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

(+) Yeah! (+)

someone should make a list of the top 25 most insignificant matches in contest history

or is that list just every match from BYIG
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The Mana Sword posted...

someone should make a list of the top 25 most insignificant matches in contest history

or is that list just every match from BYIG

And every actual match from Rivalry Rumble

it's a fitting commentary on RR that the only noteworthy match in the entire contest was the bonus match
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gilgamesh won his first match in the rivalry rumble, so that's still infinitely better than anything that happened in 2017
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Hey I won money in 2017. That was good...!
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I didnt even glance at the rivalry rumble when making this list. even BYIG was better than that
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Wonder what the highest Draven/UT matches are

LSD was a legendary match but in terms of sheer rally terror I feel like it has to be either Draven/Ryu/MMX or the finals.

For Undertale I'd guess its first match, considering how many people called the contest right there.
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Safer_777 posted...

People you are thinking too hard. The point is that Samus is here maybe the 2nd strongest character. And Super Metroid is the best game of her on this site at least. So we thought it would had some power. But barely scoring 26% on LTTP?
That means that the Metroid games dont' have power. Samus has yeah, but not her games.

That was true back then, but now we absolutely know Super Metroid is one of the strongest games on the site in a contest setting. And Prime isn't drastically far behind.

I think Samus gets a lot of strength on this site due simply to being recognizable to the average voter. That might explain why she used to be so SFF-prone.

IIRC Vincent was getting pushed heavily by Square Enix in the mid-'00s, no? That could be why he was so strong back then.
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Yeah, I think Draven/MMX/Ryu is the biggest Draven match because we've never seen anything like that before.

Undertale/ME3 is huge because of the enormity of the comeback and just the feeling that many had that it was all over.
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Janus5k posted...

For Undertale I'd guess its first match, considering how many people called the contest right there.

That match pretty much broke the board for a while. I'm looking at the updater and have a distinct memory of the panic mode setting in around these updates:

Undertale | Mass Effect 3
117 | 79
271 | 73
389 | 75

It's not as important as the L-Block & Draven results, but I think watching an entrant come back from 9000 down in the last 5 hours of the match cemented the fear of god in B8. Rallies in the past had an amazing early vote, and here was one materializing when everyone thought they were safe. Like half the posts in the Stats Topic this year had the word 'rally' in them.
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Draven/MMX/Ryu is definitely the biggest Draven match. Don't think too many people were calling for Draven to win the match after R1.

transcience posted...

I didnt even glance at the rivalry rumble when making this list. even BYIG was better than that

I feel like Red vs. Blue > Cloud vs. Sephiroth at least deserves a spot on the list!
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IIRC a lot of people who would eventually turn on Undertale were cheering Undertale on in that match with ME3. ME3 was and still is a controversial game and many people were happy to see it go down with expectation that some other game would put an end to Undertale. That didn't quite go as planned.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

I feel like Red vs. Blue > Cloud vs. Sephiroth at least deserves a spot on the list!

Not an official match...!

Although Red/Blue > Samus/Ridley or Ryu/Ken with 60% each is probably the standout result from that contest because even if you had them going far, you didn't expect THAT.
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Undertale was extremely lucky. Mass Effect 3 is a perfect first opponent for a rally to take off against.
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Well, Draven and Undertale both got lucky with their first round opponents. If Draven drew MMX/Ryu in round 1, he might not have pulled it off either.
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I still find it weird that tumblr had enough people to pull off that Undertale run. Maybe I'm an internet recluse but I almost never hear about that site.
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What? Where do you search for porn? Come on now!
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

I still find it weird that tumblr had enough people to pull off that Undertale run

Spoilers: They didn't.
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Lopen still bitching 3 years later is adorable.
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you're not in any position to talk about people not being able to let things go
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

I still find it weird that tumblr had enough people to pull off that Undertale run. Maybe I'm an internet recluse but I almost never hear about that site.

I mean, hentai subreddits also had enough people to pull off Tifa/X and Zelda/Snake. Guess it just goes to show how many people love beating it to weird cartoon porn
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LeonhartFour posted...

you're not in any position to talk about people not being able to let things go

Hey I let plenty of stuff go this contest!

