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| - Of all the matches ever held in the contest, this is easily one of the funniest. The legend of Gordon Freeman began on this day, and it may easily live on forever. I could try explaining it myself, but that would be somewhat pointless: <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/mmxcalibur/gordonfreeman.htm">http://www.freewebs.com/mmxcalibur/gordonfreeman.htm</a> The entire legend started here, in this very match. Coming into the match, the assumption was that Gordon Freeman had a free pass into the second round. Sure some people may not have heard of him, but Gordon stars in Half-Life, one of the best FPS titles ever made. Even though Gordon may not be a household name, Half-Life most certainly is. And that isn't even the beginning of how easily Gordon was supposed to win this match. Gordon was a 3 seed, and as most people who follow bracketed contests know, it's very difficult to take down high seeds early in tournaments. It should be even more difficult in a contest in which the fans decide the victor, simply because the more popular character will be the one that wins. Furthermore, Gordon wasn't exactly going up against Kasumi here. Tina Armstrong may be a character in the Dead of Alive series, but she's no where near as popular as Kasumi is. So with all of this laid out, there was absolutely no way that Gordon should have had any trouble with this match. He was the 3 seeded main character from a popular title, while Tina was the meager 14 seeded fodder that was supposed to roll over and serve as a waste of space en route to the Aeris/Gordon clash. But when the match began, everything went backwards. Not only did Gordon begin the match by losing, but he wound up getting his ass handed to him from beginning to end. A link was posted on one of the Half-Life sites, but it wasn't nearly enough to save Gordon from what may go down as the single biggest embarrassment in contest history. Gordon went from being a heavily-favored 3 seed to a character getting his ass handed to him by supposed fodder. In one match, Gordon Freeman went from being the respected main of Half-Life to the biggest laughingstock of the contest, and this stigma has stuck with Gordon to this very day. We used to root for Gordon to win, but it has gotten so bad for Freeman that we would be shocked if he did anything but lose. It's a sad state of affairs for Gordon, but had he taken care of his business against Armstrong that day, it never would have happened. Not only did Gordon lose to fodder, but he got killed by fodder. On a more serious note, Gordon's loss most likely has to do with the fact that you don't see or hear him all through Half-Life, but at this point, does anyone honestly care? This match is all about the beginning of a legend, and luckily for us, the legend of GFNW continues. Lost in all of this is the fact that Tina Armstrong actually won a match, which made Aeris's path to Solid Snake even easier.
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