Christi Junior on Nostr: #BestVidyaGirlContest Post-Tournament Analysis (Round 2 Matches) ROUND 2, MATCH 1: ...
#BestVidyaGirlContest Post-Tournament Analysis (Round 2 Matches)
ROUND 2, MATCH 1:
1st Seed Samus Aran (Metroid) VS 16th Seed Remilia Scarlet (Touhou)
Samus: 147 votes
Remilia: 127 votes
We begin round 2, arguably the highlight of the whole tournament due to just how many good matches it encompassed, with a titanic clash between the two strongest girls of the contest. Both Samus and Remilia had come into this tournament as Winners, with Samus earning her #1 Seed by winning the Nomination thread, while Remilia had (along with her friend Patchouli) won the Qualifier Poll. Both girls also lived up to the hype with strong round 1 wins, with Samus scoring by far the biggest blowout of the tournament, and Remilia comfortably beating a very strong opponent in UMP45.
That said, Samus was always expected to be the favorite going into this match, and as round 1 progressed her huge margin of victory only looked more and more impressive, while the poor showing of most Gacha girls was starting to devalue Remilia’s win over UMP45. But then Patchouli’s stunning beatdown of Midna happened, and suddenly Remilia over Samus looked like a very real prospect. The tournament had a become a very different beast from what it was back when Samus blew away Yuri, and Samus tripling her opponent in a match with a vote total of 79 didn’t seem all that meaningful when Patchouli on her own got 145 votes, and doing so while going up against what was assumed to be one of the top Nintendo girls of the tournament.
And of course, Patchouli performing this spectacularly had some major ramifications for Remilia as well. Beyond the two both being Touhou girls, they very much share much of the same fanbase, both being part of the Scarlet Devil Mansion faction (the two of them getting the same amount of votes in the Qualifier Poll was no accident). Moreover, if anything one would expect REMILIA to be the stronger of the two in a 1v1 format – she is after all the titular Scarlet Devil, who’s not only the boss of Patchouli, but of numerous other popular Touhou girls as well, and places significantly higher than Patchouli on the major Touhou popularity polls. She also has the Loli Vampire appeal going for her. So if Patchouli was looking like a Godslayer in round 1, just how mighty would Remilia Unleashed prove to be?
When the actual match began Samus scored the first few votes, and while Remilia tried firing back, Samus brushed off her comeback attempts and took a 75% - 25% lead after 12 votes, then went up 80-20 after 15 votes. Whether due to her immense strength and popularity, or due to anti-Touhou voting, Samus just kept going up, reaching 83% and seemingly deciding not just this match, but the entire tournament outrageously early! But as if that wasn’t wild enough, Remilia suddenly retaliated against Samus’s monster push with a beastly attack of her own. In what seemed like the blink of an eye Samus was suddenly below 60%, then only had a 2-vote, and after 39 votes REMILIA had taken the lead! It was craziest comeback and vote swing of the contest so far, and literally the only time throughout this whole tournament where Samus showed anything resembling weakness, letting a big lead just evaporate within a few minutes.
Of course, Samus did recover, and fast - what followed Remilia’s brief lead was multiple tied scores, and while Remilia repeatedly tried to use her momentum to pull ahead, the bounty hunter just wouldn’t let her target get away, and after a 29 – 29 score she even tried breaking away herself, but Remilia struck back. Back and forth they went, the two girls now looking extremely evenly matched, back to being tied again at 34 – 34, but Remilia’s counteroffensive had by now seemingly done its worst, and Samus was the one poised to strike. One problem for the vampire girl was that she was merely going even with Samus during a point of the match where her supporters were easily making the most noise in the match thread and on Fedi as a whole, indicating that while Remilia had the most enthusiastic fanbase, Samus was just the naturally stronger contestant, and was going to overwhelm Remilia the moment the latter started running out of steam.
Soon enough we saw signs of just that happening, with Samus proceeding to pull ahead, reaching 53% and a 5 votes lead. Intensified Remilia propaganda (and her supporters were absolutely DOMINATING the match thread at this point) at best was only able to prevent Samus from outright running away with the match, as her lead now seemed to have stabilized at 4-5 votes. Then all the hard work finally bore some fruit, as Remilia was able to make an actual dent in the score and bring Samus down to 51-49 after 100 votes. And with Samus supporters remaining complacent, while Team Remilia was fighting like hell, the Scarlet Devil kept going, and had suddenly completely tied the match again after 104 votes! Samus did take back the lead, and extended it to 4 votes, before Remilia managed to tie the score yet again, and then used her newfound momentum to take the lead herself for the first time in a while. Samus quickly answered back, forcing Remilia to make another comeback to take back the lead.
This last instance of Remilia taking the lead did however convince Samus that it was time to go for the kill – she fired back with a Super Missile and claimed a 6-vote lead, her biggest since the opening minutes of the poll. Again Remilia fought back, but this time she could no longer prevent Samus from reaching a 7-vote lead, then going up 8, then 9. The match remained extremely competitive, but Samus being the naturally stronger character meant that Remilia was doomed to fight an uphill battle. She nonetheless managed to prevent Samus from ever getting her lead above 9 votes for the longest time, but at the 205-vote mark Samus had finally racked up an 11-vote lead, and then truly started extending her vote- and eventually even her percentage lead. The fact that all of this was happening as Remilia’s fans were still heroically supporting their girl like mad just brought home how ridiculously strong Samus was. A 17-vote lead was reached, then 20 votes, then 22, before Remilia brought the lead down to 17, and eventually 15. However, at that point most people had already voted, and while Remila fans tried mobilizing for one last great push, it was Samus who ended up with most of the late votes, getting back up to a 21-vote lead and a 54% - 46% score. She would eventually win by 20 votes.
