GameFAQs Contests

I like cake.

~*creativename's contest site (all things contest!)*~
www.gamefaqscontests.com

~*The Board 8 Wiki (lots of useful contest and board information, including all past Post-Contest Analysis from Ulti, transience, Ed Bellis and others)*~
http://board8.wikia.com/

~*NGamer64's Archive Sites (good stuff!) and (LOL) X-Stats Sim (some offensive language)*~
http://thengamer.com/gamefaqs/
http://thengamer.com/xstats
http://thengamer.com/stats

~*Character Contest Histories (Thanks to Raven 2 for the info transfer)*~
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Contest_Histories

~*Simple Explanation of Extrapolated Standings*~
A = Strongest Character
B = Character Weaker than A
C = Character Weaker than B
To figure out a character's Xsts Percentage ---> [(CvB)(BvA)]/50 = CvA
To compare how C would do against B ---> [(CvA)/(BvA)]*50 = CvB
To figure out how B would do against A ---> [(CvA)/(CvB)]*50 = BvA

~*All the match pics*~
http://sc2k5.com/gallery/index.php

~*Acronyms and Percentages for Dummies*~
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Acronyms_and_Percentages

~*Say What? Some Common Stat Topic Lingo Defined*~

SFF (Same Fanbase Factor) - Same Fanbase Factor is the theory that, if two contestants share a common fanbase, the weaker of the two options will underperform in a direct matchup. For instance, Link was expected to defeat Ganon with 65% of the vote in 2004, based on their 2003 values. Instead, Link collected near 88% of the vote, because the Zelda fanbase so clearly sided with him. However, take some SFF labels with a grain of salt, as many people will slap it onto any match that doesn't make total sense. This has caused a few SFF jokes, with LordOfDabu's "Some Frivolous Factor" being the funniest of them.

X-Stats - Short form of Extrapolated Statistics, aka the mathematical "strength" of a contestant that can be determined based on their performance in any given matchup. See above for a detailed explanation of the x-stat process.

LFF (Leech Fanbase Factor) - A common issue in four-way polls, where two entrants of the same fanbase leech one another's strength and make each other weaker. This is the main factor currently discussed in stat topics, since four-ways look like they're here to stay. The earliest example we have of this is Arthas/Diablo leeching each other half to death and letting KOS-MOS sneak into second place back in 2007. SFF still happens now and again, but LFF is just as huge these days.

Last Place Factor - A huge issue in four-way contests where an entrant having no expected chance to advance in the poll does far worse than past strength dictates. A lot of these entrants are naturally weak, but a lot of things come along that make little to no sense. A great example is Zero -- he scored 47% on Crono and won several updates, then one round later he gets disproportionally blown out once Link enters the picture. This factor also works in reverse, when an obvious first place game does worse than expected thanks to smart voters helping a game come in second place. The final of 2008 is a good example of this, where Snake stayed even with Link until the day vote and ultimately defeated Cloud. (Credit to red sox 777 and Leonhart4 for the examples)

For other information, surf the contest sites a bit. They have everything.

From: hochiminhX | Posted: 5/7/2009 12:42:47 AM | #290
Hochi's league of excellence. These are 10 people who have demonstrated contest analysis excellence.


Hochiminh



Black Turtle
Nintendogirl
Karma Hunter
Kleenex
Leonhart
Ultimaterializer
ZFS
Lopen
Yoblazer
Harrich

You are all accepted. You will be the Terrific Ten in my league of excellence.

It's so delicious and moist.
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Curses! Sig foiled by 7 votes.
The Force grows ever stronger in creativename

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!
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http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif

First post I've ever made in a CSaD topic!

Weird.
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Have you ever tried to find the words but they don't come out right?
THRASHIN'

That IS weird.
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http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif

Yes we did. Also, we have Tiebreakers now.

Tiebreakers for what?
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gamefaqscontests.com
gamefaqscontests.com/gallery

From: LeonhartFour
Well, I keep the updater on a secondary tab all day, so I occasionally check updates!

