It comes from all those places, that's why he's elite.

There's no way FFAC had a significant - if even a minor - benefit in Crono/Vincent.

I find it quite likely that it did. Board 8 is far from the only place here actually downloading it--this even extends far beyond GameFAQs in terms of its popularity--and considering that you can see some of its effects tells me that it did something in that match. It's no farfetched to believe either. It isn't the kind of impact that would be as big if the movie had been released in the US, but it's still there--and I say noticably.

I know many people here that voted for Vincent just because of Advent Children and would have voted Crono otherwise. Now sure, I can't say this is how everybody felt, but it's obviously something to consider. Even moreso for when Cloud's match gets here in a few days.

---
“A pro isn’t someone who sacrifices themselves for a job. That’s just a fool.” – Reno

Yes, but by the time Cloud's match rolls around, the "spike" part of the boost will have died down (see: Mario's first match against Crono).

And Knuckles probably is stronger - after all, as I said, RPGuy's projections set him at, what, 29% on BL? That bodes well for Megaman if Sonic and Knuckles are joined at the hip, by the way.
---
What online fan couldn't get behind Trevor Murdoch? I mean, finally, a wrestler with our physique! -Sean Carless

Sonic stronger, too. The way he took out Diablo and Tifa is nothing to sneeze at.

---
Magus screwed my bracket over. Yay!

If that's true, some people will LOVE the boost Luigi actually ended up with. 41% on Sonic this year vs. 34% last year against a WEAKER Sonic? Luigi and Kirby are probably the stars of this contest, and Luigi may very well overtake Yoshi.
---
What online fan couldn't get behind Trevor Murdoch? I mean, finally, a wrestler with our physique! -Sean Carless

Ahh, yes, all is as it should be.

Since they've been coming up a good bit, let's take a look at the least square, updated to reflect Vincent's final score:

Crono 35.78
Vincent Valentine 31.93
Squall Leonhart 31.55
Dante 29.38
Knuckles the Echidna 29.15
Magus 28.65
Master Chief 27.7
Donkey Kong 27.26
Tommy Vercetti 20.86
Kefka 20.39
Sam Fisher 19.21
CATS 17.27
Zidane 16.75
Terra 16.66
Geno 15.88
Sarah Kerrigan 13.41

Again, very rough estimate, don't take at face value, yadda yadda.
---
"It shall be engraved upon your soul! Divine Assault: Nibelung Valesti!" ~ Lenneth Valkyrie

And it seems Dante's gotten a nifty boost with DMC3 as well.
---
What online fan couldn't get behind Trevor Murdoch? I mean, finally, a wrestler with our physique! -Sean Carless

Yes, but by the time Cloud's match rolls around, the "spike" part of the boost will have died down (see: Mario's first match against Crono).

I cannot honestly believe that at all. Cloud's match is in a few days (Tuesday with no delay between the main bracket and the championship), I sincerely doubt whatever Vincent got is not going to help Cloud as well. The leak would have been out a little over a week at the start of Cloud's match. It'd be quite foolish to believe it helped Vincent, but won't help Cloud, especially when he's so much more prominent and mor kick ass within the movie.

---
“A pro isn’t someone who sacrifices themselves for a job. That’s just a fool.” – Reno

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

Whoops, rather large screw up with Sonic's division...let's try again.

While I'm at it, here's least squares for Mega Man's quarter of the bracket:

Mega Man 38.69
Sonic the Hedgehog 38.4
Tifa Lockheart 33.49
Luigi 31.24
Leon Kennedy 27.42
Yoshi 24.70
Diablo 24.16
Gordon Freeman 22.73
KOS-MOS 21.24
Kratos Aurion 20.89
Conker 18.56
Jin Kazama 18.32
Vyse 14.69
Pac-Man 13.43
Revolver Ocelot 13.08
Laharl 13.02


Keep in mind that Yoshi's four pack is ridiculously screwed up, so that messes things up.
---
"It shall be engraved upon your soul! Divine Assault: Nibelung Valesti!" ~ Lenneth Valkyrie

So I wake up to see Snake holding Mario under 58%, if only barely...this is still a good performance for him if he can hold it together until Mario's worst time, so that's nice. Snake's second night vote isn't the greatest of things, but he's usually able to either gain percentage or he loses percentage much more slowly, so 42.5% may be in reach yet, and 43% if I keep wishing. = /
---
For the first time ever, Solid Snake has made the Final Four! Believe it.

Just for reference, wasn't Yoshi and Diablo assumed to be near-equals from our numbers after the Villain Contest? If so, then maybe Yoshi bombing against Mega Man shouldn't be such a surprise.
---
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.

