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| - For whatever reason, the second match of these contests is completely cursed for Board 8. This year, Dragon Quest 8 is the game that got to bite everyone during the second match, and at this point the right play with these is to just find Board 8's popular opinion on them and just go the opposite way unless it's an ungodly obvious match. Check this list out. Weird stuff in bold. Summer 2003 - Pikachu vs Fox. Everyone picked Fox because they had a common opponent (Cloud) the year before. No contest. Spring 2004 - Metroid vs Pac-Man. People picked Metroid because they treated games the same as charcaters. Again, no contest. Summer 2004 - Ganondorf vs Alucard. Debated match for some reason, but by now everyone knew about x-stats and picked Ganondorf. Again, no contest. Of course now that x-stats were a thing, the second match would start screwing with people, though one could consider this a match that a lot of people debated and got wrong. Spring 2006 - Suikoden vs Mega Man X in the series contest. No debate because it was obvious MMX would win. Summer 2006 - Ada Wong vs Jade was obvious. Moving on. Rivalry Rumble - Who fucking cares? (it was Ike/Black Knight beating Conker/Poo) Summer 2013 - Raiden/Waluigi/Alan Wake. Easy Raiden win, though people feared a joke run by Waluigi. So yeah, long list of second match oddities and this year was no different. I myself picked DQ8 initially, then looked at things and realized Persona 3 had a buzz on this site, while Dragon Quest has never mattered (sorry Chris, it's true). Even looking at past polls, both games have been garbage-level, but Persona always showed something. Other people, including casuals filling out brackets, reached the same conclusion, and picked Persona 3. they figured fodder with a fanbase beats fodder that no one ever talks about. Then the match started. Persona 3 took an early lead, likely from bracket votes, but then it became very close almost immediately. Right when this happened, a lot of people knew what was coming because we've all seen the second match screw us time and time again. When DQ8 took the lead 20 minutes in, there was no illusion about Persona 3 doing anything even though the poll stayed close for awhile. We all knew. In fairness this was in question for a couple hours, but DQ8 slowly gained overnight, then buried the poll once the day vote hit. The best explanation I have, outside of Persona 3 having a very vocal yet very minor minority, is that the title "Best Game Ever" on this contest really meant something to people. Dragon Quest is gaming royalty as a series. Persona is just another run-of-the-mill JRPG series, and sorry Persona fans but you know it's the truth. It's obvious that no one outside of very dedicated JRPG fans know or care what Persona even is. That's why Dragon Quest won. Not that Dragon Quest would end up anything but fodder, as Chrono Trigger would so thoroughly remind everyone in round 2.
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