The Rivalry Rumble actually happened, believe it or not
| Announced: | September 23, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Started: | November 3, 2011 |
| Ended: | December 20, 2011 |
| Winner: | Link vs. Ganondorf |
| Contest Winner: | TheMightyPeanut (191 pts) |
| Notable matches: | Red/Blue vs. Ryu/Ken, Alucard/Dracula vs. Frog/Magus, Squall/Seifer vs. Sora/Riku, Red/Blue vs. Cloud/Sephiroth, Mario/Bowser vs. Link/Ganondorf |
With the Fall 2011 Contest (aka the Rivalry Rumble) the basic idea was to take gaming rivalries and have a pseudo tag team contest with 64 teams making up the entrants, but Mario vs Sonic being effectively disallowed and the contest having almost nothing interesting happen killed all interest. At least round 1's matches were only 12 hours long each, so that was a relief if for nothing more than seeing the hilariously awful vote totals.
Friendly reminder: The worst match ever (Max Payne vs Dirk the Daring) scored 50816 votes. Keep that in mind if you bother reading through any of this contest's information, though it's suggested you don't because it can't be overstated how boring this was.
Ulti's Pre-Contest Analysis[]
The worst contest ever deserves the worst PCA ever. Seriously, don't expect much. There was ONE good match and it didn't even count. And even when something cool might have happened, this contest's stench was anti-fun the whole way through.
There's a lot of reasons for it, but I'll only mention the major stuff. One, Allen asked for suggestions on his admin blog and the overwhelming winner was a tag team contest. Okay, fine, if you want to run a tag team contest of random teams then do it. The rivalry concept was not good.
Two and most importantly was the power of suggestion. You know that database Ngamer and Luster always scour during nominations? It's time for that thing to go away entirely, because almost nothing gets into a bracket that isn't in that database and it directly influences what people nominate. At the very least, people being suggested what to nominate needs to go away entirely. The big example was Mario vs Sonic being eligible, but not getting in over Mario and Bowser because only one appeared as a suggestion. And as you can see with the final, Mario/Sonic could have very easily given Link/Ganon a run at winning the title. There was also that dumb rule about how no character could get in more than once, so we couldn't see something like Sonic/Robotnik and Sonic/Knuckles. Allen had a weird vision for this contest, stuck to it no matter what and you all saw the results.
Then there was the battle bracket. It was a cool one-time idea for Game of the Decade, but it needs to go away. Brian920 finished with a perfect bracket, which is a godtier accomplishment that we may never see again, but he's only getting half the prizes and attention he deserves because of this dumb battle bracket stuff. Call me old or whatever, but winning with a bracket takes a lot more skill than just picking the right winner each day. Didn't we have something like 60 perfect people going into the last match, and then Allen had to create a hyper version of the Oracle to split them all up? Get rid of this battle junk.
Lastly, the bracket itself. It was just awful all around except for Sora's half of a division and the Phoenix division. A lot of mores need to just go away for good. Nintendo is almost always the #1 overall seed. Snake and/or MGS almost always has to go through Mega Man or FF7. Cloud and Mario need to actually face each other again. Though we did get a lite version of Mario vs Sonic finally, plus the Pokemon trainers getting a chance to do their thing. More on that way later.
Vote-Ins
These always clue us in on the type of bracket we were facing, and it was confirmed here we would see 64 teams and 128 characters. Yay. At least we only had to sit through three of these things.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=4480
I never have any clue how to analyze these vote-in polls. Raiden/Vamp outright winning this was hilarious though, and it was our first WARNING SALVO that this contest's field was going to really, really, really suck.
The six winners of this poll:
- Raiden/Vamp
- Banjo/Gruntilda
- Yuna/Seymour
- Laharl/Mid-Boss
- Kid/Guy
- Earthworm Jim/Queen Slug-for-a-Butt
Not exactly murderer's row there. Beyond them, it was hilarious to see Lightning just totally collapse and San Andreas's duo miss out on making the contest by 130 votes. I'm convinced Little Mac/Tyson would have done something in this vote-in instead of Mac/Sandman, though. Moving on.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=4481
This is just funny to look at. The 6 winning teams from this vote-in are so hilariously far ahead of everyone else, and I didn't even notice it until going back and looking just now. Much funnier results, too.