It's one of my 3 permanent tabs during the contest, the others being My Bracket and the Guru homepage.
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For easy access to all things statty.

From: creativename
Yes we did. Also, we have Tiebreakers now.

Tiebreakers for what?

On the My Bracket page, it now displays your Tiebreaker for the contest with your score.

Bracket for: nintendogirl1 - Current Score: 92 (Tiebreaker: 160401)
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'Tis funky.

You can check your bracket tiebreaker on your bracket now.
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http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif

Nice addition cn, now I don't have to manually do it myself.
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Board 8 BOP: http://www.freewebs.com/charmander6000/BGE2%20BOP.xls
BGE2 - Today's Match: MGS4 > LBP Points: 87/120

It's one of my 3 permanent tabs during the contest, the others being My Bracket and the Guru homepage.

You haven't memorized your bracket?
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Board 8 BOP: http://www.freewebs.com/charmander6000/BGE2%20BOP.xls
BGE2 - Today's Match: MGS4 > LBP Points: 87/120

hmm.. could you move it to the bottom of the page, creative? I think it'd look better out of sight since the updates are the main reason you'd be on the update pages.
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xyzzy

Two additions in one day.
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*is Dranze*
BGE2 - Today: SMG > CoD4 - Points: 86/112 Vote: SMG

I think a lot would miss it if it was on the bottom. You can just ignore it anyway.
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gamefaqscontests.com
gamefaqscontests.com/gallery

You haven't memorized your bracket?

Ever since 4-ways started, I don't think I've actually memorized any of my brackets.
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Link he come to town to win the Gamefaqs Contests.

Why in the world would you go through the effort of memorizing every detail of your bracket?
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http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif

I rarely even know what the next match is, let alone my whole bracket! Damn.
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gamefaqscontests.com
gamefaqscontests.com/gallery

I always forget what match is up next, but I usually remember which entrants I have placing.
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I, like clockwork, have been humiliated by hochiminh
Hochiminh is better than me. I was a numbskull for thinking I could defy Him.

Well, back in the days of 1v1s, I always remembered all my picks without trying to memorize anything.
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Link he come to town to win the Gamefaqs Contests.

You guys must have terrible memory, the only games I don't remember in the bracket are the ones that are bad, but not bad enough for me to remember.
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Board 8 BOP: http://www.freewebs.com/charmander6000/BGE2%20BOP.xls
BGE2 - Today's Match: MGS4 > LBP Points: 87/120

I know what I picked by heart, but have no idea what's when. if this thing wasn't generational I would be so lost.
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xyzzy

I usually know what I picked if I look at the match in particular, but other than that, nah.
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http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif

From: PartOfYourWorld
I always forget what match is up next, but I usually remember which entrants I have placing.

I can never remember who I have advancing in 2nd in a debatable match, especially if they're not going to advance in the next round.
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Not worth my time.

The day before the Symphonia match, I went "Disgaea's not doing bad. I wonder what match is toni-woah WOAH...I gotta write a Guest writeup."

Keep in mind this was my most anticipated match of the round.

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http://thengamer.com/guru/

And awesome addition, creativename.

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http://thengamer.com/guru/

Tag
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"Here I go! Divine judgment for an evil soul! Sacred Penance! Rest in peace." - Estellise Sidos Heurassein, Tales of Vesperia

hey, let's rank round 2 matches

Tetris / Donkey Kong / Mega Man 2 / Pac-Man
Zelda 1 / Mario 1 / Metroid / Ninja Gaiden
Sonic / SF2 / Mario 3 / Monkey Island
Mario World / FF1 / FF4 / Mega Man 3
Super Metroid / SMK / Zelda LTTP / DKC
FF6 / Zelda Link's Awakening / Sonic 2 / MK2
Goldeneye / Mario RPG / FF7 / MK64
Mario 64 / CT / SOTN / Yoshi's Island
Pokemon RBY / Pokemon GSC / Metal Gear Solid / Zelda: Majora's Mask
FF8 / Starcraft / FF9 / Ocarina of Time
FFX / MGS2 / Kingdom Hearts / GTA Vice City
Diablo 2 / Halo / SSBM / Wind Waker
Oblivion / Tales of Symphonia / World of Warcraft / MGS3
RE4 / KH2 / TP / Half-Life 2
SSBB / GTA4 / COD4 / Galaxy
MGS4 / Portal / Fallout 3 / Halo 3?

