(4)Ganondorf vs (3)Vivi 2018

Ulti's Analysis
1200 votes. Dammit Vivi, you came so close to winning a division. I struggled a lot with this pick, because I felt in my heart of hearts Vivi could win this match. I ended up picking Ganon because of Breath of the Wild, Smash Brothers, and the current Nintendo > Square dynamics on this site. Swap any of those three factors, and I think Vivi could have convinced 600 people to change their minds here. Vivi is immune to the Squaresoft erosion due to his character design, and will be about this strong no matter how far Square falls. People just like the black mage archetype too much.

This was actually a real match for an hour, too. Vivi took the early lead, Ganon took it quickly, but then outside of two Warlock Punches these two guys were about even. But once Ganon got that lead over 100, this was done. It was a slow, steady, effective climb for the entire match. Hold this thing before Breath of the Wild or before Smash Ultimate's hype, and Vivi probably wins. But with all of that in Ganon's favor, it was just enough for him to win this despite looking weird all contest long.

Ganon's reward for winning?

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/918/575/060.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1750-hyrule-division-round-2-link-vs-ganondorf

"Uh oh."