No, Luigi and Diablo were assumed to be near equals. We see how that turned out.
---
"It shall be engraved upon your soul! Divine Assault: Nibelung Valesti!" ~ Lenneth Valkyrie

Perhaps a 2k3 adjusted Yoshi should be subbed in... It'd make a good medium between what he actually did and the highest he could be expected to perform.
---
I once made a sig bet with TRE that Ganon wasn't actually over 31 on BL. The jury's still out on the pigman, but props to TRE 'cause I'm a believer again.

I say we should just measure Yoshi through 2K4 Laharl. Or we should measure through Pac-Man in 2K4 through 2K3 Luigi. Both ways Yoshi is estimated to be slightly above 29% on BL. It doesn't hurt at all to say Yoshi isn't below Luigi when Yoshi beat Luigi 54/46 last year. I'd also certainly buy a Yoshi increase based on the Nintendo increase across the board, AND he has two matches that show evidence for it.

---
"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."

Is it just me, or does this match have significantly more votes than any match so far?
---
"Thank you, Mario. But our princess is in another castle."
-Toad in Super Mario Bros.

Anyone mind telling me how least squares work?
---
MARIOWNED

Snake is gaining.. MAybe he can get 43%... Just maybe.
---
SC2K5 Favorites - Solid Snake, Kirby, Mario, Leon Kennedy.

Advent Children spans well beyond Board 8, or even this website. For example:

I get a phone call from my roommate yesterday, who is visiting his girlfriend in Tampa for a week. They are looking for an apartment, and he is interviewing for some jobs. So I get the call from him, asking me 'Guess what movie I just saw?' And I listed off some of the new ones that came out, and he says 'You ever heard of Advent Children?' And of course I have, and he is just raving about how awesome the movie is. I asked him how he found out about it, and said that there were a group of people in the computer lab at his girlfriend's college watching it (no sound, just subtitles). He immediately recognized the characters (as he was, after all, the person who forced me to play FFVII), and was hooked. Burned a copy, and is bringing it home for me. My roommate, outside of creating an account to post on the sports board and enter a contest bracket, does not use this site.

So in short, the Advent Children leak spreads far beyond the realm of gamefaqs or a character contest, so to think Vincent did not receive a boost from said leak is utterly asinine.

---
RIP: Tnote827 - 4/4/2005
SC2k5 - 133/144 (Kefka, Magus (x3), Ocelot, Tidus)

Of course more than board 8 knows, and of course it's more likely that the people outside of board 8 care (lot of FF7 haters here)... is it enough to matter, and will it stay in the spotlight long enough? If the game stays in the top 3 FAQs until the day of Cloud/Link it might. Thankfully, his is something we can track as the days go by.
---
I once made a sig bet with TRE that Ganon wasn't actually over 31 on BL. The jury's still out on the pigman, but props to TRE 'cause I'm a believer again.

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

I find it quite likely that it did. Board 8 is far from the only place here actually downloading it--this even extends far beyond GameFAQs in terms of its popularity--and considering that you can see some of its effects tells me that it did something in that match. It's no farfetched to believe either. It isn't the kind of impact that would be as big if the movie had been released in the US, but it's still there--and I say noticably.

It's not farfetched....but it still isn't likely. It's not as if Vincent performed outside the margins of reason. Crono/Squall was predicted by last years stats to go 60-40, correct? Crono has not been impressing at all this year. Magus and Frog, too. It's not unreasonable to believe that they all went down some this year. Crono got about 61% on MASTER CHIEF, someone who nearly equaled Donkey Kong. Would it really make sense for the match to not have been, then, at about 58 for Crono? And even that's being generous in regards to MC.

Then throw in the very distinct possibility of old/new sff, several people have pointed out that new square has been doing better than old square, and you have more reasons for Crono to underperform. Then you have Vincent's strength alone. He beat Squall and Dante - not weak opponents. He should have done significantly better on Crono than MC and he did.

Really, how much do you want the movie - a leaked japanese movie - (that many weren't going to even consider for much of a boost when it was released in English here) - to have done for Vincent?

So in short, the Advent Children leak spreads far beyond the realm of gamefaqs or a character contest, so to think Vincent did not receive a boost from said leak is utterly asinine.

asinine? more like skeptical. After all, it's still just a movie (ie not a game) and it's a leaked movie, at that.
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Revenge is a dish best served cold. ~ Old Klingon Proverb

Sonic the Hedgehog 49.63% 49099
Mega Man 50.37% 49841
TOTAL VOTES 98940

Heh, just as I had expected, MM eventually pull away ftw with the night vote.

