GameFAQs Contests

None, people aren't going to rally for years.

UltimaterializerX posted...

Also, 1997 > 1996 makes zero sense when Final Fantasy 7 is going to be in all of 1997's match pictures. You guys have seen how far that game has fallen, right?

FF7 is still really, really strong. I'm also banking on voters not anti-voting 1997 just because FF7 is in it so 1997 can take advantage of FF7's strength without also having to deal with all of the downsides of FF7 as well.

97 is a lot more than FF7. heck, its 2-5 is better than 96.

Here are the BOP results for the more debatable matches

Round 1

1987 – 27
1985 – 7

2000 – 26
1990 – 8

2002 – 30
2010 – 4

1994 – 30
2004 – 4

2006 – 27
2011 – 7

2003 – 28
2013 – 6

2005 – 28
2015 – 6

Round 2

1995 – 30
1987 – 4

1996 – 20
2000 – 12
1990 – 2

1994 – 29
2004 – 3
2006 – 2

2003 – 20
2005 – 8
2013 – 4
2015 – 2

Round 3

2001 – 25
1995 – 9

1997 – 22
1996 – 6
2000 – 6

1991 – 19
1994 – 14
2006 – 1

Semifinal

2001 – 18
1997 – 8
1995 – 5
2000 – 2
1996 – 1

I saw a BOP license plate today. I thought about trying to take a picture but then realized how stupid that was

I'm absolutely shocked that 1995 is so favoured over 1987.

Huh, 1991 > 1994 is the favorite. Didn't expect that.

also didn't expect 2001 to be the upper half chalk

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

I'm absolutely shocked that 1995 is so favoured over 1987.

CT is far and away the strongest thing and its 2-5 would crush 1987's 2-5

LeonhartFour posted...

there are no seeds

This is correct. I tried to assign seeds to all of the entrants in the bracket based on how 32 entrant brackets have been seeded in the past. For the round 1 divisions, they are seeded as follows (from top to bottom in each division) - 1 vs. 8, 4 vs. 5, 3 vs. 6, 2 vs. 7

For the wildcard years that made it into the contest through the Vote-In polls, I treated them as 9 seeds. The opponents expected to all win their Wildcard matches are 7 seeds since they would advance to the Round 1 portion of the bracket which would be occupied by a 7 seed.

What we end up with are the following seeds:

1 seeds - 1995, 1997, 1991, 1998
2 seeds - 2008, 1996, 2011, 2015
3 seeds - 2001, 2000, 1994, 2013
4 seeds - 1985, 2007, 2002, 1992
5 seeds - 1987, 2012, 2010, 2016
6 seeds - 2014, 1990, 2004, 2003
7 seeds - 2009, 1989, 2006, 2005
8 seeds - 1986, 1999, 1988, 1993
9 seeds - 1979, 1983, 1981, 1978

With the exception of the 1 seeds, most of these projected seeds don't really make sense, confirming that the bracket wasn't really seeded in a traditional sense.

Thanks for that as well, Luster. You're on a roll.

charmander6000 posted...

I assume a list of games will appear when you hover over the picture.

I would be so upset if this wasn't the case...and so would my bracket.

So outside of the oracle (and guru) there aren't any other contests going on?

enthusiasm is pretty low for this contest.

I'm excited though. I want to see what happens. I fully expect these matches to be snoozefests though.

charmander6000 posted...

So outside of the oracle (and guru) there aren't any other contests going on?

Eh, those were the only contests worthwhile anyways

swirIdude posted...

Thanks for that as well, Luster. You're on a roll.

She always is

transience posted...

enthusiasm is pretty low for this contest.

I'm excited though. I want to see what happens. I fully expect these matches to be snoozefests though.

I'm decently excited

not so much to super root for something but more for analysis and general interest in how voters will vote in years

charmander6000 posted...

So outside of the oracle (and guru) there aren't any other contests going on?

I'm gonna do the If It Were Up to Board 8 as usual but I have a feeling that wont get many votes

will still do it like usual

transience posted...

enthusiasm is pretty low for this contest.

I'm excited though. I want to see what happens. I fully expect these matches to be snoozefests though.

tranny I hope you don't mind but I essentially copied your bracket up until the final four. I don't really know how to do my own research for this so I just assumed you knew what you were doing and went with that.

