Results[]
Round Two
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 1 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 66 |
| Match Date | Saturday, November 21, 2015 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Final Fantasy X - 60.36% 90 for - 3 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Final Fantasy X - 44.02% |
While Chrono Trigger was busy scoring round 2's biggest blowout, Final Fantasy X was out there doing... whatever in the world this was. Based on 2009 stats, Final Fantasy X was projected to get 68% on Mega Man X. I know "lol 4-ways" and such, and that round loss in 2009 was probably a little weird, but it does not explain being projected to get 68% and then going out there and just completely shitting the bed. MMX potentially being hidden behind some weird SNES SFF from Final Fantasy 6 in 2009 can only explain so much.
The true tragedy here was Mega Man 2 not getting into the bracket. You cannot have a contest called "Best Game Ever", with 128 games in the bracket, without having Mega Man 2 in there somewhere. You just can't. Mega Man X being a hidden beast proves this.
Things were bad right from the start for FFX, when it was only at 57% at the freeze. MMX then proceed to thoroughly embarrass FFX for the first couple hours of the poll, including even getting a couple of cuts, before FFX recovered during the dead zone (Square's best time) to get things back to 57%. Then the morning vote hit and MMX started going up again, including getting even more cuts throughout the match. MMX was never a threat to win, but any hopes FFX had of beating Chrono Trigger just completely died after this match. This was a horrible win for Final Fantasy X, one of the worst wins of the entire contest, and even then it still didn't prepare people for just how badly FFX was fucked in round 3.
We all knew it would lose at this point. The extent of just bad the blowout would be was really something else.
Ctes' Analysis[]
We've talked about how this year was the Year of SNES many times, but damn was that highlighted today. Mega Man X was in no way supposed to be able to score this good on Final Fantasy X. Final Fantasy X reached the finale of 2009, and even though it took advantage of other games suffering from LFF to reach that finale it still got there. Mega Man X for comparison was easily eliminated in round 1 by Final Fantasy VI and Link's Awakening, which are strong games yes, but it should still put Mega Man X quite a while behind Final Fantasy X. Let me remind you Final Fantasy X was viewed as the second strongest Final Fantasy game back then. I don't think anyone doubted that it was. Furthermore, in Game of the Decade, Final Fantasy X was the favorite and might have very well won if Majora didn't get the support from Ocarina not being in the bracket and maybe Brawl beating Melee. Mega Man X wasn't in that contest of course, but I guarantee it wouldn't have done that well.
Final Fantasy X today surely wasn't anywhere near Majora's Mask, a game it almost beat despite all the aforementioned things being against it. Final Fantasy X had dropped in some way for whatever reason, which is really weird considering that it's actually pretty old by now. Perhaps Playstaion 2 is a generation too late. Final Fantasy IX looked fantastic this contest. Last contest Final Fantasy X took care of IX easily, such a boring match. SFF? Sure, but IX got destroyed regardless. This contest they looked about even, and while IX has been a fan favorite for whatever weird reason the last few years, I don't think it's enough. FFX dropped for some reason too.
Of course, the result today was not just Final Fantasy X. Mega Man X deserves some major props for doing this well. To think it was highly debated whether it would lose in round 1. It was never going to win this match, but it exited the contest looking fantastic. Put Mega Man X in the bottom-quarter of the bracket and man we'd see some brackets getting screwed over. It might very well win against any game down there, but Super Mario RPG is debatable. I don't think it would, but no reason to be ashamed of that. It can't be said enough; it truly is the Year of SNES, and with SMB3 looking pretty great despite losing early, I wish we'd have more NES games in the contest to see if they had a similar boost, because I think they would. The obvious snubs are Mario 1 and Zelda 1, but regarding this match, I'd really love to see Mega Man 2 and maybe Mega Man 3 in this contest, though it's fine with just 2, they're likely equals anyway. While SBAllen quickly revealed that neither Mario 1 nor Zelda 1 were in the bracket by revealing how many games from each year got in. Two games from 1989 made it in and everyone assumed that had to be Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mega Man 2 until Allen explained how he decided what year games belonged in using Tetris as an example, which basically revealed Tetris was one of those two 1989 games, and no one doubted Super Mario Bros. 3 would be the other. Truly a shame we didn't get Mega Man 2 after this result.
Mega Man X is a game that definitely deserves a better bracket placement in another contest, not to mention a better seed. It's more than worthy of it. There's not much Mega Man representation in one game, so it's nice to see that one game doing well. As someone who's kinda sad that the last two contests we've had were decided by outside forces, at least both contests had Mega Man exceeding expectations. Let's keep this, Mega Man looked so bad for so many years here, I like this change!