(1)Metal Gear Solid vs (8)EarthBound 2015

Ulti's Analysis
A lot of people will point to MGS3/BioShock as the true example of the MGS series being completely screwed in this contest, but that match had a weird triple rally going on where all three rallies were against MGS3. But we'll get to that insanity in a bit.

For me, the true sign MGS was completely and utterly fucked was this match right here. I know EarthBound showed it was legit against Borderlands 2 and that it has some newfound strength, but coming close to breaking 40% on Metal Gear Solid was just ridiculous. Remember, before this contest EarthBound had never won a match. Now we were watching it beat Borderlands 2 and get 40% on Metal Gear Solid. This wasn't an old > new thing, either, as EarthBound is only 4 years older than Metal Gear Solid. I guess you could make the case for an insane SNES boost, but even still. 40% on Metal Gear Solid, which is the one game from this series that should be looking good even when the other games all suck it up.

When the flagship game is out there performing like trash, you know you're done. It's really bad when some games in the series looked better in losses than others did in wins. This was just awful, and frankly the series needed a lucky draw to have a game make it into the final 8.

It seems relevant that virtually everyone in the Oracle overshot this match, and that MGS1 was a top 10 game in 2009. Six years later and we had... whatever this was.