Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Round | Division 5 Final |
|---|---|
| Match # | 53 |
| Match Date | Thursday, October 25th, 2007 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Master Chief - 33.51% Ganondorf - 25.16% Luigi - 21.39% Yuna - 19.97% |
| GameFAQs Expectations |
Master Chief first place (8pts) - 17.73% Master Chief second place (4pts) - 40.66% Luigi second place (8pts) - 8.48% Luigi first place (4pts) - 21.39% |
| Advancing Prediction |
Master Chief - 58.39% (21,443) Luigi - 29.87% (10,969) |
Master Chief embarrassing Yuna in this match was a given from the first round and on, but there was a large debate surrounding this match on bracket release date and I remember it very vividly. Master Chief had Halo 3 hype and the format in his corner, and there was a big debate over whether or not Luigi or Ganondorf was the stronger character. The three characters all added up to a good debate over who would finish first and second, and it's rare in a fourway where the top three could potentially fit in any order.
Well, then the first two rounds happened and it became clear Master Chief was going to get first place. What people did not expect however was Ganondorf getting absolutely dicked over by that pig picture. He is stronger than Luigi indirectly and he proved it in round 2, but then that terrible sprite picture was released. You had Luigi in all his beloved NES glory against the bacon sprite that you barely ever see in the original Legend of Zelda.
Of course Luigi was going to win second place.
Oh Ganondorf gave a good effort and all that, but he was screwed from the start with that HORRIBLE picture. He slowly built up a marginal lead early that never passed more than 115 votes, and then Luigi just swamped him with the morning vote. Ganon made his stalls and cuts here and there, but there was no freaking way in a million years GameFAQs was going to let a pig sprite win over NES Luigi.
For those who say pictures don't matter, they do. In this contest alone, we had Pig Ganon and Naked Snake to prove it.
Stats and Analysis[]
- Luigi advancing was the #17 most surprising result of 2007
the second the bracket was announced, THIS was the match that would make or break people. Ganondorf or Luigi -- where do Nintendo fans' loyalties lie? Master Chief -- would he thrive in this format, or disappoint like always? and Yuna -- the only Square character in a pack full of question marks. would she be able to ride the Squareheads to victory? for a solid month, this match was argued, and no one was really right or wrong.
one thing we weren't counting on: sprites. the second we saw the theme -- "first appearance" -- we wondered if we'd get PIG GANNON, or if "Ganondorf" would get the well-known OOT picture. the answer:
what
this picture is hideous all-around -- Luigi just looks awful, Yuna is blurry, and of course, Pig Ganon. the Oracle picks don't show what the stats topic/Analysis Crew were thinking -- Luigi > Ganon was now a great possibility, despite Ganon winning convincingly the previous round. the Analysis Crew surprisingly jumped ship to Luigi en masse, with some people picking Yuna. Ganon was just an ugly pick to stand by.
opinions on this match had changed greatly since the contest started. multiple characters from the same series/company have all underperformed greatly; Master Chief had dominated through two rounds; Yuna was disappointing, though that was more Master Chief's fault than hers, really. going into this match, MC was a guaranteed first, but everything else was pretty much up for grabs.
as the match started, Ganondorf took his typical bracket/board vote to a nice little lead. he was leading Master Chief for a few minutes, and Luigi fell off after the early vote. Ganondorf built up a 59 vote lead within 10 minutes, but that wouldn't last as Luigi came back quickly. a huge stall followed, and neither character could get more than a 100 vote lead for the rest of the night. Yuna was disappointing, but FF10's awesome night vote really helped her out. Master Chief looked human for the first time, and despite the two Nintendo characters, he couldn't get all that much separation.
Luigi snatched the lead at 4am and used Mario's customary morning vote to build up a small lead of about 400 votes. it seemed Ganon's picture really was hurting him here -- a couple weeks earlier, Ganondorf easily took down Luigi, but not this time. it all came down to the afterschool vote - Link has always been absolutely dominant then, but this was a heavily handicapped Ganon and it showed. Luigi slowly build up a bigger lead and by 6pm or so, this match was over. Luigi would hold on and top Ganondorf in a match that could have been better if Ganon was at full strength.
the other story of this match was Master Chief, who had an amazing afterschool vote as usual but came up short of the mammoth expectations he had built up for himself through the first two rounds. with one of the Nintendo guys going home and two "mature" characters in Dante and Leon advancing next round, Luigi looked to have a great shot at winning round 4 outright.
(darn you pikachu)
Match Trends[]
