Scorpion's Contest History

Who is Scorpion?

After Street Fighter burst onto the scene as the most influential fighting series ever created, many other series began to rise, and all such series added their own unique element to the genre. Mortal Kombat was one such series, and their element was shock value. Through blood, guts, gore, and various other grotesqueries that appeal to the stereotypical male, Mortal Kombat became one of the more popular fighting series out there.

Scorpion was one of the characters in the series who helped spearhead MK's rise to fame. Thanks to his close relationship to the series' most popular character (Sub-Zero) and recognizability, Scorpion is one of the reasons MK has become a mainstay in the genre. Even today, new MK games are constantly being released. And even though fighting games may not necessarily be popular on GameFAQs, there is still a large mainstream fanbase that will still accept them.

"Get over here!" - Scorpion

Scorpion's Contest History

Win-Loss Record: 6-7

Summer 2002 Contest - South Division - 5 Seed

• Southern Round 1 --- Defeated (12) Kazuya Mishima, 42327 [71.01%] - 17282 [28.99%]
• Southern Quarterfinals --- Defeated (4) Max Payne, 39171 [65.37%] - 20754 [34.63%]
• Southern Semifinals --- Defeated (1) Pac-Man, 39539 [57.74%] - 28936 [42.26%]
• Southern Finals --- Lost to (2) Link, 21991 [24.02%] - 69544 [75.98%]
• Extrapolated Strength --- 22nd Place [24.02%]

Summer 2003 Contest - East Division - 10 Seed

• Eastern Round 1 --- Lost to (7) Zero, 41916 [37.16%] - 70885 [62.84%]
• Extrapolated Strength --- 31st Place [23.94%]

Summer 2004 Contest - Midgar Division - 14 Seed

• Midgar Round 1 --- Lost to (3) Auron, 31660 [35.15%] - 58404 [64.85%]
• Extrapolated Strength --- 39th Place [19.25%]

Scorpion's best year, by far, was 2002. Barely anyone expected him to get out of even the second round, but he went on to not only win his second round match against Max Payne, but he pulled off a shocking win against Pac Man as well. He would wind up losing to Link, but it didn't matter. Scorpion's magical run in 2002 helped the contests become legendary on GameFAQs.

Unfortunately, Scorpion has since shown his true colors. His seeding and overall strength have been on the steady decline over the past few years, and he hasn't won a single match since 2002. This is likely due to Scorpion not being as strong as 2002 suggests, and this is evidenced by the fact that Scorpion's half division that year was about as weak as could be. Scorpion was the byproduct of being in a weak division, not necessarily his own strength. That doesn't take away from what he managed to pull off, but it would have been nice to see Scorpion not turn out to be a completely average character soon afterward.

Summer 2007 Contest - Division 1 - Fourth Group

• Division 1 Round 1 --- 1st place, 47724 [36.64%] - Midna, 32182 [24.71%] - Kratos Aurion, 27474 [21.09%] - Agent 47, 22874 [17.56%]
• Division 1 Round 2 --- 2nd place, 32150 [24.01%] - Samus Aran, 61543 [45.96%] - Frog, 23372 [17.45%] - Midna, 16834 [12.57%]
• Division 1 Finals --- 4th place, 26126 [17.34%] - Samus Aran, 49872 [33.10%] - Mega Man, 45857 [30.43%] - Yoshi, 28823 [19.13%]

Scorpion is one streaky character. He wins three matches in 2002 and hadn't won one since. This time, he put up some good performances as he advanced to the divisional finals. There was a lot of debate on whether or not he could defeat Zelda newcomer Midna, but that question was answered within minutes of the start of the match. Scorpion scorched her and cruised to a 15000 vote margin of victory over her. He had no problem dispatching of Frog in the next round and did respectably in the divisional final despite finishing last. Mortal Kombat has done well for itself these last two contests.

Summer 2008 Contest - Division 3 - Fourth Group

• Division 3 Round 1 --- 1st place, 40197 [30.11%] - Gordon Freeman, 38017 [28.47%] - Balthier Bunansa, 29975 [22.45%] - Big Daddy, 25325 [18.97%]
• Division 3 Round 2 --- 3rd place, 24631 [18.94%] - Vincent Valentine, 52084 [40.05%] - Gordon Freeman, 31845 [24.49%] - Falco Lombardi, 21492 [16.53%]

Scorpion's first match was interesting to say the least. You could make a case for any combination of characters advancing. Scorpion pulled off the win with Gordon right behind him. His luck ran out in round two when Gordon was able to leap frog and secure the second place finish.

Scorpion was in the Winter 2010 Contest vote-in but fell just short of the final bracket, finishing 29th (the top 28 made the bracket.) Interestingly, the 28th spot went to none other than Falco Lombardi, whom he beat out for third place in round 2 of the previous contest.

Summer 2013 Contest - Division 6 - 17 Seed

• Division 6 Round 1 --- 2nd place, 9179 [35.00%] - (2) Sora, 12275 [46.81%] - (26) Aya Brea, 4768 [18.18%]

Scorpion was given the type of match where he had no chance at winning, but could at least make the match respectable. He ended up performing better against Sora than expected, but that could be due to Sora being weaker rather than Scorpion being stronger.

Fall 2018 Contest - Division 3 - 10 Seed

• Division 3 Round 1 --- Lost to (7) Pikachu, 9782 [33.59%] - 19337 [66.41%]

Ever since Sub-Zero joined the fold in 2006, he has proven himself much stronger than his archenemy Scorpion. To the point that both got the same seed and were facing a Nintendo character, but while Subby got an overseeded one who owes most of its popularity to Smash Bros, Scorpion instead was put in an unwinnable match against the Pokémon mascot. Who knows if he'll get a favorable bracket like in 2002 ever again?