(4)Nathan Drake vs (13)Miles "Tails" Prower 2018

Ulti's Analysis
Only CAPTAIN TOAD had a lower round one prediction percentage than this one, and it did my childhood and my fanboyism a world of good to be on the right side of Tails' path this year. yoblazer made a fantastic topic about best feels-good calls this contest, and my #1 is Tails. I'll get more into his actual path and why it meant so much to me in round two, so for now let's just focus on this one match.

80% of the board and almost 70% of the brackets picked Nathan Drake to win this match, but I knew. I just knew. Well I didn't "know" per se, because this was a pure fanboy pick that I could not pass up. I was always pissed I didn't take Tails > Viewtiful Joe back in the day, and I vowed to pick the little guy again if I ever got the chance to pull an upset.

How long did I wait?

https://tenor.com/view/till-this-day-deontay-wilder-to-this-day-gif-13032806

I could not pass it up. Nathan Drake was the perfect opponent for Tails to get some redemption. The guy got less than 7% in a poll and lost to CATS in his contest debut. Then he got a 2 seed and became the first 2 seed ever to lose to a 15. His one win was in 2013 against Pac-Man by 700 votes, and I have my doubts Drake could win that match if it was a 1v1. That was it, Drake's entire history leading up to this match. Why he continues to get these high seeds and all this bracket backing, I will never understand. Nathan Drake is on par with GTA and Call of Duty, only he actually keeps making contests to embarrass himself in while a lot of other casualbait knew when to quit. Not that Tails's history was all that much better, but his round 1 losses were generally to more respectable opponents.

And for pete's sake, the guy has never lost to CATS. When the match started and Tails just boat raced this clown, I could not have been happier. I didn't get a whole lot of debated stuff right this contest, but I can always look at this match plus the one after and just smile. You finally did it little man, and with my lucky #13 to boot.

It might be time to retire Nathan Drake, by the way. If he keeps getting in I'm sure this won't be the last of his embarrassing losses. If he does get in again, I would put him 1v1 with CATS for hilarity's sake.