Lurker > Lightning Strikes

I mean, probably not, but most people voting have been paying attention. They know that Zelda has been on a tear. They also know that Link always wins so they might go for the upset. And if they like Link there's a good chance they like Zelda as well.

So can it happen?
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Haunter12O posted...

Last mission in chapter 6 had me in tears.

I did not quite cry, but it's definitely the closest a game has ever brought me to crying.
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Jakyl25 posted...

In contempt of itself?

EDIT: To be fair, that is very British

Nope, parliament as a whole. The government is only part of parliament (in this case the Tories in a minority government).

First time this has ever happened, absolutely mad. Legally speaking it could end up with the ministers involved locked up in Big Ben. That won't happen but this is the end for the ministers involved, and possibly Theresa May herself.
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Day 39, Match 1 - Link vs. Pikachu
Link: 68.41% - Pikachu: 31.59%

What happened?: Link showing that no Nintendo character is safe from his SFF beatdowns. This was pretty stark coming after Pikachu has been delivering these sorts of results going the other way, and even beat a Noble Niner (with registered user boost help). The funny thing is people thought that Link was underperforming early on as Pikachu kept it under 60% during the early vote then avoided the doubling for the first two hours. That quickly changed though and Link ended up closer to 70% than a doubling.

What could this mean?: Not much to say other than that Pokemon is definitely susceptible to a good bit of Nintendo SFF. And of course, Link is still supreme.

Day 39, Match 2 - Cloud Strife vs. Crono
Cloud: 56.73% - Crono: 43.27%

What happened?: This was a match that had a small amount of hype behind it, with the possibility of Crono upsetting Cloud. That did fade after Alucard vs. Bowser, Bowser won but not by nearly enough to put Crono clear of Cloud. The match looked like it would be close for about five minutes before Cloud pulled away, eventually nearing 57%. I will say there does seem to be some slight SFF - Cloud slightly outperformed last round using Alucard and Bowser.

What could this mean?: Well he's not what he used to be but Cloud is still likely the strongest non-Nintendo character around. It is possible that Snake just beats him but I would favour Cloud just about. Cloud also still has a high place on the SFF heirarchy as well. No chance against Link though!
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Day 38, Match 1 - Solid Snake vs. Auron
Snake: 61.48% - Auron: 38.52%

What happened?: After being the first character to break the Noble Nine in a 24 hour unaltered result, Snake redeems himself by cleaning Auron's clock. After fumbling the board vote (somewhat unexpected), Snake shot up to 63% before slowly calming down to just under 61.5%. Also worth noting is that Snake did this with his sprite pic, though I don't think that matters nearly as much as it used to.

What could this mean?: Well this makes Sonic look really bad (or more as we're seeing from the future, Zelda look amazing). Snake hasn't lost as many steps as people thought, he is likely weaker than his prime but no lower than 6th overall I think. The problem is he got fed to Zelda, who is just a next level monster now. Snake will have no trouble at all with Sonic in the next round.

Day 38, Match 1 - Tifa Lockheart vs. Sephiroth
Tifa: 52.33% - Sephiroth: 47.67%

What happened?: Tifa showed that she has more than one surprise result in her. We saw this match in 2010, and while Sephiroth won, he is generally seen to have underperformed. In that match he started off really struggling, at 53-54%, before bringing it to just over 56%. As good as Tifa looked that year this was a much stronger Sephiroth and this match was a textbook case of rSFF. This past result is important to keep in mind as it is reflected here with the result flipped. Tifa started off in this match well clear of 55%, she was beating Sephiroth easily. He did redeem himself, making up over 3%, just like in the 2010 match. Tifa won this match, bringing the Noble Nine casualty count up to three as of this match (with a fourth inevitable when Sonic loses to Zelda). I will say, I doubt Tifa nearly doubles Ryu, which also adds to the SFF suspicions.

