The longer Starcraft lives, the more ****ed up the stats will be. It isn't just a bracket breaker -- it's a stat breaker. The stats you guys make to rank games by how they would all do against the winner is going to be totally screwed over by Starcraft because it exploits the ultimate defect we know is in the system. It assumes that fanbases are static and Starcraft is the most glaring example of the falseness of this. It gains strength depending on the strength of its opponent from the infinite voter base of Battle.net. Once it's winning, its support slows greatly, to the point where WW was making a comeback at one point in the night (or so I hear).
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 79/92, Next Winner: Final Fantasy X

Wow, 7.91% correctly predicted the Starcraft/WW match, probably about half that if Starcraft wins its next match

---
As a result of your humorous post, I am engaging in the act of laughter to such a strong degree that my rectum has become disconnected from my body

WW never really made a comeback proper...rather, it was more than SC stalled at around a 175 vote lead and it started fluxuating around that point for the remainder of the match.

Still, starcraft's gain stopped once again after it had bolted into the lead...weird.
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Starcraft vs WW - Kerrigan is just getting started.

Still, starcraft's gain stopped once again after it had bolted into the lead...weird.

not really weird. this is what you would expect from a bloc of voters who want to ensure they win, but do not want to be seen as "overwhelming" the contest.

I don't know how much b-net really had to do with it, if I were a heavy starcraft supporter, which I'm not, then I would be mad that that is the only reason you're allowing for its victory, and would say, maybe its just a better game...

but, IT COST ME 12 POINTS, die sc, die!
---
Silly Rabbit...Trix are for....kids.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.-Old Klingon Proverb

Top 10 Biggest Blowouts (difference in percentage)

1) 90.40% - Legend of Zelda vs. Adventure (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
2) 84.60% - Mega Man vs. Ms. Pac-Man (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
3) 83.68% - Mega Man vs. Serious Sam (II) from 2002 Summer Contest
4) 82.70% - Link vs. AiAi (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
5) 82.30% - Legend of Zelda: LTTP vs. Gunstar Heroes (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
6) 77.92% - Mega Man vs. Mr. Resetti (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
7) 76.84% - Mario vs. Captain Olimar (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
8) 75.42% - Sephiroth vs. Gabe Logan (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
9) 75.28% - Final Fantasy vs. Pitfall (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
10) 74.08% - Legend of Zelda vs. Donkey Kong (II) from 2004 Spring Contest

Top 10 Biggest Vote Gaps (difference in votes)

1) 88208 - Legend of Zelda vs. Adventure (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
2) 84196 - Link vs. AiAi (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
3) 80505 - Mega Man vs. Mr. Resetti (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
4) 79918 - Cloud Strife vs. CATS (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
5) 78272 - Legend of Zelda: LTTP vs. Gunstar Heroes (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
6) 77511 - Mario vs. Captain Olimar (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
7) 76348 - Final Fantasy 7 vs. Suikoden 2 (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
8) 74682 - Final Fantasy vs. Pitfall (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
9) 73838 - Crono vs. Tom Nook (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
10) 70809 - Sephiroth vs. Max Payne (II) from 2003 Summer Contest

Top 10 Closest Matches (difference in percentage)

1) 0.04% - Samus Aran vs. Sonic the Hedgehog (III) from 2002 Summer Contest
1) 0.04% - Metal Gear Solid vs. Final Fantasy Tactics (II) from 2004 Spring Contest
3) 0.10% - Mario vs. Crono (V) from 2002 Summer Contest
4) 0.10% - Mario vs. Crono (III) from 2003 Summer Contest
5) 0.14% - Donkey Kong vs. Duck Hunt (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
6) 0.20% - Starcraft vs. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (III) from 2004 Spring Contest
7) 0.22% - Mario vs. Cloud Strife (IV) from 2002 Summer Contest
8) 0.34% - Starcraft vs. Halo (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
9) 0.60% - Magus vs. Ganondorf (II) from 2003 Summer Contest
10) 0.96% - Tommy Vercetti vs. Donkey Kong (II) from 2003 Summer Contest

Top 10 Smallest Vote Gaps (difference in votes)

