Ulti's Analysis[]
Every year in the NCAAs, we year about the 12 > 5 upset. We have those now and again too, and we got ours out of the way right on day one.
red13n is good for one boneheaded topic every contest, and for him this contest he just couldn't contain his furry-dom over Spyro the Dragon. To call that topic an embarrassment would be an understatement, but I chose not to save it out of respect. I like red, truly, but the annual "how dare people like women for their bodies as I stare at prepubescent fuzzy cartoon animals" topic is getting really dumb. Which is whatever, you do you bro, but TJF was not the reason Chun-Li won this match. For the unaware, TJF stands for The Jug Factor, which ironically enough exists because of.... Spyro the Dragon! Way back in 2002, everyone picked him to beat Morrigan in round 1. Then Morrigan was given a match picture with her boobs flopping all over the place, and people credited her jugs for winning; ergo, "The Jug Factor". TJF.
TJF may have been the reason Spyro lost back in 2002, but in 2018? Come on man. First off, Spyro was hilariously overseeded due to the Spyro Reignited Trilogy coming out right during this contest and the bracket having 128 characters. You're bound to get insane nonsense when you remove the 8 strongest people and keep in a field of 128.
Secondly, and most obviously of all, this is a picture of Chun-Li: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Wpm07-BGJnE/maxresdefault.jpg
Er whoops. Wrong Chun-Li! This is a picture of Chun-Li: https://streetfighter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/facebook-chunli.jpg
This was Chun-Li's match picture: http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/gallery/albums/cb10/6.png
There's a distinct lack of jugs there, plus Capcom has spent nearly 30 years making her legs look good. Really, it's in her moveset and everything. Ask Justin Wong.
Anyway, red wasn't alone in overrating Spyro, as one can see from the prediction percentage. 45% of people thought he was winning for whatever reason, plus he had a respectable showing as the poll went on. Chun-Li was never in any actual danger of losing, but she did have some updates under 50%. If you put Spyro in KOS-MOS's fourpack, he could have won two matches this year -- which is true of a LOT of characters, just wait until we get to that abomination. Does our language have a phrase for whatever the opposite of "murderer's row" is? Creampuff scheduling?
This was a good contest for 2002 characters in need of a break. But Spyro got his break in 2013, so his fans can stop whining about a TJF that doesn't exist. Boobs are for children, anyway. Men like ass ;)
Lightning Strikes' Analysis[]
What happened?: This was the first debated match of the contest. It shows in the prediction percentage, with just over 55% getting it right. Historically Chun-Li would stomp, but arguably Street Fighter has faded from relevance a bit and Spyro has been the most relevant he's been in almost 20 years. His 5-seed speaks for itself here, his highest ever. Additionally, he looked miles better in 2013 as a result of nostalgia for that era starting up. In the end it wasn't quite enough. Spyro looked pretty good here, and for the first hour-ish looked like it could be close, with Spyro winning multiple updates. Unfortunately soon after the kiddies went to bed, and Chun-Li was gaining slowly for the rest of the match other than a few random spots. Unsurprisingly Spyro looked best in Europe, even winning in a few territories, but it wasn't enough and the match ended up a fairly standard 56/44 affair.
What could this mean?: For this contest, nothing. Whoever wins is going to get stomped by Ganondorf. In general though, despite losing this was a big moral victory for Spyro. Back in the day this would have been at least a doubling if not a tripling. Spyro has boosted a lot, and that 2013 performance seems legit after all. It's too early to say if Chun-Li has changed at all, but it would probably be pretty slight. She did better with the GameFAQs vote, but it won't matter given what she's up against next round.
Safer777's Analysis[]
Spyro is a PS 1 icon. He was really famous back in the day. Chun-Li is the most iconic female fighter from the most famous fighting series. Still she barely scored above 56% here. As time goes on we care less and less for fighting games here it seems? Spyro also is in Skylanders which is HUGELY popular! Not here of course. Still she managed to win and that is that I guess. Man I remember when I first saw Street Fighter 2 in an Arcade machine when I was young. I was so impressed! What else to say? Spyro is really weak in these things. Chun-Li is somewhat stronger.
But as the years go on, fighthing characters keep doing worse and worse and we have fewer and fewer in the contests. Remember when DOA characters were in these things? Yeah. Also the prediction percentage is low. Well makes sense. They both had a chance at win here anyways. Also I didn't know when this match first came out but Icons did well in the contest. So it makes sense.
Tsunami's Analysis[]
Poor Spyro can't catch a break with these fighting game females, can he?
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/(8)Spyro_the_Dragon_vs_(9)Morrigan_Aensland_2002
That was the match that created "TJF", which was discussed quite a bit this contest. Spyro got a bad draw regardless, however, because a lot of characters with similar old-school credentials were able to impress this year. Spyro? Stuck behind a fellow gaming icon. Chun-Li might not be the first female fighter, but she's the first to reach mainstream consciousness. They even make fun of it at one point; she has a line in one of the more recent games where she reminisces about being the only girl on the roster.
As a result, the strength that Crash and Bomberman showed later in this contest came as a surprise. I'll talk about them in good time though.