(8)Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King vs (9)Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 2015

Ulti's Analysis ]]
For whatever reason, the second match of these contests is completely cursed for Board 8. This year, Dragon Quest 8 is the game that got to bite everyone during the second match, and at this point the right play with these is to just find Board 8's popular opinion on them and just go the opposite way unless it's an ungodly obvious match.

Check this list out.

Summer 2002 - Spyro vs Morrigan. Everyone picks Spyro, because people have actually heard of Spyro. Morrigan wins, and everyone credits the match picture (http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/gallery/albums/sc2k2/sum02b02.jpg). 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.

So yeah, long list of second match oddities and this year was no different. I myself picked DQ8 initially, then looked at things and realized Persona 3 had a buzz on this site, while Dragon Quest has never mattered (sorry Chris, it's true). Even looking at past polls, both games have been garbage-level, but Persona always showed something. Other people, including casuals filling out brackets, reached the same conclusion, and picked Persona 3. they figured fodder with a fanbase beats fodder that no one ever talks about.

Then the match started. Persona 3 took an early lead, likely from bracket votes, but then it became very close almost immediately. Right when this happened, a lot of people knew what was coming because we've all seen the second match screw us time and time again. When DQ8 took the lead 20 minutes in, there was no illusion about Persona 3 doing anything even though the poll stayed close for awhile. We all knew.

In fairness this was in question for a couple hours, but DQ8 slowly gained overnight, then buried the poll once the day vote hit. The best explanation I have, outside of Persona 3 having a very vocal yet very minor minority, is that the title "Best Game Ever" on this contest really meant something to people. Dragon Quest is gaming royalty as a series. Persona is just another run-of-the-mill JRPG series, and sorry Persona fans but you know it's the truth. It's obvious that no one outside of very dedicated JRPG fans know or care what Persona even is. That's why Dragon Quest won.

Not that Dragon Quest would end up anything but fodder, as Chrono Trigger would so thoroughly remind everyone in round 2.