| abstract
| - The most important part of this match, of course, was with Leonhart stating that Snake would be possibly getting 43-45% in this match, and that said performance would be enough to put him up into the Mario/Samus tier of strength. Considering how the Noble Nine had performed this round and that most people thought that performance would be more appropriate for Sephiroth (hello), this prompted one stats topic pariah Black Turtle to state he would close his account right then if Snake pulled that off. Thus Snake started off the match getting just that, BT reneged, and there was much rejoicing and gnashing of teeth by all. And to move on to the less important, non-Solid Snake related part of the match - is there any point where the Oracle DOESN'T mechanically side with their brackets in a close match, even when the logic points against them? One of the reasons why I prefer the superior Analysis Crew, but no matter how you looked at the match it was set to be a three-way fight for second. Vivi had done exceedingly well on Snake last round, and Ryu H had upset Zero in a squeaker. The arguments for each were pretty diverse. Ryu H's supporters believed that he was simply the stronger character this year due to Ninja Gaiden 2, and that Vivi would collapse when stronger competition appeared. Zero's believers relied on the belief that Ryu H's bomb in the second round against Riku after beating Riku and Roxas COMBINED was no fluke, and that something similar would happen here. Vivi fans knew he was going to stand out among three badasses, and combined with his great performance on Snake from the previous round he was the guy to beat. Well, one thing definitely came true here - Ryu Hayabusa, whether it be because of his casual fanbase, disproportionately badass appeal, or just because of something really WEIRD apparently Hayabusa commits seppuku at the first sight of Solid Snake. And while the twitching corpse of the ninja was apparently still enough to give Riku the fight of his life last year, Zero and Vivi are on a different level. He ended up with 14%, and had to fight all day for it - still one of the oddest consistent anomalies in contest history, I say, but now we know it's absolutely true. That left Vivi and Zero, and Zero took control of the match early due to his bracket support and trademarked powerful Mega Man Early Vote. But four hours in, the inevitable happened - as it always does - and Vivi took control of the match in a big way. By the morning he had shaved a 600 vote lead to practically nothing, and the during school vote allowed him to build a 400 vote lead of his own. It looked like Zero was going to drop ANOTHER match that he should have had in hand, but Vivi's historical troubles with the after school vote finally came back to haunt him. It was slow and painfully methodical, but Vivi's weakness during the ASV allowed Zero back into the match, slicing away with Vivi's lead, and Mega Man's nice second night vote pushed him over the top into a 400 vote victory. Zero did what we expected to do in the end, but in the very worst way for the Mega Man franchise to look. Losing to a character you 63-37'd and barely beating Vivi due to what was probably the most favorable picture outcome he could have hoped for - and now he was going to potentially kill his series' flagship character next round. The stage was set for an epic showdown between Noble and Joke, the winner gaining a berth in the quarterfinals.
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