PREDICTION:

Midna will be the most popular newbie in the 2006 Contest.
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http://www.cbs.com/primetime/bigbrother6/_polls/amc_poll.shtml
VOTE FOR KAYSAR!

Prediction: Ganondorf will be Mega Man strength next year. Link will beat Cloud with over 60%.
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"Thank you, Mario. But our princess is in another castle."
-Toad in Super Mario Bros.

Also, while RE4 may be a great game, Leon is not going to get the full benefit from it until it hits the PS2. He should be a solid mid-carder for 2k6, but I'm not seeing him being that strong just yet.

He should already be at least near the that level of low 20's on 2004 Link as it is. I would imagine he'd be near the level of Vercetti's 2004 value this year. I'm hoping for more, but that seems to be the most reasonable position. Anything lower just doesn't make any sense to me.

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Takes nothing to realize your Ken.
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/480/kensa34mr.gif

Link will never beat Cloud that badly. Never.
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It's just not the same without this name.
Faithful supporter of Squall Leonhart in SC2K5

When Cloud gets his inevitable PS3 FFVII remake (come on, we all know it's going to happen sooner or later), then things will be back to normal. Until then, Link and co. will absolutely dominate these contests.
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"Thank you, Mario. But our princess is in another castle."
-Toad in Super Mario Bros.

Because popularity never changes. Congratulations on your championship, Sonic.
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YOUR SWORD OF WEAKNESS SHALL BE YOUR DOOM UNLESS YOU USE IT ON YOU.
27th/125 in the Guru Rankings.

I'd kill for a remake of that game.

~*ST*~
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Winner of the Spring 2004 "Best. Game. Ever." Contest
"If my fate is to be destroyed... I must simply laugh!" -Magus

I don't know where all this Midna support is coming from. She just stays in the Twilight zone and doesn't have much significance from what we know. I don't know why she'd do any better than Tingle, personally. Of course, it's all hard to determine until November...

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

Or maybe a lego version, like Lego Star Wars.

Lego Final Fantasy VII. The characters look pretty much the same!
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Currently sitting pretty at #3 on the leaderboard

After thinking about it, I see Vincent getting 75%+ against Kerrigan tomorrow.

I'd love nothing more than for Kerrigan to pull a "Starcraft", but it ain't happening.

It kills me how people try to make the argument that because Vincent was a secret character, he'll somehow be weaker.

Wake up! This is a walkthrough website! One of the reasons this site was so successful in the first place was BECAUSE of FFVII, and one of the reasons people came for FFVII was just to get Vincent! You'd be kidding yourself if you think being optional will hurt Vincent. Mr. Valentine is going to his division's finals, and could possibly beat Magus.

Ulti: In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.
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5/18/05
Never forget. Never forgive.

HM, I agree that Leon may possibly be as strong as Jill... But I still don't think that he is as popular as Jill was at her peak.

Well, Jill at her peak is more than enough to take care of Freeman with over 70% of the vote. But he would need to be over that if he were to pump out a tripling on Mr. Freeman.

Jill doesn't just have Resident Evil 1 and 3 on the PSX. She also has the Gamecube REmake, which was almost as popular as RE4 is now. It not only brought back fans of the Resident Evil series, it also introduced a new demographic to the series.

The REmake was indeed a big hit, but I can't say it enjoyed nearly the popularity that Resident Evil 4 is currently enjoying. That game is managing to make people who don't even like the series like it. It's also managed a 1.2 million figure worldwide -- nearly half of that comes from America. without even being released a year. The success should be even greater once it hits the PS2 in October.

She also had the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 crossover, which could only help her. It wasn't a SSBM, but you can't say it didn't do anything for her popularity.

Of course. I would imagine that helping her some, not a lot or anything, but it doesn't hurt to appear in games such as that.

Leon may be more popular right NOW due to the RE4 craze, but overall, I still think Jill is the most popular RE character. With that being said, I hope he does get over 70% on Freeman. It would be great for a RE character to get a blowout match.

As far as this contest is concerned, I have no doubt that Leon will be above Jill's rather lackluster 2004 value. Leon is currently enjoying some serious popularity thanks to his game, which is going to be far more than 'just another hit' so to speak. I imagine the claims of "Game of the Generation" should actually stick with that as the years go by and we move on to the new consoles. Hell, I think RE4 could very well win the Game of the Year award over Twilight Princess in a number of places.

