Well, the old topic has 400+ posts already. We're churning through these topics at record pace.

Stats websites:

Everything you could ever imagine:
http://www.sc2k4.com

Summer 2002 Contest:
http://solarshadow2002.tripod.com

Summer 2003 Contest:
http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com/2003/index.html

Spring 2004 Contest: (not currently updating)
http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com/sp2004/index.html

Stats topics:

Summer 2002 Contest:
http://solarshadow2002.tripod.com/page1.html

Summer 2003 Contest:
http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com/archive/topic1p1.html
http://www.angelfire.com/games5/sum_contest/Page1.htm (See note)

2003-2004 Off-Season:
http://membres.lycos.fr/shindohikaru/stats1.htm (See note)
Note: Don't use the links in the topic to browse through the pages, change the page number in the URL.

Spring 2004 Pre-Season:
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringPreSeason1.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringPreSeason2.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringPreSeason3.htm

Spring 2004 Contest:
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats1.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats2.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats3.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats4.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats5.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats6.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats7.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats8.htm

MMXcalibur's Site:
http://prophetchallenge.hyperboards2.com/index.cgi
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Tag.
---
Contest status: 16/17 points. Currently anticipating: Ness vs. Jak

No "!yawa tsoP"?
---
Contest status: 16/17 points. Currently anticipating: Ness vs. Jak

It wasn't in Part 38, either =(.
---
WTF is OoS? Ocarina of Sex? ~ Stop Fundamentalists

Knew I forgot something. Oh, well.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Cool.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

Tagged for future reference.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Tagged for future reference.


HAHAHAHA
---
Pug
Proud Member of the Gordon Freeman Army

so we lost 3 on cloud and snake a peice.. how many for vyse?
---
If you're worried people are talking about you... you're probably right.

Tag. 700 karma.
---
Jon Thomson - today: Kirby, tomorrow: Squall - 15/18
Nominate Ridley for Summer Contest 2005

we lost 3 on Snake, 3 on Cloud, and.. 794-640 = 154 on Vyse. In Part 38, a post has shown that about 80% of perfects picked this match correctly, yet only 67% overall did.

640 is looking good. We'll have many perfects out of round 1 it would seem.

I'm somewhat disappointed in Kirby's performance here. I would have figured that this match would be almost nothing short of a blow-out. It doesn't really matter though, 'cuz we know who he's facing next round anyways.
---
Supporting both Earthworm Jim AND Mega Man in 2004
Spring Contest Score: 151/192

awww, screw it. i'm posting here right away.


Top 5 Biggest Blowouts (difference in percentage)

1) 88.60% - Solid Snake over Tanner
2) 75.66% - Link over CATS
3) 67.08% - Mario over J.C. Denton
4) 65.98% - Bowser over Guybrush Threepwood
5) 65.96% - Megaman over Eartworm Jim

Top 5 Biggest Vote Gaps (difference in votes)

1) 69759 - Solid Snake over Tanner
2) 62319 - Link over CATS
3) 55813 - Megaman over Earthworm Jim
4) 53705 - Cloud over Duke Milk'em
5) 52337 - Mario over J.C. Denton

Top 5 Closest Matches (difference in percentage)

1) 0.10% - Frog over Liquid Snake
2) 1.62% - Tidus over Shadow the Hedgehog
3) 14.32% - Ganondorf over Alucard
4) 14.92% - Knuckles over Kefka
5) 20.46% - Vyse over Laharl

Top 5 Smallest Vote Gaps (difference in votes)

1) 93 - Frog over Liquid Snake
2) 1546 - Tidus over Shadow the Hedgehog
3) 12358 - Knuckles over Kefka
4) 12533 - Ganondorf over Alucard
5) 14072 - Vyse over Laharl

Top 5 Most Popular Polls (by vote totals)

1) 95122 - Tidus vs. Shadow the Hedgehog
2) 88953 - Cloud vs. Duke Milk'em
3) 87733 - Frog vs. Liquid Snake
4) 87557 - Ganondorf vs. Alucard
5) 84625 - Megaman vs. Earthworm Jim

Top 5 Least Popular Polls (by vote totals)

1) 68808 - Vyse vs. Laharl
2) 70495 - Magus vs. Luca Blight
3) 74383 - Bowser vs. Guybrush Threepwood
4) 75307 - Luigi vs. Pac-Man
5) 77021 - Master Cheif vs. Crash Bandicoot

Top 5 Highest Individual Votes

1) 74251 - Solid Snake
2) 72344 - Link
3) 71329 - Cloud
4) 70219 - Megaman
5) 65184 - Mario

Top 5 Lowest Individual Votes

1) 4492 - Tanner
2) 10025 - CATS
3) 12652 - Guybrush Threepwood
4) 12847 - J.C. Denton
5) 13367 - Luca Blight

Top 5 Most Impressive Losers (by votes)

1) 46788 - Shadow the Hedgehog
2) 43820 - Liquid Snake
3) 37512 - Alucard
4) 35220 - Kefka
5) 29621 - Max Payne

Top 5 Least Impressive Winners (by votes)

1) 41440 - Vyse
2) 43913 - Frog
3) 47578 - Knuckles
4) 48239 - Tommy Vercetti
5) 48334 - Tidus

Top 5 Easiest Matches to Predict (based on entrants choosing the winner)

1) 98.79% - Link over CATS
2) 98.28% - Mario over J.C. Denton
3) 97.97% - Cloud over Duke Milk'em
4) 97.47% - Megaman over Earthworm Jim
5) 97.27% - Solid Snake over Tanner

Top 5 Hardest Matches to Predict (based on entrants choosing the winner)

1) 43.05% - Knuckles over Kefka
2) 44.33% - Frog over Liquid Snake
3) 63.02% - Ganondorf over Alucard
4) 66.71% - Vyse over Laharl
5) 68.69% - Luigi over Pac-Man

---
That's it. I have reached my threshold of pain. I am going home and I am going to play Megaman, eat snack cakes, and do my woman.

Guess it is time for this topic to open for discussion.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

How many in this topic have Ness, DK, Sora, Ryu H, and Sam Fisher?

I do. Remember, we only differ on Mario vs. Crono.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 017/017 - Matches: 17/17 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Vyse - Tomorrow: Kirby

How many in this topic have Ness, DK, Sora, Ryu H, and Sam Fisher?

I got Jak, Vivi, Sora, Ryu, Sam and they are all gonna win. I aint one to pick losers, ya know? :)
---
Steve Illumina: The Official Satirical Commentator of GameFAQ's Contests
Pub Trivian Forever...SC2K4: 18/19 (Go Jak!)

To answer Ult's question from the other topic, there are still a few matches which I believe are going to knock off a substantial number of perfects.

Ness/Jak
Vivi/DK
Viewtiful Joe/Tails *I think we'll lose people here*
Sora/HK-47 *Sora is rather weak, and the robot could upset him*
Ryu/Jill *seen a few Jill supporters on the board.*

Of these, the major bracket buster will be Vivi/DK. Ness/Jak I'm thinking will result in the least perfects ruined of the 5, as I'm predicting Jak will win it easy with 70% of the casuals having him in their bracket, and the only real big stir will be Gurus being upset. Joe/Tails, Sora/HK, and Ryu/Jill are here cause their result is in question somewhat, and there's a chance the heavy favorite could lose. Plus I'm predicting about 50 or so lost from continuing favorites brackets. Overall, I'd say a good 300 brackets will fall by the end of the round.

Well I have Jak and Vivi, and while I am not feeling terribly confident about Vivi, I just cannot believe Ness can win a match. FAR too cultish. But we will see. Kinda like Alucard, except without a shred of badass or awesome, two decade long series behind him.

640 now? I say another 300-400 for the rest of this division, and probably another 100-200 for the last division, so it is my guestt we will be somewhere between 50-250 for perfects come Round 2. And I think that Ryu beating Jill will take down a good number of perfects.


---
...and it begins! Next tough match: Ness vs. JAK

I have Jak and Vivi winning.

I think Jak vs. Ness will have similar results to Tidus vs. Shadow. If Jak wins, probably a majority of people will get it right...
---
Tanner. The only guy Gordon can call a loser and not sound like a hypocrite. - Slowflake

I say we will have somewhere around 300 perfects left after Sly Cooper falls to Sephy.

Then around 100 after Samus is done doing her thing to some jobber...heck I forget who it is at the moment!

I am of course hoping they all go down, so I can be tied for the lead again... hehe
---
Steve Illumina: The Official Satirical Commentator of GameFAQ's Contests
Pub Trivian Forever...SC2K4: 18/19 (Go Jak!)

I have Ness and DK winning. I'm still confident in DK winning, but I don't know about Ness anymore...
---
I chose the road less traveled -- now where the heck am I?
A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words, But It Uses Up a Thousand Times the Memory

SC2K4 FIRST DRAFT - PAGE 20 - (4) SQUALL LEONHART vs. (13) BOMBERMAN

Disclaimer: This preview series may contain mildly offensive stuff, as well as SPOILERS, not only for the characters discussed, but other stuff as well.

Squall and Quistis... sittin' in a cave... D-O-I-N-G A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Yeah, I guess anyone who has paid attention to this board in the past few weeks knows about that tidbit by now. And let it be known that the man who was so eager to point it out also passes up sex himself to play SotN. Talk about double standards. People, this is your Spring Contest champion. Now, I have no conflicts of interest and that sort of stuff, right? So this year, let's make ME champion instead by voting Mario against Crono! (Hey, gotta start the campaigning early...)

So, as I was saying, Squall clearly is not in his right mind. As a matter of fact, this all endorses the conspiracy theory according to which Squall lives the alternate life style. Screw the Tanooki suit, Squall and Seifer are the hottest item in gaming. What? Rinoa? It was all a work, people. As was the Montreal screwjob.

Now, I don't say it would've gone the same way if it was the mastah pimp of PC gaming, the Archbishop Lazarus. You know what he did? After betraying the townsfolk of Tristram, he didn't shoot himself a Fireball in the head, like any Sanctuarian lacking self-respect would do. Instead, courtesy of Diablo, he hid himself in some sort of unholy altar. With succubi. And I don't mean two or three. I mean AT LEAST 25 of those. Succubi that make Tifa look like the vast, flat plains of Saskatchewan. Succubi that make orgasm noises when they die. W00t. <3 Lazarus.

So now, Mr. LionHeart-Which-Was-Given-To-Science-A-Wee-Bit-Too-Early is going to face the wrath of... a guy with a TV-shaped head who likes bombs. Methinks we've found Bush's personal favorite. But while Bush jobbed to a pretzel, Bomberman at least was able to beat a fellow TV head. What? It was the dude INSIDE of the TV? Well, it was the ever bland Kane from Command and Conquer, who mostly got votes from fans of other Kanes/Kains.

BAH GAWD KANG! KANE HAS JUST BROWKEN BOMBERMAN IN... oops, wrong Kane.

And as we can expect, it won't even be a match. Even before KH that's a match Squall would win with his hands tied behind his back. And the "before KH" part doesn't apply to Jill and Luigi... the three would've practically been dead even. Last year's dark horse advances... EASILY.

NUMBERS OF INTEREST

SC2K3 extrapolated standings
16. Squall Leonhart - 30.70%
42. Bomberman - 18.96%
Projection: Squall with 69.12%

Board Odds Project picks (119 brackets)
Squall Leonhart - 118
Bomberman - 1

Board Odds Project point value
11. Squall Leonhart - 350
49. Bomberman - 1

CONTEST TRIVIA

Squall had the second biggest weighted increase in 2003, behind Cloud (DK is excluded due to SFF).
Excludind the 2002 West characters and Pac-Man (for SFF reasons), Bomberman had the fourth biggest weighted decrease in 2003, behind Ryo, Raziel and Pikachu.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

I have Jak, Vivi, and Jill winning heres why:

Jak vrs. Ness

I just dont think Ness has the potential to keep coming into these tournaments, if it wasnt for the fact that Super Smash Bros featured Ness, you could of kissed his butt good bye, which is why I will vote Jak.

DK vrs. Vivi

I know that the, "when in doubt go FF" isnt fully true anymore but Vivis got this match. DK just isnt as popular as he once was, maybe if FF9 had just come out I would say DK but not anymore, and people who play FF9 will support Vivi all the way, therfore my vote goes to Vivi.

Jill vrs. Ryu

In a major upset, I have Jill winning against this guy, (anytime now someone is going to say, hey arent you the guy that said Crash would be MC but dont worry about that) back on topic, in SC2k2 Jill managed to make it to the Sweet Sixteen before going down, she lost to Squall in SC2k3 but what can you say. Anyways Ryu is X-Box and coming from X-Box=Instant Hate.
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Megaman will win the contest.

How many in this topic have Ness, DK, Sora, Ryu H, and Sam Fisher?

We only have DK and Sam in common

Boy I have a different bracket then you

What do you have in Mario vs. Crono and your winner?
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

Ulti? He got Crono beating Mario, and Cloud for the championship.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

I have Mario and Link

This is like too weird
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

Jak, Vivi, Sora, Ryu, Sam Fisher

Jak/Ness. I've stated my argument multiple times. No need to say it again. I'm in "wait and see" mode right now. BTW, I just bought Jak & Daxter yesterday from Gamestop for 10 bucks. Pretty decent game. I'm gonna buy Jak II after I wait out a price drop. :) I was gonna buy the game of the winner of Vyse/Laharl. SoA is 20 bucks. I'll pick it up before the end of the year.

Vivi/DK. Why are people saying that Ness's seeding will give him the bracket vote and the win, but saying nothing about Vivi's seeding and bracket vote? Not that this is my argument, but just making an observation. DK really has nothing going for him. The DKC era is gone. In my eyes he's just a Nintendo version of Pac Man. Vivi actually HAS a fan base. I have more reasons, but I'm not stating them all.

Sora/HK-47 I don't see how HK-47 can gather enough of a vote base to upset Sora. Sora may be weak, but people will still vote for him.

Ryu/Jill I admit, I still have the first 2 Ninja Gaiden games on the original NES and still play them. I'm a big Ryu fan, and his game on X-Box pushed me over the edge to get an X-Box soon. The system actually has a lot of good games if you give it a chance. I like Jill, but just not in this instance.

Fisher/Freeman After seeing all the hype about Splinter Cell, it will be another game that I pick up for cheap when I get an X-Box. Sam Fisher is plastered over the gaming magazines and he has a distinct look that will make him recognizable. Half-Life has proven to be more popular than Gordon Freeman is.

These aren't my ONLY reasons BTW, I'm just really giving comments. Anyways, I'm out for the rest of the day! I take the GRE at 12:00. Wish me luck!

---
"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

Why is Sam Fisher/Gordon Freeman supposed to be harder than Joe/Tails?

I guarantee you that no matter who wins, Joe/Tails will be closer than Sam/Gordon.
---
"Hail to the king, baby."--Duke Nukem

With Pandora Tomorrow, Sam has an excellent chance of doubling Gordon. He'd have been projected to get 65% before.

And why would DK have nothing going for him? He's not weak, not at all. Auron wouldn't break 60% on him. Fan favorite of a more popular game > fan favorite of a less popular game almost by default. I'm banking that the difference between Auron and Vivi will be enough for DK to get through. Besides, Auron looks cool. Vivi... if you don't know him, you'll probably go What. The. ****. and vote DK. Who, by the way, has a better pic than anything he had so far.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

Alright, I fixed the "optimum" 2002 bracket. It should be perfect now.

Remember, any interesting coincidences or what have you are purely luck. I didn't tamper with the bracket at all, except to fix the S-curve that I screwed up in the initial version.

All of the matches from the initial version are the same. It's just the layout of them that's different.

North Division:

1- Link
16- Mr. Driller

8- Ryo Hazuki
9- Duke Nukem

5- Kirby
12- Chop Chop Master Onion

4- Jill Valentine
13- Aya Brea

6- Strider Hiryu
11- Parappa the Rapper

3- Aeris Gainsborough
14- Gordon Freeman

7- Kasumi
10- Kyo Kusanagi

2- Cloud Strife
15- Bub

East Division:

1- Samus Aran
16- Dirk the Daring

8- Pac-Man
9- Crash Bandicoot

5- Squall Leonheart
12- Kazuya Mishima

4- Claire Redfield
13- Ulala

6- Raziel
11- Q*Bert

3- Solid Snake
14- Gabe Logan

7- Miles “Tails” Prower
10- Spyro the Dragon

2- Sonic the Hedgehog
15- Terry Bogard

South Division:

1- Mega Man
16- Serious Sam

8- Servbot
9- Max Payne

5- Morrigan Aensland
12- Donkey Kong

4- Ken
13- Abe

6- Bomberman
11- Pitfall Harry

3- Ryu
14- Akira Yuki

7- Lara Croft
10- Little Mac

2- Mario
15- Kane

West Division:

1- Sephiroth
16- Ms. Pac-Man

8- Fox McCloud
9- Simon Belmont

5- Dante
12- CATS

4- Knuckles the Echidna
13- Iori Yagami

6- Scorpion
11- Tina Armstrong

3- Tidus
14- Goemon

7- Alucard
10- Pikachu

2- Crono
15- Guybrush Threepwood

I'll do the others later. I'm gonna have some breakfast now.
---
-Phediuk

Wait a minute, that's even worse than I thought. Auron would be projected to get 55.90% on DK. The gap between FF10 and FF9 can easily make up for that, and the Black Mage factor? I'm under the impression that many 8BT junkies would know Vivi and vote for him regardless. Plus, something minor is the fact that Vivi doesn't look exactly like Black Mage, and the name isn't Black Mage either. I know I'm going far with this, but every vote counts.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

But DK has had 1 game all year (Mario vs. DK, which is pretty solid btw) and in that he's not even the main character, so I don't see where he could go anywhere but down. However, next year, with 5 or so games being released starring DK on GBA/GCN, he could be a force.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

The fixed "optimum" 2003 bracket:

North Division:

1- Cloud Strife
16- Mr. Resetti

8- Felix
9- Wario

5- Bowser
12- Kite

4- Squall Leonheart
13- Fox McCloud

6- Dante
11- Isaac

3- Shadow the Hedgehog
14- Gordon Freeman

7- Kirby
10- Ken

2- Solid Snake
15- Ratchet

East Division:

1- Mega Man
16- Tom Nook

8- Donkey Kong
9- KOS-MOS

5- Auron
12- Duke Nukem

4- Tidus
13- Kefka

6- Knuckles the Echidna
11- Miles “Tails” Prower

3- Magus
14- CATS

7- Jill Valentine
10- Lara Croft

2- Mario
15- Pikachu

South Division:

1- Sephiroth
16- Captain Olimar

8- Luigi
9- Sam Fisher

5- Zelda
12- Conker

4- Zero
13- Max Payne

6- Yoshi
11- Bomberman

3- Sonic the Hedgehog
14- Ness

7- Tommy Vercetti
10- Ramza Beoulve

2- Crono
15- Raiden

West Division:

1- Link
16- AiAi

8- Scorpion
9- Yuna

5- Ryu
12- Raziel

4- Aeris Gainsborough
13- Crash Bandicoot

6- Alucard
11- Vyse

3- Ganondorf
14- Pac-Man

7- Master Chief
10- Sora

2- Samus Aran
15- Ryo Hazuki
---
-Phediuk

Jak, Vivi, Sora, Ryu, Sam Fisher, Joe...Non satirical analysis for a change from your favorite board humorist :)

Jak I have Jak beating Ness and I think it will be closer than peeps think. Ness' cultish ways wont be enough to take out the PS2's most popular platformer. Jak has 2 well reviewed well liked games, and a 3rd on the way, vs a cultish obscure RPG from the SNES days 10+ years ago. And SSBM? I dont buy into that nonsense at all. Peeps who play SSBM dont play it for Ness, they more often than not will choose NES diehards like Link, Mario, DK, Peach, Yoshi, etc. Even Pikachu and Fox would be more popular than Ness on the SSBM melee. Right up there with the Kingdom Hearts factor is that flawed logic on my list...on the bottom!

Vivi Sure Vivi is untested, but he will shine like Frog did, infact more so, and if not for a bad place in the bracket against beloved Sephy, would be sweet 16 for sure against most of the rest of the bracket. The classic Black Mage gimmick along with FF love and RPG love and all that will carry him over an ape so faded that he barely beat Tommy freakin Vercetti last year. Only liked by kiddies and the most stalwart Nintendites, DK is so ripe to be ousted from the 1st round and this is the time. Vivi by a few thousand votes, closer than it SHOULD be, but a win is a win and thats all I care about here! Plus, I really like Vivi, ya know :) Of all the RPG characters I ever saw, Vivi and Aeris top my list. A Vivi fanboy am I...hehe lol No way he loses here.

