Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | South Division |
|---|---|
| Match # | 23 |
| Match Date | Wednesday, July 23rd, 2003 |
| Vote difference | 7,284 |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Max Payne - 65.42% (26,860 brackets) |
Gordon Freeman may have lost in 2002 to Tina Armstrong as a 3 seed, but his legend wasn't truly born until this match against Max Payne. Amazing Telephone went absolutely insane during the time leading up to this match with various forms of hilarity and wit, and even though most people refused to put any stock whatsoever into Gordon there was still a fairly well-sized base of people that believed Gordon could win this match against Max Payne.
But once the match began and everyone saw Gordon again tank a match that he probably could have won, the Gordon Freeman Never Wins (GFNW) fad was born. It obviously hasn't died since, because Gordon has yet to win a match. Future Edit -- it took 2006 against Phoenix Wright for him to finally win one, and Phoenix would likely win that one if a rematch ever happened. If you count the Rivalry Rumble, Phoenix DID win that rematch. At present, Gordon has only ever managed to beat Phoenix Wright and Princess Peach 1v1. He also finished in first place in a 3-way poll in 2013 over Hades and Simon Belmont. He got through in the 4-ways with some second place magic, but first place and second place is a huge difference in that format.
What's lost in Gordon's failures is that he has yet to allow an opponent to break 60% on him. There's a very select list of characters that can claim this, but Gordon is far and away the character with the worst winning percentage (.000) among them. You'd think a character capable of breaking 40% in every match would have broken through by now, but no. Then again, CJayC has caught on to the whole GFNW joke and puts Gordon in these types of matches on purpose. One day Ceej'll probably crack and pit Gordon against pure fodder, but hopefully not. It would kill the joke if Gordon ever won one. It took Sora in 2006 to finally get that barrier. In 2018, after years of Half-Life disrespect and people giving up on 3 ever happening, Bowser came close to breaking 80% on him.
Fun fact. In terms of final percentage, this is the closest that Gordon has ever come to actually winning a match. Ceej has gone the "stick Gordon against a generic male character with two names" route twice since, but Max Payne fit the whole near-miss thing for Gordon the best.
Yet despite almost being given winnable matches every year, Gordon never manages much of anything. Even against Payne, a match that looks close when one looks at the final percentage, Gordon was never in the match and the vote total was the lowest of the Summer 2003 Contest.
We really need Gordon Freeman versus Face CATS.