Video Game Icons Tournament Championship Finale

Dr. Wily 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 the 21st episode of GCRN Wars. This

is the crowning of the champion here in the video

game character iconic tournament. I am one of

your hosts, TFGO Mike, and I was out sick last

week because someone sent me a really, really

evil contaminated macaroni and cheese Christmas

gift. It actually almost looked like a macaroni

and cheese fruitcake for some odd reason. I'm

never accepting packages from Illinois ever again.

You ass. I would apologize if I felt bad or if

I was sorry, but I'm really not. So as everyone

can hear, Solomac is here along with Steve Megatron.

Hello. Goodbye. And we have TV's Mr. Dale. Good

evening. I feel like during this whole episode

we should have like a... The music that plays

at the end of certain video games when you're

about to win or during the credit scene. I feel

that's what I'm hearing in my head right now.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the only funny video game music

I can think of for winning or losing is the Mario

music from the original game. The original Mario

sound effects. Alright, so where are we going

from here, Kev? Well, we are finally at our reveal.

We've gone through all the different rounds,

all the different battles, all the different

scenarios, and all of the different votes. And

we have finally come to the point where we have

to reveal who our ultimate winner is if you are

joining us very late in the party. First of all,

shame on you. Second of all, obviously our finale

matchup saw Mega Man facing off against... Ratchet

and Clank. Mike, you weren't here last week.

No. And we kind of spoke for you because we knew

what you would say, but... No, you didn't. Give

us your thoughts on what the finale ended up

being, how you see it going down. Before we get

the reveal, what are your thoughts on Mega Man

versus Ratchet and Clank? Not that you haven't

made them known on Twitter and Facebook all week

anyway. Hey, what I do on my personal Twitter

is my business, goddammit. Nobody cares. Quiet,

you. It's an interesting battle. I still think

Mega Man's going to pull it out, though, because

he is the superior warrior. I just had a lot

of bad thoughts in my head. That's what Steve

said. This is going to be an interesting night.

So you say Mega Man would win in your scenario,

correct? Yep. All right, so obviously we had

a lot of different thoughts on it, but none of

that matters when it comes down to the crowning

of the champion. All that matters was the people's

votes. So with that, let's turn it over to Steve

to see who wins the video game tournament. First,

Steve, how many votes did Ratchet and Clank get?

This past week? Yeah, for the finale. We're not

revealing a winner yet. I'm just getting the

total votes. How many total votes were there

for Ratchet & Clank? Let me see. There are...

Sorry for the delay. That's all right. It builds

tension. Twelve. Twelve votes for Ratchet & Clank.

Hearing that, Mike, are you worried that Ratchet

& Clank are going to win, or are you still confident

that Mega Man is going to pull it out? Hopefully

Mega Man will pull it out. Again, that's what

she said. And if we're looking at some of the

past rounds, we were right around that 30 vote

mark. So if there was 30 people voting, that

means that Mega Man is going to pull it out.

If we had a lower turnout, maybe he's in trouble.

12 votes for Ratchet and Clank. Steve, how many

votes for Mega Man? 11. What? So a slightly lower

voting turnout for the finale, only 23 voters,

which means that... This entire tournament is

a farce. That's exactly what this means. You're

just pissed because Spyro got bitched out earlier.

No, I'm over that. It's interesting that our

finale sees the closest vote that we've had,

obviously, besides that tie that we had to break.

A one -vote difference in the finale. That means

anybody that's upset, you did not rally the troops

enough, you did not get the word out enough.

So blame yourself for not getting votes for your

side, Mike. We'll start with Mike, since he's

obviously got a lot to say about the whole tournament

now. I just don't see how... anybody could vote

Ratchet and Clank overall winners of this tournament.

There are so many better characters than them.

I mean, hell, I would have been happier if Dig

Dug won this whole goddamn thing. There's nothing

wrong with Ratchet and Clank, first of all. Somebody's

having a prejudice because somebody he liked

didn't win. I think the problem is putting in

duos. That's what I think the problem is. The

duos should have been knocked out in the first

two rounds. Doesn't matter. It's not like we

put a duo in and they swept every round 20 -0

or something like that. I think Ratchet and Clank

are iconic characters. I thought they had a good

shot of winning it. I did think that possibly

when they go up against fan favorites like Sonic,

like Mega Man, or if they had gone up against

a Link or Mario, I thought there was going to

be a chance that they would go down. But maybe

perhaps the best chance to take them down was

Jak and Daxter early on. But it's only a one

-vote span. So it's interesting. I thought they

were one of the favorites going in, so I'm not

completely surprised. Neil, are you as upset

as Mike? No. I've actually got some history to

them. They're iconic. People like them. Yeah,

they're iconic. I'm not thrilled that Mega Man

lost, but I would say that the best character

probably won. Mike, response to that? So Ratchet

and Clank are now one character? Are you kidding?