What could this mean?: This was almost certainly a result of rSFF, as strong as Tifa is, Sephiroth doesn't seem to have dropped THAT much (especially when she has been arguably missing her 2010 strength too). What I think has happened is a mix of Sephiroth dropping more than Tifa and him losing favour in the fandom - after all, as we have grown older silver haired 90s edgelords have definitely fallen out of fashion. So it's easy to see how Tifa could flip this match using a few percentage worth of rSFF boost since it would have been fairly close anyway. Make no mistake, I think the two are still very close in strength, and I do regard Sephiroth as the weakest member of the Noble Nine overall.
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Doot doot doot, delayed to tomorrow again.
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Day 37, Match 1 - Ganondorf vs. Mega Man
Ganondorf: 39.97% - Mega Man: 60.03%

What happened?: A lot of people were down on Mega Man after the Pikachu match, but then he comes out and beats Ganondorf with 60% in a very consistent match. Now, a lot of this was helped by the sprite pics, specifically NES pig Ganon against iconic Mega Man. I don't mind sprite rounds, but I feel that using NES or 8-bit sprites exclusively can be a bit of a problem.

What could this mean?: This was a redemptive performance for Mega Man overall. The pic undeniably helped, as I can definitely see some floating voters shift to Mega Man. However, I do think Mega Man is pretty strong, and is well clear of Ganondorf. Let's not get too down on him, Pikachu is just excellent. However, I do have to say, there are better Ganon sprites to use, Ulti.

Day 37, Match 2 - Alucard vs. Bowser
Alucard: 48.76% - Bowser: 51.24%

What happened?: The Plan finally comes to an end. Bowser got off to a firm lead early on, and Alucard did recover a bit, but was never really able to make a proper match of it. Still, he held it close, staying around 49% for most of the match.You have to hand it to Alucard, even when he loses he still looks very impressive in every match.

What could this mean?: Bowser has looked really good this year, so this was still a tremendous performance for Alucard. Make no mistake, he is a true elite, in the top 20 on the site. I don't think characters like Squall beat Alucard now. I can't wait to see how he looks in the next one, as with the Netflix series and the big SOtN rerelease this contest was absolutely perfectly timed.
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1. Link
2. Mario
3. Samus
4. Cloud
[Zelda]
5. Snake
6. Crono
[Pikachu]
7. Mega Man
8. Sonic
9. Sephiroth

Maybe Mega Man (and therefore Pikachu) beats Crono.
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Paratroopa1 posted...

GAME OVER

RETURN OF GANNON SPRITE PIC

(caps)

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SFF simple as.
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Day 36, Match 1 - Samus Aran vs. Tifa Lockheart
(2) Samus: 58.93% -Tifa: 41.07%

What happened?: Hey, remember when Tifa nearly beat Samus? It turns out that no Zero Suit Samus pic and years of Nintendo strengthening/Final Fantasy weakening meant no repeat of that. Samus won easily here. Tifa looked like she might keep it close during the board vote and the first few updates, but then Samus soared to 59% and held very steady.

What could this mean?: Well Nintendo has looked great and Samus is getting games again. Samus Returns was great and won a poll, Metroid Prime 4 is coming, that series is the healthiest it has been in over a decade. Add the slow decline of FF7 and Samus winning by this much makes sense, she has always been very strong and may be at her strongest here.

Day 36, Match 2 - Mario vs. Sephiroth
(7) Mario: 59.25% -Sephiroth: 40.75%

What happened?: A very similar result! Of course, the fact that this involves Sephiroth makes that pretty shocking. Mario effectively reversed the beatdown Sephiroth once gave him here. This started off really ugly, with Mario over 61% and to his credit, Sephiroth did gain a lot of percentage over time which Tifa could not do. But this was still a pretty embarrassing loss for the former number 3.

What could this mean?: Mario is a monster who has boosted a lot from Odyssey, the clear number 2 right now. Sephiroth has fallen a lot, but we all already knew that.
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Day 35, Match 1 - Solid Snake vs. Zelda
(3) Snake: 49.68% - Zelda: 50.32%

What happened?: Zelda, she come to town. This was a fantastic match, leading to a true Noble Nine break - unlike Pikachu Zelda did not need a registered user boost to win and in fact users slightly favoured Snake. Zelda got off to a firm lead of over 300 votes, which Snake then slowly chipped away at during the night. However, unlike Tifa, he wasn't able to get ahead and build a lead, largely due to an hour where he just stalled and made absolutely no progress. The reason for this is geographic - unlike Tifa, Snake did not win all of Europe easily - Zelda easily won France and Germany which explains that hour. Snake did get ahead but could only get a small lead before North America woke up and Zelda started cutting. The match went back and forth for hours before Zelda finally put it away with a nearly 200 vote lead.

What could this mean?: MGS hasn't looked its best this year, bui I don't think it has stunk either. Though bear in mind I have never believed the Snake hype (#2 my eye). This was all Zelda, she's an utter monster now and it's been apparent from her first two rounds. She should have no issue beating Sonic, and is almost certainly a top 5 character.

