Results[]
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 2 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 100 |
| Match Date | Tuesday, April 21, 2020 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Resident Evil 2 - 52.27% 39 for - 13 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Resident Evil 2 - 32.58% |
| User Votes |
Resident Evil 2 - 4699 Bloodborne - 4374 |
| Anonymous Votes |
Resident Evil 2 - 4051 Bloodborne - 4619 |
What a match to have for the contest's 100th match, eh?
This was by far the best match of this entire contest. It had everything. High stakes, lots of hype leading up to the poll, a ton of controversy, a bunch of trolls trolling each other, a bunch of whining, a bunch of rallying, and some far-reaching consequences. It's also the easiest photo finish match to analyze in the history of these contests. Resident Evil 2 won because the mods on r/Bloodborne mysteriously and inexplicably disallowed rallies midway through the poll. Had those rally threads been allowed for the entire match, Bloodborne wins by around 1000 votes. Maybe more. Had those rally threads never happened, Resident Evil 2 wins this match by about the same amount. That was the singular and obvious deciding factor here. Read on if you want the juice, but that's really all you need to know.
In the leadup, Resident Evil 2 wasn't tested much. It easily beat some anime VN thing in round one, and easily beat Doom 2016 in round two. It was clear RE2 meant business in this contest, and had a boost from a mid-contest series release at its back. Bloodborne's path, while similarly easy, was a bit different. It had a simple 2-15 match in round one, and easily beat Fire Emblem Awakening in round two. But during that Awakening match, rallies took hold on the Bloodborne subreddit for some inexplicable reason, allowing it to beat Fire Emblem easier than it perhaps deserved to.
On both sides, everyone figured the match would be close and everyone figured rallies would play a part. Everyone was definitely right on all points, and we were in for one hell of a match here when the poll finally decided to start. Of course a match like this would start two hours late, because what's a classic match without a dumb controversy thrown in? What the hell? There was apparently a site glitch with a site update paired with the contest switching from four matches per day to two, and it caused the poll not to start. Amazing. When this thing was being delayed, most of us figured it would be delayed for 24 hours.
Nope! The poll started just after 10 PM EST, and... inexplicably kept going. No delay, no announcement, nothing. Seriously, Allen? You did a good job in this contest, but you massively botched this match. To put in perspective how stupid it was to just not delay the poll by a full 24 hours, we hadn't had a 2+ hour delay to start a contest poll since Sonic vs Samus all the way back in 2002 -- 18 years ago! Largely because of that match and a few other controversial matches with much smaller delays, the poll start times were automated. Any glitches since then, such as in 2004 when Jill Valentine versus Ryu Hayabusa got taken over by CATS, resulted in full 24 hour delays.
But no delay here, for some reason. This delay also affected Mass Effect 2 versus Horizon Zero Dawn, but it didn't affect that match so who cares. Some people might say this match result is tainted, much like how people to this day do not feel the Sonic/Samus 2002 match was legitimate. I don't personally think it's a tainted result, but it was still very dumb not to delay it.
When the poll got going and some trends materialized, Bloodborne got some early bracket votes, and then Resident Evil 2 started wresting control after the initial freeze. After a small bit of Bloodborne resistance, Resident Evil 2 started climbing overnight. There were some stalls and cuts here and there, but overall Resident Evil 2 had clear control of the match and was climbing fairly easily. It won the evening, it won the midnight hours, and then as the overnight vote started.... the match hit a stall point. Europe is apparently not a fan of Resident Evil 2, so things stayed deadlocked until around 4 am. America voted for Resident Evil 2, and Europe was voting Bloodborne. Things stayed in the 350 range for awhile, with Resident Evil 2's lead peaking at 400.
And then it happened.
https://i.imgur.com/DjIBdiD.mp4
r/Bloodborne had a very widely seen rally thread go up, and Bloodborne was off to the races. It was the most obvious and effective rally in this entire contest outside of the ending of Shovel Knight vs Octopath Traveler. That 400 vote lead that Resident Evil 2 had? Gone by 6 am, and Bloodborne just ran right past it en route to taking full control of this match. Had things continued like this, Bloodborne would have easily won. It was flying in this poll, and there was a vote swing of almost 600 votes in about 4 hours during the dead zone. This match was as over as over could be, and then..... poof. Gone.
