I have maintained since the beginning that Alucard/Sora would be the closest match in the entire contest, although the nature of night/day votes with those two might shove all the real excitement into the last few hours.
---
Currently: 10/11 | Next: Sora
Let no one doubt the flawlessness of the plan.

Is the God of War really that high up?

Yes, and rightfully so. God of War is no slouch at all, it shouldn't be weak by any means.

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Mario's Path to Victory: Round 2 - (4) Ness
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/135/cunningplan32kw.jpg

Said it once and I will say it again: Twilight Princess is responsible for the boosting of Zelda characters.
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Today's subliminal thought is:

I love it when people arrogantly proclaim that their pick is an obvious winner a month before the match takes place, with no real evidence whatsoever, just as an attempt to make themselves feel better about their choice. Oh wait, no I don't.

You must have been loaded with angst when you picked Ryu over Sonic. =P


Kratos is a 3 seed. I'm obviously talking about him facing one of the 6 seeds.

Whoops. Forgot Kratos was a 3-seed, my bad.
---
Hillary Clinton: We need to treat violent video games the way we treat tobacco or alcohol.
Lewis Black: Namely as valued contributors to our re-election fund.

Nah. The real boost came from Loz: Collector's Edition. I'm sure :P

Or maybe not <__<
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That's right. Cloud N. Candy would get a NEGATIVE percentage, and RPGuy's extrapolated calculator would crash. - therealmnm

How many people actually received collector's edition?
---
Board 8: Where people treat each other right.

Generally people try to back up their picks with SOME sort of logic.

No, they don't. Haven't you seen the flood of inequalities this topic gets? Your statement is unjustified, and just plain wrong.

---
2nd Place, Spring Contest 2005
My Video Game World Records: http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&p=35289

And besides, I'd give anything to see a whole lot of close, exciting matches.

There's no guarantee they would be. Unpredictability =/= Close matches
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

I was all for a Game vs Characters contest. It'd be so stupid and unpredictable. I wonder what the vote totals would look like though?

I mean, I made a 4 pack of fun based on one... no one bit on it. So maybe the casuals wouldn't like it... heh heh.
---
Raiden fact of the contest: Alucard is a plagiarist, this year Raiden will prove it!

You must have been loaded with angst when you picked Ryu over Sonic. =P

That was different. :P

I never really thought Ryu stood a chance after brackets locked. My real upset was always Master Chief, but I never thought I'd be perfect up until that point, so I wasn't that serious about my bracket. And I formulated actual arguments for MC>Frog, didn't just say he would win.

Nah. The real boost came from Loz: Collector's Edition. I'm sure :P

That's what I think too.

No, they don't. Haven't you seen the flood of inequalities this topic gets? Your statement is unjustified, and just plain wrong.

I rarely see people SERIOUSLY just state an inequality with no backup. If we did that, these topics wouldn't fill up in a day.
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"Heil Dweebenheimer!"
MasterMage119

There's no guarantee they would be. Unpredictability =/= Close matches

But there is a shot at it. All we have now is a couple of matches that are surprises percentage-wise because what the X-stats say is inaccurate. This way we will have a lot of unpredictable ones. And some of them are bound to be close.

And it's not totally guessing. Heck, we will have approximate strength for nearly all the characters and games that would appear. Last spring we had the approximate strength of none of the contestants.
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I need to put something here.

You don't have to like the way I say it (quite frankly, I don't care), but I'm absolutely positive that Sora will win that match.

---
2nd Place, Spring Contest 2005
My Video Game World Records: http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&p=35289

So Kratos could beat Zero, Tifa, Yoshi, and Vercetti then?

Kratos couldn't beat Tifa or Zero, but he would stand a very good chance against the likes of Vercetti and Yoshi.

Kratos/CJ, anybody? Heh.

Indeed. That would have been a match that many just handed to CJ.

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Mario's Path to Victory: Round 2 - (4) Ness
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/135/cunningplan32kw.jpg

You don't have to like the way I say it (quite frankly, I don't care), but I'm absolutely positive that Sora will win that match.

