(3)Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots vs (2)Shadow of the Colossus 2010

Ulti's Analysis
A couple matches ago, we had Mass Effect score 46% on Portal and show just how good you can look in a loss.

Fast forward one whole day. Did you ever think you'd see a game score 49.57% in any poll and look so thoroughly terrible? In 2009, Metal Gear Solid 4 beat Brawl twice and came within one FFX night vote push of making the final, where it would have undoubtedly gotten third place ahead of Link to the Past.

And then this match happened and all of that -- all of it -- just completely went to hell. Contrary to popular belief, "SotC" does not stand for "Shadow of the Colossus". It stands for "Star of this Contest". Or "Star <B>o</b>f <B>t</b>he <B>C</b>ontest", if you prefer something simple. The MGS2 upset, awesome as it was, could be described as a fluke in some circles. Going out and beating 4, however, was raw power with a sprinkle of bandwagon. And you can bet your house MGS3 would have suffered the same fate had it gotten Star of the Contest in a day match.

The only contest entrant to ever look this bad in a loss was Magus at the hands of Knuckles in 2005, but I'll make the argument MGS4 looked worse here. For one, Knuckles > Magus ended up a near-meaningless 1 point match (had Mega Man beaten Crono in the semifinal, Knuckles would have ended up the Ultimate Loser™) and Magus proved later to be a complete joke. The jury is still out on the Metal Gear Solid series, but this match meant much more than Knuckles > Magus did. It was later in the contest, and people care far more about games than they do characters. Run Magus vs Knuckles again and it could threaten 60/40 in Knuckles' favor. Run Metal Gear Solid 4 vs Star of the Contest again and MGS4 could very well win. Who really knows?

Don't let the final margin of 466 fool you, by the way, even with MGS4 cutting an 850 vote lead down that much in the final 4 hours. It was never in this match beyond the freeze, and that rally meant about as much as Magus's rally did against Knuckles. When you think Magus/Knuckles, do you honestly remember Magus cutting 1000 votes off the lead near the end? This 400 vote final push by MGS4 will be forgotten by history as equally meaningless.

I once said there would never again be a match where the Guru, BOP and Oracle all got it unanimously wrong. porchy77 being a lamer aside, this match broke that streak. It might have also happened in the LOL 4-ways, but who gives a flying F about 4-ways? I'd sooner forget about the one correct Oracle pick and remember this match as the first in 5 years to make all three intelligent side projects look dumb, because this match deserves to be remembered for a long, long time. Damn MGS3 getting Star of the Contest in a day match, too.

Before this contest, we were supposed to finally get a good read on the MGS hierarchy. Instead, thanks to Star of the Contest, none of them ever had matches with one another. SotC's run was so good that even *I* jumped on the bandwagon.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/924364-shadow-of-the-colossus/reviews/review-142658

Me, of all people. ExThaNemesis would break his femurs trying to keep up with me, the grand master of bandwagon-hopping!