(1)Metroid Prime vs (2)Half-Life 2 2010

Ulti's Analysis
This match was amazing for two reasons. Before getting into the actual match, let me get into this picture nonsense since people were waiting on it.

When the match first started, a bunch of people made topics complaining about the Hypnogordon picture (http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/gallery/albums/gotd/gotd-114-1.jpg). They erroneously thought I had made it, so there was the typical rabble about how I suck and etc. KP went into all the topics and corrected people, since he's the one who actually made that picture. Immediately, all the same people changed their tune to saying the Hypnogordon picture was awesome and my FPS image was crap, complete with the typical rabble about how much I suck. KP and I had a wonderful laugh on AIM about this, and he can absolutely vouch for what happened. It was all the same people changing their minds about which picture they didn't like, completely forgetting about keeping their story consistent. The pictures didn't even matter; people just love complaining about me for whatever reason. If there's any other interpretation for this other than people being obsessed with everything I do beyond any reasonable psychological standard, I'd love to hear it. I used to say this stuff in jest because I like poking fun and going back and forth with people, and it makes the board fun. I don't honestly believe people sit around F5ing Board 8 to see what I do next, because not even I'm that full of myself. But then this whole picture crap happened, and now I'm honestly not sure. I know one thing for sure, though: There is no longer a defense when I accuse people on this board of caring about me way too much. Blame the people who chomped at the bit during this match to complain about me for 12 straight hours, because they ruined the fun for everyone else. There is no excuse for how blatantly dumb that was. You could have at least tried being subtle with the bias, folks =p

Then there was the actual match. Months of hype went into this, but the actual match was a bit of a letdown. Yes Metroid Prime only scored 56% on Half-Life (the original) in 2004, but no one brought up how big a gap 6% is. Even with the Valve boost, there's a lot of room for Half-Life 2 to squeeze in there between 44% and 50%, and this is exactly what happened. It wasn't a bad call to pick Half-Life 2 to win this match, especially given how badly Prime routinely looked in the past. This is arguably the first poll Metroid Prime ever looked really legit in, and Samus wasn't about to let the opportunity go to waste. Prime more or less had this match won by the time everyone finished lunch.

The match was never in question, but a great trend happened once the evening hit. The lead peaked near 1200, and Half-Life was able to knock it down near 800 by the time the match ended. This highly suggests Half-Life could have won a night match, even with Prime's godlike power hour. This match above all others is why I feel the 24 hour matches need to start a round or two earlier. Even if you pull the 24 hour start time back to the divisional finals -- and really if you win three matches, you should be given every opportunity to win or lose -- it only extends the contest by two weeks. Otherwise, you get troublemakers like me bringing up how certain matches shouldn't be decided by time of day. I don't care about Ike vs Zidane in round 2 last year being decided on time of day, because it's only round 2. Who cares? But a match this late in the contest should not be relegated to that same variable.

Make it happen, Allen.