(8)Chloe Price vs (9)Lightning 2018

Ulti's Analysis
This was a debated match pre-contest, and I don't blame or make fun of anyone for this being a debated match for two reasons. One, Final Fantasy is anathema to this web site at this point, especially modern Final Fantasy. One cannot blame anyone for not having faith in Lightning. Her contest history doesn't exactly light the world on fire, and she's hardly a well liked character.

And secondly, Board 8 has had Second Match PTSD from getting kicked in the balls by this match for almost 20 years. I've posted this list before but it bears reposting. Just look at this nonsense. Weird stuff in bold.

Summer 2002 - Spyro vs Morrigan. Everyone picks Spyro, because people have actually heard of Spyro. Morrigan wins, and everyone credits the match picture. The Jug Factor is born. 

Summer 2003 - Pikachu vs Fox. Everyone picked Fox because they had a common opponent (Cloud) the year before. No contest.

Spring 2004 - Metroid vs Pac-Man. People picked Metroid because they treated games the same as charcaters. Again, no contest.

Summer 2004 - Ganondorf vs Alucard. Debated match for some reason, but by now everyone knew about x-stats and picked Ganondorf. Again, no contest. Of course now that x-stats were a thing, the second match would start screwing with people, though one could consider this a match that a lot of people debated and got wrong.

Spring 2005 - Sigma vs Andross. Other than Ridley/Diablo, this was the most heavily debated round 1 match and a LOT of people picked Andross. We know the end result. Sigma destroyed.

Summer 2005 - Ness vs CJ, shortly after San Andreas came out. Most people picked CJ, figuring the insane buzz around that game would lead to a very easy win. Ness won with ease, spawning the RacistFAQs fad that lives on to this day (and is unfortunately probably true on some level).

Spring 2006 - Suikoden vs Mega Man X in the series contest. No debate because it was obvious MMX would win.

Summer 2006 - Ada Wong vs Jade was obvious. Moving on.

Summer 2007 - Arthas/Diablo/KOS-MOS/Mega Man. People had no idea what LFF in 4ways was, at least not to this degree, and a lot of people picked Diablo to get second place. The guru pick was Mega Man > KOS-MOS, but enough people picked Diablo to where this gets "DAMN SECOND MATCH" honors.

Summer 2008 - Link/Luke/Shadow/Zidane. Everyone and their mother picked Shadow to get second place. This was before people realized Sonic was an honorary Nintendo franchise on our site, similar to Pac-Man. Zidane cruised to second.

Summer 2009 - Mega Man 2/Pac-Man/Pong/Oregon Trail. Mega Man > Pac-Man was the favorite, but a ton of people got scared into picking Oregon Trail because of all the joke trends in the prior contests.

Winter 2010 - Alucard vs Magus. If this were held in 2004 everyone would have picked Magus and some people still did. This was HIGHLY debated for whatever reason, even though Alucard cruised.

Game of the Decade - Rock Band vs Deus Ex. Rock Band is the overwhelming favorite, then Deus Ex pulls the upset but "not by enough" in one of Board 8's worst days ever. The board was unreadable.

Rivalry Rumble - Who fucking cares? (it was Ike/Black Knight beating Conker/Poo) Summer 2013 - Raiden/Waluigi/Alan Wake. Easy Raiden win, though people feared a joke run by Waluigi.

Fall 2015 - Persona 3 was the HEAVY board favorite. Dragon Quest 8 stomped it into the ground with utter ease in a match that was never close.

Best Year - 1987 beat 1985. I don't care about this contest enough to look up whether or not this result was weird.

You guys get the idea. The second match is just weird, and always treats us badly. I feel like if this match was placed anywhere else on the bracket, Lightning gets 100% board support in all the little side shows we have (BOP, Oracle, Guru, spread betting, bake sales, all that fun stuff), but because it was match #2, people paused. There was also the fear that Lightning would get anti voted into the ground, plus there was the fear of people loving Life is Strange. It has sold something like 3.5 million copies, after all.

Lightning ended up being the favorite, and thankfully, she put all doubts to rest in about 2 seconds. No crazy board vote, no weird comebacks needed. Just her beating Chloe up from pillar to post for 24 straight hours en route to a tripling. If only all the second matches could treat us so well, right?