Board 8 > ~*Ultimaterializer's Post-Contest Analysis! - Part 2*~

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RPGlord95
05/22/20 1:13:16 PM
#101:


NFL Blitz maybe

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RPGlord95
05/22/20 1:13:37 PM
#102:


Also Blitz the League 2 is one of the best hidden gems

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"Every man's heart one day beats its final beat." -Warrior
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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 1:17:31 PM
#103:


Those games where Lawrence Taylor was the spokesman? I'm shocked people like those.

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Safer_777
05/22/20 1:18:14 PM
#104:


Has NBA Jam ever be in a contest?

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So why we exist? What happens when we stop existing?
Azuarc the best Guru of the 2020 Contest! Nice job man!
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Hbthebattle
05/22/20 1:21:26 PM
#105:


Wii Sports
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Congrats to azuarc for winning the GotD Guru!
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RPGlord95
05/22/20 1:21:43 PM
#106:


There was just something so satisfying about the injury animations in Blitz the League 2. Laying a huge hit on a player and severing his spine or popping his testicles.

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Whiskey Nick on his cell phone
"Every man's heart one day beats its final beat." -Warrior
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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 1:37:22 PM
#107:


Hbthebattle posted...
Wii Sports
This is probably the right answer honestly.

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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 1:46:32 PM
#108:


Division 7 Quarterfinal: (5)Yakuza 0 vs (4)Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

(5)Yakuza 0 - 10462 [42.75%]
(4)Metal Gear Solid 5 - 14011 [57.25%]
Total Votes - 24473
Prediction Percentage - 68.32%

There was some buzz pre-contest about MGS5 potentially losing this match. It wasn't that Yakuza was some beast or anything, but some people felt that the Metal Gear Solid brand would fall off a cliff in this contest and open the door for an upset.

Yakuza made this an interesting match early by winning the board vote, and in the first couple hours it was even able to pull out the occasional stall and update win. The fun ended there however, and Metal Gear Solid 5 would go on to easily win this match. It wasn't a godslayer blowout by any means, but a win is a win and MGS5 moved on. I have no doubts that the MGS brand is damaged beyond repair anymore, and that it could have gotten upset in a different spot in the bracket, but this was not the fourpack for that to happen. This was one of the weakest fourpacks in the entire contest, so Metal Gear Solid 5 was able to win it by default. I personally loved most of MGS5, but I can completely see why people would anti-vote it.

The funniest part of Metal Gear Solid 5 winning this match is that it set up a rematch (lol) with Dark Souls. Remember this match from 2015? https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6136-best-game-ever-day-22-round-2-metal-gear-solid-v-vs-dark

The hilarity of this setup was great. Just how far had Metal Gear Solid fallen? We were about to find out.

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Anagram
05/22/20 1:49:59 PM
#109:


Man, remember when Snake got 46% on Link? I can only wonder what hed get today.

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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 2:01:34 PM
#110:


Division 7 Quarterfinal: (3)Batman: Arkham City vs (6)BioShock Infinite

(3)Arkham City - 14637 [59.82%]
(6)BioShock Infinite - 9832 [40.18%]
Total Votes - 24469
Prediction Percentage - 48.68%

Ready for a joke?

What do you get when you take the original Bioshock, put it in the sky instead of at the bottom of the ocean, make the writing worse, and insult the intelligence of your players?

You get what you fucking deserve.

Bioshock Infinite is not a ''bad'' game, but it's not a good one. Terraria wasn't able to take advantage of the newfound weakness in this series, but Batman certainly was. The two Arkham games have always performed well on this site, and scoring a 60-40 beating over a Bioshock was the latest example of this. The Batman games aren't likely to ever be top tier on this site, but they are solid midcarders that can beat most games before getting to the heavy hitters in brackets.

Arkham Asylum made one contest, and Arkham City has made two. In those three combined contest appearances, Batman made round 3 in two of them. In the outlier, 2015, Arkham City had to go against a 90s all-star in Mega Man X. If you go and look at that contest's bracket, there are several fourpacks it could have won.

To the point. We're long past time for character battles, if they even continue, to allow for any character that's ever been in a video game. Provided there are no licensing issues and such. It's just dumb to have a character battle on a video game web site without Batman, Joker, Spiderman, Thanos, Wolverine, and all the rest of it being eligible. It's the only way to make them unpredictable again, too.

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Rollthebones2
05/22/20 2:15:03 PM
#111:


PostContestUlti posted...
Sales do not equal quality, and professional game critics lost their ethics a long, long time ago. The only thing I care about are what the regular people think; word of mouth.

Sure, I agree with that, but I would challenge your assessment of angry FF7 fans on the internet as 'regular people'. Anywhere but GameFAQs, it seems clear to me that more people - not critics, just people who play games - liked the game than hated it.

And I say that as someone who almost hates it for the failings it does have as a remake/tribute to the original.

EDIT: To make it so my comments aren't completely off-topic, I have an MGS-related question. Obviously MGS5 has fallen hard, which seemed predictable at the start of the contest. If there is another games contest, how do each of the first 3 MGS hold up?

