Summer 2003 Contest
From Board 8 Wiki
| Started: | July 1, 2003 |
|---|---|
| Ended: | September 3, 2003 |
| Winner: | Cloud |
| Best prediction: | Leo0820 (183/192 points) |
| Notable matches: | Kefka/Pac-Man, Ganon/Magus |
The Summer 2003 Contest was the second Summer Contest in GameFAQs history, and is also known as Character Battle II. The results were as follows:
Contents |
[edit] See Also
2003 Contest Matches - complete writeups on every poll from the second annual Character Battle
[edit] Bracket
| Contest Bracket | |||||||
| North Division | Link Samus Aran | Link Cloud Strife | Cloud Strife Sephiroth | Cloud Strife | |||
| (1) Link (16) AiAi | Link Fox McCloud | Link Magus | |||||
| (8) Pikachu (9) Fox McCloud | |||||||
| (5) Tidus (12) Ganondorf | Ganondorf Magus | ||||||
| (4) Sam Fisher (13) Magus | |||||||
| (6) Squall Leonhart (11) Jill Valentine | Squall Leonhart Luigi | Squall Leonhart Samus Aran | |||||
| (3) Luigi (14) Ratchet | |||||||
| (7) KOS-MOS (10) Crash Bandicoot | KOS-MOS Samus Aran | ||||||
| (2) Samus Aran (15) Isaac | |||||||
| East Division | Cloud Strife Sonic the Hedgehog | ||||||
| (1) Cloud Strife (16) CATS | Cloud Strife Auron | Cloud Strife Bowser | |||||
| (8) Auron (9) Tails | |||||||
| (5) Bowser (12) Ness | Bowser Yoshi | ||||||
| (4) Yoshi (13) Conker | |||||||
| (6) Sora (11) Aeris | Aeris Master Chief | Aeris Sonic the Hedgehog | |||||
| (3) Master Chief (14) Felix | |||||||
| (7) Zero (10) Scorpion | Zero Sonic the Hedgehog | ||||||
| (2) Sonic the Hedgehog (15) Ken Masters | |||||||
| South Division | Mario Sephiroth | Sephiroth Mega Man | |||||
| (1) Mario (16) Captain Olimar | Mario Shadow the Hedgehog | Mario Crono | |||||
| (8) Wario (9) Shadow the Hedgehog | |||||||
| (5) Pac-Man (12) Kefka | Kefka Crono | ||||||
| (4) Crono (13) Tom Nook | |||||||
| (6) Alucard (11) Bomberman | Alucard Kirby | Alucard Sephiroth | |||||
| (3) Kirby (14) Ramza | |||||||
| (7) Gordon Freeman (10) Max Payne | Max Payne Sephiroth | ||||||
| (2) Sephiroth (15) Raziel | |||||||
| West Division | Solid Snake Mega Man | ||||||
| (1) Solid Snake (16) Raiden | Solid Snake Knuckles | Solid Snake Ryu | |||||
| (8) Knuckles (9) Yuna | |||||||
| (5) Ryu (12) Duke Nukem | Ryu Dante | ||||||
| (4) Dante (13) Ryo Hazuki | |||||||
| (6) Donkey Kong (11) Vyse | Donkey Kong Tommy Vercetti | Tommy Vercetti Mega Man | |||||
| (3) Tommy Vercetti (14) Kite | |||||||
| (7) Lara Croft (10) Zelda | Zelda Mega Man | ||||||
| (2) Mega Man (15) Mr. Resetti | |||||||
Note: This is the only site-wide 1v1 Character Battle tournament as of yet in which Link has actually lost a battle (to eventual winner Cloud Strife).
[edit] Results and Analysis
[edit] Interesting Facts
- The Ultimate Loser in 2003 was Ryo Hazuki. Ryo lost to Dante, who lost to Ryu, who lost to Snake, who lost to Megaman, who lost to Sephiroth, who lost to Cloud.
- Only six of the 64 characters in this contest haven't appeared in another one since.
[edit] Ulti's Analysis (2004)
Wow.. what a year. Controversy, some very close matches, a new champion, higher vote totals, the general hell that was caused all throughout, a Mario/Crono rematch, better pictures, good publicity for GameFAQs, and in most cases, the good posters did what they had to do to make the board bearable.
But all in all, I was honestly a bit disappointed. I loved the contest and all, but it didn`t feel right for some reason. I mean, first of all, had Link won, my final score would have been 182. That`s insane, and far too high. It beings me to my first real complaint, which was that this contest was not hard to predict at all, especially for those of us who paid attention last year. Sure, we all screwed up a few matches, but all in all, the matches we screwed up didn`t surprise us, whereas last year, there were matches that hit all of us out of literally nowhere (I STILL haven`t gotten over Morrigan over Spyro). We didn`t have that this year, save Squall vs Luigi. It was just too easy to predict, though it doesn`t show on the stat page. But had Link won this contest, I seriously think he would have seen a score or two of at least 185 which is just too high. I think that overall, it was too easy to call, which honestly, was boring.
