abstract
| - People were very worried about the Square split coming into this match, because Pikachu's strength in the first round was very real, few people wanted Pikachu to advance here and Square has a much harder time SFFing itself than Nintendo does. The fear was Vivi and Tidus would split with each other very hard and ultimately allow Pikachu to advance. "Whoops" This match was basically over with the board vote, when Pikachu jumped out into first place and it took Leon the full first 5 minutes to shake him off. From there, everything people feared came into fruition. Pikachu was easily able to stay ahead of Vivi and Tidus, who split too many votes to threaten Pikachu for second place. Worse yet here is Vivi made two key comeback attempts. Vivi cut nearly 200 votes off of Pikachu during the dead zone, but Pikachu built it way up again during the morning vote. Then during school, Vivi cut 400 votes off of Pikachu's lead before the Pokemon ASV ultimately buried him. It's very fair to say Tidus's presence in this match screwed Vivi out of making it into second place, and Pikachu was the benefactor of it. Remember, these were the pre-2008 days of everyone loving Pikachu for killing off L-Block. People were not happy about Tidus's effect on this match, especially given how hated he is and how beloved Vivi is. Then you factor in Dante and Leon having a similar split in the divisional final, Vivi possibly getting screwed out of making a deep run and people were extra pissed.
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