Link's diminished dominance as the first meaningful encouragement for people hoping Cloud could beat him later.

LFF: The writeup says Mario clearly weakened fellow Nintendo entrant Link, narrowing Link's advantage over Sephiroth and briefly making Link look vulnerable.

Master Chief took first while Dante survived for the other advancing spot. Luigi led early but could not overcome the continued presence of Pikachu, whose run ended while also dragging a major Nintendo character out with it.

LFF: The writeup says Pikachu continued to siphon Nintendo support from Luigi, helping Dante take the second advancing position and eliminating Luigi.

L-Block led from the opening minutes and held off a long Snake comeback to take first. The writeup identifies this as the match where the joke entrant became a genuine Internet-backed force capable of defeating Noble Nine characters.

Rally: The writeup describes L-Block's growing Internet support as an active rally and says a late counter-push helped stop Snake's comeback.

Link remained untouchable, while Zack made a dramatic but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to steal the other advancing spot from Mario. The loss ended one of the contest's most popular bandwagon runs.

SFF: The writeup says Link SFFed both Mario and Mega Man X, with Mega Man X falling to a distant position after initially challenging Mario.

The writeup treats Crono versus Vincent as the emotional centerpiece of the contest, built on years of Crono near-misses and frustration. Crono's late comeback finally reversed their previous result and completed the redemption story.

Rally: The writeup says Board 8 rallied intensely for Crono late in the match, turning the final fight with Vincent into a successful comeback for the advancing spot.

Cloud and Snake advanced through a deliberately uneventful quarterfinal after the drama of the prior match. The Cube's quiet exit confirmed that the inanimate-object wave had largely run out of steam.

Kirby delivered another major shock by advancing ahead of Sonic, whose long decline finally produced a costly elimination. The writeup treats Sonic's failure as the culmination of years of warning signs rather than a random fluke.

Super Mario World took first, while Zelda erased a huge deficit and nearly stole second from Mario 3 in the final minutes. A suspicious late swing for Mario 3 turned an already dramatic finish into a lasting Board 8 controversy.

SFF · LFF · Cheat: The writeup describes heavy Mario-on-Mario SFF and a three-Mario split that greatly helped Zelda. It also alleges that a suspicious late swing in Mario 3's favor may have involved cheating, though the official result ultimately stood.

Final Fantasy VII dominated, while A Link to the Past survived a late Mario 64 comeback by a narrow margin. The writeup also sees the result as another sign that newer voters were gradually reshaping the site's preferences.

SFF: The writeup says Final Fantasy VII SFFed Final Fantasy VI heavily, reducing FF6 to a minor factor while the real race developed between Link to the Past and Mario 64.

Ocarina of Time dominated the Nintendo-heavy field, while Final Fantasy X used the favorable bracket setup to advance. Melee fell to last and Pokémon could not overcome Ocarina's presence.

SFF: The writeup says Ocarina of Time heavily SFFed both Melee and Pokémon RBY, with Pokémon resisting the Nintendo suppression better than Melee.

Metal Gear Solid 4 built a large overnight lead, then barely survived a massive Brawl afternoon comeback. The two advanced together from an unusually balanced field, while Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4 were eliminated.

SFF: The writeup says Brawl SFFed Twilight Princess enough to knock Zelda out of the advancing positions.

Link crushed Sonic far more severely than a normal Noble Nine matchup suggested, restoring his aura of invincibility. The writeup views fanbase suppression as an important part of why the gap became so extreme.

SFF: The writeup endorses SFF as a plausible explanation for Link's unusually severe beating of Sonic, noting that Link looked invincible mainly against overlapping characters such as Luigi and Sonic.

Charizard's bandwagon could not seriously threaten Mario, but the Pokémon star still performed well enough to complete a remarkable contest run. The writeup treats the loss as further proof that Pokémon had become one of the site's strongest franchises.

Samus repeatedly fought Cloud back to even during the opening hours and came closer to the upset than their older history suggested possible. Cloud finally took control during his strongest overnight period, but the writeup regards Samus's resistance as a major statement.

Snake defeated Sephiroth in a matchup that had shifted from pre-contest dream upset to expected result as Sephiroth deteriorated. The writeup treats Snake's control as decisive and immediately turns attention toward whether he could beat Cloud.

Fallout 3 survived a strong Metroid Prime challenge, with the writeup again arguing that match timing may have changed the outcome. The recent New Vegas release is also cited as a plausible boost for Fallout.

Twilight Princess briefly led before Brawl took over and won comfortably. The result made Brawl look increasingly difficult to stop and strengthened the belief that it was the contest favorite.

SFF: The writeup says Brawl versus Twilight Princess can be considered SFF because of their shared Nintendo/Wii audience, with Brawl suppressing Zelda's support.

Final Fantasy X erased the pre-match Resident Evil 4 upset hype almost immediately and produced the writeup's strongest championship-looking performance of its run. RE4 is treated as a major disappointment for failing to make the match competitive.

