Results[]
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 4 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 26 |
| Match Date | Thursday, April 02, 2020 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Cuphead - 62.19% 65 for - 1 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Cuphead - 77.96% |
| User Votes |
Cuphead - 6027 XCOM 2 - 2684 |
| Anonymous Votes |
Cuphead - 4457 XCOM 2 - 2305 |
Pre-contest, KP discussed the indie glass ceiling and thought Cuphead would have the best shot at being this contest's strongest indie darling. Spoilers -- KP is a really, really smart guy. In the raw stats, Cuphead did the best. How much of that is natural strength versus getting to go against GTA5 next round is anyone's guess, but either way this game is legit.
XCOM 2 was one of the many, many early round fodder games to just get its doors blown off in the early rounds, which is typical of a seeded tournament but I'm still bitter Bayonetta wasn't a 9 seed in any other division. That said, this match was not about XCOM 2. It was about Cuphead proving how legit it was, and this final percentage doesn't even do justice to how good the game looked in this match. It was over 70% for quite a long time before falling off to a respectable 68.
How good was this performance? This coincided with GTA5's anti-votes preventing Baba Is You from finishing last, which started up all of the hype trains for, as Harrich put it so beautifully, the CUPSET!!!
Cuphead > GTA5 hype was alive and well after this one, boys. If nothing else we were guaranteed to see Cuphead get an early lead, but one trend here was very important to keep an eye on. See how Cuphead started off like a house of fire and then burned itself out midway through the match? That was a very, very common problem indie games would have all contest long.
Ctes's Analysis[]
Cuphead was very well received upon release, being among the leading contenders for strongest indie game in the bracket. Unfortunately, it had a pretty predictable path, but there were a group of people that took the upset against GTAV in the following round. The number ended up being smaller in the oracle than in the guru, but if we had a tally the day before the round 1 matches, I’m sure it would be higher. Indie games had been huge and had been winning matches they were not expecting to. Being an #8 seed, that task was tougher for Cuphead, but at least it got the one #1 seed that could hoped to be beaten already.
Cuphead itself looked a fine deal better than what was expected of it. It had easily the smallest blowout of the day, but most people agreed it was facing the strongest of the losing games, which on this side of the contest look to be true. Not that XCOM 2 is worth much mind you, we just had a solid amount of fodder going out today. Round 1 was a lot about taking out the trash and today is one of the most extreme cases if that, as 31% was the highest a losing game got. I’m not saying anything is wrong with XCOM, it’s just not exactly the type of game we care very much. It’d probably do better if it had been released on Switch before the contest and not shortly afterwards, but it still wouldn’t have made a difference in many matches, certainly not this one.
Safer777's Analysis[]
Look another indie game(Cuphead)Oh boy. But I have played one of these games that are here. And that is XCOM 2! Yeah it was free on PSN once and I played it. It is a good Turn Base Strategy but man it is WAY too hard. Even on Easy you are getting wrecked. You have to get really good to play it above Easy. Plus XCOM is a historic franchise and it does well financially and critically too. As for Cuphead...I actually have heard about it too! Yeah! It is an old school 2D Platformer and it is DAMN hard too. Yeah 2 really hard games here. Cuphead got a bad press when released from some journalists because it was so hard that they barely could get past the tutorial. As this is a bad thing. Those people should know that not every game has to be for casuals. Hard games have to exist because there are people that like challenge. So yeah not everything for everyone just like in every other media form.
So for the match. Cuphead did as expected. It is one of the most recognizable Indie games too. Pretty sure a lot of people know it because of the unique art style. Fortunately it did well in sales too. Guess there is a market for that! Who would have thought that? Is Cuphead the strongest Indie? Guess it is in the top 3 of the Indies here. Well we shall see in the next match.
Tsunami's Analysis[]
Wait, "XCOM 2" is really the full name? No subtitle? No extended name that XCOM is short for? Geez, no wonder it sucks. This result was not really that surprising. Cuphead's only previous outing was in a Character Battle, but the titular character only just squeaked into CBX with a 16-seed, and the one placed against the presumed #1 overall seed based on match placement. Indie darling though he may be, that was always going to be a losing battle. GTA V is probably the favorite for Round 2 based on playrate alone, but then again, GameFAQs has always tended to reject the mainstream in favor of niche stuff, so a game that's so retro that its aesthetic pre-dates video games by multiple decades might be right up their alley.