Board 8 > transience presents: the 75 most important matches in contest history

(+) Yeah! (+)

I remember that because I won prize money for it.
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69.



MGS4 was amazing in the 2009 game contest. It had a great down to the wire win over Brawl thanks to Twilight Princess being in the same poll and rocked both RE4 and Fallout 3 on its way to the semis. In the semis, it gave FF10 a fight, and if it would have won, it's possible that we have a different winner of that contest.

MGS4 walks into GOTD as the likely #1 MGS game of the decade, maaaybe #2 behind MGS3, but definitely not behind MGS2. It was shaky against Diablo 2, but maybe Diablo 2 was good -- after all, we'd theorized for years that it might have been better than Starcraft if it made the 2004 contest. SOTC needed the full 12 hours to barely nudge MGS2 though so MGS4 would win.

And then this happened. MGS4 got exposed. The game that had an amazing run with Brawl in 2008 and went far in 2009 just kinda fell off the earth. In 2015, MGS4 got blown the hell up by KH2 and is basically a footnote in contest history at this point.

SOTC's next match would be MGS3, and after these two wins, why the hell not?
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nice
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transience posted...

I remember that contest super well because I won money in it. Leon did too if I remember correctly.

I seem to recall people talking about the DS as being a potential culprit. I'll probably get into my theories on it in a future writeup.

I can't even find the results anywhere. I recall almost predicting it perfectly but fucking up the Mario games.
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I remember it

1. FF7
2. OOT
3. CT
4. LTTP
5. Melee
6. Mario 3
7. Goldeneye 007
8. MGS1
9. Halo 1
10. FF6

edit: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/features/10year
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Halo??? Things sure have c hanged.
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68.



Mega Man had a new game and what felt like pretty favourable contest conditions -- other Pokemon kinda sucked, and Zero held up OK vs. Pikachu himself -- and still couldn't put one over on the rat. This extremely close match broke most brackets on day 1 of 2018's big bracket and closed the door on the old noble nine concept once and for all. (You can make an argument for the double vote thing, but then Zelda came and obliterated Sonic a few days later. Maybe there was more votes for Snake too, I forget.)

This match would have been huge years ago and feels almost instantly outdated thanks to Mega getting his revenge a week later when they had a rematch, something that really cheapens this result. The new Pikachu game probably helped ever so slightly push him over the edge with Mega. Still, Mega Man, one of the original 8 with some of the greatest blowouts of all time, went down to a rat that was a total joke in the nascent years of this contest. It's a pretty big deal.
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Great write ups. Enjoying them very much
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The last five are probably gonna be some combination of the three most important matches of 2002, Sandbag Zero, and something from 2004. League of Draven will probably end up in the Top 20, Undermeme in the Top 30, and Crono At The Bat in the Top 10.
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transience posted...

I remember it

1. FF7
2. OOT
3. CT
4. LTTP
5. Melee
6. Mario 3
7. Goldeneye 007
8. MGS1
9. Halo 1
10. FF6

edit: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/features/10year

Mario 3 was 5th, Melee was 6th.

The funny thing is that I just used the top ten in the Games Contest X-Stats (so I got the top 5 perfect), except I switched out Wind Waker and Starcraft for MGS1 and FFX because I thought those were just flukes. Not sure why I stuck with Halo all things considered, but good thing I did!

I don't think ANYONE saw GoldenEye coming though.
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

transience posted...

The site shifted in 2005 to be more Nintendo-friendly

Has anyone ever had a solid theory for this? The Nintendo shift was so sudden and dramatic around 2006-2007. A year earlier and FFVII had even won its second best game ever title when CJayC did that top 10 list mini contest. Does anyone else remember that?

I think it's hard to look past the massive gap in how well Square and Nintendo managed their IP/reputation from mid-00s onward. Nintendo was pulling people to tears with amazing Twilight Princess reveal trailers and Smash Brawl hype was insane. The DS was a gigantic hit and began making Pokemon cool again. Square was putting games through development hell and they weren't particularly great when they finally arrived. Only KH2 was a real success post-03 (and it retains real strength even now). People wanted to like Square - remember how Zack Fair jumped up in strength with Crisis Core - but eventually they ran out of patience.
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Yeah I wasn't meaning to be harsh like getting write-ups for these things will be amusing but at the same time you're probably not gonna see much debating placement beyond something being too low till like top 25

Speaking of Frog/Snake is probably way too low. All the talk of pic factor, Solid ****, etc, it all started there pretty much. Wouldn't have argued much if that Actually was top 25
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(You can make an argument for the double vote thing, but then Zelda came and obliterated Sonic a few days later. Maybe there was more votes for Snake too, I forget.)