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xyzzy

Actually, not so much now as I can't actually remember the whole bracket, but back before 4-ways, I would often think of contest matches instead of dates or days of the week in setting my mental calendar.
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Link he come to town to win the Gamefaqs Contests.

Pokemon RBY / Pokemon GSC / Metal Gear Solid / Zelda: Majora's Mask
Super Metroid / SMK / Zelda LTTP / DKC
Zelda 1 / Mario 1 / Metroid / Ninja Gaiden
Mario World / FF1 / FF4 / Mega Man 3
FFX / MGS2 / Kingdom Hearts / GTA Vice City
FF8 / Starcraft / FF9 / Ocarina of Time
RE4 / KH2 / TP / Half-Life 2
MGS4 / Portal / Fallout 3 / Halo 3?
FF6 / Zelda Link's Awakening / Sonic 2 / MK2
Goldeneye / Mario RPG / FF7 / MK64
Sonic / SF2 / Mario 3 / Monkey Island
Tetris / Donkey Kong / Mega Man 2 / Pac-Man
Diablo 2 / Halo / SSBM / Wind Waker
SSBB / GTA4 / COD4 / Galaxy
Mario 64 / CT / SOTN / Yoshi's Island
Oblivion / Tales of Symphonia / World of Warcraft / MGS3

Maybe.
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Something like that.

Pokemon RBY / Pokemon GSC / Metal Gear Solid / Zelda: Majora's Mask
Oblivion / Tales of Symphonia / World of Warcraft / MGS3
RE4 / KH2 / TP / Half-Life 2
SSBB / GTA4 / COD4 / Galaxy
Mario World / FF1 / FF4 / Mega Man 3
FFX / MGS2 / Kingdom Hearts / GTA Vice City
Tetris / Donkey Kong / Mega Man 2 / Pac-Man
FF8 / Starcraft / FF9 / Ocarina of Time
Zelda 1 / Mario 1 / Metroid / Ninja Gaiden
Super Metroid / SMK / Zelda LTTP / DKC
Goldeneye / Mario RPG / FF7 / MK64
MGS4 / Portal / Fallout 3 / Halo 3?
Diablo 2 / Halo / SSBM / Wind Waker
Sonic / SF2 / Mario 3 / Monkey Island
Mario 64 / CT / SOTN / Yoshi's Island
FF6 / Zelda Link's Awakening / Sonic 2 / MK2

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http://thengamer.com/guru/

wait a second how did I get on this list
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I can feel it coming over me; I feel it all around me.
http://www.rosebride.com/lyn/otakon2k6/chronotrigger.jpg

1995-1997 GRADES

Donkey Kong Country 2: After seeing DKC1 doing well, I guess people half-expected DKC2 to do well also. Of course, I said from the beginning that there was virtually no way the DKC2 was as strong as the original, and this is coming from someone who considers Diddy's Kong Quest one of his favorite games. I do wonder if Mario RPG would've beaten GoldenEye if DKC2 hadn't been here though. Might have been close.

Grade: F

GoldenEye: Hey guys, remember when we thought GoldenEye was a potential top 10 game because of THE LIST? Looks like we were wrong! Whoops! It struggled with Mario RPG all day long, a game that is a solid midcarder game, to be sure, but a top ten game should not struggle with it. It's basically got a free pass into round 3 because of the Mario RPG/Mario Kart 64 split, but that Mario 64/GoldenEye matchup we've been anticipating for a long time is going to be ugly.

