LogFAQs > #935819191

#6 Good Pick - Sub-Zero > Master Chief (2006)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2530-time-division-round-1-master-chief-vs-sub-zero

I'll try not to retread old ground since transience already talked about this one, but I was legitimately stunned at how few people picked Sub-Zero, especially considering Master Chief and Halo's history. I checked the Guru, and only 8 people had Sub-Zero. I checked the Oracle, and only 5 people had him there. This is still among the biggest round 1 upsets ever in terms of prediction percentage, if not still the biggest, as barely 20% picked Sub-Zero. Why was everyone so confident in Master Chief? I mean, the casuals get suckered in by Halo every year, so that was no mystery, but I don't know that I've ever seen such confidence in Master Chief on Board 8 before or since. It baffled me, especially since I felt so confident in Sub-Zero.

There were many people arguing that Sub-Zero and Scorpion would basically be equal in strength because they're basically the same character, which tells me that those people don't pay attention to contests (because Ryu and Ken are far from equal) and they've never played Mortal Kombat. Scorpion is only the face of the franchise because he's Ed Boon's favorite. The fanbase as a whole has always loved Sub-Zero more. There were people that argued that if Sub-Zero really was that popular, he'd have made a contest before now, but I mean, Vincent and Tifa didn't make a contest until 2005. The arguments against Sub-Zero just never made any sense to me, and I just could not understand the seemingly unwavering confidence in Master Chief.

When the match started, Sub-Zero held a narrow lead at the freeze, which was a really bad sign for Chief since he was the overwhelming bracket favorite and B8 will always back their brackets if the match is in doubt. Then Sub-Zero started piling it on, getting over 4000 votes ahead at the lead's peak. I seem to recall Lopen somewhere saying that Chief could swing it with his day vote (I definitely remember him claiming that Halo could swing 10,000 votes against Castlevania in the Series Contest...!), but alas, that never came to fruition. Chief could only manage to cut about 1,500 votes off by the time the match ended. Sub-Zero winning was also a point of pride for me because he was a representative for the Nomination Rally Tournament, which I had started in 2005 in an effort to get in new blood that could potentially be strong, so it validated the contest for me.

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http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png
https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq