LogFAQs > #983279974

22. Link vs. Crono vs. Solid Snake vs. Cloud Strife (2008) R6

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/16b4189b.jpg

Link 33.68% 49345
Crono 12.23% 17916
Solid Snake 27.76% 40663
Cloud Strife 26.33% 38581
TOTAL VOTES 146505
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Link_vs_Crono_vs_Solid_Snake_vs_Cloud_Strife_2008
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3306-contest-final-link-crono-snake-cloud

When it comes to our Contests, Finals matches have a bad reputation. And not just because one series tends to always emerge victorious in them. For one, Finals are known for being boring. The chances of the two strongest entrants (or at least the strongest entrants in their respective halves of the bracket) in the contest just happening to be close enough in popularity to produce a legendary, nailbiter match are not particularly high. And its true that weve only had one or two finals that were decided by margin of 2% or less. Almost more of a drag than being boring though, is being predictable. And once again, I dont just mean because of the LAW. Not only are most contest winners obvious, the runner up is usually what is expected as well, the whole contest being a buildup to see these two entrants duke it out in the end. Maybe theres a healthy debate between two or three options for 2nd Place, but very rarely does something come out of left field to upset that calculation, especially in the absence of an offsite rally. Say what you will about the four way contests, but they upset that consensus. 2007s Final will be coming up later, but first up is the Final Match of 2008.

The big question that loomed over the Finals that year was L-Block. Would it repeat its journey to the finals from 2007, and if so, would it able to triumph yet again? This question ended up being answered a round or two earlier than we all thought, and after its shock boot at the paws of Pikachu, any serious debate around the Finals seemed to end. We would almost certainly be getting the Link > Cloud result that we had predicted in 2007 as well, but which had gotten sidetracked by L-Blocks run. There would be some minor upsets along the way, but for the most part the endgame for 2008 appeared to be falling into place right on schedule. Snake had managed to slip by Cloud into First Place in the final Semifinal, but he had barely done so, and only because Sephiroth was in the poll as well. Surely that was the last excitement wed get for the contest however, and once Sephy was removed, things between Snake and Cloud would revert to normal, and we would get the contest ending that we had all come to expect. Right as we began to settle our brains for a long winters nap however, the unexpected would happen, just one more time.

Buoyed by his upset of Cloud the previous round, Snake started off strong, going toe to toe with Link in the polls initial minutes. No real surprise there, and equally unsurprising, Cloud started off far behind in a distant third. As the minutes ticked by though two things became clear. First of all, Clouds numbers against Snake were bad. Like really bad. It was one thing for Cloud to fall behind in the early going, and it was another to fall this far behind. One hour in, and Cloud was still closer to Crono than he was to Snake. And as time went on, and Cloud only gradually recovered, one thing became clear: he wasnt going to be able to come back. The hole he was currently in was just too big, and based on the trends from the previous day, if Cloud did eventually start coming back he would never be able to do so by enough to actually overcome Snake. This was stunning. Cloud finishing ahead of Snake in this match was considered so obvious that people had already started to congratulate the prospective contest winners as the previous match drew to a close. What would transpire the following day was considered irrelevant. Those congratulations would prove misplaced though as, for the second year in a row, Cloud would end the Final Match in Third Place, a position which yielded his supporters no points whatsoever.

But that was only part of what Snake was pulling off in the early going of this match. As I said earlier, he was going 50/50 with Link in the first minutes, but as an underdog in the Finals, against Link himself, that was expected. But then, the poll updated, and the match stayed 50/50. And it updated again. And once again, the poll stayed 50/50. This was not some flukey Board Vote that Link would spend the rest of the Night coming back from; this was real, honest to goodness (albeit momentum fueled) strength. And for the first, non-rally fueled, time in five years, Link had a match on his hands. As Cloud surged back overnight, Snakes percentage would start to drop, but Link was right there with him, dropping in percentage too, the two of them even falling off in unison. While Link had managed to take the lead for an update or two in the opening hours, as the poll moved solidly into the Night Vote, so did Snakes hold on the lead. It remained very tenuous, Snake never ahead by more than 100-150 votes, but a lead is a lead, and Snake was determined to drag his out as long as possible. The character who several contests ago had struggled to put away Frog was now going toe to toe with Link. This was the strongest Snake would ever look, one of the only times a non-Clinkeroth character ever looked to be on that level, and for six hours the contest order was on the verge of being upset.

And then the Morning Vote came in, Link ran away with it and ended up winning by well over 8,000 votes, with Snake having to settle for Second Place. Cloud would put up an extremely spirited comeback attempt for someone in such a hopeless position, but as previously stated, he would have to settle too, in his case for Third Place. For the second year in a row, we would be denied the Link > Cloud final we had all come to expect, and while Link would still win, as expected, the journey to get to that point over the last 24 hours had been anything but expected. Aside from rallies, there has only been one moment of weakness from Link over 20+ years, a match which is coming up later, but for a quarter of the Finals in 2008, we thought we might have a second. Snake might not have slayed the giant, but, for possibly the last time in history, he had shown that he was mortal.