Zelda beat Snake all votes weighted equally - in fact, Snake won among registered users!
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transience posted...

I remember it

1. FF7
2. OOT
3. CT
4. LTTP
5. Melee
6. Mario 3
7. Goldeneye 007
8. MGS1
9. Halo 1
10. FF6

edit: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/features/10year

It's pretty nuts that GoldenEye is on there. I think I missed that and had world instead of SMB3.
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Goldeneye was probably a Top 10 game in 2004, but ran up against Ocarina and got demolished. We would have probably seen it coming if it had been on FFVII's side of the bracket.
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Tag
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yeah, my bracket was the top 6 + FF6, SM64, FFX and MGS I think. SM64 hurt but I didnt have any awful picks.
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Goldeneye did okay in the 2015 contest too

It's a bit of an anomaly.
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67.



This is one of those you-had-to-be-there moments. Starcraft had by far the most insane contest run up to that point -- and I might say ever, given the internet in 2004 -- and Kerrigan was their chosen one from that game. Meanwhile, Vincent Valentine was an OPTIONAL CHARACTER from our the Final Fantasy VII. Aerith sure, Tifa sure. But Vincent? Yeah, he might be okay, but was he going to be good? There was some favourite FF character poll that was tossed around endlessly trying to prove it.

Both characters had pretty wide variance but Vincent was the clear favourite. No one expected a 79% result though. Kerrigan got killed and Vincent went so, so over. I wasn't here much in 2003 and 2004, but I have to say that nothing I've seen has ever topped the way this board fought about Vincent Valentine. The well was poisoned from people doubting he'd be worth much, and the ones who believed were, um, very strong-willed. The backlash from this match, and one other that just missed the list, Dante/Vincent, were so strong that I can't gauge his 2005 run without immediately coming back to that.

Vincent wasn't legit just yet, but oh god was Kerrigan was one of the biggest bombs in contest history. I can remember one prominent user who hasn't posted here in like a decade and I'm pretty sure it was at least partially because of this result.
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Also, Kerrigan had just won a contest over at Gamespot so there was some spillover thoughts from that contest that she might make a run in the GameFAQs one as well.
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Dante vs Terra was an underrated gem that year too

I remember you had a vocal minority arguing for Terra as well and she got blown up almost as hard as Kerrigan
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Oh Kerrigan Vincent the worst result of all time. God that one hurt.
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Dante/Terra *just* missed the list
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RoseChevalier posted...

Oh Kerrigan Vincent the worst result of all time. God that one hurt.

This, Knuckles/Magus, and Kefka/Vercetti were the best "unimportant" matches of the pre-rally era. So many account suicides, back when that MEANT SOMETHING.
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LeonhartFour posted...

She didn't basically lose to X. There was only a rally for Tifa because X was rallying first. And beating X is a really good win either way.

A pacifist like X rallying? I think not.
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Arti posted...

Also, Kerrigan had just won a contest over at Gamespot so there was some spillover thoughts from that contest that she might make a run in the GameFAQs one as well.

Do you mean the Gamespot Villains contest with the Darth Vader vs. Kerrigan final? I'm pretty sure that one took place years after Kerrigan's first match on GameFAQs. The hype for Kerrigan, IIRC, was almost entirely fueled by Starcraft's run the year prior.
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If you want to talk about account suicides, nothing compares to the effect of Squall vs Luigi.
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66.



I've watched probably a thousand contest matches. Let's just say I've seen some shit. Contest results rarely leave me just completely baffled. But Missingno.. this stupid thing beat Crono, then beat Yoshi by a similar percentage, and then was going up against maybe the biggest antivote magnet in contest history.

