Video Game Character Tournament Semifinals

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Wiley says we will not take over the world unless

we are listening to Geekcast Radio Network. Maybe

you should play something else. Hello and welcome

to GCN Wars. This is episode 19. This is our

video game character tournament. We will be revealing

the quarterfinal winners, as long as, as well

as going through the semi -final matchups. I

am of course one of your hosts, TFJ and Mike.

Joining me is Steve Magatron. Hello. Hello. Mr.

Solomak, hello. It's never gonna catch on, drop

it dude. No, it'll catch on. I'll make it catch

on. No it won't. Come on, say something. Oh,

I didn't know who you were talking to. Yeah,

you. And of course, TV's Mr. Neil. That's what

Dig Dug did last round. Oh, low blow. Too soon.

Too soon. No, it's never too soon for stuff like

that. So yes, what would you like to say before

we get this going Kev? Well Last week we revealed

the elite eight if you'd like to call them that

the final eight competitors and we left it up

to you guys to do some voting and to select who

would win in those fights to bring us to our

Final four our semi -final matchups and that's

what it's all about today figuring out who those

people are Then it's gonna get real tough. I

think like we've said broken record time I guess

but every round it gets harder and harder to

Have like a clear -cut winner, you know back

in the first round. We had some shutouts. We

had some blowouts I think that gets tougher as

we go through and it's gonna get a real interesting

to see What happens from here? I Think the quarterfinals

there's definitely some favorites going I'm very

intrigued to see who the winner of one of the

matchups in particular is gonna be That's why

we're here to so everybody can hear those results.

I think we're going to flip the script a little

bit today Instead of starting in the upper left

hand corner like we have been of the bracket

if you've been following along We're actually

gonna start in the lower right hand corner of

the bracket Which our first quarterfinal matchup

from last week saw Sonic going up against Pac

-Man Steve how did that one turn out with the

voters? I will say for All of the the the votes

today. None of them were blowouts That's that's

that's what makes it interesting as we start

going forward and I would guess in the semifinals

and in the finals It's gonna be some close votes

or I have a feeling Sonic ran circles around

them the the chomper 26 to 3 So that is that's

almost as we can get to a blowout for this round.

So 26 to three. Mike, any surprise that Sonic

dominates this one? No, because Sonic is way

faster than Pac -Man, even when Pac -Man has

his little magic pellet. Well, he is the fastest

thing alive. Yeah, it's going to be... I don't

know, Flash should give him a run for his money.

Uh, different entirely. Doesn't matter. Like

we said last week, though, it's going to be hard

for Pac -Man, who's used to chasing ghosts, to

catch... the speedy Sonic, so possibly not a

surprise there. So our first entrance into the

Final Four and into the semifinal matchups will

be Sonic the Hedgehog. He survives to fight against

the winner of our other quarterfinal matchup

on that side of the bracket, which saw Spyro

the Dragon, Mike's dark horse, favorite since

the beginning, going against Ratchet and Clank.

Steve, how did that one turn out? Well, let me

just start this off by saying it gives me great

pleasure to announce what happened. Screw you.

Spyro got double -teamed. Ooh. Or tag -teamed,

whichever. He got beat 7 -22. Oh, a little closer

than the Sonic Pac -Man matchup. Not really.

22 to 7, that's not exactly close. I said it's

closer. Alright, so Ratchet and Clank dominated

Spyro. At this point, Ratchet and Clank are gonna

take this whole damn thing. Like we said, Spyro

probably didn't deserve to be this far, so it's

no surprise that Ratchet and Clank dominated

him, right Mike? Opinions of solo Mac are not

reflected in the geek cast radio network the

dragon the effects of Michael Blanchard Calling

someone solo Mac makes his entire conversation

irrelevant Yeah, the dragon power could only

the dragon fans could only vault Spyro so far

into this tournament But he finally met his match

against ratcheting clank so that means on that

side of the bracket We are left with a matchup

between Ratchet and Clank and Sonic the Hedgehog

I think the LaTroy Dragon would have set a better

chance than Spyro. I think Mushu would have been

a better choice than Spyro. Neil, what do you

think as far as looking at that match -up now

between Sonic and Ratchet and Clank? Obviously

Ratchet and Clank have the firepower, the duo.

Now the tag team, as everyone's been saying,

Sonic has the speed and the popularity probably.

