The match between Ryu Hayabusa and Jill Valentine was widely believed to be a 3-point match, simply because Jill Valentine finished so far ahead of Sora in the 2003 Xsts. Considering how the first round went, there was little reason to believe that Hayabusa wasn't going to own this match. Sora had a decent match against HK-47, but because HK-47 wasn't in the contest last year, there was no way to prove that Sora was any stronger than he was in 2003. And because Ryu Hayabusa managed to beat Jill Valentine, there was no proof that he wouldn't simply take Sora down with ease.