(2)Samus Aran vs (7)Mario (Legends Bracket) 2018

Ulti's Analysis
By now, everyone who follows these contests knows about the match these two had back in 2005: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2122-tournament-quarterfinal-mario-vs-samus-aran

The reason a 60-40 blowout has gotten so much run over the years is because it blew up extrapolated standings in the face of a lot of Samus > Mario hype that year. transience calls it his third most important match we've ever had. Statheads all picked Samus, because she was indirectly stronger. People with common sense picked Mario, because the idea of Samus beating Mario in a poll on this site at the time was asinine to us. You all know the rest. I wasn't exactly known for being a gracious winner at the time, and I penned a pretty embarrassing writeup of the match. It can be found here: https://board8.wikia.com/wiki/(1)Mario_vs_(1)Samus_Aran_2005

My opinion on statheads and their holy doctrine hasn't changed, but there are much better ways to go about giving an opinion than that bile I wrote. Good hell. I often get asked why I don't update old stuff. It's because I like to look back now and again and see how far my writing has come. I also got asked during this match why I love Mario so much, because loving Mario as a character makes no sense. This will seem weird and uncomfortable to a lot of people, but I've been meaning to archive this in a PCA for a long time. I might as well throw it in here. My real dad was either kicked out or left when my mom was pregnant, and the first 8 years or so of my life was really rough. We weren't poor, but we were really close to it. It was my single grandmother, my single mother, a bunch of single aunts and uncles, I had some really bad ADHD (still do, but as an adult I manage it a lot better), and most people in that house were really abusive. When my mom finally met a guy to marry, he ended up being an abusive, alcoholic pedophile. You can fill in the blanks. To this day I remember my mom dying when I was in high school and not even remotely caring. I told her once what my stepdad was doing, and her response was to not believe me before telling everyone else in my family I was a liar and a crazy person. Yeah, because a 12 year old would make any of that up. Moved out the day I turned 18 and I've almost never talked to anyone in my family since. I forgive them, but I haven't forgotten one thing. Not a one.

To the point. My main escapes at the time were school (smartest person in my family by a mile and I was always well liked in school) and video games. Well as a super young kid going through all that nonsense, I had the original Nintendo. In high school I mowed lawns for a Sega Genesis. Never had anything else until I moved out. For the Nintendo I had Mario 1, Mario 2, Mario 3, Zelda 1, Zelda 2, TMNT 1, TMNT 2, Tetris, The Guardian Legend, Crystalis, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Wheel of Fortune, Donkey Kong Jr (the one with both games on it), and Duck Hunt. For Sega I had Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Madden 94, NHL 94, Jewel Master, Earthworm Jim 1, Earthworm Jim 2, Shanghai 2, Tony Larussa Baseball, NBA Jam, Vectorman, and Super High Impact. I remember my entire childhood library like it was yesterday, because at home when you're being abused in the worst possible way, those are your best friends and your best memories. Video games probably saved my life. True story.

My favorite game on that entire list is Mario 3. I cannot actually put in words how important that game is to me on top of it just being a damn good game, but let's just say there are reasons beyond gaming I freaked out so much when Mario won in 2005. I like him winning in 2002 and 2003 in those debated matches too, but 2005 was just different. It's like really, my childhood hero is going to lose to someone I hadn't heard of before Smash 64? Get out of here. I could have handled it better, but I hope this helps people see why I wasn't exactly cordial about it at the time. The way I came up is why I have no sympathy for people who make excuses, either. I came out the other side as an adult and became successful. Stop making excuses and go to work. If I can do it, so can you.

(By the way, there are people on this forum who have accused me of making that story up. This isn't the first time I've talked about it, just the first time I put it into a PCA because I want it archived somewhere. You people know who you are, and I seriously hope you one day have children who get abused by trusted family members so you know exactly what it feels like. It's what you deserve for being such awful human beings. Remember one thing. Karma always wins. Always. You'll get yours at some point in this life.)

So let's fast forward 13 years. Here's Mario and Samus slated for their first duel since 2005, and it was.... actually.... close? Say what? When this started, it was not an SFF match at all. This was only 53-47, and Mario only had a 125 vote lead after 30 minutes. Then Samus knocked it down to 50 in ten minutes. Right then and there, it hit me. The people who backed Samus in 2005 were actually right. She is stronger than Mario indirectly, and I owe you all an apology. So here you go. Consider this writeup as cordial an apology as you'll ever get. You guys were right and had a perfectly fair point. Samus is absolutely capable of beating Mario. That 10 minute window proved it.

Unfortunately, Mario buried Samus from then on out. Relatively speaking, at least. He won by about 800, but had a peak lead of nearly 1000. Mario may have won the rematch, but the implications here are obvious. This match shut down a 13 year old argument and pretty much made both sides look correct. That's as good of an ending as you can have to a feud.

For that reason, these two having a rematch in this exact contest a few days later was awful. This match was a perfect ending. The rematch ripped the wound back open.