LogFAQs > #927542298

Match 126: Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Auron

Sonic 15688
Auron 13194

Sonic was the only other Noble Niner besides Crono who could conclusively be proven to have been considered an underdog in the initial brackets (although doing the usual "retention rate" stats voodoo on Pikachu's percentage suggests that Mega Man might have been as well, as over 19.5% of brackets picked Pikachu > Mega Man while just barely above 12% had Pikachu winning the division and then losing to Mega Man in that match), but unlike the 50-50 split that the second chance gave on Crono-Bowser, Sonic was a heavy favorite in the second chance. That's not surprising, because Division 6 had a number of seemingly bigger threats than Auron, chief among them the legitimate best character in the game that had rallied its way to the BGE3 title in 2015 having a path of characters exactly the right strength to build a rally run on. I said it before and I'll say it again: too strong a first opponent will kill a rally before it starts; too weak a first opponent and there's nothing to build momentum off of. Undertale in 2015 hit the sweet spot more perfectly than any other, although Draven certainly acted like he was in that sweet spot. (It's easy to forget, given how large the comeback he needed to make, that Draven was legitimately the favorite against Jak and Chie.) This doesn't just extend to the rallies that made it all the way, either; Charizard in 2010 had a similar path and it carried him to a surprising division title. You could probably include SMRPG's run to the 2015 semifinals as well, although that was sort of a weird case in that we here on Board 8 were always wise to the fact that its biggest obstacle to making Round 4 was getting out of the first round; we just didn't expect it to make it two rounds deeper.

An interesting fact about this match is that if Rivalry Rumble is counted, Sonic now has a 2-1 record against two separate non-NNers, having avenged his second-place finish to Auron in Round 2 of 2008 first by knocking him out the next round and then by winning this match and avenging the eventual loss to Kirby in 2008 in both 2010 and 2011. Of course, Rivalry Rumble creates a lot of dicey situations because Cloud/Sephiroth was the only team of two Noble Niners, giving almost all of the Noble Nine a technical non-NN loss. Sonic's was to Bowser (with Mario), which becomes another one that he's since avenged (2013), giving him as many avenged as not avenged (L-Block in 2007, Mewtwo in 2013, Zelda this year.)
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Also known as Cyberchao X.