Lurker > BlAcK TuRtLe

Im thinking Rabbids might be a surprise force in the next contest, after seeing that crappy Mario game that people on GameFAQs will likely eat up
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I would probably guess Cid Highwind
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Wow, that is actually surprising. Does Bethesda have something other than that shitty looking Quake of Legends game on the docket?
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Today I drove through Wyoming and felt the need to vote in the PotD for some reason.
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foxhead84 posted...

Anyone doing a PCA this year? Ulti?

PCA: Sailor Bacon's obscene match pic choices cost BT the contest
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BKSheikah, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Congrats and welcome to the Guru club!

Any chance someone can figure out who would have won if the 4 pic sabotage matches had their proper results? (specifically 2000 > 1996, 1991 > 1994, 1997 > 2001 and 2006 > 2011
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squexa posted...

charmander6000 posted...

In the bonus poll topic NGamer made a best month of 1998 list with three games each

Sept - Pokemon RB/Metal Gear Solid/Fallout 2
vs.
Nov - Ocarina of Time/Half-Life/Baldur's Gate


September looks a lot better, but November has Zelda.

This is basically 2 questions.
1. Does OoT beat RB?
2. In the event that it does, does OoT SFF RB so much that MGS vs HL is irrelevant.

I'd lean Sept for now, but OoT could surprise me.

There's not a doubt in my mind that November wins that.
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I don't think L-Block was a rally so much a rally as it was a legitimate GameFAQs fad that got out of control.
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Aside from the fact that the contest was ruined by terrible match pictures, I take solace in the fact that my only misses were the most obviously rigged matches, and 2015/2005 which is just a terrible terrible result.
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

I now think there are four matches where, even within the constraints of SBAllen's chosen format, the loser may at least plausibly bring up the point of pictures costing them the match:

2006 vs 2011
1996 vs 2000
1991 vs 1994
2001 vs 1997

I'm sure somewhere, there exists a person whose only four misses are the ones above. You have my sword, sir.

(I'm 2-2 myself so I'll hereby stop complaining about that 2000 match)

I have 6 misses in my bracket, the 4 you listed, 1987 > 1995 (also arguably ruined by pic sabotage) and 2015 > 2005 (which is more an example of GameFAQs awful taste than anything else. With fair pictures, I would be in contention for a prize.
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There's a certain satisfaction in watching a dominant contest entrant SFF the absolute shit out of a mid-carder
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

If 1994 holds its percentage, I'm not really sure you can blame 1991's loss on the match pictures. FF4 being in slot 4 is bad but 1994 is missing MMX altogether. If you move FF4 to slot 1 or 2 but add MMX as a slot 2 game for 1994, I'm not sure 1991 turns this around.

A favourable SNES picture could have made a difference here
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Oof, gg

Really would love to know how this contest would have played it if Sailor Bacon had made the match pictures representative of the 'examples' he provided on the bracket entry form. I know for a fact I'm not alone in basing my bracket on what was shown there, and I would be damn near perfect right now if he hadn't pulled the rug out from under us.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

With proper pictures that represented the information we had before the contest (consoles being mentioned, Diablo 2 and GSC for 2000), my bracket would likely be perfect right now, going into tomorrow's match.

1995 had a massive picture disadvantage and it beat 1987 anyways so you would have still gotten that one wrong.

How so? The entirety of 1995's strength was in Chrono Trigger. The only games that were snubbed were other SNES darlings that would have added little to CT's existing voter base. 2000 was missing a very strong Game Boy release, and probably the #2 or #3 PC game on this site (behind HL2), both of which add a lot of strength and diversity to the Zelda/FF block that it already had.
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1997 – 50.00%
1996 – 30.93%
2000 – 30.08%
2007 – 29.02%

Well, there's all the proof you need that 2000 got absolutely screwed by match pictures. I wish there was a way to communicate through Sailor Bacon's thick skull that pics matter, and should be reviewed for fairness ahead of time. Even tomorrow, MMX not being in 1994 really hurts it against 1991 (though given all we've seen so far, I doubt 1991 beats 1994).