Just as quickly as the rally happened, the mods on the sub inexplicably deleted the threads and banned them for the rest of the match. Resident Evil 2, seeing an opportunity to turn things around, quickly pounced. Bloodborne had a ton of momentum and a lead near 200 votes, and though some word of mouth would remain for Bloodborne for the rest of the poll, it was nothing compared to a dedicated rally thread being there. This allowed Resident Evil 2 to come back, and come back it did. For the next few hours in the morning, Resident Evil 2 went through the painstaking process of erasing Bloodborne's 200 vote lead, and tied it at around 10 am.
This trend favored Resident Evil 2, right? ...nope!
When people think of insane stalls and ties in contest matches, this is the gold standard that everyone cites: http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/node/22?matchnum=1658&num=2
For about 12 hours starting at 8 am, that match was agonizing to watch. That magic will never, ever be repeated. The stakes were insane, the match was insane, the hype was insane, and on top of all that, you had two titans in pure deadlock for half the match with live updating going on. On top of that, Chrono Trigger didn't get buried by the day vote against a Zelda game. Ultimately, the night vote showed up to end that match. The stall was great, but once Chrono Trigger took the lead at night, we kind of figured the match was over.
Resident Evil 2 and Bloodborne, thanks to the final ten hours of this poll, belong in any discussion among all-time classic matches in these contests. At 9:40 AM EST, Bloodborne had a 9 vote lead. This match stayed completely and thoroughly tied, with some small blips, for the next ten hours. When it looked like Resident Evil 2 might finally make a push to build s lead, Bloodborne smacked it down. When it looked like Bloodborne might finally take a lead, Resident Evil 2 smacked it down. It was a joy to watch it all unfold, though I will say that in spots like this during contests, there's usually one entrant that looks better while the other is holding on for dear life. Bloodborne was definitely the one holding on for dear life here, because almost every push to actually take a lead was going RE2's way.
That is, until the final two hours. It was here where Bloodborne, not Resident Evil, kept trying to build a lead and Resident Evil was holding on for dear life. It just kept going like this, update after update, hour after hour, until everyone looked up and went oh crap, we only have two hours left! As things started to wind down, it looked like Bloodborne was going to take this thing. It built a lead of 30, which seemed insurmountable, but RE2 fought back yet again.
Things were tied yet again with less than an hour left, and Bloodborne yet again tried to win this match. It built up a lead of 26 with only 30 minutes left, and given the trends of the match, it really did seem like this was all she wrote. But then Resident Evil 2 knocked the lead down to 10 with 30 minutes left, and it was anyone's game from here.
This is when Moonroof clutched up and handed Resident Evil 2 this win on a silver platter. In matches like this, Board 8 usually decides the winner. It is very rare in a photo finish for the Board 8 favorite to lose the match anymore, and Resident Evil 2 is clearly who the board was pulling for. Someone or someones was eventually going to step up, and that guy was Moonroof. He made a post in the stats topic about having about 70 votes ready to go for Resident Evil 2, and though people in there mocked the guy for making this claim, there's an old saying. Show me the receipts.
Well I saw the receipts with my own two eyeballs. Hate on Moonroof all you want, but he is 100% legit on this. He had the receipts, I saw them myself, he delivered around 70 perfectly legal and legitimate votes, and as the match flopped over the finish line with two exhausted competitors, it was RE2 that came out on top and saved a whooooooole lot of our brackets. On a personal level, Bloodborne is my favorite game in this bracket and seeing it lose like this was just brutal to watch. But my bracket had Resident Evil 2 in it, and we've all gone with bracket over favorite in matches like this before. It was nothing compared to me having to cheer for Metal Gear Solid to beat Final Fantasy Tactics, of all things, but it was similar.
