G7: And the winners are...

And so ends the Bard's Tale--I mean, ends my 7th character battle contest--the Generation Seven Character Battle Contest. Old school went up against the new classics, and now it's come to completion. 128 characters began, 1 survived it all. And now we present it to you. This is the written version of the final recap if you can't listen and/or download the end of contest podcast starring yours truly, and Joshie. Here will also contain any podcast corrections, so read on!

Once again, thank you for competing and playing along--whether you entered, voted, be a tiebreaker, it's been fun, as always. So let's get right to the highlights of the just-completed contest. Starting off in Round 1, it began when Zergplex shot hot right out of the gate, managing to stay in first for the first week and a half of the contest, before beginning to trip in the Sony Division. However, it would be there that 3 records would be made: the first being our two new members of the All-16 Club for nailing every battle in the opening round of the division--EyesOfATragedy and Alyssa; the second being Joshie repeating the feat, being the first person to ever do so; and the third would be the tying and breaking of the consecutive battles won record, which was at 19. Eyes broke it and carried it into the beginning of the Microsoft Division, where she'd end her run at 22. Keep in mind, Eyes won the last contest, her second win. Here, she attempted to try for a 3rd win.

Joshie had taken the lead with his dominance in the Sony Division, and managed to stay afloat while everyone began to crumble in the Microsoft and Sega Divisions. I remember ranting to you as it got near the end of Round 1 and I found that no one was voting--I was getting 4 votes per battle, 2 of them were from me. Threatening to end the contest right there, I was glad to see voter turnout pick up as we headed to Round 2. Joshie held a 20-day win streak, and for him to break the long standing record held by TetsuoTrunks, he'd have to be in 1st for the rest of the contest. That didn't happen, and then began a fight for 1st throughout the rest of the contest, a fight between Jesse, C&T, MusicalRicardo, and Mort.

Then, getting to the Quarterfinals, something amazing began to happen. In the second to last battle of the Quarterfinals (Sega, Battle 3), Kinie lost a battle for the last time. From the final battle of the Quarterfinals to the end, Kinie went on a tear, winning every battle--if anytime was a great time to have a consecutive battle win streak, now was it, when the points were high. In days, he threw himself (by mostly sheer luck) from the middle of the pack, back into contention and suddenly found himself with a shot to win his second contest, blowing right past the people who stayed near the top and amassed records of over 100 wins.

Getting into the Division Finals, we had 5 people manage to nail all of them: Jesse, Kinie, MusicalRicardo, CrystalGuardian, and Saya (who's done it for the 3rd time now). With the favorites all going in (this is the first time in which all the #1 seeded characters) made it into the Final, I expected some fun battles. I was slightly disappointed. Battle 1: Mario against Sonic--I expected a close battle, 2 classics going at it. Instead, Mario scorched Sonic in a 22-0 landslide. I expected Cloud to whip Master Chief, as no one loves Microsoft and everyone wants to get into Cloud's pants. And he did, 20-2. The Losers' Match of Sonic and Master Chief was going to decide for some of you if you had a shot at placing in the final 3 positions. Sonic won there, 11-9, which led us to Mario and Cloud in the last battle.

Mario. 24 years old. Mr. Nintendo. Classic as classic can get. Saving dumb blondes from even dumber dinosaurs. Seeks no compensation (except maybe a night with Peach). Then we have Cloud. Blond. Japanese. Pretty. Wields a sword that makes it seem like he's compensating for something. Been around 10 years. Not as much clout as Mario, but has a major advantage simply because he's from one of the greatest games ever.

It was close. But it would be CLOUD who got the win, beating Mario 16-10, making Cloud our Generation Seven Champion!!! He will join the previous 6 character winners and will face off in the Tournament of Champions to take place after our 8th contest, which will be held this winter.

How does that translate to the final results? Plenty. With Cloud as the favorite, 7 of you took points--3 of you took the full 2500. With that said, I present the top 3 of this contest. Who takes home the prizes? Before I get there, let me remind you of the prizes for the winners.

1st Place: Pick ONE of the following:
-Video game of your choice (please specify the console, and if it’s NTSC or PAL coding)
-$50 gift card to EBGames/GameStop/Hot Topic
-$50 check/money order/PayPal

2nd Place: Pick ONE of the following:
-Video game of your choice $25 or less
-$25 gift card to EB/GameStop/Hot Topic
-$25 check/money order/PayPal

3rd Place: Pick ONE of the following:
-Video game of your choice $20 or less
-$20 gift card to the above
-$20 check/money order/PayPal
-2000 Wii Points (NEW! USA only, alas)

With that said, I give you the winners.

Finishing in 3rd, with a win-loss record of 92-36 and a final score of 9050 points…finishing in 3rd for the second time…SAYA!!! Congratulations! If you don't remember, Saya was the very first person (and still) to finish in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. With her second 3rd place finish, this means that in the 6 contests she's played in, she has placed in the top 3…FOUR TIMES. That's a great placing percentage! Well done!