With proper pictures that represented the information we had before the contest (consoles being mentioned, Diablo 2 and GSC for 2000), my bracket would likely be perfect right now, going into tomorrow's match.
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Hypothetical time, how strong are 1997 and 1998 relative to the rest of the field if FF7 and OoT are taken out of the equation?
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lol 1996
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DpObliVion, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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Man, figures the one time Allen pulls his head out of his ass to fix a horribly rigged picture, it is against my bracket.

How about we redo 1996/2000 with proper representation while we're catering to the whiners?
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I don't really pay attention to these things, was MWC always this obnoxious?
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LeonhartFour posted...

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

Also, apparantly FFT came out in Japan that year

yeah doesn't count

FFT is a 1998 game for the purposes of this contest.

Goddamn 1998 was a solid year. It's hard to decide between that and 1994 for my personal favourite years.
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transcience posted...

anyone want to argue 96 over 97? I'm open to hearing it

The best argument against it IMO is by comparing their round 1 matches. What's more impressive, 77% against 1999, or 82% against 1989? Although I suppose the 1999 match probably had some SFF in it.
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The Mana Sword posted...

97's got FF7, OoT, 007, Mario Kart, Star Fox, Parappa...Tekken 3?

Mega Man X4
Grand Theft Auto
BoF3
Fallout
Curse of Monkey Island

Those are probably the next 5 games in order from strongest to weakest. OoT was 98. Excellent and important games, but definitely not as strong as 2001's 4-8. Though if 1995 can hang with 2001 with just Chrono Trigger, I don't see 1997 losing there.

Also, apparantly FFT came out in Japan that year, so it might add some additional strength
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This was the song on the Gordon Freeman page for the contest character profile site that was up back in the day.
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Hitting the dirty thirty this year, not sure how I feel about it, though it is crazy to think at this point in their lives, my parents already had 2 kids, and I'm just getting married next year.
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red sox 777 posted...

Trends tonight could be interesting. FFX and SSBM have about as diametrically opposite trends as 2 games can get. I guess 2001 will be pretty middle of the road.

Don't think we see much in terms of trends, besides 1995 dying off overnight and with the morning vote.
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Surprised to see 1995 holding so far, no way it keeps this up though. 2001 is just too stacked.
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UItimaterializer posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

was your 2004 Games Contest bracket a favorites bracket

I don't think Final Fantasy Tactics won that contest

When has it been true? I imagine you're assuming people who picked Draven, Undertale, and L-Block did it as "favorites" brackets, but I don't think any of them ever said "oh I wasn't actually trying to win"

I made a ton of favorites picks in that contest. FFT > MGS was one of them. I didn't think FFT had a prayer of winning.

That would explain why you haven't come close to winning a contest since. You managed to luck out in the one contest where we had the least amount of stats going into it, and your brackets have lost ever since.
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creativename posted...

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

And to all the people bitching about x-stats, stop being pedantic. They are a tool to be used with common sense, and more often than not, are correct. The most successful people are able to use the x-stats as a guideline, and predict changes/stat adjustments accurately. I relied heavily on the x-stats in GotD, and replaced a few key areas with common sense where the results made no sense (i.e. GSC/Majora) and it won me the Guru that year.

Is it "people"? Isn't it just Ulti?

I see other trolls come up and agree with him from time to time.
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DpObliVion, my hat is off to you. Welcome to the Guru Champions Club
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And to all the people bitching about x-stats, stop being pedantic. They are a tool to be used with common sense, and more often than not, are correct. The most successful people are able to use the x-stats as a guideline, and predict changes/stat adjustments accurately. I relied heavily on the x-stats in GotD, and replaced a few key areas with common sense where the results made no sense (i.e. GSC/Majora) and it won me the Guru that year.
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Giant2005 posted...

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Giant2005 posted...

Do you think 98 would have still taken down 92 if Pokemon was in 96 where it belongs?

Yes, and 98 would probably still be favored to win the contest. It was a really loaded year.

