These were the early results in each of the 63 matches I was able to vote in (generally within
a minute or so of when the poll opened).  Also included, in some cases, is my early commentary.


Fox ? (winning big) 
Pikachu ? (way behind)
TOTAL VOTES 1099

"Come back Pikachu! Make that huge comeback! Oh, for crap's sake."


Ganondorf ? (slight lead)
Tidus ? (somewhat behind)
TOTAL VOTES ?

"The first 100 voters came up with a "Poll not open" message, so I couldn't get any numbers."


Sam Fisher 72.08% 173 
Magus 27.9% 67
TOTAL VOTES 240

"Magus had just the strangest opening of all time... Let me break it down, for history's sake:

1. The poll opened 22 minutes late, meaning it was being ransacked by about 400 gamers, all
trying to get the first vote in, and refreshing 100 times a minute.

2. The poll finally opened, but with a message saying that Ganon/Tidus was over, and you
couldn't vote in it anymore.

3. The results came online, but Magus was marked as having every single vote... plus 5-15 more
added to that! He reached over 103% at one point.

4. It got really strange here... at the same time as the results changed to show TWO Sam
Fishers competing against 1 Magus (who still had more than all the votes), the pic at the
front of the page got seriously messed up, stretching to about 50 times its normal size, all
the way down the right side of the page.

5. Normal results finally surfaced, with Magus leading with 72% of the vote with 240 votes
cast."


Jill ? (way behind)
Squall 60%ish? (easily ahead)
TOTAL VOTES 121

"Vote 121 tonight, in a hugely early start.  Crap crap crap crap crap, Jill is getting beaten.
 The Square guys always start out strong overnight, then lose votes, but if Jill hasn't cut
that lead to 55% in the next 10 minutes, there's no way she can win this thing.  CRAP!" 


Luigi 93.18% 41 
Ratchet 6.82% 3 
TOTAL VOTES 44

"Holy balls, is Luigi ever spanking him! Hopefully that will go down a little bit, to match my
85% prediction."


KOS-MOS 76.92% 80 
Crash Bandicoot 23.08% 24 
TOTAL VOTES 104

"104, nice. Can't believe how Luigi fell yesterday, starting at 93 and dropping all day long.
KOS, though, she should be able to hold a little better. Which kind of sucks, since I
predicted her for 65%. Hm... either way, good to see Crash getting it handed to him like this."


Samus Aran 78.1% 346 
Isaac 21.9% 97 
TOTAL VOTES 443 

"SAMUS! You're supposed to win by 86%! Oh well, I get the feeling that lots of GS fans stayed
up to give their man a good start, and she'll climb more as the day goes on. Also, I ended up
quite close on my KOS-MOS prediction, though I doubt it was enough to win the Prophet
Challenge."


Cloud Strife 48.28% 42
CATS 55.17% 48
TOTAL VOTES 87 

"hehehe...  CATS has set Cloud up the bomb!  Too bad he was getting killed after a quick
refresh... but it was fun while it lasted."


Auron 68.38% 80 
Miles "Tails" Prower 31.62% 37 
TOTAL VOTES 117

"Wow, what a start for FFX.  I predicted Auron with 63%, hopefully the day vote will take him
down that far..."


Bowser 78.26% 36 
Ness 21.74% 10 
TOTAL VOTES 46 

"What in the devil is happening to my man Ness? I thought he'd get out to a stronger start
than this, I have him picked to only let Bowser win with 58%. Hm... that'll come down,
certainly, but it better get into my ballpark here."


Yoshi ? (around 70%)
Conker ? (30some)
TOTAL VOTES 2040

"Waited a bit too long on that... Wow, Conker is starting out well, holding Yoshi to just 70%.
That's going to head back up, but maybe I overestimated the dinosaur with my 85% prediction."


(On vacation from Sora/Aeris through Pac-Man/Kefka.)


Crono 96.67% 29 
Tom Nook 13.33% 4 
TOTAL VOTES 30

"Wow, what a fabulous start for my good friend Crono. This will certainly come down, though...
I still feel pretty confident with my prediction for a 85% win for him. Animal Crossing has
some bite, as my Great Game Contest proved while we were away. So, Kefka pulled it out, but
pretty crappily. Yes, yes, the picture hurt him quite a bit, but still, name recognition alone
should have won it easily for him. Crono's gona slaughter the poor clown like no tomorrow."