I also assumed you leaned with the older generations just coz that's what you grew up with. I took 2001 and 1998 to the final though.

It's not too late for that eliminations pick challenge thing, where you can't pick the same game twice. I found that to be really fun last time

I think I picked the first option for most of the contest

Is there any chance that the top of the 1983 banner gets mistaken for Mario 3 because voters remember the mini-game more than the original game?

I highly doubt anyone actually gets them confused, but I could still see it pulling the upset with these pics.

This contest will be so reliant on pictures it's gonna be nuts.

ExThaNemesis posted...

transience posted...

enthusiasm is pretty low for this contest.

I'm excited though. I want to see what happens. I fully expect these matches to be snoozefests though.

tranny I hope you don't mind but I essentially copied your bracket up until the final four. I don't really know how to do my own research for this so I just assumed you knew what you were doing and went with that.

I also assumed you leaned with the older generations just coz that's what you grew up with. I took 2001 and 1998 to the final though.

I consider this a huge compliment! I also changed a lot of it with 20 minutes to go, heh

transience posted...

ExThaNemesis posted...

transience posted...

enthusiasm is pretty low for this contest.

I'm excited though. I want to see what happens. I fully expect these matches to be snoozefests though.

tranny I hope you don't mind but I essentially copied your bracket up until the final four. I don't really know how to do my own research for this so I just assumed you knew what you were doing and went with that.

I also assumed you leaned with the older generations just coz that's what you grew up with. I took 2001 and 1998 to the final though.

I consider this a huge compliment! I also changed a lot of it with 20 minutes to go, heh

curse you. What did you change?

yoblazer's is the bracket you should be copying

dude's won more prize money than any of us

you can find it in the guru topic

I really don't know what to do with this contest. I don't like picking a bunch of these years. I wish we got some better matchups because I would have gone deep with years like 94 or 06.

Match I – Wildcard – 1979 vs. 2009

Notable Releases – Adjusted X-Stats (Year)

1979
Games
Adventure – 3.92% (2004)
Lunar Lander
Asteroids
Galaxian

Platforms
Microvision
TI-99/4

2009
Games
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – 18.90% (2015)
Minecraft – 16.82% (2015)
Street Fighter IV – 25.82% (2010)
Batman: Arkham Asylum – 31.73% (2010)

Platforms
None

Analysis

Welcome to the Best Year in Gaming. The 32 years from 1985 to 2016 along with four pre-1985 years will battle it out to decide which year is GameFAQs’ favourite year. Overall this contest is a unique idea and there will be a lot of questions as to how the voters will vote. The contest begins with four wildcard matches to decide whether the pre-1985 years deserve to make the main bracket.

1979 was the winner of the 70s vote-in poll though to be fair outside of 1972 and 1978 there wasn’t much competition in the poll. The sole game to have made a GameFAQs contest match from the year was Adventure which let The Legend of Zelda break 95% in 2004. To be fair I’d expect Asteroids, Galaxian and maybe Lunar Lander to have a bit more strength.

Among the 1985-2016 years I expect 2009 to be one of the weakest. The year completely lacks an anchor game, relying on a range of mid-card games for its strength. While I feel diversity will be important in this contest you also need to have some heavy hitters if you want to get anywhere.

With that said 2009 should easily win this match. While it’s hard to pinpoint 1979’s strength I wouldn’t take Asteroids or Galaxian over the top games of 2009 and things become increasingly worse if you look at the depth.

charmander6000’s Bracket: 2009 > 1979

charmander6000’s Prediction: 2009 wins, 78.54% - 21.46%

Match II – Wildcard – 1983 vs. 1989

Notable Releases – Adjusted X-Stats (Year)

1983
Games
Dragon’s Lair
Mario Bros.
Star Wars
M.U.L.E.

Platforms
Apple IIe
Coleco Adam

1989
Games
Tetris – 27.39% (2015)
Dragon Warrior
Bomberman
The Guardian Legend

Platforms
Game Boy
Lynx
Sega Genesis
TurboGrafx-16

Analysis

When the bracket was first released I took a brief pause at this match, but once I looked more deeply I feel 1989 will likely win. For some reason SBAllen has classified Tetris as a 1989 game despite calling it a 1986 game during the 2015 games contest. Not having Mega Man 2 or Super Mario Land severely hurts the year though and could lead to an underperformance.

