(8)EarthBound vs (9)Borderlands 2 2015

Ulti's Analysis
60% of the guru picked Borderlands 2 to win this match, and for good reason. EarthBound had never done a single thing in these contests before 2015, and was the type of game that we would expect to get rolled over by anything with any casual bait -- ie, Borderlands 2. In 2004 there was a ton of hype that EarthBound would beat Doom. After winning the board vote, it got rolled. There was minor hype in 2009, but most people understood that a fourpack featuring three SNES RPGs and Yoshi's Island meant EarthBound was a massive longshot to get second place.

Ness the character had never really done anything of note, either, outside the occasional win in round 1 over pure fodder. His 1v1 character wins are against Jak, CJ, and Geno. Hardly murderer's row.

So in typical EarthBound fashion, it decides to steamroll a poll for its first contest win when there was no hype behind it whatsoever. Because that's how EarthBound rolls. Bear in mind that Borderlands 2 won Game of the Year in 2013, and even won Review of the Year back when we were still having those polls. Borderlands 2 isn't some joke game that no one here has ever heard of.

And it just got smacked. EarthBound was well over 60% for quite some time, and it took a hefty percentage bleed for this match to look even remotely respectable. There were a lot of matches and hints that pointed toward the 90s and the SNES in particular being all business this contest, but EarthBound blowing Borderland 2's doors off showed that 90s were absolutely not. fucking. around. Show any weakness whatsoever as a new game and you were absolutely getting waxed.

It says something when this match is an example of the casuals laughing at us, too. Even they knew what was going on this contest, and I imagine a lot of people just conveniently ignored these two polls:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/3197-which-classic-snes-game-would-you-most-like-to-see-announced http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/4843-which-unannounced-nintendo-franchise-would-you-most-like-to

The potential for EarthBound to show off in a fair bracket was apparently obvious. Seeing it actually happen was really something else.

Play EarthBound.