Board 8 > What If Gamefaqs did a contest in in the late 90s?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Who would have won? Would Link been as strong as he was in the earlier 2000s if not stronger? What other things would have been different from 02?
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What if Gamefaqs did a contest in 1992?
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Crono wins in 1998

1999 becomes more of a toss-up. Cloud & Seph have had another year to settle in, OoT has finally come out.
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Why wouldn't FFVII just win in 98?
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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3-lets-end-the-debate-now-which-was-the-best-final-fantasy

FFVII wasn't even as popular as FFVI still in 1999. Cloud/Seph probably wouldn't win in 1999 either, but i feel pretty confident in saying they don't win 1998.
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We had ffvi beat ffvii in a poll in recent years too, even if by a much smaller margin.
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I don't think much would have been different in 1999 versus 2002.

The Summer of '97, (pre-Ocarina and just before FF7 released in the US), could have been interesting though.


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You're talking a contest where Crash Bandicoot has legitimate strength and people's brackets are burned when DK chokes despite DK64 being released mid-contest.

That's dangerous.
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Gordon Freeman wins
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So I came up with a damn bracket for a contest that starts in August 1999...

(1) Mario vs. (16) Edge (Panzer Dragoon Saga)
(8) Duke Nukem vs. (9) Tails
(5) Aeris vs. (12) Kain (Legacy Of Kain)
(4) Samus Aran vs. (13) Doomguy
(6) Aya Brea vs. (11) Falco Lombardi
(3) Crono vs. (14) Morrigan
(7) Magus vs. (10) Parappa The Rapper
(2) Donkey Kong vs. (15) Musashi (Brave Fencer Musashi)

(1) Link vs. (16) Abe
(8) Alucard vs. (9) Sub-Zero
(5) Ryu vs. (12) Spyro The Dragon
(4) Ganondorf vs. (13) Marina Liteyears
(6) Kefka vs. (11) Terra
(3) Pikachu vs. (14) Sigma
(7) Pac-Man vs. (10) Kirby
(2) Solid Snake vs. (15) Vectorman

(1) Lara Croft vs. (16) Akira Yuki
(8) Tifa Lockhart vs. (9) Squall Leonhart
(5) Fox McCloud vs. (12) Claire Redfield
(4) Leon Kennedy vs. (13) Simon Belmont
(6) Gordon Freeman vs. (11) Ramza Beoulve
(3) Mega Man vs. (14) Strider
(7) Banjo vs. (10) Jill Valentine
(2) Sephiroth vs. (15) Ms. Pac-Man

(1) Sonic The Hedgehog vs. (16) Guybrush Threepwood
(8) Fei Fong Wong vs. (9) Zelda
(5) Luigi vs. (12) Bomberman
(4) Charizard vs. (13) Ken Masters
(6) Revolver Ocelot vs. (11) Scorpion
(3) Crash Bandicoot vs. (14) Luca Blight
(7) Knuckles vs. (10) Captain Falcon
(2) Cloud Strife vs. (15) Little Mac
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I could take a stab at 1997 too, possibly 1992 later on.
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Anybody want to take a swing at predicting my 1999 bracket?
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ProfitProphet posted...

Gordon Freeman wins

Never.
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RySenkari posted...

Anybody want to take a swing at predicting my 1999 bracket?

I'll have a go.

Round 1

Mario beats Edge
Tails beats Duke Nukem
Aeris beats Kain
Samus beats Doomguy
Falco beats Aya Brea
Crono beats Morrigan
Magus beats Parappa The Rapper
Donkey Kong beats Musashi

Link beats Abe
Sub-Zero beats Alucard
Ryu beats Spyro
Ganondorf beats Marina Liteyears
Kefka beats Terra
Sigma upsets Pikachu (Pikachu was anti-voted to oblivion for years before he gained strength, and Mega Man characters do well here)
Kirby beats Pac-Man
Solid Snake beats Vectorman

Lara Croft beats Akira Yuki
Tifa beats Squall (This is a close one, but in 1999, Final Fantasy VII is more popular than VIII. Nowadays, Squall would probably be the favourite to win this match, for now at least. We'll have to wait and see how the FFVII remake goes.)
Fox beats Claire Redfield
Simon Belmont upsets Leon Kennedy (Leon doesn't have Resident Evil 4 yet)
Ramza upsets Gordon Freeman (Gordon Freeman Never Wins)
Mega Man beats Strider
Jill Valentine beats Banjo
Sephiroth beats Ms. Pac-Man