Alucard 100.00% 7
Bomberman 0.00% 0
TOTAL VOTES 7

"Hm... maybe I didn't overestimate Alucard after all, with my high 69% prediction.  Still,
we'll see what the day vote has in store for him."


Kirby 59.1% 724 
Ramza Beoulve 40.9% 501 
TOTAL VOTES 1225 

"Booyah for Kirby! I predicted him to win with 52%, and it looks like he isn't going to let me
down! I think this lead of his will shrink throughout the day, and this will end up being a
pretty close match... GO Nintendo!"


Gordon Freeman ? (46ish%)
Max Payne ? (54+ or so)
TOTAL VOTES 1200some

"*too upset to comment*"


Sephiroth 86.21% 50 
Raziel 13.79% 8 
TOTAL VOTES 58 

"I predicted Seph to win with just a hair under 86%. So if recent trends hold, I should be
right on the money...  But, gah, yesterday sucked. Stupid Gordon, costs me a point once again
this year.  I can't believe that, all the hype over Half-Life 2, and still nobody knows the
name of its main character. ARG...."


Knuckles the Echidna 53.97% 68 
Yuna 46.03% 58 
TOTAL VOTES 126 

"Not too bad. A 10 vote lead, but that doesn't mean anything. Come on, Yuna!"


Ryu 73.75% 781 
Duke Nukem 26.25% 278 
TOTAL VOTES 1059

"Atta boy, Ryu! I predicted him for 67%, I think he'll slid a little bit and come to a rest
right on that mark.  But I'm still FURIOUS about yesterday! Stupid Knuckles. How can Yuna be a
full 19% less popular than Auron?"


Dante 74.7% 316 
Ryo Hazuki 25.3% 107 
TOTAL VOTES 423 

"Ah, come on now, Dante isn't supposed to be THIS popular. I mean, freaking Q*Bert managed to
put up 30% against him. I picked him to pull it off with 68%... ah, it'll probably slid pretty
close to that by tomorrow aft."


Donkey Kong 70.34% 102 
Vyse 29.66% 43 
TOTAL VOTES 145 

"A solid start for DK. Once again, I had him lower, at just under 63%. And once again, I'll
say that this is going to slide further down as the day moves along. Which means, of course,
that I'm destined to be wrong yet again. Stupid contest."


Tommy Vercetti 61.6% 77 
Kite 38.4% 48 
TOTAL VOTES 125

"YES!  I just LOVE these early results. I knew Tommy was way overrated! He'll take this % back
up as the day wears along, but I'm so glad I only picked him to take home 67% of the vote
today. I am the king!"


Lara Croft 30.48% 153 
Zelda 69.52% 349 
TOTAL VOTES 502 

"Interesting... I went with Zelda at 60%, but who knows after seeing this good start... Almost
every character who gets off to a solid start loses percent throughout the day, but I'm not
sure if that'll be the case today. Even with the movie and such, is Lara really more
main-stream than Zelda? In actual character, maybe, but certainly not in name recognition.
Yeah, I think I went too low on Zelda here... phooey."


Mega Man 86.63% 298 
Mr. Resetti 13.37% 46 
TOTAL VOTES 344 

"Ha! All those guys in the Prophet Challenge had MM winning by these HUGE margins, 95% and up.
I'm glad I was sensible enough to put him down at an 88%... so 87 for right now it looking
very good for me."


Link 78.79% 52 
Fox McCloud 21.21% 14 
TOTAL VOTES 66 

"Sweet! Ha, it was funny, CJay still had the old pic up when I cast mine. Now, wow, if the
percents stay in this general area, I'll be all set... I said Link to win with 80%. This ought
to go up a little as the night wears on. Hurrah for me!"


Ganondorf 43.81% 541 
Magus 56.19% 694 
TOTAL VOTES 1235 

"Crap! Um... everyone knows that Chrono fans are only online really late at night. So it's
OBVIOUS that Ganon will make a huge comeback once the sun comes up, to end with the 50.05%
that I predicted him with.  Mags might as well just throw in the towel right now.  Yup..."


Squall Leonhart 48.08% 451 
Luigi 51.92% 487 
TOTAL VOTES 938

"About yesterday: Ganon was able to take it within 350 votes later, but Mags pulled away after
10 PM and put it out of reach. But, in a way, Ganon was able to do even better than he did
against Tidus, so I was like 50.01% correct after all.  ...or not.  Phooey. 
In other news...  Wow wow wow, two great Square/Nintendo matchups in a row. This time,
however, I think Nintendo will come out on top. Luigi should pull out to a big enough lead
during the day to keep the after-10 crowd from killing him the way they did Ganon."