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NowItsAngeTime
05/22/20 2:21:12 PM
#112:


I would take Rocket League over NBA Jam in a match

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Congrats to azuarc for winning GotD2 Guru
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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 2:26:32 PM
#113:


Division 7 Quarterfinal: (7)Diablo III vs (2)The Last of Us

(7)Diablo 3 - 8989 [36.72%]
(2)The Last of Us - 15488 [63.28%]
Total Votes - 24477
Prediction Percentage - 75.2%

The Last of Us taking out the trash and ridding this contest of Activision-Blizzard, the single worst company in human history. Not just gaming, either. The worst company ''period''. Nothing will ever be worse, either, because there are still legions of idiots actually defending these people. See when Monsanto or Enron or Wells-Fargo or any other evil company gets caught acting as companies tend to act, the public turns on them. Activision-Blizzard gets caught being human trash cans ''constantly'', yet out come the legion of sycophants to defend this garbage every single time.

Blizzard will never get back to what they were in the 90s, folks. Get over it, accept it, and stop kissing the ring. Activison will never, ever allow that company to have things like "good ideas" ever again, and any time they're booted from one of these contests it's one of the best days of said contest by default. Blizzard has been trash for 20 years now. Deal with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7E31Z8e_RY

If you want a good comparison to how much I absolutely fucking ''hate'' this company, it's comparable to how much EDP pretends to hate the Philadelphia Eagles. I say "pretends" because EDP is clearly acting for the camera to get views. I'm not acting. I genuinely and truly hate every single thing about Activision-Blizzard, because that company in no way deserves to be in business.

Independent of complete financial collapse of the company's assets, at least the public is ''finally'' starting to see the trash that is Blizzard for what it is -- indefensible human waste. To that end, thank you Last of Us for excising the final Blizzard tumor from this contest, though I will say when one compares this result to Dark Souls pasting Rocket League, it was very difficult to imagine a world in which Last of Us would be able to compete in that match.

Allowing anything from Blizzard to get above 0% on you is bad enough, but 37%? That's a pretty big problem, and this match happened two weeks before the big leak that broke the internet.

Don't worry, we'll talk about it at the appropriate time. For now, it was time to celebrate! Good riddance Blizzard, and fuck you forever. No company will ''ever'' be worse.

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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 2:28:42 PM
#114:


Rollthebones2 posted...
Sure, I agree with that, but I would challenge your assessment of angry FF7 fans on the internet as 'regular people'. Anywhere but GameFAQs, it seems clear to me that more people - not critics, just people who play games - liked the game than hated it.

And I say that as someone who almost hates it for the failings it does have as a remake/tribute to the original.

EDIT: To make it so my comments aren't completely off-topic, I have an MGS-related question. Obviously MGS5 has fallen hard, which seemed predictable at the start of the contest. If there is another games contest, how do each of the first 3 MGS hold up?
Bro it's a social board and I'm chill as fuck, be as off topic as you want!

As for your question, that's actually a topic I have in round 3 that I'll go over. Good question!

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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 2:43:21 PM
#115:


Division 8 Quarterfinal: (1)The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim vs (9)Journey

(1)Skyrim - 19725 [74.98%]
(9)Journey - 6581 [25.02%]
Total Votes - 26306
Prediction Percentage - 88.32%

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Uw97lOOlk

It's not often when you can win a contest poll with 75% of the vote and come out looking badly, but remember, Skyrim's matches were not only about winning. It was all about going tit for tat with Witcher 3, and the leadup to this match included Witcher 3 holding Mass Effect 3 to 21.6% of the vote. Skyrim had to match that, at least, to hold serve.

SFF or no SFF, there is no way anyone with an unbiased mind can compare that monstrosity Witcher 3 pulled off with Journey getting 25% on Skyrim and think Skyrim wasn't in a world of trouble. Even if you want to think the former was an SFF beating, it meant Witcher 3 was able to pull off Western SFF.

There was no way around this. Skyrim was completely and thoroughly screwed. The game isn't weak or anything, and I could even argue it hasn't lost much strength if any which is a minor miracle given Bethesda's idiocy, but Witcher 3 was in total berserk mode this contest. Anything less than an A+ performance was going to lose to it, and Skyrim was putting out a series of A-. On top of that, it kept losing board votes.

If round one wasn't a good hint into how that eventual semifinal would go, round two certainly was. It also got some minor hype trains going for Skyrim to potentially get tripped up by Nintendo long before the semifinals ever got here. Any way you look at it, Skyrim was in trouble.

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Arti
05/22/20 2:53:10 PM
#116:


Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 will always be my favorite sports game, though SSX 3 is very close.

and yeah, after Skyrim screwed up here I was pretty confident in my Witcher III > Skyrim pick that I made in my bracket.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!
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Nintendogs
05/22/20 3:31:53 PM
#117:


PostContestUlti posted...
Imagine you're a dude who used to be able to get any girl you want. 9s and 10s all day long. You let the success get to your head, you get messed up on drugs, and after you get clean, you're really screwed up and the only thing you can attract are 1s and 2s. You have Artie Lange's nose and a meth head's skin, so you just take what you can get.

