Board 8 > The top 10 "what if" questions in GameFAQs contests history

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's time for another one of my contest lists! I spent some time looking at old results over the last few days and started thinking about what could have happened, and made a list of my biggest questions. These are larger-picture questions about the contests and not just 'what if Magus got more votes and beat Knuckles?'. You can make those up all day. Changes in circumstances, timing, controversies, etc. For example, what if FFX hadn't gotten a Tidus picture vs. the entire SSBM roster in 2004? Things like that. (That's not on here.)

Feel free to speculate, and I'll be back later tonight to kick this off.


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You already took my #1!

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I would have to say, Mario vs. Crono 2 being a 24 hour match is a huge one.

In fact, you could talk about a whole host of matches with time controversies, between Mario vs. Crono 2, Samus vs. Sonic 1, REMake 2 vs. Bloodborne, etc.

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What if Sunshine gets delayed by a week?

What if the poll placement doesn't change mid contest in 2004?

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Mario vs. Cloud has to be here, maybe even #1

Actually my #1 might be would Squall have beaten Sonic in 2007 if Sonic hadn't been announced for Brawl in the middle of the contest

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What if Pikachu started off as strong as he is now.

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what if the kids never got home from school
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what if the board didn't rage so hard against l-block

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BetrayedTangy posted...

What if Pikachu started off as strong as he is now.

Probably not a lot changes since he'd still lose to Cloud in 2002 and even if he beat Fox in 2003, he'd get wrecked by Link in round 2!

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How do the results change if the format never switched away from 1v1? In particular, which if any rally entries still win their respective tournaments? Were they all inevitable, did L-Block open the door for everything else, etc.

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Oh right, the Link/Draven DDOS has to be here, too. That's probably the biggest one of the last decade other than "what if Tumblr died before 2015?"

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Leonhart4 posted...

Probably not a lot changes since he'd still lose to Cloud in 2002 and even if he beat Fox in 2003, he'd get wrecked by Link in round 2!

I'd say the next few contests would be different, since Pikachu would very likely make the field in 2004 and 2005 if that's the case.

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"What if Undertale's rally never happened?"

I feel like this butterfly would open a lot but Chrono Trigger is the big one. We're just never going to know. It was somehow appearing stronger than OoT and as hard as to believe that could actually have happened... we're just never going to know.

Edit: Oh yeah, Link/Draven downtime 100% up there as well.

The cliche one, for perhaps good reason, is of course "What if Link wins in 2003?"

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_SecretSquirrel posted...

I'd say the next few contests would be different, since Pikachu would very likely make the field in 2004 and 2005 if that's the case.

Maaaaaybe. Even now Pikachu doesn't get high seeds, so he probably gets cut by the company cap in 2004 at the very least.

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Oh yeah, what if Link beats Cloud in 2003 is a good argument for #1 because who knows if we still have contests without that result.

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UltimaterializerX posted...

My prediction for #1 is does Chrono Trigger win 2015 if rallies never happen?.

I love the rallies, you guys know this, but giga Chrono Trigger in the final would have been so good.

On that note, I propose two what-ifs together that were reasonably possible.

"What if the Melee rally never happen?"

"What if Pokemon turns back Undertale?"

You got to wonder if Pokemon catches momentum from taking down the Undertale menace, combined with Chrono Trigger looking like an absolute beast going into the semi finals. That could have been just as much of a spectacle as Melee vs. Undertale was.

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If Pokemon beasts and goes deep into that contest, I might have won a prize!

Probably not though.

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Leonhart4 posted...

If Pokemon beasts and goes deep into that contest, I might have won a prize!

Probably not though.

Admitedly, I proposed that combination of what-ifs, because I had Pokemon winning the contest, so there's a good chance I would have been in grand prize contention. Because, I think what ever came out of that half of the bracket was going to beat Ocarina. It looked so vulnerable at the time.

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I can tell that this is going to be the biggest 'eye of the beholder' list I've done from reading the comments so far. some I'm completely on board with, and some I didn't even think about!


