Summer 2002 Contest

The Great Character Battle came down to a Mario vs Link Final

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Summer 2002 Contest

Started:	July 1, 2002
Ended:	September 1, 2002
Winner:	Link
Contest Winner:	Burney (178/192 points)
Notable matches:	Aya/DK, Pac-Man/Scorpion, Sonic/Samus Mega Man/Sephiroth, Mario/Cloud Crono/Snake, Mario/Crono

Summer 2002 Contest was better known as The Great GameFAQs Character Battle and was the first site-wide tournament ever held. Because no character's strength had yet been gauged, the seeding was quite inaccurate and the contest is considered by many as the hardest one to predict. One of the most surprising results of the first round was Half-Life star Gordon Freeman's defeat against the much less renowned Tina Armstrong. The bracket was full of weak characters who would never come back during later contests.
RPGexpert became famous for a while for having the only perfect entry left after the first round; after the second round, no perfect entries remained. Early in the second round came the first truly close match in contest history: Aya Brea vs. Donkey Kong. The lead fluctuated during the earlier half of the match and it was unsure who the winner would be for quite a while, something that had yet to happen in any previous match. Donkey Kong ended up building a decent lead and winning the match.

Scorpion is generally regarded as the biggest "bracket buster" in the tournament, defeating several opponents including 1st-seeded, videogaming icon Pac-Man to reach the quarterfinals before finally falling to Link.
In eighthfinals, Sonic the Hedgehog and Samus Aran faced off in what would become one of the most heated match in the contest. The match was close, but throughout the afternoon Sonic enjoyed a fairly comfortable lead. As the later hours of the match approached, however, Samus Aran began to make a comeback and kept decreasing Sonic's lead. Minutes before the end of the match, Samus took the lead and won the match by a mere 34 votes, by far the smallest margin that the contest had yet seen. The board exploded with complaints and accusations of cheating from both sides.

Mario, the favorite to win the tournament, faced his first challenge in quarterfinals against Cloud Strife. The match was extremely close, and in the end, Mario won by only 277 votes. Many were not expecting Mario to have so much trouble in this match. Mario's next opponent was Crono. It was a very close match and Crono had the lead during the afternoon, but a last-minute comeback by Mario, which was aided by the fact that the poll ended late, sent the board into chaos again. This match marked the beginning of a rivalry which would continue in later contests.

The final match was considerably less exciting than some of the previous ones as Link comfortably defeated fellow Nintendo star Mario and became the winner of the Great GameFAQs Character Battle.

Bracket

Click on the date above each match to see its article page for more details. Alternatively, see this category page for complete writeups for every poll of the original Character Battle.

Division Rounds

North Division
	Division R1 (Top 64)				Division R2 (Top 32)				Division Semis (Sweet 16)				Division Final (Elite 8)
Jul 01 - 53213
1	Mario	39,436
16	Servbot	13,777		Aug 02 - 66532
Jul 02 - 57359				1	Mario	44,448
8	Spyro	18,186		9	Morrigan	22,084
9	Morrigan Aensland	39,173						Aug 18 - 63840
Jul 02 - 56566								1	Mario	52,333
5	Terry Bogard	19,929		Aug 03 - 62276				4	DK	11,507
12	Aya Brea	36,637		12	Aya	30,478
Jul 03 - 52618				4	DK	31,798
4	Donkey Kong	32,602
13	Bub	20,016											Aug 26 - 129703
Jul 05 - 61706												1	Mario	64,990
6	Alucard	33,516										2	Cloud	64,713
11	Miles "Tails" Prower	28,190		Aug 04 - 58309
Jul 06 - 52874				6	Alucard	35,864
3	Duke Nukem	33,160		3	Duke	22,445		Aug 19 - 74365
14	Iori Yagami	19,714						6	Alucard	22,578
Jul 07 - 56447								2	Cloud	51,787
7	Pikachu	30,711		Aug 05 - 75371
10	PaRappa the Rapper	25,736		7	Pikachu	15,445
Jul 08 - 73242				2	Cloud	59,926
2	Cloud Strife	54,643
15	Fox McCloud	18,599

East Division
Jul 09 - 64249
1	Lara Croft	44,737
16	Chop Chop Master Onion	19,512		Aug 06 - 61142
Jul 10 - 55392				1	Lara	36,308
8	Ryo Hazuki	39,574		8	Ryo H.	24,834
9	Guybrush Threepwood	15,818						Aug 20 - 74059
Jul 11 - 64189								1	Lara	21,571
5	Crono	49,283		Aug 07 - 65994				5	Crono	52,488
12	Simon Belmont	14,906		5	Crono	43,939
Jul 12 - 58198				4	Dante	22,055
4	Dante	40,745
13	Q*Bert	17,453											Aug 27 - 99214
Jul 13 - 60878												5	Crono	52,517
6	Kasumi	22,688										2	Snake	46,697
11	Aerith Gainsborough	38,190		Aug 08 - 65064
Jul 14 - 56361				11	Aerith	50,055
3	Gordon Freeman	22,560		14	Tina	15,009		Aug 21 - 75247
14	Tina Armstrong	33,801						11	Aerith	32,702
Jul 15 - 62021								2	Snake	42,545
7	Knuckles the Echidna	49,964		Aug 09 - 68083
10	Akira Yuuki	12,057		7	Knuckles	26,748
Jul 16 - 71676				2	Snake	41,335
2	Solid Snake	46,897
15	Squall Leonhart	24,779

