Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | North Division |
|---|---|
| Match # | 33 |
| Match Date | Friday, August 2nd, 2002 |
| Vote difference | 22,364 |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Mario - 81.71% (13,698 brackets) |
As much as a good deal of the board wanted to see Mario show a sign of weakness, there was no such thing in this match. Mario defeated Morrigan Aensland rather easily in another match that served as filler for the eventual Mario/Cloud showdown.
The only real thing to be drawn from this match is that Mario did not seem as strong as the other elites of the contest. While Link, Sonic, Sephiroth and Mega Man were out killing their first round opponents, Mario was struggling to double a fighting game character. It was understandable to believe Mario's "struggle" against Servbot to be a fluke, but two such underperformances in a row could leave open questions about how elite Mario truly was. The aforementioned characters seemed like the types who could rip open anyone who showed any signs of weakness, and even though we didn't knowhow strong Servbot or Morrigan were yet, it's hard to believe that the elite first round characters wouldn't be able to do better than Mario's 66.81% against Morrigan Aensland. All focus was on Cloud and how well he would or would not do against Pikachu at this point, and if Cloud were to annihilate Pikachu, most would be hard-pressed not to see Cloud as the favorite going into the Mario-Cloud duel. Mario had to improve on some level if he wanted to compete with Cloud, or any other elite for that matter.