1983 has the distinction of being one of two years in this contest to not have a game appear in a GameFAQs contest, but that doesn’t mean the year has nothing to offer. I expect Mario Bros. to have some strength, with the main reason of it not appearing in a contest was due to the existent of a large number of Mario games. Star Wars will also help due to name recognition.

This match has a high potential to have SFF. Tetris could SFF Mario Bros. turning this match into a blowout. Apparently the match picture will be rotating. Initially we’ll see the year with Mario vs. a slime then in 5 seconds we’ll see Dragon’s Lair vs. Tetris and so forth. This could potentially be a game changer, but I assume and hope SBAllen will have a list of games when you hover over the picture so that should decrease the confusion.

While I don’t expect consoles to be a huge factor 1989 does have both the Game Boy and Sega Genesis in its corner. While it is a shame they won’t be in the picture I expect them to get a mention when you hover over the picture. 1983 was a distant second to 1981 in the 80s vote-in poll so I expect 1989 to perform a similar beat down.

charmander6000’s Bracket: 1989 > 1983

charmander6000’s Prediction: 1989 wins, 71.35% - 28.65%

I'm excited for the contest, mostly just because we have a new contest but also there's no consensus on how people will vote (besides 1998 > all). Bring it on!

We're less than an hour before the first matches go up and there's no "First Vote Contest" topic yet.

We're going to be doing without a lot of traditional B8 things.

Which is kind of sad, but that's the state of this contest and the state of the board right now.

I feel like that's appropriate, both with where we are as a board/site and the enthusiasm level of this contest.

I'm cool with the low-key approach. we'll get our 25k votes and enjoy it with minimal interruptions. I don't have high hopes for contests going forward so a big character battle probably wouldn't be that great either.

LusterSoldier posted...

We're less than an hour before the first matches go up and there's no "First Vote Contest" topic yet.

Don't worry child it will be.

If you guys care that much about it, just host it yourselves.

For me, all i need is oracle and Guru

LusterSoldier posted...

We're less than an hour before the first matches go up and there's no "First Vote Contest" topic yet.

Thanks for the reminder. It's up now:
https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/75301888

Oh, man. I had no idea 1987 had so little support against 1995. I guess everyone took The Show's advice to heart. I changed to 1987 at the last minute, though. I'm probably screwed now. You could call it my big upset special of the contest. The rest of my bracket is pretty much cookie-cutter.

Pretty sure 1995 would've been an overwhelming favorite regardless!

1987 has Zelda 1 and a bunch of fodder

1995 has CT and a bunch of midcards

I took 87 over 95 and didn't look back. To me, it's basically the opposite of what Leon just said. The 95 games look like fodder. The 87 games are memorable. But I also grew up on 80s games.

one thing we can't say yet is what impact historical games will have. Zelda 1 loses to CT every time but it might be different if people weigh it heavier.

I can't see 1985 or 1987 competing with 1995 though unless people just don't see CT in the match.

The '87 games outside of Zelda 1 are "respected classics" that are still fodder, like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man. They will (and have in the past) fold in the face of stuff people actually like, and the last contest displayed that there might not be anything this site likes more than Chrono Trigger right now.

LeonhartFour posted...

The '87 games outside of Zelda 1 are "respected classics" that are still fodder, like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man.

Maybe it's due to when I was born, but there's a divide to me between games like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man and Punch-out, Double Dragon, Contra, and Final Fantasy.

Donkey Kong beat Punch-Out in 2009.

If FF were in 1987, I'd almost certainly take it over 1985 hands down, but it's not. Those other games aren't very popular!

if FF1 got its japanese date, 1987 would be a monster.

of course, if that were the case, Zelda and Metroid move to 1986 and 86 becomes a lot more legit.

There's also the chance that CT has continued to grow in strength relative to the rest of the field since the last games contest. We don't have enough data so it's hard to gauge it trajectory other than it seemed to be going way up.

tag

We had about 600 votes per match during the board vote on the first day of the last contest and with our lower vote totals (and reduced hype), we may be looking at only 300-400 votes during the board vote.

Tag

Almost time...

Hopefully the poll won't glitch

Blah, I can't keep straight what's officially in which years. Every time I want to check, I just hit google, and it always tells me wrong stuff. Even without FF1, though, I still take the NES classics (which are not the same thing at all as pre-NES classics.)