Day 35, Match 2 - Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Auron
(6) Sonic: 54.32% - Auron: 45.68%

What happened?: Hidden by the incredible match happening at the same time, is this absolutely terrible performance by Sonic. The match itself was straight forward and didn't change much. Now Sonic didn't underperform his stats too much here, but given that Auron has been underperforming until now it doesn't look good.

What could this mean?: This was a bit of a surprise because Auron has been underperforming fairly consistently, and Sonic characters have looked good as a result of Sonic Mania. I can't help but wonder if maybe Sonic himself isn't benefiting from the same thing as Knuckles and Tails - unlike those characters Sonic has never really fallen out of relevance in terms of exposure, but most of the exposure has been bad.
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WarThaNemesis2 posted...

I can't believe that if you replace KOS-MOS with Miles Edgeworth we could have had him winning two matches.

I mean, Mario is stronger than Samus so no he would not. The idea of him being within striking range of Master Chief is pretty funny though. Granted Tails got SFF'd so it likely isn't legit.
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Another delay but I'll have the next batch up soon.
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Day 34, Match 1 - Cloud vs. Alucard
(4) Cloud: 60.4% - Alucard: 39.6%

What happened?: A big over performance by Alucard. This was especially true early on, where Alucard was at 44%, but this changed fairly quickly and the match was stable around 60/40. Alucard beat his 2013 projection by 2-3% and his 2010 projection by a whopping 10%.

What could this mean?: Cloud as always has probably gotten slightly weaker since last time. However, I can't help but wonder if Alucard has gotten some bandwagon support, especially taking into account his early vote. Bowser has looked better generally, but that bandwagon could squeak Alucard the win.

Day 34, Match 2 - Crono vs. Bowser
(5) Crono: 54.88% - Bowser: 45.12%

What happened?: Ah, a nice straightforward match. This one was stable for almost the entire duration. Even the weakened Crono we saw in the last two contests was projected to do better than this (56-57%), however given how good Bowser looked it is clear Crono has slightly boosted.

What could this mean?: Like I said above, Chrono Trigger is clearly slightly stronger, just a little bit. As such, and in light of Cloud's poor performance in the other match, I have to wonder if Cloud is in danger next round. Crono looked good here, not his peak but he has stemmed the bleeding.
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Good showing for Samus.

Hilarious showing for Mario.


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There absolutely was a post-release backlash to Wind Waker, but not about the art-style; it was about the speed of sailing, the Triforce hunt, and the low difficulty, all of which were addressed in Wind Waker HD.
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Snake > Link was never going to happen. I am also highly sceptical about CT>OoT.
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Qwaar posted...

Ok, we need a snake rally.

Nah this is a much better result with the potential for Zelda to go on a tear. Snake will still get his in the Loser's Bracket. I say let it happen.
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So, time for Zelda hentai rallies?
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It's gotten vastly better, it's just that the kinds of games that value storyrelling the most have changed somewhat. Japanese AAA Square games, for instance, have such troubled development now that of course the writing will suffer. Conversely, a decade ago a platformer would have never had writing worth a damn, and now we have Celeste which has one of the best stories of the year.

Hell, compare the writing in RDR2 to RDR, it has improved a lot.

Edit: Also Vlado is an open fascist now (not even exaggerating sadly), how he is even allowed to post is beyond me.
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Sizeable Zelda gain. Over 200 again.
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And we're back!

Day 33, Match 1 - Link vs. Ganondorf
(1) Link: 79.64% - Ganondorf: 20.36%

What happened?: Ah, this match. The 2004 version of this match is the definitive SFF beatdown and this is certainly up there as well, as the third biggest margin of victory for the entire contest. Notably however it did decline significantly from that match as I had predicted - Ganondorf did over 8% better on Link this time. I was hoping he would do more like 25-30%, which looked possible early on but alas was not to be.

What could this mean?: The funny thing here is, in most other matches an 8% improvement would be pretty huge, yet this has been overshadowed. I think this increase is a mix of a general weakening of SFF and more interest in characters with more, well, character, not to mention a healthy dose of Link Always Wins. Ganondorf has looked great this year and while I don't think he will win, expect a good showing in the next round.

