Board 8 > SMFFFC 25th Anniversary Tournament - Bracket and Discussion Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wow, I wasn't expecting Vanille to win that, but I'm pleasantly surprised. Also glad that Kefka won his match fairly handily. Much deserved.

I was enjoying the unexpected Yuffie run. RIP ninja thief.

Vanille is legit strong, though! XIII as a whole is doing a lot better than I ever would've guessed.

Vanille's sudden surge in popularity is interesting to say the least

Funnily enough Locke/Vanille is our last chance at a finals rematch, though that is very unlikely

what's funny is if Auron and Edgar were to win today, quarterfinals would be:

7 vs 13
7 vs 10
6 vs 13
6 vs 10

that...would be pretty incredible

MZero posted...

Vanille's sudden surge in popularity is interesting to say the least

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/1/0/AAfVaxAAE3ei.jpg

MartinFF7 posted...

what's funny is if Auron and Edgar were to win today, quarterfinals would be:

7 vs 13
7 vs 10
6 vs 13
6 vs 10

that...would be pretty incredible

tfw your top 3 characters are from 6, 10, and 13 but none of them are in this hypothetical quarterfinals

My #1 and #2 are still in. Probably only for one more round, but still!

I like Kefka so I dont mind that result too much, but pretty yikes yesterday. Bracing for yikes next match too since b8 apparently likes Dullcil enough for him to even be around still. He might even be more boring than Vaan which says a lot

I'm amused at how annoyed you always get over one of the mildest characters in the franchise, swordz. What did Cecil do to you?!

Offensively boring characters are their own unique kind of awful to me

I agree with Swordz's sentiment towards boring characters.

Not sure Cecil qualifies to me though. I have issues with the character but it's not really blandness.

My issue with Cecil is usually that he has the potential to be really interesting: guy working for the villain who realizes he's a villain himself and tries to change. Except the game basically handles this by flipping a switch and turning Cecil into the most generic good guy protagonist imaginable.

Inviso posted...

My issue with Cecil is usually that he has the potential to be really interesting: guy working for the villain who realizes he's a villain himself and tries to change. Except the game basically handles this by flipping a switch and turning Cecil into the most generic good guy protagonist imaginable.

Yes.

FFIV is filled with interesting ideas but none of the filling is put into any of them and we get generic bad execution on 90% of it.

But I still don't think Cecil is boring just disappointing

Inviso posted...

My issue with Cecil is usually that he has the potential to be really interesting: guy working for the villain who realizes he's a villain himself and tries to change. Except the game basically handles this by flipping a switch and turning Cecil into the most generic good guy protagonist imaginable.

This

Day 32 Results:

(26) Locke Cole (FFVI) --VS-- (10) Auron (FFX) - 15-29
Locke's original design was a slightly older, dark and mysterious character. He was supposed to be a partner and rival of sorts to the male character that developed into Terra Branford, and wielded a "magic sword". As development proceeded the ideas of a foil to Terra that wielded a magic sword were transferred to Celes and her runic ability, and Locke's personality was tweaked and he became the more "regular" character he is in the final game.

(15) Edgar Roni Figaro (FFVI) --VS-- (2) Cecil Harvey (FFIV) - 19-25
Edgar's alias "Gerad" is an anagram of Edgar. His alias in the Japanese version of the game is (, Jefu, lit. Jeff). He is our 18th champion to fall.

Some fun facts from Round 4:

We lost 4 champions in Round 4, bringing the total to 18. There are still 6 champions alive going into the Quarterfinals, keeping them over 50% of the remaining field.

FFVII, FFX, and FFXIII have 2 entries each left in the tournament. FFIV and FFVI have one apiece.

The two remaining non-champions havent even made it to a SMFFFC final before.

Thoughts:

There are a few characters whose strength is a mystery to me. Like Cecil. Hes had maybe the easiest path to the quarterfinals, but things are about to get a lot tougher for him going forward.

Lightning is also a bit of a mystery. Shes had a bit more stiffer competition, but Im still unsure of her strength. She could go out next round or make it to the finals, and Im not sure Id be surprised at either result.