We should get something of an idea when he faces Freeman, though. Then after that, he's got Mega Man.

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Takes nothing to realize your Ken.
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/480/kensa34mr.gif

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.

I only act this way when people debate extremely obvious matches to hell and high water.

~*ST*~
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Winner of the Spring 2004 "Best. Game. Ever." Contest
"If my fate is to be destroyed... I must simply laugh!" -Magus

Yeah, let's debate something fun.

Vincent/Magus. I'm really tempted to say that Valentine can **** up Janus.
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5/18/05
Never forget. Never forgive.

Vincent/Magus. I'm really tempted to say that Valentine can **** up Janus.

You mean Dante/Magus.
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Summer 2005 Contest - 19/21 points
Current Match Prediction: Sarah Kerrigan vs. Vincent Valentine

Screw FFVII remake, FFVI remake now!
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Leon's Quest For Ultimate Glory:
1. Tripling Gordon Freeman.

Comparisons to other matches that took place on Mondays:

At 19:00
Dante vs. Terra - 85456
Tidus vs. The King - Roughly 88500 (updater broke for a half hour, I guess)
Ganondorf vs. Yuna - 93847

Dante never really could bring in the vote totals and Ryu never did either (unless they are against characters that bring high vote totals)
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I've been Pwned by KoaC. He really is the king of all cosmos.

Screw FFVI/FFVII remake!

Put Zidane in Kingdom Hearts so he'll win a goddamn match!

Dante/Vincent is interesting, but I still see Vincent winning comfortably.
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5/18/05
Never forget. Never forgive.

I have a feeling that Twilight Princess is going to be more character-based and thus we will have quite a few Zelda characters who might be able to gain entry.
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Leon's Quest For Ultimate Glory:
1. Tripling Gordon Freeman.

In the Zelda interview in the new EGM, Aonuma mentions that Midna has her own agenda. I'm pretty sure she'll be way more major than Tingle.

"When Cloud gets his inevitable PS3 FFVII remake (come on, we all know it's going to happen sooner or later), then things will be back to normal. Until then, Link and co. will absolutely dominate these contests."

"I'd kill for a remake of that game."

I've been hoping for an FF VII remake ever since the PS2 came out.

Here's hoping that FF VII: AC is successful so that Square will finally decide to remake the original FF VII.

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Reserved for the winner of the SC2K5 Guru Challenge.

I think they'd be crazy not to do it. Sure, they'd get accused of "whoring out" their most successful game, but it would sell millions.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno

Link will never beat Cloud that badly. Never.

In 2002, Link beat Mario with over 60%. That would have never happened had the contest occurred pre-OoT. Give it a handful of years and it'll likely happen.
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Board 8: Where people treat each other right.

Here's an off the wall question for you guys. Let's assume, uh.... that a friend I know is about to get married to a girl that has cheated on him about.... oh, 3 or 4 times or so. Is it wrong of him to not want his fiancée not to have a bachelorette party?

~*ST*~
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Winner of the Spring 2004 "Best. Game. Ever." Contest
"If my fate is to be destroyed... I must simply laugh!" -Magus

I'm with Garsha, by the way. I don't think Leon can triple Gordon, even if he's supposed to. It's the power of GFNW.

~*ST*~
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Winner of the Spring 2004 "Best. Game. Ever." Contest
"If my fate is to be destroyed... I must simply laugh!" -Magus

Here's an off the wall question for you guys. Let's assume, uh.... that a friend I know is about to get married to a girl that has cheated on him about.... oh, 3 or 4 times or so. Is it wrong of him to not want his fiancée not to have a bachelorette party?

No, he's not wrong.
At the very least he should secure a guarantee that no male will be present in that party.

If I were him though, I wouldn't even think of marrying that girl in the first place.

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Reserved for the winner of the SC2K5 Guru Challenge.

Here's an off the wall question for you guys. Let's assume, uh.... that a friend I know is about to get married to a girl that has cheated on him about.... oh, 3 or 4 times or so. Is it wrong of him to not want his fiancée not to have a bachelorette party?

Is your friend having a bachelor party?
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"Those whose memories fade seek to carve them in their hearts..."
"All dreams are but another reality. Never forget..."

Here's an off the wall question for you guys. Let's assume, uh.... that a friend I know is about to get married to a girl that has cheated on him about.... oh, 3 or 4 times or so. Is it wrong of him to not want his fiancée not to have a bachelorette party?

