Board 8 > Best Year in Gaming Contest Analysis Crew

(+) Yeah! (+)

Nobody cares now huh
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Semifinal doubling. Nope.
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I was going to rewrite my finals analysis but I don't know that I really have the drive to do so, just just post the original, Moltar.

Everyone can mentally substitute all references to 1997 with 2001, and all references to Link vs. Cloud with Zelda vs. Final Fantasy.
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meant to put this up last night but forgot whoops

need a guest for the final match

2001/1998 -
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2001/1998 - ranticoot

i guess
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Curses, you know I would've brought it with the sick 2001 > 1998 prediction
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Round 5 – 2001 vs. 1997

Moltar’s Analysis

Here’s a final analysis truly deserving of this contest:














Moltar’s Bracket: 1998

Moltar’s Prediction: 1998 - 60%



transience’s Analysis

Man, I just don't know. I look at those pictures and just kinda throw my hands up. I felt like I had a grasp on the match when it was 4v4 but when we get to 12v12 I'm like "what are we even doing?" Feels like we're getting into the expanded universe here.

I think voters will feel similarly. Either they go YO OCARINA OF TIME, YO SMASH BROS or they look at it and just kinda pick something random. I think this is going to be kinda close. In reality, 1998 rocks everything out of the water, but maybe 2001 gets a bit of an underdog surge and the depth of 01 makes it stand up pretty well. 2001 shouldn't be here, but at the same time, 1997 would be totally outclassed here so it's probably for the best.

transience's prediction: 1998 with 57.01%



Leonhart’s Analysis

Internet is still out, so it'll be another short writeup from my phone! The only thing I'm looking forward to here is seeing if Allen announces the next contest during the match. I think it happened that way in 2006, so who knows! Just don't let this be the last contest for a year or more.

Oh right, 1998 wins, but you all already knew that. Thanks for letting me on the Crew again, Moltar. Hopefully we'll be back together soon!

Leonhart's Vote: 2001

Leonhart's Prediction: 1998 with 60.10%



Kleenex’s Analysis

Who could have possibly seen this coming? No matter how hard we try, we'll never be able to get away from the shackles of Link vs. Cloud on this site. Here's the short version of how this match goes - Link beats Cloud again. It ain't 2003 anymore (that already got destroyed by Link). So even if this was just a straight OoT vs. FF7 match, there's no double 1998 would win. But that's not all this is, because Link brought a bunch of Pokemon to the fight. A game that might outright beat FF7 on its own too. 1998's depth just keeps going and going and it never stops.

The biggest finals blowout we've ever had in a 1v1 contest was all the way back in Character Battle 1 where Link won over Mario with 62.53% of the vote. I think there's a strong chance that this breaks that record - that's how far ahead of every other year in the bracket I think 1998 is. 1998 just waltzed right through this entire contest, and I don't think it's going to be close.

And that's all there is! That was definitely A Contest. I think at the end of the day, this one kind of gets forgotten in a few weeks, and a year down the road we'll have trouble remembering it ever happened (hey, remember the Rivalty Rumble?). It was interesting to have a contest where the entrants were sort of unknowns, but the reliance on pictures dictating results (and how different they were from the yearly release prompts when creating a bracket) was somewhat frustrating. I appreciate that we at least got something, though.

Kleenex's Prediction: 1998 with 62.54%
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Guest’s Analysis - Ranticoot

In 2009, Ocarina/RBY/Melee/FFX was a match where Team 1998 took up 61.6% of the vote. Ocarina is a top 2 game. RBY is a top 4 game. Melee might be #5, it's definitely in the top 10, and FFX is in like the top 15-20 range.

That's before adding on games like MGS1 and Half-Life and FFT and RE2 and Starcraft and Banjo/Spyro to 1998, and 2001 gets...uh, MGS2. Halo 1 and GTA3 are important, but on GameFAQs, those games arguably weaken the year. 1998 just crushes 2001 in GameFAQs strength in every notable category. RE2 beats SIlent Hill 2. Banjo and Spyro beat Jak and Daxter and SA2. MGS1 beats MGS2. Half-Life beats Halo. Xenogears might beat Golden Sun. Starcraft probably beats Pikmin. 1998 does not have a GTA game. Stuff like that.

Brilliant.

Boring end to a boring contest. Yes yes 2001 got a surprise win on 1997, but 1997 didn't have N64 games and ultimately was just FF7 and SOTN in that match. The only bright thing 2001 has in the picture is that RBY is not up first and MGS1 is, allowing Melee to thrive just a little more and maybe giving FFX some breathing room. Or something. I just don't see any way 2001 can win on natural strength because 1998 is a ridiculous year. Like the only way 2001 would even have a chance is if you took ALL traces of Ocarina and RBY out of this match and at that point, shit, this year is so stacked it could fight with MGS headlining. And 98 just had a poll so people will remember this year had Ocarina and RBY in it anyway.

Ranticoot's prediction - 1998 with 63.4%



Crew Consensus: Congrats 1998
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I'm guessing Kleenex wrote his analysis more than a day ago.
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ya

The Mana Sword posted...

I was going to rewrite my finals analysis but I don't know that I really have the drive to do so, just just post the original, Moltar.

