Coded Artist @coded_artist@gameliberty.club

It's grey sweatpants season. I mean Fall. It's Fall.
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the baby hippo has started to rebel

let's fucking go

When these kinds of people think the Haitians are too much, it really says something

911 eve

@ChristiJunior Niggy love

@Rasterman No, it's more like:

NIGGERS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EVEN MORE NIGGERS

Thomas Massie calls out the political theater

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#BestVidyaGirlContest 2024 ROUND 2 WRITEUP

Talk about a roller-coaster ride! Not just some of the matches, but the round itself: we started off with the single most hyped-up encounter of round 2 turning out to be something of a flop, in terms of drama, vote totals, engagement, you name it – but then we got Lappland’s stunning upset win over Remilia, and an absolute barnburner of a match between 2B and Malon, which ended in another shock result as 2B was eliminated. Things calmed down as Pyra and Tamamo again showed off their immense power, but then we got what I was SURE would be the match of the round between Marisa and Misty. Zelda then stomped Ryza in the most predictable, one-sided “upset” ever, before we got the nailbiter of the contest, as Cirno’s match with Fio ended up becoming an insane back-and-forth struggle for dominance to rival the best of them, culminating in Italy defeating Gensokyo by a single vote. Overall, round 2 definitely lived up to the hype, just not in the way I expected.

Key takeaways from round 2:

- NintenDOMINATION! Last year, Nintendo only had 1 girl in the quarterfinals, due to most of their reps underperforming, and a truly strong girl like Pyra running into the equally formidable Tamamo very early. Of course, the one surviving Nintendo rep was none other than Samus, who ended up winning the whole tournament, but the point still stands, Nintendo girls not named Samus kinda flopped last year. Fast forward to 2024, and 5 out of 8 (!) girls in the quarterfinals belong to the Big N, as the Zelda newcomers, Pyra’s more favorable bracket and the decline of Touhou all contributed to a remarkable turnaround. When you also factor in Arcade heroine Fio Germi, we see that Core gaming girls outnumber Meme girls 6-2 in the quarterfinals, the Fluffy Tails being the lone maymay holdouts. And obviously, the main reason for the Meme girls declining:

- Touhou Holocaust. The little bullet hell series that could has gone from being THE most dominant force in the best vidya girl contest to something of a paper tiger. Whereas last year, most Touhou girls could only be taken out by SAMUS, this time one of the top Touhous was felled by a *Gacha girl*. The clutch factor had also disappeared, leading to the single most shocking result of round 2, namely Touhou being completely eliminated from the contest.

- Pyra becomes the first girl in tournament history to Double two opponents in a row

- Lappland becomes the most successful Gacha rep in tournament history, being the first Gacha girl to reach the quarterfinals.

- Misty becomes the first Pokegirl to reach the quarterfinals.

- Zelda is now the only series with multiple reps still in the contest

- Fio Germi has now defeated 2 Touhou girls (Kagerou and Cirno), though Samus still holds the overall lead with her 3 wins from last year (Remilia, Momiji and Reimu).


And now for some Awards:


Star of the Round: Malon (Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

There were a lot of candidates for this award, from Pyra or Zelda for their displays of overwhelming power, to Misty or Fio Germi for their super-clutch shock wins. In the end tho, I felt Malon was the most deserving of all: Not just did she pull off a massive upset, she also did so in a super-convincing fashion, making *2B* look like the underdog in the process. Basically, the Ranch girl showed both stunning strength AND pulled off a shock win, so she deserves this award for representing the best of both worlds.


Flop of the Round: Touhou

This might be considered cheating, but who cares – after the last match was over, this was the only possible answer (if Cirno had won, Marisa would have received this “honor” instead). What do you even say about the nightmare that the Touhou girls just went through? Despite underperforming in round 1, I still expected at the very least 2 Touhou girls to easily make the quarterfinals (Top Seed Cirno was ironically the only one I really doubted), but when Remilia loses to a Gacha girl almost as badly as she lost to Samus last year, while Marisa goes from scoring the biggest blowout of round 1 to losing to a girl who could barely beat Hikage, you know you are witnessing a major franchise-wide weakening. Honestly, Touhou hasn’t been quite the same ever since Patchouli’s surprise loss to Ryza last year – and since it was the same girl’s steamrolling of Midna that seemed to set up a frachise’s rise to greatness (including Remilia’s fantastic performance against Samus and Momiji avenging Kagerou against Fio Germi), it almost feels like the Touhous losing their support mage and her buffing spells is the cause of all this underperformance.


Best Match of the Round: Cirno (Touhou) VS Fio Germi (Metal Slug)

I was CONVINCED that nothing would be able to top Marisa VS Misty, which would have meant that Misty would have featured in the best matches of BOTH our first two rounds, but then the final match goes ahead and delivers a true blue 50% - 50% 1 vote difference down-to-the-wire nailbiter, AND one full of crazy twists and turns as well! Of course, Marisa VS Misty was just as great until the last few minutes, when Misty successfully delivered her knockout blow, which is the only reason why Cirno VS Fio Germi clutches this one out.


Most Disappointing Match of the Round: Samus Aran (Metroid) VS Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII)

We basically ended up with the most underwhelming version we could have gotten of this match – with Samus regaining some of her past power, while Tifa had peaked early, resulted in our 2023 champion killing this match very early, while Tifa lacked the strength to bring in the kind of engagement and vote totals you’d expect from a match like this. It’s a good thing we got such fantastic matches later down the line, because this one was definitely a massive letdown.

@ForbiddenDreamer @RealRaul @WashedOutGundamPilot

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