Day 33, Match 2 - Mega Man vs. Pikachu
(8) Mega Man: 49.89% - Pikachu: 50.11%

What happened?: A neck-and-neck match that also gives us a Noble Nine break (the first ever in a 24 hour one-on-one), holy crap. This was actually structurally very close to Mega Man X vs. Tifa. It started neck and neck, then Mega Man seemed to get ahead, before Pikachu cutting away a relatively substantial lead which was reversed by Mega Man, only for Pikachu to take it with a last minute surge. Also I didn't see but Black Turtle was probably upset about it. The really significant thing here is that this would not have happened without Pikachu's registered user boost.

What could this mean?: Well, strength-wise this basically shows what we knew already, but more clearly. Pikachu is absolutely a near Noble Nine monster, even without the user boost. Mega Man is definitely clear of X; 50% on Pikachu certainly bests 51% on Luigi. Outside of that there has been a lot of discussion about the Noble Nine and whether or not it is dead. I would say not, but I do think the concept of the Noble Nine may have changed. Personally I just think it is now simply the nine who are consistently the strongest - Pikachu will not alwaysbe up there (and historically was not) but Mega Man always has.
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What about Batman? Would he be brought down by the Schumacher and Snyder films? Joker would also be a monster, maybe stronger than Batman himself.
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Woohoo! Hell of a match.
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I mean if anything this result, and Tifa vs. Luigi, shows that Mega Man is definitively stronger than X.
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Logience posted...

Ganons not Link or Zelda. Sure, hes one of the three Zelda characters that people actually care about, but hes shown no sign of managing to catch onto the Link leech that Zeldas somehow been able to. If he has to go against PokeFEAR or a Noble Niner, hell fold no matter what.

Jesus, is Zelda ever lucky her match is against Sonic.

I really don't think Zelda's strength has anything to do with Link. If it did, why didn't she beast in 2005 or 2006? People just like her a lot more post-BotW.
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Matches in mere hours!
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Bethesda always does that. We should really have learned by now.
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Wait

That's what happened to BattleCry? Wow. I remember now, BattleCry studios got put on this game. This might be worse than if BattleCry ever got released. At least they didn't just shut down the studio.
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Bioshock 2, in which you play as a Big Daddy, released at the same time as that contest. There you go.
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iiicon posted...

Isn't Fallout 76 the result of Bethesda buying a troubled online game in development?

Oh really? I wasn't aware of that. Was it Fallout Online? I totally forgot about that game's existence until your post.
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iiicon posted...

I'm trying to find a list of $60 games this gen that reviewed worse than Fallout 76, which is currently at 50 on Metacritic. It's a small list.

Homefront 2 (48)
Rodea the Sky Soldier (45)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 (32)
Devil's Third (43)
Godzilla (38)

You know what every game on that list (except possibly Godzilla) shares? Extremely troubled development history. I wonder if Fallout 76 has the same and we'll see a Schreier article about it in the next few months. I hope it wasn't Bethesda's intention to put out a game in this state!

Either way I think people are so pissed because it's a major developer and publisher who have been on borrowed time a bit with regards to quality control, using a beloved franchise to put out a bad game that also shows that they have learned nothing. I also think some feel they were mis-sold the game based on E3 and it's hard to blame them, that presentation was weird.
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Lopen posted...

Getting 39% on Tifa ain't great either dude.

39.55% on that Tifa gives you over 40% on Bowser mate! Account for some sl8ght Ness strengthening and the GameFAQs factor and it absolutely adds up.

Also listening further, I just want to say I don't really believe the proxy theory, other characters (like Luigi) have not benefited and we never saw it before now (2005, 2006).
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Lopen posted...

I don't believe 53% on Ness is "legit." It makes you decisively out of the realm of fodder but that's about it

I also don't think Charizard looked good at all just based on Terra. Has nothing to do with Pokemon on the whole (which didn't look great, but that's beside the point)

Well it was closer to 54% and Big Daddy did that on Ness then got 40% on an apparently stronger (going off the stats) Tifa. Ness likely being a bit weaker then. So yes, 54% on Ness is pretty legit.
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Here's where we disagree: I don't think Pokmon has looked bad. Obviously the rally shenanigans in the second half of 2013 should be discounted, but Mewtwo looked better than 2010. Red looked better than 2010.

