Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Zebes Division |
|---|---|
| Match # | 08 |
| Match Date | Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 |
| Vote difference | 40,639 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Auron - 65.27% 105 for - 1 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Auron - 76.97% (26,010 brackets) |
I loooove easy writeups, and this one is about as simple as it gets. Everyone knew that Auron would win, and win he did. However, this was little more than Auron's tuneup for his impending clash with Ganondorf.
If you can even call it a clash, that is. One could argue that the outcome of that match was sealed after this match (I'd argue that it was obvious before the contest started, but that's besides the point).
Let's go over all the usual categories:
Prediction Percentage? Advantage Ganon.
Total Votes? Advantage Ganon.
Recent Exposure? Advantage Ganon. Argue against TP hype all you want, but Auron was barely in FFX-2 at all. Besides, I'd count Spring 2005 as recent exposure for Ganon.
Individual vote totals? Advantage Auron, but he only managed 2000 extra votes against an opponent that is likely a lot weaker than Yuna is. I wouldn't exactly call this one good news.
Intangibles? Advantage Ganon. There was clearly a massive carry-over of support for him from the spring, so he'd likely have the necessary bracket votes to win a close match.
Of course, I will admit that this is bias speaking on some level, as I had Ganon winning that match from the start and had my assumption confirmed by this match. But even from an unbiased perspective, I can't imagine feeling good about Auron's chances against Ganon after this match. Sure he wound up overperforming based upon expectations, but look at how often are expectations wrong when discussing new characters.
Besides, even if you want to argue that Big Boss should have been strong based off of Metal Gear Solid 3, look at that match pic. I can see Big Boss doing well if he's given a Naked Snake pic, but a melting cartoon pic of a character model that doesn't appear live in any MGS title isn't going to do Big Boss any favors. I'm always an advocate of pictures not mattering too much, but this one may be an exception given the massive popularity of MGS3. Naked Snake does better against Auron than whatever the hell that thing is up there. I practically guarantee it.
Come to think of it, I'm really starting to wonder what Big Boss could do in one of these things if given a Naked Snake pic. It's not like CJayC is against completely ruining a game's biggest spoiler in a match pic or anything (Hi, Kefka/Mithos!).
Match Trends[]