Well, one of them is a sidekick, isn't it? One

of them is like basically... It's like Batman

and Robin. Yeah. One of them's a decoy. Well,

we're very clear on how Mike feels about it.

Steve, what's your thoughts on how this whole

thing turns out? I'm kind of torn. Because I

like a lot of the characters that have shown

up in the tournament so far. That being said,

I was kind of surprised, again, like I said before,

that it was between Mega Man and Ratchet and

Clank. Right. I was hoping Sonic would make it,

but he didn't. But there was a lot of them that

almost made it this far. The fact that it's one

vote tells me that, one, the troops didn't rally

enough in any direction. Two, people are not

going against the biases at all in this entire

tournament, whether it be ours or the popularity

bias. I like that factor. I like the fact that

it wasn't just a straight favorite character,

most popular character one. I think people, you

could make the argument with Ratchet and Clank

winning that people did take a realistic look

at least at some of the matchups to see how it

would break down. It wasn't just, I'm going to

vote Mario and Sonic all the way to the finals

type of thing. And Ratchet and Clank definitely

had an impressive path with Jak and Daxter, with

Spyro, with Sonic, and with Mega Man taking all

of them down. But yeah, one vote means a whole

lot of things. Number one, it was pretty darn

close. People saw equally the chances for both

people to win, but didn't get the votes out quite

enough to rally the troops to gain support. So

there is something to say about that. Mike, you've

had a chance to calm down a second, I think.

You've had a chance to breathe, to get a little

water maybe. Are you still pissed off? Well,

yeah, because the whole tournament's a farce

now. Well, how does that make the whole tournament

a farce? Because a duo should not have won this.

So if ToeJam and Earl would have won, you would

have said it's all a farce? Well, then it would

have just been a complete joke. I mean, we knew

they weren't going to come past the first round.

So it's not having to do with just being a duo?

No. So it's not a farce? Well, yeah, it is, because

they just shouldn't have won. Mega Man should

have won this. All right, so clearly Mike is

not going to be happy about this. I don't know

about going so far to say the whole tournament's

a farce. I don't think there was a specific battle

where you could say, make a big argument that

the wrong person won. I don't think we had one

of those. I mean, I think obviously some people

would make the argument that Kirby shouldn't

have lost in the round that he lost. Maybe some

people argue that Mario should have beat Yoshi,

but I don't think you have something where it

was just dramatically... did not go the way that

it should have gone. I mean, Steve, if you look

back through the whole tournament, all the different

battles we had, do you see any that would fall

under that category where it's a joke, where

it's a farce, where there's no way that this

person could have won and they did? As much as

I'd like to say on some of them, no. I mean,

I don't see any farces in there whatsoever. I

do see some that were kind of a joke to be included.

You know, like Spyro and Banjo -Kazooie and ToeJam

& Earl. Some more than others. But I think that

it was kind of telling that despite the popularity

and in -your -face -ness of certain Nintendo

or Sega or PlayStation characters... It ended

up being an actual battle of their abilities

instead of just people choosing what they thought

would win. Right, and I think you could make

the argument that Bomberman beating Kirby, I

think that's maybe the most you could point to.

But even if you think Mario should have beat

Yoshi, you can't take exception with that turning

out the other way. Even if you think Link should

beat Mega Man, you can't say it's impossible

for it to go the other way around. Same with

Sonic and Ratchet and Clank, or with Ratchet

and Clank and with Mega Man. I mean, I think

you can see an argument from both sides in all

those different battles. Now, a funny thing about

it is the new Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U.

It actually has Little Mac in it. It actually

has Mega Man in it. It has Pac -Man in it. Nice.

Sonic's in it again. Of course, most of the Nintendo

side and the entire left bracket is there, other

than, like, Conker or Bomberman. Right. And Beautiful

Joe. The rest of them over there are all on the

game. So what you're saying is that a couple

years back or a year back or whatever, when we

originally posted this graphic, that somehow

it was leaked. to the developers of Smash Brothers,

and they stole our idea. It very well is possible.

Okay, maybe stretching things a bit. I like the

theory that they stole from me yet again. Neil,

any other thoughts on the tournament as a whole?

How do you think, you know, was it something

that was worth it? Was it fun? Did it turn out

to be somewhat legit? Do you think people just

voted for their favorites or didn't really look

at it as a match -up, match -up thing? I think

the final bracket shows that they weren't just

picking favorites because the two powerhouses

on both sides basically got to the end. Right.