And Undertale won legit. Period. This isn't arguing about something that's open to interpretation, it's denying literal fact and trying to tell me 2 + 2 equals 745. Allen did everything short of giving us IP information from each singular vote.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Undertale was extremely lucky. Mass Effect 3 is a perfect first opponent for a rally to take off against.

Honestly all our rally champs had great fortune. As you say, UT had the perfect opponent to get things going. Draven had freakin' Jak and Chie as his R1 competiton - if he gets an N9 I don't see how he could turn that around in the few hours he'd have had. L-Block also got pretty fortunate and had the benefits of 4-ways - if it had been 1v1 it would have been much tougher to get off the ground.
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I find it hilarious Monika might have gotten a bandwagon going if Noctis was her round 1 opponent.
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It's 5 years between that one and Draven get it right.
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Tumblr was an extremely popular site in 2015. It's fallen off some since then but I can absolutely believe that a large-scale rally came from there.
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Ulti_PCA posted...

I find it hilarious Monika might have gotten a bandwagon going if Noctis was her round 1 opponent.

If Monika's fanbase was going to pull Undertale style "rallying" Wario would have been weak enough. I don't think there's any path for her to exploit that has her winning. On paths I think D.Va was the only one that had something vaguely workable but her fanbase didn't care enough either, but I don't think Monika gets anything but 1 point going through that path either.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

I feel like Red vs. Blue > Cloud vs. Sephiroth at least deserves a spot on the list!

why? it's like taking 'what character do you want in smash?' polls and trying to apply it to the contest. red vs. blue's unique quality as rivals completely invalidates any kind of result there.

CaptainOfCrush posted...

I still find it weird that tumblr had enough people to pull off that Undertale run. Maybe I'm an internet recluse but I almost never hear about that site.

I'm pretty sure twitter was the main source of the rally. we just tied it to tumblr because it's so sterotypically representative of undertale -- kinda like how we blamed the Tifa rally on hentai.

okay, I'm home now - time to move on with the list!
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KamikazePotato posted...

Tumblr was an extremely popular site in 2015. It's fallen off some since then but I can absolutely believe that a large-scale rally came from there.

Allen pretty much said it was all referral links from twitter, which I honestly believe. Something like 20% of people in America are on twitter. It doesn't take much traffic from there to win a contest, and it's where the smart people try to rally from. Reddit and tumblr don't mean much. We found this contest that Twitch means literally nothing.
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I guess it is safe to bring this up now, but did any one try to contact undertale_bot for the Sans match? It is still an active Twitter account.
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Safer_777 posted...

What? Where do you search for porn? Come on now!

not tumblr
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58.



It's hard to pick just one match here. Master Chief was a running joke by this point thanks to four embarrassing years. In 2003, he barely beat someone named Felix. In 2004, he had a failed comeback against Frog. In 2005, he needed one of the greatest comebacks ever to topple perennial loser Donkey Kong. In 2006, he lost clean to Sub-Zero despite most of the board siding with the big flop.

But in 2007, with the four-way bracket, Master Chief came to life. He was almost unanimously picked to lose to Yuna here and he went so far over her that it's unbelievable. The immediate response was that Chief is nonlinear - basically the equivalent of a joke character. He put up a reasonable performance against Crono in 05 which lent support to that theory.

The thing is, Halo was at its hottest before Halo 3's release, basically the equivalent of Snake's Brawl boost. He never really got his just due for it though because of the contest format. I wish we could have seen 1v1 Chief in 07 because he was a killer. He could have legit beaten Crono this year if both characters' fourway results were to be believed. He almost beat Snake in the semis and crushed Dante the round before. 07 Master Chief probably belongs up there with the Zelda run this year and Snake run of 06, but fourways, L-Block, etc. Master Chief will never get his just due.

And then Halo 3 came out, kinda sucked relative to FINISH THE FIGHT hype and got blitzed off the map by the new and exciting Call of Duty 4. And that was the end of Master Chief's run as a possible top 10 character.
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As the main guy who put forth the idea that Chief was nonlinear and rode the believe to a top 6 finish, I'm pretty sure Chief was a bit of both in 07. I kinda wish we had seen him in a 1v1 but I also don't think he's going to beat Crono easily in 07 in a 1v1. I do think he could possibly win in 07 and it's not all format, but the format definitely helped him a bit since he'd have just walked over the guy in a 4 way. It's not even just that he's non-linear (which I do believe) but that you can also disperse the anti-votes that much better.