KOS-MOS 24.35% 28 
Samus 75.65% 87 
TOTAL VOTES 115 

"Nice! Now, this will go down, as always. And K-M looks pretty good, so I think this could
very well end close to the 67% I predicted it with. Go Sammy! At least SOMEONE won't let
Nintendo down this week. Stupid Squall."


Cloud Strife 72.3% 54249 
Auron 27.7% 20782 
TOTAL VOTES 75031

"Whoops, accidentally fell asleep last night.  Anyways... Hm... I picked Cloud with 68%, so
he's outdoing me at the moment. Maybe this can still come down a little... but I wouldn't
count on it. Silly old FF7."


Bowser 45.86% 61 
Yoshi 54.14% 72 
TOTAL VOTES 133 

"YES! This is a very good start for me, as I predicted Yoshi to win with 50.5%. HOWEVER, we
all know that Bowser is a bit more popular with the average fan... Could this turn into a
Luigi/Squall type situation? Very possible. That's why I'm not getting too excited just yet.
Even if Bowser does pull ahead late tonight, I think Yosh might have what it takes to put
together a little bit of a comeback during the day. This one should be fun..."


Aeris 63.12% 14899 
Master Chief 36.88% 8706 
TOTAL VOTES 23605

"Die, Bowser. Ok, my bracket is now officially in the toilet.  And I fell asleep again, ack. 
MC is pulling back, though, so this could end up very close to the 59% I went with in Solar's
prediction contest... So there's a silver lining for you."


Zero 40.56% 101 
Sonic the Hedgehog 59.44% 148 
TOTAL VOTES 249 

"Great start to this match for me! I predicted Sonic to take it with 60.44%. And I'm glad I
did, because even though the other guy always makes a comeback after the first minute, I think
Sonic is one guy who actually CAN extend his lead a little through the day. Unlike stupid
Luigi and Yoshi... So, yeah, I really like where I placed myself. And I think I won
yesterday's, as I only missed the Aeris % by 1/4 of a point.

Know why Sonic is doing so well? Great picture. And great-looking font for his name. Zero
looks no where near as good as he did last round, and you can barely see his name. That's a
big reason why he was able to beat Scorpion so handily before... but he's more than met his
match with Sonic."


Mario 58.16% 24874 
Shadow the Hedgehog 41.84% 17893 
TOTAL VOTES 42767

"Out last night, so slow vote.  But anyways... this contest is officially gay in the extreme. 
Ok, so..... Let me see here. Sonic HIMSELF came within a hair of being beaten yesterday. By a
2nd rate character from another series, who doesn't have great name recognition, and didn't
look cool in his picture. WTH? This officially makes Sonic the weakest of the #2s in the whole
contest, who may not even make it to Cloud. Which means, the Sonic series is DEAD. D-E-A-D. No
one respects it anymore, it's been way too long since it's put out a good game, Sega is over.
RIGHT?

So then we take a glance at today's matchup. Let's see here... oh, it's FREAKING Mario. You
know, the #2 character last year, the legend, the man who represents all things Nintendo, the
most famous icon in gaming history. Playing who? SHADOW, a
completely second rate character from the Sonic series (which was flat out EMBARRASSED
last night, if you recall one paragraph ago), of which he has only appeared in a single game.
Yeah, he has no name recognition, no character development, and he looks like crap in his
picture. Blowout city!

WRONG

Holding the biggest gaming icon of our generation to below 60% is nothing less than a crime
against humanity. No to mention my predictions. That's it, I need to go lie down."


Kefka 32.21% 96 
Crono 67.79% 202 
TOTAL VOTES 298

"Hahahaha! Kefka looks like such a goon!  For the millionth time in a row, this is a very good
start for me, as I predicted Crono with 72%. Now, FINALLY, can things swing my way, so that
Crono is able to maintain or slightly extend this lead throughout the day? Or will the losing
character put together a 10 point comeback, as has always been happening? Let's see."


Alucard 52.52% 33856 
Kirby 47.48% 30602 
TOTAL VOTES 64458 

"Did you see that? Crono not only broke the trend... he smashed it! Yeah, the guy managed to
actually IMPROVE by over 10% from the early vote. Practically unheard of. My goodness, Mario
is going to have his hands full once again next round.

Um, missed the early vote, but what's this? Early afternoon, yet my prediction (Ali by 51.27%)
STILL looks good? Well, what do you know. I think Kirby can draw even closer as the aft wears
on here, and maybe pull himself even nearer my prediction."