Grade: D

Resident Evil 2: This game was supposed to take advantage of a DKC2/Mario RPG split to take second place. It didn't even come close. It didn't perform horribly, but it still fell way short of what some people expected it to do.

Grade: D-

Super Mario RPG: Hey, can we finally say this game isn't popular simply because it's an RPG starring Mario? It's not just franchise voting, folks! This game is legit. It gave GoldenEye all it wanted until Europe woke up, and it still didn't finish too far behind when it was all said and done. A solid performance here.

Grade: A-
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http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif

Super Metroid / SMK / Zelda LTTP / DKC
Pokemon RBY / Pokemon GSC / Metal Gear Solid / Zelda: Majora's Mask
Mario World / FF1 / FF4 / Mega Man 3
Oblivion / Tales of Symphonia / World of Warcraft / MGS3
SSBB / GTA4 / COD4 / Galaxy
Zelda 1 / Mario 1 / Metroid / Ninja Gaiden
RE4 / KH2 / TP / Half-Life 2
Goldeneye / Mario RPG / FF7 / MK64
Tetris / Donkey Kong / Mega Man 2 / Pac-Man
Diablo 2 / Halo / SSBM / Wind Waker
FF8 / Starcraft / FF9 / Ocarina of Time
Mario 64 / CT / SOTN / Yoshi's Island
FFX / MGS2 / Kingdom Hearts / GTA Vice City
Sonic / SF2 / Mario 3 / Monkey Island
MGS4 / Portal / Fallout 3 / Halo 3?
FF6 / Zelda Link's Awakening / Sonic 2 / MK2
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FastFalcon owned me in the Guru Contest!

Donkey Kong Country 2: After seeing DKC1 doing well, I guess people half-expected DKC2 to do well also. Of course, I said from the beginning that there was virtually no way the DKC2 was as strong as the original, and this is coming from someone who considers Diddy's Kong Quest one of his favorite games. I do wonder if Mario RPG would've beaten GoldenEye if DKC2 hadn't been here though. Might have been close.

Grade: F

XD
LOL DKC2
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"Here I go! Divine judgment for an evil soul! Sacred Penance! Rest in peace." - Estellise Sidos Heurassein, Tales of Vesperia

Final Fantasy VII: Final Fantasy VII couldn't afford to show any weaknesses here, and it didn't. Maybe it didn't do quite as well as some people hoped, but I thought it did what was necessary to prove it was still up to the task of being GameFAQs' strongest game. It beat Mario Kart 64 by 40,000 votes, so what more do you want?

Grade: A

Mario Kart 64: I figured this was the most popular Mario Kart game, and after this performance, it seems to be confirmed. 30% on Final Fantasy VII is a good number, like we consider 30% on Link or Cloud to be a good number. It probably does a bit better if Star Fox 64 isn't in the match as well. It'll be interesting to see which game the Mario fans favor next round. I think it's a toss-up, though it is just for third place, so it doesn't matter too much.

Grade: B

Star Fox 64: Nice board vote from Star Fox 64, but that was about it. It finished closer to Suikoden than it did to Mario Kart 64, which isn't a good sign. You can attribute some of that to SFF, but it still doubles up Suikoden anyway.

Grade: F

Suikoden: We already saw Suikoden II get destroyed by FFVII, so what's another game in the series? Next Games Contest: Suikoden III's turn.

Grade: F
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http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif

Star Fox 64: Nice board vote from Star Fox 64, but that was about it. It finished closer to Suikoden than it did to Mario Kart 64, which isn't a good sign. You can attribute some of that to SFF, but it still doubles up Suikoden anyway.

Grade: F

Suikoden: We already saw Suikoden II get destroyed by FFVII, so what's another game in the series? Next Games Contest: Suikoden III's turn.

