Tidus' Contest History

Who is Tidus?
Tidus has been given many nicknames since his appearance in Final Fantasy X, with "Tee-dus" and Meg Ryan being two of the most popular. Unfortunately for him, those who make fun of him have damned good reasons to do so through the first 65% of the game. The main idea behind Tidus's character is that he is human. He acts in a way that many of us would assimilate if we were thrown into the same situation as him. While this has some merit to it, people don;t usually play video games for a cathartic cleansing of the emotions. They play video games to live in a fantasy world, to see characters act in ways that we as real people would never think to act like in real life, and above all, to have fun. How much fun can you have watching the main character of an RPG act like an annoying little brother for over half the game?

Tidus does redeem himself in the second half of the game, however. Once he learns the true nature of Yuna's pilgrimidge, he grows up before our very eyes, and becomes a real man by the end of the game. Such character development is rarely seen in today's RPGs, but unfortunately, a lot of people give up on Tidus before they realize that he is maturing.

Aside from Tidus's main role in the story, he has a background in Blitzball, which is the most popular sport in the world of FFX. He is the son of the biggest star to ever play the game, Jecht. Jecht is a hero to the people, but underneath his superstar status lies a drunk who mentally abused Tidus for most of his life. Tidus never truly gets past this, which explains why he acts the way he does for a majority of the story. But Tidus is a character who I feel gets unfairly stereotyped simply because he isn't the "typical" RPG lead character. Unlike Cloud and Squall, Tidus shows his emotions, acts like an actual human being, and matures as he gains more experience in life. It's a shame that so many would choose to make fun of him instead of understanding the way he is.

"Listen to my story. This may be our last chance." - Tidus

Tidus's Contest History
Win-Loss Record: 4-6

Summer 2002 Contest - West Division - 8 Seed
 * Western Round 1 --- Defeated (9) Claire Redfield, 35004 [55.46%] - 28117 [44.54%]
 * Western Quarterfinal --- Lost to (1) Sonic the Hedgehog, 23516 [41.17%] - 33602 [58.83%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 11th Place [33.8%]

Summer 2003 Contest - North Division - 5 Seed
 * Northern Round 1 --- Lost to (12) Ganondorf, 57078 [49.32%] - 58660 [50.68%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 13th Place [33.14%]

Summer 2004 Contest - 20XX Division - 8 Seed
 * 20XX Round 1 --- Defeated (9) Shadow the Hedgehog, 48334 [50.81%] - 46788 [49.19%]
 * 20XX Quarterfinal --- Lost to (1) Mega Man, 31033 [35.22%] - 57069 [64.78%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 24th Place [25.35%]

When it comes to being flat-out unlucky in seeding in contests, few have a bigger complaint than Tidus. He was stuck with an 8 seed in 2002, and was promptly blown away by Sonic the Hedgehog in the second round. He received a seeding more worthy of his strength in 2003, but was cut down by a vastly underseeded newcomer in Ganondorf in a match that was hotly contested the entire day.

So in 2004, Tidus does not get rewarded for his efforts in the least. He was stuck back down as an 8 seed, and after winning a tough match against Shadow the Hedgehog, Tidus was absolutely killed by Mega Man in the second round. It was a collapse that very few people saw coming, and Tidus has vastly suffered for it in the stats. Tidus is a character worthy of a 4 or 5 seed every year, yet one glance at the 2004 Xsts would lead some to believe that Tidus belongs in the contest as a perpetual 8 seed. This is not the case, and even though Tidus may not be the most popular character in his own game, he is still a character worthy of more respect than what he gets. He has yet to get out of the second round in any contest, but in his defense, he was horribly underseeded in two of those contests. With proper seeding, he could easily be a Sweet 16 character every year. But as things currently stand, Tidus has a huge monkey on his back that he may never be able to shake until he actually gets to the third round.

Summer 2005 Contest - Dream Division - 4 Seed
 * Dream Round 1 --- Defeated (5) The King of All Cosmos, 73408 [72.54%] - 27787 [27.46%]
 * Dream Semifinal --- Lost to (1) Kirby, 43215 [42.35%] - 58825 [57.65%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 26th Place [27.16%]

The Dream division's name was pretty ironic, given that Tidus had a decent chance at winning it >_>

Anyway, after Tidus was blown out by Mega Man in 2004, people automatically assumed it to be a fluke. After all, Tidus wasn't falling in line with what 2003 stats suggested and like stat fanboys tend to do, they weren't willing to believe that Tidus not stacking up to what his match with Ganondorf in 2003 suggested.

Enter 2005. Not only does Tidus fail to blow away a joke entry, but he then turns around and makes himself out to look as weak as Ramza 2003 in a match that he was supposed to win with ease. Yes Kirby was a 1 seed and was just coming off of Canvas Curse, but this match was more about Tidus proving that his bad loss to Mega Man was no fluke more than it was Kirby's increase in strength. The question from here is simply whether or not they've learned their lesson in deciding whether or not certain matches are flukes.

Summer 2006 Contest - Patriot Division - 5 Seed
 * Patriot Round 1 --- Lost to (4) Squall, 31893 [27.98%] - 82091 [72.02%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 45th Place [22.25%]

Tidus is a long, long way away from being even with Ganon in 2003. SFF or not, he's in serious danger of missing the field at his current pace of stinking it up.

Summer 2007 Contest - Division 6 - Third Group
 * Division 6 Round 1 --- 2nd place, 38881 [31.84%] - Pikachu, 44717 [36.62%] - Isaac, 21496 [17.60%] - Serge, 17009 [13.93%]
 * Division 6 Round 2 --- 4th place, 26327 [20.82%] - Leon Kennedy, 42128 [33.31%] - Pikachu, 30533 [24.14%] - Vivi Ornitier, 27480 [21.73%]

Tidus's contest performance depressed me, to be quite honest. First of all, he lost badly to Pikachu in round 1. As if that wasn't bad enough, he managed to resist SFF from Vivi a little too well, and he prevented either of them from advancing, once again letting Pikachu squeak through.

Yes, I am a depressed Tidus fanboy. So what?