After a few years of being clean, it's time for a real change. You hit the gym, get a makeover, maybe some plastic surgery, and work on yourself. You've fixed a lot, which is great, but the old scars are still there, which prevents you from attracting those 9s you were banging when you were younger.

Still, you've moved up to attracting 5s and 6s, maybe even a 7 on a good day. Given where you were at rock bottom, that 6 sure does feel like a 10, even though her flaws are readily apparent.

That's Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Square has been dog shit for so long that anything even remotely good gets overblown as the greatest thing ever.
I think that's a better allegory for Sonic Mania, at least when it comes to its performance in the last contest.
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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 3:33:50 PM
#118:


Nintendogs posted...
I think that's a better allegory for Sonic Mania, at least when it comes to its performance in the last contest.
Oof. Well played.

Division 8 Quarterfinal: (5)Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn vs (13)Mario Kart 8

(5)Final Fantasy 14 - 10424 [39.64%]
(13)Mario Kart 8 - 15873 [60.36%]
Total Votes - 26297
Prediction Percentage - 41.16%

One day after getting Blizzard out of this contest, we managed to get rid of Final Fantasy 14. That meant two very good contest days for me personally regardless of any other result, and good riddance to all the garbage. You will not be missed. MMORPGs are such filth to me that this match actually had me cheering for a Mario Kart, of all things. I can't ''stand'' Mario Kart games, because they popularized the trend in game design of punishing skill, but at least they're not MMOs.

"But Ulti! Final Fantasy 14 is the exception to the rule! You can't just hate all MMOs because of a few bad personal experiences!"

haha mmo go lose

Even if I was the type to give MMOs a chance, and I never will be, Final Fantasy 14 was so bad when it first came out that they had to blow up the world and start over. When your game's main endorsement is "well hey, it can't get <i>worse</i>", it doesn't exactly come off as a vote of confidence.

You also need to understand the insane number of people I've met in my life who gave up their entire life to this trash. What really cemented it home for me was World of Warcraft, and these people have gotten no better since that game happened. I still remember being in community college in the mid-2000s when that game first came out, and it was insufferable. All the douchebag guys we all hate in everyday life would go around using actual World of Warcraft lingo to try and pick up girls, and the girls would all reciprocate to get free gold and such in-game. I can't remember a more embarrassing social display than how people acted right after WoW came out.

"The game starts at level 60 bro, are you not a real man yet, why aren't you hitting up WoW in a top guild bro?"

I was married by then thank god, but I can't even imagine growing up a nerd, getting made fun of for liking video games, then becoming an adult and suddenly the main way to get girls is video games. It's like fuck off bitch, all of you. Guys and girls. You all spent 20 years telling people that gaming is for losers and now you're pretending to like that culture?

It's even worse now with those same idiots turning Twitch into a softcore porn site and simps throwing them hundreds if not thousands of dollars for badly -- and I mean ''very'' badly -- "playing video games" while showing cleavage. Imagine being such a loser that you donate to some thot's Twitch stream. There are some people on Board 8 that I have zero respect for, but I can't imagine anyone on here ever being ''that'' pathetic. Airquotes are obviously needed around "playing video games" here, because none of what Twitch thots are actually doing counts as playing video games. Go watch Kaceytron pretend to play League of Legends and try telling me that garbage is actual gaming with a straight face. I dare you.

This meme really tells the entire story:

https://pics.me.me/mario-world-time-xoo-a-history-of-women-and-videogames-1498747.png

Someone needs to make a version where it goes to 2020 and includes Twitch thots and their useless simps.

Where did all this crap start? In MMORPGs, that's where. Not only has that genre stolen a bunch of my friends from me, but it almost single-handedly ruined gaming. I don't care how good people want to pretend Final Fantasy 14 is. I will always consider all of it to be trash. World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 11, Runescape, EVE Online, Phantasy Star Online, Everquest, Maple Story, Final Fantasy 14, all of it. It's all garbage.

Actually, better yet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_games

Every single game on that entire list and every single game that will ever ''be'' on that list is dead to me for life. Good riddance, Final Fantasy 14. You will not be missed.

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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 3:46:53 PM
#119:


Division 8 Quarterfinal: (3)Pokmon HeartGold / SoulSilver Version vs (11)Rayman Legends

(3)Pokemon HGSS - 18929 [71.97%]
(11)Rayman Legends - 7373 [28.03%]
Total Votes - 26302
Prediction Percentage - 76.1%

I've mentioned this a few times already, but they're called "one point upsets" for a reason. Rayman Legends pulled off a good one over Celeste in round one in one of the contest's best matches, but then round 2 came and it was time to enjoy the, uh.... benefits of making it into round 2.

If anyone doubted that Pokemon HeartGold SoulSilver PowerCrystal CourageColor WisdomPrism wasn't a sufficient proxy for the original Pokemon Gold / Silver / Crystal, this match ended all of those doubts real quick. There was absolutely zero chance Rayman was winning this match, and that's okay. His success came in just getting to this point.

