Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1376

Frog is always good for putting on a show.

Frog is the star of that contest for sure.

Yeah, 2010 also had 12 hour matches. The record was also likewise broken by s bunch of matches from later contests due to low votals.

Damn wish Liquid was still strong enough to go toe to toe with Frog

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1731-20xx-division-round-1-master-chief-vs-crash-bandicoot

Back in the day, there was a board contest called the Prophet Challenge, run by MMXCalibur (yes, the "post and I'll rate you (with short summary and analysis)" guy). It was an offshoot of the Oracle Contest. Instead of guessing the percentage of the winner, you'd try to guess the margin of victory in total votes.

I bring this up because MMXCalibur would post a writeup related to each day's match, and they were often excellent. However, there's one in particular that has stuck with me to this day, and it's Master Chief/Crash Bandicoot. I won't do it justice, of course, but I remember the premise being that Chief and Crash were the unpopular kids in school. They were roaming the cafeteria trying to find someone to sit with, and everyone averted their eyes from them. It's a "you had to be there" type of thing, but yeah, that's what I think of when I see this match.

Master Chief would get his glow up in a few years before time takes its tool.

Crash Bandicoot would also get a second wind. Tough luck for Cecil, though.

I wonder if this is the match with the largest margin of victory where the loser could potentially win a rematch today. Heck, I'd wager Crash would be favored now.

Actually, I guess there's Cloud/Pikachu in 2002 since Cloud tripled the rat back then. I don't think Pikachu would win in a fair fight 1-on-1, but stranger things have happened.

It's kinda funny how the more recent Pokemon games haven't really had a great reception from older players. But, it doesn't matter since the voters aren't playing those games anyways. So, Pikachu might be just fine.

I'm not sure how much FF7R2 will help or hurt Cloud. The game reviewed well but it feels like a fair number of people aren't happy with the direction of the remakes. It would have been nice if it showed up to the GotY polls.

I think almost everyone is happy with how the core FF7 party members were handled in Remake/Rebirth, at least. Felt like a return to form after decades of characterization drift and flanderization.

No way Rebirth would hurt Cloud, although I'm not sure how much if a boost there is to get, it should help keep the whole gang relevant here.

Doubt the Switch games makes a difference to Pikcahu. Cloud would win the match but obviously a lot smaller than that.

Pikachu was also only barely above 30 in 03 against Fox, that's gotta be up there.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1732-20xx-division-round-1-kefka-vs-knuckles-the-echidna

Square killer Knuckles is always good for getting out of Round 1. Lettuce hope Kefka does better next time.

I seem to remember that being a bit of a Kefka overperformance in the eyes of the board (probably because of Crono nearly quadrupling him in 2003), so I looked it up. Sure enough, the Oracle average was Knuckles with 60%, and that was with a handful of people picking Kefka to win outright.

Unlike Kefka, Knuckles doesn't chuckle.

My account is 21 today. Interesting to see that was the match 20 years ago.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1733-20xx-division-round-1-solid-snake-vs-tanner

Press F to pay respects

We tried for a very long time to find someone who screamed "generic loser" more than Tanner

I think we came close with Nathan Hale but alas that was 4-ways

The Driver series has more games than I thought it would. But, looks like it has been dormant for almost a decade now.

I remember playing the original Driver

I never played the Drivthreer game Tanner was from though

LeonhartFour posted...

We tried for a very long time to find someone who screamed "generic loser" more than Tanner

I think we came close with Nathan Hale but alas that was 4-ways

Let's not forget the real 2006 champion, Jay Solano.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Let's not forget the real 2006 champion, Jay Solano.

It doesn't count if you beat Link!

I even like Resistance but I can't believe Nathan Hale made a contest

Driver: San Francisco was unironically a fantastic game.

They spent so much money trying to one up GTA they went bankrupt with Driver 3. Last one i played was Parallel Lines which was actually really good.

Leonhart4 posted...

It doesn't count if you beat Link!

