Super Mario RPG vs Donkey Kong Country

The Beginning
In the Spring of 2009, continuing with his tradition of bracketed multi-board contests, Ulti created Video Game Battle 3, a 128 game contest with each match taking place daily across five boards: Board 8, LUE, Hacked, PotD and NGG. Video Game Battle 3 had overall lower vote totals than Ulti contests of the past, but one first round match in particular stood way out from the rest.

The Match
(8)Super Mario RPG vs (9)Donkey Kong Country was supposed to be a basic, predictable first round 8/9 match in the West division, but it turned out to be anything but. On the first day, Donkey Kong Country surprised and built up a 10 vote lead before SMRPG ultimately came back with Board 8's help. In the end, the match was tied at 52-52. As per Ulti's overtime rules influenced by NGamer's Chrono Trigger vs Ocarina of Time decision, the match was extended for a second day and everyone was allowed to vote again.

On the second day, DKC again built up a 10 vote lead, and again SMRPG came back with Board 8's help. DKC still managed to take a 4 vote lead late, but all four remaining votes went in favor of SMRPG to tie the overtime at 76-76 and bring the overall score to 128-128. This led to an unprecedented double overtime, the first of its kind in an Ulti contest. In the second overtime, DKC built up a seemingly insurmountable lead of 20. But LUE decided to rock the vote during the double overtime and got SMRPG's comeback train going before Board 8 once again completed it. But once again, the overtime ended in a tie and led to an unheard of, nearly impossible triple overtime. The score of the double overtime was 108-108, with an overall of 236-236. Had LUE not shown up huge in double overtime, DKC likely wins here.

In the third overtime and fourth overall day of this match, DKC once again built up a good lead. But unlike the three days prior, SMRPG didn't need a miracle comeback to tie things up. LUE put in a big topic to tie the match on their board, and Board 8 helped put DKC away for good an finally end the match. The score of the third overtime was 143-129, leading to an overall final score of 379-365.

This was easily the most epic first round match in any of Ulti's board contests, and it's unlikely we'll ever see a double overtime again, let alone a triple.

Aftermath
Coming soon!