This was a blowout big enough to raise alarm bells for the potential of Pokemon knocking off the Western heavy hitters later in this bracket, and for those playing the home game, this win meant Resident Evil 2, Persona 4 Golden, and Pokemon HGSS all easily made it into round 3. This added a lot of fuel to those who questioned the eligibility of those games.

This also set up a round 3 match against Nier Automata, and apparently the Nier people thought that game had a chance to win that match. Um, have you guys not been looking at these contests or something?

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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 4:00:31 PM
#120:


Division 8 Quarterfinal: (7)Divinity: Original Sin II vs (2)NieR: Automata

(7)Divinity: Contest Savior 2 - 8222 [31.27%]
(2)Nier Automata - 18075 [68.73%]
Total Votes - 26297
Prediction Percentage - 63.27%

This match was hilarious. Not because it was a good or particularly close match or anything, but because Divinity rallied so hard. At the very beginning of the match, it looked like Nier was going to completely and thoroughly torch Divinity off of the map en route to a blowout in excess of 70-30.

But after the initial voting, Divinity went and rallied it ass off, and though it made no difference whatsoever in the match, it did matter in the final percentages and extrapolated standings. What likely should have been a 72-28 beating turned into a 69-31 result, which actually kept Hearthstone from being at the bottom of the stats where it belongs. Divinity took its role as Contest Savior so seriously that it actually rallied in this match to keep the opponent it beat from finishing last in the stats! What a man's man! What a bro. Sucks that Hearthstone got to be the beneficiary here, but I see you working there Divinity. Good stuff.

This set up what would end up being an incredibly annoying round 3 match between the Pokemon and Nier fanbases, and it ended up being every bit as awful as one might think. We'll get there, don't worry.

With this, round 2 was in the books and the contest shifted to two matches per day instead of four.

Star of the Round - Shovel Knight. Of all the indie hype in this contest, only Shovel Knight managed to make it to round 3. That deserves Star honors on general principle.

Turd of the Round - Lots of, um.... wonderful manure to choose from here. I'm going to give it to Zelda: Link Between Worlds, because we'll never again be able to give a Zelda game Turd of the Round honors.

(The actual Turd of the Round is Kingdom Hearts 3.)

I only bother with stars and turds for the first two rounds unless something crazy happens, because the field is too weeded out by this point. On to round 3!

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PostContestUlti
05/22/20 4:01:58 PM
#121:


Break time. 96 down, 32 to go!

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LinkMarioSamus
05/22/20 5:01:51 PM
#122:


Unfortunately Blizzard's early '00s to early '10s games just have sizable enough fanbases to stick by the company regardless of whatever they do.

Don't worry, I was never very interested in any of their stuff beyond StarCraft I.

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Whiskey_Nick
05/22/20 5:06:11 PM
#123:


FF14 is free on PSN right now btw

also Ulti I 100% had the same childhood with gaming was shameful and nerdy and not something you spoke about openly unless with other gamers. And then now all those people that mocked the hell out of people like me, are all 'gamers'

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#124
Post #124 was unavailable or deleted.
Whiskey_Nick
05/22/20 5:13:53 PM
#125:


I wasn't bullied because I knew not to talk about that stuff openly. Won't say I was popular, I sorta ... existed?

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Safer_777
05/22/20 5:14:55 PM
#126:


I remember I had visited a friend who bought FF 14 the day it came out and I stayed at his house watching him playing for 5 hours. Of course we all said, well it is at the start, things will be better. And they became better...after 3 years! I don't even know how he managed to persist this much. But yeah the game is amazing right now.

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So why we exist? What happens when we stop existing?
Azuarc the best Guru of the 2020 Contest! Nice job man!
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NowItsAngeTime
05/22/20 9:08:46 PM
#127:


Im surprised it took this long for simp to be used

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Congrats to azuarc for winning GotD2 Guru
I'm just a guy focused on VNs, fighting games, and other weeb stuff.
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PostContestUlti
05/23/20 12:39:29 AM
#128:


Division 1 Semifinal: (1)The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild vs (5)Final Fantasy XV

(1)Breath of the Wild - 22397 [80.25%]
(5)Final Fantasy 15 - 5511 [19.75%]
Total Votes - 27908
Prediction Percentage - 84.65%

Zelda was dominant in the first two rounds, but it was done against lesser competition that this site wouldn't care about. This is the match where people realized Zelda was on the level with the shit-kicking badasses from the 1990s. Yes, I am aware the game was made in 2017. In terms of contest strength, it might as well be from 1998. We'll talk more about that in the final, but the very short of it is Breath of the Wild had ''ridiculous'' strength in this contest.

There are three contest entrants in our history, and only three, that have managed to break 80% three times in a row:

-Link in 2004 (beating CATS, Ganondorf, and Yoshi)
-The Legend of Zelda in the series contest (beating Civilization, Mega Man X, and Metroid)
-Breath of the Wild in 2020

We've had some good Zelda vs Final Fantasy duels over the years. Breath of the Wild vs Final Fantasy 15 was not one of them. The only "drama" in this match, if you can call it that, was whether or not Breath of the Wild would finish above 80%. There were a few updates, 21 of the 288 to be exact, where it was actually below 80. It did obviously manage to finish above that number and make history, which puts it on par with any character or game with 90s strength.