1) 34 - Samus Aran vs. Sonic the Hedgehog (III) from 2002 Summer Contest
2) 38 - Metal Gear Solid vs. Final Fantasy Tactics (II) from 2004 Spring Contest
3) 115 - Mario vs. Crono (V) from 2002 Summer Contest
4) 137 - Mario vs. Crono (III) from 2003 Summer Contest
5) 143 - Donkey Kong vs. Duck Hunt (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
6) 171 - Starcraft vs. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (III) from 2004 Spring Contest
7) 277 - Mario vs. Cloud Strife (IV) from 2002 Summer Contest
8) 373 - Starcraft vs. Halo (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
9) 650 - Magus vs. Ganondorf (II) from 2003 Summer Contest
10) 968 - Tommy Vercetti vs. Donkey Kong (II) from 2003 Summer Contest

Top 10 Most Popular Polls (by vote totals)

1) 147637 - Cloud Strife vs. Link (V) from 2003 Summer Contest
2) 133005 - Mario vs. Crono (III) from 2003 Summer Contest
3) 129703 - Mario vs. Cloud Strife (IV) from 2002 Summer Contest
4) 124443 - Cloud Strife vs. Sephiroth (VI) from 2003 Summer Contest
5) 124192 - Sephiroth vs. Mega Man (V) from 2003 Summer Contest
6) 123587 - Sephiroth vs. Mario (IV) from 2003 Summer Contest
7) 118961 - Mega Man vs. Solid Snake (IV) from 2003 Summer Contest
8) 116190 - Squall Leonhart vs. Luigi (II) from 2003 Summer Contest
9) 115738 - Ganondorf vs. Tidus (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
10) 113881 - Zelda vs. Lara Croft (I) from 2003 Summer Contest

---
LUE is a cancer, and if it can't be destroyed, it must be contained. - CjayC
My Score 77/92 FFX vs. SSBM

Top 10 Least Popular Polls (by vote totals)

1) 50816 - Max Payne vs. Dirk the Daring (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
2) 51889 - Pac-Man vs. Kyo Kusanagi (II) from 2002 Summer Contest
3) 52419 - Bomberman vs. Kane (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
4) 52618 - Donkey Kong vs. Bub (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
5) 52874 - Duke Nukem vs. Iori Yagami (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
6) 53213 - Mario vs. Servbot (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
7) 53920 - Kyo Kusanagi vs. Abe (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
8) 54997 - Serious Sam vs. Mr. Driller (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
9) 55392 - Ryo Hazuki vs. Guybrush Threepwood (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
10) 56361 - Tina Armstrong vs. Gordon Freeman (I) from 2002 Summer Contest

Top 10 Highest Individual Votes

1) 94086 - Cloud Strife (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
2) 92998 - Link (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
3) 92894 - Legend of Zelda (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
4) 91905 - Mega Man (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
5) 91749 - Final Fantasy 7 (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
6) 90364 - Sephiroth (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
7) 89595 - Sephiroth (II) from 2003 Summer Contest
8) 89189 - Mario (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
9) 88469 - Crono (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
10) 86938 - Final Fantasy (I) from 2004 Spring Contest

Top 10 Lowest Individual Votes

1) 4686 - Adventure (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
2) 5257 - Ms. Pac-Man (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
3) 5414 - Serious Sam (II) from 2002 Summer Contest
4) 8418 - Gunstar Heroes (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
5) 8602 - Gabe Logan (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
6) 8802 - AiAi (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
7) 9559 - Donkey Kong (II) from 2004 Spring Contest
8) 11076 - Little Mac (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
9) 11145 - CATS (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
10) 11292 - Pitfall Harry (I) from 2002 Summer Contest

Top 10 Most Impressive Losers (by votes)

1) 71438 - Link (V) from 2003 Summer Contest
2) 66434 - Crono (III) from 2003 Summer Contest
3) 64713 - Cloud Strife (IV) from 2002 Summer Contest
4) 59865 - Sephiroth (VI) from 2003 Summer Contest
5) 57078 - Tidus (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
6) 56258 - Halo (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
7) 55322 - Solid Snake (IV) from 2003 Summer Contest
8) 54529 - Ganondorf (II) from 2003 Summer Contest
9) 53716 - Crono (V) from 2002 Summer Contest
10) 50457 - Donkey Kong (II) from 2003 Summer Contest

Top 10 Least Impressive Winners (by votes)

1) 30662 - Strider Hiryu (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
2) 30711 - Pikachu (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
3) 31160 - Kyo Kusanagi (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
4) 31798 - Donkey Kong (II) from 2002 Summer Contest
5) 32301 - Serious Sam (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
6) 32602 - Donkey Kong (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
7) 32607 - Pac-Man (II) from 2002 Summer Contest
8) 33160 - Duke Nukem (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
9) 33516 - Alucard (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
10) 33602 - Sonic the Hedgehog (II) from 2002 Summer Contest

