LogFAQs > #929956552

Finals ranked:

Tidus vs. Kefka (CXVI) - Great quality match, close and both sides really into it for the long run. Not only ranking this as first since Tidus is my favorite winner, but the match itself was thrilling and never felt pre-decided. That's rare.

Vivi vs. Locke (CXVIII) - Quality match and a good fight to the end. Again, another match where there was a lot going for both sides and you weren't sure who might win.

Zack vs. Squall (CXIV) - Good quality, tight match. Nothing wrong with this.

Cloud vs. Laguna (CXIX) - High quality match, scarred by the MWC factor.

Balthier vs. Zidane (CVIII) - Cool match. I remember when people liked FFXII. Good times.

Cecil vs. Zidane (CI) - Again just going to base this off of the character quality, which is pretty high.

Auron vs. Sabin (CIX) - Not a bad final, good winner obviously but I don't think Sabin ever stood a chance here. But I don't think he was pushed and he's held up at least somewhat well in the years since.

Kuja vs. Terra (CVII) - At least Terra didn't win. A good win for the formerly dominant king of the contest.

Edgar vs. Tifa (CVI) - I like these characters and definitely participated. It's been too long for me to remember why it was so unpopular though.

Celes vs. Kuja (CIII) - Pretty good quality final, don't think I played.

Vivi vs. Rydia (CIV) - Good strong match, I think I might have participated a little but I'm not sure. Just going to rank this one according to characters.

Gilgamesh vs. Vivi (CXI) - Poor memories of this because I am still 99% sure Vivi actually won this match due to alt voting, from someone that later confessed the account I thought was an alt of his was all along. I'm still certain he used both accounts in this final, and given it was so close then yeah, Vivi should actually be a 3 time champion. Even so, the match was contested tightly and at least entertaining. Even if I have a level of envy and disdain for how Gilgamesh actually won.

Rydia vs. Cloud (CXV) - A bit sour on this in memory. I feel like this guy whom many dedicated the victory to disappeared from the board right after this.

Lulu vs. Auron (CII) - Can't comment much about this other than the quality. Apparently there was cheating involved and alts though, but I don't think I participated in this.

Marche vs. Lightning (CXIII) - A necessary, if rather stupid, conclusion.

Zidane vs. Ashe (CXII) - Largest blowout around, and even though Ashe is certainly a legit character and even defacto main character of her game, she was never in this. I feel like the 3rd and 4th place finishers (Rydia, Tidus) definitely would have fought Zidane much more here. This might have been the original case of "drag along a train for the easy win". But it's further out of my memory than others.

Reno vs. Kuja (CV) - The original bizarre win. This was more about voting against Kuja for some people I think, given his strength at this point in history. Definitely a strange result but I don't think it was particularly over-the-top like the last few have been.

Zell vs. Yuffie (CX) - I'm not gonna go on too much about how this came to be. I'll just say I didn't like it and the quality is pretty low anyway.

Steiner vs. Lightning (CXVII) - Yeah.

Lightning vs. Edward (CXXI) - Rendered the previous year pointless, since obviously the end goal was for Lightning to win. Literally almost the same final with a historically weak IV character getting destroyed.

Fang vs. Cid Pollendina (CXX) - Bad quality final with a boring end.

Ranking the finals. I based these on the characters in the final, which of the characters won as well as the general tone of the finals match itself. For instance I like Lightning alright, but the finals she's been a part of have been rather poor quality I think.
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Truly smilin'