With this one match, Breath of the Wild went from contest favorite to historically dominant badass. I know most blowouts are boring, but watching something be this dominant has a certain car crash quality to it. We're the same people that laughed all day long when Snake SFFd Tanner, after all.

At this point, it wasn't whether or not Zelda would win the contest, but by how much.

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PostContestUlti
05/23/20 12:55:52 AM
#129:


Division 1 Semifinal: (3)Monster Hunter: World vs (2)Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

(3)Monster Hunter World - 13043 [46.73%]
(2)Dragon Quest 11 - 14866 [53.27%]
Total Votes - 27909
Prediction Percentage - 24.69%

This match was the culmination of the entire debate over whether or not the winner of Monster Hunter's fourpack could beat Dragon Quest and make the finals of Division 1. I know the people reading this in a few years will think it's insane any of us ever thought Dragon Quest 11 could lose in this spot, but there are a few things to remember for those of us who were here live.

First off, before this contest Dragon Quest had only ever been in three contests. In the series contest, Dragon Warrior got flattened in round one. In 2009, Dragon Warrior 3 got flattened in round one. In 2015, Dragon Quest 8 was up against Persona 3 in an 8/9 match, and 85% of the board thought Persona 3 would win that match. Dragon Quest 8 won, and then in round 2 Chrono Trigger completely flattened it. So we hadn't ever seen Dragon Quest show ''any'' contest strength. It was perfectly reasonable to think Monster Hunter: World or Sekiro could beat Dragon Quest 11 here. Not only was Monster Hunter a part of the big Capcom resurgence, but a lot of people thought Sekiro would ride the Souls train to big contest heights.

When the match began, it was clear Dragon Quest 11 was a ''very'' legitimate game in these contests. It had almost 60% of the vote early, and though it spent the rest of the match bleeding percentage, Dragon Quest 11 was never in any danger of losing. This match was the quintessential example of a wrestling match where both guys come out looking like roses. Dragon Quest 11 easily won the match, but Monster Hunter: World looked very, very good in losing this match. Whether you supported Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter, or Sekiro, you could watch this match and feel good about your decision. Obviously Dragon Quest would get flattened by Zelda next round, but it was nice to see one of gaming's most important series finally make a contest run.

The only small point of debate at this point is whether or not the Monster Hunter fourpack was weak, which is impossible to tell by a close loss, but we would get our answer next round.

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Panthera
05/23/20 1:00:27 AM
#130:


PostContestUlti posted...


At this point, it wasn't whether or not Zelda would win the contest, but by how much.

Was this ever really in question?

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Anagram
05/23/20 1:03:32 AM
#131:


Whats the (presumably) strongest series to never win a match?

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_stingers_
05/23/20 1:11:14 AM
#132:


Anagram posted...
Whats the (presumably) strongest series to never win a match?
Has Super mario RPG won anything?

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_stingers_
05/23/20 1:12:05 AM
#133:


Nevermind, I looked it up. I was thinking of Geno always being fodder but the game itself has won a lot in the games contests

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_SecretSquirrel
05/23/20 1:12:09 AM
#134:


_stingers_ posted...
Has Super mario RPG won anything?
Put some respect on the greatest game to ever advance to the Final Four of the contest.

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redrocket
05/23/20 1:13:00 AM
#135:


Street Fighter II LOST?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!?

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#136
Post #136 was unavailable or deleted.
PostContestUlti
05/23/20 1:43:08 AM
#137:


redrocket posted...
Street Fighter II LOST?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!?
Street Fighter won a match in the series contest.

Division 2 Semifinal: (1)Mass Effect 2 vs (4)Horizon Zero Dawn

(1)Mass Effect 2 - 14749 [55.12%]
(4)Horizon Zero Dawn - 12010 [44.88%]
Total Votes - 26759
Prediction Percentage - 37.49%

Was Mass Effect 2 weaker than expected, or was Horizon Zero Dawn far more legit than expected?

Yes.

Both things are true. I have no doubts whatsoever that an entire series gets punished, even if only a little bit, when the parent company goes south. Mass Effect 2 probably did suffer a percentage loss across the board thanks to people not liking Mass Effect 3's ending or Andromeda. I think this had more to do with Horizon being legit though.

Most people thought Borderlands 2 would be the second game in this match, but Horizon Zero Dawn gave us a good bit of justice instead. The sequel to that performance was this match, where even in losing Horizon looked incredible. Mass Effect 2 is a wonderful game and Board 8 loves it and no one denies this. No arguments here. But if you haven't played Horizon yet, I hope this contest clued you in to give it a shot. It's an open world action RPG where you run around shooting robot dinosaurs. You can't get much cooler than that, my friends. I dare say if you liked Mass Effect 2, Horizon is right up your alley. Us fans don't always hype this game up for no reason. It's really good, please play it!

https://www.ps4home.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Horizon-Zero-Dawn-Wallpapers-5.jpg

Unfortunately, 127 of the 128 games in this contest went out on a loss, so everyone had to bow out eventually. Horizon getting 45% on Mass Effect 2, the prohibitive division favorite and a game truly deserving of the title of "Game of the Decade", on its way out was another proud papa moment. It was another data point for those who believed Mass Effect 2 was primed to be upset in this contest, too.

