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| - Finally out of Division 1, where we had just endured FOUR upsets in a row, tensions were high among board users (to say nothing of their poor, poor brackets). People even began to start hushed Chicken-Littleing *this* match. Though not for the reasons you might think, looking at the final score - the character being doubted this time was Liquid Snake. Meanwhile, Roxas was behind SFF thanks to Riku last year and, due to the nature of his role in KH2, had reasons to function as a protagonist-proxy of sorts and shock the world here. And few dared quell the sentiment.
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| abstract
| - Finally out of Division 1, where we had just endured FOUR upsets in a row, tensions were high among board users (to say nothing of their poor, poor brackets). People even began to start hushed Chicken-Littleing *this* match. Though not for the reasons you might think, looking at the final score - the character being doubted this time was Liquid Snake. And with good reason - Liquid has come out looking suspect in every contest he's ever been in. Yes, he went toe-to-toe with Frog when no one on the board expected him to back in 2004 - but thanks to the toady's shenanigans against Solid in Round 3, it was impossible to tell where Liquid stood. He had a good blowout in the Villains Contest, but then showed stunning weakness against Lavos and got killed beyond all comprehension against Sephiroth. And then there was the strangest performance of all, 2007. Liquid, in one of the most exciting finishes in the contests, managed to use some of that MGS final update magic (read: "cheating") to upset Alucard in a match most expected him not even to place in. So what does he do to celebrate? Gets KILLED by Alucard the very next round. Meanwhile, Roxas was behind SFF thanks to Riku last year and, due to the nature of his role in KH2, had reasons to function as a protagonist-proxy of sorts and shock the world here. And few dared quell the sentiment. Which was fine, because when the match began Solid's twin did that all on his own. It looks like Roxas really was that weak (which made Ryu H's performance last year even more puzzling... little did we know), because Liquid just tore him down worse than most anyone expected. But what was REALLY shocking was how close he got to Luigi. Take Roxas and Sho (by the way - WHO????????) out of the match, and Luigi wasn't even getting 55% on Liquid Snake. The same Luigi that easily beat Zero, Kirby, and Bacondorf. The same Liquid Snake that lost to Fraud Frog and ended up below RIDLEY in the Villains Contest X-Stats. And at the end of it all we had another Nintendo character disappointing, Roxas ending up less close to Liquid than a random piece of fodder I couldn't name if you had a gun to my head, and an MGS character impressing more than most thought possible. The board was able to heave a sigh of relief - overperformance or not, at least we had avoided yet ANOTHER upset - but the fears were soon doubled with what was to come. Suddenly with Bowser in the mix, you had to call Liquid the prohibitive favorite to WIN next round. Rumblings of an MGS4 boost were also in the air, but if you played the game, you had to stop and ask yourself - really? Were GameFAQs voters so easily fooled as to give Liquid a boost from THAT? (in retrospect, it really should have been obvious <_<)
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