Also the round 2 match is the one to put up imo. 43% on 3 Yunas instead of 45% on 1 Yuna + two fodders. That was the one that really had me think "dude's here to play."

Side note I really hated how the L-Block gained traction as some sort of "anti-GameFAQs vote" when Chief would've pissed off GameFAQs so much more to anyone who had followed the site. Chief winning in 07 if the rage against the machine crowd knew what they were doin would've been best civilization.
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57.



You know, this match doesn't really mean all THAT much except for people who were there in the very beginning. Yeah, Cloud managed to beat Zelda and show that he was still Link's primary whipping boy. That's great! Some semblance of balance amongst the Nintendo trees!

But we all know that this is about the long overdue runback from their infamous 2002 match. Some number of people born after the Mario/Cloud match can now drive in most states. Cloud deserved a chance to avenge this loss like Crono got with Mario and he just never got to do it. Mario drew Sephiroth in the TOC in 2005 and Link in the two 2006 matchups. Cloud never had a fair shot at him in the fourways or anywhere. It took until the contests were a wilting flower to get another rematch, and he took advantage of it, winning with a similar percentage to his 2002 loss.

It was poetic. It doesn't matter a lot. And yet, it does.
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Cloud was the true winner of this contest just by virtue of holding Link under 60. Everything else doesn't matter.
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Chief writeup needed more GAME FUEL
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GAME FUEL is one of the most fun things to happen in any contest.
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GAME FUEL also much better joke material than a being shaped like a boot

I miss GAME FUEL. I mean the drink. It was great.
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They still make Gamer Fuel from time to time.
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transience posted...

You know, this match doesn't really mean all THAT much except for people who were there in the very beginning.

Yeah as someone here from literally day one that match is about 50 spots too low. There will never be a bigger board explosion. It's just not possible. The entire internet cared about that poll.
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55.




I'm combining them because they may as well be the same match. The second one was a better fight, complete with a prototypical final Mario update, but the spirit of these are the same.

If you were to write a ten commandments of contest history, one of them has to be "Mario will beat Samus, no matter what other results make you think." I don't know the final order yet but I can pretty confidently say that Mario/Samus 2005 will be in the top ten. It left such an impact that you will never doubt it again. It's not like any other result. You just never doubt that result no matter what.

But in 2018... Samus is basically equal to Mario? That and the Snake result really lent support to the decade-old theory that Samus is indirectly stronger than Mario, one of the longest lingering theories of all time. It seems like Samus might have had some outside help in the latter match, but it's almost perfect that Mario got a last second update to beat her. It's a lot like Crono 2002 but with all of the latent energy that infused early contests stripped from it.

Samus didn't win here but she kind of did spiritually by just being able to match up with her biggest nemesis and look good. I think a common sentiment nowadays is that Samus is our true #2. If she had just a few more votes, we could have seen Samus/Zelda and/or Samus/Cloud which could have sealed it. One of the few things to actively look forward to in Character Battle XI.
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Chief is super easy to explain. He overperforms in 4ways. Like him, a pokemon, Kirby, L-Block... characters like that just wreck 4ways. You could make a 4way contest right now and I think Chief would do well.
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If you want a better idea of how much the format alone helps Chief, check out 08 Chief. He's still good but he's not nearly at 07 levels. Of course he'd be weaker than 08 now because 08 Chief isn't losing to Tails 1v1, but it's a good starting point.
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Ulti_PCA posted...

KamikazePotato posted...

Tumblr was an extremely popular site in 2015. It's fallen off some since then but I can absolutely believe that a large-scale rally came from there.

Allen pretty much said it was all referral links from twitter, which I honestly believe. Something like 20% of people in America are on twitter. It doesn't take much traffic from there to win a contest, and it's where the smart people try to rally from. Reddit and tumblr don't mean much. We found this contest that Twitch means literally nothing.