How does that one go about when we see them facing

off finally head -to -head? I keep I keep rooting

for the gun, but I think Sonic's got a little

bit of speed on them. So It's gonna be hard to

hit them and I think Sonic might take this one

Mike, how do you feel this one going down? I'm

hoping Sonic just creams the two of them just

runs them over like a giant railroad You know

just like a giant train because I do not want

them to win at this point They suck. Okay, besides

your biasness of feeling that it's unfair that

they're here, you're actually supposed to strategically...

Well, it is actually unfair that they're here

now because there are no more other duos, so...

They fair and square beat every horn so far,

so if you're strategically looking at the way

they would have to beat Sonic... Sonic? They

cannot beat Sonic. Why? He is too fast. They

cannot beat him. There's two of them. Doesn't

matter he's still too fast. Alright, so we know

Mike's not gonna look at this at any strategic

way He's just gonna say Sonic no matter what

so Steve Regardless of who you think is going

to win. How do they go about winning this one?

Well, I yeah before I get into the actually who

I think will win because I think it's gonna be

kind of close here because You do have two against

one. However, Sonic does have experience fighting

against armies of Robotnik droids This is essentially

fighting Robotnik and one of his lackeys that

are robotic. In that essence, I could see that

coming, him maybe getting some rings or going

supersonic on him and kind of thrashing him.

However, I could see technology being used against

Sonic because even in the show, Had been one

of his weaknesses is occasionally he would get

targeted with some kind of technology and it

would take him down temporarily I Can see that

too, and I don't know obviously Sonic is the

faster of the competitors here I don't know if

having two people offsets that speed to a point

where maybe you could strategically if you're

ratcheting clank Set up the two of them to negate

some of that speed possibly. They could trap

him. Yeah, or even have you know kind of chasing

him into where the other person might be. They

probably have the more the better arsenal and

firepower Ratchet and Clank do and Sonic's got

a speed so it's firepower and teamwork against

straight speed and the ability to kind of be

hard to beat as far as Sonic is you know you

have to knock him get his rings out like we've

mentioned multiple times and eventually hit him

with no rings that type of thing. But it might

be an interesting matchup. I guess if you had

to say one of these two, who's the underdog in

this matchup, Neil? Who's got the odds stacked

against Amore? If you had to pick a favorite

and an underdog, regardless of how you feel it's

going to go out, who do you think has the harder

battle to actually win this vote? It's kind of

like an apple and orange situation. I suppose

Sonic, but it's really speed versus weaponry.

Yeah, Sonic doesn't yeah, Sonic doesn't really

have a huge arsenal he just has the spin -dash

But then again, as I said in earlier episodes,

he's basically immortal until as long as he has

rings so Hmm, it's definitely one that's not

as you know We've had certain things where it's

like one person's strength easily plays to another

person's weakness or you know As far as the matchup

it makes it seem like it should go one way or

the other. This one's kind of harder to tell

You know, you got speed and you got firepower.

That doesn't necessarily mean one has a clear

advantage. That's true. And I assume that Ratchet

and Clank are going to be more competent than

your average badneck, so. That's true. Yeah,

he's going against someone who's probably a little

bit smarter than he's used to going against.

Steve, if we look at the path that they've come

this far, Ratchet and Clank took out Toejam and

Earl. Then they beat up on Jack and Daxter and

finally headed off and beaded the dragon Spyro.

So that was Ratchet and Clank's path. Toadjam

and Jack and Daxter and Spyro. If we're looking

at Sonic, he spun circles around Gex, beat up

Earthworm Jim, and then took on Pac -Man. Does

that mean Sonic comes in a little better shape

as far as not having been through maybe as tough

of battles, or how do you see the path to the

semifinals affecting either one of them? I mean,

they both have had their portion of decently

heavy hitters, some more than others in certain

battles, but they've also had their more or less

losers in their brackets, their edge of the bracket

anyway. I think it's going to be a real tough

call. Sonic has had, you know, gecks. I mean,

yeah, that's okay. That's kind of his loser over

there. Earthworm Jim, I'd say, is kind of a little

bit difficult for him. And then you get to Pac

-Man, and obviously Pac -Man didn't stand a chance.