It was also more proof of how ''stacked'' 2017 was. Presented without comment so as not to step on the toes of Wall's project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_in_video_games

His writeup on that year will be far, far better than anything I could ever come up with. And 2017 deserved every single little bit of the love Board 8 gave it during this contest. I don't quite think we understood how stacked that year was pre-contest, but man did we learn it as things played out.

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_SecretSquirrel
05/23/20 1:50:40 AM
#138:


Wall has already done the 2017 write up.

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Agent Triple Zero at your service!
This line reserved for the true greatone, azuarc, winner of Game of the Decade!
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ZeroSignal620
05/23/20 2:12:36 AM
#139:


PostContestUlti posted...
Go watch Kaceytron pretend to play League of Legends and try telling me that garbage is actual gaming with a straight face. I dare you.

I had to look her up out of curiosity. She calls her subscription count a "Simp count" which told me everything I needed to know.

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Formerly known as Raven 2
https://twitch.tv/ZeroSignalX
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PostContestUlti
05/23/20 2:13:18 AM
#140:


_SecretSquirrel posted...
Wall has already done the 2017 write up.
I was trying to build suspense!

I've already read it. That man is such a good writer.

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ZeroSignal620
05/23/20 2:15:41 AM
#141:


PostContestUlti posted...
But if you haven't played Horizon yet, I hope this contest clued you in to give it a shot. It's an open world action RPG where you run around shooting robot dinosaurs. You can't get much cooler than that, my friends.

Pretty much. Horizon was an excellent title

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Formerly known as Raven 2
https://twitch.tv/ZeroSignalX
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Panthera
05/23/20 2:41:39 AM
#142:


Horizon Zero Dawn is definitely among my favourite games that made this contest

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Meow!
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PostContestUlti
05/23/20 3:32:54 AM
#143:


This next writeup is pretty big (2000 words) and it's 3 am, so please don't be shy if there are typos to fix them in the wiki article. I'm going to sleep after this one, boys.

Division 2 Semifinal: (3)Resident Evil 2 vs (2)Bloodborne

(3)Resident Evil 2 - 13421 [50.16%]
(2)Bloodborne - 13333 [49.84%]
Total Votes - 26754
Prediction Percentage - 32.58%

This was by far the best match of this entire contest. It had everything. High stakes, lots of hype leading up to the poll, a ton of controversy, a bunch of trolls trolling each other, a bunch of whining, a bunch of rallying, and some far-reaching consequences. It's also the easiest photo finish match to analyze in the history of these contests. Resident Evil 2 won because the mods on r/Bloodborne mysteriously and inexplicably disallowed rallies midway through the poll. Had those rally threads been allowed for the entire match, Bloodborne wins by around 1000 votes. Maybe more. Had those rally threads never happened, Resident Evil 2 wins this match by about the same amount. That was the singular and obvious deciding factor here. Read on if you want the juice, but that's really all you need to know.

In the leadup, Resident Evil 2 wasn't tested much. It easily beat some anime VN thing in round one, and easily beat Doom 2016 in round two. It was clear RE2 meant business in this contest, and had a boost from a mid-contest series release at its back. Bloodborne's path, while similarly easy, was a bit different. It had a simple 2-15 match in round one, and easily beat Fire Emblem Awakening in round two. But during that Awakening match, rallies took hold on the Bloodborne subreddit for some inexplicable reason, allowing it to beat Fire Emblem easier than it perhaps deserved to.

On both sides, everyone figured the match would be close and everyone figured rallies would play a part. Everyone was definitely right on all points, and we were in for one hell of a match here when the poll finally decided to start. Of course a match like this would start '''two hours late''', because what's a classic match without a dumb controversy thrown in? What the hell? There was apparently a site glitch with a site update paired with the contest switching from four matches per day to two, and it caused the poll not to start. Amazing. When this thing was being delayed, most of us figured it would be delayed for 24 hours.

Nope! The poll started just after 10 PM EST, and... inexplicably kept going. No delay, no announcement, nothing. Seriously, Allen? You did a good job in this contest, but you massively botched this match. To put in perspective how stupid it was to just not delay the poll by a full 24 hours, we hadn't had a 2+ hour delay to start a contest poll since Sonic vs Samus all the way back in 2002 -- 18 years ago! Largely because of that match and a few other controversial matches with much smaller delays, the poll start times were automated. Any glitches since then, such as in 2004 when Jill Valentine versus Ryu Hayabusa got taken over by CATS, resulted in full 24 hour delays.