In second, one of two people who finished with the best record, 106-22, finishing with 10275 points…MUSICALRICARDO!!! After a horrible finish in the last contest, his first, he comes back to place 2nd in his second contest! Way to go!!!

Now, we go to first. The winner. Eyes, I'm sorry--your bid for a 3rd contest win got foiled here…but I must say, his climb to the top IS the story of the contest. Winning the last 17 straight battles of the contest shot him up from the center to the top. With a record of 95-33, finishing with a stunning 11375 points--he wins his second contest! KINIE! Congratulations!!!!
Oh, and me? I would've finished in 2nd place, with 10400 points and a 118-10 record.

The rest of the leaderboard looks like this, and it was close:



Congratulations to everyone, but especially to the winners. If I haven't gotten ahold of you and found out your prize choices, I'll get there soon. If you didn't win, no worries. I hope you had fun--no loss on your part, as it's free to enter and play. Please, play again in the next contest. Leave me feedback.

With the leaderboard out of the way, let's reveal who picked who--something I mentioned I was going to do in the podcast, but never got to. Here we go:

Mario: Mort, myself, C&T, Jesse.
Cloud: Saya, Paul, CrystalGuardian, MusicalRicardo, Kinie, Magus, Eyes.
Sora: Alyssa.
KOS-MOS: Kodraenir.
Yoshi: Vivi.
Dante: Zack.
Claris: Zergplex.

Final records for the contest:

LONGEST WIN STREAK: C&T, 20.
CONSECUTIVE BATTLES WON: Eyes, 22 (NEW RECORD)
CONSECUTIVE BATTLES LOST: Kodraenir, 14.

All-16 Club: Eyes, Alyssa. C&T repeats. All Sony Division.

And now, the sad part of the write up. Now, I've had lots of fun doing these contests--they're a great form of fun and provide traffic and viewing to my LJ and Fantasy World. But all good things must come to an end, and so…the next contest will be my last large-scale contest. My reasons for this are academic: I'm nearing the time when I go back to college. I want to go back to college and get my career in photography going, and quite simply, I won't have the time for academics, work, and a contest of this size--there's just not enough hours in the day. As some of you know, these things take up a lot of my time--between 1-2 hours a night, and then magnify that by almost 3 months…leaves me with little free time. However, this winter contest will NOT be the last one done by yours truly. These will continue, but on a much smaller scale--I plan on it taking 2 and a half weeks as opposed to nearly 3 months. I'll give you the new format after the end of the winter contest. To everyone who has played, entered, and/or taken any part in any of these contests…thank you. Your enthusiasm and feedback make these things fun to create, run, and play along with, and I hope to see you ALL enter the final contest.

So, what's the theme of the next contest? Easy. It's a completely random character battle contest. ANY character from ANY game is fair play to enter. The only ones I won't choose from are PC games and the 7 characters who have won. Again, I'll accept fan art. When I begin to take character suggestions, PLEASE, don't give me a list of EVERY Final Fantasy character in existence. For the last few contests, someone has done that, and it's annoying, considering I'll only put 2 or 3 FF characters in the bracket, TOPS.

Everything will remain the same in terms of point system and setup. However, as it's the final large contest run by me, I want to go out with a bang. I want to get 30 people to enter. How? I'm gonna DOUBLE the prize pot. Here's how I'm going to present the prizes:

Champion (one of the following):
--2 video games of their choosing
--A $100 gift card to EB, GameStop, or Hot Topic
--$100
--10,000 Wii Points

Second Place (one of the following):
-Video game of your choice (please specify the console, and if it’s NTSC or PAL coding)
-$50 gift card to EBGames/GameStop/Hot Topic
-$50 check/money order/PayPal

Third Place (one of the following):
--$25 game of your choice
--$25 gift card to the above mentioned
--$25
In addition, I may decide to make some contest-related merchandise on CafePress.

There. Salivating yet? I want 30 people to enter. Let's make the winter contest massive.

And now, time to wind down. Guys, I can't thank you enough--the staff of Fantasy World for letting me do these things, stealing their bandwidth and server space. Thanks for putting up with me and playing along. Thanks to the people who entered, you guys make this interesting and fun. Thanks to everyone who took part, whether you entered, voted, entered and voted, or served as a tiebreaker (there were 5 of them this contest).

A big thank you to C&T and Eyes. Thanks to Kinie for doing the podcast with me on short notice. An apology to C&T who was going to join Kinie and I, but who's internet connection shat itself 15 minutes before recording began. Please listen to the podcast--Kinie and I put a lot of work into it. There are also things there that aren't here.

Signups for the winter contest begin in December. PLEASE leave me feedback, let me know what you thought.

Thanks again, everyone, and one more congratulations for the winners. Hope you all enjoyed the Generation Seven character battle contest. Join me again for the last one.

Night.

To download/listen to the podcast:

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