Sora Sora is as weak as cheap beer, but he is going up against an obscure PC/Xbox supporting drone who seems to me to be no more than a 'passing fad' type entrant. The KH/RPG/Square contingent will bring Sora a surprising 65-35 split. I really dont know why peeps are worried about this match...pretty much a no brainer fodder match if u ask me. The robot should have a sleek pic though which will draw it a few votes.

Sam Sam was humiliated last year by Mighty Magus, but this year in a rigged contest bracket he will have no trouble with Gordy. Sam is all over the place in terms of quality games. With the right marketing, he will become another Solid Snake in the coming year or two. But for now, it will be close though cause the PC voters will push their hardest to avenge the pirate and the drone. Still it will likely be the lowest of all vote totals in round 1...a 55-45 split. Again, not worth talking or worrying about. Snooze.

Ryu and Joe Ryu and Joe are both new, but their games are very well liked and they are both going up against faded characters. Sidekick Tails cant win a match on this site, and he wont here either. Jill is past her prime too, and the only reason I can think of for her being here is RE Movie euphoria! Lower seeds on both dont help, and they will both lose on pic factor too. Casuals will take the cel shaded superhero and the ninja over a plain pale girl and a marsupial. Will be cool to see these 2 newbies win a match.

In other news, I have Crono over Mario and Linky to win it all, though I will take care of those commentaries later.

Lastly, satirical commentary returns with Link vs Ganon in Round 2. :)

That is all.
---
Steve Illumina: The Official Satirical Commentator of GameFAQ's Contests
Pub Trivian Forever...SC2K4: 18/19 (Go Jak!)

Characters going down from not having any new games is a common misconception. See Solid Snake.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

Or better yet, Crono.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

Extrapolated Rankings project Sam Fisher to DESTROY Gordon Freeman. I'm talking Sam Fisher with 66.36 % (with the old formula) I don't expect this one to be even close.
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Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

True, but CT and MGS have huge followings on this site. DK and his games do not. That's why he would need a new game to gain popularity.
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Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

DK's not all that strong already, though. He's definitely no jobber either, however. That's another common misconception, what with his match with Aya.

He last took the headlines nine years ago. Why would he suddenly go down between year 9 and year 10?
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

I'm not saying he'd go down a staggering amount. I'm talking about less than half a percent or so. But I think that might be anough to make a difference in this match.
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Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

Less than a half percent is practically undetectable, with the margins of error.

Besides, I'll ask you something. DK isn't the main character of MvDK, but was Cloud the main character of Kingdom Hearts? Exactly. Just being there can help maintain a solid level of performance. I'm not talking of an improvement at Cloud levels, but he should keep up the good pace at least.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

Sora vs. HK-47 is basically Vyse-Laharl part 2. Sora might not be much more than fodder, but HK-47 actually is fodder. The percentages might be pretty similar, too.

I will never buy into the board's Earthbound hype until it actually proves it's worth believing. People who are thinking Jak is only comparable to Ratchet and Sly Cooper are going to be in for a bit of a surprise. Unlike those two, Jak has a game that caters to an older audience. The other two platformers that appeal to the older gamers, Conker and Crash, are both stronger than Ness.

I can't imagine Vivi being weaker than Aya Brea. I wouldn't be surprised to see him have a close match with Auron either. The fact that it seems so out there is that people overestimate Auron's popularity in the same way they underestimate Tidus's. Eh, either that or Auron suffered some SFF against Cloud and he's stronger than he looks.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

M vs. DK didn't exactly sell like a Kingdom Hearts. It certainly won't be considered in the Best. Game. Ever. competition. And I wouldn't exactly consider it a memorable role for either Mario or DK.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

There's a reason why Cloud benefitted from Kingdom Hearts, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong doesn't have that reason. How well did that game sell anyway?
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

How did MvDK sell? I would be willing to bet that I'm the only person on this board who has bought it. Its worth it too if you like those old style action/puzzle games.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

How many in this topic have Ness, DK, Sora, Ryu H, and Sam Fisher?

I have Sam. Gordon sucks, and we know that.

Sora will beat HK-47. There is no two ways around it. Whether he will be able to beat Ryu.H (not the winner of that match, I think I'd put Sora over Jill.) or not is up in the air IMO, but HK's no Starcraft, while Sora's the main character of a Square game. I suppose there's a slight chance he'll fall, but I don't see it happening.

I'm a bit confident that Ryu.H will beat Jill. Bracket voters are definitely going to support Ryu easily because this is a 3vs14 match, with Ryu being 3rd.

Ness...I have. I thought being from Nintendo and being from SSBM would pull him through...I still do.

DK is from SSBM too, but I feel I'll regret picking him >_>
---
GameFAQs can gain justice from this petition! Please visit it at http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=7&topic=15656619 (891 Signs!)

The fixed "optimum" bracket for the Spring Contest:

North Division:

1- Final Fantasy VII
16- Adventure

8- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
9- Sonic the Hedgehog 2

5- Metroid Prime
12- Metal Gear

4- Super Mario World
13- Dance Dance Revolution

6- Metal Gear Solid
11- Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal

3- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
14- Panzer Dragoon Saga

7- Goldeneye
10- Tetris

2- StarCraft
15- Pitfall

East Division:

1- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
16- Phantasy Star IV

8- Super Metroid
9- Perfect Dark

5- Half-Life
12- Fire Emblem

4- Kingdom Hearts
13- Pac-Man

6- Super Mario RPG
11- Metroid

3- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
14- Duck Hunt

7- Super Mario 64
10- Skies of Arcadia

2- Super Mario Bros. 3
15- Gunstar Heroes

South Division:

1- Chrono Trigger
16- NiGHTS into dreams...

8- Doom
9- Contra

5- Final Fantasy
12- Phantasy Star

4- The Legend of Zelda
13- Fallout 2

6- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
11- Secret of Mana

3- Halo
14- Donkey Kong

7- Street Fighter II
10- Shenmue

2- Final Fantasy VI
15- Galaga

West Division:

1- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
16- River City Ransom

8- Mortal Kombat
9- Xenogears

5- Metal Gear Solid 2
12- Suikoden II

4- Soul Calibur
13- The Simpsons

6- Final Fantasy Tactics
11- Resident Evil

3- Final Fantasy X
14- Pong

7- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
10- Earthbound

2- Super Smash Bros. Melee
15- Shining Force
---
-Phediuk

How did Frog shine, SI? He barely beat Liquid Snake...

"as I'm predicting Jak will win it easy with 70% of the casuals having him in their bracket,"

Hate to break it to you but Jak isn't winning and there's almost no way 70% would take the underdog. I might just be able to see 55% taking JaK over Ness, but 70% is just way out of his reach.

"I'd say a good 300 brackets will fall by the end of the round."

I'm still saying less than that. Even the matches that aren't in question will whittle away at the perfects slowly but surely. I can see today's match ebing 70/30 at best in bracket picks and with that in mind it's not unreasonable to expect 40 perfects to fall with Kain.

"So, as I was saying, Squall clearly is not in his right mind."

I know, I so would have been nailing Quistis left and right. Then up and down. Then backwars and forwards. Then I'd pull out the almighty Kama Sutra and teach her a thing or two.

"Squall and Seifer are the hottest item in gaming. "

I've seen plenty of fanfics that say that is Zell and Seifer, actually...

"Succubi that make orgasm noises when they die."

And when I came in casting Guardian like a madman they did die.... it was an orgy like none other.

"if it wasnt for the fact that Super Smash Bros featured Ness,"

I bet Ness didn't get even a single nomination due to SSB

"but saying nothing about Vivi's seeding and bracket vote?"

I dunno who is saying that, but I think are going to win it without it. The higher seeds are just insurance they won't need.

"DK really has nothing going for him."

Yup

"Auron wouldn't break 60% on him."

Assuming no SFF... and after Kefka can we really say for certainty that there was none?

"I'm banking that the difference between Auron and Vivi will be enough for DK to get through."

You're banking on Parasite Eve over a Final Fantasy? Aya Brea over Vivi?

"Vivi... if you don't know him, you'll probably go What. The. ****. and vote Vivi"

Because he's the lovable cuddly black mage in all out hearts. He's a black mage, and if you had a match of Black Mage vs. Ape I'd go black mage everytime... because you know damn well that they cast the spells that make the people fall down, or something of that sort. Apes? They just eat bugs off eachother's backs.

"I dont buy into that nonsense at all. Peeps who play SSBM dont play it for Ness,"

Doesn't matter, they will still associate Ness with Melee.

"The other two platformers that appeal to the older gamers, Conker and Crash, are both stronger than Ness."

Yes, and those two also established themselves in the last era, not the current. If we were all playing our PS3's right now I have no doubt about putting Jak over Crash, right now I do have heavy doubts about the idea.

"DK is from SSBM too, but I feel I'll regret picking him >_>"

We've seen the best DK can do, we haven't seen the baest that Ness can do.

"How did Frog shine, SI? He barely beat Liquid Snake..."

He did it when the odds were against him. Not too many winners have the odds stacked against them from the beginning.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

This has already been pounded mercilessly into the ground, but if Cloud got a boost from KH such that he was more popular than Link, then why is Sora considered to be so weak?
---
-----
-------

Perhaps it is because in 2k2 Mario overperformed agianst Cloud thanks to various factors such as PGC and SMS.

Really, Cloud's boost wasn't 100% KH. I don't think he would have beaten Link that year had he passed Mario, but it would have been damn close. 2k3 results are a reversal of what I'd have expected for Cloud/Link in 2k2. It would be that damn close.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

How did Frog shine, SI? He barely beat Liquid Snake...

He shined because he stood up to and won in the face of a fanboy/bandwagon assault! Thats good enough for me. Cause when all is said and done, a win is a win is a win. :)

Frog broke many brackets...now he will break some more when MC falls in a few short weeks, as most of us all feel will happen.

We havent seen the best that Ness can do

Yep we have...he jobbed to Bowser and this year he will do the JOB again. I dont even think he could beat Sora.
---
Steve Illumina: The Official Satirical Commentator of GameFAQ's Contests
Pub Trivian Forever...SC2K4: 18/19 (Go Jak!)

You mean, SMS' release and mass cheating for Mario gave him TEN POINTS?!?
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

he jobbed to Bowser and this year he will do the JOB again. I dont even think he could beat Sora.

Although I agree on the second part, I'm not that sure on the first. He may have done better against an equal character from another company, say Squall.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

"He shined because he stood up to and won in the face of a fanboy/bandwagon assault!"

Yeah, it wasn't until the day of that match that I realized Liquid Snake had that big of a fanbase. Easily as large and as vocal that day on this board as Frog has ever been

"I dont even think he could beat Sora."

He doesn't need to beat Sora, if he can beat Conker he wins the day. All he needed to equal Conker last year was another 6000 votes, and if he was agaisnt anyone other than a Nintendo character I'd bet he'd get it. He is one of theirs. He has his own fanbase, as well, but he is also part of the Nintendo crew, and for that I'd put Ness over Fox indirectly should neither be struck by SFF.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

You mean, SMS' release and mass spamming for Mario gave him TEN POINTS?!?

Bah, I need to pay attention to the 2k2 rankings...

Yeah, Chic. I mean, I'd be willing to give Cloud enough to put him over Mario, maybe even into the Mega/Samus/Sonic group (+4%, which still seems high), but giving him 10% seems way too high.
---
Current Pick: Kirby; Current Vote: Kirby; Points: 18/18
Go, O Pink Puffball! Falcom PAUNCH!

"SMS' release and mass cheating for Mario gave him TEN POINTS?!?"

You're psycho sometimes, dude. That's fun! :)

No, I don't mean it gave him that much. I sorta made the part about Cloud and Link simply switching %s up. It may not be that close, but we do have to account for Mario/Link SFF which also hurt Cloud.

I'm thinking it made up about 6-7% weighted, and then with the SFF it looks like about 10%.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Ness will win. That is all.

*leaves*

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

Oh, and lest you should all be blinded by lies... Mario/Link SFF happened and the evidence of such is unfindable because everyone assumes Link is unchanged. Which is, might I tell you all, rediculous. If a bad game like DMC can help Dante then a relative good game like WW can give Link a small boost. Just enough to make it look like the SFF couldn't be more than 1.5%

Damn that Link is good...
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

This has already been pounded mercilessly into the ground, but if Cloud got a boost from KH such that he was more popular than Link, then why is Sora considered to be so weak?

Because as the theory was originally stated, it was not Kingdom Hearts itself that gave Cloud and Co. a boost, but rather the fact that it made people want to play FFVII and FFVIII.
---
"Is it okay with you if we tear your pets to shreds so they won't bother us for a while?"--Laharl

Mario/Link SFF happened and the evidence of such is unfindable because everyone assumes Link is unchanged. Which is, might I tell you all, rediculous. If a bad game like DMC can help Dante then a relative good game like WW can give Link a small boost. Just enough to make it look like the SFF couldn't be more than 1.5%

Exactly what I think.
---
"Is it okay with you if we tear your pets to shreds so they won't bother us for a while?"--Laharl

I don't really consider a character that can beat 1/3 of the field all that weak, really... Sora isn't THAT bad, so I really don't get why people try to use that to disprove KHF. I tried once, then I realized my error and never tried again. I also realized KHF isn't the only factor in certian character's amazing leaps forward.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Heh, and I meant DMC2, obviously. I have this tendancy to leave off the 2 when talking about Dante's increase...
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

I'm bored, so...I'm gonna make a list of which year each character in the contest first appeared, in chronological order.

Atari-era characters:

Pac-Man (1980, Pac-Man)
Mario (1981, Donkey Kong)
Donkey Kong (1981, Donkey Kong)
Luigi (1983, Mario Bros.)

8-bit characters:

Bomberman (1985, Bomberman)
Bowser (1985, Super Mario Bros.)
Samus Aran (1986, Metroid)
Ryu (1987, Street Fighter)
Solid Snake (1987, Metal Gear)
Mega Man (1987, Mega Man)
Link (1987, The Legend of Zelda)
Ryu Hayabusa (1989, Ninja Gaiden)
Alucard (1990, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse)
Protoman (1990, Mega Man 3)

16-bit characters:

Duke Nukem (1990, Duke Nukem)
Guybrush Threepwood (1990, The Secret of Monkey Island)
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991, Sonic the Hedgehog)
Yoshi (1991, Super Mario World)
CATS (1991, Zero Wing)
Miles "Tails" Prower (1992, Sonic the Hedgehog 2- Game Gear version)
Terry Bogard (1992, Fatal Fury)
Kirby (1992, Kirby's Dreamland)
Zero (1993, Mega Man X)
Scorpion (1993, Mortal Kombat)
Knuckles the Echidna (1993, Sonic the Hedgehog 3)
Kefka (1994, Final Fantasy VI)
Ness (1994, Earthbound)
Earthworm Jim (1994, Earthworm Jim)
Crono (1995, Chrono Trigger)
Magus (1995, Chrono Trigger)
Frog (1995, Chrono Trigger)

32-64-bit characters:

Lara Croft (1996, Tomb Raider)
Jill Valentine (1996, Resident Evil)
Kain (1996, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain)
Crash Bandicoot (1996, Crash Bandicoot)
Cloud Strife (1997, Final Fantasy VII)
Sephiroth (1997, Final Fantasy VII)
Conker (1997, Diddy Kong Racing)
Gordon Freeman (1998, Half-Life)
Liquid Snake (1998, Metal Gear Solid)
Ganondorf (1998, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
Luca Blight (1999, Suikoden II)
Tanner (1999, Driver)
Squall Leonheart (1999, Final Fantasy VIII)
Vivi (2000, Final Fantasy IX)

128-bit characters:

Vyse (2000, Skies of Arcadia)
Ryo Hazuki (2000, Shenmue)
JC Denton (2000, Deus Ex)
Jak (2001, Jak and Daxter)
Master Chief (2001, Halo)
Dante (2001, Devil May Cry)
Tidus (2001, Final Fantasy X)
Auron (2001, Final Fantasy X)
Shadow the Hedgehog (2001, Sonic Adventure 2)
Max Payne (2001, Max Payne)
Sam Fisher (2002, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell)
Sora (2002, Kingdom Hearts)
Ratchet (2002, Ratchet & Clank)
Tommy Vercetti (2002, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City)
Sly Cooper (2002, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus)
KOS-MOS (2003, Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht)
Laharl (2003, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness)
Viewtiful Joe (2003, Viewtiful Joe)
HK-47 (2003, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)
---
-Phediuk

Um... I'd count Ganon and Ganondorf as the same guy.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

Midgar Division: Round 1 - Match 20 – (4)Squall Leonheart vs. (13)Bomberman

Moltar’s Analysis

Squall
Game/Series Known From: Final Fantasy 8/Kingdom Hearts
Extrapolated Rank in 2002: 20th
Extrapolated Rank in 2003: 16th
Seed in 2002: 15
Seed in 2003: 6
Lost in Round 1to Snake in 2002 and to Samus in Sweet 16 in 2003

The “Dark Horse” of 2003 is back to finish what he started...I think.

Bomberman
Game/Series Known From: Bomberman Series
Extrapolated Rank in 2002: 23th
Extrapolated Rank in 2003: 42nd
Seed in 2002: 6
Seed in 2003: 11
Lost in Round 1 to Jill in 2002 and to Alucard in Round 1 in 2003.

Here’s another character that is losing more and more popluarity each year. Bomberman is just another character who was decent in ‘02, but nothing now.

I can’t believe if this match took place in 2002, Bomberman would have had a good chance to win. They weren’t too far apart back then. Now though, Bomber has no chance. Squall’s popularity is on the rise while Bomber’s is fading fast. Squall wins easily.

Moltar’s Bracket Says: Squall will win.

Moltar’s Prediction is: Squall 71% - Bomberman 29%



Ulti’s Analysis

After last year, Squall is coming into this contest with a full head of steam in preparation of his third round showdown with Cloud. And yes, he should blow by the first two rounds with ease. His first 'test' is a character who has only been able to defeat a TV set in one of these contests. I mean honestly, just pencil Squall in for the win in this fourpack for the hell of it.

Ulti’s Bracket/Prediction - Squall/Squall with 61.77%



Cena’s Analysis

Ok, here we go. Squall is a character from Final Fantasy who actually displays human emotions a few times. People...dislike that? I don't understand you FAQers sometimes. Bomberman is one of my favourite characters of all time. He throws bombs for a living. How much more badass can you get? A gunblade?...please. I'm not gonna say this'll be close, because Squall is gonna wipe the floor with the bomber, but seriously, vote Bomberman. He may keep getting his ass handed to him every year, but he's back again and again, as a 13 seed too. Now that's ownage, ladies and gentlemen. No matter how bad he does, he'll be back next year. Let's just hope he gets a 12!

Cena's Vote: Bomberman

Cena's Prediction: Squall with 74% (Squall pissed off all of Luigi's fans last time, so expect some anti-votes. Plus, it's freakin' Bomberman.)
---
Bowser vs. Guybrush - http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/Moltar
Kirby vs. Kain - Bracket: Kirby - Vote: Kirby (17/18)

"Um... I'd count Ganon and Ganondorf as the same guy."

I would as well.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

"(Squall pissed off all of Luigi's fans last time, so expect some anti-votes. Plus, it's freakin' Bomberman.)"

I dunno, I'm a big Luigi fan but my reasons for voting against Squall has nothing to do with a mathc last year... and I'm one of the peoiple who follows these things. I think most Luigi fans won't even remember/know it happened.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Who, by the way, has a better pic than anything he had so far.

Are you kidding me? That picture of Donkey Kong is not the best he has had.

---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

DK and Ness both look squished. Mario and Bowser's pic were the only good SSBM pics so far.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

Definitely count Ganondorf and Ganon as the same person.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

Sigh...You people are seriously making me lose any confidence in my picks anymore. Before this contest started I was positive Ness would beat Jak, fairly sure DK would win over Vivi, and positive Tails would beat Viewtiful Joe. Now you've made me doubt all three. Thanks for crushing my spirit! *cries*
---
"Spira is full of death...only SIN is reborn, and then only to bring more death. It is a cycle of death, spiraling endlessly."- Auron

Tails definitely isn't beat Joe. =P
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

He is one of theirs. He has his own fanbase, as well, but he is also part of the Nintendo crew, and for that I'd put Ness over Fox indirectly should neither be struck by SFF.

Oh, you mean that logic people were using to support why Kefka would beat Knuckles. He's one of their own, so of course Square and Final Fantasy fans will mindlessly support him. Honestly, company association doesn't really mean that much. Ness won't get that many votes just because he's Nintendo and Jak is Sony.

