Auron's Contest History

Who is Auron?
While "Tee-dus" is busy whining his way through most of FFX, Auron is the quintessential badass that guides Tidus through his journey. Auron's role in the beginning of FFX is to simply introduce Tidus to his story, but as the game progresses, you realize that FFX is every much Auron's story as it is Tidus's. In a game that features some horrible voice acting, a storyline that doesn't get interesting until the game is 65% complete, and nonexistent difficulty, Auron is the glue that holds everything together. Auron keeps players interested in a game that would otherwise be very dull by most standards. Even the people that loathe FFX love Auron.

Auron is more than a simple badass with a big sword. He has a brilliant story to go along with his character. The main story in FFX revolves around Sin. Only the Final Aeon can kill it, and only a Summoner can call the Aeon forth. But there is more to it than simply walking up to Sin and casting a spell. A Summoner must go on a pilgrimage across Spira, pray at every temple, and collect every Aeon. The journey ends at Zanarkand, in which the Summoner contracts the Final Aeon. It seems simple enough, but Spira is a world in which nothing in what it seems. Auron was a guardian for Lord Braska, a Summoner who defeated Sin before the events of FFX were ever set into motion. But because Sin always gets resurrected, Auron has returned to aide the Summoner Yuna in her quest to do the same. Auron is very aloof towards the party, and oftentimes chooses to neglect telling everyone anything. But oftentimes, it is what's left unsaid that makes an amazing character, and Auron is the perfect example of this.

He also kicks ass in battle to boot. He is by far the strongest character in the party, which is golden for those of us fond of the Attack command. He remains the central physical damage dealer until very late in the game, so not only is Auron a good character both in and out of battle, but he also sees a lot of use. There used to be a heated debate about who the most popular character in FFX was, but over time, Auron has proven himself worthy of the title despite not even being the main character of the game.

"Outside the dram world, life can be harsh -- even cruel, but it is life." -Auron

Auron's Contest History
Win-Loss Record: 8-5

Summer 2003 Contest East Division - 8 Seed
 * Eastern First Round --- Defeated (9) Tails, 70199 [64.47%] - 38685 [35.53%]
 * Eastern Quarterfinal --- Lost to (1) Cloud, 31470 [27.80%] - 81716 [72.20%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 20th Place [27.80%]

Summer 2004 Contest Midgar Division - 3 Seed
 * Midgar First Round --- Defeated (14)Scorpion, 58404 [64.85%] - 31660 [35.15%]
 * Midgar Quarterfinal --- Defeated (6)Ness, 53602 [65.04%] - 28806 [34.96%]
 * Midgar Semifinal --- Lost to (2)Sephiroth, 26356 [32.30%] - 55252 [67.70%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 20th Place [27.38%]

Auron isn't the strongest character out there, but he is a character who can and will hold in own in any match he is involved in. 2003 could have been a decent year for him, but thanks to some horrible underseeding, Auron ran smack into Cloud's championship buzz saw after his solid win against Tails. In 2004, Auron got a seed worthy of his strength, and he did not disappoint. He didn't blow away Scorpion or Ness, but he managed very solid victories against them before bowing out against the other Final Fantasy 7 powerhouse, Sephiroth. Auron remained extremely consistent in his two contest appearances and thanks to an upcoming cameo in Kingdom Hearts 2, Auron has nowhere to go but up. Auron may never be able to take down the contest elites, but you'll never see him go down to characters like Donkey Kong or KOS-MOS, either. Auron is a solid character with a static, Sweet 16 type of strength. The only way to really keep Auron down is to snub him from the contest altogether, a la Aeris.

Summer 2005 Contest Zebes Division - 2 Seed
 * Zebes Round 1 --- Defeated (7) Big Boss, 67639 [71.47%] - 27000 [28.53%]
 * Zebes Semifinal --- Lost to (3) Ganondorf, 45514 [45.90%] - 53655 [54.10%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 22nd Place [28.30%]

Auron over Ganon was a very sexy upset pick pre-contest, for many reasons -- the biggest of them all was how close Tidus came to Ganon in 2003 and the fact that many felt that Auron was stronger than Tidus. Ganon possibly being overrated by the Spring 2005 stats was another good reason, though it didn't take long for Ganon to come out and dominate Auron in that match after Auron's impressive first round performance.

With this said, Auron isn't nearly as weak as the Summer 2005 stats suggest due to Samus/Ganon being left unadjusted. Auron is likely still a force in these things, and he's capable of beating many of the characters that placed ahead of him.

Summer 2006 Contest Time Division - 3 Seed
 * Time Round 1 --- Defeated (6) Alucard, 74808 [64.40%] - 41537 [35.60%]
 * Time Semifinal --- Defeated (7) Sub-Zero, 80252 [59.63%] - 54325 [40.37%]
 * Time Final --- Lost to (1) Crono, 56865 [45.50%] - 68115 [54.50%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 16th Place [37.82%]

Another contest, another ho-hum predictable path for Auron. I still hold out hope in a Final Fantasy X-Zero and a huge Auron boost one day <_<

Summer 2007 Contest Division 2 - Group 3
 * Division 2 Round 1 --- 1st place, 64543 [43.26%] - Shadow the Hedgehog, 39185 [26.26%] - Pyramid Head, 24148 [16.18%] - Chris Redfield, 21339 [14.30%]
 * Division 2 Round 2 --- 1st place, 48423 [35.83%] - Ryu, 35350 [26.16%] - Bowser, 32529 [24.07%] - Shadow the Hedgehog, 18842 [13.94%]
 * Division 2 Finals --- 3rd place, 26021 [18.16%] - Cloud Strife, 71041 [49.59%] - Ryu, 29007 [20.25%] - Marcus Fenix, 17188 [12.00%]

Horribly predictable. That has described Auron's entire contest career. The thing that irritates me most about his predictable path this year is that this format benefits him greatly. After all, Auron is a massive fan favorite, and that was obvious from his first two matches. He dominated his first round match, even with a decent midcarder in Shadow there. Then he got more than a third of the vote with two very strong characters, Ryu and Bowser, in the poll as well. That speaks volumes about his fan favorite status.

But then Auron was stuck in a dead end in this division because Cloud was in it, too. The prospect of SFF from the site's second strongest character did not bode well for him, though he still performed admirably despite that. Maybe one of these days he'll have a contest path that's actually debatable. Auron is a character who should not be wasted in these contests, that's for sure.