Everyone can mentally substitute all references to 1997 with 2001, and all references to Link vs. Cloud with Zelda vs. Final Fantasy.

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we got this done in one topic. I don't think anyone even read the analyses this year.

a sad end to a sad contest.
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I read all of them.
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I read all of them as well.
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I did toooooo
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I read a few.

most weren't really worth reading! this was hard to write because there wasn't much to grasp onto.
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Hey I read for all days, every match, every analyst's analysis.
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2001 and 1994 destroyed my bracket.

Bad contest though. No drama. No dark horses. Just meh.
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Eh, not the worst contest we had. There were no perfect brackets, a couple of upsets. Better than Rivals/Series/Characters 2004 at least.
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people who say this is better than rivalry must be rewriting their memories of things

people legitimately did care about that while it was going on, even if it did end up disappointing us in the end
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so i had the high pick huh
let's see if that holds

thinking about it, the only reason i say rivals is worse than this before is because this one was short and rivals didn't have any real close match. in the bracket. this one has had no discussion. forget one crew topic, how many stats topics has this contest gone through?
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I read all of the first and second rounds. Not really any upsets, could see how the rest of the bracket was gonna turn out, got disinterested. Not an exciting contest.
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I prefer this to rivals just because rivals was a dumb idea. at least gaming years is a little interesting. obviously this had the worst close matches but a lot of that was due to the fact that the site has shrunk so far.
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Didn't care for the concept, practically no drama, and multiple matches affected by bad match pics. It's the worst.
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I somewhat read these, but it's mostly due to a lack of free time. But still, I agree it's hard to muster up a lot of passion for individual years. However, it seemed like an eternity since the last contest so I'm mostly just glad we still get something. The only drama was on picture inconsistency for a handful of matches. Seemed kind of rushed, honestly. On a positive note, scrolling pictures were a new thing. I'm not sure if it would be better or worse if they were used in a more traditional character/game contest.

This contest was a terrible idea to begin with, and the execution was laughably poor. Match pic controversies? I didn't even get to see the match pics.
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Ocarina of Time wins again.


Big fucking surprise.
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Congrats to the crew for another succesful year with all these analysis! Always happy to read your stuff people! Hope you go on as long as you can!
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1994 gonna be the #2 year in the stats at this rate
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Crew Prediction Challenge:

Moltar: 32
transience: 31
Kleenex: 30
Leonhart: 29
Guest: 29

Crew Accuracy Challenge: Kleenex and Tsunami get a point for 01, Leon gets a point for 97 and 98, Moltar gets a point for 94 and 98, and Ranticoot gets a point for 98

transience: 9
Leonhart: 7
Guest: 6.5 (Dp, Tsunami (1.5), Bane, Luster (2), Ranticoot)
Kleenex: 5.5
Moltar: 5
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Eh, I'll take it.
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mediocrity strikes again
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th3l3fty posted...

people who say this is better than rivalry must be rewriting their memories of things

people legitimately did care about that while it was going on, even if it did end up disappointing us in the end

The only thing I cared about was arguing that Ramza/Delita isn't a rivalry.
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the only reason 98 is winning is Ocarina of Time.

the only reason OoT is winning is Link
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As an idea I prefer this to rivals, but I don't mind either of them in a state where we're getting "normal" contests regularly.

Unfortunately this is not the state we're in.
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I read the analysis of the first few matches in an attempt to feign interest in this contest, as well as some of the 2001 matches since that's the only thing about the contest I vaguely cared about.

But was mostly checked out because well there's a reason I didn't even attempt to reach out to Moltar to join the crew this year. I'm sure the analyses were okay but you guys can only do so much given the material!

This contest was definitely worse than Rivalry Rumble though by far.
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I read every word. There were some problems with the execution of this Contest, to be sure, but I liked it way more than Rivals overall.
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pjbasis posted...

As an idea I prefer this to rivals, but I don't mind either of them in a state where we're getting "normal" contests regularly.

Unfortunately this is not the state we're in.

See you in 2019!

Or maybe Allen will wait till 2020's GotD to avoid doing contests two years in a row.
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https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/images/byg/r3/2017_l.jpg
https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/images/byg/r3/2017_r.jpg

We're going to have a bonus match tonight, but we have no idea what match we'll be getting. I think the bonus match will be either Undertale/Draven or 2017/1998.
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I'm guessing no writeup if we don't even know what the match is.
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undertale vs Draven make no sense at all. Last contest maybe but not this one.
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So that's another contest in the books. While the overall feeling is that it might have been one of the least exciting contests we've ever had, I hope that the Contest Analysis Crew could provide some entertainment for you throughout it.

Thanks to my fellow Crew members for coming back, helping me out, and going on the crazy Crew ride once again. Thanks also to all the Guests for providing their insights as well. Most importantly, thanks to all the readers and lurkers, because your following is why the Crew continues to do what it do.

Lastly, thanks to SBAllen for setting up another contest for us to write words about. Hopefully we don't have to wait as long until the next one!
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I don't know how I'm going to sleep at night, not knowing what kinds of opening posts Moltar had in store for further topics in this series.
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well considering it'll probably be irrelevant before the next contest happens, i could reveal the next topic opening would have been based off fire emblem heroes with the crew members being summons

i was hoping there wouldn't be a third topic because i had nothing planned for it
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