Then you go over to the other side, and you have

Ratchet and Clank, and they've had to fight Toe

Jim and Earl, which is a nobody. Jack and Daxter,

which could potentially have beaten them. And

then you get to Spyro and it was pretty much

a blowout. I could see the argument being made

that Ratchet and Clank could be hobbling into

the semifinals after, especially after that Jack

and Daxter matchup, and then just being able

to withstand the firepower from Spyro. Maybe

coming in a little bit more worse for wear, whereas

Sonic basically... should come in here on Skade

and he kind of got a warm -up of this type of

matchup when he fought Earthworm Jim because

again that's firepower versus speed in a way

obviously firepower in a different form coming

from Earthworm Jim compared to Ratchet and Clank

but maybe a little tune -up matchup that he had

so yeah it's kind of hard to say Mike what's

your official vote for this one? Sonic. Neil?

I'm gonna go with Sonic. Steve? I'm gonna go

with Sonic. Alright, I personally would like

Sonic to win, but I'm gonna be the oddball and

say Ratchet and Clank use the teamwork to somehow

withstand Sonic's speed, get him cornered where

he can't have any rings and then it's just a

shootout and eventually they hit him before he

can get ahold of a ring, but I'd like to see

Sonic go through to it. It'd be interesting.

If we shift our attention to the other side of

the bracket, let's start in the bottom left quadrant

there where we had The two men going against

each other, Mega Man and Bomberman. Steve, how

did the voting turn out for Mega Man versus Bomberman?

Well, the superior model won out. Mega Man managed

to utilize all of his powers and beat Bomberman

with 24 to 4. 24 to 4. Victory from Mega Man

knocking out the Dark Horse on this side of the

bracket, Bomberman, who was trying to make his

way through. He had had some upset wins against

Kirby, etc. But Mega Man proves too much for

Bomberman, which means that he will be facing

off against the winner between our last matchup

from the quarterfinals. And I kind of saved it

for last on purpose because honestly, I could

have somewhat predicted all those other three.

This one, I really have no idea how the people

would have voted. I think it should be close,

but we'll see. I really have no idea who's taking

this one, but we had Yoshi versus Link in the

last quarterfinal matchup. Steve, Link or Yoshi?

Before I answer this, I will say I was right

on who was going to get to the semifinals. Excellent.

It was Link. 22 -9. 22 -9 for Link. Taking out

Yoshi who a lot of people probably were riding

the wave of him taking out Mario I'm thinking

he was gonna hop his way into the semi -finals,

but we have link instead which sets up a epic

matchup between link and Mega Man Mike what's

your first reaction when you hear that? Well,

first of all with Mega Man and Bomberman Mega

Man when they went ahead and made a mega move

in that battle, didn't he? um... with link versus

i did that just for you neil uh... with mega

man versus link that's going to be an interesting

battle because you have technology versus magic

in a way well for the most part links weapons

are mystical i mean yes sure the sword is medieval

and so is the shield but a magic boomerang and

magic arrows and you know it's definitely a slightly

different matchup than we had on the other side

where it's strict speed against you know basic

firepower this one is a little bit uh these these

two you know mono and mono are an interesting

fight you know link does have his boomerangs

and his things that he can do from a long distance

he also if he closes his in to close combat obviously

has the shield and sword make man has the same

things that have been helping him you know this

far through including bombs now Which link has

yep, so they both have bombs Mike gonna mean

interrupt you though, but what's your first reaction?

How do you see this one going? Who do you want

to win? I think it's gonna be I don't know I'm

not gonna real who I think will win at this point,

but I think that this might be The closest as

far as numbers go like I'm betting this is gonna

be a one or two vote Win for either one of them

either. I thought that would be I thought it

would be a one or two vote between Lincoln Yoshi

That did not turn out no because it's it's friggin.

Yoshi. He beat Mars. Yes. He beat Mario, but

most people Don't care for Yoshi And when you

look at the Zelda fans and you look at the Yoshi

fans the Zelda fans are in the millions The Yoshi

fans are in the hundreds. Well, it's surprising

because Mario is actually number one over all

of them and look where he ended up Yeah, well,

yes has definitely not turned out to be strictly

a popularity contest Sure. I mean you could say

that the ones that are still around are popular

characters But some of the most popular characters

we've had have gone to the wayside I Don't know

who I'm gonna vote for on this one at this point

I'm gonna have to wait till after the episode

goes up because I just don't know. Between Link

and Mega Man, it's going to be a really, really

close battle. That would be a fun one to watch.