Edit: Hard disagree on Ryu being more Nintendo now. That series has gone more heavily Sony since 2010, up to SFV being a PS4 console exclusive.
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Well remember, Bowser's first two performances were godlike. 2B just looked legit straight up, which you could tell from Ness. The matches all add up, people just got spooked when Kirby beat down Phoenix. Of course, this just means Phoenix didn't strenghten by as much as we thought, and probably had a bit of SFF going on too.
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Woohoo, thanks for the shoutout guys! Amazing to hear my theory get discussed on here. :)

And of course, great work as always!
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Finally able to listen to this, great job as always.

I think you have the right idea about company-wide boosts not being universal, but I think there is an aspect of it you are missing. In the end it all comes down to the games. The perfect case study for this is Fox. Nintendo has been riding high, but they have been riding high because they've been putting out well received, high selling games for almost all of their franchises, usually series high points. Which franchise is the big exception? Star Fox. Star Fox Zero was not well received and people are done with that franchise. Likewise, a lot of those recognisable mascots like Crash and Spyro who have been doing well have been doing it off the back of series revivals, while others without well liked games (L-Block, Bomberman) did not do well. It's also why some western characters have crashed (Gordon), others have been stable (Lara) and some have looked great (Geralt). At the end of the day GameFAQs users do play a lot of games and stay current, and I think this contest shows that.
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Don't die, topic.
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I haven't seen Cold War yet but it seems amazing, so that.
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Thank you for doing this, great work. A few thoughts:

-FFXV as a 1 seed??? No way. Similarly Xenoblade 2 wouldn't get one over Persona 5. I'd say pick from Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Odyssey, The Last of Us, and Persona 5 to fill those two.
-Similarly, Final Fantasy XIII, a game FF fans generally do not like, getting a 3 seed is weird given that the much better received XII only got a 6 seed in 2010.
-Tropical Freeze likely gets a higher seed than Returns, see DKC2 relative to DKC1.
-Theatrhythm is an odd pick.
-If a CoD game gets in, it'd be one of Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3, or Black Ops 2. I would lean Black Ops as that's the highest selling in the series, and the last time GameFAQs really cared.
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I survived Iceland! Hot deets tomorrow.
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Because DoS voters had to draw a symbol before voting and it took too long.
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You know what the two strongest newcomers have in common? Soul Calibur VI. Anyway need to get up very early for my flight back tomorrow but here's two quick ones:

Day 32, Match 1 - Luigi vs. Tifa
(1) Luigi: 48.64% - (3) Tifa: 51.36%

What happened?: Nice to have a relatively normal Tifa match. This was neck and neck at first but Tifa did put it away with the night vote. It wasn't as extreme as the MMX comeback though as is to be expected given Luigi's more global appeal. I don't know of any hentai rallies this time for sure, but the vote totals were elevated by about ~1500 votes. So if anybody knows fill me in. I couldn't follow the match live. This match did end up around where you would expect it to overall.

What could this mean?: The funny thing about Tifa us that she has actually been underperforming her stats. Those were dodgy though. She's clearly top 15 though and has just enough rally power to shift a close match.

Day 32, Match 2 - Sephiroth vs. Ryu
(1) Sephiroth: 60.26% - (3) Ryu: 39.74%

What happened?: Now this was something of a surprise. Sephiroth has looked just okay at best throughout this entire contest to this point. Ryu has looked great. Then Sephiroth overperforms by ~2% on him. The trends were pretty normal so who knows.

What could this mean?: Could this have been rally spillover? It's certainly possible, it helped Sephiroth more obviously than Tifa just looking at the results! The other possibility is Ryu becoming more Playstation associated lately leading to his new strength getting sapped but that's a bit of a reach (FF isn't even a PS thing anymore by a long shot). I will say though, 2013 Ryu is totally unpredictable as a result of Draven and Sephiroth still missed 2010 by 3%, so maybe our expectations for Ryu were just wrong.
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Greetings from my hotel room!

Day 31, Match 1 - Zelda vs. Aerith
(4) Zelda: 62.19% - (15) Aerith: 37.81%

What happened?: Not much to say, another stable Zelda beat down. Her ability to hold strong through the day against FF is really impressive. Zelda overperformed herself substantially here, though Aerith did look better than Squall.

What could this mean?: Zelda is still a monster, Aerith has only dropped a bit. I think from the last few days that FF7 has floored while other FFs (not including VI) have rapidly dropped to meet it.

