If Tifa is legitimately stronger than Sephiroth, then Samus had a stronger round 1 of the Legends Bracket than Mario did. And since that's the only round where you can compare them and they seemed pretty even directly, saying Samus is stronger indirectly makes a lot of sense.
Only problem with that is I don't buy for a second that Tifa beat Seph. I trust Tifa/Samus as most of the weirdness this contest has been hentai rallies and the general SJWFF we saw in a few matches. If you trust Tifa/Samus and Tifa/Seph, that puts Ryu at a really really weak level which makes zero sense. The only explanation that makes sense across the board is the following:
- Sephiroth is around Mega Man/Crono level - Zelda is also naturally around that level and benefitted greatly from her bandwagon and hentai rallies - Samus/Mario 1 is an accurate representation of Samus - Snake is the only real outlier here as Snake/Samus and Snake/Sonic can't both be accurate and still make sense in the grand scheme of things
Are you trolling?
Because if you legitimately believe Mario is indirectly stronger than Samus, you are out of your damn mind o_O