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What if we always had glorious four ways!

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neonreaper posted...

What if we always had glorious four ways!

I'd have probably moved on with my life!

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Panthera posted...

How do the results change if the format never switched away from 1v1? In particular, which if any rally entries still win their respective tournaments? Were they all inevitable, did L-Block open the door for everything else, etc.

Without the switch to 4-ways (and the expansion to 128 entrants), L-Block doesn't even make the field in 2007. On the other hand, Draven and Undertale would still get in and probably get rallied. It's not like L-Block was the first rally ever, just the first to win.
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What if Snake being in Brawl was met with a negative reception?

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Well, what made Draven and Undertale feasible was the sharp drop-off in vote totals. It's possible L-Block may not have won if 2007 was 1-on-1 because our vote totals were near their peak.

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I think I already threw out the heavy hitters in my mind, but how about something like, "What if Magus doesn't overperform/get the sprite round on Link in 2003?" or some alternative where Magus doesn't get to hide behind Crono in 2004.

Results wise it probably is pretty low impact but board perception/culture wise it's a pretty big one.

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Actually my #2 might be "what if B8 doesn't rally around friggin' Zelda in 2010 because they were afraid FFX wouldn't be able to beat Brawl?"

Because FFX would've beaten Brawl.

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L-Block not making it into 2007, either due to a handful of people nominating something else, or because CJay and Bacon decide its not eligible, is another potential big one.

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I mean we know what happens in 2007 without L-Block!

Link wins

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yeah, some of these come down to "what if Link won again?".

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I think the Link/Draven one is worth examining because there's no guarantee Link still wins even without the downtime, and like Ulti pointed out, Snake would've had a chance in a Link/Snake/Samus final.

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No L-Block 2007 comes down to 'does Chief get 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in the final'.

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WarThaNemesis2 posted...

No L-Block 2007 comes down to 'does Chief get 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in the final'.

Eh, I'm not sure he'd have been able to beat Snake or Cloud in that final since he couldn't beat Snake in the semis anyway (although he put up a good fight).

Although I guess "what if Game Fuel never came out" is a good hypothetical...!

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This is a kind of open-ended one because it's more big picture but "What if Spring 2004 wasn't divided by generation?" CJayC's rationale (...right? Or was this given in a later iteration?) was "new games would crush old games" and I think we can all agree that was... not true. Contest still ultimately boils down to OoT and FFVII but it would just look entirely different and we wouldn't spend years asking for a no gimmick games contest.

I kinda feel this is too vague to really make a list like this but it would be a completely different contest (better? worse? Who knows. Spring 2004 was fantastic so I'd be disinclined to change history here but... what if?), and in a way this was technically our very first "gimmick contest" which would soon engulf our world in the years to come.

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For the L-Block one I meant it more in the sense of how that would affect contest culture going further. Joke/rally fear is so prevalent; how does this change that? Even regarding Link winning, how do things change if he never gets upset in 2007, even by a joke?

That being said, I understand that going "so and so doesn't make it in" is just kind of arbitrary, even if L-Block is a more reasonable choice for this than others.

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Another interesting thought about if 2007 had been 1v1: How would that effect the existence of later contests? Would we get as many character battles after that if 2007 had just been an obvious win for Snake followed by another dull champions bracket?
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Nah, that was Allen's rationale for doing divisions by generation again in 2009, with his infamous Halo vs. Mario 1 example.

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Leonhart4 posted...

Eh, I'm not sure he'd have been able to beat Snake or Cloud in that final since he couldn't beat Snake in the semis anyway (although he put up a good fight).

Although I guess "what if Game Fuel never came out" is a good hypothetical...!

Chief got close to Snake when Snake had no other Smash rep in there, AND no Final Fantasy rep.

L-Block/Dante being replaced with Link/Cloud hurts Snake a lot, plus then Chief is the guy with all the momentum for a crazy result.

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Leonhart4 posted...

Nah, that was Allen's rationale for doing divisions by generation again in 2009, with his infamous Halo vs. Mario 1 example.

