Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | North Division |
|---|---|
| Match # | 33 |
| Match Date | Saturday, August 2nd, 2003 |
| Vote difference | 63,666 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Link - 82.13% 53 for - 0 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Link - 95.42% (39,180 brackets) |
The second round of this contest kicked off with Link further proving his dominance over the rest of the field. The man had performed to rather insane heights in 2002, but he came out in 2003 fully prepared to outdo himself. Poor Fox never stood a chance, especially given that you're more likely to see ESPN admit to being wrong about how badly they were owned by USC than you are seeing Link facing the ass end of Nintendo SFF. It simply won't happen.
For the second match in a row, there was no real reason to believe that Link repeating was in any jeopardy whatsoever. If anything, he came out and did more than what we expected of him, and that's a lot given what he was coming off of. A few upset hopefuls took the Mario/DK 2002 route and claimed that this match proved nothing due to it being SFF (as was Link's first round match, come to think of it), but breaking 80% is good regardless of who the opponent is. Still, it is fair to cite that these were two SFF affairs that Link exploded in. The next round would be a much more telling sign for his repeat chances.
On a side note, here's an interesting poll to compare to this Link/Yoshi 2004 affair: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=1766
Granted it's a much stronger Link, but Yoshi only managed to do .72% better on him than Fox. Yet Yoshi is a contest staple while Fox's last match in contests was back in this very 2003 loss to Link. It was a quiet exit, but one that needs to end fairly soon. Fox could be a strong character if put into the right situation, and him being the second best character in SSBM can't hurt.