Day 31, Match 2 - Geralt vs. Auron
(1) Geralt: 46.86% - (3) Auron: 53.14%

What happened?: This was a really valiant performance from Geralt, better than Vincent and Sub-Zero on Auron. As always he didn't look great early on but really started to build once Europe woke up. Unfortunately he never got quite within rally striking distance.

What could this mean?: Geralt is really strong, even against a somewhat weakened Auron 47% is great. He is certainly the strongest western character right now (assuming Sub-Zero=>Scorpion, he beats Kratos). I think he also dispels some myths about western characters on here - the problem isn't a broad rejection of western characters, it's stuff like EA and Valve doing their best to actively bury their franchises that weakened those characters. Geralt loojed great, Kratos looked stronger, the MK duo and Lara looked consistent. The west as a whole is not the problem, the problem is individual major western companies and franchises.
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Into the Breach, The Messenger, and Celeste.

A very expected trio but what can I say, they are damn good. Can't wait to dig into Return of the Obra Dinn.
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Castlevania 3 (the last NES one) with a lot of elements of Curse of Darkness in season 2 (which will presumably be adapted for season 3). Some of Symphony of the Night's backstory too (Dracula and his wife).

It greatly expands it, but doesn't really contradict anything so it's pretty faithful. There was a fourth Castlevania 3 protagonist who was adapted out though.

The games are spread across a ton of consoles, but the best way right now is to probably get the Rondo of Blood/Symphony of the Night collection on PS4.
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I am off to Iceland for a few days so we will see how quickly I can get the next few out!

Day 30, Match 1 - Pokemon Trainer Red vs. Alucard
(9) Red: 46.19% - (3) Alucard: 53.81%

What happened?: After 16 years the plan finally came to fruition. Alucard flew ahead at the start and it never really came close despite Red making up some major ground percentage-wise, fairly unusual for Pokmon. Alucard's most wins ever in a contest before this one was two, and here, with no Noble Nine (except for Sephiroth) he gets four.

What could this mean?: If this doesn't scream "elite" I don't know what does. I am not of the opinion that Red has looked bad here, he beat Sora and Big Boss. I think Alucard has just been great. This has a lot to do with the Netflix show; more people on here have a Netflix subscription than have played Symphony of the Night and that is reportedly one of the most watched Netflix series. Additionally the second season just came out. There have been other factors that have helped him like the recent rerelease. I would rank Smash as a distant third, it has rejuvenated some interest in Castlevania as a whole, but two seconds of Alucard assist trophy from one trailer is not going to cause this on its own. I also think there has been some bandwagon effect, and he has serious potential to look great against Cloud next round.

Day 30, Match 2 - Bowser vs. Kirby
(4) Bowser: 53.86% - (2) Kirby: 46.14

What happened?: Hey, two almost identical results! This match was a major upset for some people, but we have seen this match before with a very similar result. Bowser did do a bit better this time by 1.7%, and built a fair lead after the first 20 minutes, highlighting that Kirby board vote.

What could this mean?: There has been a lit of discussion about SFF and maybe Kirby disappointed here. However, Bowser has looked extremely good this year. People have been sleeping on that a lot. This result wasn't that much of a shocker with that in mind.
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I just decided to change this sig.
Blaaaaaaargh BKSheikah

Day 29, Match 1 - Ganondorf vs. Vivi
(4) Ganondorf: 51.96% - (3) Vivi: 48.04%

What happened?: This match seemed uncertain as Vivi sewmed to have maintained most of his 2013 strength while Chun-Li aside Ganondorf looked his best ever. The fact that Dante likely squeaks by even current DK was the only thing pushing it in Ganon's favour. Vivi looked like he might pull the upset early on as he benefited from rally spillover, but Ganondorf quickly corrected that into a standard 52/48 match.

What could this mean?: Vivi is a true elite now, but Ganondorf is even more so. His performance here has been overshadowed by Zelda's, but he has been a low key star of the contest. I also think his Link-induced SFF beatdown will be far lesser this time.

Day 29, Match 2 - Zero vs. Pikachu
(1) Zero: 43.44% - (7) Pikachu: 56.56%

What happened?: The expected easy rat victory. Zero did keep it close early on also thanks to rally spillover. However Pikachu quickly broke away leaving this exactly where he was expected to be.

What could this mean?: Zero did not get slaughtered here but Pikachu is clearly right up against the Noble Nine. I think Zelda is stronger however.
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I just decided to change this sig.
Blaaaaaaargh BKSheikah