How close do you think it will be?
---
"Heil Dweebenheimer!"
MasterMage119

Final Fantasy VII would win a characters vs. games contest. I'm 99.9% positive.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

50.1-49.9, but I'm positive he'll win.
---
Board 8: Where people treat each other right.

Final Fantasy VII would win a characters vs. games contest. I'm 99.9% positive.

Probably, although Link would stand a shot. It depends if Link is a culmination of all his games in that situation or not.
---
"Heil Dweebenheimer!"
MasterMage119

I'm thinking around 52% for Sora.
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Summer 2005 Contest - 9/11 points
Current Match Prediction: Sora vs. Agent 47

And with Twilight Princess due to be released by the end of the year, I'd say there's a good chance of another games contest next Spring.
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

It depends if Link is a culmination of all his games in that situation or not.

You know that'll be the case.
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"Opinions are like butts, little girl. Everyone's got one and nobody thinks their's stink." -Lunar 2:EB
*Claims KG's Eclair & Millia Rage*

How would we know that?
---
Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

And with Twilight Princess due to be released by the end of the year, I'd say there's a good chance of another games contest next Spring.

That would be interesting.

But it would all come down to whether or not TP can beat FF7.

I wonder if Ceej would reorganize the Divisions somehow to make for a more climactic final...
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"Opinions are like butts, little girl. Everyone's got one and nobody thinks their's stink." -Lunar 2:EB
*Claims KG's Eclair & Millia Rage*

I wonder if Ceej would reorganize the Divisions somehow to make for a more climactic final...

If he eliminated the era-based divisions, that'd work just fine.
---
"Heil Dweebenheimer!"
MasterMage119

I'd still love to see a SMB3/SSBM match.
---
Hillary Clinton: We need to treat violent video games the way we treat tobacco or alcohol.
Lewis Black: Namely as valued contributors to our re-election fund.

Games that NEED to be added if we have a new Game contest:

Twilight Princess
Final Fantasy VIII
Diablo II
Super Mario Kart
Sim City
The Sims
Civilization III
Halo 2
Half-Life 2
God of War
Resident Evil 4
Donkey Kong Country

---
"Why would the boost from AC be bigger than those?" - Mac Arrowny
"Because (Heroic Mario) just replayed Final Fantasy VII." - Lucid Faia

There's just so much potential left in a games contest that just isn't here in the character contest any more. The only real big matches I want to see are Mario/Sonic and Mario/Megaman, and those most likely won't happen this year, but there are countless great matches left in the games contest.
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SC2K5 GAME REPRESENTATION TOURNAMENT
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=8&topic=22468265

*cough* mega man 2 or 3 *cough*

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metroid: zero mission - 28:50
http://speeddemosarchive.com/mzm.html

Sora with 67%. M I CRAZY?

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A E OUTBACK OWNS ME

Agreed. This Contest is great, don't get me wrong, but I can't wait for next Spring.

---
the-elite.net
Ngamer's Contest Archives: http://thengamer.com/gamefaqs/

OMG!! Alucard is starting to gain! I think that the night vote is *gasp* finally here, folks.
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That's right. Cloud N. Candy would get a NEGATIVE percentage, and RPGuy's extrapolated calculator would crash. - therealmnm

Match 12: (2) Sora vs. (7) Agent 47

Past Performances

Sora

Summer 2002
Did not attend
Ranked: N/A

Summer 2003
Lost to Aeris Gainsborough, 33.34% - 66.66%
Ranked: 39th

Summer 2004
Beat HK-47, 65.55% - 34.45%
Beat Ryu Hayabusa, 61.72% - 38.28%
Lost to Samus Aran, 34.15% - 65.85%
Ranked: 13th

Spring 2005
Did not attend
Ranked: N/A

Agent 47

Summer 2002
Did not attend
Ranked: N/A

Summer 2003
Did not attend
Ranked: N/A

Summer 2004
Did not attend
Ranked: N/A

Spring 2005
Did not attend
Ranked: N/A

Analysis

Seems like we are going to end the gear division we another blowout. We have last year’s surprise character Sora making a return with a high seed. People may have underestimated him last year, but this year isn’t the case with him being in a heavily discussed match next round. We also have a first time contestant from the Hitman series trying to prove him worthy of being in the contest.