Come on, Heroic Mario is as Nintendo as they get, and I think even he is voting for Jak. Correct me if I'm wrong.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Yep, I'm voting for Jak.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

Overall, Ness aint getting as many votes as people think...
---
Steve Illumina: Official Satirical Commentator of SC2K4
Perfects to Fall: 640 SC2K4: 18/19 (Go Jak & Vivi!)

"Thanks for crushing my spirit!"

You're welcome... but hey, at least you'll get Ness/Jak right.

"Oh, you mean that logic people were using to support why Kefka would beat Knuckles."

Except Kefka was too far below Knux to begin with to turn the tides, I don't think Ness is below Jak to begin with. It's not a large boost, and you're daft for thinking I stated such, but it's more than enough to puck the ass of some nobody from a PS2 platformer.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Oh, and HM represents a vote that would be against Ness against what, every digital soul in existance? He may have warmed up to Earthbound a little, but I'm sure he'd still vote just about everything over it.

And again, Ness doens't really need much Nintendo support at all. As it stands, no SFF, many of us don't think Jak has what it takes to beat a 60/40 split with Ratchet and he'd really need to in order to beat Ness.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Just got back from the GRE. Talk about a stressful test with that damned time limit. Hurts someone who tries to solve every problem perfectly and check and recheck like myself. I did pretty decent though.

It sounds like steve illumina has nearly the same bracket as me. It looks like these 3 matches will split many of the regulars in this topic. ChichiriMuyo is as anti-Jak as they come. :)

---
"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

Heroic Mario, you should finish EarthBound. If I can beat that entire game in one day, I know you can get past Threed quite quickly... -_-;

And HM is voting against a character he knows nothing about, which is quite sad. He should do what I do when the poll involves a character I don't know about: abstain.

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

Heroic Mario, you should finish EarthBound. If I can beat that entire game in one day, I know you can get past Threed quite quickly... -_-;

I haven't played the game since the beginning of July. I've been far to busy to play an RPG.

And HM is voting against a character he knows nothing about,

Ness can easily be summed up in a biography from a website.

which is quite sad. He should do what I do when the poll involves a character I don't know about: abstain.

There's no need to. I know about Ness, and there's nothing that compells me to vote for him. Take it like you will, but there's no sense in complaining I'm not all crazy over Ness.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

And by all means if there is just something totally and absolutely holy about Ness do not hesitate to tell me.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

So do you have a link to this bio? The bio CJayC used in the character lineup doesn't count. :P

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

I just checked some FAQs, Earthbound websites, etc. I kept getting the same thing from them all: A boy genius with psychic powers who, upon finding a meteorite landing near his home, sets out on a journey to save the world.

I have nothing against it, but don't expect me to go ga-ga over it.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

"ChichiriMuyo is as anti-Jak as they come. :) "

Nah, nothing against Jak, just don't think he has what it takes to win this one.

"And by all means if there is just something totally and absolutely holy about Ness do not hesitate to tell me."

Well if you'd get your ass to Fourside...
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True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

There's a difference between a bio and a tagline, you know. The line for Ness from the EarthBound Player's Guide (The best Player's Guide ever) was "Unlikely Protector Of The Earth." That hardly qualifies as a bio.

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SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

HM, I think you've been reading summaries rather than bios. That's what I'm saying.

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SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

There's a difference between a bio and a tagline, you know. The line for Ness from the EarthBound Player's Guide (The best Player's Guide ever) was "Unlikely Protector Of The Earth." That hardly qualifies as a bio.

Well, sheesh, you think I was simply reading a tagline? I was dumbing down what the entire paragraph talked about. And again, I don't care what you spoil, feel free to tell me what would make me just go nuts over Ness.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

Ness is in your bracket. Vote for him.

See? Aren't you crazy for him yet? =D
---
The only reason this is here is because posts without sigs look ugly.

Magicant.

You have to play through Magicant. Towards the end of the game, you start to get a better idea of who Ness is. At the end of the seventh sanctuary, Lumine Hall, his thoughts are printed out on the wall for everyone to see.

After all eight sanctuaries are found and the sound stone is completed, you go to "Magicant," which is basically the mind of Ness. There he talks to himself from ages past, objects, people, and memories of his life, and basically relives everything. It can't really be described; it's a part of the game that you have to play through. It's definitely one of the most famous parts from EarthBound. And towards the end, when you get to the Sea Of Eden, and Ness fights his Nightmare, and then talks outloud in an awesome monologue, that's the beginning of when Ness really started to appeal to people.

And what he sacrifices at the end of the game, even with the knowledge that he may never get it back, shows you his character.

Again, it's something you have to play through. Like other light-hearted RPGs, this game has a very serious undertone to it, and is quite serious and emotional towards the end.

I know that won't impress you, I'm just saying that figuring out a character from reading FAQs and fansites is quite foolish.

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SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

You almost make me want to play through Earthbound again. :P

I'll have to wait for it to come out on the gba however.
---
Happiness is like peeing on yourself. Everyone can see it, but only you feel it's warmth.

It's not bad. Actually, that was presented quite well but until I'm able to find time to pickup a RPG and get going I'll have to hold off on Earthbound for now. Though I applaud the actual effort on doing some description, and while it didn't really do much now it gives me greater insight on how Ness will get later on.

*thumbs up*
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SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

And just so you know, I don't require a character to have speak, have deep character development, and background in order to like them.
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SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

And just so you know, I don't require a character to have speak, have deep character development, and background in order to like them.

Which should be obvious, considering who you named yourself after.
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I'm safe until the next toss-up match, which is Bowser vs. Guybrush. ~SuperLuigiBros
SC2K4 Score: 18/18 Next Pick: Kirby

Heh, thanks.

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

Which should be obvious, considering who you named yourself after.

Indeed. My list of favorite characters reflects this as well.

---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

Join the club, HM.

---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

Anyway, Ness has to win for my bracket but my vote goes to Jak. Not only do I like but he comes from a platformer.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

Amen to that. Platformers are a dying breed. They are also my favorite genre.

*patiently waits for next 2D Mario Platformer, Mario DS*
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

They are also my favorite genre.

Oh yes! Platformers own. =)
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

Platformers and Adventures are great, but they're dying off because so many bad and mediocre ones are being released.
---
I'm safe until the next toss-up match, which is Bowser vs. Guybrush. ~SuperLuigiBros
SC2K4 Score: 18/18 Next Pick: Kirby

Also because 2D platformers were MUCH MUCH better than the new 3D platformers. I don't want "Missions." I want "get to the end of the level before the timer runs out." I don't want life bars. I want Mushrooms and Fire Flowers.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

At least in 3D Platforms, Mario still reigns king.
---
I'm safe until the next toss-up match, which is Bowser vs. Guybrush. ~SuperLuigiBros
SC2K4 Score: 19/19 Next Pick: Squall

Yeha, well, that's why new platformers just don't so that well here. That's the way things go.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Just imagine what they could do with a 2D platformer on GameCube though. Man that would be AWESOME. And Nintendo not releasing a new Mario on GBA pisses me off.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

Y'know what was a surprisingly good platformer? Mischief Makers. The average levels weren't exactly impressive, but the boss battles were spectacular. I could seriously play a game consisting of nothing but bosses of that sort and never get tired of it.
---
"Spira is full of death...only SIN is reborn, and then only to bring more death. It is a cycle of death, spiraling endlessly."- Auron

Platformers are probably my second favorite genre, but man have they gone to hell. Hopefully Nintendo releases some badass ones that raise the standard for everyone else.

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

I saw a trailer for SMB DS and it looks great. 2D but with SM64 type graphics. And if you don't get the mushroom and it touches the enemy, they get huge.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

Nintendo's upcoming platformers look great, or specifically Mario. I can't wait to get a chance at getting those on the Nintendo DS.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

HM do you have a wireless router? Because if you do we gotta get a game of SM64*4 together.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

As it lies, there's only two 3D platformers that I actually like:

Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. And SM64 completely trounces SMS in every respect except graphics.
---
-Phediuk

That would be cool. =)
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!

Mischief Makers is awesome.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Mischief Makers was one of the most under-rated gems I have ever played. Certainly not the best game ever, but damn, it was good.
---
Supporting both Earthworm Jim AND Mega Man in 2004
Spring Contest Score: 151/192

I think the next couple four days will make a pretty decent dent in those perfect brackets. I could see double digits having taken Kain, and I would be shocked if triple digits do not fall in the Jak/Ness and DK/Vivi matches, regardless of who wins. Also, do not underestimate the power of Scorpion's Elite Eight run a couple years ago. The vast majority of the remaining perfects do not participate in our discussions and study XSt, so they do not know Auron is going to get around 60% on Scorpion. But these people probably do go back and check previous results, and seeing Scorpion win three matches in '02 may have them pencilling him in over Auron.

I officially have no idea who will win Jak/Ness and Vivi/DK. I have seen great analysis for why all four characters can win, and I have no clue who will win. That being said, if Jak and Vivi find a way to eek out the W this weekend, I am supremely confident in a perfect first round.
---
...and it begins! Next tough match: Ness vs. JAK

I'd vote Vivi or DK over Ness or Jak anyday... shame that one of them will lose (the former two) in the first round...
---
Points: 18/18/192 | Today's Pick: (5)Kirby vs. (12)Kain | Tomorrow: (4)Squall vs. (13)Bomberman

There seems to be a common misconception going around involving Gordon Freeman losing to Sam Fisher. Guys, clearly nobody has informed you of the fact that every vote that I place for Gordon Freeman is worth 70,000 votes.

And I don't want to hear any of you naysayers talking about how he's going to lose because Sam Fisher's getting 70,001. That's just dirty pool.
---
"I don't know who you are but I thank you for arousing me." -- Terranigma

Oh yeah, this division is going to take a lot of perfect out. I find it hard to think that Laharl would take out more than 3 times as many brackets as Kain, so I am expecting under 600 after today. Bomberman seem like too much of a long-shot to do any damage but predictions % should be less in favor of Squall than Cloud so losing a dozen wouldn't come as a shock. I can actually see us ending in the 250-300 range when Ness beats Jak, 50 lower when Auron wins, then somewhere around 120 after Vivi beats DK. KOS-MOS will likely put 90% of the perfects on the top 50, and before the first round closes there will be plenty of 31 pointers on the list.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Yeah. We should have very few perfect brackets left by the time we get finished with round 1.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

"Yeah. We should have very few perfect brackets left by the time we get finished with round 1. "

You and me buddy, you and me. I'm pretty sure we have that last division the same, right? Joe, Sora, and Ryu H being the only questionable ones...
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Yep. =)
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

I still don't see how people can say that Joe v. Tails is even questionable. Tails is without a doubt the least popular Sonic character here, and Lara > Tails in extrapolated. Like I've said for a month, there is NO WAY that Lara > Joe.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

Sora vs. HK-47 is the least questionable of all. Like I said before, this will just be Vyse-Laharl part 2.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

"I still don't see how people can say that Joe v. Tails is even questionable."

Joe is new, we don't know for sure how strong he is. I can't see him losing to Tails, but then again I wasn't really saying the match was in question...
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

"Like I said before, this will just be Vyse-Laharl part 2."

Bracket makers don't know this. Bracket makers are open to failure.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

It's questionable because of Joe being newer and not able to base him off of much. With that said I've been extremely confident in him since the bracket was released and with time I think he could move right up the ranks.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Also because 2D platformers were MUCH MUCH better than the new 3D platformers. I don't want "Missions." I want "get to the end of the level before the timer runs out." I don't want life bars. I want Mushrooms and Fire Flowers.

Obviously, nothing is going to replace your nostalgia disease. However, I find that the best platformers these days are on the Playstation 2. What do you got?
---
Sc2k4: 17 of 18
Next Match: Kirby vs. Kain

He's got better taste than you, Tonberry. :P

Seriously, platformers today don't compare at all to classic platformers, though there are some good modern ones, like Jak II for instance.

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

He's got better taste than you, Tonberry. :P

When did I ever say anything about taste?

Seriously, platformers today don't compare at all to classic platformers, though there are some good modern ones, like Jak II for instance.

I agree with that statement, but as far as the most modern (excluding anything before 2000) Platformer games go, the PS2 has the best ones.
---
Sc2k4: 17 of 18
Next Match: Kirby vs. Kain

I haven't played any of the PS2 platformers (all I have is a GCN and GBA) so I will defer to you on that issue.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

Playstation 2 does have the best platformers. Though I am bias because I hate the way Gamecube's controller is set up. Out of the current systems PS2 has the best platformers. My favorite current one is probably Ratchet and Clank: Goin' Commando. Though systems back in the day rocked much harder and better.
---
SC2K4 Score 18/18. Today's pick: Kirby. Voted For: Kain.
Fujin is the greatest character ever conceived by man.

I still don't see how people can say that Joe v. Tails is even questionable. Tails is without a doubt the least popular Sonic character here, and Lara > Tails in extrapolated. Like I've said for a month, there is NO WAY that Lara > Joe.

So???? Lara's not bad. She's just average. For Joe to beat Tails by a convincing amount he'd have to be above average in popularity, I fact that I can not believe to be true.

---
"Is it okay with you if we tear your pets to shreds so they won't bother us for a while?"--Laharl

I fact that I can not believe to be true.

I could and expect him to rank fairly high this year.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

I can see where Felix = Joe. Joe should have the Nintendo Base behind him.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

Of course Joe is popular enough. Henshin-a-go-go baby!
---
The only reason this is here is because posts without sigs look ugly.

The PS2 has the best platformers? Are you guys insane? By all means, please tell me where the current state of platformers would be without Mario, Mega Man, and Sonic titles.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

He meant this Gen ulti. Even though I still say GBA...
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

"I can see where Felix = Joe. "

Heh, me too... check out my oracle prediction for Joe/Tails.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

I just realized that Fox should make it back in and probably stronger than he was in 2003 with his new game coming out.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Currently PS2 is... the new Mario platform games are sub par. Sonic doesn't come out with good games anymore and I guess I'll give you Mega Man because of MMAC. Still Jak II and Ratchet and Clank I enjoyed more than MMAC.
---
SC2K4 Score 18/18. Today's pick: Kirby. Voted For: Kain.
Fujin is the greatest character ever conceived by man.

If you ask me, Mega Man Anniversary Collection is the best game out right now.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

I give it its just due. It is a great game just I liked R&C: GC better. It is a great game I'll agree I'm bias though because Mega Man isn't my forte.
---
SC2K4 Score 18/18. Today's pick: Kirby. Voted For: Kain.
Fujin is the greatest character ever conceived by man.

From: Heroic Mario | Posted: 8/19/2004 9:29:22 PM | Message Detail
If you ask me, Mega Man Anniversary Collection is the best game out right now.

HELL ****ING YES.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

I wouldn't say MMAC is the best out right now, but it's certainly one of the top few. I loved it to death, I did. I own MMX and love it a helluva lot and have distant memories of having once played MM6, and it was so great to play all of the original MM games. I recently picked up MMX4 for PS in the bargain bin. I haven't played too much of it yet, so I can't quite judge it yet.
---
Contest status: 17/18 points. Currently anticipating: Ness vs. Jak

I think what he meant (or how I feel at least...) is that the PS2 has the best new-age platformers.

Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, etc. are the older ones that have xisted forever.

Probably was specifically referring to Jak II and Ratchet & Clank: GC which are the 2 best NEW platformers.

Jak and R&C at least will be popular enough to keep Jak and Ratchet in for a while, especially with each's sequels coming out.


---
Support Sonic!
Pick: Kirby vs. Kain. Vote: (>^_^)> 16/18/192

MMX4 owns beyond comprehension. It's easily one of my favorite Mega Man games.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

And as for modern platformers, I would definately say that the PS2 has the best current-gen ones. I got J&D with my PS2 (along with FFX), and I probably wouldn't have heard of R&C if it weren't for so many people asking "Which is better?" on the J&D boards. R&C2 and J2 were both also very excellent. I can't wait for R&C3 and J3.
---
Contest status: 17/18 points. Currently anticipating: Ness vs. Jak

Sadly, the Jak series will be done after three but I guess that could be a good thing.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

You have him with 52.5... That has him right around Ken's level. I'm not following you here.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

HM - How would you rate all of the MMX games? I took a peek at MMX7 but decided not to get it since it was 3D, and we all know that 2D > 3D. MMX3 is currently super-pricey: $200 on Amazon, but it's not too hard to find it for $60 elsewhere.
---
Contest status: 17/18 points. Currently anticipating: Ness vs. Jak

MMX4 - MMX - MMX2 - MMX3- MMX5 - MMX6 - MMX7

It's a good thing you didn't get X7 because it was terrible, though if you start getting into the series you might want to check out MMX8 that will come out later on in November. Oh, and the story gets real confusing after MMX5. (that's where Keiji Inafune wanted to end the series, but it continued on)
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

IMO In order from best to worst

X1, X2, X4, X3, X5, X6, X7

But yeah X7 IMO was terrible, never got into it although I've beaten every other Mega Man game that has come to America, that is the only one I haven't been able to sit through and play it, if that means anything.
---
Current SC2K4 Score: 17/18
COWS are for Milking, not GAMES

Well I'm pleasantly surprised that MMX4 is very good, and I pretty much expected that the first ones were best.
---
Contest status: 17/18 points. Currently anticipating: Ness vs. Jak

Actually, I had heard that Jak III will be the last of the series.. BUT.......


Quote game designer Evan Wells, "Though we are completing the trilogy taht we began with The Precursor Legacy, this will NOT be the end of the Jak and Daxter franchise. There are many more exciting adventures waiting for our heroes."
---
Support Sonic!
Pick: Kirby vs. Kain. Vote: (>^_^)> 16/18/192

Well I'll be, I had every intention of putting Joe at 58.5 which would put him at Felix's level... glad you said something becuase I never would have noticed that I put it wrong.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

I hadn't heard anything new from the designers at Naughty Dog since they said one of the two main designers who started it off were leaving. (Jason) So, if they do continue producing games with Jak and Daxter I'm all for it. =)
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

The PS2 has the best platformers? Are you guys insane? By all means, please tell me where the current state of platformers would be without Mario, Mega Man, and Sonic titles.

He meant right now, which is really indisputable. Mario hasn't had a game out since Sunshine, which is 2 years old, Sonic Heros sucked, and Mega Man's platformers have been limited to the GBA. Even talking bout the Aniversary collection, that's still only a collection of the older games.

They should make a game called Daxter and Clank...... That would rawk.

It'd be like coolness. Ratchet abd Clank games needed an overworld, like the Jak games.

So put the 2 sidekicks on one combined supergame with the Jak-esque overworld and the Ratchet & Clank levels, weapons, etc.

---
Support Sonic!
Pick: Kirby vs. Kain. Vote: (>^_^)> 16/18/192

except that GBA has better platformers than PS2...

Everybody always overlooks the GBA.
---
Summer Contest Match 19 Kirby vs. Kain
Status 18/19 Points: 018 Next: Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman

Well, most people usually talk about consoles moreso than handhelds.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Perhaps Naughty Dog should try to make a game combining all its big stars into one. It can be a wacky fighting game where items drop from the sky and there's no killing involved.

Or, perhaps, people can stop living in dream worlds where secondary characters that they like while majority doesn't hold them in special regard get more exposure than they deserve.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

X4 > X3 > X1 > X2 > X5 > X6 > X7

I didn't play X6, but X5 was subpar and playing through X7 made me physically ill.

MMX4 was the peak of Mega Man gaming for me. The PS took all of the qualities that made Mega Man and Mega Man X a hit without changing them and maximized them in terms of presentation. An anime title opening and anime cutscenes are everything you could have wanted in a Mega Man game. Plus the X storyline really picked up in all that game with all the side stories and vendettas. The game really develops Zero's background and character as well.

*SPOILERS*

If anyone else has followed the series, what happened to the inferences that X's ending had? Didn't he conclude that all Reploids must become Mavericks and warn Zero to take him out when the time came? Why didn't the story ever follow up on X becoming a Maverick? Did it make any reference to this at all after this?


---
"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

If anyone else has followed the series, what happened to the inferences that X's ending had? Didn't he conclude that all Reploids must become Mavericks and warn Zero to take him out when the time came? Why didn't the story ever follow up on X becoming a Maverick? Did it make any reference to this at all after this?

X was basically saying that Reploids all can become Mavericks and that if he were ever to go Maverick he told Zero to finish him off so that he couldn't harm anyone.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

"MMX4 was the peak of Mega Man gaming for me."