And I really enjoy both characters. So if it

had been Bomberman versus Link, not that that

would ever happen, but that would have been easy

for me. Link's going to kill him. But I'm just

not sure. With the same thing we we did last

on the other side of the bracket looking at their

past a little bit link obviously had a Pretty

tough first round match probably the toughest

first round match out of anybody going against

little Mac Not really his second round match

was tougher. It's no I mean from a physical standpoint

tough to go against little Mac who's a who's

a fighter Compared to some of the easy contest

that some other people got to go against then

he goes up against his his love interest Zelda

Has to slay his love interest and then go against

Yoshi who even though he's a fun -loving character

Has a lot going for him He beat Toad and beat

Mario. So that was Link's path Mega Man took

out beautiful Joe Took out the mighty Donkey

Kong and then obviously took out Bomberman Steve

do you feel like their past play any part of

this or what's your first reaction when you heard

or when you saw the votes for Link and Mega Man?

That's that's a crazy matchup This one, I definitely

see this being the closest out of all of them.

Man. Who has an advantage here? Yeah, it's going

to be tough because you look at it, Mega Man

has beautiful Joe's powers, he has Donkey Kong's

powers, he had Bomberman's powers, plus his own.

At close combat he has some of, you could almost

argue some of Beautiful Joe and then you have

some of Donkey Kong's ground pound or the gigantic

hands to bash him or grab his sword or shield

or smack a bomb back at him. So I mean there's

that. And then going on the flip side you have

Link. He could simply You know flip over the

blasts he could Hit his boomerang and distract

Mega Man and get him hit and from behind He could

block any of the blasts with a shield and then

he could also cut him apart with his his sword.

So I mean it's There's a lot going in both their

directions for this and and yeah, they've both

had some tough battles So they could be you know

far worse for the wearer here, but I think this

one's gonna be really neck -and -neck Definitely

gonna be interesting Like you said Mega Man has

all the powers that we just let you just outline

so well and then link also has just the He has

a treasure chest of weapons that he takes with

him, you know He can flip out the boomerang the

shield the sword the you know all the different

potions He has he can he can and he has a bunch

of heart potions or whatever life potions. He

can just rejuvenate himself on the spot But Mega

Man could do the same thing. Yeah, so I mean

They both have a lot of... Yeah, Mega Man has

Eddie in the energy tanks. Neil, we haven't heard

from you. What's your first reaction to this

one? How do you see it going? That's a tough

one. So I'm trying... Does Mega Man have... All

of his powers or does he just have the three

from beating the three contestants? Yeah, if

you picture him He has the same thing that he

would start any game out with plus plus beautiful

Joe Donkey Kong and Bomberman's powers Okay,

so he doesn't have the metal blade because if

he had the metal blade it would be over Let's

see That's it's still pretty tough to say easy

can throw barrels he can throw You can throw

bombs you can overwhelm link you I mean, anyone

who's played The Legend of Zelda, if he gets

surrounded, you can get creamed pretty quickly.

I mean, all he has to do is get behind Link,

and that's the problem for Link, because the

shield, that negates the shield if you go to

the side or behind him. Mega Man, yeah, Mega

Man's pretty tough. Like you guys said, while

Link has the... as the potions Mega Man has the

energy tanks and he's got quite a bit of them

so it's gonna be pretty close I'm but I'm kind

of edging toward Mega Man just because projectile

weapons I know link has those too but he kind

of the sword doesn't quite work the way it did

in the first game anymore so yeah I'm gonna go

with the gun again and say that Mega Man has

this Guess another way you could look at it,

and this is I don't necessarily think this is

how people should vote They should vote based

on those individual matchups Mega Man versus

link who they think it's gonna win and Sonic

versus ratchet the Russian clank who they think

is gonna win Mike if you're projecting a finals

matchup I don't think we can come up with a bad

finals matchup no matter what happens because

if you look at it we either have link versus

ratchet and clank or link versus sonic Mega Man

versus sonic or Mega Man versus ratchet and clank

which which are those do you most want it? I

mean they're all four would be Awesome finals,

but what do you most want to see in the finals?

Mega Man versus Sonic cuz my prediction of it

being an Nintendo versus Sega thing the whole

time will come true It doesn't it doesn't it

doesn't really matter because whoever wins on

either side As long as isn't ratchet and clank.

It's gonna be an endo versus Sega It was always

gonna be one company versus another company There

was no way around that all the Nintendo characters

are on one side Yeah, so it didn't matter who

was gonna win that was gonna be you're gonna

get that wish no matter what Neil do you does

one of those finals matchup intrigue you more?

