Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | West Division |
|---|---|
| Match # | 45 |
| Match Date | Wednesday, August 14th, 2002 |
| Vote difference | 10,086 |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Sonic - 60.77% (10,188 brackets) |
As decent as Tidus's win over Claire Redfield seemed, the fact remained that most people cannot stand Tidus. This was bound to catch up with him sooner or later, likely sooner, despite the fact that a few people actually picked Tidus to win this match.
Sure enough, Tidus absolutely collapsed at the first sight of elite competition. What was a match that some people thought could be a shocking upset turned into a relatively easy win for Sonic. The only reason that Sonic didn't do better than he did was because of the Square tag attached to Tidus (it's very difficult to flat-out kill anything related to Square), and a small glitch in the poll that caused it to not count votes for a little while. But make no mistake. This was a thorough beating of Tidus, considering his status.
The odd thing about Tidus, and this plagues him even to this day, is the fact that he cannot seem to draw popularity from his own game. Every generation has a chosen Final Fantasy/Square title attached to it, and this generation's such title is Final Fantasy X. Despite Tidus being hated by so many sources, it's still hard to believe that he could be that much weaker than his game. It isn't like he's the only annoying character in that game, either. Wakka, Yuna, Kimahri, Seymour, and everyone on the Luca Goers need to be shot just as much as Tidus, if not moreso. Yet for whatever reason, Tidus not getting the full Square support still plagues him.
As for Sonic, it wasn't necessarily the blowout that he was hoping for, but it was good enough. After all, the only thing standing between Sonic and the Final Four at this point was the winner of the Sephiroth/Mega Man showdown. It isn't as if the likes of Samus or Ryu would beat him, and even though Sonic didn't flat out kill Tidus, a win is a win is a win, and Sonic's victory was impressive enough. There was absolutely no reason to believe that Sonic wasn't still an elite character in this contest with a fair chance at winning it after this match. Absolutely none. The only thing that really gets me are Sonic's low prediction percentage and relatively low odds of winning. 45:1 as a high-status 1 seed makes no sense, and neither does a mere 60% picking him to make it out of his four pack. I understand that Tidus and Redfield are popular characters, but to beat Sonic? Please.