Many people have called Agent 47 the weakest character in this bracket. I personally don’t think he is since I believe the Hitman series are more respected then some of the other characters in this contest. That doesn’t mean that Agent 47 isn’t weak he’s just not the weakest character. I’ve seen predictions of over 80% here, but I personally think that Sora will have trouble breaking 75%.

Sora has gotten a new game for the Gameboy Advance plus he also has another game coming up soon and from the looks of it, it will be an awesome game. So how much could those things help him, well it could be enough for him to be put over Alucard, especially with Riku’s match against Frog, but we’ll probably know more after Frog’s match against Samus.

So where is this all heading for the match? Well Agent 47 does have a good chance on breaking 30% on Sora and with the craziness of all of the matches so far I can also see him falling below 25%. As we all know it is next to impossible to determine his strength with absolutely no numbers, but I’m hoping Agent 47 performs above expectations so people will call it Sora’s weakness instead of the other way around. Sora couldn’t double HK-47 so I don’t think she’ll triple Agent 47 either. Sorry for the short analysis, but there really isn’t much to talk about without getting off-topic so much.

charmander6000’s Bracket: Sora over Agent 47

charamander6000’s Prediction: Sora wins 68.69% - 31.31%

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17 handhelds Nintendo has taken down 1 more to go (see quote for rest)

Nevermind, he's just going up and down. This sucks.
---
That's right. Cloud N. Candy would get a NEGATIVE percentage, and RPGuy's extrapolated calculator would crash. - therealmnm

From: meche313 | Posted: 7/29/2005 8:44:13 PM | #082
Nevermind, he's just going up and down. This sucks.

It's probably just starting or something. The night vote should start in full swing (hopefully) in about 10 minutes.

///
I simply must say I'm completely out of ideas for a sig!

Urgh, Alucard did a choke job today.

I'm honestly starting to worry about my Alucard > Sora pick.

Here's hoping that Kratos is indeed strong...

---
Reserved for the winner of the SC2K5 Guru Challenge.

Off-topic, but my brother just made a surprise visit home from the Navy and is gonna be home for the next three weeks. **** yeah. =)
---
Hillary Clinton: We need to treat violent video games the way we treat tobacco or alcohol.
Lewis Black: Namely as valued contributors to our re-election fund.

Sora couldn%u2019t double HK-47 so I don%u2019t think she%u2019ll triple Agent 47 either.

Freudian slip'd.
---
SC2K5 GAME REPRESENTATION TOURNAMENT
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=8&topic=22468265

This has nothing to do with Alucard or Sora (or even Kratos and 47). However, it's got me excited, and wondering if anyone thinks it may have an impact on Big Red's matches (pending release date, of course).

From Blizzard's home page:

July 29, 2005
A Call to Heroes!
Great evil has returned to the world of Diablo 2. Will you answer the call to save Sanctuary?

Patch 1.11 is coming....

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Fathers and mothers of FF, oh my! The Heavy finals bring us Jenova vs. Jecht, at www.rpgdl.com.

No I do not think a PATCH will have any effect.
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"Why would the boost from AC be bigger than those?" - Mac Arrowny
"Because (Heroic Mario) just replayed Final Fantasy VII." - Lucid Faia

It might keep the Diablo voters occupied instead of being here and voting. I'd be all right with that.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

Tag.
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PETITION: Ability to preview contests to moderators before posting it. http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=7&topic=19643565 (203 Signs!)

i don't think anyone mentioned it, but Kratos actually DID win a 15-minute update:

2005-07-29 19:00:01 35368 44015 44.55% 55.45% 79383 8647
.
.
.
2005-07-29 19:15:00 35745 44378 44.61% 55.39% 80123 8633

and for the record, i still think that Sora will blow 47 out of the water. i really don't think he will approach 90% like i originally thought, but i still believe that he can break 80%, partially because not many people will care about 47 (yeah, okay; more people should care about him than the massively generic Tanner). but i mostly stand by my 80%+ prediction because i think it's very likely that Chain of Memories gave Sora a popularity boost, especially after Riku's impressive performance. yeah, Frog might have dropped or been horribly overrated (that is still a viable possibility at this point), but i still think that match result was more due to Chain of Memories than anything.