---
LUE is a cancer, and if it can't be destroyed, it must be contained. - CjayC
My Score 77/92 FFX vs. SSBM

Top 10 Easiest Matches to Predict (based on entrants choosing the winner)

1) 99.1% - Link vs. AiAi (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
2) 99.02% - The Legend of Zelda vs. Adventure (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
3) 98.0% - Mario vs. Captain Olimar (I) from 2003 Summer Contest
4) 97.75% - Zelda: A Link to the Past vs. Gunstar Heroes (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
5) 96.76% - Final Fantasy VII vs. Suikoden II (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
6) 96.46% - Final Fantasy vs. Pitfall (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
7) 96.4% - Link vs. Little Mac (I) from 2002 Summer Contest
8) 96.32% - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time vs. Fallout 2 (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
9) 95.91% - Super Mario World vs. The Simpsons (I) from 2004 Spring Contest
10) 95.9% - Mario vs. Servbot (I) from 2002 Summer Contest

Top 10 Hardest Matches to Predict (based on entrants choosing the winner)

1) 6.0% - Cloud Strife vs. Sephiroth (VI) from 2003 Summer Contest
2) 7.91% - Starcraft vs. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (III) from 2004 Spring Contest
3) 12.8% - Link vs. Mario (VI) from 2002 Summer Contest
4) 13.4% - Cloud Strife vs. Link (V) from 2003 Summer Contest
5) 14.5% - Mega Man vs. Solid Snake (IV) from 2003 Summer Contest
6) 14.6% - Crono vs. Solid Snake (IV) from 2002 Summer Contest
7) 15.62% - Starcraft vs. Kingdom Hearts (II) from 2004 Spring Contest
8) 17.3% - Scorpion vs. Pac-Man (III) from 2002 Summer Contest
9) 21.7% - Sephiroth vs. Mega Man (V) from 2003 Summer Contest
10) 22.03% - Super Smash Bros. Melee vs. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (II) from 2004 Spring Contest

---
LUE is a cancer, and if it can't be destroyed, it must be contained. - CjayC
My Score 77/92 FFX vs. SSBM

the fanboy in me says:
this is the greatest day in the history of all the gamefaqs contests.

looking at it logically, however...starcraft's support is rather unnerving.
it certainly seems to be coming from an outside source...at least in part.
the idea that such a force could have this kind of effect on the contest makes filling out a bracket seem like some sort of twisted joke.

...it does make the forum more entertaining, however.
---
signature (n.): a random bit of gibberish that no one ever reads.

from heroic mario:
Looks like Wind Waker lost... officially.

In other news SSBM is out to a nice lead that I think should hold for the entire match.

heh. see? what did i tell you.
...entertaining.

from seijun:
And with that, StarCraft has officially become the Squall of this contest.

as incredible as it may be...i think starcraft has actually outdone squall.
not even exterminating one of nintendo's most beloved characters can stand up to this kind of accomplishment.

from chaos knight:
And does anyone else notice that the spamming of B.net doesn't seem to be frowned upon by most here but when it happened with Planet Gamecube, there was a massive uproar?

...there certainly seems to be an uproar this morning.
and just to make sure i have the facts straight...planet gamecube is the outside force that saved mario in 2002, correct?

from torey luvullo:
not really weird. this is what you would expect from a bloc of voters who want to ensure they win, but do not want to be seen as "overwhelming" the contest.

i don't think this is quite that...well thought out.
i believe the lead slowed down when the advertising slowed down.
only when starcraft supporters began posting celebration topics did wind waker start to move back up...
---
signature (n.): a random bit of gibberish that no one ever reads.

So, WW had a lead in the 15 minute intervals of 2000 that SC overcame? What was the previous highest?
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Silly Rabbit...Trix are for....kids.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.-Old Klingon Proverb

the name of the contest is "best. game. ever." not "best. game. ever. among. existing. gameFAQs. users"

this is explicitly acknowledged by the fact that you don't even have to register to vote. so technically speaking, there are no "outsiders" to this contest.

the business side of the outfit is no doubt delighted that specific blocs of new users are being introduced to gameFAQs by this contest. especially so, considering the traffic drop which many here have documented since the merger/layout change.

and just to make sure i have the facts straight...planet gamecube is the outside force that saved mario in 2002, correct?