- Bosses
- BJ/Hitler getting second place (what)
- Catherines
- Arthas/Illidan
- Kratos/Lloyd
- Falcon/Shadow
Nothing else is even remotely worth discussing, and I say that as a BlazBlue fan. Fangirls have absolutely ruined that series, just like they ruin everything else. When the dumb yaoi love interest garbage starts becoming canon in a series where it was never intended, it gives you another of the millions of examples how modern feminism is just a complete failure.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=4482
Otherwise known as the "holy crap, Chrono Trigger has fallen THIS MUCH?" poll. It also showed us how this bracket was going to be plagued with non-rivalries, because one spoiler does not a rivalry make. Lavos is just a giant parasite, what does he care about Crono? It's like saying a dog has a rivalry with microfilariae (heartworms).
- Crono/Lavos
- Leon Kennedy/Ada
- Gordon Freeman/Dr Breen
- Raynor/Kerrigan
...oh wow, only four got picked from this poll. Not really sure how much I like Allen using vote totals instead of poll placement and picking a constant number, but it's not like it matters if Raziel/Kain gets in over Jim/Queen or whatever.
Ulti's Post-Contest Analysis[]
This was the worst contest we've ever had, and it's been well documented why so I won't give a huge run-down. The basic idea is bad contest idea, bad contest format, bad bracket selection and bad bracketmaking. If Allen wanted a tag team contest, cool. He should have made one.
People look forward to my contest ranking every season for whatever reason, and here it is:
Fall 2010 (GotD) > Spring 2004 (Games) > Summer 2002 (Characters) > Summer 2003 (Characters) > Winter 2010 (Characters) > Summer 2005 (Characters) > Fall 2009 (Games 4-way) > Summer 2007 (Characters 4-way) > Summer 2006 (Females vs Males) > Spring 2006 (Series) > Summer 2008 (Characters 4-way) > Summer 2004 (Characters) > Spring 2005 (Villains) > Fall 2011 (Rivalries)
Last, but not least... The Ultimate Loser™!
Dan vs. Sagat!
...somehow, that is the most fitting Ultimate Loser™ ever.
Until next year, guys.
Bracket[]
| Contest Bracket | |||||||
| North Division | Mario vs. Bowser Mega Man X vs. Zero |
Mario vs. Bowser Red vs. Blue |
Mario vs. Bowser Link vs. Ganondorf |
Link vs. Ganondorf | |||
| (1) Mario vs. Bowser (8) Earthworm Jim vs. Queen Slug-for-a-Butt |
Mario vs. Bowser Ike vs. Black Knight |
Mario vs. Bowser Sonic vs. Dr. Robotnik |
|||||
| (4) Conker vs. The Great Mighty Poo (5) Ike vs. Black Knight | |||||||
| (3) Kirby vs. Meta Knight (6) Jill Valentine vs. Nemesis |
Kirby vs. Meta Knight Sonic vs. Dr. Robotnik | ||||||
| (2) Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Dr. Robotnik (7) Katherine vs. Catherine | |||||||
| Northeast Division | |||||||
| (1) Mega Man X vs. Zero (8) Captain Falcon vs. Black Shadow |
Mega Man X vs. Zero Bartz vs. Gilgamesh |
Mega Man X vs. Zero Sub-Zero vs. Scorpion |