But no delay here, for some reason. This delay also affected Mass Effect 2 versus Horizon Zero Dawn, but it didn't affect that match so who cares. Some people might say this match result is tainted, much like how people to this day do not feel the Sonic/Samus 2002 match was legitimate. I don't personally think it's a tainted result, but it was still ''very'' dumb not to delay it.

When the poll got going and some trends materialized, Bloodborne got some early bracket votes, and then Resident Evil 2 started wresting control after the initial freeze. After a small bit of Bloodborne resistance, Resident Evil 2 started climbing overnight. There were some stalls and cuts here and there, but overall Resident Evil 2 had clear control of the match and was climbing fairly easily. It won the evening, it won the midnight hours, and then as the overnight vote started.... the match hit a stall point. Europe is apparently not a fan of Resident Evil 2, so things stayed deadlocked until around 4 am. America voted for Resident Evil 2, and Europe was voting Bloodborne. Things stayed in the 350 range for awhile, with Resident Evil 2's lead peaking at 400.

And then it happened.

https://i.imgur.com/DjIBdiD.mp4

r/Bloodborne had a very widely seen rally thread go up, and Bloodborne was off to the races. It was the most obvious and effective rally in this entire contest outside of the ending of Shovel Knight vs Octopath Traveler. That 400 vote lead that Resident Evil 2 had? Gone by 6 am, and Bloodborne just ran right past it en route to taking full control of this match. Had things continued like this, Bloodborne would have easily won. It was ''flying'' in this poll, and there was a vote swing of almost 600 votes in about 4 hours during the dead zone. This match was as over as over could be, and then..... poof. Gone.

Just as quickly as the rally happened, the mods on the sub inexplicably deleted the threads and banned them for the rest of the match. Resident Evil 2, seeing an opportunity to turn things around, quickly pounced. Bloodborne had a ton of momentum and a lead near 200 votes, and though some word of mouth would remain for Bloodborne for the rest of the poll, it was nothing compared to a dedicated rally thread being there. This allowed Resident Evil 2 to come back, and come back it did. For the next few hours in the morning, Resident Evil 2 went through the painstaking process of erasing Bloodborne's 200 vote lead, and tied it at around 10 am.

This trend favored Resident Evil 2, right? ...nope!

When people think of insane stalls and ties in contest matches, this is the gold standard that everyone cites: http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=1658&num=2

For about 12 hours starting at 8 am, that match was ''agonizing'' to watch. That magic will never, ever be repeated. The stakes were insane, the match was insane, the hype was insane, and on top of all that, you had two titans in pure deadlock for half the match with live updating going on. On top of ''that'', Chrono Trigger didn't get buried by the day vote against a Zelda game. Ultimately, the night vote showed up to end that match. The stall was great, but once Chrono Trigger took the lead at night, we kind of figured the match was over.

Resident Evil 2 and Bloodborne, thanks to the final ten hours of this poll, belong in any discussion among all-time classic matches in these contests. At 9:40 AM EST, Bloodborne had a 9 vote lead. This match stayed completely and thoroughly tied, with some small blips, for the next '''ten hours'''. When it looked like Resident Evil 2 might finally make a push to build s lead, Bloodborne smacked it down. When it looked like Bloodborne might finally take a lead, Resident Evil 2 smacked it down. It was a joy to watch it all unfold, though I will say that in spots like this during contests, there's usually one entrant that looks better while the other is holding on for dear life. Bloodborne was definitely the one holding on for dear life here, because almost every push to actually take a lead was going RE2's way.

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PostContestUlti
05/23/20 3:33:00 AM
#144:


That is, until the final two hours. It was here where Bloodborne, not Resident Evil, kept trying to build a lead and Resident Evil was holding on for dear life. It just kept going like this, update after update, hour after hour, until everyone looked up and went oh crap, we only have two hours left! As things started to wind down, it looked like Bloodborne was going to take this thing. It built a lead of 30, which seemed insurmountable, but RE2 fought back yet again.

Things were tied yet again with less than an hour left, and Bloodborne yet again tried to win this match. It built up a lead of 26 with only 30 minutes left, and given the trends of the match, it really did seem like this was all she wrote. But then Resident Evil 2 knocked the lead down to 10 with 30 minutes left, and it was anyone's game from here.

This is when Moonroof clutched up and handed Resident Evil 2 this win on a silver platter. In matches like this, Board 8 usually decides the winner. It is ''very'' rare in a photo finish for the Board 8 favorite to lose the match anymore, and Resident Evil 2 is clearly who the board was pulling for. Someone or someones was eventually going to step up, and that guy was Moonroof. He made a post in the stats topic about having about 70 votes ready to go for Resident Evil 2, and though people in there mocked the guy for making this claim, there's an old saying. Show me the receipts.

Well I saw the receipts with my own two eyeballs. Hate on Moonroof all you want, but he is 100% legit on this. He had the receipts, I saw them myself, he delivered around 70 perfectly legal and legitimate votes, and as the match flopped over the finish line with two exhausted competitors, it was RE2 that came out on top and saved a whooooooole lot of our brackets. On a personal level, Bloodborne is my favorite game in this bracket and seeing it lose like this was just ''brutal'' to watch. But my bracket had Resident Evil 2 in it, and we've all gone with bracket over favorite in matches like this before. It was nothing compared to me having to cheer for Metal Gear Solid to beat Final Fantasy Tactics, of all things, but it was similar.

