Results[]
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 8 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 93 |
| Match Date | Sunday, April 19, 2020 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Skyrim - 77.88% 51 for - 0 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Skyrim - 88.32% |
| User Votes |
Skyrim - 6752 Journey - 2158 |
| Anonymous Votes |
Skyrim - 6259 Journey - 2281 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Uw97lOOlk
It's not often when you can win a contest poll with 75% of the vote and come out looking badly, but remember, Skyrim's matches were not only about winning. It was all about going tit for tat with Witcher 3, and the leadup to this match included Witcher 3 holding Mass Effect 3 to 21.6% of the vote. Skyrim had to match that, at least, to hold serve.
SFF or no SFF, there is no way anyone with an unbiased mind can compare that monstrosity Witcher 3 pulled off with Journey getting 25% on Skyrim and think Skyrim wasn't in a world of trouble. Even if you want to think the former was an SFF beating, it meant Witcher 3 was able to pull off Western SFF.
There was no way around this. Skyrim was completely and thoroughly screwed. The game isn't weak or anything, and I could even argue it hasn't lost much strength if any which is a minor miracle given Bethesda's idiocy, but Witcher 3 was in total berserk mode this contest. Anything less than an A+ performance was going to lose to it, and Skyrim was putting out a series of A-. On top of that, it kept losing board votes.
If round one wasn't a good hint into how that eventual semifinal would go, round two certainly was. It also got some minor hype trains going for Skyrim to potentially get tripped up by Nintendo long before the semifinals ever got here. Any way you look at it, Skyrim was in trouble.
Ctes's Analysis[]
This was the match that initially made Skyrim an easy target for most of the rest of the contest. The Subnautica result was one thing, only a few Bethesda anti-votes were needed to keep it from going higher then, but people had a tough time accepting this result and it didn’t help The Witcher 3 had looked extremely good a few rounds before. Journey finished at the near bottom of the 2015 x-stats and it was debated to be the weakest round 2 entry there was. The general consensus before the contest was that Skyrim was the favorite to each the finals. If it was still the case after round 1, it certainly wasn’t the case now, and on top of The Witcher 3 taking the title, Dark Souls beating Skyrim was now considered very possible.
I was one of the people defending Skyrim at the time, but it wasn’t easy. I didn’t doubt The Witcher 3 would be the one to make the finals any longer, but I didn’t think this was as bad as people made it out to be. I’ll say once again that Skyrim was the Final Fantasy VII character of this contest. They always get where they’re supposed to, but it sure doesn’t look good getting there. The Bethesda anti-votes are a thing, that’s for sure. Skyrim has also become a victim of its own popularity. At least it seems that way to be. There are seemingly a group of people that find it cool to hate on the game, partly because Breath of the Wild and The Witcher 3 has overshadowed it in the latter half of the decade. This has had some bandwagon effect probably, it felt like people wanted to see Skyrim lose early and board 8 lacked the Skyrim fans to defend it. Still, most people are better than that and respect Skyrim. It’s a vocal minority.
Then there’s Journey. The above doesn’t work if we really think Journey is as weak as 2015 project it to be, and I don’t! The 2015 x-stats project Skyrim to do about 5% better against Journey, although both are clouded by Undertale rallies. That’s not too big of a difference! Skyrim had room to be a little weaker and still easily get to the semi-finals and look good there and Journey had reason to be stronger than last time. It’s not good, but the game is mentioned in some Game of the Decade debates and during this contest it was made free for every person that owns a PS4. Not just the PS+ subscribers, but everyone. Sony’s way of telling people to stay home during the pandemic was by giving everyone the Nathan Drake Collection and Journey for free. That could help close that 5% gap a little more.
Finally, Journey is probably a terrible game for Skyrim to look good against. It’s so vastly different and colorful in comparison. The Witcher 3 looked to be in its own league, but it also got opponents of similar fanbases to trash, Skyrim didn’t. I thought Skyrim looked fine already then, but there were people not understanding why we had such a hard time accepting Skyrim was just weaker. That wasn’t it! In the end, Skyrim looked fine and so Journey wasn’t as bad as we thought. There’s no point in seeing it in another contest, but it managed to get away from the bottom of the barrel where it used be, although it took most of the contest for the majority of people to see that.
Safer777's Analysis[]
Somehow we have this as a Round 2 match. Really? How weak was Journey's opponent? Extremely weak it seems! Well as I said before Skyrim is one of the most popular AAA games ever made and Journey is damn popular for an indie game.
So for the match. Okay Skyrim won with a tripling. I mean is there anything else to say? I guess it is kinda low for Skyrim. Sure a tripling is always amazing but it should have finished higher. Maybe? I don't know. Well Skyrim is supposed to be the 2nd strongest game on the contest so I am not sure. We shall see of course.
Tsunami's Analysis[]
While a near-tripling in Round 2 sounds promising on paper, this was if anything a worrying performance for Skyrim backers. That it would win its division was of course still not remotely in question. And its 88.32% prediction percentage in this match was second only to BotW in Round 2. But The Witcher 3 managed to comfortably get the tripling over a presumably stronger opponent, and one round sooner for Skyrim's potential opponents, Dark Souls also got a tripling, albeit against what one would presume to be an even weaker game than Journey. It didn't quite seem like time to worry about it possibly getting upset by Dark Souls just yet, but it was absolutely looking like Witcher 3 might be the new favorite to reach the finals out of the bottom half of the bracket.