(1)Squall Leonhart vs. Seifer Almasy vs (2)Sora vs. Riku 2011

Ulti's Analysis
For my money, this was the best match of the contest that actually counted. It bucked a lot of our trends and for quite a long time we had no clue who would win. It also caused every single whining crybaby to crawl out of the wall, including the biggest whiner of them all (iGenesis), which is always a plus.

The reason no one saw this coming is because Squall had beaten Sora 4 times in a row prior:


 * http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2909
 * http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=2918
 * http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=3286
 * http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=3297

No matter the bracket placement or extraneous factors, no matter how close or how far away the match actually was, Squall won. So... 5th time's a charm, I guess?

After the first update, Sora went nuts and built a 100 vote lead pretty quickly. Then Squall started stalling and it was game on. Right about here is where all the whining began, because everyone assumed the match would stay too close overnight and Kingdom Hearts would just go nuts during the day.

Didn't really happen that way, though. Squall went totally nuts overnight, building up an 800 vote lead before the morning vote really began, and once the morning vote started.... nothing really happened. And nothing continued happening all the way up to the ASV where he led by more than 1500 votes. That right there is why Sora lost, because had he kept things closer in the morning he would have come back during the ASV and ruined everyone's day. It's also the trend few saw coming, but Sora is known for going crazy during the morning too.

The ASV still happened, of course, but all it meant was Sora would lose by 700 votes instead of 1500. Final Fantasy doesn't get much credit for having a good day vote since it isn't of Nintendo or Kingdom Hearts quality, but it can hold its own against the right competition. I think this match also shows that Seifer was a fraud, and that to an extent Kingdom Hearts has been the major reason for a lot of Square characters retaining their strength even as the games have aged. KINGDOM HEARTS FACTOR LIVES !!

With this upset also falling flat, it pretty much meant the rest of the contest was beyond predictable.