3 or 4 times? Hell yes he has a right to be suspicious, but then again... why marry her if you can't even trust her at her bachelorette party? If anything, if he's really intent on marrying her, how about he has a female friend attend the bachelorette party? An open spy if you must...
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MM are my INITIALS "There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

Vincent/Magus. I'm really tempted to say that Valentine can **** up Janus.

From a pure unbiased perspective, both Vincent and Squall could beat Magus, and may have a chance to do it with surprising ease. I think Old Square (pre-FF7) has a huge problem SFFing New Square, and you don't even need to look farther than Crono/Zidane for some decent proof. If Crono failed to SFF Zidane and Squall SFFs Geno straight to hell, Magus is in trouble. It would mean that Old Square probably can't SFF New Square, but the reverse can happen. Add in Squall being a hero and Magus being a supporting character, Squall can win. Magus has also failed to be a huge vote draw and hasn't really done anything of note since 2003.

As for Vincent, he is to FF7 what Magus is to CT. It's very possible he can win. I'll stick with Magus out of pure fanboyism, but I won't be surprised if Magus loses any match he has in that division.

~*ST*~
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Winner of the Spring 2004 "Best. Game. Ever." Contest
"If my fate is to be destroyed... I must simply laugh!" -Magus

As for Leon vs. GF, I also can't see Leon tripling him.
I think even breaking 70% is too much to ask from Leon.

Maybe next year after RE4 has settled he could possibly do it, but certainly not this year.

65% +/- 5% is what I would expect from that match.

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Reserved for the winner of the SC2K5 Guru Challenge.

but I won't be surprised if Magus loses any match he has in that division.

Against Knuckles?!
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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*

Is your friend having a bachelor party?

Nope, and he'll kill his best man if he even thinks about giving him one. The groom hates the very concept of those parties in the first place.

"Hey, I love you and want to marry you, but I have one last chance to act single before we're married. Let me go act like an idiot around a bunch of strippers who know that I'll cheat given the right circumstances, and maybe there'll even be a private party in a house! <3"

Because, you know, getting all of that out of your system before committing in the first place doesn't cross anyone's mind until it's too late. What a dumbassed concept. Who thought of this?

~*ST*~
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Winner of the Spring 2004 "Best. Game. Ever." Contest
"If my fate is to be destroyed... I must simply laugh!" -Magus

If Knuckles actually beat Magus (I know it won't happen, but still), I wouldn't be the least bit upset. I love Knux.

~*ST*~
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Winner of the Spring 2004 "Best. Game. Ever." Contest
"If my fate is to be destroyed... I must simply laugh!" -Magus

but I won't be surprised if Magus loses any match he has in that division.

Is it because he isn't Solid Snake?
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The King of all Cosmos' route to summer victory:
Round 1: (0) Voters

Ulti, that friend really needs to get a pre-nupt.
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Leon's Quest For Ultimate Glory:
1. Tripling Gordon Freeman.

I'm going to do a write-up when that match happens, but here's the meat of my argument.

1. Both Vincent and Magus are resident bad-asses of their games. We know that Final Fantasy VII is more popular than Chrono Trigger. Magus may be more prominent in his game, but Final Fantasy VII being so much bigger should offset that.

2. This is my BIGGEST reason for it. I feel that fans of both would rather support Vincent. Frog and Magus both had Cinderella runs during their first contest. I believe that they got mass support due to it being their first time in the contest and people wanting to do them well. People that would normally vote Snake and Link but like Magus and Frog may have voted for them to see them do well. I think Vincent would receive that same support.

An even MORE crucial reason. The winner of this match will face Crono. Do you really think that people are looking forward to a Magus/Crono rematch? Fans of both would probably definitely vote for Vincent to see him prove his mettle against Crono, rather than seeing another SFF-fest.
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MM are my INITIALS "There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those that read binary and those that don't."

:-(
I wish your friend luck with that one, Ulti.
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Vote Kerrigan & Diablo in SC2k5.
PWN'D by yoblazer in the guru contest. Congrats.

The crucial reason is by far the worst. No casual is going to look at the bracket and think "Hmm I don't want Magus to face Crono again so I'll vote for Vincent". The only people that effects is us.

Do you really think that people are looking forward to a Magus/Crono rematch?