The match started out exactly as you'd expect -- with Missingno slowly building a 500 vote lead over the first two hours. And then, suddenly, it.. stopped? Sephiroth just took over the match like it was up against a typical Nintendo character, not some glitch. I just don't understand. Sephiroth probably saved this contest, if you see things that way, and.. Sephiroth! The dude who manages to defy expectations does it again. I don't even like this match, and don't like thinking back on it. I just have no idea.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

If you want to talk about account suicides, nothing compares to the effect of Squall vs Luigi.

Ah yes another great one
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It's hard to remember now, but Sephiroth was clutch as fuck in the old 1v1 days. Barely dropping a match to Snake WITH CLOUD IN THE POLL was seen as a surprising disappointment for him. He channeled some of that old spirit against Missingno.
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Man, remember the days of Clinkeroth?
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65.



I *hated* the feeling of Mario's inevitable ascendance in 2005 as he bumrushed the bracket. He killed his early rounds, rocked Zero, crushed Samus, wrecked Snake and then, of course, Crono. But in a way, it was kind of perfect. Mario took out all of his rivals and then took down his main contest rival at the end. It wasn't some lucky run. Getting Crono in the final was poetic.

There was this killer picture from that match that I'm too lazy to look up. It was a face shot of Crono vs. Mario with a bolt of lightning. I wish it was the only match pic that day. It fit what felt like a true final battle. Mario did exactly what you'd expect from watching two months of him blowing everyone up.

And with that, Mario vs. Crono was never a rivalry again.
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http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/gallery/albums/sc2k5/br63-8.jpg

Where the heck did someone find a picture of Mario mean muggin like that. I wonder if they made it?
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/gallery/albums/sc2k5/br63-8.jpg

Where the heck did someone find a picture of Mario mean muggin like that. I wonder if they made it?

Melee maybe?
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Lopen posted...

I remember you had a vocal minority arguing for Terra as well and she got blown up almost as hard as Kerrigan

I mean there's a world of difference between 71 and 79

as we saw the very next year when Terra 60/40'd Kerrigan

I will never forget the fact that RPGuy96 got literally 1 point in the entire Devil Division and it was Squall > Geno.
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64.



I have a real soft spot for this match. Sonic and Mega Man was an endless debate for the best non-Nintendo gaming icon. It was a N9 match that actually lived up to the hype -- Mega Man was only ever losing for a few minutes during that ever-deadly Europe vote in the middle of the night. Sonic made a push later in the day and threatened to take the lead but Mega Man's night vote held on for him.

With this match and the Crono match next round that Crono would win narrowly, the N9, for maybe the first time, had a truly established pecking order. Clinkeroth, then Mario, then Samus and Crono, then Mega, then Sonic, and then Snake. It felt like it would always be that way -- until that Brawl trailer, and until Sonic got a shot at Crono the next year.
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Augh, that Sonic loss hurt, but it made 2006 all the sweeter.
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75 huh? Tag.
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transience posted...

64.



I have a real soft spot for this match. Sonic and Mega Man was an endless debate for the best non-Nintendo gaming icon. It was a N9 match that actually lived up to the hype -- Mega Man was only ever losing for a few minutes during that ever-deadly Europe vote in the middle of the night. Sonic made a push later in the day and threatened to take the lead but Mega Man's night vote held on for him.

With this match and the Crono match next round that Crono would win narrowly, the N9, for maybe the first time, had a truly established pecking order. Clinkeroth, then Mario, then Samus and Crono, then Mega, then Sonic, and then Snake. It felt like it would always be that way -- until that Brawl trailer, and until Sonic got a shot at Crono the next year.

This is probably my favourite match of all time. So much on the line and a great comeback
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63.



We knew that Snake would beat Seph here after the 2006 TOC. He'd gotten better and Seph had kinda fallen off a little. But Cloud had beaten Snake by almost 10% last round. Seph would leech him but not THAT much.

But hey, here we are. Snake came out strong and built up enough of a lead that Cloud couldn't quite make it back. He would have if he had just won the after-school vote like you'd expect, but nope! Snake had this two hour stretch that seemed kinda inexplicable and it was just enough of a buffer to shut Cloud down.

If this match is 25 hours, Cloud probably wins. Up to this point, Cloud had only lost to Mario's BS, Link's dominance and a tetris piece. Add Snake to the list. Fortunately, Seph wouldn't be there next match so we'd be back to our good old fashioned tradition of Link beating Cloud in the final.
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I can't wait for Link vs Draven vs Shepard. It has my favorite fan-created piece of contest art ever.
https://imgur.com/Y8DfdWE
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Tag
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62.



