LogFAQs > #939385196

Polycosm posted...

If this were a plot to increase my odds in the guru, Id have chosen a less conspicuous name for my alt, lol. For what its worth, I was never going to attempt to stake a claim on the prize.

Fair, and I should clarify I wasn't trying to accuse you of wanting better Guru odds. I just don't think entering the Guru with two of your accounts is appropriate whatsoever, even as a prank. Sorry if I'm being the anti-fun by saying that, but it's a line even Luster wouldn't cross, which I think is telling of how much we've all internalized it.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

If we were going to punish the covid guy, we should have disqualified him mid-contest, not retroactively fix it now.

I think a better idea is to make sure next time the guru contest actually predicts the possibility of disqualification if someone uses an alt and doesn't say what their main account is.

I agree that the final standings are final, and I wouldn't propose retroactively editing them outside of extraordinary circumstances such as an actual COVlD-19 win. I'll also concede that the common-sense anti-alt rule really ought to be explicitly mentioned next time, but I still don't think Poly should necessarily avoid consequences just because they exploited a technicality.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

If you let casuals decide how to make a bracket, they will split divisions by geenre.

You're misinterpreting my argument there. My point was that making these contests any more stressful for Allen than they already are isn't ideal. It's better to have casual voters only fitfully invested into their goings-on than say, sending Allen or other admins hateful PMs about Batman's presence in a video game character battle. Maybe (probably) I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but hey.

squexa posted...

And is this really better though? An all-Zelda top half will frankly be pretty boring and WW vs TP might be the only inter Zelda match that's debatable (outside of BotW2 which isn't even out). If WW's only role is to blow out fodder and then bow out early to BotW/MM in an SFF match, it's not really that much better than not making the bracket in the first place.

Maybe that's just an intrinsic flaw of this whole Game of the Century idea, considering the five Zeldas and Melee will most likely be the six strongest games in this hypothetical field. Perhaps you could argue Witcher 3, but it's a Western game that's pretty clearly at its peak in terms of relevance and probably overall strength right now, whereas Melee and the Zelda games are immortal on GameFAQs. Limiting the Zelda+Melee action to the first two divisions would help, but that would be a seriously skewed bracket.

Anyways, I know you all haven't been eagerly awaiting my parting thoughts, so here they are:

• First off, thank you for the leaderboard and spread betting shoutouts! I also want to give some shoutouts of my own for contest performance: obviously to azuarc for winning the whole thing, but also to JONA, Ng, and Yo for all having killer brackets (just consider how far ahead of the field they'd have finished if one or two more results broke their way), and to Moltar for really just excelling at everything contest-related. My final shoutout will be to the Cookie, which thrived in a largely predictable contest, but looks worse than it should because of the Witcher 3 upset's great value. To put things into perspective, going with the Cookie for all 126 other matches would have netted more points than all but 3 Gurus; increasing that risk count to all of 3 by taking Xenoblade out of its division too would have made for a contest-winning performance.
• I think I would grade this contest at a B- overall, and a B+ for Allen in particular. Its biggest problem for me was that Allen's bracketmaking gambit of segregating top-tier Nintendo from the bottom half simply didn't work out. The steep cost of ensuring a finals with only one Nintendo game (unnecessary even from a pre-contest perspective, imo) was 0/7 post-divisional matches and 1/8 divisional finals staying close the whole way through, which made for a dull contest where it mattered most. The side contests were great this year, but there's only so much they can do to compensate for the main event failing to deliver, to the point where the best match (RE2/Bloodborne) might not rank in my top 5 if superimposed into 2018. Of course, that all sounds pretty negative relative to my grade, but that's because I find most contests inherently fun (and also because I did well), so GotD 2 was a good time for me despite its shades of disappointment.
• Wow, what a perfect way to close off this last episode! Of course, I'm hoping that will only be it until Allen hosts the 25th anniversary Top 25 later this year, or at worst until next year. Regardless, though, I want to thank everyone who contributed this year from the bottom of my heart. Thank you to all the guests who contributed excellently with your knowledge and perspectives, to those of you who made your presence known in the Show topics, and most importantly to Ng and Yo for being killer co-hosts.

Whew, I guess that's it from me. Until next time, this is Metal, signing out! Yes, I had to.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."
azuarc won the 2020 Guru Contest because he avoided picking rashly.