I mean, it is really funny that the top Google result for Jay Solano is his B8 Fandom article, and then it’s other real people named Jay Solano. No Operation Shadow for the N-Gage anywhere.

He would have been perfect in any other context.

Jay Solano vs. Chester

Who ya got?

Leonhart4 posted...

Jay Solano vs. Chester

Who ya got?

The top option and the lowest turnout for a poll on GameFAQs ever.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5224-character-battle-ix-bonus-battle-last-place

Fresh reminder that Caim won a poll

Caim dominated a poll

With a very impressive percentage too

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1734-midgar-division-round-1-cloud-strife-vs-duke-nukem



Honestly might be CJayC's best work

Duke Nukem Forever would not come out for another 7 years. It has now been out for 13 years which is almost as long as its 14 year development time.

Back when a 7 year development time was uncommon.

Jade probably wins the milk carton contest today.

Haven't been here since the start of lockdown. What happened to the contests?

SBAllen stepped down as admin. So even if we did get a contest, it wouldn't be like the old ones. With that said, we haven't gotten any contests at all.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1735-midgar-division-round-1-vyse-vs-laharl

I'm glad Vyse got a 1-on-1 win on his resume. I think this contest solidified his place as the Fodder Line for us.

I was #1 on the leaderboard going into that match and got it wrong. I think I had lost faith in Laharl by the time it came around, though.

I'll get to brag about my brief run at #1 on the leaderboard when we review SC2K5

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1736-midgar-division-round-1-kirby-vs-kain

After two years of Raziel, he was replaced by Kain...to basically the same results.

In 2024 that would be an incredible result for either Kain or Raziel!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1737-midgar-division-round-1-squall-leonhart-vs-bomberman

I seem to recall this being viewed as a disappointing result for Squall. Indeed, I checked the Oracle results, and the average was Squall with 71% and the 2003 X-Stats have him getting 69% as well. This is also similar to what Alucard got on Bomberman in 2003, so yeah, I guess this was a sizable underperformance.

Not that it particularly mattered since Squall was headed for an SFF beatdown by Cloud in a couple rounds, so the truth of whether this was a weaker Squall or a stronger Bomberman (or a combination of both) is obscured.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1738-midgar-division-round-1-ness-vs-jak

Ness's first real match since he got blown up by Bowser in 2k3. He's not too strong but actually manages to get a few wins over the years.

Ness vs. Jak was a decently debated Round 1 match, but I can't imagine Jak gets much upset potential if Ness hadn't been SFFed into oblivion the previous year.

And it would take a while before we would get a really good read on him, because if he wasn't running into Nintendo directly, he'd get stuck behind someone else who underperforms, like being behind Auron who faced Sephy later.

Poor Jak, got three winnable matches and lost all three.

Leonhart4 posted...

Poor Jak, got three winnable matches and lost all three.

Man, if he hadn't lost the 2013 match...

LeonhartFour posted...

Not that it particularly mattered since Squall was headed for an SFF beatdown by Cloud in a couple rounds, so the truth of whether this was a weaker Squall or a stronger Bomberman (or a combination of both) is obscured.

Squall underperformed on Kirby, too. (unless you believe Kirby got all of his boost in 2004 rather than 2005 like most other Nintendo characters....)

Haste_2 posted...

Squall underperformed on Kirby, too. (unless you believe Kirby got all of his boost in 2004 rather than 2005 like most other Nintendo characters....)

It would just be weird for Squall to have this big drop from 2003 to 2004 and then just be right back to where he was in 2005. He doesn't strike me as a "dependent on the vote totals" type of character.

Then again, all his weakest years would be the ones with poorer vote totals: 2002 (at least at the time of his match with Snake), 2004, 2013, and 2018, so maybe there's something to it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1739-midgar-division-round-1-auron-vs-scorpion

Once upon a time, Scorpion made the Top 8. Now he struggles to get out of Round 1 and his next win is still many years away. His next 1v1 win is... I'm sure it'll happen someday.

Get out of here, Scorpion!

He has been quite unfortunate with draws since, seeding not helping of course. Used up all his luck in that first contest.