Max Payne 17.39% 17499 
Sephiroth 82.61% 83118 
TOTAL VOTES 100617 

"Um... I DID vote before this, you know. At 4:15 in the morning, but didn't do my pasting...
Anyways, a pretty good result for me, I had Seph at 79%. Tomorrow shouldn't be too hard to
guess, since we already saw the matchup last year."


Solid Snake 60.77% 127 
Knuckles the Echidna 39.23% 82 
TOTAL VOTES 209 

"A decent start, as I predicted Snake to take it with 58%. Now all I need is for the younger
crowd to come along and give Knux a little boost, just like they did for him in his match with
Yuna, and I'll be all set."


Ryu 53.72% 4083 
Dante 46.28% 3518 
TOTAL VOTES 7601

"YES! Excellent early results. My prediction is going to be very very good once again (I took
Ryu with 52%)."


Zelda 34.64% 257 
Mega Man 65.36% 485 
TOTAL VOTES 742 

"What a beauty start! I predicted Mega with... get this... 65.11%! However, I get the feeling
he's going to take this win up by a few notches as the day wears on."


Link 60.86% 4355 
Magus 39.14% 2801 
TOTAL VOTES 7156

"AHHHHHHHH, I love this match pic. Too bad CJay is rolling out the sprite pictures one round
too late to save old Kefka. Not that he could have survived Chrono under any circumstances...

Worried about this poor start for Link? Don't be. You saw how huge Mags was over on the
boards, it's those guys who have gotten him off to such a good start. Trust me, after sunrise
tomorrow Link will start rising like nobody's business. I feel very good about my 65% win
prediction for the Champ."


Squall Leonhart 38.1% 96 
Samus Aran 61.9% 156 
TOTAL VOTES 252 

"An excellent start for our lady of the Chozos. Alot of people are giving Squall way too much
credit right now. Man, with a start like this, it could get embarrassing quickly... The Square
guys are supposed to get off to fast starts, then fall in the morning, but Squall is already
in hot water not 5 minutes in. Some thing Sam's sprite is going to hurt her, but I disagree...
if anything, it'll draw more of the older vote her way. And thanks to Prime, she's already got
the newer voters... Make that Nintendo 2, Square 0 for Round 3."


Cloud Strife 69.44% 48293 
Bowser 30.56% 21256 
TOTAL VOTES 69549 

"Apologies on the late vote.  Aw, I was hoping Bowser would do a little better. I had him
pegged for 64%. Still, this isn't too bad... Nintendo has looked very good in all three
matches so far, really. Now tonight ought to be a good one... I'm thinking Aeris can keep it
tight. Sega hasn't impressed me too much so far this contest."


Aeris Gainsborough 41.95% 125 
Sonic the Hedgehog 58.05% 173 
TOTAL VOTES 298

"I like these early results. Sonic with a big enough lead that he can't lose, but probably
can't run away with it, either. I predicted him to take it with about 54 and a half, so this
low 58 is decent enough. It will be interesting to see where the day vote swings on this
one... being a mascot, you'd normally expect someone like Sonic to pull away. But it's been so
long since he's had a really solid game... are the kiddies really on his side anymore? He
certainly didn't extend that lead much against Zero. Hm...

EDIT - Wowza, look what the second update brought about!

Aeris Gainsborough 45.59% 760 
Sonic the Hedgehog 54.41% 907 
TOTAL VOTES 1667 

My prediction: Sonic with, get this... 54.41%! End the contest now, CJay, make me look like a
genius!"


Mario 100% 5
Crono 20% 1
TOTAL VOTES 5

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Best match ever! And to think I was voter #6, whee! Anyways, so
many people were refreshing that it was a little glitchy to start, but as you can see there,
Mario got out to an early lead. Then on the first update after that (which came already at 70
votes) Crono was ahead by 6. Then MARIO pulled back by 121, and right now leads by 115. So
already there's been 2 lead changes, something that's NEVER happened so early this entire
summer!

Now, the way I see it, Mario just needs to hold on to this slim lead for about 4 more updates.
After that, the night vote will kick in and put Crono up by a tad... but no matter, with such
a strong start, the day vote would be more than enough to push Mario back into the lead! But
then comes the big question... can he get far enough in front to hold off the Sunday night
voters? It's what killed DK, and it'll do Mario in as well, unless he can go strong all
afternoon.

GO MARIO!"