There's a lot to unpack here, so let's start with the easy stuff. Rallies decided this match. That is not in debate. I covered that at the beginning. Moonroof is legit. If you don't like the guy, that's on you. Too bad. Even without him, I think Board 8 would have boosted RE2 to the finish in other ways. There were just too many people pulling for it here.

The two hour delay combined with the rallies and the stalls gave us a weird 2020 baby version of Sonic vs Samus 2002 crossed with Chrono Trigger vs Link to the Past 2004. If our vote totals stay where they are, this is the best type of match we can hope for moving forward. I know some of you treated this match like watching your own open heart surgery and you had zero fun with it whatsoever, but in time you'll come to appreciate just how great this match truly was. And if you were cheering for Resident Evil 2, all the better!

The contest did not stop here however, and the show must go on. Resident Evil 2 was now firmly the main contest bandwagon, and with Mass Effect 2 looking ripe to get beat and secondary bracket entries just around the corner, Resident Evil 2 > Mass Effect 2 was a juicy, juicy upset special. I know I took it in the oracle bracket, and I regret absolutely nothing.

As for Bloodborne, I don't think this match means this is the last we'll ever see of it. It put on one hell of a show here, and remember, five years ago it lost to Final Fantasy 12: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6097-best-game-ever-day-12-bloodborne-vs-final-fantasy-xii

That is a real poll that actually happened, and it gets more ridiculous every time I look at it. Bloodborne went from that to coming one rally away from beating Resident Evil 2 when RE3's remake came out mid-contest. This is the kind of match where it sucks that someone had to lose, but if you're going to go out, you might as go out in style. Bloodborne will be back I think, and hopefully when it does, it will be boosted by a sequel. Hey From Software, we want Bloodborne 2. Get on it, guys.

In conclusion, it was nice feeling like we were back in the early 2000s again. Shout out to Resident Evil 2 and Bloodborne for giving of the match of the contest! It was all downhill from here. We had some good matches in the closing stretch, but nothing like this at all. Hopefully those of you who weren't here back in the day looked at this match and appreciated what we used to have. Contests used to ''all'' be exactly like this. Enjoy it when you can, my friends.

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NowItsAngeTime
05/23/20 4:24:12 AM
#145:


PostContestUlti posted...
In conclusion, it was nice feeling like we were back in the early 2000s again. Shout out to Resident Evil 2 and Bloodborne for giving of the match of the contest! It was all downhill from here. We had some good matches in the closing stretch, but nothing like this at all. Hopefully those of you who weren't here back in the day looked at this match and appreciated what we used to have. Contests used to ''all'' be exactly like this. Enjoy it when you can, my friends.

Yeah while I did enjoy the tail end of the contest... Even with the nice unpredictability of stuff like Game of the Decades, the low vote totals and knowledge of obvious trends and things like forced voting in multi match days is kinda finally making me lose interests in following contests.

Especially if SBAllen is not into the All Fictional Contest. But even then our vote totals suck so much without the double voting thing that I wonder if it's even possible to get hype for real anymore...

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Congrats to azuarc for winning GotD2 Guru
I'm just a guy focused on VNs, fighting games, and other weeb stuff.
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LinkMarioSamus
05/23/20 6:58:37 AM
#146:


Dragon Quest had two more contest appearances prior to this one: Dragon Quest VIII getting 62-38'd by Chrono Cross in the first GOTD and Hero "upsetting" Rinoa for 2nd in 2013.

This is like the one contest I really wanted to see rallies for, so I got into quite some arguments with others on the board over it.

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"Nothing I could do!"
-Darksydephil
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Moonroof
05/23/20 7:56:17 AM
#147:


Amazing write-up. Thanks for the shout out!
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Safer_777
05/23/20 11:30:39 AM
#148:


I wasn' there at the end of RE 2/Bloodborne because I was sleeping but man. This match was crazy for sure.

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So why we exist? What happens when we stop existing?
Azuarc the best Guru of the 2020 Contest! Nice job man!
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PostContestUlti
05/23/20 12:00:25 PM
#149:


Moonroof posted...
Amazing write-up. Thanks for the shout out!
Hey I still got it, bro!

At least for the great matches. It's impossible for me to get excited about the boring stuff anymore.

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charmander6000
05/23/20 12:12:28 PM
#150:


Anagram posted...
Whats the (presumably) strongest series to never win a match?

Never win a match eliminates most series/games. At best you can find an option that's had 1 or 2 appearances and was unlucky to face a strong opponent during the first round.

In terms of having the worst record without a win, The World Ends With You comes to mind. It's 0-7 between the game and two characters which appeared in GameFAQs contests, plus Sho lost in the vote-in for the 2010 contest

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Congratulations to azuarc for winning the guru challenge
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