I still can't believe the amount of excitement on the topic yesterday evening about that particular match.

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

Well, very few of us expected AC to give Cloud a boost.

But we did expect it to bring more FF VII fans to GameFAQs.

And seeing that FF VII, despite being more than 8 years old, suddenly made it's way back to the Top 3 FAQ list, I'd say that it has accomplished what I had expected it to do.

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

The following are ways the Crono has an advantage over Mega Man tomorrow:

1)Crono > Mega Man last year.
2)Measuring Crono through Kefka and Mega Man through Diablo, Crono has a slight advantage.
3)Measuring from Sp2K5 Bowser through Snake through Mario (and assuming Mario wins with 57.5%), which seems rather accurate at this point, Zero's just below 31% on BL. If Mega Man beats this year's Zero with 56%, Mega Man could be weaker than anticipated.
4)If you believe Luigi = DK still, Crono has an advantage over Mega Man.
5)Vercetti most likely dropped a huge amount if Crono loses to Mega Man.
6)There's reason to believe that MC and/or Vincent overperformed against Crono.
7)Upets just freakin' DON'T like to happen in the later rounds of character contests when a match is close.
8)Mega Man looked awful judging by Leon Kennedy/Gordon Freeman.

Heh, that's more stuff than I thought...maybe I could add more if I thought some more.

Otherwise, tomorrow is Mega Man's to lose. Using various Least Squares calculations, I've estimated Crono to be at 35% on BL, while Mega Man's at 36.5%. I am fearing that Vercetti and Kefka are what more accurately measures Crono, though...(despite the fact that Diablo was shown to be overrated in Sp2K5)

---
"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."

The FAQ thing is impressive, but it's easy to make the point that pokemon is usually high on the faqs list, and it's not like ff7 has reappeared from say #150, it's usually close among the Top 30 or so.
---
Revenge is a dish best served cold. ~ Old Klingon Proverb

Anybody know how high in the rankings FF7 was FAQs-wise right before people started importing AC? (that's an awful sentence...) Sorry if somebody already answered this.

---
"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."

Anybody know how high in the rankings FF7 was FAQs-wise right before people started importing AC? (that's an awful sentence...) Sorry if somebody already answered this.

Between 15 to 30, IIRC.

One other thing, the excitement over AC might swing non-hardcore, indecisive casuals to vote for Cloud over Link while they would usually vote for Link over Cloud.

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

1)Crono > Mega Man last year.

True...

2)Measuring Crono through Kefka and Mega Man through Diablo, Crono has a slight advantage.

Are you sure I have Mega Man with the slight advantage.

3)Measuring from Sp2K5 Bowser through Snake through Mario (and assuming Mario wins with 57.5%), which seems rather accurate at this point, Zero's just below 31% on BL. If Mega Man beats this year's Zero with 56%, Mega Man could be weaker than anticipated.

And how would you know Mega Man would beat Zero with 56% this year.


4)If you believe Luigi = DK still, Crono has an advantage over Mega Man.

Who here thinks Luigi = DK? Even before 2k5.

5)Vercetti most likely dropped a huge amount if Crono loses to Mega Man.

Vercetti isn't in a series where his name will be remembered and with San Andreas out it doesn't help him out.

6)There's reason to believe that MC and/or Vincent overperformed against Crono.

Agreed, but there's also reason to believe that Crono is just weaker.

7)Upets just freakin' DON'T like to happen in the later rounds of character contests when a match is close.

Link/Cloud in 2k3. It was sort of close, but it was an upset.

8)Mega Man looked awful judging by Leon Kennedy/Gordon Freeman.

Leon is new and Freeman has gotten a new game since last year.
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17 have challenged Nintendo in the handheld market, 17 have failed. (see quote for list)

Mario is losing percent. After everything is done he may be under 57%.
---
17 have challenged Nintendo in the handheld market, 17 have failed. (see quote for list)

I believe Snake would beat Sonic this year.
---
Guitar players to the MACKS!!! Metallica is my MASTER-MASTER!!!
RIP-Cliff Burton "We are just the toys of the hands of another."

And how would you know Mega Man would beat Zero with 56% this year.

Zero dropped?

Vercetti isn't in a series where his name will be remembered and with San Andreas out it doesn't help him out.

Vercetti > CJ. This contest proved it.

Leon is new and Freeman has gotten a new game since last year.