I would say that maybe two or three characters,

I would have plucked them out and put different

ones in. The two most... The controversial ones

was the fact that Frogger and Hubert were in

here at all. I would have taken them out and

maybe put in Ristar and maybe the Harlequin from

Knights. Right. Those are the only two swaps

that I would do. Everything else looked pretty

good as far as I was concerned. And for those

of you that are kind of hoping that you would

have got a different type of character, maybe

some of the Master Chief or someone from Mortal

Kombat or Street Fighter or some of those more

mature actual fighting type of characters, don't

be too upset. That could be a tournament that

could come down the line as we decide which tournaments

come next. That's definitely one of the options.

So you might be able to see that eventually.

But you'll have to stay tuned to figure out how

you can impact that and to just stay tuned with

what Mike's going to put out there on Facebook

and Twitter to give you guys news when we have

it as far as future Wars episodes and future

Wars tournaments. But the best thing you guys

can do is to give us feedback on the episode

post through Facebook, through Twitter. Let us

know what you thought of this tournament. Let

us know what you want in future tournaments,

what you liked, what you didn't like. That's

the best way to have an impact immediately on

what we do. But, for those of you that haven't

quite got enough of the video game tournament,

we do have one special surprise for you, Steve.

What do we have as, I guess what we could call

as a little bonus for them? Here comes the new

challenger. No. The princess is in another castle.

It's almost like Super Smash Brothers. You play

it and it says... Another challenger has entered

the battle. We will be having a bonus round between,

and this is the special graphic will be up there

as well as the voting, just for the fun. There

won't be a follow -up podcast for it. Between

Link and Sonic. So our third place battle will

take place. We'll give you guys the opportunity

to crown who would have won third place in this

kind of consolation bracket championship, if

you will, between Link and Sonic. So if you aren't

happy with the turnout or if you're wanting to

get a little bit more and wanting to participate

a little bit more, you have one more battle that

you can help decide. Mike, who wins between Link

and Sonic? I think that'll come down to a tie.

Mike's predicting a tie because he is angry.

No, I'm not. I'm looking at... Shut the hell

up. I'm looking at Link and Sonic in a battle.

Yeah, Sonic has the speed, Sonic has the spin

dash, but Link has the sword, the boomerang,

the arrows, all that stuff. And I think it's

going to come down to whether or not Link can

tire Sonic out. Neil, this goes to a scenario

that you had painted for us earlier. Yeah, if

I had known you were going to do this, I wouldn't

have given my prediction last week. My prediction

was that Sonic's biggest weakness is sharp things,

and what he's going to do is he's going to spin

dash right into Link's sword, and we're going

to have hedgehog shish kebab, and his final words

are going to be, did I do that? Steve, a favorite

between Link and Sonic? I'm going Sonic, but

that's because, one, I like Sonic better. I enjoy

his games better. And the other thing is, he

could just run massive circles around Link to

the point that he could possibly cause a tornado

of air and suck the air out of the area and kill

him. True. I do like Neil's scenario, though.

I like it being that epic fight, almost like

an Indiana Jones thing, where you're twirling

knives and this, that, and the other, and then

you just pull out a gun and shoot him. That would

be hilarious, actually. Doing all this different

stuff, and then Sonic just runs at him, and Link

just tips the sword the right way. And Sonic

doesn't have enough coins to protect him. However

you guys feel, you do have one more chance to

impact a matchup, because we are crowning a third

-place winner, or a consolation champion. this

time around. So a special bonus round for you

guys to let your voice be heard one last time.

Mike, anything else? No, I think that's it. So

like I said, stay tuned with Mike's updates on

Facebook and Twitter, because as soon as we have

news about what will be coming up next for Wars,

or what the next tournament will be, or if you

can have any say in it, like we did last time,

you have to just keep up to date with Facebook

and Twitter, and we will feed you the information.

like we always like to do. They'll feed it to

you. That's right. So stay tuned, and if you

want, always go to iTunes, leave us a review,

because we do like those iTunes reviews and feedback

so that we can get more ratings on there. The

funny thing is, I think I brought this up a while

ago, we do have one review on iTunes for this

podcast. We need more, so give us more. or go

to the episode post and, like I said, give us

your feedback on what you like, what you didn't

like, so you can impact the next tournament.

But it's been fun. It's been a bigger tournament.

It's been more controversial. It's pissed more

people off. Yeah, that's about right. To me,

that means it's a success. Anytime somebody's

pissed off, you know it's working. And that's

what Wars is all about. So, Neil, how can people

stay in touch with you in the world of Twitter?

Twitter, I'm Neil Sama on Twitter. Mike, what's

your Twitter? TF2 on Mike. So everybody tell

Mike how wrong he is. Steve, what's your Twitter?

At SCP21. And mine is at Optimus Solo. Otherwise,

the network is at Geekcast Radio. That's all

it is, right? Yep. Yes. Excellent. So follow

all of us and keep up to date. And until the

next wars, we will see you next time.