I really don't have a I don't really have an

opinion one way or other on the on the final

match so I'm just kind of gonna sit back and

Watch the fireworks. Yeah. Yeah, but one thing

I I let you get away with it last time Mike,

but you You keep calling Mega Man a Nintendo

character. Well, he's Capcom, but he's on the

Nintendo system. He started on NES. He started

there, but he converted to SNES and then PlayStation.

So he's since jumped the boat. He's been on just

about every platform you can possibly be on.

So is Sonic 2, for that matter. You don't hear

Mega Man necessarily and think Nintendo character.

Oh, I do. That's where he started. I don't. It's

not like Mario, Yoshi, Zelda, Link. It's not

like any of them. Donkey Kong, they're strictly

Nintendo. That's like saying Street Fighter 2

is, you know, Nintendo and it's Street Fighter's

PlayStation, like, all day long. With shag carpeting,

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That's Napa know -how. Steve, a certain finale

matchup that you would most want to see, or which

one do you think would prove the best matchup?

I would like to see... Ratchet and Clank verse

Mega Man because it would be kind of robot and

technology against each other Yeah, because it

would just be kind of interesting to see it go

that way However, I have a feeling it's gonna

go the Mega Man Sonic route At this point what

is very clear that with these four and the popularity

of all of them link Mega Man Sonic and Ratchet

and Clank I don't think it's very easy at this

point to predict a winner. I think we can all

predict a winner we can all have our favorite

or who we think, but any one of these four could

come away with this thing at this point. I mean,

there's a ton of Zelda fans out there that would

vote Link no matter what. You know, Sonic fans

are crazy. You got Ratchet and Clank with the

team up aspect of it. And then, you know, a lot

of people like Mega Man 2, it's hard to predict

who's going to come out with this one overall.

But I mean, I guess we got to get through the

semifinals first. What do you think of what our

matchups are here? Mike, kind of final thoughts

on the two matchups we're seeing going forward,

Link versus Mega Man, Sonic versus Ratchet and

Clank. It's going to be interesting to see how

the votes come down and to see what people actually

are thinking as far as who they would want to

see win. Yeah, and out of the votes that we had

for the quarterfinals, Steve, what were the...

you said like... 23 to 4 like what were the total

votes per matchup? About 20 between 25 and 30

votes for each matchup Roughly, so it's gonna

take probably at least 16 votes At least 16 or

more votes to get a winner on either side if

we're looking at about 30 votes total So I don't

know. I can see this one being real close. I

could see a 16 to 15 I could see a an 18 to 14

or something like that It's going to be tough

to tell. Yep. All right. Anybody else? Last thoughts

before we let the people vote? I will say that

I usually am pretty good about predicting these.

However, well, I mean, I've been pretty damn

close on most of them, even in the original tournament.

However, that being said, this tournament when

Mario got booted Second round that threw my entire

process off Yeah, Mario and Kirby went out. I

kind of lost some points there Because that whole

side of the bracket got totally screwed When

those two left Because I mean either way I still

would have had Mega Man and Link battling them

right on that side and then on the other side

I still had Ratchet and Clank and Sonic. One

of the breakdowns I had was it was going to be

Sonic vs. Mega Man, or not Mega Man, Mario at

one point. At the Olympics. But this is what

we're left with, so it's going to be up to the

people to pick who's going to win. Who wins in

these fights? Not just who's favorite character,

who's the more popular character. Who would actually

have the advantage? I think it's some real tough

scenarios that people would have to paint for

us. If you want, go to GeekCastRadio and go to

the webpage and give us your scenario. Try to

convince people to vote one way or the other.

Tell us why Link would beat Mega Man or why Sonic

would beat Ratchet and Clank or vice versa. Play

out the scenario and maybe it'll influence some

more people's votes. Do it do it now and otherwise

we're gonna have to wait and see who comes out

on tops and who is going to actually Face off

against each other in the finale Yep Mike anything

else they need to know about when and where to

vote Voting starts Wednesday Christmas Eve it

will end Tuesday December 30th 9 p .m. Eastern

Standard Time Listen to the podcast then go vote

and comment and whatever else and we will see

you guys in the finals Thank you for listening

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-R -N -W -A -R -Z. So until next time, tune in

and check out GCRNWARS tournament on episode

16, where we cover the other half of Round 1's

fight. So until next time, unleash the geek in

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