LogFAQs > #968371725

Pokewars posted...

Wait, what? How on Earth did this happen on this board?

Looking back, I feel like Yu-Gi-Oh's win was a bit fluky.

https://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=473952

First round, it went up against Ed, Edd, 'n Eddy, a show which has always seemed to underperform its seeding. It's a beloved show, but also a bit of an acquired taste and thus rather polarizing, and it's never been more than a midcarder in this tournament, so that was definitely a winnable match.

Second round was Arthur, and while Arthur has definitely improved in recent years to become a consistent lower midcard/solid midcard show, and while it did smash Family Guy in the first round (in the mid-2000s when I first started running this tournament, Family Guy vs. Arthur would've been a 1/16 or 2/15 match that Family Guy probably would've won 30-2 or something, the times have definitely changed), it was definitely still a vulnerable show and Yu-Gi-Oh was probably evenly matched with it.

Third round was Rescue Rangers, another solid midcard show but another winnable match.

Fourth round was Tom and Jerry, and by this point, Yu-Gi-Oh had some momentum as the tournament's biggest Cinderella story. Tom and Jerry is legit strong, a definite upper midcarder with tournament contending potential, and if this matchup had happened in the first round, Tom and Jerry probably would've won comfortably, but Yu-Gi-Oh had definitely built up a head of steam and I feel like enough people wanted to see the underdog win that it helped push Yu-Gi-Oh over the top.

The quarterfinals match was Steins;Gate, and as strong as this show has become, it rarely performed at more than a midcard level until this tournament when it made a somewhat improbable run, but was still one of the weaker quarterfinalists in tournament memory, and Yu-Gi-Oh again had momentum.

Even in the semifinals against Animaniacs, that's not as strong an opponent as would've normally shown up for Yu-Gi-Oh at that point, so momentum again carried the day.

By the finals against Avatar, Yu-Gi-Oh had so much momentum that people just wanted to see the Cinderella story finished. In the first round, Avatar would've crushed Yu-Gi-Oh. In the finals, I can definitely see how the upset would happen.