(1)Chrono Trigger vs (3)Super Smash Bros. Melee 2015

Ulti's Analysis
For about half an hour, this looked very much like the Chrono Trigger we saw in the first three rounds. It was at 60% and rolling right along, and given the first hour is Melee's best time, the match might have gotten rather ugly by the end. Chrono Trigger getting over 60% on Melee would have definitely put it in contention to win this contest, because not many games are able to do that. In fact I'm willing to bet there are less than five. Chrono Trigger, Ocarina, Link to the Past, and Pokemon RBY could do it. I can't think of any others offhand.

Oh and 30 minutes into the match against FFX, Chrono Trigger had 67.68%. Here, it had 60.33%. The debate is over. Melee would thoroughly annihilate Final Fantasy X.

But unlike Final Fantasy X, Melee was not about to just roll over and die quietly while Chrono Trigger stomped over this contest. r/smashbros changed the entire course of this match, and really the entire course of this contest, with one rally thread. The thread got to the top of the subreddit really fast, too, and the effects were felt immediately. Over the next 20 minutes, Melee stalled the match as the rally gained traction.

Then once it really got going, Chrono Trigger just got its shit kicked in. An 800 vote lead disappeared in just over an hour, and it's not like Chrono Trigger wasn't kicking ass and putting good updates out there. Smash was just that much better. There was no resistance once Smash caught up, either, and it just spent the rest of the overnight building up a 650 vote lead.

But Chrono Trigger was not done yet, as it was able to take advantage of the dead zone to start pushing back. It was able to shave away the 650 vote lead down to 400 just before the morning vote started. One would assume Melee would win the morning vote and bry Chrono Trigger here given the years-long history of trends these two games have, but miraculously the morning vote also favored Chrono Trigger. It managed to keep pushing and stalling, and it got the lead all the way down to below 300.

But the story of this match was rallying, in that Melee had rallies going for it while Chrono Trigger had nothing outside of Nick's Facebook group. And while Nick's group having 28000 members was good and all, that was the only external source Chrono Trigger had to draw votes from. Melee had Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, smashboards, and small fan sites all on its side. Chrono Trigger's biggest site to rally from, ironically enough, is GameFAQs. Chrono Trigger's major push (other than the first 30 minutes of the poll) to win this match was the dead zone and morning vote, but Melee was able to easily counter it with its social media presence. Reddit got going, pros started tweeting every time Melee was threatened, and Chrono Trigger was simply unable to match the armada of social media being on Melee's side. Melee would slowly push forward and build up a lead of 1100.

Chrono Trigger would make one final gasp during the evening, and for a time it was actually meeting the comeback quota and making a real push. But Melee's fans noticed this, some more pros tweeted, and that was that. At 7 pm, with 5 hours to go in the poll, Melee had a lead of 931 votes. Chrono Trigger got it down to 728 an hour later, and with more of a bandwagon it really might have made a push to win, but Melee's social media presence quickly noticed this and puts boots to asses. Chrono Trigger's last effort was snuffed out, and Melee would go on to win one hell of a match by 1109 votes.

During and after this match, Board 8 proved how idiotic its stance on rallying was, and how loaded with double standards this place is. The vast majority of the board not only wanted to see Chrono Trigger win this match, but they wanted it to win this entire contest. I agree it would have been an amazing story, and I am perfectly okay with people rooting for their favorites (even if it's Shadow of the Colossus, you can cheer or boo anything you want). My issue comes with people picking and choosing which rallies are psychologically allowed based on rooting interest. Everyone was all buttmad over Melee rallying to win this match, and they deemed it "unfair" because it "reversed the natural result of the match".

Let's start with this "natural result" nonsense. So long as everything is done within the rules in sports, only one stat matters: scoreboard. Deion Sanders pointed right at it when the Chargers started trying to talk shit as the 49ers were whipping their asses. The "natural result" of this match was Melee 36195, Chrono Trigger 35806. There is no "the natural result of this match was changed". I guarantee you if Chrono Trigger could rally worth a fuck and had won this match, the same people whining about Melee's rallying would have supported Chrono Trigger's rally.

That brings me to my other point. THE SAME PEOPLE WHINING ABOUT MELEE'S RALLY DURING THIS MATCH SUPPORTED MELEE'S RALLY AGAINST UNDERTALE. That right there was the dumbest thing Board 8 did during this entire contest, for very obvious reasons. Not only are you picking and choosing rallies, you're literally changing your mind on the same game based on its opponent. That is absolute garbage and is more transparent than the invisible man. Everyone was despondent about Chrono Trigger losing, and while people didn't blame Melee the game, they were just livid over the rally. The same rally they would turn around and support in the semifinal. Good job, Board 8.

You support all rallies or you support none of them. Period. Picking and choosing based on rooting interest is intellectual dishonesty. Picking and choosing because of a psychologically predetermined "natural result that you feel would have happened normally", that you can't even prove, is just stupid. How do you know what a natural result would have been? You don't. The only natural result that ever matters is the final vote total. That's it. You don't get to decide based on assumptions, you get to look at the actual score.

Lastly, can we knock off the bullshit about how outside rallies ruin our contests, as if they haven't been here since 2002? If you want to blame something for rallies, blame the site itself for treating its users like garbage for the better part of 20 years and chasing most of the regulars away. It's drastically reduced our natural vote totals, and people only come here when googling a game and getting directly linked to a guide or whatever. But the actual site? Shit. You cannot routinely slap your fans in the face and expect them to stick around. Adults want to be treated like adults, and as such, they've all moved on to reddit, social media, youtube, and so forth. So the rallies that have always been there now have a huge effect, because they drop in mid-2000s level vote totals into 2015 matches. Of course the outside will have a huge effect, and I'm happy for it. GameFAQs regularly getting its shit pushed in for treating its users like garbage is a net positive for the internet, and hopefully this continues happening every contest. People need to be exposed to other, better sites where the users are treated like actual adult human beings. The more people realize how good sites like reddit are, the more GameFAQs will realize that they need to stop with the garbage-ass way it treats its users.

There's a certain dictionary site that was autoflagged here for years (because GameFAQs loves to coddle people in a little bubble, shield them from the real world and treat them like 13 year-olds, like good little politically correct liberals). Go look up GameFAQs Moderator on that site. There is a reason our polls get no votes and everyone moved on to other sites.

Back to rallies. They've always been there, but now they matter a lot more because we not only have no regulars, but our poll numbers are in the tank. Let me pull up a round 1 match from 2009, featuring a game that was very much rallied but still lost: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/3447-division-1-round-1-mega-man-2-pac-man-pong-oregon-trail

The Oregon Trail scored 25220 votes in that match, got rallied, and was still blown out. The poll scored 117749 votes. That number is unheard of naturally now, and that same exact rally in 2015 would look very different. So don't blame reddit, tumblr, or whatever else for our contests being a lot easier to influence now. Blame GameFAQs. The site you all love so much has gradually and assuredly failed you, and with each new contest it becomes more and more apparent. By 2020, I'm sure our regular Poll of the Day will struggle to break 10,000 votes. But don't try saying rallies are some new thing, because it's flat-out not true.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/996-north-division-final-mario-vs-cloud-strife

"But Mario's rally ruined the natural result!"

Scoreboard. Check it.