(1)The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past vs (2)The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 2015

Ulti's Analysis
Did you know that to this point, Majora's Mask had never lost 1v1 in a contest? It's true.

This match was the perfect indicator of exactly how long rally spillover lasts, which is exactly 90 minutes or so. The previous day had seen Undertale/Pokemon madness, which clearly spilled over into the next day. Maybe not Ocarina/SotN so much, but it was definitely felt here.

One can argue how close LTTP and Majora's Mask are "supposed" to be normally (which is logic I will never agree with, but whatever), but I think most people agreed that Link to the Past would easily win this match with minimal interference. Well for an hour and a half, Majora's Mask put the fear of god himself into Link to the Past. All that rallying that was going on in the previous match clearly favored Majora here, and Majora rode the wave all the way up to a 600 vote lead 90 minutes into the poll.

On top of rally spillover, Majora also had a clear picture advantage, it's been a great contest story since Game of the Decade, and it was the clear hipster option if you were one of those "really, we have to deal with 3 Zelda games hogging the contest at one time?" types. Had Majora retained this momentum, it would have been a really cool upset. It also would have made for a hilarious match next round between Ocarina and Majora's Mask.

Unfortunately, Majora's Mask luck would run out, and its lead would disappear slowly and painfully before getting buried. Link to the Past slowly whittled the lead all the way down overnight, and it caught up right as the morning vote hit. The morning vote would clearly favor Link to the Past, and a 50-50 match entering the morning vote would turn into a very comfortable 52-48 win.

Link to the Past may have won, but Majora's Mask was the star of the show and sacrificing itself to show us exactly how long rally spillover lasts was very kind. I think Majora did it intentionally just to show us there was a larger force at work !!

But seriously, three Zelda games at the same time was completely silly. It's not their fault as the games are strong, but when it does finally come to fruit it is mighty boring to watch. But thanks to the series cannibalizing itself, only two games from the Zelda series made the final 8. It easily could have been 3 or 4 with better draws elsewhere, so we should be thankful.