That could actually be debated. Mario had already begun his comeback against Cloud when PGC created a news item on its front page telling people to go to GameFAQs and vote. apparently the comback picked up speed after the intervention, before slowing down to back and forth vote swings after Mario took the lead. Mario won by 277 votes. Whether PGC accounted for that many votes in up in the air. After all, many people who go there also go the GameFAQs.
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Spring Contest 2004 (Best. Game. Ever.): My Score: 82/92 Rank: T-129 Today's Pick: SSBM

http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=3340

Oh, and here's the link to their article.
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Spring Contest 2004 (Best. Game. Ever.): My Score: 82/92 Rank: T-129 Today's Pick: SSBM

Looks like you'll have to hear that wonderful phrase for at least five more days :)

I know. I hate that saying so much... and now I have to endure it until SC loses. =\
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

heh. see? what did i tell you.
...entertaining.

Well at the current time Melee had a great 56% but FFX caught up later with the night vote, however, it looks like SSBM is going to win the match by a close margin. 1600 lead right now. =)
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

*reads the PGCN article*

Those idiots. And assuming SSBM can hold on here, does it have enough of a fanbase to beat Starcraft? It literally needs a lead of at least 2500 before 9PM to win the division.
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Married to smitelf on 5/21/04
I would like to take this moment to politely orgasm over Ulti's Halo/Starcraft analysis. -smitelf

Actually, I don't even think 2500'd be safe. Starcraft hits it's peak at night on b.net, and I don't think there'd be any game which could beat it in the night vote. All a 2500 vote would do is increase the level of spam on bnet, and increase the rate of the comeback. Starcraft could've picked up a good 500 vote lead easily on WW if bnet spamming had been kept up.

I would imagine that a 2500 vote lead would be pretty safe. StarCraft would comeback no doubt, but it`d be a very secure lead.
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

The match is on a thursday, isnt it?

B-net won't be nearly as strong as it was last night.
---
76 points.
FFX vs. SSBM

Yep on a Thursday.
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Round 4

Monday: Super Mario Bros. 3 vs. The Legend of Zelda
Tuesday: Chrono Trigger vs. A Link to the Past
Wednesday: Final Fantasy VII vs. Ocarina of Time
Thursday: StarCraft vs. Super Smash Bros. Melee

Semi-finals

Friday: ??? vs. ???
Saturday: ??? vs. ???

Finals

Sunday: ??? vs ???

One more week and we`re done with the Spring Contest, heh.
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

I'm willing to say that if SSBM can put up a 2500 vote lead by 9pm, then it WILL win.

As has been noted before, saturday is b-nets most active night. Thursday is a massive drop off in comparison. There simply won't be as many voters that gamefaqs can pull from b-net, and with half as many b-net users actually on, it will require a much more convincing method of pulling in votes, as the percentage of b-netters that vote would have to be higher to compensate for their lower numbers.

That being said, i am still half wishing that starcraft surprises me again and pulls 5000 votes out of nowhere in the last 3 hours. It would finish off my already crippled bracket, but it would be worth it to see our dark horse 16 seed make it to the final four and show just how thoroughly embarassing this nomination system is.
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76 points.
FFX vs. SSBM

For anyone that cares or wants to discuss it, here’s why I think SSBM will win…

First we have to acknowledge that SSBM is a damn strong competitor. It’s taken the content’s three most popular PS2 games (yes I believe MGS2 would beat KH) and defeated them in consecutive rounds. It’s not a game to be taken lightly.

Secondly, since the match will take place on a Thursday, I doubt BNET will be as strong as it was on a Saturday night. I might be completely wrong, but I’d imagine Friday-Saturday night to be the most popular BNET times.

Finally, there’s been a common flaw with all three games Starcraft has beaten up to this point: hatred. All the games are despised by a large block of GameFAQS users. Halo is an Xbox game, so no more needs to be said about that. Kingdom Hearts, along with being drastically overestimated from the start, has the Disney factor, and no “Final Fantasy” in its name. Wind Waker has the infamous 80% sailing and cartoony graphics. For each match, SC’s opponent had a flaw that it was able to capitalize upon.

Melee has no such flaw. It’s practically worshipped on this site (an RPG SITE FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE). Alongside SMB3, it is THE Nintendo game of the contest. I don’t mean that it’s the strongest Nintendo game, far from it. What I do mean is that it’s the Nintendo game that will be most greatly supported, the one that fans will hate to see go down. Just look at the poll right now. A popular Final Fantasy game is losing to a fighter on GameFAQS. That should tell you something about Melee.

