For those living under a contest rock, this is the match that "broke the noble nine". Now, we've done that 3 or 4 different times depending on your criteria, but this is the one that people really took to heart.
Crono had a tough time in 2006, struggling the last 20 hours of every match and eventually losing a really bad match to Sonic. Vincent had a different 2006. He beat Ganondorf after a very Nintendo-friendly 2005 and Zelda winning the series contest in 2006. I think, if memory serves, that he also killed two of the ten most notable accounts in board 8 history: Heroic Mario and yoblazer. Vincent was thought to have a shot at Sonic but couldn't quite get there, getting 48%. The thing is, Crono got 49% and was a year older in 2007.
The writing was on the wall for sure. Crono struggled with Zero the round prior while Vincent had a free pass alongside Link. Anyone without blinders on would have picked Vincent based on the two characters' trajectories, but this was the noble nine we were talking about and we would believe Crono to pull it off before we believed some foreign invader.
Crono started this match off strong. After 5 minutes, it was 27%-17%, but Crono would drop 2% after the second update. Crono's 4 hours looked like it would be enough, except 4 hours was more than 2 hours this time. He built up a lead of 1000 votes and then just kinda died. It was honestly sad to watch. He pushed his lead ever so slightly up to 1100 by 4am and then just utterly collapsed as he had been for the last two years. Vincent obliterated him overnight, took the lead at 10am and never looked back. The Noble Nine was dead.
Thinking back on this match, I do wonder if part of his struggle was that Zero and Link were both well-liked SNES characters and Vincent was a little more unique. Crono probably still loses in a 1v1 but it's an interesting thought. I can remember this match's trends being invoked for a solid 5 years afterwards, mostly because red sox is a crazy person who has his PhD in poll 2914ology. This match was super hyped, lived up to it and killed the Noble Nine. It made 2008's surprising upset all the sweeter. Crono/Mario had become Crono/Vincent, which was sad in its own way, but their 3 matchups were all super interesting throughout the latter half of the 2000s.
It took 2SNES SFF characters and blatant vote stuffing, but congrats Vincent.... I guess.
