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37. Samus Aran vs. Vincent Valentine vs. Crono vs. Pikachu (2008) R4

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/46275fc8.jpg

Samus Aran 30.91% 37909
Vincent Valentine 25.25% 30963
Crono 25.31% 31041
Pikachu 18.54% 22736
TOTAL VOTES 122649
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Samus_Aran_vs_Vincent_Valentine_vs_Crono_vs_Pikachu_2008
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3301-contest-quarterfinal-samus-vincent-crono-pikachu

Crono is one of our strongest characters, and has been from the very beginning. However, despite his strength, the matches of his that everyone remembers, the ones that will make it near the top of this list, are his losses. This match however, is different. This match was Cronos Revenge. But first, the backstory. Crono was a solid link in the Noble Nine for our first several years, despite some of his dramatic losses. Starting in 2006 though, he began to slip, getting a reputation as the weak link of the Noble Nine, and eventually becoming the first Noble Niner to lose to a Non-Noble Niner in a match. The character that pulled off that accomplishment was Vincent, and if Crono fans were looking for a rematch, they got one right away as the two were set up against each other the very next year. Once again the two of them would face off in a battle for second place in a match, and once again the winner of their showdown would knock the winner out of the contest for good.

Other than the imminent release of Chrono Trigger DS, which wasnt considered much of a factor pre-release, there was very little reason to think that anything had changed between 2007 and 2008. If Vincent had had the edge before, he should have it again, and most people did indeed side with him for this match, but Crono would retain a core of support. It didnt matter that there was no reason for the previous years result to reverse itself this time around. It was Crono, goddammit, Theres just something about the guy that makes people root for him, and people were going to show him support no matter what. And that support, while based more in hope than in logic, did gain some traction as the contest went on. Vincent would turn in a series of performances which while competent were not as impressive as in the past, while Crono managed to put away his opponents with ease every round, not even breaking a sweat against a returning L-Block, whose strength was a massive question mark going into things. Both of them generally met their marks in their three previous matches, but if you had to parse things out to a fine detail, Crono had had a slightly better run so far when compared to the pre-contest expectations. Vincent retained a slight advantage prediction wise, but the match was increasingly looking like anyones game. And the stakes were extremely high, as whichever character advanced would be going into a Semifinals match with three Nintendo icons, a golden opportunity for a vote split, and for a ticket to the Finals.

As expectations rose, the match started, and in the initial hours it played out much like it had the year before. Crono swept the Board Vote and started to build up a sizable lead over Vincent, several hundred votes ahead by the early morning hours when the European Vote was expected to kick in, and for the bottom to drop out from under Crono. And initially, Crono looked like he would be in trouble. His lead peaked at just over 800 votes, several hundred votes behind what he had done in 2007, a match he had lost by more than 1,000. If Vincent was able to pull off the same trends he had the previous year, it wouldnt take very long at all for him to put the match away. But Vincents trends werent the same as they were the previous year. Sure, he surged during the First Night Vote, cutting down much of Cronos lead, and then went on to stall things out during the Morning Vote as expected. But, even though the trends were broadly similar to those from 2007, they were more muted, Vincents comeback less extreme. At the midway point of the match, Vincent still hadnt closed the deal, despite starting from a lower vote deficit. Still, he was only 200 or so votes away from the lead, and he had the ASV yet to go. As long as Crono collapsed as expected, Vincent would be fine.

And Crono did still collapsekind of. It was enough for Vincent to take the lead over him, but Crono held on much better than he had during the ASV in the past couple of contests. As the afternoon and evening wore on, Vincent would build up a lead, but he did it slowly, struggling to get to 200 votes over Crono, with the latter sniping and stalling things out from update to update. If Vincent was looking to put away all doubt as to his status as a Noble Nine breaker, he wasnt doing so convincingly, but still, a win is a win is a win, and Vincent, at this point, was winning, increasing his lead slowly, vote by vote. Until, very suddenly, he wasnt. With only an hour left to go, on a dime, the match shifted. With 60 minutes left to do something, Crono went on a last minute tear the likes of which we had rarely seen before. It started off gradually, and then in the final minutes of the poll, Crono exploded. Not only was he beating Vincent, at points he was pulling in more votes than Samus. Call it a clutch, call it suspicious, call it whatever you want, but in the second to last update, Crono surged into the lead. It was a lead which he would hold for the final five minutes of the match, all the time he needed, both to secure his place in the Finals, and to redeem his reputation and his place in the Noble Nine. For this year, at least.