(4)Zelda vs (7)Mario (Legends Bracket) 2018

Ulti's Analysis
Right about here is where Zelda's run became completely insane. I mean it already was, but this was the exact "oh shit" moment that made everyone just lose it. These two actually had two matches together ten years ago. It looked like this:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3250-division-2-round-1-fei-knuckles-mario-zelda

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3279-division-2-round-2-mario-zelda-mega-man-x-mudkip

Mario has always struggled with the Zelda series, but he himself was a shit-kicking badass in these contests back in the day. But as of this match, this dude has a definitive and clear ceiling: The Legend of Zelda. All three characters have now tripped him up in contests. Link has beaten Mario like a drum, Ganondorf directly cost Mario a 3way match where Vivi snuck in for the win, and now this. Believe it or not this was a very close match for a long time, but Zelda took off near the very end. That said, Mario never once had a lead and Zelda was pretty much in control of things the entire time.

Zelda won the board vote, and built up a 100 vote lead over an hour. Mario fought back a little, but one 40 vote update later and Zelda was holding serve again. She got it over 200 at midnight, and while Mario fought back a little overnight, we all figured Zelda would just go back up with the morning vote. Turns out it wouldn't actually happen that way. Zelda's lead fell to 60 overnight, but then the morning vote came and she shot right back up to 200. We all figured it was over at that point, but then Mario had one final small push in him before getting buried after lunch. These two were within 200 or so for 16 hours, but Zelda spent the last few just annihilating the guy. She eventually won by 500, which dispelled the whole idea of "The Mario Clutch". That hasn't been a thing for a long time, but Mario has lost enough close matches now to where we can put it to bed for good. Even the rematch with Samus doesn't technically count, which I'll get into later.

Zelda was already the star of this contest, but this match converted any holdouts. Zelda was this contest's only real story at this point, as well as the only extended thing to hold our interest. She was the only one from the main bracket to go on a big run in the legends bracket. Including the main bracket, Zelda won 7 matches this year and beat three different Noble Nine members -- Snake, Sonic, and now Mario. Her bandwagon was growing really quickly, and if rallying were a thing, or if GameFAQs were still alive, she might have made a real push to win the contest this year. Unfortunately, this match would be her last victory. Doesn't make her run any less awesome, but this would have been so much cooler back when we had real vote totals.

Still, that 1.66% prediction percentage can't go ignored. It's in the top ten hardest matches to call in the history of these contests, and is by far the hardest match to call for this one. In fact, the only things harder to call than this Zelda run are Draven, Undertale, and L-Block. Meaning this Zelda run was our biggest outlier for a non-rally ever. Most of the time this stuff is hard to explain, but in Zelda's case it's very simple.

https://i.imgur.com/dUfpDKk.gif

Breath of the Wild really did boost her this much. We'll see if her newfound Noble Nine level strength is sustainable, but for now let's just enjoy it, as this was legitimately the only sustainable bandwagon in Character Battle X with any real strength. Tifa was cute and all, but Samus destroyed her. Twice. Zelda actually threatened Link for 10 minutes and almost got a rematch with him. Ironically, Smash Bros being Nintendo's new strength was also what kept us from getting an all-Zelda grand final. Seeing her strength here was nuts. This girl went from losing to Charizard in 2013, losing to Snake in 2005, getting blown out by Mega Man in 2003.... to this. what an absurd jump in strength, and I freakin love it. We need way more examples of insane boosts or losses in strength.

Props to you, Zelda. Star of the contest and by far the best story of the year. Well deserved, too, given people to this day keep getting Link and Zelda backwards. Sucks we didn't get a Zelda/Samus match either, but hey. Can't be greedy!

Speaking of, props to the LOL x stat people for adjusting Zelda 3 points below a character she directly beat this year. Because Zelda wins this match, yet is somehow 3 points below him. Sure. You guys never fail with the unintentional comedy whenever a characters busts up your holy doctrine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW68goC4_es

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCaXycaYDhQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw2nfdNRAn0