(7)Banjo-Kazooie vs (2)Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 2015

Ulti's Analysis
There was a reasonable amount of hype pre-contest for a Banjo > Castlevania upset, but given the round 1 performances the winner of this match was rather obvious. The oracle agreed and gave 100% support to Castlevania, and only 11 gurus picked Banjo here. I'm not sure where the hype came from given contest experts all picking Castlevania, but it was definitely there.

At least the trends were funny, as in Banjo-Kazooie being at 44% early before bleeding a bunch of percentage and giving Castlevania a comfortable 61-39 win. Banjo-Kazooie having virtual joke trends is pretty silly to think about, but the trend is definitely there for whatever reason.

For Castlevania, it was yet another contest where gamers proved just how respected this game is. Beating Banjo this easily while DKC2 was only sitting there upsetting Xenoblade and Fire Emblem Awakening clearly meant Castlevania was on track to win a third match this contest. Symphony of the Night has made it to round 2 in every contest it's been in, on top of winning a match in the series contest and Alucard having noted contest success. Given how this game really hasn't sold much, it's really cool how renowned it is on the internet for being one of the best games out there. I actually played Symphony of the Night because of the 2004 contest, and you can definitely throw my hat into the "one of the best games ever made" pile.

At some point I should make a list of games I've played because of these contests, but it would be rather long and this writeup probably isn't the place.