I think we should go back even further... to 3. Not X3... 3. I mean, obviously that isn't the peak for you, but 1, 2, and 3 are the best Mega Man games ever and with very few exceptions everything after isn't that great.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Yeah, but they didn't FOLLOW UP on that! I thought that ending was forshadowing of what would happen with the future. X4 was full of mysteries and revelations (Zero's past, his connection with Sigma and Dr. Wily, the Sigma virus, X's purpose, etc.) I thought the X series would continue to develop these.
---
"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

*foreshadowing
---
"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

X > X2 > X4 > X3 > X6 > X5 > X7

The above statement is true.

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 16/17, Picked: Vyse, Voted: Laharl
VOTE NESS!

*SPOILERS*


Yeah. Zero actually went Maverick in X5, if I remember correctly. He talked to X about how he felt different, much stronger, and that was pretty much a point where they were both equal in strength. Zero always started out stronger with X progressively getting up to his level (and always being talked about with unlimited potential)

After X5 I think the story just gets... weird.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Jak III is merely the end of the Precursor saga and the resolution of Daxter's problems (for those who don't know, he actually was human before being mutated into an ottsel by dark eco). It'll be weird having the series with a new version of Daxter after this though.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

The above statement is true.

Only portions of it are.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

*SPOILERS*

Yeah, Zero started off as a Maverick. Remember the flashback cutscene where Sigma was a Maverick Hunter and he hunted Zero in that abandoned warehouse? I was just really pushing for X to turn Maverick as well. Kinda like trying to figure out what will happen in the sequel of a good movie. Ah well. I never got into X5 and I lost my copy. So the series kinda lost me after that.

MegaMan 2 was my first MegaMan game. 2 and 3 are pure classic platforming at it's best, but they aren't on the level of the X games in terms of depth. I like being able to dash and climb walls. It's a lot more fun. Although I DO testify that you aren't a true gamer if you haven't cleared the blocks on Heat Man's level. There are no walls to save you in the original Megaman games!
---
"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

That wall jumping stuff is for ****ies. Obviously you can't have an evil disapearing platform puzzle if you can just jump off a wall to save yourself.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Yeah, the styles of each series is different. There aren't any more moments like jumping from block to block over a bottomless pit while a giant dragon chases you and then having to FIGHT said dragon while on the blocks.

But I still prefer wall jumps, dashing, and double jumps. It makes the game more fun.
---
"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

Yeah. He was a Maverick at the beginning then when he transferred the virus over to Sigma they both kind of like switched. Sigma suddenly became a Maverick and Zero the Maverick Hunter.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

i am also currently playing the Megaman Collection and i have beaten 7 Megaman games in 7 weeks. i'm about to start Megaman 8. but, yeah, after playing them all consecutively, the series really did peak at part 3. 4 was okay, but nothing innovative. 5 wasn't too bad, better than 4, but it didn't have nearly as big of an innovation jump as there was from 1 to 2 or from 2 to 3.
6 seemed totally rushed and plain. it really felt like Capcom desperately wanted to get one more Megaman game out on the NES before the system officially died. it was way easy for a Megaman game, too. i actually got through Dr. Wily's castle up to Dr. Wily without a continue on my first try. that's the only Megaman game where i've ever done that. 7 was also not that great. it added a lot more extra things to find and more exploration in the levels, but it felt extremely stale. and Bass was totally lame compared to Zero's first appearance in Megaman X. now i realize why i never played 7 on the SNES. it was a pile of turds compared to the X series.

POSSIBLE MEGAMAN X SPOILER!!!!

.
.
.
.

anyone else remember the first time you found the Hadoken in Megaman X? or the Shoryuken in Megaman X2? and then defeating a boss in a single hit with them? that was truly one of the finest moments in my gaming memory. Megaman shouting "Shoryuken!" while blasting a robotic deer with a fiery uppercut.................... simply awesome.......

btw - did the contest really get so boring that the last 100 posts didn't even discuss the contest? lol. honestly, i think this is the most boring 4-pack in the contest. even without the x-stats, anyone who glanced at the last two contests could predict all three matches in this 4-pack with their eyes closed. and we don't even care about how well the winner of the 4-pack (Squall, duh) performs because he has no chance whatsoever of winning his third round match. bleh.

---
That's it. I have reached my threshold of pain. I am going home and I am going to play Megaman, eat snack cakes, and do my woman.

In light of the conversation, MMAC is the highest selling console game this generation. 222,000 copies (estimated) in North America alone on the GCN and PS2.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Er, highest selling Mega Man console game*
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

"Megaman shouting "Shoryuken!" while blasting a robotic deer with a fiery uppercut.................... simply awesome......."

X didn't shout anything in Mega Man X2; he only did in the original Mega Man X.

-Dabu

World Cyber Games 2004
Come, if you dare.

I was about to go and buy MMAC a couple of weeks ago but changed my mind and bought Viewtiful Joe for 20 bucks. I've decided to give new franchises a chance. You can't go wrong with either though. The SFAC is looking pretty tempting as well. I might very well end up with all three.

---
"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

Indeed. SFAC is looking great and is only $29.99. It comes out August 31st.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

X didn't shout anything in Mega Man X2; he only did in the original Mega Man X.


he did in my memory. >_>

don't ruin my memories, Dabu!!

---
That's it. I have reached my threshold of pain. I am going home and I am going to play Megaman, eat snack cakes, and do my woman.

This is probably off topic by now, but regarding Sora vs. Ryu/Jill...

I'm not sure how you can give that one to Ryu/Jill automatically. For one, Sora's still a Square character, and KH IS popular on this site, even if it underperformed (or was caught up in the midst of overperformers) in the spring contest. I really can't see Sora being much weaker than Kefka and Ramza, the weakest Square characters we've seen in the contests.

Would it shock you to see Aeris double Kefka or Ramza? Nope. SFF, and Aeris is viewed as pretty strong around here.

I would equate Sora's popularity to that of, probably, about Ramza's... And I don't think you could count Ramza out against Ryu and Jill. The Chaos Division is weak.
---
Hmph.

The best platformer 'out right now' is Super Mario 3, but that's just a technical interpretation of English.

Personally, I would say MMAC is the best when you go by what you guys meant.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Considering Sora is weaker than Jill, if Hayabusa wins then he'll be stronger than both of them. The only match I'm worried out of that pack is Jill vs. Hayabusa.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

1: Do the 2k3 extrapolateds count SFF in Aeris/Sora?

2: Jill was ahead of Squall by roughly the same amount in 2k2 as she's ahead of Sora this year. And as we all know, Jill triumphed mightily over Squall in 2003's first round. Oh, wait. She didn't. (Yeah, yeah, KH factor, sure. See #3.)

3: FF characters seem, on this site, to be the most prone to irrational jumps in popularity. Take Kefka. Sora wouldn't shock me if he overperformed as well, especially in his easy as hell fourpack.

I don't think Sora's a lock, but I think Sora vs. Ryu/Jill is a match we can firmly file under "Too Close to Call".
---
Hmph.

"I really can't see Sora being much weaker than Kefka and Ramza,"

A quick look at the 2k3 XSt shows Sora directly behind Ramza, and according to Kefka's performance this year the mad clown should be just ahead of Ramza... no no, Sora isn't much weaker than those two.

Jill should allow Sora to get 42-43 and not much more.

"The Chaos Division is weak."

Which is precisely why Ryu H is expected to shine.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

"2: Jill was ahead of Squall by roughly the same amount in 2k2 as she's ahead of Sora this year."

2k2 squall would have done noticably better against Jill than Sora.

Add to that the fact that it wasn't just Squall increasing but Jill being overrated in 2k2 and you can see that Sora's chances for an upset are slimmer than you may have expected.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Wow...you know, I just checked the standings, and Sora is a lot stronger than I thought.

Maybe Sora would be able to challenge Jill after all.
---
Data for all matches - http://sc2k4.com/displaytable.php
SC2K4.com/Frog

I don't think you could count Ramza out against Ryu and Jill.

Jill beat Kirby. Kirby beat Ramza. Sora will lose.
---
SC2k4 Score: 17/18 points
BRACKET STATUS: Waiting for Ness/Jak...

Jill isn't overrated now? RE is hardly... gaining popularity. Squall beat Jill and Luigi by about the same percentage... Something doesn't compute there. Other than beating Kirby a very long time ago, Jill has done very little of note in the contest.

Also, regarding stats... Sora will get at least 42-43% in this one only if you believe that Jill=Knuckles. Does that REALLY make sense?
---
Hmph.

Kirby is actually stronger than Jill now. Strange but true.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Looking at the standings last year Jill would be expected to get 56.89% against Sora.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Jill beat Kirby.

In 2002, with a different voter pool, with RE far more popular than it is now. Oh, and it was still close.

Kirby beat Ramza.

In a close one. And I never said Sora at Ramza's level... That's a minimum for him, especially if the level of SFF was misjudged in Aeris/Sora.

Sora will lose.

Looks damned close to me.
---
Hmph.

And like before if Hayabusa were to beat Jill, and not in a nailbiter, it would only further that percentage out there. As of now I'd expect Hayabusa to rank quite up there in strength. I'll be voting for Jill, but I don't think she'll actually win it or come within 1%.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

especially if the level of SFF was misjudged in Aeris/Sora.

I don't see much of a reason for there to be, especially if something like Cloud vs. Auron can have none (or projected to have none).
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

If Hayabusa blows Jill out more than 60-40, well, then, he wins handily. I'm not arguing that point. But as of now, no one really knows the ninja's strength.
---
Hmph.

I was talking around 53% or such that would put him at Alucard's level or similar. I couldn't imagine either of these two losing to Sora.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

actually, according to the x-stats, Sora is about even with Ramza, without taking any SFF into account:

28 North 11 Jill Valentine 25.38% 24.56%
.
.
.
.

38 South 14 Ramza Beoulve 22.31% 21.59%
39 East 6 Sora 21.88% 21.17%

so, if i'm doing the math correctly, i believe Sora would get 43.1% on Jill without any SFF factored in. also, you might remember that Jill dropped a bit since 2003; about 2 points in the x-stats. now, say that this year Jill had a similar drop, which is very possible seeing how she hasn't had anything new or interesting in a while. a similar 2 point drop would bring Sora up to 46.79% against Jill. now, if Sora received a boost this year similar to Kefka because of the possible SFF in his only match last year, then we've got a close match on our hands.

of course, for all that to even be debatable, Ryu Hayabusa would have to be a flop and lose to Jill in the first place. if Ryu beats Jill by a comfortable margin (55% or better) then Sora has no chance. but if he does flop, then i'm not counting Sora out just yet.

---
That's it. I have reached my threshold of pain. I am going home and I am going to play Megaman, eat snack cakes, and do my woman.

especially if something like Cloud vs. Auron can have none (or projected to have none).

Yes... projected.

Crono vs. Kefka probably won't be the only Square vs. Square matchup from last year that will wreak a little havoc on our stats. I see no reason that Auron and Sora, like Kefka, will be stronger than we gave them credit for after they got smashed last year.
---
Hmph.

I wouldn't be comfortable with 53%, HM... Jill might still be a little overrated in our minds from the last two year's stats. 55% makes Hayabusa the favorite against Sora, in my opinion, and 60% puts it beyond any doubt.
---
Hmph.

Unlike Crono vs. Kefka, who came from the same era and system, Cloud vs. Auron and Aeris vs. Sora are from two different eras on two different systems. That combined with the fact that you don't always see SFF, or that of significance, in Square matches I doubt he'll be gaining something from that. At best I think he could manage a little, but it still wouldn't make sense for me for him to gain by a good margin.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Let's stop with the number crunching for Ryu H's four pack and use some common sense, namely Master Chief vs Crash. Ryu Hayabusa is more than capable of winning his four pack with ease, as Xbox characters are capable of blowing away washed-up opponents. Really, that match is getting unnecessary hype. And with everyone thinking they have a fair shot at winning this thing, bracket voters mean a lot more than usual, hence why I think Ness and Ryu H will win their matches easily. I see two matches going against the seedings in round one: Kefka vs Knuckles and Vivi vs Donkey Kong. Odd how both polls involve established characters against the lower end of the Square scale, no?
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

How is she overrated? Cyko commented before on her going down because of not having something done in the last year, but really characters don't continue to fall if you don't do something from year to year. I do see why she would fall from 2002 to 2003, but can't see why she'd see a similar drop from 2003 to 2004.

Now, a 55% match would put Hayabusa at Auron's level and 60% would put him above Bowser.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Here's the way I look at it for Hayabusa...

Anyone could beat Crash, most would beat him very handily. If MC beats Frog, then the major XBox hate that all of us presumed is all but gone, yes.

New characters are totally unpredictable, and so are bracketmakers' responses to these contest newbies... Take Frog vs. LS, where an 11 seed was the favorite going by predictions, and last year, where so many overestimated MC. Ryu H. is probably a pretty heavy bracket favorite, true, but can we say that for certain about Ness? Hmm.

Also, I'm trying to avoid discussing him much cause I really want the bastard to lose. No offense to him or his fans, but the prospects of this without a standout personality ninja making the final nine strike fear into this fanfic writer's heart.
---
Hmph.

RE's glory days ended with the PSX, and Jill edges closer into the land of fading former stars like Duke, Crash, and many more.

It would make sense for Duke and Crash to continue their downward spiral (well, not Duke this year, cause of the milk thing), why not Jill?
---
Hmph.

Yeah, we don't know where Sora is for sure. However, I wouldn't expect Jill to drop down significantly. For all we know, her showings against Squall and Link could simply have been extremes in her performance range. To put the blame simply on her becoming less popular in a rather sharp pattern is a little extreme a solution if you ask me.

Jill would get 38.68% against Aeris, and Sora got 33.34%. So he needs to have been hurt for five points, assuming Jill stays there. Of course, this would increase if Hayabusa wins, which I'm growing more and more unsure of as the days pass...
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

well, in action games, a charcter has gotta keep doing something to stay fresh in people's minds. RPG characters tend to get remembered much longer because of their deeper character development. a 2 point drop isn't all that huge of a drop, and i could easily see Jill or any other action character drop two or more times consecutively. i do agree with Heroic Mario that every character has to bottom out somewhere. and there's no guarantee that Jill will drop in popularity again. but i see no reason why she can't.

---
That's it. I have reached my threshold of pain. I am going home and I am going to play Megaman, eat snack cakes, and do my woman.

"with a different voter pool,"

Our voter pool is now more like 2k2 than 2k3.

"especially if the level of SFF was misjudged in Aeris/Sora."

SFF would have to be quite minimal at best. Frankly Sora can't even make the leap forward that Kefka did, % wise, or else Sora would have to be a hair weaker than Aeris. If that were true to begin with then SFF that severe couldn't have happened. A 4% weighted increase is the omst I could possibly see for Sora, and that'd frankly be amazing. Yes, Kefka had a 6% weigthed increase, approximately, but there are several reasons other than SFF AND the SFF he faced was much greater than Sora due to being hit by a far stronger opponent and (if Sora had SFF) being a bit wekaer himself. 4% would be crazy. And then, if he got 4%, he's only barely higher than Jill... assuming lower voter pools don't favor her as the past would indicate.

Unlike Kefka, though, Sora is more inclined to be helped by the mainstream. Kefka, given his role, is more for the hardcore/board vote and as such would get a larger % boost from having a smaller vote pool. For all we know, the fewer casuals we have the less Sora has going for him.

Ryu H seems liek the type to flourish in this setting. He has oldschool voters on his side for his epic NES adventures. Oldschool voters are like board voters in that their numbers don't increase greatly when the voter pool increases. On top of that it seems the casual voters have less love for Xbox. Less hate than the boards, but less love also. They are clearly more inclined to feel indifferent towards the Xbox. Less "eh, who cares?" votes may just help him. Lower casuals could be bad for him as well, but I don't get that feeling. Then, the board vote, which is the same as the nomination pool... He grabbed a 3 through nominations, and he may have been one of the few to get bumped, which logically would be down, by one seed as Ceej indicated. Chances are he's the board favorite due to the obviously large number of nominations. Lower vote totals = higher board influence. Also being 3 seeded helps a lot. Lower vote totals = higher bracket influence.

The stage just seems to be set for the ninja.... oh, hell, I forgot, he's also a ninja... and that beats keyboy anyday.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

"I don't see much of a reason for there to be, especially if something like Cloud vs. Auron can have none (or projected to have none)."

You don't believe those lies, do you? Kefka was projected to have none as well. Frankly character like Tails and Pac-Man probably just do better wiht more casual voters. With that in mind Auron may have also suffered from undetectable SFF. Of course, unlike Kefka, we'll have a chance to prove it before Auron has to face another FF character.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Kefka was projected to have none as well.

He was projected to have some... from Crono/Kefka all the way to Luigi/Pac-Man. After that it didn't become "He didn't have SFF", but "Did he have SFF?"
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

"but can we say that for certain about Ness? "

If Kefka was the favorite I see no reason why Ness wouldn't be as well. We had strong evidence against Kefka and none against Jak (other than circumstantial) and I do believe with that in mind, though Ness doesn't have the OMG! Square factor going for him, the advantage is still in favor of Ness.

"RE's glory days ended with the PSX,"

Code Veronica is often considered the best in the series by those who have played every game, and REmake was simply huge, in perspective. I don't think RE's glory days are over just yet.

"...Crash to continue their downward spiral"

Actually, Crash lands back where he came from in 2k2. Another reason to believe certain fodder character simply do better with more casual voters. He can't be spiraling downward if he went UP between 2k2 and 2k3... he's simply subject to more fluctuations. Being fodder and having mainstream appeal does that to a character. That's one of the many reasons I lack reason to believe Jak is going to be all that some people make him out to be.

"which I'm growing more and more unsure of as the days pass..."

The ninja has it in the bag.

"well, in action games, a charcter has gotta keep doing something to stay fresh in people's minds."

But in contrast they can also do nothing for 7 years and not drop very far from where they were. Samus is a perfect example. SSB kept her a bit fresh, but I don't think she could have dropped much lower than she already was even if SSB had never come to pass. They peak when they are fresh, they drop when that wears off, but they don't seem to continue to drop significantly after the initial freshness is gone.

"i could easily see Jill or any other action character drop two or more times consecutively."

I cannot, but time will tell.


---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

"He was projected to have some... "

I say that in the same way economists say a country has 0% unemployment. It was thought that some was there but far too little to be of any real interest or consequence.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Match XVIII: (8) Vyse vs. (9) Laharl Review

Vyse beat Laharl, 60.23% - 39.77%

Well I did expect Vyse to win and putting Laharl as the winner was pretty dumb, though I would be so ahead if Laharl actually won, though I’ll never forget win Laharl had the lead for the first few seconds. Well this match cost me my perfect bracket, but it’s only one point (unlike Starcraft was) Vyse will get slaughter by Cloud in round 2 so there’s no worries for me and my bracket anymore. Also before the match I heard that Laharl was like Luca, too cultish, but after looking at last years stats they are pretty much ranked at the same place, between CATS and Ness (another cult character). Though it doesn’t really bother me, I never really liked either character.

---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

Match XX: (4) Squall vs. (13) Bomberman Preview

Past Performances:

Squall: 2002

Lost to Solid Snake, 34.57% - 65.43%
Ranked: 20th

Squall: 2003

Defeated Jill, 59.99% - 40.01%
Defeated Luigi, 60.21% - 39.79%
Lost to Samus, 41.80% - 58.20%
Ranked: 16th

Bomberman: 2002

Defeated Kane, 78.11% - 21.89%
Lost to Jill, 42.03% - 57.97%
Ranked: 23rd

Bomberman: 2003

Lost to Alucard, 64.46% - 35.54%
Ranked: 42nd

Analysis:

Squall is from Final Fantasy VIII. In 2002 he lost in the first round to Solid Snake because he was very underseeded, but still managed to do well. In 2003 he was the upset. Thought to lose in the first round to Jill managed to upset both Jill and Luigi and gave Samus a hard time for herself. Squall was the first character to show a lot of signs that there was a Kingdom Hearts Factor. This year he’s back and he’s properly seeded and has a chance of making it to the Sweet 16 again. But first he has to get through Bomberman, but he should be able to do it.

Bomberman is from the Bomberman series. Bomberman may have lost in the second round to Jill by more then Kirby did and Alucard almost doubling him Bomberman really isn’t a strong character. A weird fact about Bomberman is that he has been in the same 4 pack as Kirby for the past 2 years and they both lost to the same character, but will they meet this year? Probably not, if this contest was in Japan then Bomberman would easily be an elite character. Bomberman is huge in Japan, but so much in North America and that’s where most of the voters come from in GameFAQs. So things aren’t looking good for Bomberman.

