Looks like I missed some.... interesting.... arguments over x-stats adjustments. So, apparently it's nuts to think Mario/Bowser avoided SFF against Link, and it's also nuts to think the Red/Blue did not overperform significantly against Cloud/Sephiroth. And it took a long time for somebody (Xuxon) to bring up Mario vs. Trainers -- maybe it was even more inaccurate than Cloud/Sephy vs. the Trainers. Not that I believe it, but the possibility needed to be thrown out there.
So, I will ask this question:
Would it be nuts to think that Mario/Bowser vs. Cloud/Sephiroth result could possibly be outside the 51.5%-53.5% range? Considering how far everyone has been off trying to predict Linkondorf vs. Clouderoth, Trainers vs. Clouderoth, and Linkondorf vs. Mowser, I think chances are pretty good it of it being outside that range. I would still bet on it being somewhere inside that range, myself, though.
I mean, I still can't imagine how Cloud/Sephiroth could do worse on Link/Ganon than Cloud against Link 1v1, which means that Cloud can't even break 42% against Link now. Which is.....ugh.
I want to bring up something else not mentioned. I had a hard time believing this pre-contest, myself. In retrospect I'm not as surprised, thought. If we were in the year 2002 when FF7 was still relatively fresh in gamers' minds, Cloud/Sephiroth would have been a force to be reckoned with. Today, though, I think that most gamers haven't played FF7 in such a long time that they don't really care about the story anymore, which would affect a plot-driven rivalry like Cloud/Sephiroth. (This also makes me wonder if Frog/Magus could have been quite a bit stronger back then, too....)
Still, like others have stated, maybe the explanation could be that rivalries across multiple games mean that much more. The effect of something relatively simple like a single character (Cloud) is much harder to erase in a game that hasn't been played for a long time.
--
"Ah, a party! We haven't had one of those. So...what is a party?"
"Well, you drink punch and eat CAKE! ...I think."