ROUND 2, MATCH 1:
1st Seed Samus Aran (Metroid) VS 16th Seed Remilia Scarlet (Touhou)
Samus: 147 votes
Remilia: 127 votes
We begin round 2, arguably the highlight of the whole tournament due to just how many good matches it encompassed, with a titanic clash between the two strongest girls of the contest. Both Samus and Remilia had come into this tournament as Winners, with Samus earning her #1 Seed by winning the Nomination thread, while Remilia had (along with her friend Patchouli) won the Qualifier Poll. Both girls also lived up to the hype with strong round 1 wins, with Samus scoring by far the biggest blowout of the tournament, and Remilia comfortably beating a very strong opponent in UMP45.
That said, Samus was always expected to be the favorite going into this match, and as round 1 progressed her huge margin of victory only looked more and more impressive, while the poor showing of most Gacha girls was starting to devalue Remilia’s win over UMP45. But then Patchouli’s stunning beatdown of Midna happened, and suddenly Remilia over Samus looked like a very real prospect. The tournament had a become a very different beast from what it was back when Samus blew away Yuri, and Samus tripling her opponent in a match with a vote total of 79 didn’t seem all that meaningful when Patchouli on her own got 145 votes, and doing so while going up against what was assumed to be one of the top Nintendo girls of the tournament.
And of course, Patchouli performing this spectacularly had some major ramifications for Remilia as well. Beyond the two both being Touhou girls, they very much share much of the same fanbase, both being part of the Scarlet Devil Mansion faction (the two of them getting the same amount of votes in the Qualifier Poll was no accident). Moreover, if anything one would expect REMILIA to be the stronger of the two in a 1v1 format – she is after all the titular Scarlet Devil, who’s not only the boss of Patchouli, but of numerous other popular Touhou girls as well, and places significantly higher than Patchouli on the major Touhou popularity polls. She also has the Loli Vampire appeal going for her. So if Patchouli was looking like a Godslayer in round 1, just how mighty would Remilia Unleashed prove to be?
When the actual match began Samus scored the first few votes, and while Remilia tried firing back, Samus brushed off her comeback attempts and took a 75% - 25% lead after 12 votes, then went up 80-20 after 15 votes. Whether due to her immense strength and popularity, or due to anti-Touhou voting, Samus just kept going up, reaching 83% and seemingly deciding not just this match, but the entire tournament outrageously early! But as if that wasn’t wild enough, Remilia suddenly retaliated against Samus’s monster push with a beastly attack of her own. In what seemed like the blink of an eye Samus was suddenly below 60%, then only had a 2-vote, and after 39 votes REMILIA had taken the lead! It was craziest comeback and vote swing of the contest so far, and literally the only time throughout this whole tournament where Samus showed anything resembling weakness, letting a big lead just evaporate within a few minutes.
Of course, Samus did recover, and fast - what followed Remilia’s brief lead was multiple tied scores, and while Remilia repeatedly tried to use her momentum to pull ahead, the bounty hunter just wouldn’t let her target get away, and after a 29 – 29 score she even tried breaking away herself, but Remilia struck back. Back and forth they went, the two girls now looking extremely evenly matched, back to being tied again at 34 – 34, but Remilia’s counteroffensive had by now seemingly done its worst, and Samus was the one poised to strike. One problem for the vampire girl was that she was merely going even with Samus during a point of the match where her supporters were easily making the most noise in the match thread and on Fedi as a whole, indicating that while Remilia had the most enthusiastic fanbase, Samus was just the naturally stronger contestant, and was going to overwhelm Remilia the moment the latter started running out of steam.
Soon enough we saw signs of just that happening, with Samus proceeding to pull ahead, reaching 53% and a 5 votes lead. Intensified Remilia propaganda (and her supporters were absolutely DOMINATING the match thread at this point) at best was only able to prevent Samus from outright running away with the match, as her lead now seemed to have stabilized at 4-5 votes. Then all the hard work finally bore some fruit, as Remilia was able to make an actual dent in the score and bring Samus down to 51-49 after 100 votes. And with Samus supporters remaining complacent, while Team Remilia was fighting like hell, the Scarlet Devil kept going, and had suddenly completely tied the match again after 104 votes! Samus did take back the lead, and extended it to 4 votes, before Remilia managed to tie the score yet again, and then used her newfound momentum to take the lead herself for the first time in a while. Samus quickly answered back, forcing Remilia to make another comeback to take back the lead.
This last instance of Remilia taking the lead did however convince Samus that it was time to go for the kill – she fired back with a Super Missile and claimed a 6-vote lead, her biggest since the opening minutes of the poll. Again Remilia fought back, but this time she could no longer prevent Samus from reaching a 7-vote lead, then going up 8, then 9. The match remained extremely competitive, but Samus being the naturally stronger character meant that Remilia was doomed to fight an uphill battle. She nonetheless managed to prevent Samus from ever getting her lead above 9 votes for the longest time, but at the 205-vote mark Samus had finally racked up an 11-vote lead, and then truly started extending her vote- and eventually even her percentage lead. The fact that all of this was happening as Remilia’s fans were still heroically supporting their girl like mad just brought home how ridiculously strong Samus was. A 17-vote lead was reached, then 20 votes, then 22, before Remilia brought the lead down to 17, and eventually 15. However, at that point most people had already voted, and while Remila fans tried mobilizing for one last great push, it was Samus who ended up with most of the late votes, getting back up to a 21-vote lead and a 54% - 46% score. She would eventually win by 20 votes.