Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | South Division |
|---|---|
| Match # | 18 |
| Match Date | Friday, July 18th, 2003 |
| Vote difference | 31,165 |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Shadow - 42.11% (17,291 brackets) |
True Story: Before this match began, not only was Wario the massive favorite (mostly due to his release of Wario world on the GCN in June of 2003, one month before this contest), but people actually felt that Mario vs Wario would be an entertaining match. This was well before the days of people realizing that most SFF matches were pure crap, so many such matches still seemed intriguing.
Wario was the massive favorite until the picture was released for the match. We were greeted with a fugly cardboard looking picture of Wario against a badassed black and red Sonic, and it caused Wario's supporters to become a little nervous. Shadow did have his fans back in the day, and his exposure/support was very similar to Zero's. The people who knew of Shadow felt that he would easily win due to knowing his strengths, while almost everyone else went with Wario because it was the more "obvious" choice. However, there wasn't much hype surrounding the match due to Wario being far more of a lock to win than Scorpion was.
Yeah, whoops. When this match began, we were all greeted with one of the most lopsided board upsets of all time. It was so bad for Wario that there was simply nothing to discuss; he got his ass whipped and was an overall flop that was never in the match at all. You can imagine the whining that took place, and Shadow has essentially been hated around these parts ever since. Then again this is mostly Shadow's own fault (people play the games after a character surprises them in one of these contests), but this isn't the place to go on an anti-Shadow/Sonic rant.
CJayC went through two contests where he tried setting up "cute" SFFish matches, but in almost ever case the third party would ruin it. Dunno how much this factored into Summer 2004's bracket, but that's besides the point.
These two characters went in very opposite directions after this match. We have yet to see Wario back in another contest despite a very successful WarioWare series, while Shadow has impressed in every match he's ever been in (Doesn't stuff like this happen much more often than it should? I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Magus didn't make the Summer 2006 field.). Granted this amounts to three matches, but the recent release of his own game should help him get past his getting snubbed in Summer 2005.
On a side note, I love all the hoopla that surrounds these 4/5 or 8/9 matches. They're always worth one point, yet they all receive a ton of hype and way too much whining for what they're worth. Aw well.