(After Mario's incredible comeback victory, internet troubles kept me offline the next two
matches.  As I said, "Anyways, Sephy won by even more than I thought he would, and Snake has a
lead about 2% bigger than I was thinking... But that might keep shrinking down. Hm...")


Link 54.45% 104 
Samus Aran 45.55% 87 
TOTAL VOTES 191 

"Another excellent start for the Girl Wonder. With a first update like this, you might think
I'd be shaking in my boots, what with my high 60% prediction for Link. But you know what? I'm
not. Sam has huge support on the boards, and alot of fans staying up late to keep her close.
Watch, next update will put Link up about 2 points. He'll be kept close to that through the
night, then power forward as the day wears on. Mark these words."


Cloud Strife 51.89% 137 
Sonic the Hedgehog 50% 132 
TOTAL VOTES 264 

"Whoo hoo! We got us a real matchup here, ladies and gents! Now, I was dead right with that
analysis last night, but this time, I'm not nearly as confident. Sure, Sonic had good board
support, but not THIS good. Cloud is still going to extend this one, and by plenty, don't get
me wrong. Still, I feel I perhaps overestimated him a tad with my 60% prediction. Ah, well,
he'll get into that ballpark, at the very least."


Mario 45.28% 24 
Sephiroth 54.72% 29 
TOTAL VOTES 53

"A good start for Seph. But first, MAN, was I ever wrong about yesterday. I knew Cloud would
go up, but I had no idea it'd be by that much. Now I know what you're thinking: this is just
like last night. A major mascot character, kind of kiddy, going up against a mega-popular FF7
guy, who's had a major popularity boost since Kingdom Hearts. We're bound to see the same kind
of huge swing, right?

WRONG. This match is the exact opposite of last night. The first update belongs to the message
boards (especially as we get later into the contest, and they become more and more active).
And right now, the boards are HEAVILY anti-Mario. Because of that reason, loads of people are
thinking he's going to lose this one pretty big. Not gona happen. They're making the most
fatal mistake of all: buying into board hype. 85% of those casting a vote don't visit the
boards at all, and 80% of THOSE have no clue how
controversial the win over Crono was. They're going to vote Mario, just as they normally would.

However, that being said... I still don't see Mars taking this one. I predicted Seph to win
with 50.57%, and I still like that. He might win by more, but it's a rock-solid guarentee that
it won't be by the kind of % we're seeing right now."


Solid Snake 45.98% 6892 
Mega Man 54.02% 8096 
TOTAL VOTES 14988 

"Ok, so I was horribly, horribly wrong about yesterday. But then again, so was almost
everybody. I don't know what it is, but Cloud and Seph are much, MUCH more popular this year.
I can't just be those token appearances in Mickey Mouse and Friends, can it?

Anyways, today I'm looking good once again. I predicted Mega to take this one with 54.69%. He
started out around there, but has fallen a little the last few updates. I'd have to image the
day vote will help him out a little, so he should land right in my ballpark.

Tomorrow will be INSANE. We all thought Link was untouchable, well, not anymore. Cloud will
give him a run for his money, no doubts.  It's going to be a great day!"


Sephiroth 53.02% 202 
Mega Man 46.98% 179 
TOTAL VOTES 381 

"Wow, did yesterday ever suck.  HOW IN THE WORLD have Cloud and Seph become over 8% more
popular over this past year? It's just one stupid little cameo! Link, meanwhile, has starred
in an ENTIRE game (which was #1 on the FAQs for months), plus is a character in another huge
game (the CURRENT #1 on the FAQs). He was also predicted to win this match by over half of
those participating, all of whom ought to have been protecting their brackets. What's going on
here?

Anyways, that'd be cool if it stayed like this today. But it won't. I refuse to put my foot in
my mouth by underestimating FF7 again, and so I feel very confident with my official
prediction of a 59% victory for Seph.

And tomorrow: The Gayest Final of All Time! Hurrah!

I'm not voting."


Cloud Strife 46.73% 93 
Sephiroth 53.27% 106 
TOTAL VOTES 199 

"I didn't vote, mind you, just displayed results. Nor will I. But I like what I see. I
predicted Seph to win with 51% of the vote, and from these early results, that's looking
pretty good. I've wanted see this matchup, it's true, but it's still a gay one to have for the
Final.  Another excellent Contest, somewhat marred by another boring Final.  Oh, well,
hopefully next year will be great all the way through.  And it will be... if it's a Great Game
Contest.  Do the right thing, CJay!"


(c) Copyright 2003 by Jon "Ngamer" Barber