(7)Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door vs (2)The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 2010

Ulti's Analysis
The Paper Mario series ended up having a really good contest, and TYD's exit in the final match of round 2 made those who picked WW > Oblivion breathe a sigh of relief. TYD exposed Oblivion here as a 4-way wonder, and simultaneously made all that Oblivion > Wind Waker chatter pre-contest seem ridiculous. Western gaming is on the rise no doubt, but it has some time before it starts taking down titans like Zelda and Mario 1 on 1 in contests.

This match also thankfully ended a fairly boring round 2. Only 4 matches -- God of War > Tales of Symphonia, Golden Sun > San Andreas, Persona 4 > Dead Rising and Shadow of the Colossus > Metal Gear Solid 2 -- were really good. That's 4 matches in 24. Yikes. A few others were decent for various reasons, like Paper Mario > WoW or MGS4 > Diablo 2, but as actual matches they were over in 10 seconds.

Thankfully, round 3 and on would rank among the best we've ever had.