(1)Link vs (18)Isaac (Binding) vs (27)Tingle 2013

I'll spare the old lecture about Nintendo always having the overall 1 seed and stomping, because going over that for the 218th time is boring.

Instead, I'm going to defend Tingle. Seriously, Tingle is a good character. Japan created him to make entirely fun of the American weaboo, and somehow the weaboo crowd hasn't caught onto this. He's fat, creepy, can't dress, is probably a literal pedophile in-game, and might be one of the most annoying characters ever. The joke caught on so hard in Japan that Tingle got his own game, and the Americans obsessed with all things Japan still can't figure it out. The best irony is self inflicted, and anime-obsessed western audiences are the best example. For that, Tingle is awesome.

Hey anime fans: every time you're spending more money on anime than most crackheads will ever spend on their fix, look at Tingle and realize it's what Japan thinks of you.

Oh yeah, there was a match here too. The new expert challenge made the placement of all three characters matter rather than only the winner, so while Link winning was obvious, second place mattered. Tingle was actually doing pretty well for himself early, before the SFF kicked in and Isaac, uh... "cruised" to a 1000 vote win. And no, this was not Golden Sun Isaac.

Yeah, this contest had complete garbage all over round 1. Seriously, go look at the bracket and look at all that fodder nonsense.

The last thing to take from this match, and we've known this for years, is that Link has lost a step. It's just that everyone else has lost a step too, so it hasn't been as easy to notice. But Link not completely obliterating Tingle and Tingle almost getting second here was embarrassing. It was a reminder that Link 2004 is probably the strongest Link. That Link got 88% on Ganondorf, 82% on Yoshi and just obliterated Cloud.

86% on Tingle compared to 88% on Ganondorf is honestly kind of hilarious, all things considered.