Majora's Mask overwhelmed Metal Gear Solid 3 and fully emerged as a credible championship threat. The writeup considers MGS3 the one quarterfinalist that looked clearly out of place this deep in the bracket.

Mario and Bowser crushed Mega Man X and Zero by almost the same proportion as an old Mario-Mega Man matchup. The writeup uses the repeat-like result to complain about how lifeless the late rounds had become.

Red and Blue decisively eliminated Samus and Ridley and became the first outside pairing to beat a Noble Nine member in a full-day head-to-head contest setting. The writeup frames it as a clear changing of the guard toward Pokémon.

Link and Ganondorf overwhelmed Alucard and Dracula in a quarterfinal that closely echoed old Link blowouts of midcard opposition. The result added nothing new to the writeup's view of Link as untouchable.

Cloud and Sephiroth crushed Squall and Seifer by almost the same proportion as an old Final Fantasy VII-versus-VIII matchup. The writeup treats the lack of improvement as a warning that they had no chance against Link.

Final Fantasy VII briefly led, but Melee's outside support quickly took control and turned the quarterfinal into a comfortable upset. The result reversed their old hierarchy and ended Final Fantasy's main title hopes.

Rally: The writeup says Melee's community rally engine took over after Final Fantasy VII's brief early lead and then drove the rest of the match decisively toward Melee.

Mario 64 repeatedly fought Undertale back into a close match, but every meaningful threat triggered another surge of outside Undertale support. Undertale eventually pulled clear and continued toward the semifinal.

Rally: The writeup says Undertale's rally erased Mario 64's early lead within hours and repeatedly answered Mario whenever he briefly retook control. Simultaneous Melee rallying may also have helped Mario somewhat.

Ocarina of Time beat A Link to the Past, but failed to produce the devastating same-series suppression many expected from their old four-way comparison. Both analyses conclude that little or no meaningful SFF was visible in the current match.

Super Mario RPG ended Metal Gear Solid 3's run and completed an improbable trip to the semifinals. The writeup treats the victory as the culmination of a huge nostalgia-driven bandwagon rather than a picture-driven result.

1995 briefly made its matchup with 2001 look like a classic before 2001 began pulling away and never looked back. The writeup explicitly calls it a fair fight and rejects picture excuses for the result.

1997 crushed 1996 and appeared almost as dominant as 1998, making a 1997-versus-1998 final feel inevitable. The writeup stresses how impressive such a blowout looked this deep in the bracket.

1991 won the opening board vote and then was steadily run over by 1994. The writeup's main story is anger that system releases were omitted from a contest supposedly about entire gaming years.

Pic: The writeup argues that excluding console launches from every match picture unfairly hurt 1991 in particular because the Super Nintendo was one of its strongest assets. It says 1994 may still have won, but the picture policy made the matchup fundamentally unfair.

1998 produced another enormous late-round blowout and made 2003 look completely outclassed. The writeup treats the result as the year-contest equivalent of a dominant same-fanbase Zelda matchup.

SFF: The writeup explicitly likens 1998's rout of 2003 to a Zelda SFF beating, with Ocarina of Time effectively suppressing a Wind Waker-centered year.

Link overwhelmed Pikachu and continued his untouchable 2018 run. Pikachu's result is still framed positively because he had already broken the Noble Nine and appeared to resist most of Link's usual same-fanbase suppression.

SFF: The writeup says Pikachu likely suffered a small amount of Nintendo SFF under Link, while emphasizing that Pokémon resisted the effect unusually well.

Cloud beat Crono much more comfortably than the pre-match upset discussion suggested. The writeup explicitly rejects SFF as the explanation and credits Cloud's Smash appearance with restoring enough strength to dominate the matchup.

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.

Mario beat Samus in their long-awaited 1v1 rematch, but the match stayed close enough to validate years of arguments that Samus could compete with him. The writeup treats the result as an unusually satisfying resolution to their old rivalry.

Breath of the Wild doubled Mass Effect 2 in the quarterfinals and maintained one of the most dominant game-contest runs ever. The writeup treats Dragon Quest XI's prior resistance as newly impressive in hindsight.

Smash Ultimate comfortably ended Xenoblade's surprise run and advanced to the semifinal. Although some observers called the result SFF, the writeup explicitly questions whether meaningful suppression occurred and emphasizes Xenoblade's bandwagon instead.

The Witcher 3 beat Persona 5 after an entertaining opening and confirmed that even a major Persona push was not enough to threaten it. The result sent Witcher into the semifinal looking almost untouchable.

Rally: The writeup says Persona 5 rallied heavily from the opening and received roughly hundreds of outside votes, though The Witcher 3 repeatedly absorbed the pushes and pulled away.

Skyrim and Dark Souls stayed nearly even for the opening hours before Skyrim's stronger morning vote finally created separation. The writeup treats it as the last genuinely competitive match of the contest and a strong final showing for Dark Souls.