Grade: F

XD
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"Here I go! Divine judgment for an evil soul! Sacred Penance! Rest in peace." - Estellise Sidos Heurassein, Tales of Vesperia

Ok let's stop that.
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I can feel it coming over me; I feel it all around me.
http://www.rosebride.com/lyn/otakon2k6/chronotrigger.jpg

Ok let's stop that.

Dammit! Stop trying to spoil my fun!
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"Here I go! Divine judgment for an evil soul! Sacred Penance! Rest in peace." - Estellise Sidos Heurassein, Tales of Vesperia

http://www.gamefaqs.com/shared/bge09/bge09-32.jpg

aaw yeah Left 4 Dead hand
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Today's prediction: Nanomachines 41.87% - Portal 21.75% - Bioshock 20.88% - Sackboy 15.50%
Status: meh...

here we go

16 - FF6 / Zelda Link's Awakening / Sonic 2 / MK2 - nothing to see here. Sonic 2 almost definitely can't compete with Zelda, neither can compete with FF6. 40/30/20/10 affair here.

15 - Sonic / SF2 / Mario 3 / Monkey Island - Sonic vs. SF2 here, but Mario 3 crushes them both and neither have a chance in round 3.

14 - Super Metroid / SMK / Zelda LTTP / DKC - on a personal level I want to see how this goes, but this is a huge Nintendo mess with Zelda getting probably half the vote. it's probably not going to be interesting outside of the first few minutes, but then I said the same thing about Super Metriod / SMK and look what happened there.

13 - Mario 64 / CT / SOTN / Yoshi's Island - percentages mean more than the result, which is almost definitely CT > Mario 64. getting a good read on CT is important though.

12 - Diablo 2 / Halo / SSBM / Wind Waker - blech, none of these games looked good. that makes for an unpredictable match but I don't know if it makes it especially interesting.

11 - MGS4 / Portal / Fallout 3 / Halo 3? - we've seen this one before, but not in a contest setting. MGS4 vs. Fallout 3 round 3 could be halfway interesting.

10 - Tetris / Donkey Kong / Mega Man 2 / Pac-Man - how bad was the MM2 bomb? enough to lose to Tetris? probably, but I still want to see it.

9 - FFX / MGS2 / Kingdom Hearts / GTA Vice City - FFX and KH were the standouts for sure. do they hurt each other enough for MGS2 or Vice City to advance?
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xyzzy

Symphony of the Night: Yeah, SOTN advanced like most of us expected, but it nearly got doubled by Mario 64 in the process. The margin of victory over Resident Evil 1 was hardly impressive either. Hey, did I mention that I have CT > SOTN > Mario 64 next round because of Yoshi's Island? Whoops.

Grade: D-

Kirby Super Star: Come on, what did you think it was going to do with Mario 64 in the poll? It probably wouldn't have advanced even if Mario 64 hadn't been there, but the fact that Kirby's games were weak should have been obvious by this point. I was semi-impressed that it managed double digits though.

Grade: F

Resident Evil: I expected SOTN to beat RE with ease, and it didn't. You can attribute a good deal of that to SOTN being weaker than the last time we saw it, but I can admit when I'm wrong.

Grade: D

Super Mario 64: The game that always seems to disappoint us finally excels. It got 45% against a decent fourpack. SOTN and Resident Evil are not fodder games, but Mario 64 made them look like it.

Grade: A+
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http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif

left 4 dead's got this
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I can feel it coming over me; I feel it all around me.
http://www.rosebride.com/lyn/otakon2k6/chronotrigger.jpg

Kirby Super Star: Come on, what did you think it was going to do with Mario 64 in the poll? It probably wouldn't have advanced even if Mario 64 hadn't been there, but the fact that Kirby's games were weak should have been obvious by this point. I was semi-impressed that it managed double digits though.