Do you really think the average voter would care?
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The King of all Cosmos' route to summer victory:
Round 1: (0) Voters

An even MORE crucial reason. The winner of this match will face Crono. Do you really think that people are looking forward to a Magus/Crono rematch? Fans of both would probably definitely vote for Vincent to see him prove his mettle against Crono, rather than seeing another SFF-fest.

Do you think the average voter cares? It's obvious not.
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SC2K5 status - Points: 019/020 - Matches: 19/20 - Rank: 00147/33793 - Today: Dante* - Tomorrow: Vincent
*w/ account on the line

If the average voter cared about that type of thing, Kefka beats Knuckles.
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Leon's Quest For Ultimate Glory:
1. Tripling Gordon Freeman.

Add in Squall being a hero and Magus being a supporting character, Squall can win.

Add in Sora being a hero and Aeris being a supporting character, Sora can win.

As for Vincent, he is to FF7 what Magus is to CT. It's very possible he can win.

Well, as cool and popular as Vincent may be, he's nowhere near Magus in storyline importance.
That has to count for something...

I'll stick with Magus out of pure fanboyism, but I won't be surprised if Magus loses any match he has in that division.

Come on now, he'll beat Knux at the very least.

But the bit about Old Square losing voters to New Square in SFF matches might hold some truth.

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Reserved for the winner of the SC2K5 Guru Challenge.

Yeah, I don't think people care about what the bracket looks like. They just pick their favorite and move on.

~*ST*~
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Winner of the Spring 2004 "Best. Game. Ever." Contest
"If my fate is to be destroyed... I must simply laugh!" -Magus

XD XD XD

Priceless.

Oh, and Kerrigan is soooo dead with that pic. Can't believe he actually went with that.

I'm happy Diablo didn't get stuck with the horrid crossover art, though. While I'm at it, Conker looks like he's in decomposition.
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SC2K5 status - Points: 019/020 - Matches: 19/20 - Rank: 00147/33793 - Today: Dante* - Tomorrow: Vincent
*w/ account on the line

Add in Sora being a hero and Aeris being a supporting character, Sora can win.

Those are both New Square. I specifically said FF7 is the cutoff line, and this should be obvious anyway.

Everything up until Chrono Trigger = Old Square
Final Fantasy 7 and after = New Square

~*ST*~
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Winner of the Spring 2004 "Best. Game. Ever." Contest
"If my fate is to be destroyed... I must simply laugh!" -Magus

Chrono Trigger... hmm, I'm not too sure. After all, CT seems to be the cut-off point when it comes to character performance.
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SC2K5 status - Points: 019/020 - Matches: 19/20 - Rank: 00147/33793 - Today: Dante* - Tomorrow: Vincent
*w/ account on the line

Those are both New Square. I specifically said FF7 is the cutoff line, and this should be obvious anyway.

Everything up until Chrono Trigger = Old Square
Final Fantasy 7 and after = New Square

I know what's Old and what's New.

I just don't agree with the whole hero:sidekick SFF.

If Squall beats Magus, it will be due to New:Old SFF, not hero:sidekick SFF.

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Reserved for the winner of the SC2K5 Guru Challenge.

Chrono Trigger could go in New Square. Every game from Chrono Trigger up in the Square series has a strong character in the contest(FFIX not so much). We see from FFVI down that the characters are crap.

Chrono Trigger... hmm, I'm not too sure. After all, CT seems to be the cut-off point when it comes to character performance.

CT is the last Square RPG that uses 2D sprites.
FF VII is the first one to use 3D sprites.

That's my reasoning to agree with Ulti's cut-off line.

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Reserved for the winner of the SC2K5 Guru Challenge.

I was wondering, what would you people consider to be the worst points of a random bracket? For example, taking the top 64 noms and dropping them in a hat.

We know seeding would be bad, but seeding isnt that accurate with Ceej in charge, either. 2k2 might as well have been random, we didnt know where characters would fall.

I can't imagine it being worse than the sff fest in 2k4
but it would be hard to beat this year's bracket.

And finally, the only good point I can think of is that the certain sucky set-up matches would be less likely to occur.

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Vote Kerrigan & Diablo in SC2k5.
PWN'D by yoblazer in the guru contest. Congrats.

Do you really think the average voter would care?

Or if they would even notice? The bracket after they vote only shows that division. They wouldn't even know Magus and Crono would face off again if they won.
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Squall Leonhart's Road to the Summer Contest 2005 Championship
Round 1: (7) Geno