What it basically boils down to is that this time Starcraft won’t be going up against a weak representative from a certain system or series (do you really think it would have defeated LttP? Gimme a break). It has to face the most popular GC game, and easily the most supported GC game on this site. I’m confident that SSBM will be able to defeat it, and I’ll be supporting it till the end.
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My name is Reggie. I'm about kicking ass. I'm about taking names, and we're about making games.

Geesh, I'm not sure about SSBM being the favorite. As Ulti put it, Starcraft is only as strong as it needs to be. We'd be fools to think it reached the bottom of the barrel against WW: heck, I though it did against Halo.

Bye bye bracket... forget about a comeback, FF10's no Starcraft. Where are Squareheads going to spam, anyway?

And I agree with Smitelf. Should Starcraft beat SSBM, or at least come close, we'll have Halo, Starcraft, Wind Waker, FF10 and SSBM in one hella tight pack, and a bit behind are Soul Calibur, KH, Prime and Vice City. This sounds completely wrong. Just a look at the upper half makes me panic:

EXTRAPOLATED RANKINGS FOR UPPER DIVISION 128

1. 50.00% - (16) Starcraft
2. 49.90% - (5) Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
3. 49.83% - (1) Halo: Combat Evolved
4. 46.43% - (9) Kingdom Hearts
5. 45.87% - (8) Soul Calibur
6. 44.69% - (4) Metroid Prime
7. 39.18% - (13) Half-Life
8. 25.24% - (12) Skies of Arcadia

According to this, Prime would get 48.13% against Kingdom Hearts and 48.71% against Soul Calibur. What in the world is THAT?
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SpC2K4 Status --- Points: 081/092 --- Matches: 48/55 --- Rank: 00274/40940 --- Today's pick: FF10

I would think Starcraft capable of coming back from anything around 3,000. Though, as people said, it might be less capable on a Thursday.

As for Metroid Prime vs. Kingdom Hearts, again, it doesn't seem like we overestimated Kingdom Hearts after all. Soul Calibur was certainly not very far from these other games. And it was thought that the Wind Waker/Metroid Prime winner would be capable of defeating Kingdom Hearts easily. While we all suspect that Starcraft is likely messing up the results, it does seem clear that Kingdom Hearts would've given Metroid Prime a good run at the least.
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smitelf is a far better forecaster of this contest than I could ever hope to be.
I am in awe of her PWNage.

If Starcraft ruins my bracket and beats SSBM, fine. But it had BETTER come close to beating FF7 afterwards.
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Married to smitelf on 5/21/04
I would like to take this moment to politely orgasm over Ulti's Halo/Starcraft analysis. -smitelf

I don't think KH or Soul Calibur would have what it takes to take out Prime. In the 40s? Probably. A win? HELL NO.

Thursday vs. Saturday... hmmm. Interesting, to say the least. The matches against Halo and KH were on weekdays.

And allow me to mention that I'll support Ulti from here on in. I think we have the exact same thing on our brackets anyway, save for the 128 winner.

Speaking of brackets, anyone that still believes in the bracket-vote following what we saw yesterday should be shot on sight.
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SpC2K4 Status --- Points: 081/092 --- Matches: 48/55 --- Rank: 00274/40940 --- Today's pick: FF10

I believe that there is a bracket vote for the first few minutes of the poll... *gets shot on sight*

And by the way, I`m unsure of my chances of winning even if I go perfect the rest of the way. I`m four points off the pace here ;_;
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Married to smitelf on 5/21/04
I would like to take this moment to politely orgasm over Ulti's Halo/Starcraft analysis. -smitelf

Speaking of brackets, anyone that still believes in the bracket-vote following what we saw yesterday should be shot on sight.

General bracket voting, no.

But one can concoct a game theory based bracket voting cheating hypothesis. Some of the people who picked Starcraft did so out of game theory--they knew Starcraft would be underestimated by general brackets. Since it was underestimated by the general brackets, this increases the utility of cheating--cheating is even more advantageous to these people than to most others. If they dynamic IP Starcraft to the win, only a small number of others would benefit.

Utility Theory+Game Theory = Starcraft mass cheating --> Starcraft wins

Yes, nonsense, I know. Fun though :)
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smitelf is a far better forecaster of this contest than I could ever hope to be.
I am in awe of her PWNage.