Auron is continuing to look strong as a lot of people predicted early on. But that Kefka/Vanille matchup is going to be interesting, and the winner of that could give Auron his toughest test yet.

Booooooooo

I must say I'm loving the little factoids after each match! Good job

guffguy89 posted...

The two remaining non-champions havent even made it to a SMFFFC final before.

Aw yeah, those are my favs right there.

Day 33 Results:

(1) Claire Lightning Farron (FFXIII) --VS-- Barret Wallace (FFVII) - 16-26
This match was actually tied at 15-15, but in typical Barret fashion this contest, he finishes strong with an 11-1 run to eliminate our number 1 seed and top character in stats. Lightning holds the honor of being the first true mainline Final Fantasy female protagonist. Terra Bradford from FFVI is argued by some to hold this honor, but the developers stated that no one in that game was truly the main character. Of course, theres also Yuna from FFX-2, but thats technically not a mainline game.

Yuna (FFX) --VS-- (13) Cloud Strife (FFVII) - 18-23
Speaking of Yuna, she was unable to hold onto her early lead as Cloud stormed back to claim the victory. Yuna is one of two Final Fantasy characters to have heterochromia (irises of two different colors), the other being Ravus Nox Fleuret from FFXV. Yuna is also one of few Final Fantasy main characters to be of mixed race, other examples being Cecil Harvey from FFIV, Terra Branford from FFVI, and Aerith Gainsborough from FFVII.

This victory for Cloud marks his third straight victory over an FFX opponent, defeating Lulu, Rikku, and Yuna in that stretch. What a ladykiller.

Lightning is my favorite FF character and Yuna is my number two, so today's results hurt! I guess FFVII truly is the most popular game in the series.

There's the Lightning result I was expecting vs. Ramza, geez. Where were all those Barret voters then.

All-FF7 semifinal without Aerith or Tifa, damn...

MartinFF7 posted...

There's the Lightning result I was expecting vs. Ramza, geez. Where were all those Barret voters then.

Voting for Lightning. You still don't believe Ramza isn't special for some reason!

rhetorical question obviously since I was also a Lightning-to-Barret voter, yes Ramza isn't special are you fucking happy

I just expected the Lightning antipathy was heavier than like Ramza non-specialness, or actual Barret appreciation. Or a mix on all that.

RacistFAQs officially dead

mnk posted...

Booooooooo

Though the first result is still fine

I am slightly disappointed we don't get Cloud vs girl Cloud, but I prefer Barret so I'm fine with it.

zzz results

Light did very well this contest though, considering how strong anti-votes have been.

Damn, two more results I dont care for. I do like Barret though. Not many characters left around I like a ton now I think though

guffguy89 posted...

This victory for Cloud marks his third straight victory over an FFX opponent, defeating Lulu, Rikku, and Yuna in that stretch. What a ladykiller.

Really making me annoyed at Cloud with that fact...

And now he is going to kill Barret as well.

Im voting Barret, but yeah hes got maybe a 2% chance to win that. Cant recall everyone left at the moment, but Aurons probably my favorite left by a lot?

If Cloud wins he will have beaten 3 of my top 4.

Day 34 Results:

(14) Oerba Dia Vanille (FFXIII) --VS-- (11) Kefka Palazzo (FFVI) - 18-25
In a battle of recent winners, our most recent SMFFFC champ bows out after a respectable run to the Quarterfinals. According to the Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania Omega, the development team at one point considered making Vanille the official main character; however, they dismissed the idea as they had already released a trailer and art featuring Lightning in that role.

(10) Auron (FFX) --VS-- (2) Cecil Harvey (FFIV) - 34-9
Auron began this match on a 20-0 runand never really bothered looking back. Cecil is one of the few characters in the series to permanently change his job during the game, starting out as a Dark Knight, but after a trial and the battle with the first of the Four Elemental Archfiends, transforms into a Paladin.