I highly doubt GFNW got a 7% boost from a PC game.
---
Return of SF1: YOU DON'T HAVE A CASE!
makeyourchance: Yes I do! It's Samsonite.

So...looking at how Mario is gonna end up...who ends up stronger than Samus right now?
---
"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*

Man, not a lot of movement after Mario's morning vote wore off. Snake will hopefully get 42.41%+ with the night vote. He's pretty close now.
---
"Stay there for me, trapped in memories."
"I...I won't become a memory."

"but it's easy to make the point that pokemon is usually high on the faqs list"

Of course, but people don't play pokemon for the characters and older games (1st and 2nd gen) aren't coming back no matter what. We're talking about a complete resurgence here, something that the early 3rd gen pokemon games (R/S, FRLG) aren't going to get. KH has been hanging on to the middle portion of the Top 50 FAQs for awhile now too, what do you think it would take to bring it all the way back up to the top 10?
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I once made a sig bet with TRE that Ganon wasn't actually over 31 on BL. The jury's still out on the pigman, but props to TRE 'cause I'm a believer again.

..I can see Freeman getting a great boost of HL2.
---
"[Zelos] clearly should be writing in his book of dark poetry and slitting his wrists with a cruxis crystal - meisnewbie

If you believe Snake can beat Sonic, you pretty much have to believe he can beat Mega Man. I wish it were true, but it's probably not happening.

However, if Mega Man makes Crono out to be a chump tomorrow, I'd give Snake a very good shot against him. If he doesn't, then Snake's still pulling up the rear of the Noble Nine, but seeing as how far the Noble Nine has come this year, that's hardly unimpressive.
---
For the first time ever, Solid Snake has made the Final Four! Believe it.

"who ends up stronger than Samus right now"

If we don't take into consideration any SFF at all I think only Crono has a shot of making it, and even then I wouldn't expect it.
---
I once made a sig bet with TRE that Ganon wasn't actually over 31 on BL. The jury's still out on the pigman, but props to TRE 'cause I'm a believer again.

Not like it matters where Gordon stands...Mega Man has basically proven that he hasn't fallen all that much by beating Sonic. So, it's not a matter of if Mega Man is strong enough, but if Crono is weak enough.

---
"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."

Once MGS4 comes, Bye Bye Sonic,Megaman, And Crono.
---
Guitar players to the MACKS!!! Metallica is my MASTER-MASTER!!!
RIP-Cliff Burton "We are just the toys of the hands of another."

This is actually good for Snake. This is still his absolute worst time, and Mario is losing percent. Mario has nowhere to go from here but down, and Snake has nowhere to go but up. 43% should be the optimistic goal, as I've said before.
---
For the first time ever, Solid Snake has made the Final Four! Believe it.

half life 2 likely gave gordon a giant boost. If im correct it was the "halo 2" of people with high end pcs
---
current goty:Advance wars duel strike
possible goty contenders: castlevania dos, we love katamari, mario kart ds

This is actually good for Snake. This is still his absolute worst time, and Mario is losing percent. Mario has nowhere to go from here but down, and Snake has nowhere to go but up. 43% should be the optimistic goal, as I've said before.

Be aware that voting patterns tend to be off on weekends, since kids don't go to school and adults don't go to work.

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

43% should be the optimistic goal, as I've said before.

I'd be very content with that. 43% on a juiced up Mario is easily more impressive than his 42.8% on Mega Man last year.
---
SC2K5 Guru Contest: Where _______ kicked my ass.

I'd be very content with that. 43% on a juiced up Mario is easily more impressive than his 42.8% on Mega Man last year.

Meh, if you compare it to last year, even his current percentage is already much more impressive than that.

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

On the FAQs list and FFVII/AC...Master Quest was enough to get Ocarina of Time back up to #1 on the FAQs list, and it's usually far below FFVII. Despite that, we didn't see any boost at all for Link in 2k3. Being high on the FAQs list is not a big deal at all.
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Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent.

Be aware that voting patterns tend to be off on weekends, since kids don't go to school and adults don't go to work.

I'm taking that well into account, actually. The worst is over for Snake, as there is no afterschool vote to ravage him like in his match with Bowser.
---
For the first time ever, Solid Snake has made the Final Four! Believe it.

Despite that, we didn't see any boost at all for Link in 2k3.

That's debatable.
---
"Stay there for me, trapped in memories."
"I...I won't become a memory."

Yeah, BL was resolved through a constant Mario, and I never bought that Mario wasn't SFF'd by Link, just like I never bought that Samus wasn't SFF'd by Link.
---
For the first time ever, Solid Snake has made the Final Four! Believe it.