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1. Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Monday, 18-Dec-2023 07:19:44 JST Christi Junior
   #BestVidyaGirlContest Post-Tournament Analysis (Quarterfinal Matches)
   
   1ST QUARTERFINAL MATCH:
   
   1st Seed Samus Aran (Metroid) VS 8th Seed Momiji Inubashiri (Touhou)
   
   Samus: 172 votes
   Momiji: 125 votes
   
   The tournament quarterfinals ended up consisting of two blowouts, followed by two close, competitive matches, one of which turned VERY ugly. As such, the first two bouts were basically just setting up the long-awaited Samus VS Reimu battle. Now, I will admit, as a Samus fan part of me did worry that the Fluffy Tail Mafia would somehow make something crazy happen that would result in Samus sleeping with the fishes, especially after what happened to Pyra. However, it would turn out that Samus was so strong that not even the combined might of Touhou and Team Fluffy Tail stood a chance against her.
   
   Like against Remilia, Samus stormed off into a monster lead, quickly getting ahead by 10 votes. Momiji then TRIED to pull a Remilia, going on a beastly counteroffensive to erase the blonde bounty hunter’s lead, however, that was easier said than done. Even as the wolf girl was going all out to claw herself back in the match, Samus was maintaining a decent 6-7 vote lead, resisting the wolf girl’s push and then getting back her 10-vote lead after 48 votes. Momiji DID strike back by scoring 3 straight votes and eventually getting within 6 votes again, but after that Samus took over the match, kept increasing her lead and was up 57 – 43 after 100 votes.
   
   However, Samus was only just getting started, and only intensified her domination from this point on, reaching a 25 vote lead after 115 votes. And while Momiji did from time to time attempt to fight back, she just couldn’t keep up with the Metroid MC’s unbelievable natural strength. Additionally, Samus supporters had gotten significantly better at actively cheering on their girl since the Remilia match, and were early on kinda dominating in the match thread. With all this going for her, you just CAN’T allow Samus to build up any kind of significant lead on you outside of the chaotic opening minutes of the poll, she’s so powerful that you’ll have to fight like crazy merely to keep up with her, while actually overcoming a significant deficit against Samus is hopeless – not that keeping up with Samus for a full 24 hours is much easier, but still…
   
   Anyway, Samus kept dominating, reached a 41-vote lead at the 200 votes mark, and additional activity due to the poll getting reposted just increased Samus’s lead to 49 votes. Momiji being kept below 40% after more than 200 votes really showcases just how insanely strong Samus truly is – and this result probably DOES reflect her true strength more accurately than the final score, because from that point on Samus fans became *extremely* complacent, pretty much went AWOL and let Momiji supporters completely take over the match thread. A strong and sustained Momiji push followed, which did manage to make Samus bleed percentage points, and even cut into her vote lead, but with less than 2 hours left, Samus still led by 45 votes. Momiji only managed to further reduce her deficit a tiny bit, getting within 42 votes, before Samus effortlessly increased her lead again, finally winning by 47.
   
   This was an absolutely DOMINANT performance by Samus, and she looked extremely impressive by any metric. Hell, the only reason she didn’t break Tamamo’s vote count record (Samus eventually “only” matching Pyra’s 172 votes) was the fact that she had killed this match so completely after just a couple of hours that Samus fans basically stopped caring, since Momiji stood no chance of making a comeback. One might try to dismiss Momiji as just a Touhou mini-boss, but she’s clearly an extremely beloved fan favorite character, and yet Samus effortlessly overwhelmed her. If Remilia had made Samus look at least *somewhat* vulnerable, this quarterfinal match served as a grim reminder of just how difficult it would be to take down the #1 Seed. The pressure was now on Reimu to put on a show and prove that she was capable of avenging her two friends, and put an end to Samus Aryan’s Touhou genocide.
   • EdBoatConnoisseur (edboatconnoisseur@bae.st)'s status on Monday, 18-Dec-2023 07:19:43 JST EdBoatConnoisseur

     in reply to
     @ChristiJunior
     __samus_aran_metroid_drawn_by_hioyami__3a107d7de3221e7487731b7260f8ff1a.jpg
     Gyaru Enjoyer likes this.
   • Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 22-Dec-2023 04:10:39 JST Christi Junior

     in reply to
     2ND QUARTERFINAL MATCH:
     
     13th Seed Shanoa (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia) VS 5th Seed Reimu Hakurei (Touhou)
     
     Shanoa: 80 votes
     Reimu: 135 votes
     
     Now THIS is how you respond to your rival blowing out her opponent – by showing her up with a far bigger blowout. Sure, it was against a lesser opponent, but reaching 63% in the quarterfinals was still a Champion-worthy performance by Reimu – as is the fact that the shrine maiden, over the course of 3 matches, had never been brought below 62%. After a somewhat underwhelming opening match (again, by Champion standards), Reimu had caught fire and now looked near-unbeatable, demolishing every girl in her path.
     
     Meanwhile, for tournament sensation Shanoa this was a sad way to go out, but pretty much inevitable given how outrageously she had overperformed. Truth is, Shanoa’s fourpack had been very weak (which was obscured by Tifa’s big name and Alice being so overseeded), and once in the quarterfinals, the Castlevania girl stood no chance regardless of who she’d go up against, since even someone like Momiji was clearly out of her league. Not to mention that at this point quite a few people seemed to be anti-voting Shanoa, be they angry Tifa or Alice fans, or just people convinced that her Cinderella run was the product of cheating.
     
     As for the match itself, Reimu took the early lead without going completely crazy, with Shanoa avoiding being completely blown away and even going up as high as 47% at the 30-vote mark. However, Reimu wasn’t about to let the queen of clutching out close matches actually keep this poll competitive, and started pulling further ahead after that, reaching 60% - 40%, then extending it to 64%, and then reaching 66%. At the 100-vote mark, Reimu lead 65 – 35. Knowing that she needed to really wow the public after the show Samus had just put on, Reimu was also far less willing to ease up on the pressure than she had been against Monster Girl Quest Tamamo, and after Shanoa managed to bring the Touhou heroine down to 62%, Reimu hit back hard and rose back to 65%. Eventually, all Shanoa could manage was eventually bringing Reimu down to 63%.
     
     As decisive as Reimu’s victory over MGQ Tamamo had been, her win over Shanoa looked even better, being a bigger win, against a presumably stronger opponent, and with even Reimu’s one apparent weakness (low vote totals) having been largely patched up. She still wasn’t doing Samus numbers, but getting 135 votes in a match she so quickly killed was nonetheless a good showing by Reimu.
     
     Honestly, the buildup to the most hyped match of the tournament, Samus VS Reimu, couldn’t have been better – both girls were by the quarterfinals looking absolutely fantastic, and it truly did seem like a case of an Unstoppable Force meeting an Immovable Object. Nobody could honestly say that he knew how their semifinal match would turn out, but we all knew that it was sure to be spectacular – which it certainly ended up being, just not in the way we expected.
     
     #BestVidyaGirlContest