The Power Hour describes the first hour of a contest match. During that time, many characters get off to a hot start, while other characters do poorly during that time, only to make up for it later during the day. Characters with a good Power Hour vote often use that time to build up a large cushion. The "Hour" has never been an exact science - sometimes the character looks very good for up to three hours, while other times he barely gets any push beyond the initial board vote.
Characters and Their Power Hours[]
The Power Hour is often called the "Nintendo Power Hour", due to the fact that generally, Nintendo characters get off to a good start in the first hour of matches. This includes actual Nintendo characters such as Link, Mario, and Samus, but also characters like Mega Man, who are heavily associated with Nintendo and share much of the same fanbase. In fact, nearly all old characters who originated in 2D do well during the Power Hour, such as Ryu. For this reason, this 60 minute period is also sometimes called the "Old School Power Hour". The main difference between Nintendo characters and other old school characters is that Nintendo Characters also do well during during the After-School Vote, whereas other old characters such as Mega Man or Ryu flop during that time.
Arguably, the best Power Hour belongs to Chrono Trigger characters, such as Crono or Frog, and other 2D Square characters such as Kefka. Their Power Hour often exceeds that of even Nintendo characters. For example, during Crono's match against Mario in 2005, Crono managed to keep it close during the Power Hour before getting blasted away during the rest of the day. Chrono Trigger characters depend almost completely on their tremendous Power Hour to win close matches, as like other non-Nintendo 2D characters, they suck during the rest of the day.
This is not to say that Square in general does well during the Power Hour. On the contrary, the Power Hour hates 3D Square characters as much as it loves 2D ones. Characters such as Cloud, Sephiroth, or Squall are generally magnets for anti-votes, so they normally do poorly during this time when compared to the rest of the day.
Lastly, board favorites such as Solid Snake or Phoenix Wright have a great Power Hour. Snake, one of Board 8's favorite characters, manages to win the Power Hour against even Nintendo icons such as Bowser. The board also likes joke characters, such as Weighted Companion Cube, or CATS, who often fall hard after their strong Power Hour. This was especially true of L-Block, who overwhelmingly won the board vote in 2007. In the 2008 contest, after much the board began to dislike the Tetris piece, most of its Power Hour support began to die down.
The PHV In Action[]
Link gets off to such a great start in the 2006 BR Championship that even though Cloud is going toe to toe with him by 4 AM, too much damage has been done in those opening hours and the match has been put out of reach.
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