South Division
Jul 17 - 56989
1	Pac-Man	41,150
16	Goemon	15,839		Aug 10 - 51889
Jul 17 - 53920				1	Pac-Man	32,607
8	Abe	22,760		9	Kyo	19,282
9	Kyo Kusanagi	31,160						Aug 22 - 68475
Jul 19 - 59609								1	Pac-Man	28,936
5	Scorpion	42,327		Aug 11 - 59925				5	Scorpion	39,539
12	Kazuya Mishima	17,282		5	Scorpion	39,171
Jul 20 - 50816				4	Payne	20,754
4	Max Payne	38,707
13	Dirk the Daring	12,109											Aug 28 - 91535
Jul 21 - 52419												5	Scorpion	21,991
6	Bomberman	40,943										2	Link	69,544
11	Kane	11,476		Aug 12 - 65260
Jul 22 - 70376				6	Bomberman	27,432
3	Jill Valentine	37,539		3	Jill	37,828		Aug 23 - 85273
14	Kirby	32,837						3	Jill	23,342
Jul 23 - 58323								2	Link	61,931
7	Strider Hiryu	30,662		Aug 13 - 71262
10	Raziel	27,661		7	Strider	17,270
Jul 24 - 70585				2	Link	53,992
2	Link	59,509
15	Little Mac	11,076

West Division
Jul 25 - 64315
1	Sonic the Hedgehog	53,023
16	Pitfall Harry	11,292		Aug 14 - 57118
Jul 26 - 63121				1	Sonic	33,602
8	Tidus	35,004		8	Tidus	23,516
9	Claire Redfield	28,117						Aug 24 - 83912
Jul 27 - 62555								1	Sonic	41,939
5	Samus Aran	40,857		Aug 15 - 67923				5	Samus	41,973
12	Ken Masters	21,698		5	Samus	39,293
Jul 28 - 58014				4	Ryu	28,630
4	Ryu	46,869
13	CATS	11,145											Aug 29 - 97224
Jul 29 - 68296												5	Samus	46,047
6	Mega Man	63,039										7	Seph	51,177
11	Ms. Pac-Man	5257		Aug 16 - 66328
Jul 30 - 54997				6	Mega	60,914
3	Serious Sam	32,301		3	Sam	5414		Aug 25 - 97357
14	Mr. Driller	22,696						6	Mega	48,185
Jul 31 - 69969								7	Seph	49,172
7	Sephiroth	61,367		Aug 17 - 66191
10	Gabriel Logan	8602		7	Seph	53,956
Aug 01 - 57416				2	Crash	12,235
2	Crash Bandicoot	36,305
15	Ulala	21,111

Final Four

Character Battle I Finals
	Semi-finals				Final
Aug 30 - 107547
A	Mario	53,831
B	Crono	53,716		Sep 01 - 98211
Aug 31 - 102870				A	Mario	36,796
C	Link	58,273		C	Link	61,415
D	Sephiroth	44,597

Results and Analysis

Interesting Facts

• Ironically, the Ultimate Loser in the contest was Gordon Freeman. Gordon lost to Tina, who lost to Aeris, who lost to Snake, who lost to Crono, who lost to Mario, who lost to Link.
• 22 of the 64 characters in this contest haven't appeared in one since.

Ulti's Analysis

The final may have sucked, but the buildup that accumulated during this contest is something we'll likely never see again. We had three 1 seeds fail to make it out of the first three rounds, and even though there weren't all that many close matches, predictability was at an all time low this contest. No one knew what to expect. Everyone simply rooted for their favorite characters to do as well as they could, and damned voting trends and transitivity to hell.

That's what we're missing from today's contests. With the advent of Extrapolated Standings and everyone's willingness to help everyone out with brackets, the predictability has all but died from the contests. The beautiful thing about 2002 was that no one knew or cared about a character's potential or transitive value; everyone simply rooted for their favorites, which is something horribly missing from today's contests. With every passing match, the anticipation of future matches and the unknown grew larger and larger, and it all came to a climax during the trifecta of Sonic/Samus, Mega Man/Sephiroth, and Mario/Cloud. Those were three highly anticipated matches all held in a row late in the contest, and they were the first three matches in which characters that had a real shot at winning the entire thing went down. Our board was also at its busiest point during those three matches, and we'll likely never see such times again.

2002 was, for all intents, the best contest we've ever had. Spring 2004 came close, but aside from Starcraft, it still had a slight predictability problem. Maybe CJayC will figure something out that will bring the feel of 2002 back.

Maybe not.

Ngamer's Analysis

The GameFAQs Character Battle was a great idea, and it featured the greatest stretch of matches we're ever going to see on this site, and it of course produced an atmosphere that can never again be matched... but it wasn't exactly a great Contest. I mean, just look at those names; the bracket was so filled with terrible fodder and bad seedings that not a single Round One or Two match produced a memorable result, and that's 3/4 of your Contest right there! Now I don't want to be too harsh, because like I said, Round Three and up will never be touched, but the vast majority of the bracket being bad to very bad matches holds 2002 back from "best Contest ever" status in my mind.

Kamekguy's Contest Video Retrospective

This is a really cool video, made almost 20 years after the fact. Check it out!

Mario Vs Cloud 2002- GameFAQs Character Battle -- Designing For Fandom