(8)Mega Man vs (7)Pikachu (Legends Bracket) 2018

Ulti's Analysis
This was SUCH a good match, and it reminded me a lot of Mega Man v Zero v Charizard back in 2003. Mega Man had every reason in the world to just roll over and die in this match, but the little guy just has the clutch gene and refuses to quit in close matches, even when a lot of people on Board 8 were sitting there expecting Pikachu to just roll this dude. Pikachu stomped through the main bracket, and outside of Smash Bros Mega Man hasn't done much lately. No, MM9 through 11 doesn't count. Dude's really something.

When this match started, it didn't exactly look like we were getting some great classic. Pikachu held strong early, but then Mega Man had a 100 vote lead in 15 minutes. It looked to be one of those standard matches that looks close on percents, but is never actually close. But then Pikachu won the next update by 26, and it was on. Pikachu got this thing back under 50 very quickly, but then Mega Man started going up again and built a lead of 200. Not to be outdone, Pikachu countered again and in only a few updates it was below 100 again. We continued on the two steps forward one step back routine for Mega Man until he built his biggest lead of the match: 237 votes. Remember that number.

After some stalling and as we continued on through midnight, Pikachu slowly but surely fought his way back into things. Remember a few matches ago where I joked about Mega Man going to every house in Europe and killing a house pet, a first born son, and torching the place? Europe despises this dude, and it shows up every time Mega Man has a match. We don't usually notice because most matches with these characters aren't close, but in matches like this it really matters. Pikachu tied this poll at 3 am, and then veeeeeery slowly started building a lead. He hit 100 in time for the morning vote, where one would assume a Pokemon would take over.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8d/8d/8a/8d8d8a90b54f883fc446f52425e22f4a.jpg

Mega Man won the morning vote, and in only a couple hours we were tied again. Did Mega Man take advantage and start climbing? Of course not, because these two guys were out there giving us the best match of this contest to this point. King Dedede and Revolver Ocelot having a match like this is great, but Mega Man and Pikachu doing it actually meant something. But despite all the back and forth, Mega Man slowly trended up all morning and well past lunch en route to a lead of 150 votes.

But you can't have classic matches if someone just dies, so once again Pikachu fought back. During the afternoon and largely thanks to the ASV (after school vote, for those playing the home game), Pikachu erased that 150 vote lead and yet again we were tied up. At 5 pm, with only two hours left in the poll, these two were dead even. It was going to come down to which fanbase wanted it more, and for once, the Pokemon fans actually bothered caring about a close match. I've been asking these people to try showing up for years. Today, they finally did it. Pikachu built up a 100 vote lead over the next 45 minutes, and though Mega Man fought like hell to get back in the match, he simply ran out of time. Pikachu was ready for that last push, went 'oh hey the guy I'm against is made of metal, maybe I should electrocute the little bastard', and that was all she wrote. Pikachu wins by 62, in our first true loss for the Noble Nine. More on that in a second.

Remember when I said to remember the number 237?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S53fZTbKHG0

A new wire to wire record! I'm a sucker for that list, and seeing such a great match set a record like that warms my heart. Props to these two for giving us one hell of a show, and props to Pikachu for finally breaking the Noble Nine.

Ah yes, the Noble Nine. Link, Cloud, Mario, Samus, Crono, Solid Snake, Sephiroth, Mega Man, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Nine characters so much stronger than everyone else that they could only lose to each other. Nine characters who have had entire contests warped around them so others have a fair chance of winning. Whenever something happens that proves the LOL x stats wrong, I'm the first guy to laugh. You all know this. I go the other way with the Noble Nine. Sort of. I'm the kind of guy to make excuses whenever they lose in some weird bracket idea like 4ways, 3ways, and Rivalry Rumble, simply because the whole reason those formats happened was to give other characters a chance of winning. The only losses they've had I consider truly legitimate are 1v1 24 hour losses. I don't care that Crono lost to Vincent in 2007. That was a 4way poll. I don't care that Kirby overperforms in 4way polls and beat Sonic. I don't care that Missingno got a 12 hour day match against Crono with backwards trends. I sure as hell don't care about 3way polls, because anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows why those were stupid.

That said, the mental gymnastics I saw after this match were really, really dumb. There are people claiming this "doesn't count" because Pikachu only won with the registered user bonus. There are people claiming this "doesn't count" because Mega Man won the rematch. There are people claiming this "doesn't count" because this sent Mega Man to a loser's bracket instead of actually eliminating him from the tournament. How about you people stop moving goalposts with your mental gymnastics and fuck off? Mega Man lost, fair and square. Deal with it. Mega Man losing here meant this was the first time, ever, that a Noble Nine character lost in a 1v1 24 hour match to someone from outside the group. That is a big deal and the push to cheapen this win so that Tifa or Zelda can take credit instead is an embarrassment. Pikachu is the character that broke the Noble Nine. Period. He did so in a really good match, too.