Lurker > BlAcK TuRtLe

What a weird set of matches. You have Big Boss looking like an absolute trash pile, this weird Sora/Red matchup, Alucard making a case for winning this division, and Kefka with a reasonable and expected result.
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Safer_777 posted...

Came back from work, checked the results

Knuckles doing better than I expected.
Man it would be hilarious if Master Hand won!
Yoshi domination. Duh.
POKEFEAR!!!

Fun fact, according to 2013 lol xstats, Pikachu is underperforming by about 6%
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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UltimaterializerX posted...

And people wonder why Smash Bros is dominating this contest?

I know we like to joke about Smash fanboys, but it really is one of the few remaining video game series that are just unadulterated fun. Watching that trailer just made me feel a childlike joy that not too many other franchises can do anymore.

The gaming related things in the last few years that have gotten me excited kinda show my age and level of crotchety-ness, but whatever:

- Starcraft and War3 remasters
- Shovel Knight
- Mega Man 11
- Smash Ultimate
- The LttP Randomizer and the subsequent LttP/Super Metroid combo randomizer
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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OFool posted...

Are we still Thinking Zero>Wario Pikachu>Yoshi and then Zero>Pikachu based on these results?

Looks like Yoshi is doing pretty well...

I have Zero in my bracket, but it's looking pretty good for Pikachu. I think it will still be closer than a lot of people are saying though. The result of that match depends entirely on how overrated you think Pikachu was in 2013. 2013 stats have Pikachu winning with 54%, but that also looks like the peak we've seen Pokemon on this site.

Then again, 2013 stats also have Zero getting just shy of 70% on Kratos (Pikachu projected to 72%), and they were really close to eachother in the bracket (I don't know how the stats adjusted for Mega Man/Zero though).
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Ehh, Blizzard still has the ability to put out great games (see Starcraft 2, Warcraft 3, Overwatch), but the influence of Activision is definitely being felt with that Diablo mobile game announcement.

The funny part is the classic game team is the one part of Blizzard that is still delivering high quality. Starcraft Remastered was amazing, and War3 Reforged also looks great. I know some people were bitching about some of the recent War3 balance changes, but that's typical for the 'competitive' scene in any online game. Watching the classic game team lead on stage for the War3 announcement, you could tell he felt passionate about what he was doing, which is what is missing from the rest of the company these days.
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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LeonhartFour posted...

More fun with numbers!

If Zero = Pikachu, Knuckles beats Kratos with 58.84% and Zidane beats Kratos with 52.39%

I was feeling pretty bad about Zero's chances, but those numbers actually seem pretty reasonable
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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LeonhartFour posted...

im317 posted...

Knuckles is killing it in the UK as expected. this match should really tighten up overnight.

Yeah, that was always going to happen. Sonic is popular over there and Mega Man might as well not exist. Knux has a chance to finish with 45%, although maybe not a great one.

Not really, for all the ground Knuckles will gain overnight, Zero will recover it tomorrow. Look at Mega Man/Sonic 2005 for an idea of trends.
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LusterSoldier posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

Looking at the vote maps is always kind of fun. Almost all of North and South America are blue for Zero and Pikachu except for one country each: French Guyana for Knuckles and Ecuador for Kratos.

There's actually no votes from French Guyana. Hovering over French Guyana simply says "France", yet French Guyana is somewhat unique in that it has its own country code. And French Guyana's country code (GF) is completely absent from the source code of this page:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/map?id=7306

So this means there aren't actually any votes from French Guyana.

French Guyana is a part of France, not a separate country. Source: I have been to Guyana and Suriname
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Zero vs Knuckles

BT's Analysis

Both Zero and Knuckles are coming off of respectable round 1 performances. Zero laid a beating on Primrose, while Knuckles pulled through a Guru upset against Zidane.

A lot of people seem to be writing that result off as a sign of Zidane weakening, but Vivi's result couple with other Sonic overperformances in round 1 lead me to think it's more of a general Sonic Mania boost than anything. I don't think the result of this match is in question, but where Knuckles ends up certainly is pretty wide open.

2013 stats have Zero getting a doubling, while 2010 stats have it 56-44. With everything else we've seen, and given 2013 being pretty unreliable given the fact he was stuck behind Mega Man again, I would think we will see something closer to the 2010 stats. I expect another Knuckles overperformance that will make Zero look bad going into the round 3 matchup against the Yoshi/Pikachu winner, but we'll see how things go.

BT's Prediction: Zero with 57.45%
BT's Bracket: Zero
BT's Vote: WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOOOOR!!!!

EDIT: Whoops, the Yoshi/Pikachu match will be Round 4, not 3
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BotW was a good game ruined by bullshit mechanics. Take away weapon durability and add in more traditional Zelda items and dungeons and that game would have been amazing
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Lol quiet

It boggles my mind how this site doesn't like MGSV. It's literally the only generic open world game that is polluting the gaming space which is any good.