But is that just a knee-jerk reaction?
ALttP > OoT
Ultima Vii > Baldur's Gate
Wolfenstein 3D > Half-Life
Virtua Racing > Gran Turismo
Alone in the Dark > Resident Evil 2
Dune 2 > Age of Empires

And those are just the direct comparisons. What is left?
Mega Man 4 and 5, Final Fantasy 5, Kirby, Ecco, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario Land 2, Mortal Kombat, Sonic 2, Street Fighter 2 vs MGS, Yoshi, Starcraft, 1080 Snowboarding, Unreal, Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro, NFS 3, FO 2, Grim Fandango, Oddworld

Unless I am forgetting something big about 98, I just don't really see how it would compete with 92 if Pokemon was put in its original release year of 96. Although I could see an argument for 1080 Snowboarding bringing 98 out ahead - 92 really didn't have any sports games to offer.

Bold is where you are so hilariously wrong it hurts. You have just tried to argue your own personal (and also incorrect) opinions over established mainstream support, and more importantly, established GameFAQs pecking order.
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Yuri_LowelI posted...

Keltiq posted...

Ultima VII is definitely a significant game, besides the fact that I've never in my life met somebody who played it. (Which is generally true of PC games that came out before I was born that aren't called "Doom")

However, all the games that ARE listed on 1992 are significant as well - just in a different way. A more important way. They're the games that the "average gamer" is more likely to care about. I think pretty much everybody has some connection to Zelda, or Sonic, or Mario Kart, etc. (Wolfenstein is actually probably the least worthy one there, despite being one of the codifiers of FPS or whatever.)

Everybody has their own games they care about, obviously. But not everybody's interests can be represented simultaneously when you only have room for like six games.

As for OoT, I'd say that it's not a bad game, but it's a "basic" game. All the later 3D Zeldas built on it in some way, so it feels lacking in comparison. Also, whenever I play it I just think "I should play Majora's Mask again" because it's way better and 2000 should have won

Skyward sword and tp are much worse than OoT even now. Basic game argument doesn't work when they didn't build on it enough. Botw is what Zelda should have been going for 10 years ago. That's is the true successor to oots groundbreaking design and vision.

TP had less sidequests than OoT with shitty dark worlds and skyward sword had one of the worst over worlds in a zelda game.

See, I would argue BotW is a huge setback for Zelda. They basically took the Ubisoft open world boilerplate, tacked on a moronic inventory system and an even more insane durability mechanic and slapped the name Zelda on it. I haven't played TP or Skyward Sword, but at least they had dungeons and good game mechanics.

BotW would have been an okay game without the durability stupidity, but as it is, I was extremely disappointed and stopped playing after the first 'dungeon'.
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Giant2005 posted...

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

Giant2005 posted...

Is it just me or is this contest starting to look a little rigged?
I mean take 1992 for example, there is no mention of some of the most important games in history.
Like Ultima VII - it pioneered basically everything people loved about Skyrim. Or Virtua Racing which not only pioneered the 3d racing genre, but it is credited with being responsible popularizing 3d in the first place. Those two games are really big deals that were completely ignored - a similar argument could be made for Alone in the Dark pioneering the horror genre, but that is much less significant than the other two omissions.

Ya, I'm sure Ultima 7 and Virtua Racing would have led 1992 to victory over OoT.

It isn't about victory - there are so many 98 fanboys that 98 would probably win regardless. What it is about is having a fair battle.
Also, although it is an unpopular call to make, Ultima Vii is 10x the game that OoT is. Have you ever tried replaying OoT? It can't be done - it is too boring.

I replay OoT (or Master Quest) at least once every 2 years. It is a groundbreaking, outstanding game that defined the 64-bit era. Ultima VII is the 7th Ultima game, a series so garbage, that it turned players off of western RPGs until Morrowind came out.
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Giant2005 posted...