|||||
| (4) Guybrush Threepwood vs. LeChuck (5) Bartz Klauser vs. Gilgamesh | |||||||
| (3) Donkey Kong vs. King K. Rool (6) Ezio Auditore da Firenze vs. Rodrigo Borgia |
Donkey Kong vs. King K. Rool Sub-Zero vs. Scorpion | ||||||
| (2) Sub-Zero vs. Scorpion (7) Leon Kennedy vs. Ada Wong | |||||||
| East Division | Red vs. Blue Samus Aran vs. Ridley | ||||||
| (1) Pokemon Trainer Red vs. Pokemon Trainer Blue (8) Jim Raynor vs. Sarah Kerrigan |
Red vs. Blue Luigi vs. Waluigi |
Red vs. Blue Ryu vs. Ken |
|||||
| (4) Luigi vs. Waluigi (5) Cecil Harvey vs. Golbez | |||||||
| (3) Ryu vs. Ken (6) Ratchet vs. Dr. Nefarious |
Ryu vs. Ken Fox vs. Wolf | ||||||
| (2) Fox McCloud vs. Wolf O'Donnell (7) Yuna vs. Seymour Guado | |||||||
| Southeast Division | |||||||
| (1) Samus Aran vs. Ridley (8) The Kid vs. The Guy |
Samus vs. Ridley Terra vs. Kefka |
Samus vs. Ridley Big Boss vs. The Boss |
|||||
| (4) Terra Branford vs. Kefka Palazzo (5) Vyse vs. Galcian | |||||||
| (3) Chris Redfield vs. Albert Wesker (6) Dan Hibiki vs. Sagat |
Chris vs. Wesker Big Boss vs. The Boss | ||||||
| (2) Tidus vs. Jecht (7) Big Boss vs. The Boss |
|||||||
| South Division | Link vs. Ganondorf Alucard vs. Dracula |
Link vs. Ganondorf Cloud vs. Sephiroth |
|||||
| (1) Link vs. Ganondorf (8) Arthas vs. Illidan |
Link vs. Ganondorf Amaterasu vs. Orochi |
Link vs. Ganondorf Mega Man vs. Dr. Wily |
|||||
| (4) Amaterasu vs. Orochi (5) Tom Nook vs. Crazy Redd | |||||||
| (3) Zidane Tribal vs. Kuja (6) Meat Boy vs. Dr. Fetus |
Zidane vs. Kuja Mega Man vs. Dr. Wily | ||||||
| (2) Mega Man vs. Dr. Wily (7) Banjo vs. Gruntilda | |||||||
| Southwest Division | |||||||
| (1) Phoenix Wright vs. Miles Edgeworth (8) Gordon Freeman vs. Dr. Breen |
Phoenix vs. Edgeworth Alucard vs. Dracula |
Alucard vs. Dracula Frog vs. Magus |
|||||
| (4) Alucard vs. Dracula (5) Commander Shepard vs. Saren Arterius | |||||||
| (3) Chell vs. GlaDOS (6) Ness vs. Giygas |
Chell vs. GlaDOS Frog vs. Magus | ||||||
| (2) Frog vs. Magus (7) Raiden vs. Vamp | |||||||
| West Division | Cloud vs. Sephiroth Squall vs. Seifer | ||||||
| (1) Cloud Strife vs. Sephiroth (8) Lloyd Irving vs. Kratos Aurion |
Cloud vs. Sephiroth Kratos vs. Zeus |
Cloud vs. Sephiroth Solid Snake vs. Liquid Snake |
|||||
| (4) Kratos vs. Zeus (5) Professor Layton vs. Don Paolo | |||||||
| (3) Crash Bandicoot vs. Dr. Neo Cortex (6) Pac-Man vs. Blinky |
Pac-Man vs. Blinky Solid Snake vs. Liquid Snake | ||||||
| (2) Solid Snake vs. Liquid Snake (7) Crono vs. Lavos | |||||||
| Northwest Division | |||||||
| (1) Squall Leonhart vs. Seifer Almasy (8) Laharl vs. Mid-Boss |
Squall vs. Seifer Siegfried vs. Nightmare |
Squall vs. Seifer Sora vs. Riku |
|||||
| (4) Siegfried vs. Nightmare (5) Ramza Beoulve vs. Delita Hyral | |||||||
| (3) Dante vs. Vergil (6) Sol Badguy vs. Ky Kiske |
Dante vs. Vergil Sora vs. Riku | ||||||
| (2) Sora vs. Riku (7) William B.J. Blazkowicz vs. Adolf | |||||||