1995 vs 2001

Ulti's Analysis
(Not linking to match pictures from here on out because they're in a weird order on creative's site and I'm lazy. I will say that I was very happy with multiple rotating pictures for each entrant, which gives more people a shot at getting a picture accepted.)

We all saw this match coming given how these two performed leading up to the match itself, but hats off to 1995 for putting up one hell of a fight before finally getting run over. The logic coming in was easy. Chrono Trigger was wrecking face in 2015 before rallies happened, to the tune of 65% on Final Fantasy X and getting ready to get 60% on Melee. So why couldn't Chrono Trigger (1995) beat the FFX/Melee unholy alliance (2001)? Seemed easy, but we learned in this contest that things like year depth and match pictures would be the biggest factors in this contest.

For 30 minutes, this match was shaping up to be a classic. 1995 barely won the board vote, then the two years stayed tied for 30 straight minutes. Some people thought 1995 would run away with things, but it would not turn out that way. 2001 started pulling away a little after the 30 minute update, and before long it was clear this match was over. We can't blame anything here other than 2001's strength and 1995's slight weakness, because this was a completely fair fight the whole way through. No picture fuckery or anything. Just a fair fight that 2001 won.

We all figured 2001's run was over at this point given 1995's weakness throughout the entire contest, but it would turn out there was one last surprise in store this year.