There's a lot to unpack here, so let's start with the easy stuff. Rallies decided this match. That is not in debate. I covered that at the beginning. Moonroof is legit. If you don't like the guy, that's on you. Too bad. Even without him, I think Board 8 would have boosted RE2 to the finish in other ways. There were just too many people pulling for it here.
The two hour delay combined with the rallies and the stalls gave us a weird 2020 baby version of Sonic vs Samus 2002 crossed with Chrono Trigger vs Link to the Past 2004. If our vote totals stay where they are, this is the best type of match we can hope for moving forward. I know some of you treated this match like watching your own open heart surgery and you had zero fun with it whatsoever, but in time you'll come to appreciate just how great this match truly was. And if you were cheering for Resident Evil 2, all the better!
The contest did not stop here however, and the show must go on. Resident Evil 2 was now firmly the main contest bandwagon, and with Mass Effect 2 looking ripe to get beat and secondary bracket entries just around the corner, Resident Evil 2 > Mass Effect 2 was a juicy, juicy upset special. I know I took it in the oracle bracket, and I regret absolutely nothing.
As for Bloodborne, I don't think this match means this is the last we'll ever see of it. It put on one hell of a show here, and remember, five years ago it lost to Final Fantasy 12: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6097-best-game-ever-day-12-bloodborne-vs-final-fantasy-xii
That is a real poll that actually happened, and it gets more ridiculous every time I look at it. Bloodborne went from that to coming one rally away from beating Resident Evil 2 when RE3's remake came out mid-contest. This is the kind of match where it sucks that someone had to lose, but if you're going to go out, you might as go out in style. Bloodborne will be back I think, and hopefully when it does, it will be boosted by a sequel. Hey From Software, we want Bloodborne 2. Get on it, guys.
In conclusion, it was nice feeling like we were back in the early 2000s again. Shout out to Resident Evil 2 and Bloodborne for giving of the match of the contest! It was all downhill from here. We had some good matches in the closing stretch, but nothing like this at all. Hopefully those of you who weren't here back in the day looked at this match and appreciated what we used to have. Contests used to all be exactly like this. Enjoy it when you can, my friends.
Ctes's Analysis[]
Today was a very hyped match, because while Resident Evil 2 was the clear favorite before the contest began, Bloodborne had showed itself capable of successfully rallying, even while being in front, and that made a good amount of people take Bloodborne instead. The match would end up being the most memorable match in the contest because it had everything. Resident Evil 2 won in the end, giving us the division final we expected, but Bloodborne sure made it seem like there was no nope at time.
Everyone was ready to cast in their votes when the match came up, but once the clock hit the matches didn’t change. This technically affected four matches. The division 1 ones were running late and there was another match also being delayed, but none of those results were affected by this at all and probably ended almost the exact the same way. The division 1 ones in particular, since they weren’t on the front page anymore. This one however became very controversial because of it. Everyone was looking intensely at the match in the beginning, but we quickly paid less attention as it became clear it wasn’t just a small delay. After a while, people expected it to simply not start for another day. Two hours passed without the polls going up, as it broke the record Sonic vs. Samus had all the way back in 2002.
Unless the match ended up not being close at all, there was no longer any way this one would feel legit to everyone, and spoilers, it did end up being close as excitement was there down to the final updates. It’s ironic how many of the times we’ve had poll delays, it ends it a wire to wire match. This match was one of only two of the contest to come down to the last seconds, although a third one came close too. Sonic vs. Samus was also incredibly close. Jill Valentine vs. Ryu Hayabusa was eventually reset and was very close both times. Link vs. Draven wasn’t delayed but still had downtime hours and a lot of people believe it flipped the result. Mario vs. Crono was started early and wasn’t ended after 24 hours. If we had the votals we used to have, this one would absolutely go down as an all time classic that we’d be talking about for years to come.
