(7)Pikachu vs (2)Kratos 2018

Ulti's Analysis
I like Pikachu and Pokemon, so I'm okay with Pikachu winning here even though Kratos might be my favorite character in gaming at this point. Something about the guy being a bloodraged maniac maturing somewhat as he ages resonates with me, I dunno. I've always adored Kratos and love his games. God of War is one of the best series I've ever played, but there was no chance in hell Kratos was going to win this match even with God of War 2018 getting set to mop up 1398 Game of the Year awards.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/191627-god-of-war/reviews/166896

Even if Kratos had a prayer of winning, I have access to some metrics non-contributors don't. That review won me Review of the Month. As you can tell by reading it and by my platinum trophy, I love the game to death. It was an incredible experience.

I don't post the review link to brag. I post it because at the time the bracket came out, that review had less than 30 hits. For a comparison, my Brawl review has almost 50,000. Part of that is GameFAQs being dead, but part of it is because for whatever reason, Kratos and God of War games are just not what resonates on this site. And even then, I did not think this beatdown would be as bad as it was. God of War sold like a bajillion copies and Pokemon fans were mixed at best on that Pikachu Let's Go game. Even with all that, Pikachu damn near doubled the poor guy. It wasn't a surprise Pikachu won, but winning this hard given all the Kratos hype was really something to see. Pikachu was super legit this year and was primed to kick ass well beyond the main bracket. This all but ended any hope of anyone other than him winning this division, too.