Summer 2003 Contest

CJay's official Character Battle II banner

GameFAQs Contests
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Summer 2003 Contest

Started:	July 1, 2003
Ended:	September 3, 2003
Winner:	Cloud
Contest Winner:	Leo0820 (183/192 points)
Notable matches:	Kefka/Pac-Man, Ganon/Magus Squall/Luigi, Vercetti/DK Mario/Crono, Link/Cloud

The Summer 2003 Contest was the second Summer Contest in GameFAQs history, and is also known as Character Battle II. It is considered by some to be the best Character Battle in GameFAQs history.

See Also

2003 Contest Matches - complete writeups on every poll from the second annual Character Battle

Bracket

Contest Bracket
North Division				Link Samus Aran	Link Cloud Strife	Cloud Strife Sephiroth	Cloud Strife
(1) Link (16) AiAi	Link Fox McCloud	Link Magus
(8) Pikachu (9) Fox McCloud
(5) Tidus (12) Ganondorf	Ganondorf Magus
(4) Sam Fisher (13) Magus
(6) Squall Leonhart (11) Jill Valentine	Squall Leonhart Luigi	Squall Leonhart Samus Aran
(3) Luigi (14) Ratchet
(7) KOS-MOS (10) Crash Bandicoot	KOS-MOS Samus Aran
(2) Samus Aran (15) Isaac
East Division				Cloud Strife Sonic the Hedgehog
(1) Cloud Strife (16) CATS	Cloud Strife Auron	Cloud Strife Bowser
(8) Auron (9) Tails
(5) Bowser (12) Ness	Bowser Yoshi
(4) Yoshi (13) Conker
(6) Sora (11) Aeris	Aeris Master Chief	Aeris Sonic the Hedgehog
(3) Master Chief (14) Felix
(7) Zero (10) Scorpion	Zero Sonic the Hedgehog
(2) Sonic the Hedgehog (15) Ken Masters
South Division				Mario Sephiroth	Sephiroth Mega Man
(1) Mario (16) Captain Olimar	Mario Shadow the Hedgehog	Mario Crono
(8) Wario (9) Shadow the Hedgehog
(5) Pac-Man (12) Kefka	Kefka Crono
(4) Crono (13) Tom Nook
(6) Alucard (11) Bomberman	Alucard Kirby	Alucard Sephiroth
(3) Kirby (14) Ramza
(7) Gordon Freeman (10) Max Payne	Max Payne Sephiroth
(2) Sephiroth (15) Raziel
West Division				Solid Snake Mega Man
(1) Solid Snake (16) Raiden	Solid Snake Knuckles	Solid Snake Ryu
(8) Knuckles (9) Yuna
(5) Ryu (12) Duke Nukem	Ryu Dante
(4) Dante (13) Ryo Hazuki
(6) Donkey Kong (11) Vyse	Donkey Kong Tommy Vercetti	Tommy Vercetti Mega Man
(3) Tommy Vercetti (14) Kite
(7) Lara Croft (10) Zelda	Zelda Mega Man
(2) Mega Man (15) Mr. Resetti

Note: This is the only site-wide 1v1 Character Battle tournament as of yet in which Link has actually lost a battle (to eventual winner Cloud Strife).

Results and Analysis

Interesting Facts

• The Ultimate Loser in 2003 was Ryo Hazuki. Ryo lost to Dante, who lost to Ryu, who lost to Snake, who lost to Megaman, who lost to Sephiroth, who lost to Cloud.
• Only six of the 64 characters in this contest haven't appeared in another one since.

Ulti's Analysis

The hype for the sequel to follow Summer 2002's smash success had finally dawned upon the site, and for those who don't remember, this was the first contest in which a formal nomination form was created. Summer 2002's nominations were all done in a topic on Current Events, but in 2003 CJayC polled all willing to fill the form out for ten nominations each. The results were a very well-balanced bracket, though before the contest started most people felt that Summer 2003 would be too easy. Link absolutely dominated the field in Summer 2002, and the main complaint this time around would be that everyone would have perfect brackets and that the tiebreaker would decide who won it all. People were also complaining that Link would win the contest too easily and that there was no real point in holding another one.

Yeah, right. The 2003 field was a good one thanks to more public nominations, and gone were all of the cult characters and obscure fighting game characters that hardly anyone had heard of. The field featured a Nintendo-dominated field and characters that were more mainstream, but a few lesser-knowns still slipped through the cracks.

Pay close attention to how this contest was, because it was the last of its kind. The dawn of the extrapolated standings and creativename's dominance of the 2003 Oracle Challenge (which he credits the stats for, though he didn't reveal his method until after the contest) caused everyone else to want to be equally good at predicting matches. This led to a tool that is useful, but sucks all of the unknown out of these polls. Gone are the days when we simply ask who win. Now we almost always know who wins; it's a matter of what the final percentages are, and the stigma that was in these first two contests hasn't been there since. It's not that the contests grew bad, but the stats deciding everything for us (including how we all debate matches before they happen) takes a lot of the fun out of them. You can't say much of anything anymore without some stat whore trying to correct you.

This was also the final contest to feature the classic GameFAQs layout and 15 minute poll updates. One died during Soul Calibur/Kingdom Hearts in the first round of the Spring 2004 Contest, the other died in Metroid Prime/Half-Life directly after.

On the brighter side of things, the contests still existing is a plus, as is the fact that Summer 2005 was proof that CJayC is still willing to put insane effort into them. We were all worried there for a bit. CJayC also brought back poll updates, but shortened them to 5 minutes.

And now for the standard ranking of the contests: Summer 2002 > Summer 2003.

Ngamer's Analysis

When the nominations were announced for '03, I was very upset. We'd already seen Characters, and in my mind we should have moved straight to Games with the second full Contest. When the results started rolling in and it eventually became clear that it was going to be Square's year, I was even more upset. But looking back on it, this was a fantastic Contest, perhaps the best of all time. All of '02s fodder meant there were tons of exciting newcomers joining the field, and even though we all thought we were experts on the returning characters, KHF threw a wrench in our plans and gave the whole season a unique new twist. The nomination system created a strong, well-seeded bracket and there were good matches all up and down the board... not much more you could ask for.