Thing about Twitter is your feed is personalised. If some random dude on Reddit posts a thread asking for help you probably don't care unless you already have strong feelings for the character - but if someone you know or respect enough to keep up with their thoughts does, you're probably going to listen. Something like the LoL Reddit worked because the community is massive and united around one game, but Twitter could in theory work for almost anything in the right circumstances.
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transience posted...

55.




I'm combining them because they may as well be the same match. The second one was a better fight, complete with a prototypical final Mario update, but the spirit of these are the same.

If you were to write a ten commandments of contest history, one of them has to be "Mario will beat Samus, no matter what other results make you think." I don't know the final order yet but I can pretty confidently say that Mario/Samus 2005 will be in the top ten. It left such an impact that you will never doubt it again. It's not like any other result. You just never doubt that result no matter what.

But in 2018... Samus is basically equal to Mario? That and the Snake result really lent support to the decade-old theory that Samus is indirectly stronger than Mario, one of the longest lingering theories of all time. It seems like Samus might have had some outside help in the latter match, but it's almost perfect that Mario got a last second update to beat her. It's a lot like Crono 2002 but with all of the latent energy that infused early contests stripped from it.

Samus didn't win here but she kind of did spiritually by just being able to match up with her biggest nemesis and look good. I think a common sentiment nowadays is that Samus is our true #2. If she had just a few more votes, we could have seen Samus/Zelda and/or Samus/Cloud which could have sealed it. One of the few things to actively look forward to in Character Battle XI.

combining is not fair!!! 2 matches???
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54.



Ah, summer 2006 votals. This was peak gamefaqs.

This one was always hard to unpack. It's a pretty huge moment to see Zelda beat Final Fantasy. It was a surprise to most bracketmakers, though not so much after Final Fantasy struggled with Mario the round prior. This contest largely sucked because, to nobody's surprise, gamefaqs only cares about three series: FF, Mario, Zelda. Everything else would get doubled by them, with the exception of Smash because 2006 was Smash at its peak powers. If we believed in the power of hype in 2006, everyone would have seen Snake coming a few months later. The writing was clear as day.

The running theory at the time was that Zelda was a much more unified fanbase while FF had a much wider breadth of opinions. Some like SNES FF and hate the PS1 ones. Some like 8 or 9 and hate 7. Some only care about 7 and never moved on. The question, as everything in the series contest was, came down to how people would value a series vs. a sum of its parts. Mario Kart games were clearly going to be better than Mega Man, but the collective feelings of Mega Man and its place in history made it beat Mario Kart handily.

Was Ocarina better than FF7 in 06? That's the key question to me. I think that is probably true with hindsight, but who knows? The previous fall (05) had the 10 year anniversary list contest where FF7 once again won the top spot over Ocarina, but that was registered voters only. It's hard to say. That murkiness is why I don't rank this in the top 25 -- because it might be a huge turning point for the contests to favour not only Link but also Ocarina -- but also might not. We'll never know and this match means kind of nothing as a result.
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Was that the highest votals in a match that wasn't obviously inflated with massive off-site rallies? Would be fitting.
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I still think Final Fantasy as a whole in 06 gains more than Zelda as a whole in 06 from a series vs series match, so yeah OoT was probably a good deal stronger than FF7 by then.

Nowadays it'd be sketch because FF's legacy hasn't exactly been pristine since like FF10 way back in 01. FF7 is probably > FF as a series now.

That is to say nowadays I'd expect that one to be 60-40 Zelda's favor minimum.
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IIRC 2 games series seemed to get penalized by the voters for barely being a series... except for Smash.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Yeah, I think Draven/MMX/Ryu is the biggest Draven match because we've never seen anything like that before.

Yeah. While I was sounding the alarm after Round 1, very few believed it... until the day the Draven Nation attacked.

Finals match is probably #2 if only for that one update when the rally topic was restored.

"And just like that, everything changed. At that terrible moment, in our hearts, Board 8 knew. The contest was a pen. Snake, cattle."

I think I'd put Link/Draven #3 for Draven matches but I'd get the argument for Jak/Chie with the benefit of hindsight.
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hey TRE or somebody that would know - can someone point to oracle results of the 2013 contest?
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