Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | West Division |
|---|---|
| Match # | 46 |
| Match Date | Thursday, August 15th, 2002 |
| Vote difference | 10,663 |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Samus - 58.02% (9,726 brackets) |
This had trap match written all over it from the very beginning. Ryu over Samus was a very sexy upset pick, especially considering that Ryu over Samus wouldn't have even been a seeding upset. It's easy to look back on this contest and wonder how anyone could have possibly picked someone other than Samus to win this four pack, but back in 2002, Samus hadn't had a game since Super Metroid, while Ryu was arguably the most popular fighting game character out there. The Ryu over Samus hype wasn't necessarily large, but it was logical. The prediction percentages against Samus in both matches prove it, to a point.
Not that this mattered when the match began, of course. One could have argued that Ryu was done for after Samus's convincing win over Ken Masters in the first round, but they play out the matches for a reason. And when this match was played out, Ryu was never in contention. He may be the most popular fighting character out there, but this is GameFAQs, the land of Squaresoft and Nintendo. Ryu beating Samus would have been nice, but it was clear almost from the first round that Samus would have no trouble winning this match.
With two easy victories over the Street Fighter elites (on a side note, I still say Chun-Li should get into one of these things at least once), all that was left for Samus was to bow out respectfully against the potential championship buzzsaw entitled Sonic. She had little chance of actually getting in the way of the Sonic/Megaroth showdown, but they still have to play out all of the matches.