FFXIII still had an impressive run.

that starting auron streak made the cecil run all worth it

Well at least one of these rounds turned out well.

For those following the submitted predictions, MZero is set to win it, unless Auron were to win the whole thing, then Genesis_Saga would win it.

Feels like Auron's gonna win the whole thing to me.

Finally

Day 35 Results:

Barret Wallace (FFVII) --VS-- (13) Cloud Strife (FFVII) - 18-19
RacistFAQs! Or maybe its Final Fantasy thats racist? Theres over 100 playable characters in the mainline Final Fantasy games, but only 3 are black: Barret, Sazh (FFXIII), and Kiros (a FFVIII side character with a minor role).

Barret, who has been an incredible closer this contest, finally gets a taste of his own medicine as Cloud gets the final 3 votes to ensure his spot in the finals, ending Barrets Cinderella run in the process.

;_;

I never really get Cloud's appeal, like I don't think he's a bad character, he's modest and inoffensive, but when he's paired against bigger personalities from the same game I'm just kinda baffled he overcomes

tho tbf it is a one vote difference

Barret did better than I expected at least

If someone were to ask you, objectively, to provide one character as the face of the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole, Cloud would definitely be on the short list, if not the leading choice. And while that may have been more of a given 10-20 years ago, I think it's still true today.

Cloud is the prototypical character that is capable of making a run like this. He just often doesn't because it's viewed as a typical/expected outcome, maybe even boring. But he's been able to knockout several impressive characters on this run. Definitely didn't take the easy road. However, he was also spared from some matchups that may have ended his run. Had Rikku not beaten Aerith, and Yuna not beaten Tifa, Cloud would have had to defeat Aerith, Tifa, and Barret to get to where he's at. Would he have been able to accomplish that?

It would have been interesting for someone like Barret or Yuna to win it all. Similar to the new NBA in-season tournament this year, it would have been a nice, pointless trophy to hand out. But since this tournament is basically just an unofficial exhibition, it's probably best in the end that a former champion wins it all. All that's left to be decided is, who will that be?

Ugh one single vote.

Ah well Barret you had a great run.

3 of Barret's 6 matches this tourney were decided by a single vote. so a fitting departure I suppose.

i just wish he were called cumulonimbus instead

I understand Cloud being the face of the franchise for sure, it's just not something that has any meaning for me with regards to how I view the character itself

Same way I've never cared about Mario and why tf would I ever vote him over 90% of the other Mario characters who have more to like about them. None of them come close to Mario as an icon, but what do I care about that for?

(that being said, for me Cloud definitely ranks better in the FF7 cast than Mario does in the Mario cast)

CelesMyUserName posted...

I understand Cloud being the face of the franchise for sure, it's just not something that has any meaning for me with regards to how I view the character itself

Same way I've never cared about Mario and why tf would I ever vote him over 90% of the other Mario characters who have more to like about them. None of them come close to Mario as an icon, but what do I care about that for?

(that being said, for me Cloud definitely ranks better in the FF7 cast than Mario does in the Mario cast)

I mean Mario is an icon because he *is* the series

Cloud is just popular and became an icon

As we wait for today's round to finish up, I'll throw around a couple other odd factoids about Clouds run:

At the end of Round 3, only three unseeded characters remained in the entire competition: Rikku, Yuna, and Barret. Cloud ended up defeating all of them, in order.

He's only faced one seeded character all tournament. That was (20) Lulu in Round 3.

He's not the only one letting others do the heavy lifting though. If Kefka wins the semifinal, the highest seed he will have beaten is 10th seeded Auron, meaning that neither finalist will have even had to face the top 9 seeds.

So whose been killing all these top seeds? Well, Barret for starters. He has three top 9 kills himself.

No matter what happens. Whether (13) Cloud, (11) Kefka, or (10) Auron wins, the eventual champion will have just one "upset" victory as far as seeding is concerned. Auron's is his victory over (2) Cecil. Kekfa's would be his victory over Auron, if successful. And Cloud's would be his victory over Kefka/Auron, if successful.