LogFAQs > #933972059

Match 137: Pikachu vs Mega Man

Pikachu 13809
Mega Man 14182

Whereas Pikachu and Mega Man's first match set a new record for closest wire-to-wire 24 hour match, their second match set the record for closest wire-to-wire 24 hour match in which the loser never led. It was actually on the wiki for awhile as the closest wire-to-wire match in which the loser never led, period, due to a digit transposition that had Mega Man's maximum lead listed as 478 rather than 487. Yes, the 9 votes makes a difference; the record, set in a 12-hour match in 2013, is 480.

The prevailing theory tossed around as to how Pikachu was able to pull out the upset the first time was that because of the hiatus between the end of the main bracket and the start of Legends, casuals "weren't ready" for the return. They point to the fact that Mega Man won the raw vote in that match and only lost because of the registered user bonus. And the fact that Mega Man's lead, which as stated above never reached 500, was already above 400 three hours into the match, certainly does suggest that a "readiness" was involved. But I say that's still bunk. Here, let me pull up the numbers for you from that first match:

Mega Man 14396
Pikachu 14458

Mega Man had fewer votes in the match he won than in the match he lost! In fact, the only figure that's higher in the match that people were supposedly "more ready for" is Mega Man's unregistered votes, 5308-5288. Both characters received fewer total votes and fewer votes from registered users, though the most glaring discrepancy, at 5140-4845, is Pikachu's unregistered votes. A far more likely explanation is that Pikachu voters were unmotivated to go back for a match they'd already won. Which kind of makes sense, because double-elimination brackets aren't supposed to look like this. It's supposed to be that each successive round sends its losers to a far-flung region of the loser's bracket from the previous one, so that rematches of winner's bracket matches are kept to a minimum. I kind of understand why Allen did it the way he did--to minimize how much a wrong pick wrecks your bracket--but it was wrong and it was stupid.

As for the match, Pikachu never really threatened to take back the lead. Mega's lead maxed out around 5 hours in, Pikachu eventually whittled it down to under 250 over the next 6 hours, and then Mega slowly started building it back up, maxing it at...478. Maybe it wasn't a digit transposition, but faulty searching that failed to notice how high the lead was early on? Pikachu would eventually get it down to 260 before Mega Man started building it again at the end.

This would set up another hyped match, to see what the Noble Nine's pecking order really looked like.

Match 138: Crono vs. Bowser

Crono 15327
Bowser 12668

The poorly constructed double-elimination bracket resulted in 6 rematches, 3 in this round alone. A couple of those rematches actually had something worth talking about. This was not one of them. Like the previous match, the overall vote total went down from the original. But whereas the percentages in that match moved by 0.78%, and a very influential 0.78% since it was shifting in favor of the original loser who already had 49.89%, this one shifted a mere 0.13%. Please never do a double elimination bracket again, Allen, but if you do, at least do it right next time!

Match 139: Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Solid Snake

Sonic 11999
Snake 16257

This was the only match of Loser's Bracket Round 2 that was not a rematch of a winner's bracket match, which...counterintuitively, suggests that there was at least some thought put into the placements of characters. After all, this round was Losers 1 winners vs. Legends 2 losers. In a properly seeded tournament, you'd expect the entrants that lost to the Legends 2 favorites in Legends 1 to be the underdogs in Losers 1. I feel like I'm not really doing it justice in sentence format so let's use the seedings given to the eight Noble Niners given auto-passes to Legends and pretend that the eight division winners have the proper seedings to be facing them.

1) Link
16) Ganondorf

8) Mega Man
9) Pikachu

4) Cloud Strife
13) Alucard

5) Crono
12) Bowser

3) Solid Snake
14) Zelda

6) Sonic the Hedgehog
11) Auron

2) Samus Aran
15) Tifa Lockhart

7) Mario
10) Sephiroth

...Okay, so the actual results showed that maybe Mario and Samus had their seeds swapped, though in fairness, Seph is a Noble Niner and really probably should've been put against the 8-seed. But regardless of that, the only Loser's Bracket 2 match that isn't a rematch occurred when the 14-seed has managed to pull off two upsets. Does that bracket actually look perfectly seeded? No, it doesn't. If you wanted Mario-Samus in Round 2, they probably should've been the 4-5. Switching the placements of Cloud-Crono and Mario-Samus probably makes the top 8 feasible, though you'd obviously have to move Sephiroth so that he could properly receive his 9-seed because...oh, wait, Mario was the 7, not the 2. I guess Sephiroth as the 10 with Cloud as the 2 is fine.

As for the match itself, it was a clear, unadulterated beatdown. Sonic occasionally won an update here and there but for the most part Snake was increasing all day.

Match 140: Samus Aran vs. Tifa Lockhart

Samus 16557
Tifa 11705

And again, just a minor change to percentage. All three of this round's rematches featured the loser of the original match improving on their percentage, but only one--which had the highest movement anyway--had an original match close enough to be flipped.

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Also known as Cyberchao X.