This match doesn't stand out at all today. Even at the time, it was generally seen as a tossup. Tidus was the slight favourite (51% in the oracle), but Kirby won big and so what?

This match is the first true indication we had of the Nintendo Boost. There were a lot of matches here that went for Nintendo. The next day, Bowser demolished Ryu. The day after that, Donkey Kong of all characters almost beat Master Chief. At this point we believed that the Boost was real.

What caused it? Who knows. My personal take on it is that Nintendo would have always beaten Square on this website.. but that Nintendo kinda sucked in the Gamecube era when it came to their heavy hitters. You went from Mario 64 and Ocarina to Sunshine and Wind Waker (which only became loved years later). Hold a contest in 2001 and I think Nintendo does awesome.

Then, by the time 05 rolls around, you start seeing Twilight Princess trailers and getting psyched over the next generation ("Revolution"). The DS hit in November 2004 and with it came Super Mario 64 DS and, yeah, Kirby's Canvas Curse. The DS was a surprise hit that everyone was into at the time and it trickled down. Meanwhile, Square put out KH in 2003 and just kinda faded away. That lack of permanence, along with Square turning into Square-Enix, just sorta pushed the contest along naturally.

Anyway, this match itself is only so-so but it's always been my indication that, yeah, Nintendo is real, Crono is in trouble and watch out Cloud.
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still mad about Snake > Cloud 10 years later !!
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Man that match.

I had two things on the line in that match:
1. My fanboyism. At the time Kirby was my favorite character in gaming and remains my #2 today.
2. I was a very vocal proponent of Kirby winning that match.

That morning i had a very minor surgery to have a cyst removed from the inside of my mouth. It was very quick, I didn't even go under, just some anesthesia. Hell I went to a party later that night. But still, coming home from surgery to see Kirby destroying Tidus and headed for the Sweet Sixteen for the first time was very sweet (even predicting Kirby to win the match I thought it'd be like a 52-48 and was still just a tad uneasy).
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I think the Nintendo Boost was more related to:

1. The decline of JRPGs/Square: this was the core genre that built this site in the 90s
2. Non-Nintendo gamers being more drawn to other media (YouTube in particular) for guides: this is pretty anecdotal, but the "casual" Sony/Xbox gamers i know were more likely to favor streaming videos
3. The DS and Wii sold a quarter of a BILLION units combined: this absolutely dwarfed anything Sony or MS did from 2005-2010
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transience posted...

67.

I was thinking about this match recently. It's the only time I've ever been on Board 8 where the aftermath of a match made me feel distinctly uncomfortable (and I picked Vincent). I remember voting, seeing the results and just...cringing a little as I imagined what the blowback towards the users who supported Kerrigan was going to be.
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KamikazePotato posted...

transience posted...

67.

I was thinking about this match recently. It's the only time I've ever been on Board 8 where the aftermath of a match made me feel distinctly uncomfortable (and I picked Vincent). I remember voting, seeing the results and just...cringing a little as I imagined what the blowback towards the users who supported Kerrigan was going to be.

Was it black turtle or maybe... Kyle Bowen or KP who adamantly backed kerrigan? I remember weeks of buttdamage.
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I remember how damn hyped Kerrigan was but I never doubted my Vincent pick.

Of course it was fucking Magus who screwed me in that Division. Btw that damn match better be on here somewhere for exposing one of the biggest frauds ever.
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61.



I'll admit it: I took Kefka in 2003. After all, Crono had an amazing 2002 run and Final Fantasy was more popular than Chrono Trigger. FF6 fans loved Kefka and the site loved Sephiroth. Why not? (This is far from my worst pick, honestly. I mean, I took Tetris to the finals in 2004. Ah, my casual days.)

This result was brutal. You could see the writing on the wall with Kefka's r1 match against Pac-Man, but still. Wow. Holy SFF beatdown before we understood what that meant. Dante/Terra was bad but it was nothing compared to Kefka/Crono. Kefka's always tough to read, and he's always overestimated, but maaaaaaaaaaaaan. Crono looked like an absolute monster going into his Mario match after this one.
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