Well here’s our second Final Fantasy character that will make the division semi-finals latter this contest, but this year he has to go against the faded Bomberman. Squall may have been last years upset, but this year we won’t underestimate him and as of now Squall’s second Sweet 16 appearance might happen. Also this match will be far from close.

Well how can we tell that Bomberman is fading? Well last year Bomberman fell by more then a margin of error and there were no huge factors in with Bomberman, plus he hasn’t had a decent game for North America in ages so Bomberman must be fading. Though Kingdom Hearts may be fading, but we still don’t know how much or if it really did despite already having two Final Fantasy characters have a match.

Well there really isn’t much to discuss about this match since it’s not going to be close, though I still don’t see Squall getting over 70% against Bomberman. Maybe the Japan voters might help them, but since they are not Koreans Bomberman doesn’t instant win his match. I guess were going to have to wait for Squall second round match to be interesting.

Charmander’s Bracket: Squall

Charmander’s Prediction: Squall wins, 69.34% - 30.66%

---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

"so there’s no worries for me and my bracket anymore"

Oh, so it doesn't bother you that you will be missing two more matches in this division? Not the competitive type, I suppose, which is cool.

"Thought to lose in the first round to Jill"

Heh, yeah, sometimes you people are funny. I had Squall over Jill the whole time...
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Match #18 Review:

...yeah. Nothing out of the ordinary here...unless you count the fact that this may very well be the lowest vote total in the contest (we still haven't reached Sam vs. Gordon...)

Match #20 Preview:

Yet. Another. Boring. Match.

Bring on Ness vs. Jak and Vivi vs. DK already. I have Ness and Vivi in my bracket...
---
-Phediuk

I still think Jill will win

Ryu H. will get most of her votes from her Xbox game, that hasn't been out for a while and at a site where 25% (I think) of the people have a Xbox
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

Ryu H. will get most of her votes from her Xbox game, that hasn't been out for a while and at a site where 25% (I think) of the people have a Xbox

Ryu H. is a man O_o.
---
M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Ryu H. will get most of her votes from her Xbox game

I wouldn't pass judgement on Ryu H's strength until you can at least get his gender right.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Ryu H. is a man O_o.

WTF then who the **** is Ryu H. from DoA I thought they were the same person
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

Ryu H is a man that appeared on the NES and SNES as well. Don't expect any Xbox hate on this one and do expect so old-school lovin' which, by the way, should be more significant than it would have been last year.

I know that, regardless of bracket pick, I would vote for Ryu H based solely on my experience with the original Ninja Gaiden.

Oh, and while it doens't mean too much, he's also got the DoA fanbase as well. Sure, Kasumi would have lost to Jill in 2k2 with something like a 45/55 split, but Kasumi wasn't the star of her own badass series of games to go along with her DoA career.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

You do know that half of the cast of DoA is male, right?
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

On the other hand, it doesn't speak well for your name recognition when people don't know what gender you are...>_>
---
Theifenburg Uncertainty Principle - Without any witnesses, who's to say what happened?
Proud warrior of THE LUCA BLIGHT ARMY

Being in DOA automatically makes you a woman with big boobs? Sign me up!
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

nope I don't have a Xbox so when you say DoA I think girls playing volleyball

>_>

<_<
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

Ryu H is a man that appeared on the NES and SNES as well. Don't expect any Xbox hate on this one and do expect so old-school lovin' which, by the way, should be more significant than it would have been last year.

You mean like Pac-Man
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

I disagree with you on the "voter pool is more like 2002" part.

2k2 voters: The contest is just starting, it's not as popular as it will become for most of the matches, only reaching its potential as far as vote totals by the end. 2k2 is basically just all the old, usual GameFAQs voters and visitors, now with something new to focus on in the poll. It doesn't have more hardcore voters or more casual voters, it's just the basis for later comparison. Also, many of the characters in the 2k2 contest were practically unknown...Something to think about, I guess.

2k3 voters: After the wildly successful 2k2 contest, everyone was back and very excited about the 2k3 contest... The same old crowd that got into it last year, the usual casual visitors to GameFAQs, and new people from all over the net that had heard of the contest. It's probable that in a few years, we'll be looking back at this as the glory days of the contest.

The only real change in voting was a possible influx of more FF and RPG fans than had previously resided here, but that's a debated issue.

2k4 voters: Thanks to the glories of corporate sponsorship, the contest was hit with a blow that it might never recover from, votewise and buzzwise. It's not Ceej's fault, God knows he has to do it to keep the site running as well as it is, and to make him some money as well, but it still may have damaged the contest as a whole beyond repair... It didn't help that now, most of the quirks of character strength had been worked out by the GameFAQs users, and the excitement level was lower.

If there was any major loss in the voting pool this year, it was likely among the more casual visitors to GameFAQs, who might have just stopped by on their way to visiting an FAQ. The poll is certainly less noticeable now. So it's thought that this change in the poll placement might help out more cult/RPG characters, but as of yet, this is unclear.
---
Hmph.

"You mean like Pac-Man"

Nope, not at all. The opposite end of the old-school spectrum. Pac is mainstream old-school and thrives in an environment with many casual voters. Ryu H is more of the Kefka sort of old-school, where less casuals = greater strength. Of course, Ryu H still has new school to back him up, just that he has older voters for that cherry on the sundae kinda thing.

Oh, and DoA has been on more than just the Xbox. It's had it's share of time on the PS2 and Dreamcast as well, not to mention DoA1 was probably on the PSX. Ryu's fanbase really does extend past the Xbox crowd, and I wouldn't be suprised if he went toe to toe with Strider WITHOUT having a hot new game. And yes, it's hot... It makes me want to buy an Xbox.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Don't forget about the old arcade beat em up Ninja Gaiden. Was that Ryu in that game as well or did he make his debut in the NES Ninja Gaiden? Nonetheless, the old school Ninja Gaidens were great games. Back in the day, my first issue of Nintendo Power was the Ninja Gaiden II player's guide special. That enticed me to go buy the game from the mall ($45).

Just because Ryu is on the X-Box doesn't mean that people don't know who he is. This isn't even including the old school fanbase. If that was the case, then you are saying that most of Master Chief's votes came from X-Box owners. Even if a small percentage of voters actually OWN X-Boxes, most people will recognize Master Chief by appearance. People who keep up with video games as a whole should know who Ryu Hayabusa is.

BTW, does anyone have any idea what pic will be used for Ryu? I don't know of any good pics of him that are contest worthy, although I really didn't look hard.....
---
"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

Ryu H is more of the Kefka sort of old-school, where less casuals = greater strength.

Um... Somehow, that doesn't seem to bode well for our ninja friend.
---
Hmph.

Ulti:
Let's stop with the number crunching for Ryu H's four pack and use some common sense, namely Master Chief vs Crash. Ryu Hayabusa is more than capable of winning his four pack with ease, as Xbox characters are capable of blowing away washed-up opponents. Really, that match is getting unnecessary hype.

I agree. I just really, really, REALLY can't picture Jill being capable of beating Ryu. It would be a real shock to me.

I don't see how she could even break 45% (even though I actually don't think she's declining in popularity). Unless by some miracle Resident Evil 2 the movie helps her out.

ChiChiri:
Lower vote totals = higher bracket influence.

Not true; the ratio of brackets to vote toals appears to pretty similar to 2K3. Perhaps we can speculate that the existing brackets are more inclined to be bracket voters, but there's no reason to believe that. And besides, we've never seen a reason to care about bracket voters anyway, as they have never convincingly made their presence felt.

Slowflake:
He was projected to have some... from Crono/Kefka all the way to Luigi/Pac-Man. After that it didn't become "He didn't have SFF", but "Did he have SFF?"

Yup, exactly. Most of us thought he suffered from medium SFF, up until Luigi vs. Pac-Man went as if there was none...but now we have no idea what's going on.

As for Ness vs. Jak, I'd be pretty surprised to see Ness as the bracket favorite in that match.


BTW, people keep using the term "weighted increase", which is what I up on the comparisons table. However weighted increase is simply the same thing as raw % increase. (for instance, Cloud improved from 37.39% to 51.67%, this is a difference of 14.28%) Perhaps I should change that on the site and just put "raw % increase". The reason I put "weighted increase" is because if you weight the increase according to their 2K2 strength it is the same thing, and gives a reason why we should care about the raw % increase. Putting it as weighted increase though seems to have caused confusion because it overcomplicated a really simple thing...sorry about that, my bad :(
---
Data for all matches - http://sc2k4.com/displaytable.php
SC2K4.com/Frog

"2k2 is basically just all the old, usual GameFAQs voters and visitors,"

ANd the difference from now?

"It's probable that in a few years, we'll be looking back at this as the glory days of the contest."

In a few years? That's how it's looked at NOW.

"If there was any major loss in the voting pool this year, it was likely among the more casual visitors to GameFAQs,"

Which is, bluntly, the same peopel who were new to 2k3.

"but as of yet, this is unclear."

Alucard? Max Payne (as compared to Tommy Vercetti)? Kefka? Win or lose these characters and more show that the lower vote totals ARE having an effect... they are helping lower ranked characters that would otherwise be hurt by higher vote totals. SUre, those characters all lost, but they all did noticably better than expected.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

I just can't imagine DoA being a factor for Ryu. I would doubt that he would need it though.
---
Data for all matches - http://sc2k4.com/displaytable.php
SC2K4.com/Frog

"2k2 is basically just all the old, usual GameFAQs voters and visitors,"

By that, I mean, 2k2 had the same casual vote and hardcore vote as 2k3, basically... Just in lesser numbers. The low 2k2 vote totals were because the contest was new, not because there wasn't a casual vote.
---
Hmph.

In a few years? That's how it's looked at NOW.

By those who look hard, yes. Most likely haven't considered it yet.

A question that I'd like your opinions on... Has this contest already jumped the shark, is soon to jump, or is still safe and well?
---
Hmph.

"Um... Somehow, that doesn't seem to bode well for our ninja friend."

Except... what do you think would happen if Kefka was in a brand spankin' new game? Think hard, if you have to... Since it's FF I don't have to say that the game will be hugely popular and very well known, but Ninja Gaiden is... so what happens to Kefka in that situation? Please, tell me, what do you expect?

And hell, like I've already said, Ryu H is ALSO in Dead or Alive, the biggest fighter on Xbox and one of the most well known 3d figthers ever (behind only VF, Tekken, and SC). Trust me, there is nothing going against Ryu at all.

Higehr seed = high nominations AND high bracket picks.

Both of those imply built in support. He's old school, he appeals to fans of two different genres, he looks pretty damn cool, he has a recent game that is very popular and tempts someone as anti-Xbox as myself into buying it and to top it all off... he got placed in the weakest possible bracket.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

"as they have never convincingly made their presence felt."

While not convincing as of yet, they have appeared to be more so than in the past.

"I'd be pretty surprised to see Ness as the bracket favorite in that match."

Even after seeing Kefka?
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

As I've said before, I'm biased against Hayabusa, and that may be impairing my judgment. But I think the old school vote will be minor... It's not like the guy actually got in to the contest before based off of his NES and SNES games. And those under 17 or so (a lot of people on GameFAQs) will for the most part have had no exposure to Ryu's old games.

I think Ryu has a good shot at getting the sweet 16, but it'll only be because he was an extremely lucky bastard with seeding and bracket placement. If you put Hayabusa in any other 3/6/11/14 fourpack as the three seed, he'd be bad shape.
---
Hmph.

Kirby beat Ramza.

In a close one.

I beg to differ. It was 57-43. Hardly what I'd call close. According to Ulti wouldn't that qualify as "destruction?"
---
"Is it okay with you if we tear your pets to shreds so they won't bother us for a while?"--Laharl

"The low 2k2 vote totals were because the contest was new, not because there wasn't a casual vote."

Oh, there certainly was a casual vote, it jsut so happened to be less influential than it was in 2k3.

There are too many odd movements from 2k2 to 2k3, many that we weren't away of before, to say that the increase favored the non-casual vote as much as the casual.

As for jumping the shark... well, 2k3 is probably the best it's gonna get, unless the furture brings another increase. That's not to say that the contest is on its way to a slow painful death, just that it's probably had its finest moment (vote total-wise) already.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

"According to Ulti wouldn't that qualify as "destruction?""

Only if Ramza were very stong but highly underrated by the local gurus... a la MGS2.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Only if Ramza were very stong but highly underrated by the local gurus... a la MGS2.

Exactly. Metal Gear Solid 2, one of my absolute favorite games of all time, was utterly destroyed by SSBM in the spring.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Ulti what's ur definition of utterly destroyed it looks like if the winner gets 55%+ you say it's utterly destroyed
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

"Ulti what's ur definition of utterly destroyed it looks like if the winner gets 55%+ you say it's utterly destroyed"

There's no need for me to say this again three posts later... just read my last post.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

I want Ulti's though
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

Okay, then read the post after that where Ulti confirms the very thing I said.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

yah I read that post though didn't Ulti also say that Tidus easily beat Shadow or something, I just want to know where his cutoff point from, just a match to a nail-biter
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

MGS2 vs. SSBM was a special circumstance due to both being excessively underrated. And very few people outside of him and myself knew it at the time. I doubt he would call Vyse/Laharl "destruction" simply because the outcoem was already known and the strength of the character were vaguely appropriate. Again, I can't stress this, MGS2 was special because it was highly underestimated.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

I wouldn't be suprised if he went toe to toe with Strider WITHOUT having a hot new game.

if you believe that then Jill wins since even last year she's still stronger then him
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

"if you believe that then Jill wins since even last year she's still stronger then him"

I might expect Jill to win if Ryu wasn't in a new game, but since he is and it's one of the absolute biggest of the year I have full faith in Ryu H.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

In 2005 I would say Ryu H. would beat Jill, but now I don't think so NG for the Xbox is still too new
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

Nah, NG ha dplenty of time to sink in. In fact it's probably at its peak right now. A year from now it wouldn't be nearly as fresh nor influential.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

It came out 5 months ago, I think he'll get more popular next year like Viewtiful Joe
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

VJ has the opportunity to hit the ps2 and have a sequal befor ethe next contest, Ryu H doesn't. So while I will agree that VJ stands ready to have a big boost for next year Ryu H does not. 5 months is more than enough time for exposure.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

So while I will agree that VJ stands ready to have a big boost for next year Ryu H does not.

What about the DOA Online game? Is Ryu not in it?

And Bormun, boo to you. You should be able to find a place for Ryu somewhere. Otherwise, you stink and should go live with a skunk or something.
---
"Antigravity! It's not just for breakfast anymore!" - Joel
Smart Ask! National Champion (2003) www.rpgdl.com

Sure, there's more DoA on the way, but that's not Ryu's primary source of strength. He, lacking large and tasty looking boobs, is not the primary draw of DoA.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Kirby 64.69% 51749
Kain 35.31% 28251
TOTAL VOTES 80000

Sweet.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Tis a bad day when seeign 80k this close to close get's the response of "sweet"
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

dammit, won't anyone occupy me for the next 10 minutes?
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

no
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

*occupies chichiri*

For the rest of this topic, you are a piece of veal parmesian infected with the Clap.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

O_o
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

Well now that's just not pleasant to think about. I mean, I already had the clap and now I'm a piece of veal parmesian?
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Quiet, infidel. Being a sexy piece of meat topped with ****ing parmesian cheese is a fate higher than most. Now shut the hell up as I devour the parts not infected with the nasty STDs. My tongue needs a good workout, anyways.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

On a side note, there is simply never a bad time to pop in a good ****ing.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

"Now shut the hell up as I devour the parts not infected with the nasty STDs."

Can you even identify those parts anymore? Hm?
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Well it's now time for me to get my interent to go faster

So you may not hear from me until I've voted
---
Summer 2004 Contest 17/18 Kirby vs. Kain

THE MEAT OF COURSE. When in doubt, avoid the foreign white stuff.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

"So you may not hear from me until I've voted"

You and everyone else... except for my random complaining and Ulti's incessant slobbering while he eats.

Bastard needs to chew with his mouth closed, I swear.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Oh, you're askin' for it.

And 25 more perfect brackets go down.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Er, 55 perfects lost, isnt it?
---
2k4 - The Summer of Sephiroth.

As I expected we are under the 600 mark now. Just waiting til Ness' victory shrinks the crowd even more.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Er, 45?

None of us can do math, apparently.
---
2k4 - The Summer of Sephiroth.

Weren't we at 620 yesterday?
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

640. I went back and double checked in the stats topic as well...page 4 or so, i believe.
---
2k4 - The Summer of Sephiroth.

640
---
Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

Don't worry though - you were actual able to do the math right, you just had the wrong number to start with. Me, I'm just incapable of simple math.
---
2k4 - The Summer of Sephiroth.

Score-Brackets-% Right
18----640------92.9687500
17----3245-----87.9198767
16----6299-----82.1400222
15----7938-----76.7447720
14----6665-----70.9077269
13----4339-----66.3056004
12----2335-----60.8565310
11----1007-----58.1926514
10----388------56.4432990
9-----124------53.2258065
8-----56-------44.6428571
7-----16-------50.0000000
6-----4--------50.0000000
5-----10-------20.0000000
4-----15-------6.6666667
3-----28-------21.4285714
2-----45-------2.2222222
1-----51-------0.0000000
0-----16-------0.0000000

The perfects are now doing considerably better than the average and the zeros continue to be zero.

Only 3 people fell off the top 50 today. Bonovox10, Renamon and coasi had Kirby losing his match.
---
"Those whose memories fade seek to carve them in their hearts..."
"All dreams are but another reality. Never forget..."

So... who thinks Sam/Gordon gets less votes than Vyse/Laharl?
I'm still not sure myself.
---
"All in all, sometimes it's a wonder that pesants[sic] actually live long enough to learn how to farm....."-mysterygilgamesh4
{34}

"Only 3 people fell off the top 50 today"

Damn, I even predicted THAT part correctly...
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

Bomberman SO has my vote...
---
I promise..

Remember, everyone. Vote Ness over Jak... or the terrorists win.

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 18/19, Picked: Squall, Voted: Squall
VOTE NESS!

The newest videogame music remix posted on ocremix.org is an Earthbound one. A sign of things to come?

-Dabu

World Cyber Games 2004
Come, if you dare.

The United States was founded by terrorists though.... you're not Un-American, are you?

The USA was founded by white slave owners who wanted to be free of Mother England. This country was based upon blatant hypocrisy, and we keep repeating the cycle with a total dip**** in office every other decade or so.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

"Think of how we started. This country was founded by white slaveowners who said that all men are created equal." - George Carlin

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 18/19, Picked: Squall, Voted: Squall
VOTE NESS!

wow. Kirby and Kain didn't break into the Top 5 anywhere. i guess that's officially a boring match. well, tomorrow i should be able to expand to Top 10 lists.


Top 5 Biggest Blowouts (difference in percentage)

1) 88.60% - Solid Snake over Tanner
2) 75.66% - Link over CATS
3) 67.08% - Mario over J.C. Denton
4) 65.98% - Bowser over Guybrush Threepwood
5) 65.96% - Megaman over Eartworm Jim

Top 5 Biggest Vote Gaps (difference in votes)

1) 69759 - Solid Snake over Tanner
2) 62319 - Link over CATS
3) 55813 - Megaman over Earthworm Jim
4) 53705 - Cloud over Duke Milk'em
5) 52337 - Mario over J.C. Denton

Top 5 Closest Matches (difference in percentage)

1) 0.10% - Frog over Liquid Snake
2) 1.62% - Tidus over Shadow the Hedgehog
3) 14.32% - Ganondorf over Alucard
4) 14.92% - Knuckles over Kefka
5) 20.46% - Vyse over Laharl

Top 5 Smallest Vote Gaps (difference in votes)

1) 93 - Frog over Liquid Snake
2) 1546 - Tidus over Shadow the Hedgehog
3) 12358 - Knuckles over Kefka
4) 12533 - Ganondorf over Alucard
5) 14072 - Vyse over Laharl

Top 5 Most Popular Polls (by vote totals)

1) 95122 - Tidus vs. Shadow the Hedgehog
2) 88953 - Cloud vs. Duke Milk'em
3) 87733 - Frog vs. Liquid Snake
4) 87557 - Ganondorf vs. Alucard
5) 84625 - Megaman vs. Earthworm Jim

Top 5 Least Popular Polls (by vote totals)

1) 68808 - Vyse vs. Laharl
2) 70495 - Magus vs. Luca Blight
3) 74383 - Bowser vs. Guybrush Threepwood
4) 75307 - Luigi vs. Pac-Man
5) 77021 - Master Cheif vs. Crash Bandicoot

Top 5 Highest Individual Votes

1) 74251 - Solid Snake
2) 72344 - Link
3) 71329 - Cloud
4) 70219 - Megaman
5) 65184 - Mario

Top 5 Lowest Individual Votes

1) 4492 - Tanner
2) 10025 - CATS
3) 12652 - Guybrush Threepwood
4) 12847 - J.C. Denton
5) 13367 - Luca Blight

Top 5 Most Impressive Losers (by votes)

1) 46788 - Shadow the Hedgehog
2) 43820 - Liquid Snake
3) 37512 - Alucard
4) 35220 - Kefka
5) 29621 - Max Payne

Top 5 Least Impressive Winners (by votes)

1) 41440 - Vyse
2) 43913 - Frog
3) 47578 - Knuckles
4) 48239 - Tommy Vercetti
5) 48334 - Tidus

Top 5 Easiest Matches to Predict (based on entrants choosing the winner)

1) 98.79% - Link over CATS
2) 98.28% - Mario over J.C. Denton
3) 97.97% - Cloud over Duke Milk'em
4) 97.47% - Megaman over Earthworm Jim
5) 97.27% - Solid Snake over Tanner

Top 5 Hardest Matches to Predict (based on entrants choosing the winner)

1) 43.05% - Knuckles over Kefka
2) 44.33% - Frog over Liquid Snake
3) 63.02% - Ganondorf over Alucard
4) 66.71% - Vyse over Laharl
5) 68.69% - Luigi over Pac-Man

---
That's it. I have reached my threshold of pain. I am going home and I am going to play Megaman, eat snack cakes, and do my woman.