My other complaint? No set format for how everything was done. The matches should all start and end at the exact same time every night. Had this been the case, then we don`t go through complete hell after Mario/Crono, and one would think that after the Sonic/Samus debacle last year, that CJayC would have learned his lesson. But apparently not. Hopefully he`ll have it fixed up by next year.
Match pictures. Most of them were amazing, but other really had me scratching my head. I mean, really, better pictures for Kefka in the first round are NOT hard to find. Amano`s artwork is complete garbage, and that pic just made me loathe him more. Furtermore, can we please ditch the cel-shaded Link? Again, Cloud is my favorite character, but if Link is to lose, let him lose fairly. The cel-shaded pic cost him the match, I think. And my last gripe with the pictures was the Sweet 16. The sprite idea was cool, but the FF7 characters got in-battle pics, leaving the entire round very unbalanced, and the argument can be made that FF7 fever started right there. Whatever the case, there needs to be balance, but again, merely opinion.
And one final thing to note about what I didn`t like. Last year`s stat page was up from day one, as were the bracket updates, contest results, and odds. This year, we had no odds at all, just a list of how many people picked each character to win. Yes, I`m aware that simple match can help us find our won odds, but still. The other things I mentioned were all up late, and the top 50 did not have who each user picked to win the contest, like we had last year, which was something I really would have liked to see.
But all that being said, the contest was a success, and even thought your favorite character may not have won, you all know you loved the contest, and would not have wanted it any other way. From start to finish, it was a bang, and next year, it will be better. I just REALLY hope that the matches all start and end at the exact same time, to prevent the events of this year from repeating themselves.
But honestly, I liked 2002 better. There were three matches that caused absolute hell, due to how close they were, and a load of other matches the surprised everyone halfway to hell. This year, we had ONE match that surprised everyone (Squall vs Luigi), and though we had one or two more very close matches, only two of them saw an uncertain result until near the end of the match (DK vs Vercetti, Mario vs Crono). I don`t know, I guess I`m just a fan of the original. Not to say I didn`t like 2003. I just thought that 2002 was better. It was done mostly on gamefaqs alone, and had far more controversy and unpredictability than any of these character battles will ever have again. Because it was new.
Next year, I will not be surprised if someone managed to pull a 190 out of the bag. Something is wrong with that, but I won`t ask for it to be changed. I would not want it any other way, unless, by some random chance, we get to have this style of tournament for the games themselves. Then we`d have a fresh feel all over again ;)
[edit] Ulti's Analysis (2006)
The hype for the sequel to follow Summer 2002's smash success had finally dawned upon the site, and for those who don't remember, this was the first contest in which a formal nomination form was created. Summer 2002's nominations were all done in a topic on Current Events, but in 2003 CJayC polled all willing to fill the form out for ten nominations each. The results were a very well-balanced bracket, though before the contest started most people felt that Summer 2003 would be too easy. Link absolutely dominated the field in Summer 2002, and the main complaint this time around would be that everyone would have perfect brackets and that the tiebreaker would decide who won it all. People were also complaining that Link would win the contest too easily and that there was no real point in holding another one.
Yeah, right. The 2003 field was a good one thanks to more public nominations, and gone were all of the cult characters and obscure fighting game characters that hardly anyone had heard of. The field featured a Nintendo-dominated field and characters that were more mainstream, but a few lesser-knowns still slipped through the cracks.
Pay close attention to how this contest was, because it was the last of its kind. The dawn of the extrapolated standings and creativename's dominance of the 2003 Oracle Challenge (which he credits the stats for, though he didn't reveal his method until after the contest) caused everyone else to want to be equally good at predicting matches. This led to a tool that is useful, but sucks all of the unknown out of these polls. Gone are the days when we simply ask who win. Now we almost always know who wins; it's a matter of what the final percentages are, and the stigma that was in these first two contests hasn't been there since. It's not that the contests grew bad, but the stats deciding everything for us (including how we all debate matches before they happen) takes a lot of the fun out of them. You can't say much of anything anymore without some stat whore trying to correct you.
This was also the final contest to feature the classic GameFAQs layout and 15 minute poll updates. One died during Soul Calibur/Kingdom Hearts in the first round of the Spring 2004 Contest, the other died in Metroid Prime/Half-Life directly after.
On the brighter side of things, the contests still existing is a plus, as is the fact that Summer 2005 was proof that CJayC is still willing to put insane effort into them. We were all worried there for a bit. CJayC also brought back poll updates, but shortened them to 5 minutes.
And now for the standard ranking of the contests: Summer 2002 > Summer 2003.
[edit] Ngamer's Analysis
When the nominations were announced for '03, I was very upset. We'd already seen Characters, and in my mind we should have moved straight to Games with the second full Contest. When the results started rolling in and it eventually became clear that it was going to be Square's year, I was even more upset. But looking back on it, this was a fantastic Contest, perhaps the best of all time. All of '02s fodder meant there were tons of exciting newcomers joining the field, and even though we all thought we were experts on the returning characters, KHF threw a wrench in our plans and gave the whole season a unique new twist. The nomination system created a strong, well-seeded bracket and there were good matches all up and down the board... not much more you could ask for.