It turned out the poll delay was due to a glitch caused by now having two matches a day instead of four. It’s a huge shame, especially because it would hurt our already bad votals for not just this day but also seemingly days to come. It’s what happens. It’s a shame, but it’s fair. The decision to not run the matches the following day and have them run for a full 24 hours is a lot more controversial. It would have been the right thing to do, but I’m sure Allen thought it was an equal disadvantage for both games. Board 8 seemed to think it would harm Resident Evil 2 the most, as it was expected to be able to build a good lead before Bloodborne inevitably rallied and began cutting. It’s tough to call because Bloodborne wasn’t able to put up a thread on time either. The belief that it didn’t change the outcome was naïve though, but I’m thinking Allen hoped it wouldn’t end up as close as it did. No one would have minded if this had happened one of the many days where we had a group of matches that weren’t exciting to follow at all. The easy way out would be to just have a day off, but I suppose Allen wanted everything else to be on schedule.
In any case, the match began surprisingly about two hours and ten minutes later than intended. Bloodborne won the board vote in big fashion, which might seem surprising considering Resident Evil 2 is better here than most places and that most of the board had it in their brackets, but it’s likely the delay at work. We didn’t make out as many of the early votes as we usually do and the votals at the freeze were generally lower to confirm this, but the word quickly spread to everyone that stayed around.
Bloodborne’s lead wasn’t huge either. It was ahead in the opening minutes and kept it until the freeze, but it was never a lot, and everyone correctly expected Resident Evil 2 to run away with it from there. True enough, the lead change happened at the next update and Resident Evil 2 would slowly build a lead from there. It wasn’t too easy though. While Resident Evil 2 was clearly stronger on natural strength, Bloodborne was already proving itself once more. As much as the board liked to criticize Fire Emblem this contest, Awakening no longer looked so bad. Its possible Bloodborne had some momentum going into the round, but it would have won the previous match regardless, so any bandwagon was probably not there, though it might pick it up if it won today.
Fast forward about four hours and Resident Evil 2 has expected its lead to near 400 votes. A good amount that would give it some buffer if the rallied came, but not enough for anyone to feel safe. The biggest lead of the entire match would be a lead of 390 in this time. This was deep into the night hours and Resident Evil 2 suddenly had a tough time extending its lead any further. It seemed to be geography at work. Resident Evil 2 was doing better in the now mostly sleeping North America, while Bloodborne was doing better in Europe. For a while the match stalled around a 350-vote lead for Resident Evil 2.
This is when the Bloodborne rallies started mattering. They came late because of the poll delay, but they came, and they started gaining traction now. Bloodborne cut off about 100 votes in an hour and gaining traction at the same time. Things went even faster in the next hour where Bloodborne removed 200 votes instead. With 14 hours to go, Bloodborne was only 47 votes behind and had a super powerful rally behind it. It looked over at this point.
People were trying to get similar rallies for Resident Evil 2, but it proved a lot more difficult. Not only could they not gain the same kind of traction, but it seemed like the Resident Evil forums were a lot more split on the match and seemed to like both things. The Bloodborne forums, however, were a lot more passionate about their game and it showed. Two updates later the match had the first tie of the match and the Bloodborne went up. The hour that started with Resident Evil 2 being 47 votes ahead ended with Bloodborne being 176 ahead. A fair share of people stopped paying attention. It seemed like counter-rallying was impossible and that Bloodborne would only extend its lead. We had seen Bloodborne capable of successfully rallying when ahead, so it was expected that it would only keep gaining from here and end up winning the match easily. It was reasonable at this point to think Bloodborne would keep it up, gain momentum, win the division and lose to Breath of the Wild, because there are some things a rally of this caliber can not do.
Then the match took a big swing. The Bloodborne subreddit chose to disallow rally threads and removed the successful one that was already there. At least one of the mods there took that decision and that person is the main reason Bloodborne ends up losing. If he had just kept it there a little while longer, it might have ended differently. If he didn’t remove it at all, Bloodborne obviously wins no doubt. Even if they disallowed them moving forward, Mass Effect 2 vs. Bloodborne might have been a really good match, because again, no doubt Bloodborne bandwagons from here if it pulled it off. The fans might very well have found other places to rally in the meantime, because again, they’re very passionate about their game.