Let's just say that I don't like what Squall is doing right now. He's four points off the standings, which is probably the biggest difference so far, save Luigi (or Knuckles, depending on how you look at it).
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 018/018 - Matches: 18/18 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Kirby - Tomorrow: Squall

Squall is doing fine...though Bomberman...my...he must have fans...but he is pretty stale if you ask me...

Tomorrow will be more fun :)
---
Steve Illumina: Official Satirical Commentator of SC2K4
Perfects to Fall: 595 SC2K4: 19/20 (Go Jak/Vivi!)

Yay, 2 out of 3 next matches after Squall vs Bomberman are close ones! How exciting!! :-) Now my bracket's on the line once more..someone hold me!

Oh, not sure if any of you figured out yet..but

640 - 595 = 45 perfects lost yesterday. Yay. >_>

Tomorrow is going to rock!!
---
GameFAQs can gain justice from this petition! Please visit it at http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=7&topic=15656619 (912 Signs!)

SC2K4 FIRST DRAFT - PAGE 21 - (6) NESS vs. (11) JAK

Disclaimer: This preview series may contain mildly offensive stuff, as well as SPOILERS, not only for the characters discussed, but other stuff as well. The true nature of Earthbound fanboys will also be revealed, because like that one shampoo brand, they're worth it. If you're one of them, don't go any further.

So far, there have been a few sexy upset picks that never materialized, as well as an excruciatingly close match where logic triumphed in the end. All in all, it wasn't so painfully difficult to run perfect through these first twenty matches, especially since half the people in the Guru contest still are. But now it's different. It's the first match that's really worth yelling "OMFG WHOZ GUNNA WEEN I CANT WAYT" until your brain bursts out of your head.

First off, the single most overseeded entrant in the tournament, Ness. He's too weak to come back. He shouldn't come back. Yet, he IS back. And as a 6-seed to boot. That's higher than the guy who got 76% on him last year. Well, might as well say the guy's got my vote. Because he kicks all manners of ass with a baseball bat and psychic powers that rock the opponent's world, hence the name of his signature move. Ever wondered how psychic attacks worked? Is it like an invisible kick where the sun don't shine? A well-hidden punch to the jewels? A sudden headache so strong it makes you want to take an axe and chop your own head off to stop the pain? I have no idea.

Regardless, I gotta hand it to the guy. He kicks ass and takes names... while starring in one of the worst crimes to gaming and good taste EVAR. Rumor has it that after the game was published, armies of living, breathing mushrooms were found in the vents at Nintendo HQ. Try doing a painting while high. Yeah, that's what Earthbound is like. Wait, what's that? An army of Earthbound fanboys marching towards me with their weak, skinny arms and legs?

*steps in sunlight*

Problem solved.

In the other corner, we have Jak, star of one of the most popular new age ret... I mean platformers. I don't play these, so you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to compare him to his brethren. Sly, Ratchet, Crash, Conker. Via GameFAQs activity. Remember that one section in my spring previews? Yeah, I'm going to make that kind of comparisons to try and understand the size of Jak's following. To make matters simpler, what I will compare will be known from now on as "wang size". Of course, that would imply Cloud and Sephiroth don't need their swords... but I digress. Wang size it is. Keep it in mind when reading further previews, for it may come back.

Sly has practically no wang. Can't wait to see him get slashed open in two seconds. Should I raise my Oracle pick?

Then, there's the most common point of comparison, Ratchet. Both have two games, and a third in the making (Ratchet's made me laugh like mad). The similarities don't end there, but the most striking observation is... Ratchet... has ... a bigger wang... than Jak. Ouch.

Now the fallen legend, Crash. Thank God he has so many games... but we're not taking that into account, huh? Crash barely beats Sly in the wang size department.

Finally, Conker. God, he only lacks in the message board department, but it's excusable since his game is from the 64-bit era! YOU'RE WINNER!

So in the end...

Conker > Ratchet > Jak > Crash > Sly

I know, Crash seems to be the odd one out. But believe me, according to an old Guinness book of World Records, Crash was at one point third to Lara Croft and Mario in name recognition. Yes, they gave Lara Croft ahead of Mario. And Crash ahead of Sonic. I guess it's the "legend" part of Crash that allows him to outperform the other characters mentioned here, short of Conker.

SC2K4 FIRST DRAFT - PAGE 21.2 - (6) NESS vs. (11) JAK - CONTINUED

All in all, these are observations I made before the contest started. They are a reason why I chose Ness to win this match. The other one is the possibility of SFF against Bowser. The 24% you saw is probably mostly that Earthbound cult. The rest of the Nintendo troops probably chose Bowser solely on the fact that on top of SSBM, Bowser had other things to rely on as well. So just like we saw for Kefka against Crono, Ness may have underperformed against Bowser. Remember how "with SFF" and "without SFF" gave a swing of nine points in Knuckles' projected score? We may be looking at the same thing here: a 55-45 match for Jak can swing into 55-45 for Ness just because of that. Of course, there's no way to know for sure until the winner faces Auron.

NUMBERS OF INTEREST

SC2K3 extrapolated standings
55. Ness - 14.94%
DNE. Jak

Board Odds Project picks (119 brackets)
Jak - 61
Ness - 58

Board Odds Project point value
32. Jak - 61
33. Ness - 60

CONTEST TRIVIA

In the 2003 East division, Ness could have beaten only one character... CATS.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

Squall is doing pretty bad right now.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=1325

Squall is doing 1% better than Alucard did against Bomberman last year.
---
SC2K4 Score: 18/19 Next Match: Squall vs Bomberman

Yeah, I expected Squall to be doing a lot better. However, he should still easily beat Kirby.

---
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
*Printable SC2K4 Bracket!* (See quote for link)

Yeah. Problem is, is it only him, or FF as a whole?
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

weird this is what I expect 2003 Squall would do to 2002 Bomberman
---
Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

Ah, right, I forgot Bomberman mysteriously dropped between 2002 and 2003.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

really? you mention it on your preview of this match
---
Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

Me? No, I didn't.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

CONTEST TRIVIA

Squall had the second biggest weighted increase in 2003, behind Cloud (DK is excluded due to SFF).
Excludind the 2002 West characters and Pac-Man (for SFF reasons), Bomberman had the fourth biggest weighted decrease in 2003, behind Ryo, Raziel and Pikachu.

there
---
Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

Ah, that? I did it while looking sc2k4.com for stuff, didn't pay much attention.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

Bah, screw this match, let's move on to the main event.
---
***Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04***
Official Queen ***** of the Universe! Contest Score: 19/19, Next Winner: Squall

Squall is doing terrible right now. What the hell happened?
---
-Phediuk

Indeed...

He keeps going down too. At this rate, he's only doing a HAIR better than Alucard did against Bomberman last year.
---
The only reason this is here is because posts without sigs look ugly.

Yeah, and it took every penny Alucard had to get past Kirby.
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

I'm proud of Bomberman; I nominated him, dammit. Keep up the good work, buddy.
---
Supporting both Earthworm Jim AND Mega Man in 2004
Spring Contest Score: 151/192

Kirby didn't impress me, either; Squall still has the advantage.
---
Supporting both Earthworm Jim AND Mega Man in 2004
Spring Contest Score: 151/192

I don't think Kirby stands a chance against Squall.. Squall wil win, even if it is with a low percentage..

---
"I just wanna protect the people I'm with. Doesn't matter whether I can or not. It's what I believe in."
-Zidane (Final Fantasy IX)

Well, Kirby did about as well as expected if you assume Kain is about equal to Raziel.

Regardless, yes, Squall has an advantage. But it won't be an impressive victory at all.
---
The only reason this is here is because posts without sigs look ugly.

Midgar Division: Round 1 - Match 21 – (6)Ness vs. (11)Jak

Ness
Game/Series Known From: Earthbound/Super Smash Bros. Series
Extrapolated Rank in 2002: N/A
Extrapolated Rank in 2003: 55th
Seed in 2002: N/A
Seed in 2003: 12
Lost in Round 1to Bowser in 2003.

Along with Guybrush, Ness got the most unfair seed. He gets killed by Bowser last year as a 12 seed. Comes back this year with a 6 seed, while Bowser gets a 7-seed? I mean, what is that?

Jak
Game/Series Known From: Jak and Daxter Series
Extrapolated Rank in 2002: N/A
Extrapolated Rank in 2003: N/A
Seed in 2002: N/A
Seed in 2003: N/A

Jak enters the Summer Contest for his first time, and already has an unpredictible match!.

Contest Vet vs. Newcomer. But this time, there is a twist. You know when your vet is an undeserving character like Ness, and your newcomer is a character whose games sold well on the PS2, you’ve got yourself a toughie.

Ceej should be slapped on the back of his head for making this match. It is VERY hard to decide who the winner will be. Ness can’t even be considered the favorite. He flopped against Bowser in Round 1 last year, losing to him 75-25. Some blame it on SFF, but I highly doubt that was the reason. There might have been a small amount, but not enough to blame Ness’s craptasic performance on it. Jak on the other hand, is a Contest newbie, so we don’t exactly know his strength. His games sold pretty well. Jak and Daxter sold 1.7 million copies worldwide, 1.5 million of those being in the US. Jak II sold 1.3 million in the US and Japan. Earthbound on the other hand sold somewhere between 500K and 1 mil. (Thanks to Heroic Mario for the sales numbers ^_^) Jak has the advantage there, but the sales of your games does not make you a winner automatically. Jak should also receive the casual vote, while Ness will get the cult vote. Hmm....one more thing.

A lot of people compare Jak to Ratchet. Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank...they do seem alike. If so, Ratchet got a little over 25% on Luigi, while Ness got a little under 25% on Bowser. I would choose Bowser over Luigi in a poll in a second. So Bowser > Luigi > Ness > Ratchet. The rankings prove this too. Bowser is 17th, Luigi is 30th, Ness is 55th and Ratchet is 57th. Remember, this is only under the assumption that Jak = Ratchet. Jak could prove us wrong by being someone totally stronger than expected.

This is another coin-flip match along with Tidus vs. Shadow. Both characters have an equal chance of winning. The BOP is dead-even on this match. I wouldn’t be surprised if 50% of the brackets call this match right. So don’t feel bad if you got this match wrong. It’s only 1 point and it’s a very tough one to call. That being said, I had Ness at first in my bracket, but switched to Jak a few days later. Now I have a coin in my hand and I will flip it. Heads = Ness, Tails = Jak. Winner take all.

...

Moltar’s Bracket Says: Ness will win.

Moltar’s Prediction is: Ness 51% - Jak 49%


Ulti’s Analysis

Summer 2003 - East Round 1 - (5) Bowser [75.07%] vs (12) Ness [24.93%] - 50.14%

Summer 2003 - North Round 1 - (3) Luigi [74.54%] vs (14) Ratchet [25.46%] - 49.08%

Bowser could beat Luigi in a poll, yet Luigi scored the same as Bowser in the first round last year. The only way Luigi could have done this was by facing an opponent clearly weaker than Bowser's opponent. And in time, Ratchet did prove to be weaker than Ness last year. Since Ratchet is the perfect character to compare Jak to (and not Conker, who could whip the both of them), why don't we simply substitute Jak for Ratchet in the above polls?

And after doing so, Ness wins. He's a damned weakling, but Jak is an even bigger weakling. Scary thought.

Ulti’s Bracket/Prediction - Ness/Ness with 53.77%

Cena’s Analysis

You've got to be kidding me. People actually like Ness? He hasn't won a single round in either tournament and he comes back as a six seed? Sure, Earthbound is a cult classic, but nobody knows who the hell he is if they didn't play games a lot. Jak, on the other hand, is badass, and almost everyone with a PS2 has played Jak and Daxter. Jak isn't a great character though, and I don't see how he got an 11 seed, but I still say he can pull off the win. But Ness' seed worries me...a lot.

Cena's Vote: Jak

Cena's Prediction: Jak with 54% (I would have gone lower, but then I looked at Ness' picture again.)

Moltar came home from school thinking Squall would have 70%+ on Bomberman. When Moltar checks the polls, he sees Squall has less than 65% on Bomberman. Moltar can only say one thing now...

<(^_^)>
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Mega Man vs. E. Jim - http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/Moltar
Squall vs. B-man - Bracket: Squall - Vote: B-man (18/19)

If Squall drops much more, I'm gonna have to wave the "Round 2 Upset Special" flag.
---
-Phediuk

Yeesh. I wonder if this is due to Kingdom Hearts wearing off or if Bomberman's poor performance last year was just a fluke. Oh well, it's not *that* big of a difference, but I guess we'll have to wait and see how much Squall ends up with at the end of the day, to see what has become of KHF.
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"Destiny is a game, is it not? And now you await my latest move... "--Kain

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

http://www.sc2k4.com/excel/spc2k4_extrapolated_sff.htm

Kingdom Hearts is ranked 15th in this list... that's anything but a flop.
---
Points: 19/19/192 | Today's Pick: (4)Squall vs. (13)Bomberman | Tomorrow: (11)Jak vs. (6)Ness

Cena has a bad habit of underestimating Ness.

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 18/19, Picked: Squall, Voted: Squall
VOTE NESS!

Helloooooo? KH came out after SC2K2. You're thinking of FF10.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

Just to rub it in the face of everyone's favorite satirist...

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/data/3080.html

Yes, yes, I know... but how much of GameFAQs' userbase is Japanese?
---
SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

There's an outside chance that Squall could do worse than Alucard did in this match.

---
The only reason this is here is because posts without sigs look ugly.

I'm surprised you guys are favoring Ness for tomorrow's match...I'd say Jak should win but hey, it's only one point either way, so I'm not sweating it.
---
***Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04***
Official Queen ***** of the Universe! Contest Score: 19/19, Next Winner: Squall

Perhaps Bomberman is pulling a reverse Crash and going back up to his 2002 level. He did have Bomberman Generations released within the past year if I'm not mistaken though. Not sure about that.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Everyone is under the assumption that Jak is of similar strength to Ratchet, and I severely doubt that. Jak is much more recognizable to the casual gamer because his games have sold better and been advertised to a much larger extent.

Jak would beat Ratchet into the ground, 60/40 at least.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

If Squall drops much more, I'm gonna have to wave the "Round 2 Upset Special" flag.

BS!! Kirby is cute, but he has NO CHANCE. Bomberman is just awesome like that...that's all.

I'm serious, you guys cannot be serious. You're gonna overhype an ass-whooping?! O_O'



---
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I say Squall > Kirby with at least 60%

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"I just wanna protect the people I'm with. Doesn't matter whether I can or not. It's what I believe in."
-Zidane (Final Fantasy IX)

Ness will win. <--------- Ness has just been cursed, every time i say someone will win, they lose.
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*WINNER OF THE SUMMER CONTEST 2004*

I say Squall > Kirby with at least 60%

It's true that Squall's chances of victory against Kirby are extremely high, but that's just ridiculous.
---
The only reason this is here is because posts without sigs look ugly.

I said I was in wait and see mode, but I have to make one more comment. Why exactly are people saying Jak is equal to Ratchet? Besides genre and both having a sidekick, that's about it. Jak actually looks cool. And to those that say pic doesn't matter, yeah of course it wouldn't matter against a powerhouse, or a recognizable face. But this is Ness he's up against.....

One interesting note. Both games were advertised, but Ratchet & Clank's commercials all dealt with real people using some of the weapons from the game. The magazine ads focused on the variety of weapons. Wasn't Jak actually IN his commercials? I know he's all over GI and EGM magazines..... I'm sure Jak is much more recognizable than Ratchet.

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"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

I'm not surprised at all by Squall's performance. I actually thought it would be lower than this.

Besides, it's red13n's birthday and he asked us all to vote Bomberman. This clearly has had an impact.

charmander6000: Metal Gear Solid 2 should have been a 5 or 6 seed in D128, not a 15. Despite that, SSBM still beat it by 10000 votes. Utter destruction, my friend.

steve illumina: What in God's name are you talking about? Kingdom Hearts was released in September of 2003 here in North America.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Squall won't break 60% on Kirby unless there's been a shift in popularity. He's stronger than both Jill and Luigi, and Squall got around 60% in both.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

steve illumina: What in God's name are you talking about? Kingdom Hearts was released in September of 2003 here in North America.

Was 02...i am guilty of a typo and so are you!
---
Steve Illumina: Official Satirical Commentator of SC2K4
Perfects to Fall: 595 SC2K4: 19/20 (Go Jak/Vivi!)

Slow..u have rubbed it in my face...that damn Kingdom Hearts! That game that failed me this spring against StarCraft and I will never believe in around here ever again!

*grumble, grumble*

But yep, the favorite satirist is resting his creative brain for round 2. For like the great smitelf said...these matches are only 1 point...not all that significant...and while I believe in my next 12 choices for the 12 we still got to do this round, I nevertheless calculate that I can afford one more loss in this round using the formula for the volume of a cone.

Tomorrow, its all up to you Jak...to silence these true Ness fanboys and also the Nintendo bandwagon jumpers who never really played Earthbound but figure they will back him out of blind company loyalty.

Do it Jak, and I will buy both your games on Sunday! :)
---
Steve Illumina: Official Satirical Commentator of SC2K4
Perfects to Fall: 595 SC2K4: 19/20 (Go Jak/Vivi!)

How much is ness projected to beat ratchet by?
---
*WINNER OF THE SUMMER CONTEST 2004*

60-40 Ness would beat Ratchet. After CATS there's about a 2% dropoff in the XS, and Ratchet comes right after CATS.
---
Summer Contest Match 20 Squall Leonhart vs. Bomberman
Status 19/20 points: 019 Next: Ness vs. Jak

Ness will win. <--------- Ness has just been cursed, every time i say someone will win, they lose.

I was under the impression that that was Slowflake's special ability ^_^. Or maybe it was announcing the winner while the match was still taking place...
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M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

NO! That was my special ability and you all know it!! Don't you dare say someone stole it! :p

JAK WINS!

Yes, I have jynxed him! My bracket remains perfect..>_>'
---
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I cannot tell if you are being serious or not, sorry... I just remember a match where Slowflake said that someone was going to win (I think it was a Starcraft match), and then the comeback started...
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M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Assuming no Bowser/Ness SFF:
Ness beats Ratchet with 58.37%
Crash beats Ness with 55.77%

I still think there was a couple of points of SFF in Bowser/Ness: how else do you explain how Earthbound is stronger than Ness, who's had exposure in SSB/M, as well?
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Current Pick: Squall; Current Vote: Squall; Points: 18/18
JAK CANNOT GRASP THE TRUE NATURE OF NESS' ATTACK!

Squall won't break 60% on Kirby unless there's been a shift in popularity. He's stronger than both Jill and Luigi, and Squall got around 60% in both.

Kirby lost to Jill in 2002 (which I don't think will happen again, but it still happened), and I have a hard time believing that Kirby is stronger than Luigi. I believe you used the extrapolated rankings here, which would say you're right...but don't forget the very likely SFF with Link/Samus, and that will naturally increase Jill's and Luigi's percentages and ranks, though it's questionable about how much they would raise.