Grade: F

XD

Finally, a last place game that got double digits!
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"Here I go! Divine judgment for an evil soul! Sacred Penance! Rest in peace." - Estellise Sidos Heurassein, Tales of Vesperia

Leon's sure giving a lot of F grades!
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Link he come to town to win the Gamefaqs Contests.

Leon's sure giving a lot of F grades!

All the better for me to laugh at the games that got them!
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"Here I go! Divine judgment for an evil soul! Sacred Penance! Rest in peace." - Estellise Sidos Heurassein, Tales of Vesperia

Chrono Trigger: I think most people expected CT to nab about half of the vote here, and it ended up with over 56% when it was all said and done. Everyone wanted to see if CT had lost a step, and so far, it's still lookin' good.

Grade: A

Earthbound: Man, I'm glad this game's eliminated so we can stop talking about it.

Grade: F

Lufia II: Hey, I'm playing this game right now, and it's pretty good so far. It's got Zelda-like dungeons with a turn-based RPG battle system. I can now recognize a few characters in its match pic now, too! Whoo!

Grade: F

Yoshi's Island: The final result doesn't show how badly this game struggled with Earthbound for the first few hours. This was when we started to realize that just having a major name in the title of the game doesn't automatically make you a strong game. Of course, the next match all but confirmed it.

Grade: D-
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http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif

Leonhart, you're pretty damn harsh with your grades. Goldeneye gets a D for beating out a game it finished below in the 2004 x-stats? I know it went up against OoT and all, but out of all the N64 games, Goldeneye probably holds up the most against OoT. Plus, it's not like Mario RPG is weak or unpopular and all. And who really thought Goldeneye was a top 10 game based on the list?

Goldeneye deserves a C at worst. It still did win the match. I mean, what would it get if it lost to Mario RPG? Or better yet, what if it would have gotten 3rd?
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Proud Supporter of Zero

Regarding the ending of the previous topic, am I the only person who believes that this is the absolute worst time for FO3, after the debacle of Broken Steel?
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I was soundly thrashed by FastFalcon, our reigning Guru Champion.
www.rpgdl.com - Because everybody loves violent arena battles, right?

8 - Oblivion / Tales of Symphonia / World of Warcraft / MGS3 - MGS3 takes first. second place is a mess though - the impressive TOS performance, Oblivion looking ever-so-slightly better, and of course, World of Warcraft.

7 - Goldeneye / Mario RPG / FF7 / MK64 - weeeird match. do MK64 and Mario RPG hurt each other? do MK64 and Goldeneye? Mario RPG and FF7? who knows. this is a pretty wacky race for second, and FF7's worth keeping an eye on as well.

6 - Mario World / FF1 / FF4 / Mega Man 3 - FF1 vs. FF4 is big, but likely an FF4 victory. Mario World needs separation in order to have a claim at second place with Mario 3 next round -- can it do enough?

5 - Zelda 1 / Mario 1 / Metroid / Ninja Gaiden - Zelda 1 vs. Mario 1 is pretty fascinating. they're both advancing regardless, but you can argue both of them for first place.

4 - SSBB / GTA4 / COD4 / Galaxy - Galaxy bomb, or COD4 doing better than expected? or both? Brawl's got to deal with Galaxy here so it'll be at a disadvantage; can COD4 take first again?

3 - RE4 / KH2 / TP / Half-Life 2 - RE4 barely beat KH2. with a Nintendo game added to the mix, does it hurt RE4 or does it manage second place? TP should have first, but it could still drop the ball. I guess you could even argue Half-Life 2 as having a chance at second.

2 - FF8 / Starcraft / FF9 / Ocarina of Time - FF8 vs. FF9 - FF8 probably wins, but it's a match we've been waiting to see for a long time. can Starcraft take advantage of the split? and what of Ocarina of Time, a game that looked to be on FF7's level in round 1?

1 - Pokemon RBY / Pokemon GSC / Metal Gear Solid / Zelda: Majora's Mask - what the ****

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xyzzy

What's the Broken Steel debacle?
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A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.