(1)Squall Leonhart vs (4)Zelda 2018

Ulti's Analysis
Throughout any contest, you'll see a bunch of topics talking about stars and turds each round. I don't get involved in doing all that every round, but this match showed a wonderful contrast between the two. Zelda, the clear star of this contest as of this match, didn't just beat Squall. She destroyed him. After the early board vote went Squall's way because of brackets or whatever have you, Zelda went out there and put down a beating so bad that if you ran the numbers, this result puts her squarely and high up in the Noble Nine level. Some people weren't ready to go there, but I was. I have the second chance picks to prove it, and even I didn't go far enough because Zelda was on the juice all contest long. She was like this in the first two rounds too, but this was the match that really made people notice. The really scary thing is this didn't start off all that bad, but within 10 minutes this was a laughable blowout.

It was basically this match in reverse, actually. Zelda went out there and got some revenge for her distant cousin from the Mario games: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1339-north-division-round-2-squall-leonhart-vs-luigi

On the other side was this contest's biggest turd. You cannot go out there and get 37% as a 1 seed in round 3. You just can't. I don't care who or what you're up against. This was a thorough embarrassment and there is no defense for it, regardless of how down Square is. That 1 seed line is supposed to be special. We had three 1 seeds in this contest that completely failed the 1 seed line for various reasons -- Dante, 2B, and Squall. Squall by far had the worst exit, and I don't know how he comes back from this. Even a port of Final Fantasy 8 to the PS4 wouldn't help at this point, I don't think.

By the way, fuck you Square for not saving the original files and giving FF8 the love it deserves. You save it all for every other game except 8? Really? Fuck you Square. No wonder you suck eggs outside of one game on this site.

Seriously, look it up. Pretty much every other game in that series has been ported or rereleased at some point all the way up to 12. That company is such a joke at this point and it's a big reason I enjoyed this match so much. Nintendo's online may suck, but at least I can tell they care about their fans when I play their games. Square literally does not give a shit anymore. I used to be very much in the Square camp whenever these duels would happen in contests, but outside of FF7 I am firmly in the Nintendo camp now. They've won me back. As such, this match was great. The star of the contest stomped, and though I like Squall a lot he represents Square's idiocy. FF8 not being ported yet is such a joke.

For those who don't understand what I mean about losing source files, I am in no way kidding. Square really is that stupid and Squall is paying for it: https://www.vg247.com/2018/09/14/isnt-ps4-xbox-switch-port-final-fantasy-8-preservation-may-answer/