And yes I'm also including BotW in that
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Everyone arguing that they are the same character have clearly never played the series.
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Is that the lawyer that tried the quack pseudo-science 'brain pattern' test to 'prove' that the obviously guilty Steven Avery was 'innocent'?
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Dante with 58.14%
Ganondorf with 62.13%
Vivi with 71.24%
Leon Kennedy with 54.12%

Zero with 64.34%
Master Hand with 53.25%
Yoshi with 75.55%
Pikachu with 62.21%

Sora with 51.35%
Big Boss with 62.22%
Alucard with 54.24%
Kefka with 61.93%

2B with 51.45%
Bowser with 58.82%
Ike with 57.77%
Kirby with 62.81%

Squall Leonhart with 71.81%
Zelda with 69.99%
Fox McCloud with 59.82%
Aerith Gainsborough with 64.44%

Simon Belmont with 58.64%
Bayonetta with 56.67%
Auron with 57.77%
Sub-Zero with 56.81%
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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gtwonder posted...

This has to be one of, if not, THE biggest fall from grace of any previous contest winner ever. Already surprised he's such a low seed considering he is technically the defending character contest champion from the last one back in 2013. But to suffer from what's going to be a very crushing defeat like this in the first round? I'm kinda shocked honestly, even if its only Draven.

Eh, L-Block losing to Kefak is up there
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Dante vs. Lightning - SuperNiceDog
Chun-Li vs. Ganondorf -
Vivi vs. Aya Brea - garetha200
Donkey Kong vs. Leon Kennedy - LinkMarioSamus

Zero vs. Knuckles the Echidna - Black Turtle
Master Hand vs. Wario - DoctorJimmy133
Yoshi vs. Velvet Crowe -
Pikachu vs. Kratos - spooky96

Sora vs. Pokemon Trainer Red - paulg235
Crash Bandicoot vs. Big Boss - Ranticoot
Alucard vs. Yuna - ctesjbuvf
Kefka vs. Bomberman -

2B vs. Ness - RoseChevalier
Charizard vs. Bowser - Luster Soldier
Phoenix Wright vs. Ike - imthestuntman
Isaac vs. Kirby - TsunamiXXVIII
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LOL draven

What a farce
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UItimaterializer posted...

swirIdude posted...

I called the Tails upset! The rest of my bracket is a shitshow but who cares? Tonight, I am a genius!

^

Whoa, Tails was an upset here? I had no idea, I took him without thinking. Drake is turbofodder, and Sonic team is hot off of Sonic Mania
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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LusterSoldier posted...

OFool posted...

Lol, who on GameFAQs has played video games this decade?

The whole notion of GameFAQs no longer playing video games anymore is false based on the history of these polls:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7214-

The average number of hours played per week has remained fairly similar over the course of the poll's lifetime, except for the 2003 poll which had a much higher average (but the 2003 poll was with a far different site demographic back then).

Average hours played per week in each of those polls since 2009:

10/7/2009 - 20.47
3/1/2011 - 21.67
3/2/2014 - 21.98
4/9/2016 - 20.92
9/25/2018 - 21.48

There's just not much movement there, if any at all. In fact, it's probably within the range of random variation.

What has changed since 2009 is the rise of Steam and indie games, so there's a lot more games out there to play. This means it'll be tougher for a single game to be widely played among the site's userbase.

Doesn't really prove anything unless you have data from 2000-2007 to compare. 20 hours a week seems low for what I imagine the average GameFAQs user to play. I figure I'm in the area of 15 hours myself.
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Wow, October 3rd. Good on ExTha. It didn't even occur to me until after Pac-Man, Rosalina and Shulk impressing.

I'm really really curious what this does for Cloud's strength. FF7 has declined, but him being in Smash may have boosted him considerably (though whether it makes as big a difference as it did for Snake remains to be seen).
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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So after seeing all the other results this round, is anyone worried about a Ryu > Sephiroth upset? FF7 has looked like absolute ass, and every ancillary Smash character has vastly impressed. Ryu was already a really strong character, could Smash have boosted him at all? I definitely think that match will be at most 52-48 either way.
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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charmander6000 posted...

I was surprised that the entire crew+guest went with Ren, but 35% of the gurus had Claire so it wasn't a huge upset. Even yesterday only 26% took Simon Belmont.

I think this was just another classic example of Board 8 overestimating how many people care about the obscure crap du jeur that the board is on that day
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Advokaiser posted...

*checks results*...

-Auron 1% off my Oracle prediction. Good.
-Vincent recovering from Magus's lead from last night. Wow!
-WHAT?! I can't believe Sub-Zero is winning by this much, having quite possibly the worst picture choice available. I knew Shulk would have a very hard time, but this is nuts. Oh well, maybe it's just my own fanboyism taking place.
-Claire pulling the upset here and approaching my Oracle percentage. I'm so glad I switched to her at the last moment!

Sub-Zero should be winning by more. He's always been a high midcarder, I'm surprised he isn't getting the doubling here against some more JRPG turbofodder
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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When did that Chrono Trigger 3DS re-release come out?
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Whoa, I just noticed that Claire is the Guru upset.