Nonetheless, I agree that, if Squall/Bomberman is a sign of Squall possibly declining (which is doubtful, but I doubt much more that Bomberman improved THIS much, if any), then Kirby/Squall won't get close to 60-40. It'll probably look more like Alucard/Kirby did last year at this pace, maybe even closer. I'd love to see Kirby pull the upset at the expense of my bracket, even if he would get killed by Cloud in the next round. I'm not counting on it though.
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Supporting both Earthworm Jim AND Mega Man in 2004
Spring Contest Score: 151/192

This is what 2003 Squall would be expected to get on 2002 Bomberman, correct? If Crash can revert back to his 2002 level, why not Bomberman?

And no one who has beaten Bomberman has failed to defeat Kirby, and vice-versa.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

I think it's quite obvious there was SFF in Bowser/Ness. It's like people are in denial or something.

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SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 18/19, Picked: Squall, Voted: Squall
VOTE NESS!

I have a question about this whole Sora/Jill/Ryu issue.

WHY ARE YOU ALL COMPLETELY IGNORING HK47?!?!?!

Seriously, it is impossible to call that match in Sora's favor when HK47 is a new character to the contest, we have no idea what he might accomplish. HK47 was, among other things, a good fighter, extremely funny, and all-around one of the better characters in KOTOR. Sora, despite being from KH, was very poorly developed; we knew more about Riku than Sora by the end, for chrissake. Don't get me wrong, I loved KH to death, but Sora was not a very appealing character, and of course characters =/= games. I think HK47 has a very good shot at beating Sora, and I know a lot of people who think the same; my entire dorm hall alone was a load of feverent XBoxers, and would vote anyone from XBox over anyone else. Don't count HK47 out before he even has his first ever match.
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"Spira is full of death...only SIN is reborn, and then only to bring more death. It is a cycle of death, spiraling endlessly."- Auron

Isn't the X-Box fanboy a minority around here? And is required to get HK-47 in KOTOR? I don't know, I haven't played it before >_>.
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M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Because HK-47 is just another Luca Blight or Laharl waiting to happen. He's not even a required character in his own game, while Sora is the main character of a Square RPG.

Sora will win.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Well, if Vivi is losing, we can just go and plaster www.gamefaqs.com all over the 8-Bit boards.

Yay.
---
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

XD
---
M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Not being a required character means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHATSOEVER! Vincent isn't a required character in FF7 and look how popular he is! Besides, anyone who plays RPGs will get any and all optional characters AT LEAST once, if not every time they play; I myself have gotten Yuffie and Vincent every time I played FF7 and gotten HK47 every time I played KOTOR.

I understand Sora's got the whole Square RPG thing going, but like I said, characters =/= games, and while KH was amazing, Sora himself was poorly developed and not very interesting.
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"Spira is full of death...only SIN is reborn, and then only to bring more death. It is a cycle of death, spiraling endlessly."- Auron

HK-47 would have to be as strong as Ken Masters to beat Sora, and I just can't see that happening. Plus, that's not even taking into account any possible SFF against Aeris.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Yes! The great Bomberman beats the spread and by nearly 6%. =D
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

HK-47 would have to be as strong as Ken Masters to beat Sora, and I just can't see that happening

Agreed. I can't possibly imagine that either.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Interesting tidbits: KH would beat KotOR with 60%, and KotOR would beat SF2 with 56.5%. So it's likely enough for HK-47 to win, maybe especially considering the late PC release of the game.

I just noticed: assuming that Mario beats Crono (which is still totally up in the air), the Elite 8 will consist entirely of matches from past contests.

Wow. That's one boring round.
---
-Phediuk

With the same winners winning each too.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Heh, even if Ryu pulls off the upset against Samus, it still sets up a 2002 rematch.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

You mean upset with Sonic?
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M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Yes, I mean to set up a rematch with Samus. My bad.

Either way, we need Crono to win to give us some diversity.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Not at Mario's expense.
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SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

I need Mario to win for my bracket >_>.
---
M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Yes, at Mario's expense. Third time is a charm, after all. Besides, my perfect bracket depends on it.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Mario needs to win not only because it'd be the right thing, but also for my bracket as well.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Maybe I should save my vote until the very end.... ^_^
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M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Of course the bracket should look the same at the end. The winners from the previous two years all got there fame from games from the distant pass, with the notable exception of Cloud and Sepheroth (however you spell it). New games coming out will have little effect on this. Its how the first few matches wrap up that is interesting.
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"And there seems to be no limit to the suicidal madness that nature will let us get away with." Ohanian: Volume 2

Crono deserves some retribution for being cheated out of victory last year.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

What is the rational for Ryu upsetting Sonic, anyway?

The continuing deterioration of Sonic characters coupled with the increase of hardcore voters?
---
-Phediuk

And Street Fighter Anniversary Edition being released at the end of the month. Nostalgia can do some wonderful things.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

I have no idea why I put Ryu over Sonic >_>. I meant to change it, but I forgot.
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M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Not to mention Ryu is already looking to do around 44% if it were last year.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

It's not too far off for Ryu. It's unlikely, but not impossible.
---
True love is a fairy tale. I'm damaged, so how would I know? - Plummet: Damaged

I'd give up my bracket to see it happen, for sure. I loved Street fighter.
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Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Vincent isn't a required character in FF7 and look how popular he is!

In the contests? I don't think so.
---
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I like Ryu, but he's not a pimple off of Sonic's ass in my eyes. Of course, to me, it's hard for many characters at all to compare to Sonic favorite-wise. It'll probably be closer than I want it to be in the contest.
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Supporting both Earthworm Jim AND Mega Man in 2004
Spring Contest Score: 151/192

If Vincent ever managed to get into one of these things, I think that he would be comparable to Aeris' level.
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Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

I'd expect Vincent to be more of Auron's level. They've got the same sort of fan favorite base. He wouldn't be the powerhouse everyone expects.

Not yet anyway.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

I'd give up my bracket to see it happen, for sure. I loved Street fighter.

Good to hear. =)
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SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Sonic ownz.
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Link, Alucard, Magus, Crono, Mario, Knuckles, Kefka, Cloud, Sonic...
And Frog.

I would just like to point out that my revised formula for the extrapolated standings (see part 38) has Squall with 67.74%, which is closer (though still off by some) to the result than the current formula. My formula predicts Auron to get 58.36% on Scorpion whereas the current formula predicts Auron with only 56.95%.
---
Contest status: 18/19 points. Currently anticipating: Ness vs. Jak

Lets keep the discussion going...

1. What do you guys think of Squall's performance today? Think he's gotta chance against Kirby?

2. What are your thoughts on Jak/Ness?

Less than 4 hours to go...
---
Sc2k4: 19 of 20
Next Match: Jak vs. Ness (The "big" Match)

Think he's gotta chance against Kirby?

Are you kidding me? Kirby will be sent home in his casket soon.

What are your thoughts on Jak/Ness?

Um..Ness must win or my perfect bracket ends tomorrow?

I think only time will tell now who will win. It's been beaten to death.

Stats: The BOP says Jak will win, 61-58. The Guru has Ness, 37-29.

That's it. Now all we do is wait....


---
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the-elite.net (many of you may know NGamer from there) is currently running a similar project, has never missed a match yet, and Ness 13-2.

Of those who are perfect, Ness is picked 3-0.
Of those with a score of 19, it is tied, 2-2.
All the others picked Ness.

I'm thinking that the Jak/Ness match will go a lot more in Jak's favor than most people think.

I'm hoping to see, though, a close match in Jak's favor so that more perfect brackets would be destroyed.
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Sc2k4: 19 of 20
Next Match: Jak vs. Ness (The "big" Match)

It was mentioned a couple of pages back about the lack of diversity we may end up having in the Top 8 down the line...

That being said (and I'm sure this has been thrown around before), why don't they retire the overall winner for each year? It'll really add a new element of competition when you're no longer looking at the same Link/Cloud stomping grounds that everyone's used to.

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"I don't know who you are but I thank you for arousing me." -- Terranigma

Because then its not a battle for the best.. its a battle for the 2nd best. And if that's all you care about, why not just take the 2nd best from the year before as a sure shot?

A lot of the fun is in the matches leading up to the finish. The championship is just 1 out of 63 matches, and every match matters in the extrapolated standings, which DO change every year.

If all we cared about was the winner, why not just put up a week long poll with all 64 characters? Talk about SFF :-P

That being said (and I'm sure this has been thrown around before), why don't they retire the overall winner for each year?

Hmm... Going by that plan, unless Sephiroth wins the title this year, he's guaranteed champion in 2005. Things wouldn't get interesting until 2006, where the remaining six of the Noble Nine would battle for the championship (with the edge to MM, Mario, and Crono).

There are still tiers... Even if you take out the Big Three, that still leaves only two Elite Eight spots open.

Unless a non-Noble Nine character manages to grab a two seed (a definite possibility) then we're probably looking at virtually the same elite eight every year, with only the individual matches being any different.
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Hmph.

I'm under the impression CJayC is aware of this entity we call "Noble Nine". So I wouldn't count on anyone ever piercing the 1 and 2s, to the possible exception of Magus should he beat Crono.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

Unless a non-Noble Nine character manages to grab a two seed (a definite possibility) then we're probably looking at virtually the same elite eight every year, with only the individual matches being any different.

The only character (never been in the contest) that I think may have a chance of taking an elite eight spot is Kerrigan. The support of Starcraft fans and Battle.net would be huge. Link, Crono, Mario, Sephiroth, Mega Man, Sonic, Samus Aran, Cloud, Solid Snake are indeed the big guys of the contest, but I see Magus, Squall, Zero and Dante doing VERY good if CjayC would try and give them a chance. I really hope he won't keep putting up the same fights to get the same final eight guys EVERY year....
---
Leader of the Trivia 1 champions A-Team!
Summer Contest: 18/20 Next Match: Jak

Kerrigan? Um, I'd expect her to be a midpacker at best. Freeman flu.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

I'm under the impression CJayC is aware of this entity we call "Noble Nine". So I wouldn't count on anyone ever piercing the 1 and 2s, to the possible exception of Magus should he beat Crono.

Wait. He's seeding them based on the last year's tourney? Then we're done...
---
Leader of the Trivia 1 champions A-Team!
Summer Contest: 18/20 Next Match: Jak

Someone suggested that Hayabusa actually outnominated Samus. And it makes sense. So I guess yes, there's a part of that.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

CJayC said he did adjust the seedings a little bit.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Someone suggested that Hayabusa actually outnominated Samus. And it makes sense. So I guess yes, there's a part of that.

And where can I see this, Slow?
---
Mega Man vs. E. Jim - http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/Moltar
Squall vs. B-man - Bracket: Squall - Vote: B-man (18/19)

Somewhere earlier in this topic, or the previous one, I think.

Also, there was talk about my curse... to clear up confusion, it's when a character looks so good in the middle of the match that I call him/her to win. Started with Crono last year, then there was Halo, FFT, Wind Waker, and there are probably others.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

My formula predicts Auron to get 58.36% on Scorpion whereas the current formula predicts Auron with only 56.95%.

If my theory on Mario vs. Cloud is true then that's what Auron would get against Scorpion
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Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

The support of Starcraft fans and Battle.net would be huge.

There would be very little support. The community as a whole doesn't really care about the characters. They play multi.
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The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Match XIX: (5) Kirby vs. (12) Kain Review

Kirby beat Kain, 64.65% - 35.35%

Nothing much to say in this review, though today we did find out that Kain = Raziel, though I always thought that Kain would be stronger. I guess not. Well it looks like Kirby will have his match against Squall, but will curses be his downfall or will Kirby be able to break his curse. We’ll probably find out by next round.

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Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

Match XXI: (6) Ness vs. (11) Jak Preview

Past Performances:

Ness: 2002

Did not attend
Ranked: N/A

Ness: 2003

Lost to Bowser, 24.93% - 75.07%
Ranked: 55th

Jak: 2002

Did not attend
Ranked: N/A

Jak: 2003

Did not attend
Ranked: N/A

Analysis:

Ness is from Earthbound. Out of all the characters that are in this contest Ness has to be the most overseeded character. He got tripled by Bowser as a 12 seed yet now he got a 6 seed and is 1 seed ahead of Bowser. Last year Ness flopped really badly. He was supposed to give Bowser tough competition, but when the match happened Bowser not only beat Ness he destroyed him. Ness is a cult character, people who have played his game love him to death, but to the casual voter they go WTF who in the world is he. Ness also was in SSB and SSBM which could help him a lot. Most of the time I would say that this is will easily be an upset seed wise, but this could be an exception.

Jak is from the Jak and Daxter series. Jak is another new character in the contest, but Ratchet whose game style is similar to Jak was in it and Ratchet did really badly, but this is Jak so it could be different. Jak is part of the second battle of the weaklings where normally both characters should lose in the first round one of them gets to go to the second because of the weak competition. Now the question of the match who is weaker the character who is one of the weakest returning characters or a new character where other characters from the same game type that did really poorly? Now that’s a tough question.

Well here’s another interesting match. Let’s just hope that this match will be closer then Vyse vs. Laharl. Also for the second time I’ve picked the lower seed to win this match as well, though I am more confident that Jak will win this match. Though of you ask me the loser of this match would probably get the Gordon Freeman award, since it looks like Gordon isn’t going to lose to a complete fodder this time.

Well first we have Ness who’s one of the weakest returning characters going against a character is from a platformer on the Playstation 2. This is the battle of the weakest characters and the winner gets killed in the next round. Well Ness did lose to Bowser 75/25 last year and that isn’t really good against Bowser, but since Jak is new we don’t know how strong he is so I guess were going to have to work on what we got.

Ness got SFF last year. Well it was a Nintendo vs. Nintendo match so there most likely would have been SFF right? Wrong Ness’ fans are cultish and would vote for him against anybody, that’s why he got such a high seed since everyone nominated him. Though when it comes to voting most people don’t know who Ness is. Though there is one possible way that Ness may have gotten SFF, from SSB and SSBM. Ness was in both SSB and SSBM, though I don’t think that he didn’t gain any fans, but just made more people know who he was though with a match like this those people would most likely vote for Ness. Though how many of those people are out there? Well both SSB and SSBM did sell very well, though unless you’re a big fan of this game and play with each character the average player would pick there favorite characters anyways, but they may try the character that they never heard of once or twice, but it’s probably not as big as a factor then what people have been saying.

---
Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

Platformer games on the Playstaion 2 are weak. Well they are I think we have had 2 characters that fall into that category, Crash and Ratchet, though I think Ratchet’s game is closer to Jak’s. Though last year Ratchet is slightly ranked below Ness so that might just be Jak’s downfall. Though Jak’s game did have more commercials and did sell more copies then Ratchet’s did so Jak is probably stronger then he is, but by how much? Well I don’t know, but with 2 well received games under his belt and another one coming his way I think this year and maybe next year will probably be Jak’s strongest years before he will fade out of nowhere.

Well I guess now all you have to do is wonder if Jak has gain enough to beat Ness or will Ness come a counter with little SFF last year. Well there’s also common sense, really who would pick one of the weakest characters to beat another character. I mean come on Ness was one of the weakest characters last year and is one of the weakest returning characters and as years go by characters in these contests start getting stronger and stronger. So for the second time in this division I have gone against the board to see if I can break out of the pack, let’s just hope it won’t happen like last time.

Charmander’s Bracket: Jak

Charmander’s Prediction: Jak wins, 52.38% - 47.62%
---
Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

Nah, you can go ahead and count Kirby out unless Kain is significantly stronger than Raziel. Squall is doing slightly better against Bomberman than Alucard did, so even IF he dropped (which I doubt), he still wins.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Out of all the characters that are in this contest Ness has to be the most overseeded character.

Guybrush?....Laharl?.....TANNER!?!?!?!

I'm just playing, Ness is definitely one of the most overseeded characters.
---
Mega Man vs. E. Jim - http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/Moltar
Squall vs. B-man - Bracket: Squall - Vote: B-man (18/19)

Damn, I gotta contend with charmander just posting his analysis too? Oh well, here's my analysis of the match that's just over 2 hours away. Rip it apart or applaud it as you wish.

DpOblivion's Analysis:

Well, isn't this an interesting match? 6-seeded Ness vs. 11-seeded Jak. Now, first of all, I am surprised that Ratchet made the contest last year, but Jak didn't. However, with the help of Jak 2, not only did Jak make this years contest, but he got a higher seed than Ratchet.

When the brackets were first released, I scanned through the first round matches and I immediately found my first round upset special. Yes, I had come across none other than Ness vs. Jak. Now that the match is nearly upon us, I hope that this upset will come through. But first, a little analysis.

People compare Jak to Ratchet, and I understand the comparison. As characters, I myself compared Jak to Ratchet when they first hit the market. Two cartoony platform game characters, each with their little sidekick. But just because they are similar characters does not mean that they are completely alike. There are some differences which show that Jak is a more popular character than Ratchet.

Now, when Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank both hit shelves, being the platform game lover that I am, decided that I needed to get one of these games. I only wanted to get one though, since while I am a gamer, I am not a hardcore gamer who must spend all of his money trying every game out there. So, which game did I decide to get, you may ask?

Well, I'll tell you. I decided to get Ratchet & Clank. Now that may surprise you, considering the one real point about this match that I've brought up is that Jak is more popular than Ratchet, so why did I choose Ratchet & Clank? Simple: the weapons in Ratchet & Clank kicked ass.

And that is exactly my point. Jak and Daxter is about Jak. Ratchet & Clank, on the other hand, is about the weapons. And that's how they were advertised as well. In Ratchet & Clank commercials, you didn't even see Ratchet, all they showed were the weapons! Jak as a character, however, was greatly publicized as one of the Playstation 2's mainstream characters.

That's enough about Jak and Ratchet for now, let's talk about Ness. Yes, the little kid with the oversized head and a baseball bat, who is probably more famous for his appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series than for his actual game, Earthbound. Last year, he got beat pretty badly by Bowser. It was a pathetic sight for the little lad. Sure, you can say SFF had something to do with the beating, but that's about as far away from SFF as you can get: two completely different characters from completely different kinds of games (one being a cult RPG, the other being the Super Mario series), who just happened to be thrown into a mixing game together with a wide variety of Nintendo characters. You can cry all you want about SFF, but the fact is Ness is WEAK.

So, let's compare. Ness is from a cult RPG and is a relatively unknown character. Nintendo gamers might recognize him from the Super Smash Bros. Melee series as well, but anyone outside of those games probably aren't going to be voting for him. On the other hand, not only does Jak have the Playstation 2 vote, but I believe he has the casual vote as well, as he has been well advertised to the public.

Last year, Ness was ranked 55th after his loss to Bowser. After a similar beating to fellow Super Mario character, Luigi, Ratchet was ranked 57th. As mentioned, Jak is comparable, but not equal to, Ratchet. Jak is more popular than Ratchet, and he surely can make up that difference of two ranks. Whether he will or not is up to the people to decide, but I believe that he will. I think that this match could go wire to wire though.

DpOblivion's Bracket says: Jak

DpOblivion's Prediction is: Jak over Ness 51%-49%

We should never boot the winners. After Link, Cloud, Sephiroth, Mega Man, Mario, Crono, Samus, and Solid Snake are all booted in consecutive years, that leaves open the possibility of Sonic winning a match almost 20 years after his best release, Ganondorf winning when he would barely manage 30% on Link, Magus winning when he would barely manage 30% on Link, and after that, Tidus winning a contest.

Tidus.... winning a contest.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Haha, yeah, Tanner as a 15-seed was overseeded. So true, and so sad......And Tidus as a winner?! Now that's a scary thought. Meh, Shadow would beat him in a rematch for the championship though.

---
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
*Printable SC2K4 Bracket!* (See quote for link)

Shadow sucks. I haven't played SA2:B, but if Slowflake's writeup was true at all, then yeah, Shadow sucks.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

I still don't think there's that much of a SFF between Bowser and Ness. To the casual Nintendo character, they wont recognize Ness immediately as a Nintendo character. Sure, he's from the SSB series but even then, he's not very popular or recognizable.

For Ness, a rather washed up character (in terms of popularity), 25% against the villain of the most popular video game series ever created is not bad. However, I think Jak could get more.

We'll just have to see in another 2 hours, 12 minutes who will emerge victorious.
---
Sc2k4: 19 of 20
Next Match: Jak vs. Ness (The "big" Match)

I don't get what the big deal is about Shadow. He's okay. He really is just a Sonic re-color, and his one-liners aren't even that clever. Besides that, I absolutely cannot STAND the sound of his voice. It irritates me to no end.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Damn, I gotta contend with charmander just posting his analysis too?

I really only do it to keep myself awake
---
Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

I don't think booting the winner would be a problem. It would be nearly ten years until we faced the risk of Sonic or Tidus winning the contest, and by then I'd expect other strong characters to have showed up over them.