Those are all what-if things. What happened is that the Bloodborne rallies were removed and Resident Evil 2 was suddenly in the match accord to no doing of its own. Natural trends were in Resident Evil 2’s favor and it started slowly cutting right away as you expect. From one moment to the next, people went from thinking Bloodborne was a lock to win to thinking Resident Evil 2 was a lock to win it.
It was a bumpy road down to take the lead, but it was the same thing when it was building a lead early on, so it all seemed fine. Bloodborne would stall or win some updates, but everything was going in the direction Resident Evil 2 wanted. North America was beginning to wake up as well. But Bloodborne was hanging on somehow. Resident Evil 2 removed 100 votes off the lead a lot faster than it neared in on the lead and when it finally got close, Bloodborne didn’t let it happen. Bloodborne was down to a 9-vote lead and everyone expected Resident Evil 2 to take the lead, but it didn’t, instead Bloodborne gained and Resident Evil 2 had to cut some more. Then Bloodborne had a 3-vote lead and the exact same thing happens.
Finally, Resident Evil 2 takes the lead with a single vote and extends it to 21 the next update, but Bloodborne still refused to give up. It cut and took the lead again. Resident Evil 2 took it back quickly but couldn’t get anywhere with it and soon we had the second tie of the match before Resident Evil 2 took the lead again with a mere 4 votes. Everyone had so safe in a Resident Evil 2 victory a short while ago, but for whatever reason, it couldn’t run away with the lead like we thought it would.
The match was exciting for literally every single remaining update except possibly the last very few. It was worth checking in at any point. For the next five hours, Resident Evil 2 would have the lead at any point, but its lead would never be bigger than 62 at its best point and would be as low as 4 votes. It seemed like everything could happen. It became more and more apparent that Resident Evil 2 would not run away with it, despite all of North America being awake again and despite the rallies being removed. This was a great match in itself but remember that all the controversy of the poll delay was being discussed the whole day too. It gave a crazy and nostalgic feel. One side was arguing that Resident Evil 2 was the one hit by it, because the GameFAQs core favored it and at any time of the matches people were coming in surprised to see the matches actually being up, which suggested that some people never came back to see it. On the other hand, Bloodborne might have teared things apart with its rallies for a longer time if the match wasn’t 2+ hours short of a full 24.
With less than three hours to go, Bloodborne took the lead again, it was only by 4 votes, but it really highlighted that it was anyone’s game. There didn’t appear to be any trends to favor either game, we seemingly just had three hours of nail biting ahead of us. Over the first of those three hours, Resident Evil 2 made another attempt to build something, but it didn’t get anywhere, and Bloodborne removed it again. Then the tables turned. For many hours Bloodborne had been the game desperately hanging on, but now it took the lead and actually kept it a bit. Resident Evil 2 was the one desperately hanging on now. Bloodborne couldn’t get anywhere, but when Resident Evil 2 almost had the lead, Bloodborne ran away. This continued for most of the remainder of the match, until the match had its third and final tie with only 25 minutes to go and that’s as much of a photo finish match as you can ask for.
The match wasn’t just good on paper either. This was a match where people had stronger feelings than in the other close matches so far. Most people had a clear favorite today. It wasn’t Mario vs. Crono levels of board explosion, we’re probably too old for that now, but it still had FFDragon seemingly needing a Resident Evil 2 victory for mental reasons and it all fueled the atmosphere with excitement.
The match would perhaps anti-climactically end with Resident Evil 2 winning by 88 votes, a bigger lead than it had at any point ever since the Bloodborne rallies were active, but I don’t think anyone felt truly safe until it was over. The second to last update had Resident Evil 2 rise from 39 to 59 and I’m sure that basically sealed the deal in the eyes of many, but this match had been so crazy that we needed to look and poll and look at the next matches starting.