What the hell are you all smoking?
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Wow, somehow everyone manages to look like shit here. The Smash boost is disgusting, in that all of these 5th tier characters are now viable midcards.
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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LeonhartFour posted...

Well, Persona 5 is more popular than Automata, so that gives Joker an advantage. All things being equal, I'd probably take Joker.

lolwut

Who the fuck plays Persona? Automata was a universally liked game in a year full of great games
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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HaRRicH posted...

Holy crap at today.

As someone who took Sans to win the eight-pack, this looks to be my worst decision if the bracket -- whoops! I was counting on 2015's contest introducing GameFAQs to Undertale and the heartfelt joy of its characters affecting more people in ways like what we saw at its first GDQ marathon. The rally never crossed my mind as likely -- this was just a fail.

Was Pac-Man announced for SSB4 yet during 2013's contest? Only thing I got besides Sans sucking.

Shit, I totally forgot Pac-Man was in Smash. This result finally makes sense

Goddamn this site and its rabid Smash fanboyism. Does this mean Cloud is going to beat Link?
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Yikes, this is a huge surprise all around. Whoda think Bayonetta would be able to dominate this 8 pack
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paulg235 posted...

I really think a lot of people are overrating Hayabusa here (especially those who picked him to win three matches). I picked Simon comfortably here with the questionable match being against Geralt in R2.

Simon and Ryu >>> Geralt

Or did you miss all of the other really new characters that have completely shit the bed?
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Round 1 Ryu Hayabusa vs. Simon Belmont

BT's Analysis

An interesting match on paper, which depends entirely on where you think Simon Belmont sits after the announcement that he is being added to the next Smash game.

Looking at states from the last 2 contests, Ryu is comfortably ahead of Simon, with 55% based on 2010, and 62% based on 2013. The few people that took Simon here claim 'Smash hype' as the reason, but I really have to question how much of an effect it will have. The game hasn't been released yet, and people care way less about Smash 5 than they did about Brawl.

This should be another boring result, but there's a very real possibility that the winner of this match gets to the 4th round.

BT's Pick: Ryu Hayabusa with 60.55%
BT's Bracket: Ryu Hayabusa
BT's Vote: Ryu Hayabusa
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ZeldaTPLink posted...

I think people are not talking enough about a Geralt rally.

Who?
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im317 posted...

there is still a chance that D.Va gets a rally in the second round when she actually needs it.

Not a chance, unless someone is rallying on pornhub or something
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Shovel Knight losing made me a sad panda. That game is truly awesome, and the Captain Toad game is boring as fuck.
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Man, this is a terrible result for D.Va. I had her beating Fox.
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All you shitlords need to play Horizon Zero Dawn. It's leagues better than Doki Doki Book Club or whatever
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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I think a lot of people are sleeping on D.Va's intrinsic strength. She doesn't need a rally if she ends up a solid midcarder
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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D.Va with 72.94%
Fox McCloud with 62.93%
Shovel Knight with 53.34%
Aerith Gainsborough with 74.22%

Geralt with 54.55%
Ryu Hayabusa with 56.12%
Sans with 61.35%
Riku with 57.77%
Auron with 71.22%
Vincent Valentine with 52.12%
Sub-Zero with 61.24%
Claire Redfield with 51.11%
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Squall Leonhart vs. Hat Kid -
Garrus Vakarian vs. Ramza Beoulve - SuperNiceDog
Metal Sonic vs. The Boss -
Zelda vs. Ezio Auditore da Firenze -
Aloy vs. D.Va -
Jill Valentine vs. Fox McCloud -
Shovel Knight vs. Captain Toad -
Waluigi vs. Aerith Gainsborough -

Geralt vs. Rosalina -
Ryu Hayabusa vs. Simon Belmont - Black Turtle
Sans vs. Pac-Man -
Bayonetta vs. Riku - Bane_Of_Despair
Auron vs. Lucina -
Magus vs. Vincent Valentine -
Shulk vs. Sub-Zero -
Ren Amamiya vs. Claire Redfield -
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I'm convinced that Ulti was trolling the entire time and didn't actually pick Monica in his bracket. If so, good job, and lol @ all the fools who fell for it
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Sora vs. Ryo Hazuki - RoseChevalier
Neptune vs. Pokemon Trainer Red -
Crash Bandicoot vs. Cecil Harvey - pjbasis
Big Boss vs. Ridley - Ranticoot
Alucard vs. Princess Peach - Luster Soldier
Yuna vs. Godot - ZeldaTPLink
Kefka vs. L-Block - Xeybozn
Kazuma Kiryu vs. Bomberman - tennisboy213

2B vs. Cayde-6 - Black Turtle
Shadow the Hedgehog vs. Ness - TsunamiXXVIII
Terra Branford vs. Charizard - MetalmindStats
Bowser vs. Gordon Freeman - SuperNiceDog
Phoenix Wright vs. Chris Redfield -
Ike vs. Joel - Hbthebattle
Estelle Bright vs. Isaac - garetha200
Kirby vs. Guile - NowItsAngeTime
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BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

https://jsfiddle.net/wnsp7hre/

Sorry forgot to put my winner:

Winner: Link
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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