But it had BETTER come close to beating FF7 afterwards.

Nice way to assume FFVII is getting past OoT. =P
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Monday: Super Mario Bros. 3 vs. The Legend of Zelda
Tuesday: Chrono Trigger vs. A Link to the Past
Wednesday: Final Fantasy VII vs. Ocarina of Time
Thursday: StarCraft vs. Super Smash Bros. Melee

Now that's sexy. Four exciting matches in a row.

Honestly though, I look at Starcraft vs. SSBM and I just have to laugh. Who would have thought, with a Zelda title and a Final Fantasy title, that this would be the Division 128 final match? I actually had it being FFX over Metroid Prime. Wow... I am actually glad to be wrong here.
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Go back home to Final Fantasy buddy, you might get hurt out here. -Tinek Arukena
Spring Contest Score = STARCRAFT'D

OOT won`t beat FF7. I have believed this ever since the first three hours of OOT`s poll against Goldeneye.
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Married to smitelf on 5/21/04
I would like to take this moment to politely orgasm over Ulti's Halo/Starcraft analysis. -smitelf

Really? I think it will. I still don`t know what you see in MGS being so much stronger than GoldenEye.
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Bye bye bracket... forget about a comeback, FF10's no Starcraft. Where are Squareheads going to spam, anyway?

FFXI

Bye bye bracket... forget about a comeback, FF10's no Starcraft. Where are Squareheads going to spam, anyway?

FFXI

Meh, you mean there’s a reason to own that game?

OOT won`t beat FF7. I have believed this ever since the first three hours of OOT`s poll against Goldeneye.

I still say that such a match tells us nothing about either competitor because we don’t know how Goldeneye and MGS stack up. Personally, I think MGS > Goldeneye by easily enough of a margin for FFVII to beat OoT, but I have no data to back it up so it’s all speculation.

But one can concoct a game theory based bracket voting cheating hypothesis. Some of the people who picked Starcraft did so out of game theory--they knew Starcraft would be underestimated by general brackets. Since it was underestimated by the general brackets, this increases the utility of cheating--cheating is even more advantageous to these people than to most others. If they dynamic IP Starcraft to the win, only a small number of others would benefit.

creativename, I have no idea what you just said (chalk it up to spending the last three and a half hours straight trying to teach my satanic little brother the metric system…agony, agony…) but I know that you mentioned cheating in their somewhere and I feel obliged to point out that Starcraft didn’t cheat. Getting support from Battle.net is a valid way to get votes. Anyone with an internet connection has the right to vote here and getting them to do so isn’t cheating…it’s just free advertising for Ceej. I bet he was loving it. Now, I don't know if anything I just said applies to your discussion whatsoever (the kilometers...get them away...) so excuse me if I just made an ass of myself :)
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 79/92, Next Winner: Final Fantasy X

SSBM. It could lose in Round 1. It could go to the finals. Or it can lose anywhere in between.

Starcraft. It could lose in Round 1. It could go to the finals. Or it can lose anywhere in between.

One shall stand. One shall fall. Kinda funny really.
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''Those whose memories fade seek to carve them in their hearts...''
''All dreams are but another reality. Never forget...''

"I would imagine that a 2500 vote lead would be pretty safe."

I'll be hoping for 3,000. 2,500 was close enough for DK to lose it (I count that towards DK's weakness and not DH's strength) and only because it had more than 3000 did Donkey Kong survive. That being said, I count 3000 as the real point of no return, and until a game reaches it I won't personally call the match.

"I don't think KH or Soul Calibur would have what it takes to take out Prime."

C'mon man, let's be honest, you didn't think starcraft could beat ww either. It's just an odd division that is beyond logical reasoning. I really strongly agree with cn, we probably didn't overestimate KH after all, and if SC weren't an anomoly I'd jump out and say we underestimated KH. We did underestimate Soul Calibur, and we did underestimate Starcraft. Other than that everything turned out about as well as planned.

"anyone that still believes in the bracket-vote following what we saw yesterday should be shot on sight."

That doesn't prove that bracket votig doesn't exist, just that in most situations its a non-factor. The most I've ever thought it capable of was a .5-1% shift in votes. Not a big difference but enough that if Magus, for example, had a lot more brackets behind him going up to Link he could have looked like the winner in a potential Magus/Snake match instead of looking like the likely loser. We know for a fact people bracket vote because some of us do, it's just not a huge factor.