What happened there in the end then? How did Resident Evil 2 suddenly take it so easily when it couldn’t get anywhere for many hours? It’s not something it seemed like everyone could agree on, but the short answer is most likely that the board favored Resident Evil 2. That absolutely matters in photo finishes like this one. Resident Evil 2 was the game that a majority were ready to go out and rally anybody for. When it’s this close everything matters. People texting their friends to vote and such. It looked like every single vote could make a difference and so such things happened. It’s the best explanation. The 88 votes seem like a lot, but if it enough people were doing it, or if the people doing it was just effective enough, it decided the match. I think Resident Evil 2 having the greater support from the people following the match to the end is what decided things here.
The post-match explosion wasn’t very big and it’s a large reason as to why this match doesn’t get close to contending for greatest match ever despite being fantastic. Once it was over, we quickly moved on. The game the board felt should win managed to win. You could argue that Bloodborne was more deserving of a top 16 spot in a Game of the Decade contest. You could argue that it was hurt more by the downtime. You might be right in both cases, but the board was pleased with the victory. In a match without rallies and without downtime, it seemed clear this would have been the result and that means it was pretty widely accepted.
I don’t think Resident Evil 2 gained much momentum from winning this match, as Bloodborne likely would have. It would not enter the division finals as the favorite, but most people thought it had a chance of pulling the upset. If there was any doubt prior to this match about whether it was hurt by being a remake, it was perfectly clear now that it wasn’t. It might not win without the remake of Resident Evil 3 releasing mid contest, but for a well-established game and franchise I also think it’s possible it didn’t make a difference. Bloodborne being this legit even without rallies also helped fuel the Dark Souls > Skyrim upset hype that had been growing throughout the contest.
Despite all the controversy in this match, it was a ride, it was enjoyable, and you can hate rallies as much as you like, but we need matches like this every now and then, so let’s enjoy the ones we get, regardless of how things went down and who you rooted for. This rally wasn’t contest breaking and it wouldn’t have changed more than two matches at best if they weren’t removed mid-match. The delay is unfortunate but screw that too. It was part of the reason as to why this match felt so great to follow and reminded us of the days where the contests peaked.
Safer777's Analysis[]
First things first. This match and the previous match lasted 22 hours only because for the first 2 hours there was a problem with the site and the matches just didn't start. The admin did came and explained what happened but still the previous 2 matches started just fine. So I do wonder what exactly happened. But hey this thing happened so that is I guess. Now the Crew was split too here because not only these 2 games had similar results PLUS Bloodborne had a rally in the previous round even though it didn't really needed it since it would have won anyways. But anyways the winner wouldn't have more than 52 here, that much everyone agreed on it.
So for the match. Well as I said after 2 hours the matches finally started BUT a rally was posted on Reddit for Bloodborne. Still even with that RE 2 was winning with more than 52 for a few hours, as most expected from either game anyways. The highest lead that RE 2 had was 390 votes after around 6.5 hours that the match started. But I guess by then the rally really caught on by then and Bloodborne started cutting fast. After about 3.5 hours there was a tie. Then Bloodborne did managed to go ahead. The highest lead that it managed to build was 177. HOWEVER eventually the rally got deleted on the subreddit. Who knows why. So Bloodborne started losing steam. So after about 4 hours RE 2 caught on and eventually pass ahead! For a few hours the maximum lead that RE 2 had was around 60 votes and then Bloodborne started cutting ahead.
No rally but I guess enough people caught on by now that they started voting for it anyways. For some hours the games went back and forth and no game could expand its vote lead. I mean the highest from both games was like 25! Yeah damn close! With around 30 minutes to end the match there was like a 10 vote difference only! So yeah it seems that everything would end on the last update. But then one guy, I think his name was Moonroof said that he had a lot of RE 2 votes to bring in for the last update. Of course nobody believe him. But then in the end RE 2 won with 88 votes! So yeah I guess this guy somehow pulled it off. No cheating, no foul play, everything legit. So without the rally RE 2 wins with around 52 as most expected anyways. Still amazing match. BUT there is a controversy unfortunately. As I said the match got delayed for around 2 hours. So when the winner wins with like 88 votes EVERY vote counts and who knows how these 2 extra hours would affect the match?