---
Official Co-Host for PUB TRIVIA XV
Yoblazer is officially THE MAN for beating us all in SpC2K5!!

I think 47 might do a little better than expected. 30% or so.
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SCIV Score: 9/10 Today's Pick: Kratos vs. Alucard
Another one bites the dust...

A games vs. characters contest would be ridiculous. Games would score blowouts on characters in pretty much every single match. I'd vote every one of my 25 favorite games over every one of my 25 favorite characters, and I doubt that many people are much different. Games >>> Characters.
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Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent.

Gear Division Round 1 - Match 12 – (2)Sora vs. (7)Agent 47

Sora
Game/Series Known From: Kingdom Hearts
Extrapolated Rank in 2002: N/A
Extrapolated Rank in 2003: 39th (21.88%)
Extrapolated Rank in 2004: 13th (26.97%)
Seed in 2002: N/A
Seed in 2003: 6
Seed in 2004: 6
Lost in 2003 to Aeris in Round 1
Lost in 2004 to Samus in the Sweet 16

Sora made quite the leap from 2003 to 2004. Think he made another big jump from last year to now?

Agent 47
Game/Series Known From: Hitman
Extrapolated Rank in 2002: N/A
Extrapolated Rank in 2003: N/A
Extrapolated Rank in 2004: N/A
Seed in 2002: N/A
Seed in 2003: N/A
Seed in 2004: N/A

Not as cool as HK-47, but WAAAAAAAAY cooler than your average generic Soldier 47.

Well, looks like Sora got a lucky draw in the Contest. His first opponent is Agent 007…wait, no. Agent 47 I mean, you know, that thing for Hitman!

Wait, I don’t even know what Agent 47 is, but I do know Sora will destroy him/her/it. Go Neo-Tanner go! Let’s see if you can keep yourself over 20%! I have faith!

Moltar’s Bracket Says: Sora will win.

Moltar’s Prediction is: Sora: 76% - Agent 47: 24%



Ulti’s Analysis

.....Agent WHO?!

Sora will get a rather high percentage in this match, and it really isn't going to look right. Imagine Sora breaking 80% on someone <_<

Prediction: Sora with 84.94%



Soul’s Analysis

Well folks, expect this match to be really close.

Sora shocked almost everyone, not including me, last year when he won his fourpack. Yes, he was SFFed by Aeris in 2003. Yes, he was overlooked for a long time. Yes, he did defeat a ninja with a key. But now, he's facing his toughest competition yet.

Neo Tanner 47 is from a very awesome game called Hitman. I think. This is his first year in the contest.

So, after looking at all the evidence, it seems to me that Sora has just a slight edge. Just slightly. Oh, and blah blah 47 thing blah blah.

My prediction: Sora wins with 91.37% of the vote. Closest match evar, but the kid with the key moves on, luckily. >_>



Outback’s Analysis

Is there really anything to analyze here? I think not. Sora's just plain not strong enough to get 80% on Agent 47, who is not going to be any "Neo-Tanner" or anything of the sort.

Sora with 78.88

---
Moltar's Comics - http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/Moltar
Kratos vs. Alucard - Bracket: Alucard - Vote: Alucard (9/10)

Inviso’s Analysis

At last we come to the match between Sora and the character dubbed simply, “Neo-Tanner.” As you may recall last contest, Tanner was the character that got almost less than 5% of the vote against Solid Snake, who is the weakest of the noble nine. Is Agent 47 really fit to be dubbed Neo-Tanner? Well, he is from a mainstream game that isn’t all that popular, but unlike Driv3r, Hitman actually has fans, and a fanbase, no matter how small, is better than none at all. Case in point, Manny Calavera. Anyway, Sora has this one in the bag. Kingdom Hearts us a Square RPG and does have SOME fans, despite it being rather weak. Sora will not be able to blow out 47 like Snake blew out Tanner though. It’s basically a combination of Agent 47 not being that weak, and Sora just not being that strong.