Ah, darn. I couldn't remember if that was the 2004 or 2009 reason.

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WarThaNemesis2 posted...

Chief got close to Snake when Snake had no other Smash rep in there, AND no Final Fantasy rep.

L-Block/Dante being replaced with Link/Cloud hurts Snake a lot, plus then Chief is the guy with all the momentum for a crazy result.

Well, I could see Snake getting LPF'd in that match, but I wouldn't give Chief a realistic shot at anything better than 3rd.

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What is there was a contest-winning rally in 2018?

ZeldaTPLink posted...

What is there was a contest-winning rally in 2018?

What if Link doesn't win? We just do what we do every time he loses!

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What if Starcraft got the carriers to arrive against Melee

Could a combination of Battle.net and Angry Nintendo fans pull off the miracle run

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LiquidOshawott posted...

What if Starcraft got the carriers to arrive against Melee

Could a combination of Battle.net and Angry Nintendo fans pull off the miracle run

The carriers did arrive!

And then they were promptly removed.

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What if Rinoa wasn't trapped behind SFF in her only contest appearance :(

What if HG/SS didn't launch the day of Bowser v Charizard?

What if the 2010 contest was all 24 hour matches?

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It's hard to say if any results would've changed with 24 hour matches. I know some people argue Missingno would've beaten Seph in a 24 hour match or if it were a day match instead.

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Leonhart4 posted...

Maaaaaybe. Even now Pikachu doesn't get high seeds, so he probably gets cut by the company cap in 2004 at the very least.

Oh I totally forgot that was a thing. I was thinking we might have the Terrific Ten instead of the Noble Nine

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reposting for new page

10. What if the semifinal matches were flipped in 2008?

First, let's recap the 2008 contest. 2008 is a four-way contest and the star of the contest is Solid Snake, who takes a ride down the LFF slide for a spot in the finals. Let's recap his journey:

Quarterfinals:

Solid Snake 29.14%
Weighted Companion Cube 19.18%
Cloud Strife 38.41%
Mewtwo 13.27%

Semifinals:

Cloud Strife 30.5%
Solid Snake 30.74%
Sephiroth 16.1%
Kirby 22.66%

Cloud had no problem beating Snake without Sephiroth in the poll, but add him in and Snake pulls off one of the most intense wire to wire wins in contest history. Snake starts out the poll on fire and gets up to a 650 vote lead by 1:30. It's basically the highest point of the match - Snake breaks 800 for a short time around 3pm, but Cloud cuts and cuts until he runs out of time, down 300 votes. There are screenshots out there of the board celebrating. Yes, it was a fourway, and yes, Snake had beaten Sephiroth a couple of years ago. There's a difference between coming in third place and beating Cloud, our clear contest #2, days after going down easy to him.

The VERY NEXT DAY is the contest final, with people still buzzing about Snake's performance. Cloud gets another chance here, but with Crono in the poll instead of Sephiroth. And the result is.. well, it's pretty similar on paper:

Link 33.68%
Crono 12.23%
Solid Snake 27.76%
Cloud Strife 26.33%

Snake was actually battling Link instead of Cloud at the start of the poll. Snake was somehow leading Link for six full hours before the sun came up. Cloud wasn't even in the conversation. Snake went up 3000 votes on Cloud by morning and pushed it to 3600 before school let out -- at which point Cloud immediately ripped off 1500 votes to make it look more respectable. That's more in line with what you would expect from a 'normal' match, but this was the final.

But what if there was some breathing room there for people to cool off after that dramatic semifinal victory? Here's the first semifinal:

Link 38.45%
Mario 19.56%
Samus Aran 16.71%
Crono 25.28%

Does Snake still do this with 24 hours inbetween? Cloud got his revenge in the 2010 1v1 semifinal, beating out Snake by 5000 votes. He also had no problem on truly neutral ground in the 2008 quarterfinal, before the last days of the contest caused a shift. Snake's win over Cloud is certainly legitimate, but is it a transient result that only happened due to the circumstances? We'll never know.

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