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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

My bracket was actually all I had in mind when voting yesterday. I had Kingdom Hearts going to the division finals and a win by Starcraft was the only thing that kept my bracket in competition (at 82 points). Don't think that there was no bracket vote, just because so few people had Starcraft going this far...

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Stop asking me if I'm Paris Hilton.

"Starcraft didn’t cheat."

Every game has cheat votes in favor of it. Ceej didn't catch any mass voters meaning that there was no single person with 500 accounts on the same map votign for the same character from the same ip. It's still possible to get multiple votes from a single ip with multiple accounts. That's allowed because some people may share ips (like voting from school). There are cheat votes on both sides, though, so it tends to even out. Mass cheating creates an uneven situation, and that's the only time when cheating means much. Please be aware though, that "tends to even out" does mean that there is a chance that it does favor one side or the other. If SC has high board support it's more likely to pull cheat votes because people who don't visit the boards probably will not have multiple accounts if any.
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

Despite no talk about it so far I`m definitely anticipating this next match between SMB3 vs. LoZ. I think the winner will be under 55% of the vote either way.
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Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

I think it'll make for an odd match... and really, with the way things have happened so far, it could actually end up not being close...
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

It's just an odd division that is beyond logical reasoning.

lol, you probably didn't mean it to be funny, but I thought it was.

For tomorrow, I don't know, it could be close if the voting goes by series, but I guess what's in SMB3's favor is how many people have played LoZ? It could be a really high number, but SMB3 has incredible notoriety, doesn't it? So, if people vote for the game they know vs the game they haven't played, I think it should go to SMB3, but I don't know how LoZ sold, and it is Zelda.


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Silly Rabbit...Trix are for....kids.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.-Old Klingon Proverb

I know sales don`t matter but since you asked I`ll give it to ya:

Super Mario Bros. 3: 18.1 million copies sold
The Legend of Zelda: 6.5 million copies sold

SMB3 ranks as the highest selling game of all-time and the highest selling Mario game that didn`t come packaged with hardware.

The Legend of Zelda is the second highest selling Zelda game right behind Ocarina of Time with 7.6 million copies sold.
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Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Zelda was also the first million seller, outside of SMB1 which was sold as a pack-in. But emulators, man, emulators. Everybody will have played both, and sales won't make an impact on the vote.
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

Yeah, LoZ was the first to manage 1 million copies sold quite a feat too. But yeah with emulation right now and games that don`t sell as well as others winning it really doesn`t make much of a difference. Then you add to the fact that this is a gaming site with about 75,000 voters in this contest I really believe people would have played both, and they both have had re-releases on the GBA.
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Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Well, you kinda have a point Chichiri. However, Starcraft seems to transcend the logic established by the other entries. My point is kinda what Ulti said: from the looks of it, it could come relatively close to a game like Chrono Trigger, but also be unable to blow out something like, say, Xenogears. Remember Master Chief, almost got beaten by Felix, but put up unbelievable numbers against Aeris? That oddity was due to the quirky balance of haters and inconditionals. Starcraft could be the same thing, but for whole other reasons: if Starcraft wins 60-40, who's going to bother spamming?

Ulti: I believe the reason Starcraft jumped out in front so rapidly was the board vote, not the bracket vote. Sure, almost everyone had Starcraft not getting there, but if you saw the attitude of 95% of the board... they were all like, screw my bracket, I'm voting Starcraft. Do you really think so many people actually picked CATS to beat Cloud last year? Same thing.
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SpC2K4 Status --- Points: 081/092 --- Matches: 48/55 --- Rank: 00274/40940 --- Today's pick: FF10

I dunno, I thought that LttP slaughtering Super Metroid showed that all the voters hadn't played both games. Or maybe it was just LttP strength, but didn't that poll a while ago, I don't even remember when, someone brought it up, put the average gamefaqs user at some age that wouldn't have been the right time to have played LoZ, barring the gba releases. and isn't the SMB3 release ahead of the LoZ release?
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Silly Rabbit...Trix are for....kids.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.-Old Klingon Proverb

The SMB3 re-release has been out since October while the LoZ re-release came out in February in Japan and comes out in June... wait.. nevermind. >> The LoZ re-release hasn`t been released yet in the states.
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Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Super Metroid isn't in the same league as LoZ and SMB3, and so it doens't follow the same "everybody has played it" logic that those two do.
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow