Results[]
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Round | Quarter Final |
|---|---|
| Match # | 60 |
| Match Date | Thursday, November 1st, 2007 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Solid Snake - 29.52% Sonic - 25.34% L-Block - 23.50% Squall - 21.78% |
| GameFAQs Expectations |
L-Block first place (16pts) - 1.85% L-Block second place (8pts) - 0.50% Snake second place (16pts) - 16.37% Snake first place (8pts) - 40.52% |
| Advancing Prediction |
L-Block - 2.35% (863) Snake - 56.89% (20,892) |
L-Block stomping Link in the final was this contest's most important match, but this was definitely the contest's 1a. To this point, as impressive as L-Block was, he had never gotten above second place and his early push was never a complete godslayer. Then, about an hour before the match kicked off:
"L-Block is not going to beat Sonic or Snake." -red13n
Is it any surprise what we would see next? Yeah people expected the Noble Nine to take L-Block out, but you could feel that board vote coming well in advance after how awful red's topic was. I know I planned on voting for Snake until that topic came about. Then the match started, and all hell broke loose. L-Block -- not Sonic, not Snake, not Squall -- led by nearly 100 votes through 5 minutes and didn't slow down for a damn long time. The lead hit 600 votes after 15 minutes and after an hour he was all the way up to 1500. It was the first time all contest where we saw the early vote that would eventually win him the contest, and he got his practice in early on some characters that had no idea what hit them.
The block peaked at an 1800 vote lead overnight before Snake finally started making a comeback attempt, but lost in all the crazy whining about this match was how far behind Sonic and Squall were. Not only did Sonic screw the pooch for the second match in a row, but Squall was right behind him yet again. I'm not sure why or how, but Sonic is one of those characters that just sucks in fourway matches.
First and second place were long sealed away within an hour or two, but Snake made a pretty cool comeback attempt once L-Block's momentum finally slowed down. What was an 1800 vote lead overnight turned into a mere 1200 vote lead come the morning vote, and if anything from Metal Gear Solid had even a marginally effective day vote Snake might have finished off the comeback that day. As it stood, the closest he would ever get is 250, but he lacked the day strength to push past all of L-Block's stalling and counter-rallies.
It was the first time all contest L-Block actually finished in first place in a match, and this match was the true beginning of the block's championship form. And as crazy as his board vote was here, this was only a taste of what was coming. We will never again see anything like what L-Block pulled off in this contest.
Stats and Analysis[]
- L-Block advancing was the #3 most surprising result of 2007 and of all-time
in the beginning, L-Block was the cute little joke that was upsetting characters due to fortunate bracket placement. in the end, L-Block was a god-killer that drew 195,000 votes and stopped Link's three-year streak of dominance.
inbetween, we had this gem - the best match of 2007. two Noble Nine characters, arguably the strongest non-Noble character, and L. it was a heavyweight match, one of the most anticipated in stats topic history at the least. most people put their money on the Noble Nine to stop this thing. the early vote would not be kind, but we were talking about Sonic the Hedgehog, Squall and Solid ****ing Snake. jokes can only go so far... right?
Solid Snake 12.96% 7
L-Block 72.22% 39
Sonic the Hedgehog 9.26% 5
Squall Leonhart 5.56% 3
TOTAL VOTES 54
this is how we started, and it really rocked people. I think most agreed that, thanks to the near-even strength in this match, that L-Block had a chance to up-end Sonic and Squall.. but seeing it in action, with 72% of the vote, really floored people. it was pretty hilarious, but everything was under control -- just the board having fun, after all. this was going to stop.
Solid Snake 22.92% 380
L-Block 40.95% 679
Sonic the Hedgehog 19.85% 324
Squall Leonhart 16.59% 275
TOTAL VOTES 1658
ahh, more like it. L was coming down in percentage quick, but he had already build up a 300 vote lead at the freeze. people were still reeling here, but you could see L's time coming to an end if you were watching the percentages. L would take some more updates, but soon it would be Snake's time.
five minutes later, the lead ballooned to 464. five minutes after that, it was up to 607. then, perhaps the most shocking update of them all, the 00:20 update had L-Block gain .5% and push his lead up 200 more votes. 20 minutes in, already an 800 vote lead. when would it stop?
L-Block continued on for two hours, when the lead hit 1750 and abruptly stopped. L's surge was over and it was Snake's time. Snake loves him some night vote, and despite what you'd expect, the overnight is actually L's worst time. L got the lead up to 1800, but crashed from there. Snake took the lead down 500 votes without much trouble. by morning, L was hanging on to a 1200 vote lead. Sonic and Squall were out of the running here; L and Snake were ready to do battle come daytime. most everyone expected Snake to overtake him -- I mean, it was a Noble Niner vs. a Tetris Block come daytime.
Snake's day vote is less than stellar, though. it's better than L-Block's, but that's not saying anything. with Sonic and Squall there to slow Snake down considerably, a gimped Snake attempted to eliminate L's lead. by the time school let out, the lead was cut in half again, down to 500 votes. Snake cut it down to 400, but from there it was a huge stall. ever-so-slowly, Snake cut votes off the lead. he got it down to 300 by 7pm, and then took 30 votes off in one update. it seemed like we'd be looking at a wild finish with L-Block hoping for a rally to save him.
HM: time to rally then ... where does one go to rally for a tetris piece
The n00b Avenger: http://www.russia.com/forums/
my favourite part of the match, right there. I sat there for 15 full minutes resisting the urge to make an account. :)
right then, Snake's momentum just kind of... stopped. I don't know if it was a rally or not, but L-Block magically shot up 115 votes in 30 minutes. it was the buffer L-Block needed in order to hold on for the last three hours. Snake's night vote kicked in for the last hour to cut the lead 100 votes, but L was up by too much. L went on to win by 264 votes and lead for the entire 24 hours.
this is my favourite match for a handful of reasons. for one, it was the first time we saw L-Block domination in the first hour like that. we had seen flashes before, but not insane opening vote pushes on multiple Noble Niners before. it was also the first time L held on to win a match. it was, of course, close at the end, and it was a HUGE board upset, pretty much destroying every person's bracket all at once. even discounting brackets, verrrrrrrrry few people picked L-Block to take first. the Link match was more significant, but there was absolutely nothing that could touch L's first run at glory -- taking Snake and Sonic on at the same time, and beating them both.
Match Trends[]
Ed Bellis' Analysis[]
It wasn’t enough for L-Block to make it to Round Four. It wasn’t enough for L-Block to almost beat Snake in the prior round. No, L-Block had to go all out – and this match was where that damn Tetris block really started going all out. The joke was gathering steam all over the Internet at this point, and everyone seemed to want to rally behind the Block – call it silliness, love of Tetris, frustration with Link winning all the time – whatever, the Block was on a roll, and was neck-and-neck with Snake for the beginning of this match before pulling away to victory.
There was also a nifty match-within-a-match here as well, between Sonic and Squall. Having been soundly beaten by Snake two years and counting, Squall seemed to settle for giving Sonic a run for his money, and these two dueled off in an epic showdown mirroring Snake vs. L-Block above them. Simply spectacular.