Pikachu's Contest History

Who is Pikachu?

Whether you love or hate Pokémon and Pikachu or not, it's difficult to deny that Pikachu is only a step or two below Mario when it comes to icons in the gaming world. At the very worst, he's top five.

And oddly enough, Pikachu was just another of the Pokémon in Red/Blue. Pikachu's role as becoming the mascot of the series comes from his role in the animated TV show in which he and his trainer Ash went on their journey to improve one another's skills. Pikachu became adored by the Pokémon fanbase, so much so that an entire game (Pokémon Yellow) was made just so that Pikachu's fans could have a Red/Blue style game with the feel of the TV show.

Pikachu, together with Pokémon R/B/Y helped launch Pokémon to insane stardom around the world, with Japan and America highlighting the craze. This simple little formula of catching pocket monsters and training them for battle seems simple on the outside, but gamers have been addicted to it for years. Aside from television and games, Pokémon has also made several movies, a card game and has been advertised on everything from lunch boxes to book bags.

For the longest time, Pikachu was in the middle of all of this. He's somewhat fallen out of the limelight as the series has progressed, but he has by no means disappeared and the legacy of his series still continues onward.

"Pikaaaaa.....CHUUUUU!" - Pikachu

Pikachu's Contest History

Win-Loss Record: 17-9

Summer 2002 Contest - North Division - 7 Seed

• Northern Round 1 --- Defeated (10) PaRappa the Rapper, 30711 [54.41%] - 25736 [45.59%]
• Northern Quarterfinal --- Lost to (2) Cloud, 15445 [20.49%] - 59926 [79.51%]
• Extrapolated Strength --- 39th Place [15.32%]

Summer 2003 Contest - North Division - 8 Seed

• Northern Round 1 --- Lost to (9) Fox McCloud, 30962 [31.33%] - 67856 [68.67%]
• Extrapolated Strength --- 60th Place [10.99%]

Though the "anti-voting" factor is one of literally hundreds of factors that amount to precisely dick once the board vote passes, Pokémon hate is one of the rare exceptions to the rule. Though Pokémon as a series is beloved, it went through a long period of being hated on as well. And though the hate for Pokémon seems to have mostly passed, even some of the most diehard Pokénuts loathe Pikachu; he easily receives the most hate of any Pokémon out there, for reasons unknown to myself.

In contest terms, this means that Pikachu has a very difficult road to climb to win matches. Not only does he have to worry about the innate strength of opponent, but he has a mound of anti-voting to get past as well. Translated, this means that his one contest victory was a squeaker against PaRappa the Rapper in a battle that came down to who people hated less.

He then went on to badly lose to Cloud in Summer 2002 before getting blown out by Fox in a Summer 2003 was that "supposed" to be hard to call. Pikachu hasn't sniffed the field since, and given all of the hate he endures it's unlikely that he'll make the field any time soon.

Come to think of it, Pikachu is the only Pokémon to have ever made the field at all. Either Pikachu or Pokémon in general has had issues with getting the fans to rally behind one character. Mewtwo would likely be the best choice should they form such a union, because it's fairly obvious that Pikachu will likely never cause damage in a bracket.

Summer 2007 Contest - Division 6 - Third Group

• Division 6 Round 1 --- 1st place, 44717 [36.62%] - Tidus, 38881 [31.84%] - Isaac, 21496 [17.60%] - Serge, 17009 [13.93%]
• Division 6 Round 2 --- 2nd place, 30533 [24.14%] - Leon Kennedy, 42128 [33.31%] - Vivi Ornitier, 27480 [21.73%] - Tidus, 26327 [20.82%]
• Division 6 Finals --- 1st place, 44304 [33.79%] - Dante, 39904 [30.43%] - Leon Kennedy, 31279 [23.85%] - Amaterasu, 15644 [11.93%]
• Contest Quarterfinals --- 4th place, 25420 [18.22%] - Master Chief, 44799 [32.12%] - Dante, 37086 [26.59%] - Luigi, 32179 [23.07%]

Pokemon as a whole has come a long way since 2004. Few franchises benefited from this format more than Pokemon, and no character was more opportunistic than Pikachu this year. Pokemon characters have developed a rabid support group on GameFAQs, and it showed throughout the contest. All along the way, Pikachu took advantage of SFF and LFF to keep advancing. He used potential Tidus/Serge LFF to get a first place finish in round one. He used Vivi/Tidus LFF to take second place in round two and keep going. He used Dante/Leon LFF to get first place in the divisional finals in one of the more surprising results of the contest. In the contest quarterfinals, it was just too much, but he used that very same LFF to hold down Luigi and potentially cost him a shot at the semifinals.

In sum, Pikachu sucks.

Summer 2008 Contest - Division 4 - Fourth Group

• Division 4 Round 1 --- 1st place, 42741 [32.15%] - Arthas Menethil, 35479 [26.69%] - Ike, 34477 [25.94%] - Spy, 20239 [15.22%]
• Division 4 Round 2 --- 1st place, 40553 [30.30%] - Alucard, 39153 [29.26%] - Arthas Menethil, 28382 [21.21%] - Captain Falcon, 25734 [19.23%]
• Division 4 Finals --- 2nd place, 37113 [27.00%] - Crono, 42837 [31.16%] - L-Block, 33545 [24.40%] - Alucard, 23965 [17.43%]
• Contest Quarterfinals -- 4th place, 22736 [18.54%] - Samus Aran, 37909 [30.91%] - Crono, 31041 [25.31%] - Vincent Valentine, 30963 [25.25%]

With this performance, Pikachu proved that last year's run was no fluke, as the only SFF involved in his first two matches was the beating he dealt out to Ike and Falcon, knocking both of them below Arthas--and in Ike's case, costing him a shot at the second round. Pikachu then pulled off the shocker of the tournament (no pun intended) when he teamed up with Crono to take down L-Block, something that the majority of the Noble Nine had been unable to do in 2007. Once again making the quarterfinals, he again finished last, but did so with a higher percentage despite facing tougher competition than the previous year.