Also, Kerrigan in the elite eight? What? I mean, i am a full supporter of Kerrigan in this contest, and personally feel that she would place easily in the top half of the bracket, she would never be able to break into the elite eight. Never.
---
2k4 - The Summer of Sephiroth.

I have a strong feeling that between tomorrow's match and the Vivi vs. Donkey Kong match, the winners will be either Ness/DK or Jak/Vivi. I think tomorrow's match could be a good indicator of the Vivi vs. DK match. Both matches seem about 50/50 in my mind. If Ness can beat Jak, I think DK can beat Vivi. If Jak can beat Ness, however, I think that DK won't have enough to beat Vivi. But that's just a guess. So Ulti, me and you might be looking at 2 or nothing here....

Which one will have the 2, and which one will have the nothing.......

---
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
*Printable SC2K4 Bracket!* (See quote for link)

Do you have any basis for that assumption, other than Ness and DK being Nintendo?
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

You can't crown a champion unless the best was involved in the tournament as well. You can't say Bowser is the winner of the Great Character Battle X when Link, Cloud, Sephiroth, Megaman, Solid Snake, Mario, Samus, and Crono weren't even in the tournament.

---
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
*Printable SC2K4 Bracket!* (See quote for link)

Looks like I'm set, with one then =P I have Ness and Vivi, and *was* more confident about my Ness pick than the ViVi pick, until all of this hype started up.

I have Ness and Vivi as well. But I am confident that both will win.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Yeah, that seems somewhat odd. They are both Nintendo, but remotely so, and Jak and Vivi are completely different...
---
Current Pick: Squall; Current Vote: Squall; Points: 19/19
JAK CANNOT GRASP THE TRUE NATURE OF NESS' ATTACK!

So how many perfects do you guys think will be left after this match (Squall vs Bomber)? Personally, I think 100 or so may drop.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Do you have any basis for that assumption, other than Ness and DK being Nintendo?

Not really, just a feeling. I was making a guess, not a statement. You don't have to quote me on that or anything, just giving you something to talk about.

---
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
*Printable SC2K4 Bracket!* (See quote for link)

Oh =P. Personally, I think if Ness wins then Vivi will too, because both are in my bracket and I tend to get lucky in bursts.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Well, one way to look at it is that both Ness and DK are Nintendo characters that people have lost faith in as far as winning matches in this tournament. Jak and Vivi are both new characters to the tournament who are expected to make a run at these diminished Nintendo characters.

---
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
*Printable SC2K4 Bracket!* (See quote for link)

Personally, I think if Ness wins then Vivi will too, because both are in my bracket and I tend to get lucky in bursts.

I hope so...
---
Mega Man vs. E. Jim - http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/Moltar
Squall vs. B-man - Bracket: Squall - Vote: B-man (18/19)

Personally, I think if Ness wins then Vivi will too, because both are in my bracket and I tend to get lucky in bursts.

I hope so...

Me too...
---
Current Pick: Squall; Current Vote: Squall; Points: 19/19
JAK CANNOT GRASP THE TRUE NATURE OF NESS' ATTACK!

I think we'll lose around 39. Squall has yet to be an overwhelming favorite, ever.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Here is what we have to realize: we cannot afford to drop a point anywhere. We all have, more or less, identical brackets, with a couple exceptions. I know if I drop a point on Ness/Jak or DK/Vivi, there are at least 10 brackets out there that have my identical bracket, except with either Ness or DK winning (instead of the Jak and Vivi I have). So missing one point on these matches eliminates any chance I have. The same applies to the majority of us (Mega Man victors excluded). I mean, I know I do not have a snowball in hell's chance of finding the leaderboard, but until I miss that first match I will hold onto a shred of hope. Now if something like Vivi beating Sephiroth happens I will not feel bad, because, well, nobody in their right mind would put that in their bracket, and the people that do probably screwed up a good portion of the rest of the bracket.
---
...and it begins! Next tough match: Ness vs. JAK

Actually, my chances are pretty good if both of my major upsets pull through. Here's to hoping Master Chief is underrated, Frog is overrated, Street Fighter Collection has an effect, and Sonic is on a downfall.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

There's sure to be a few people who took Bomberman. Squall should be just under 80% in prediction percentage.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

That last example would kick ****ing ass, =(.
---
M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

You act as if anyone would truly care that Donkey Kong beats Sephiroth, or that Ryu beats Sonic.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

You act as if anyone would truly care that Donkey Kong beats Sephiroth, or that Ryu beats Sonic.

*blink*

*blink*

???
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Personally, I think if Ness wins then Vivi will too, because both are in my bracket and I tend to get lucky in bursts.

I hope so...

Me too...

Me three, only switch Vivi to DK in my case. And I'm never lucky, though I somehow have been very much so recentl--*Is eaten by a Scrubbin' Bubble*
---
FACT: Shins are nothing more than tools for finding things in the dark.
*Certified Topic Killer*

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned much about the possibility of the KH factor wearing off (or something else causing Cloud and Squall to decrease). Cloud underperformed, and so did Squall. This opens the door more for Sephiroth possibly beating Cloud, too.

Isn't it crazy that Kirby and Bomberman have been in the same 4-pack for three years in a row? It will be interesting to see the proportions between Kirby and Bomberman again this year.

---
"Ah, a party! We haven't had one of those. It could be fun! So...what is a party?"
"Well, you drink punch and eat CAKE! ...I think."

That was mentioned.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned much about the possibility of the KH factor wearing off (or something else causing Cloud and Squall to decrease).

Probably because Cloud's underperformance is being attributed to the margin of error + joke votes/Milkem votes, and Squall's underperformance is being attributed to Bomberman returning to 2002 levels... Or I think that is what Squall's underperformance was attributed to =/.
---
M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Cloud only underperformed if you go by Xsts 100%. If you use common sense, something a lot of Xst-heads are devoid of thanks to their shiny little numbers, then you would notice that Cloud came close to matching Link's vote total against an opponent clearly stronger than CATS in Duke Nukem. There is also the fact that most of us voted for Duke just to be funny, thanks to the milk carton. I'm sure a boat-load of people did the same.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

I know I felt funny when I voted for Duke.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Cloud's performance was about as much as I expected. And it wasn't because of weakness in Cloud, it's because his opponent was Duke Nukem, a classic PC game character. And he was on a milk carton.

---
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
*Printable SC2K4 Bracket!* (See quote for link)

Right, Ulti. Just like how the early matches from Cloud and Sephiroth didn't saying ANYTHING about how they would dominate the tourney.

---
"Ah, a party! We haven't had one of those. It could be fun! So...what is a party?"
"Well, you drink punch and eat CAKE! ...I think."

Er, in the Summer 2003 Contest.

---
"Ah, a party! We haven't had one of those. It could be fun! So...what is a party?"
"Well, you drink punch and eat CAKE! ...I think."

When you think about it, Cloud is right on par, if not stronger, than Link in terms of strength so far.

Link beat CATS with 86%, and Cloud beat Duke Milk'Em with 81%. When you factor out all the "Oh, Cloud will win anyway" or the "That Duke Milk'Em picture owns" votes, it comes out pretty even in the end. Even so, Duke Nukem would lay the smack down on CATS.

The XS have a 3% margin of error, so i'm guessing when you add in the fact that Duke could beat CATS probably 60-40 and the joke votes from the Cloud/Duke match, its safe to say that Cloud is as strong as, if not more strong than, Link.
---
Sc2k4: 19 of 20
Next Match: Jak vs. Ness (The "big" Match)

Link beat CATS with 86%, and Cloud beat Duke Milk'Em with 81%.

Link beat CATS with 87.83%, nearly 88%, which barely outperformed Cloud's match against CATS from 2003.
---
M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

I'm an XS head, and I love my shiny little numbers, but Link/CATS and Cloud/Milkem really didn't tell us much about the strength of these two. The over/underperformances were negligible, compared to the 5% overperfomance Cloud posted on CATS last year.
---
Current Pick: Squall; Current Vote: Squall; Points: 19/19
JAK CANNOT GRASP THE TRUE NATURE OF NESS' ATTACK!

Characters have been overperforming/underperforming left and right. Using the extrapolated is barely worth it right now.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Well, using negligible over/underperformances to make bold predictions about the future is unwarranted. We already knew they weren't 100% accurate, and there's no reason to treat them like that.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Championship
First round: (13)Bomberman

Link beat CATS with 87.83%, nearly 88%, which barely outperformed Cloud's match against CATS from 2003.

My apologies. Even so, when you compare Duke and CATS' strength, it doesn't make much of a difference.

You guys are right, however. It is too early to tell just exactly how strong each person is, and CJayC effectively killed us by making SFF matches in a lot of these divisions.

The first round match is all we have to go on, might as well do what we can.
---
Sc2k4: 19 of 20
Next Match: Jak vs. Ness (The "big" Match)

Only 1 hour and 6 minutes left >_<.
---
M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Yep. Can't wait.
---
Sc2k4: 19 of 20
Next Match: Jak vs. Ness (The "big" Match)

19 out of 20? Which match did you miss?
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

I find it weird that what's left of the hard to call matches in round 1 are opposites of Ulti's except for Sora vs. HK-47
---
Summer 2004 Contest 18/19 Squall vs. Bomberman

19 out of 20? Which match did you miss?

Shadow/Tidus. I used Shadow's performance against Mario and Square hate for Tidus as my basis for it. Its funny cause I actually had Tidus in my bracket until about 2 days before the tourney started...

Oh well. I was only a couple thousand off, and at least that match proved that Shadow DIDNT overperform against Mario.
---
Sc2k4: 19 of 20
Next Match: Jak vs. Ness (The "big" Match)

79.82 percentage, 49 perfects fell.
---
2k4 - The Summer of Sephiroth.

around 60/40

let's hope this match gets closer
---
Summer 2004 Contest 19/20 Jak vs. Ness

Let's not.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Score-Brackets-% Right
19----595------91.7647059
18----2898-----89.2684610
17----5566-----85.7168523
16----7217-----82.0562561
15----6572-----80.0365186
14----4816-----76.1420266
13----2883-----72.4245578
12----1500-----69.3333333
11----640------65.4687500
10----235------59.1489362
9-----83-------56.6265060
8-----39-------38.4615385
7-----10-------30.0000000
6-----4--------25.0000000
5-----9--------22.2222222
4-----20-------5.0000000
3-----23-------4.3478261
2-----44-------15.9090909
1-----51-------1.9607843
0-----16-------0.0000000

Despite a higher overall prediction average, the perfects did slightly worse than yesterday. The zeros once continue to gets zeros.

Interstingly, 6 people fell off the top 50 today. goht13, OmniInuyasha, darksagus, CinderElemental, RockSolidSnake and AdamInPlaidum.
---
"Those whose memories fade seek to carve them in their hearts..."
"All dreams are but another reality. Never forget..."

Jak is struggling to get 41%

This looks like Vyse vs. Laharl
---
Summer 2004 Contest 19/20 Jak vs. Ness

Alright! :D

---
SC2k4: Rank: T2, Score: 19/20, Picked: Ness, Voted: Ness
VOTE NESS!

This is the second time I've gone against Ulti and have lost

and I also went against him on Ryu H. vs. Jill, Mario vs. Crono and the champion
---
Summer 2004 Contest 19/20 Jak vs. Ness

Good start to Ness vs. Jak. =)
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Hahaha. You aren't losing because you went against Ulti, you are losing for going against me. And come Vivi vs DK, you shall feel my wrath once more.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

You know, it gets boring to be right all of the time. Assuming Ness keeps this up, this match has turned into another to throw into the pile of the most overhyped matches ever.
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

I wouldn't mind if it kept me perfect, heh. Although, you do have a point of this being insanely overhyped if it stays this way.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Who do you have with Vivi/DK, again?
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Vivi.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

This hype was at least justifiable. Ratchet and Ness are very close in rank and Jak is similar to Ratchet. Of course, I knew that Ness would win with relative ease this whole time because, regardless of what people want to believe, a good portion of Ness' votes HAVE to come from SSB/M and that couldn't happen against Bowser.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Ness's lead is now bigger than Vyse's lead on Laharl at the same point =).
---
M-me? Queen ***** of the Universe?
This is the happiest day of my life. ~ smitelf

Ulti, were you asking me or Mega?
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Heh, you.
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

Okay. Well, I have Vivi as well.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Oh and assuming Ness wins I would just like to thank Chichiri for getting me to switch my pick of Jak over to Ness. All because of that SSBM argument. =P
---
SC2k4 Winner: Mega Man
Sigma Viruses don't die. They evolve.

For whatever reason, people have decided to post in the 40th installment so I will just bring this to the top...
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

I have DK in that match, and it's the only pick I have made that actually worries me. Not that I actually care if Vivi wins, because he ****ing rules =)
---
Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Damn straight Vivi rules. I just honestly can't see an FF character which appeals to the new AND old generation losing to DK.
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

But I am getting worried about picking Tails over V. Joe...
---
The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

I picked DK there, too. If Ness wins this one, then I can be sure that DK vs. Vivi will be my downfall.

Damn, and that fall's gonna hurt...
---
FACT: Shins are nothing more than tools for finding things in the dark.
*Certified Topic Killer*

I never bought the hype. Everybody threw Ness out the window as a cult character - wrong. Earthbound may be a cult, but Ness is not.

I was so sick of people saying SSB/SSBM have nothing to do with Ness. Personally, I consider myself a part of this 'casual vote' that everybody talks about, as I have heard of less than half of the characters in this contest. To me, Ness is that kickarse guy from the SSB games, and who WOULDN'T recognize his picture from those games, and remember how great he was in SSB?? I bet a lot of people are seeing his pic and thinking the same thing I do, and relating him to SSB. It's not earthbound that's doing it, it's the name and character recognition.

I have picked Vivi, that I'm more worried about. We'll see.

I made a similar post yesterday. People act as if being advertised a lot to people on gamefaqs means something. We are voting in these polls, not a bunch of middle-aged parents who watch the family hour with their kids every night. Ness isn't unknown to this site by a long shot.
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Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Are you implying that I am not a middle-aged parent who watches family hour with my kid?
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The topic is dead. Not the kind of dead that can be cured with a Phoenix Down. I'm talking FMV sequence dead.- The King in Teal

Jak is actually gotten a surge in the last minute or so. I don't expect it to last though. Even though my bracket has him winning, something tells me that the day vote going in his favour may be nothing more than a half baked theory.
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Did you know A LONG LONG time ago in the days of the mayans people used to live for more than 500 years? Some, even, FOR ETERNITY-Jax1298

I must say, I am shocked. I never thought Ness had any chance of coming close, much less winning this match. I would, in fact, be eating my hat right now if only I could find it and if I dind't have my wisdom teeth removed on Wednesday.

That said, I still hold out hope for Jak. He's managed to stop Ness's surge, and even won the last update. If he can win the day vote, which is a legitimate possibility, he's got a chance. Even an average of 100/hour would put him at around a 500 vote edge by the time the night vote kicked back in. I'm not expecting him to win 55/45, and not even expecting him to win, but I still hold out hope for the comeback to end all non Starcraft comebacks.

I'd love to believe Cloud underperformed, but Duke Nukem is too strong to be a 16-seed. I am however banking on a very minor backlash to the dominance of FFVII in the past year.

I'm curious as to Link's match.
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"Yeah, there seems to be some sort of pink...my god...my god! IT ATE JOHNSON! ~BluesASC on Kirbyzilla

I'm curious to Seph's match...
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I chose the road less traveled -- now where the heck am I?
A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words, But It Uses Up a Thousand Times the Memory

Hmm, a 1000 vote lead already is not healthy. Dropping five in round one is looking increasingly likely.
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Jon Thomson - today: Jak, tomorrow: Auron - 17/20
Nominate Ridley for Summer Contest 2005

I think most perfects will have Jak winning this

I'd love to believe Cloud underperformed, but Duke Nukem is too strong to be a 16-seed.

I've been saying that for days. Link blew out a first round performer, Cloud blew out a second round performer with similar numbers. How anyone could think Cloud isn;t still the favorite is beyond me.

I am however banking on a very minor backlash to the dominance of FFVII in the past year.

I dunno. FF7's fans have to either not show up that day, or magically turn on FF7 just because their favorite game has dominated in the past year. If you ask me, Sephiroth has a better chance of winning this thing than Link does.

I'm curious as to Link's match.

What, his SFF matches against Ganondorf, Yoshi, and possibly even Mario? We may have to wait until the Final Four to see how he has fluctuated within the past year, thanks to CJayC's company-based bracket.
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Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Yeesh. Ness is dropping now before the morning and day votes have even come into play. He better hope that the day vote favors him, or he may be done for.
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"..."--Bomberman

Hmmm... looks like it's almost time for the morning vote to kick in. :-P
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RS name:igglybuff138, combat level 90, 1250+ skill total
summer contest 2k4: 18/20 points, today: Ness vs Jak

Hmmm. Looks like Jak is doing nothing more than going 50-50 here. Coming back in percentage is one thing, coming back in actual votes is something else. Jak is doing little more than pulling a Perfect Dark in his current state.
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Winner of the Spring 2004 'Best. Game. Ever.' Contest
*Married to smitelf on 5/21/04*

Ness better win this.
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Link, Alucard, Magus, Crono, Mario, Knuckles, Kefka, Cloud, Sonic...
And Frog.

This game's winner is...

SUPEEEEER SMAAAASH BROTHERS MEEEEEEEEEEELEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 019/019 - Matches: 19/19 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Squall - Tomorrow: Ness

Slow, update your sig.

Vivi or DK... you guys are really getting me worried on this one. The BOP clearly indicates Vivi as the favorite, but you and Ulti are really makingi t seem impossible. I can't afford to lose any points... not after my run w/Frog over Solid.
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Link, Alucard, Magus, Crono, Mario, Knuckles, Kefka, Cloud, Sonic...
And Frog.

ness win he will
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"I hate my SP. It said 'blue' on the box. **** you, Nintendo, it's purple!" -- c o s m i c

500 POST'd/10
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contact me if you wish to join my not like list Not Like Board:
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gentopic.php?board=7456

I always update my sig one or two posts into the day.

And unless Auron completely blows the **** out of Scorpion (60% or more), then we have to consider DK the actual favorite. Think about it... Auron would be expected to get 55.90% on DK. Vivi's probably a good deal weaker than Auron because of the popularity of their respective games, and unlike Auron, he doesn't have the looks to attract votes from people that don't know him.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 020/020 - Matches: 20/20 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Ness - Tomorrow: Auron

I think this match is going to turn out just like Frog Vs. L. Snake match, except the lower seed, Jak will come out the winner. Its going to be a close match all day (unless you are all underestimating the day vote in Jaks favors *crosses fingers*), and by the end of the night, the Jak surges will easily overcome the weakling that is Ness. How many entrants have had leads in the mornings, only to be swept away by the day vote tide, by the way?
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*Agent Thickcrust* Super Spy of the PiZzA aRmY

Ness has almost three times Frog's largest lead. He's safe short term.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 020/020 - Matches: 20/20 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Ness - Tomorrow: Auron

Arrgh...c'mon Jak, win dammit!!

Vivi doesn't have the looks to attract outside votes? Come on... the "Black Mage Factor" is what's supposed to be boosting him...
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Link, Alucard, Magus, Crono, Mario, Knuckles, Kefka, Cloud, Sonic...
And Frog.

Better try shooting for the 500 now...

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Link, Alucard, Magus, Crono, Mario, Knuckles, Kefka, Cloud, Sonic...
And Frog.

Heh, looks like I've got it to myself... GO NESS!
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Link, Alucard, Magus, Crono, Mario, Knuckles, Kefka, Cloud, Sonic...
And Frog.

The Black Mage factor will only catch on with the 8BT junkies, who would probably have voted Vivi anyway. I'm talking about the people who didn't play FF9 and don't read 8BT. For them, BMF means NOTHING. Vivi looks like a ****ing scarecrow. At least DK is recognizable.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 020/020 - Matches: 20/20 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Ness - Tomorrow: Auron

Hrm, if DK won, then it would the the first truly major upset in the BOP.. think about it.
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Link, Alucard, Magus, Crono, Mario, Knuckles, Kefka, Cloud, Sonic...
And Frog.

No! GO JAK!!
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Current Score: 19/20
Today's Pick: Jak

Bigger than Starcraft over Halo. Yup.
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SC2K4 Status - Points: 020/020 - Matches: 20/20 - Rank: 00001/33221 - Today: Ness - Tomorrow: Auron

haha
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Peace is but a shadow of death, desperate to escape its painful past.