(2)Zero vs (17)Kratos Aurion vs (26)Boko 2013

Ulti's Analysis
Zero winning this match was obvious (and was somewhat depressing for Mega Man fans given it was expected that Mega Man and Zero in the same match would allow Charizard to cheat by), but what we were not expecting at all is for one of the best second round matches ever to come along out of no where. Round 1 was awful, but this was a nice change of pace as we wound down to the contest's stretch run.

It's not that people hated Kratos or Boko. Far from it. Zero's just so much stronger than both that their battle for second place was fighting over scraps. Board 8 loves both characters however, but probably Boko more since we have a user named MajinBoko. It was the perfect storm in Boko's favor, and off he went to a 150 vote lead early. This was surprising by itself given Kratos was favored to win, but Kratos was able to slowly (VERY slowly) push that lead back down and tie the poll at around 10 pm with two hours left.

It would also, quite literally, stay completely tied for those last two hours. They fought back and forth the whole time, with each character getting a lead of a grand 23 votes, but was no other way for this poll to end other than a photo finish.

I can't really narrate this in a way it deserves, so I'll just list nine of the final ten updates.

11:16 PM - Kratos by 16 11:21 PM - Kratos by 10 11:26 PM - Kratos by 7 11:31 PM - Kratos by 7 11:36 PM - Kratos by 5 11:42 PM - Kratos by 3 11:46 PM - Boko by 7 11:51 PM - Boko by 7 11:56 PM - Kratos by 1

So going into the absolute final update of the match, Boko sliiiiiiightly reduced Kratos's already razor-thin lead, couldn't hold it, and then they were basically tied for the last update. Half of us were rooting for our favorite to win, while the other half wanted Alucard's 3 vote record to go down.

In the end it was fairly anticlimactic, as Kratos took the final update without much controversy, en route to winning by 7.

I should probably note somewhere around here that Kratos losing this poll would have been supremely embarrassing, given how much of an upset he was, but him winning doesn't make him any less of an embarrassment. Almost losing to Boko, seriously?