(9)Sly Cooper vs (10)Francis York Morgan vs (19)Lugia 2013

Ulti's Analysis
You know Pokemon is becoming truly dominant when characters from beyond the RBY generation start rocking out in our contest polls. I'm willing to bet most of the Lugia voters are Smash Bros fans, which was frankly enough to blow out complete garbage. The more polls I see, the more convinced I am that Average Joe characters with Average Joe names are always going to clog up the bottom of our extrapolated standings. I this day, I have no idea how Nathan Drake has any contest strength whatsoever; he seems like exactly the kind of guy GameFAQs would put to 10% in any poll.

This was also the second match in a row where I got to see someone I like from the Gamecube/Playstation 2 era get second place in this contest, and second place in the early rounds might as well be a feel-good win. I like the Sly series, and his lone contest match being a blowout at the hands of Sephiroth in 2004 kind of sucked. I don't agree with 243 characters and Allen's more-should-play theory, but I do respect seeing that theory in action. There's nothing wrong with seeing Sly get second place if we have to deal with a 243 character contest, right?