Still best match of the contest so far. I am amazed that Bloodborne is so strong. A Soulslike game and an exclusive too. RE 2 was lucky that RE 3 had come 2 weeks before the match and the RE hype is still big. So yeah amazing match. And rallies are always good, no matter what people say. Still if that rally hadn't been deleted from Reddit Bloodborne would have won for sure. But as I said once again amazing match. This reminded us of the good old contest days! Bloodborne has come really far from losing to damn FF 12 eh? Yeah Souls game did amazing well in the contest. Hope they continue to do well.
Tsunami's Analysis[]
What the...
It wouldn't be a contest without at least one completely batshit match--the more controversial, the better. In this contest, matches had been starting at 8 PM Eastern, 5 PM Pacific. When 8 PM rolled around to close out the previous day and put a merciful end to Breath of the Wild's beating of Final Fantasy XV, we got...nothing. Nothing at all. The match didn't start. And didn't start. And didn't start. Finally, a little bit over two hours past the scheduled start time, Allen and crew noticed the issue and fixed it. At 10:11 PM, Bloodborne jumped out to a 10-0 lead, but by the freeze, RE2 had bled the percentage quite a bit, and it would take the lead on the second update. It would stumble a few times during the first hour, but closed out the delayed hour one with a massive win, over half of what its lead already was, to wind up at 152 votes ahead after an hour. It would get that lead to 231 in just another 20 minutes, and by half past midnight, it was up by over 300 and continuing to be the one that would spike a big update every so often. Its lead would peak at 390 at 2:25 AM, but it was still 372 at 4:10, at which point the roof began to fall in. Over the next hour, Bloodborne cut double digits on ten of the twelve updates, with one of the remaining two also being a single-digit cut and the last being only a single-digit win for RE2. The following hour wasn't any better, and it ended with the match being tied at 8 hours in. The momentum would continue, as it took Bloodborne just 40 minutes to build a 179-vote lead of its own, but then support tailed off; that was as high as that lead went. RE2 retook the lead at 5 minutes to 11, by a single vote, then pushed the lead to 21 on the next update, but Bloodborne forced a stop after that, then took most of it back and was back in the lead by 11:20. This didn't last long, with RE2 retaking the lead at 11:30, then seeing the second tie of the match on the 11:50 update.
RE2 didn't allow Bloodborne to turn that tie into a lead change, however, winning the next update and pushing its lead out to 55 at 12:25 PM. Bloodborne would halve that lead over the next 45 minutes, but RE2 laughed it off and spiked a 25-vote win at 1:25 to push its lead back to 60. They'd trade some big swings after that, but it was never enough to get Bloodborne into the lead. Until it was; at 5 after 5, with just under 3 hours left in the match (because, yes, Allen had already told us that the delayed start wouldn't affect the end time), Bloodborne retook the lead, by just 4 votes. The next update would be another stall before RE2 retook the lead. This lead would last an hour; at 6:15 PM, the percentages sat at 50-50, but the votes showed a 2-vote lead for Bloodborne. Half an hour passed, and the lead was up to 30; another half hour, and it was down to just 3. The next update went decidedly in Bloodborne's favor, however, expanding the lead to 24, and it would tack on two more on the next one before RE2 turned it around, winning the next two updates by 16 and...10. With just 25 minutes left in the match it was once again tied. But there was no let up from Resident Evil 2; it won all five of those remaining updates, four of them by double digits, to win by 88 votes. Outside rallies? Well, yes, probably, but the other reason why the shortened match time was such an issue was that for the first time this contest, and just the fourth time since we started having the registered user bonus, the loser of the raw votes won. Bloodborne had a 568-vote advantage with unregistered users but a 325-vote disadvantage with the registered, and while the math still doesn't come out right (28 RE2 votes and 34 Bloodborne votes were not properly doubled, which again tells me that the "registered votes" column is being done automatically and that Allen is manually adjusting to make sure only accounts that were created in the proper time frame get the benefit of doubled votes), it's enough to flip the match. And no, raw votes weren't higher from unregistered voters than registered, either. If there were rallies, the rallied voters were, at the very least, GameFAQs members.