(1)Chrono Trigger vs (8)Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King 2015

Ulti's Analysis
Dragon Quest 8 pulled a cute little guru upset in round 1, which is nice. It got some nice little contest buzz, and that was all well and good. But round 2 is usually when contest entrants like this eat their loss, if not round 3 with some insanely lucky bracket placement. Chrono Trigger is a whole different animal than Persona 3, and this contest's version of Chrono Trigger was on some serious steroids.

Akira Toriyama SFF jokes aside, Chrono Trigger just absolutely fucking demolished Dragon Quest 8 in this match. There may have been some SFF here, but you don't just randomly break 80% after round 1 of a contest. I'm sure people will ask for a list of 1v1 contest matches from round 2 and onward where the winner broke 80%, so here you go!

http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/986-west-division-round-2-mega-man-vs-serious-sam http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/987-west-division-round-2-sephiroth-vs-crash-bandicoot http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/988-north-division-semifinals-mario-vs-donkey-kong http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1337-north-division-round-2-link-vs-fox-mccloud http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1348-south-division-round-2-max-payne-vs-sephiroth http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1635-division-8-round-2-donkey-kong-vs-the-legend-of-zelda http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1641-division-32-round-2-final-fantasy-vii-vs-xenogears http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1750-hyrule-division-round-2-link-vs-ganondorf http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1758-midgar-division-round-2-cloud-strife-vs-vyse http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1765-chaos-division-round-2-sam-fisher-vs-samus-aran http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/2098-mushroom-division-round-2-mario-vs-ness http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/2441-hyrule-division-semifinal-the-legend-of-zelda-vs-mega-man-x http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/2445-mushroom-division-semifinal-super-mario-bros-vs-warcraft http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/2449-hyrule-division-final-the-legend-of-zelda-vs-metroid http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/4542-north-division-round-2-mario-vs-bowser-ike-vs-black-knight http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/4550-south-division-round-2-link-vs-ganondorf-amaterasu-vs-orochi http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6115-best-game-ever-day-17-round-2-chrono-trigger-vs-dragon-quest

Including this very match, 80% or more has only happened 17 times. A good deal of those matches listed are SFF, too. For a decent anecdote, Mario 3 couldn't break 80% on Metroid in the Spring 2004 games contest. It is not easy to do.

With SFF removed, we can make the case that only the following matches saw 80% broken naturally from round 2 and onward.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/986-west-division-round-2-mega-man-vs-serious-sam http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1348-south-division-round-2-max-payne-vs-sephiroth http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1758-midgar-division-round-2-cloud-strife-vs-vyse http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1765-chaos-division-round-2-sam-fisher-vs-samus-aran http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/2445-mushroom-division-semifinal-super-mario-bros-vs-warcraft http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6115-best-game-ever-day-17-round-2-chrono-trigger-vs-dragon-quest

You could make the case that Cloud > Vyse and CT > DQ8 are SFF, but I'll disagree just for the sake of proving a point here. Six non-SFF matches where 80% got broken from round 2 and onward is completely nuts. Chrono Trigger was on fire this contest.

The case can be made that round 1 was whatever. You can't make that case when it happens twice in a row, and the parallel here was Mega Man in 2002. Mega Man pulling those two blowouts was unexpected and hilarious, as was the board reaction. Fast forward 13 years, and you finally got another case where something pulled off two hilarious and unexpected blowouts in a row. Chrono Trigger got a ton of hype after this, and for good reason. This was the same kind of mojo that caused Kobe Bryant to score 81 points. You just don't see this very often.

It wouldn't get stuck facing Sephiroth in round 3, either. Final Fantasy X was clearly a winnable match, given how badly it was embarrassed by Mega Man X. And by "winnable", I mean "holy shit, we were so not ready for what would happen next".