Is it just me or is this contest starting to look a little rigged?
I mean take 1992 for example, there is no mention of some of the most important games in history.
Like Ultima VII - it pioneered basically everything people loved about Skyrim. Or Virtua Racing which not only pioneered the 3d racing genre, but it is credited with being responsible popularizing 3d in the first place. Those two games are really big deals that were completely ignored - a similar argument could be made for Alone in the Dark pioneering the horror genre, but that is much less significant than the other two omissions.

Ya, I'm sure Ultima 7 and Virtua Racing would have led 1992 to victory over OoT.
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scaryice posted...

This contest would've been better if the 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s were each one quarter of the bracket. Add 2017 to get 8 years this decade.

Ya, no. The only thing that would accomplish is get more shit fodder years in in place of worthwhile ones. Segregation by release didn't work in the games contest, why would it work here.
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Man this sucks, my 2 gut reaction upset picks failed out by a couple hundred votes, and now my gut pick of 1991 winning by being a more historical year is also bunk.

Shame that the contest has devolved into 'add up the xstats of all the games in the match picture' instead of something more meaningful.
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Metal_DK posted...

People still going through the 5 stages of grief on 2006? It was pretty easy to predict, Skyrim is significantly more popular than any 2006 game....including Twilight Princess

TP beats Skyrim easily
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Whoever this guest is, he needs to stop saying 'like' as every second word
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20 vote lead. Will be curious to see if this maintains tomorrow. Traditional thinking should be that overnight and morning will favour 2000, but Zelda also has a really good SNV, so it's hard to say.
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Fortunately we will actually get to see that match happen. It's my most anticipated match of the contest, behind 1987/1995
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I take 2007 over 2008 tbh. I think people that would take 2008 are putting too much faith in Brawl, which being 10 years old now, doesn't have anywhere near the strength it did during GotD
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LordoftheMorons posted...

2001

lol
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1996 tapering off with the end of the power hour, 2000 should comfortably take the night vote.
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Which year besides 1998 do you propose beats 1997? None of the results we have seen suggest any other year is capable of that.
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LeonhartFour posted...

And while we're focused on 1996/2000, 1997 is laying a beatdown on 2007 and still rising.

No surprises there, 1997 is the very clear #2 in this bracket.
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KamikazePotato posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

It was also not unreasonable to expect it wouldn't get it when you looked at what games SBAllen put under 2000's profile. Like, what games 2000 got besides FFIX and MM was a crapshoot, and they didn't get what they needed.

I don't agree with this line of thinking. Yeah, it didn't get what it needed, but the fact of the matter is that 1996 did and there was no guarantee for that either. Super Mario RPG was not guaranteed at all - Bacon has removed other random games in the name of diversity. It's actually very weird that there's two Mario games in the same poll. And 2000 not getting Pokemon GSC OR Diablo 2 is probably the biggest pic screwery of the contest so far. I can sort of see Deus Ex included for the diversity and it being a fairly landmark game, but did we really need Perfect Dark?

It seems like he was going for diversity of platform rather than franchise. The late 90s, and 2000 itself didn't have a lot of variety. All games worth playing were N64, PS1 or PC. 1996 on the other hand still had SNES, Genesis, PS1, N64 and Saturn games coming out.
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Yes but only if you major in something actually useful. Note that the only people that complain about college are those that get degrees in bullshit majors like philosophy or poli sci
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ninkendo posted...

all I've heard from this topic and all over B8 was 2000 and not 1996 so I don't know why anyone would think 1996 was the favorite

Because it is an incredibly obvious 'upset' pick over the guru favourite (1996)
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Heh, if 1996 is losing with the board vote, I can't wait to see what the rest of the day brings.
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transience posted...

I've heard very little talk about 96/00 which is probably the match of the round

2000 wins, and it won't be nearly as close as 1987/1995
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Not_Wylvane posted...

I'd love to see Melee/Brawl again in a future contest.

Melee wins that. Think the transitive strength of Smash goes to the next game, but the diehard 'SMASH BORS IS TOTALLY A REALY FIGHTING GAME!!!!!!!111111111111 FOX ONLY NO ITEMS FINAL DESTINATION' fanboys will always stick with Melee over any other game in the series.
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