My Bracket: Sora
My Vote: Sora
My Prediction: Sora with 73.71%



Tnote’s Analysis

WHO??? You are telling me we do not get to see Aeris, who incidentally DOUBLED Sora, but we get to see freakin’ Agent 47, who is going to get sextupled by the same Sora? I guess it is impossible to ever clear the bracket of all fodder without turning this into Squaretendo, but I can think of about 500 characters who would absolutely pummel Agent 47, including the Nibelheim Innkeeper, Crono’s Mom and probably even Tanner. Fortunately CjayC redeemed himself with a fairly awesome second round match-up, but this division has way too much fodder.

Pick: Sora with 84.27%



Vlado’s Analysis

Alright, we have another chance for a huge blowout here. However, it's more than clear that Sora will get his fair share of anti-votes, as he's no Snake. Agent 47 comes from the Hitman series. His games have appeared on all platforms - the three current-gen consoles, as well as PC. I believe he has much more fans that Manny Calavera or even Yuri Hyuga. All that should result in a rather respectful loss for him. I must admit that I thought he'd be Neo-Tanner when I first saw the bracket, but I don't think so anymore. While he'll lose for sure, I think he won't be humiliated too badly. He looks cool and is facing a kid, which wins him the picture votes. When estimating his strength, I believe he'll be around JC Denton's level, even a little above it.

His opponent is Sora, who shocked many with his big win against Ryu Hayabusa last year. I still claim its cause was mostly due to Ryu being weak, rather than Sora being that strong, though. Even his appearance in the Sweet 16 didn't earn him a spot in the Top 20 in the stats last year. Sora failed to double HK-47, a character who, while immensely cool, had just one game to draw from. That proved two things - Sora is not really strong and Sora gets a lot of anti-votes. He's a rather lame, kiddy-looking Disney character and the latter is not surprising. This year, he'll have the Kingdom Hearts II hype going for him, as well, but I don't think it will help him all that much. I'm not going to take Riku's incredible performance against Frog into account, either, I believe that was mostly due to Riku being the "cooler" Kingdom Hearts contestant and that his strength will actually prove to be quite close to Sora's. The SFF was also in Riku's favour on that day.

Predicted percentage: Sora with 78.61%.


---
Moltar's Comics - http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/Moltar
Kratos vs. Alucard - Bracket: Alucard - Vote: Alucard (9/10)

Yikes, two are calling for high quadruplings and one calling for a 90% performance.

I'm not calling them crazy though since I ate crow last time I did.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

From: yoblazer33 | Posted: 7/29/2005 7:18:50 PM | Message Detail
Then I remembered it was a Castlevania character going up against the main character of Kingdom Hearts.

Ah yes, the game that bombed last year.

Ah yes, the character that completely surprised everyone last year.
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...Scratch that, change 'physics' to 'two chicks at once'.
--Aeon Azuran

Ahh, my Sora over Alucard pick is looking good now. Sure, they're rather close in the stats, but i'm gonna call Sora with about 53.82% in this match. Close, but still a comfortable win for Sora.
---
...Scratch that, change 'physics' to 'two chicks at once'.
--Aeon Azuran

I'm curious. When Riku gave Frog a close match, people said it proved that Frog was weak (and that Snake was going to flop hard) even though Riku was a new character to the contest. Yet when Kratos gives Alucard a close match, people attribute it to the new character's strength and not Alucard's weakness. Why isn't Riku being acknowledged as a strong character?
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TOOMMMAAATOOOO SAAAAUUUUCCCCEEEE!
(he seems pumped....perhaps?)

From: Dohnuts17 | Posted: 7/30/2005 1:13:00 AM | Message Detail | #002
He's also down by 9000 votes ... bye bye Zero bracket ...
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So far my Zero bracket has held up nicely!
0 for 10

heh, poor guy. that's at least one of our 21 zeroes going down to Alucard. although, i honestly can't believe how few zero brackets we are down to already. 21 after 10 matches? yeesh.

oh, and it's also starting to look like Alucard will not break a 10,000 vote lead. good match from Kratos, indeed.

---
Official Co-Host for PUB TRIVIA XV
Yoblazer is officially THE MAN for beating us all in SpC2K5!!