Sonic beats Guybrush Threepwood
Zelda beats Fei Fong Wong
Luigi beats Bomberman
Charizard beats Ken
Scorpion upsets Revolver Ocelot (These two are around the same level in strength, but Scorpion is the face of his game, which gives him the edge)
Crash Bandicoot beats Luca Blight
Knuckles beats Captain Falcon
Cloud beats Little Mac

Round 2

Mario beats Tails
Samus beats Aeris
Crono beats Falco
Magus beats Donkey Kong (It's tough to choose which choke artist chokes harder, but one of them has to win, and Magus might get overflow from Crono being in the last match.)

Link beats Sub-Zero
Ganondorf beats Ryu
Sigma upsets Kefka (Kefka doesn't have Dissidia yet, and that didn't make a difference against a character from the same game as him, but now it does)
Snake beats Kirby

Tifa beats Lara Croft
Fox beats Simon Belmont
Mega Man beats Ramza
Sephiroth beats Jill

Sonic beats Zelda
Luigi beats Charizard (Charizard gets Pokemon anti-votes, though to a lesser extent than Pikachu. Ken is weak enough that Charizard can overcome them, but Luigi is too strong for Charizard to beat while handicapped.)
Crash Bandicoot upsets Scorpion (Very risky pick here, but in 1999 Crash was one of the faces of Playstation and he was coming off three well-received games, and maybe he gets Crash Team Racing during the contest, whereas the popularity of Mortal Kombat was in decline at the time)
Cloud beats Knuckles

Sweet 16
Mario beats Samus
Crono SFFs Magus
Link SFFs Ganondorf
Snake beats Sigma
Tifa beats Fox
Sephiroth beats Mega Man
Sonic beats Zelda
Cloud beats Crash Bandicoot

Division Finals
Mario beats Crono
Link beats Snake
Sephiroth beats Tifa
Cloud beats Sonic

Semi Finals
Link beats Mario
Cloud beats Sephiroth

Final
Link beats Cloud

Ultimate Loser = Leon Kennedy (Link > Cloud > Sephiroth > Tifa > Fox > Simon Belmont > Leon)

I'd quite like to see Alucard vs Sub-Zero and Crash Bandicoot vs Scorpion matches in a modern contest after this.

Xuxon posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3-lets-end-the-debate-now-which-was-the-best-final-fantasy

FFVII wasn't even as popular as FFVI still in 1999. Cloud/Seph probably wouldn't win in 1999 either, but i feel pretty confident in saying they don't win 1998.

this poll literally has less than 6000 votes so unless every match in 1998 has that few votes it means nothing (and it still wouldn't matter even if that was the case because we've seen over and over and over again that POTDs and contests aren't the same. FFVI beat FFVII one-on-one in a POTD and got 60/40'd in the contest)
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Sigma got in over Zero? Heresy.

On Squall/Tifa, note that FFVIII wasn't released outside Japan until September 1999 while this contest started in August. How that match goes might depend a lot on exactly what the date of the match is.

Biggest disagreement I have with the other guy is that Pokemon probably isn't going to be heavily antivoted in 1999 (IRL the backlash didn't really seem to set in until 2001) and I just don't think Sigma is worth a whole lot no matter what the year is.

Leon wouldn't have been anything special pre-RE4 but RE2 had only come out the year before and I'm not sure Simon 1999 is gonna be a whole lot better than Simon 2002.

Given that the match is pre-Final Fantasy Chronicles and pre-Chrono Cross I feel Donkey Kong probably beats Magus.

On Crash/Scorpion: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/20-whos-your-favorite-mascot
That's pretty encouraging for Crash!
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AxemRedRanger posted...

Biggest disagreement I have with the other guy is that Pokemon probably isn't going to be heavily antivoted in 1999 (IRL the backlash didn't really seem to set in until 2001)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5-whats-your-opinion-of-the-pokemon-craze
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Huh. Okay, point.

Still think he takes Sigma but that's probably more on Sigma than Pikachu being worth much.
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