Somewhere along the line, Pikachu became a legitimate midcarder, and it would be interesting to see where he would be if he hadn't taken a three-year absence from the contest.

Winter 2010 Contest- Gear Division - 5 Seed

• Gear Round 1 --- Defeated (12) Banjo, 37403 [75.09%] - 12405 [24.91%]
• Gear Round 2 --- Defeated (4) Commander Shepard, 49287 [61.01%] - 31503 [38.99%]
• Gear Semifinals --- Lost to (1) Solid Snake, 23003 [44.80%] - 28345 [55.20%]
• Extrapolated Strength --- 6th Place [39.89%]

Pikachu's run in 2010 was probably his most impressive. Appearing in his first 1v1 since 2003, Pikachu showed that he was a completely different character from that Pikachu we saw in the first two contests. After destroying Banjo, Pikachu proceeded to hang 60% on Commander Shepard before nearly breaking 45% on Snake, albeit during the sprite round. There is still some debate over who the strongest Pokemon is, but while Missingno., Charizard and Mewtwo all have claims, that doesn't take away from the fact that Pikachu has come a long, long way since his loss to Fox.

Summer 2013 Contest - Division 6 - 6 Seed

• Division 5 Round 1 --- 1st place, 13942 [52.93%] - (13) Lloyd Irving, 6223 [23.62%] - (22) Big Daddy, 6177 [23.45%]
• Division 5 Round 2 --- 1st place, 15165 [47.07%] - (1) Crono, 13024 [40.42%] - (9) Magus, 4029 [12.51%]
• Division 5 Finals --- 1st place, 19094 [40.28%] - (2) Sora, 18944 [39.96%] - (12) Pokemon Trainer Blue, 9368 [19.76%]
• Contest Semifinals --- 2nd place, 12919 [25.60%] - (1) Solid Snake, 25799 [51.12%] - (5) Squirtle, 11754 [23.29%]
• Bonus Match 3 --- 3rd place, 8963 [21.35%] - (1) Mega Man, 20547 [48.95%] - (11) Mewtwo, 12462 [29.69%]

Sometimes it is hard to believe how far Pikachu has come since the contests started. There was some debate on how much Pikachu benefited from going up against Solid **** in his loss in 2010. His first round match against Lloyd provided some light as they were both in the same half of the bracket in 2010. Holding the match constant meant Pikachu overperformed by about 10%.

Pikachu was able to benefit from LFF and was able to upset the top seeded Crono. His win was so impressive though that there was some debate on whether he could have won without Magus. While he benefited from LFF in round 2 he was punished by it in the following round with Blue being in the same match. It turned out not to matter as Pikachu rose up to a 600 vote lead and while Sora cut into the lead Pikachu was able to stall just enough to pull the narrow victory. Pikachu was rewarded with another Pokemon opponent, but this time he would have had no chance against a rematch with Solid Snake. While Squirtle took the initial lead Pikachu was able to prove it was the stronger Pokemon in the day time.

With his performance Pikachu was invited to take part in the third bonus match which was essentially the fourth place match. However, like with Solid Snake there was another Pokemon character so he had no chance at winning over Mega Man. Also unlike against Squirtle Pikachu was unable to keep up with Mewtwo thus making Mewtwo the strongest Pokemon character in 2013.

Fall 2018 Contest - Division 2 - 7 Seed

• Division 8 Round 1 --- Defeated (10) Scorpion, 19337 [66.41%] - 9782 [33.59%]
• Division 8 Round 2 --- Defeated (2) Kratos, 18987 [63.41%] - 10957 [36.59%]
• Division 8 Semifinals --- Defeated (3) Yoshi 16249 [54.8%] - 13405 [45.2%]
• Division 8 Finals --- Defeated (1) Zero, 28173 [56.69%] - 21524 [43.31%]
• Legends Round 1 --- Defeated (8) Mega Man, 14458 [50.11%] - 14396 [49.89%]
• Legends Round 2 --- Lost to (1) Link, 9295 [31.59%] - 20129 [68.41%]
• Loser Bracket Round 1 -- Lost to Mega Man, 13809 [49.33%] - 14182 [50.67% ]

PokéFEAR struck the 2018 contest on full force, and nowhere it showed up more than with Pikachu's outstanding performance. The rat wrecked through the bracket beating four reliable mid-carders, and once put in the Finals Division, Pikachu took advantage of votes by registered users counting double to provide the first Noble Nine upset of the contest. Luck then ran out, as nothing could stop the ever-dominant Zelda hero from slaughtering Pikachu through SFF, and lightning wouldn't strike twice against Mega Man, as fans of the Blue Bomber ensured their rematch in the loser bracket would go the right way. Nevertheless, it's pretty clear being the Pokémon mascot ultimately paid off when liking the franchise was acceptable again.