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15. Mario vs. Crono (2002) R5

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/96b608e7.jpg

Mario 50.05% 53831
Crono 49.95% 53716
TOTAL VOTES 107547
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/(1)Mario_vs_(5)Crono_2002
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1000-tournament-semifinal-mario-vs-crono

The question of what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object found an answer in this match: it creates the most definitive rivalry in Contest History. This legendary rivalry would begin with two characters who, while they might have shared momentum, had managed to make it to this point with diametrically opposed backstories. Mario was the big favorite, the obvious winner who had looked shaky early on, but who had managed to get to this point seemingly by sheer brute force of will. Crono was someone who many expected to lose in the Second Round, but who had defied the odds and beat gaming icon after gaming icon on his way to the Final Four. Sometimes when you get a showdown between contest elites, one or both of them is not at the top of their game. That was not the case here. Both Mario and Crono were coming off of huge waves of momentum going into this match, and while Marios strength might have peaked with his match the round before, what he was working with here was still ahead of what he looked like in the earliest rounds. Crono of course, seemingly got more and more popular as the contest went on, most likely peaking with this very match. And so you had two characters, in the midst of two different journeys meeting up to decide which one would make the Finals. Even if Mario and Cronos story together ended here, it would be a story that would be hard to beat.

While the board was mostly rooting for Crono all the way at this point, most people, when pushed, would concede that the match was Marios to lose. In most peoples minds he had already overcome his biggest obstacle the previous round when he had defeated Cloud to win the North Division. The appeal behind another intense match in the Nintendo Vs. Square rivalry was obvious, but Crono was considered a step down from Cloud popularity wise. If the former couldnt take on Mario, how could Crono be expected to? The match started, and while Mario was in the lead from the very beginning, it quickly became clear that Crono was not yet done surprising us. As Midnight turned into Night, and Night turned into Day, Mario would remain ahead, but not by much, Crono nipping at his heels the entire time. This was in an era before we understood things like Vote Trends, and which characters were supposed to do better in which time period. Anything was possible, and the board sat with bated breath, waiting to see when and if either of these two would make a move. But neither did. Mario kept plodding along hour after hour, adding to his lead narrowly but consistently, and by 6:00 PM, he had managed to build up a roughly 1200 vote lead. In later contests with a 12/1 AM start time, these final six hours or so would be a moment when things mostly (emphasis on *mostly*) start to die down. If a comeback hadnt started yet, it probably wasnt going to, and in any case, coming back by 1,000+ votes at this point was a bridge too far, even in the most extreme of circumstances. 2002 was built different, however. This time frame was when most of the big comebacks of the contest had occurred, and as the minutes ticked by, it was up to Crono to show whether or not he would be the next character to close things out with an epic run.

He would. With only a quarter of the match left to go, Crono began coming back, tearing down the lead faster than Mario had built it up. In a role reversal from what we had seen in the previous round, Mario was now the one facing down a quickly evaporating lead, holding on for dear life as his opponent went on a legendary tear. Hour by hour, Crono cut off votes, eventually bringing the match close to 50/50 with only two hours to go. And then, for the first time ever in contest history, Ceej arrived to tell us that he had found a cheater. And despite what everyone at the time might have assumed, they were not cheating for Mario. Someone had managed to set up a voting script for Crono, and as a result, Crono would see 490 votes removed from his total right as he was on the cusp of taking the lead. Mario fans would erupt in cheers, but only temporarily. Even without the stuffed votes, Cronos momentum was building, and in no time at all, he close the remaining distance between himself and the Nintendo icon. With only an hour or two left to go in the poll, Crono had taken the lead. We were on the verge of seeing the upset of the contest, we were about to see Mario finally fall. Mario wouldnt go down without a fight however, and for the limited amount of time left in the poll, the two would trade places back and forth, every update seeing a new character in the lead. In the penultimate update, with only 15 minutes to go, Crono would just barely be up, holding at 50.03%. Would that be enough to hold on until the end?

No, as it turned out, it would not. In what would become an increasingly common event, Mario would pull out a strong final update, and end up just barely winning himself in the end. Crono had proved his strength beyond any reasonable standard of doubt, but in the end, Mario would be the one making the finals, not him. The battle had been won, but, as Im sure you all know, the war was far from over. These two characters would meet again and again in a series of clashes, one a year for the next four straight years, the ups and downs of those results serving as a mirror to the site itself. Their rivalry was always rooted in the characters, but it is hard not to see the parallels as well to the overall Nintendo Vs. Square battle for dominance over the soul of the site. Just because both of these battles ended up with definitive winners however, doesnt make them all the less legendary. There are many questions of opinion that can be asked about the contests, and they all produce a variety of answers, all questions except one: What is the greatest contest rivalry? The answer to that question is, quite simply, Mario and Crono. There is almost nothing else that compares. The showdowns themselves and the narrative that they produced. And it all started with this match.