(5)Amaterasu vs (12)Draven 2018

Ulti's Analysis
For the sake of this writeup, I'm only historically looking at 1v1 results. If someone else wants to look up 4ways or 3ways, have fun.

In our very first contest, the Summer 2002 Contest, Ms. Pac-Man only scored 5257 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/968-west-division-round-1-mega-man-vs-ms-pac-man

In the Summer 2003 Contest, something called AiAi scored 8802 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1305-north-division-round-1-link-vs-aiai

In the Spring 2004 Contest, our first games contest, Adventure only scored 4686 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1606-division-8-round-1-the-legend-of-zelda-vs-adventure

In the Summer 2004 Contest, Tanner only scored 4492 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1733-20xx-division-round-1-solid-snake-vs-tanner

In the villains contest, Giygas only scored 11966 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2001-triforce-division-round-1-ganondorf-vs-giygas

In the Summer 2005 Contest, Yuri Hyuga only scored 10813 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2070-zebes-division-round-1-samus-aran-vs-yuri-hyuga

In the series contest, Madden NFL only scored 9186 in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2433-mushroom-division-round-1-super-mario-bros-vs-madden-nfl

In the Summer 2006 Contest, Carmen Sandiego only scored 16578 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2507-triforce-division-round-1-zelda-vs-carmen-sandiego

In the Fall 2010 Contest, Falco only scored 10419 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3746-mushroom-division-round-1-mario-vs-falco-lombardi

In the Rivalry Rumble, Arthas and Illidan only scored 4598 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest, and good, because fuck Blizzard. They are indefensible trash: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/4526-south-division-round-1-link-vs-ganondorf-arthas-vs-illidan

In the Fall 2015 Contest, Hearthstone only scored 3604 votes in a poll. It was the lowest of that contest, and good, because Hearthstone is by far the worst video game ever made: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6083-best-game-ever-day-9-zelda-ocarina-of-time-vs-hearthstone

That brings us to this match, but before we do, take a deep dive into those polls. The winners, in order: Mega Man, Link, a Zelda game, Solid Snake, Ganondorf, Samus, the Mario series, Zelda, Mario, Link + Ganon, and a Zelda game. Snake is the only odd one out, and his Tanner match was pretty blatant SFF on top of Snake himself bending the knee to Nintendo. Hold that thought.

Everyone knows the story of the 2013 contest by now. Draven escaped round one with a late rally, caught fire in round 2, and then it was a shitstorm. We don't need to revisit how embarrassing Board 8 and the League subreddit both acted, though anyone on Board 8 who acts like B8 wasn't just as bad as them is being intellectually dishonest. You all acted like garbage. Anyway Draven won the contest, which we all know by now.

People knew Draven would be weaker this time, but no one saw this insanity coming. Amaterasu scored something like the first 70 votes of the poll, and before long people realized Draven was about to pay, big time, for what he did in 2013. The crazy thing is Amaterasu never stopped going up and never lost percentage. There would be no rallies. There would be no miracles. Just Amaterasu of all characters scoring the biggest blowout of the contest. By pure votes one on one, Draven and his 3439 votes were the lowest we've ever seen in a 1v1 poll. Ever. Only the failure of Blizzard even comes close, but here's the thing. Amaterasu did this. Can you imagine if Draven was up against a universally loved character or game instead of a mediocre contest entrant like Amaterasu? How many votes does Draven get here against Zelda, Mega Man, Solid Snake, or Chrono Trigger? 1500? Maybe 2000?

It can't actually be overstated how nuts this blowout was, and it shouldn't be a footnote in contest history just because it happened during the dead era on our web site. I've alluded to this match several times in the PCA so far, but rallybait characters got destroyed in this contest and Draven himself ate the biggest blowout of them all. It's a fitting punishment for 2013, and I say this as someone who supports rallies. There was one more rallybait character to get rid of, but this match showed us we had nothing to worry about. D.Va wasn't going to pull off a damn thing this year. Not in this environment. It's also really hilarious to see Amaterasu up there with the likes of Nintendo elite in our record books. It shows just how badly people wanted Draven to get his ass whipped. Hell before this match, only Mega Man X had broken 80% in a poll. Amaterasu beat that by 8%. That's just nuts.

It leads to the obvious question: Can a rally ever happen again on our site? I think so, but this just wasn't the year for it. Simple as that.