Fall 2010: Game of the Decade

10 years. 128 games. 2 ways to play.

The users of GameFAQs have nominated 128 of the best video games of the 00s and it's time to let them battle it out. Starting October 20th, the 128-game-winner-take-all tournament will begin. Using the Poll of the Day to decide, the most popular game will be crowned Game of the Decade.

For each poll, two games will battle it out, and the winner will move on. With 127 battles to run, there will be two battles per day - one from 9:00PM to 9:00AM Pacific Time, the second from 9:00AM to 9:00PM, with only the final two rounds being full 24-hour votes.

Your mission is simple: Choose which game will survive each battle. Fill out your best guess at how each battle will turn out, and win a prize. Don't forget: This is not a contest to see which game is your favorite, or even which one is critically the best. It's all a big popularity contest, and visitors who have never visited GameFAQs before will be sure to stop in and vote.

This year, there are two challenges, and you can enter both at once: the traditional bracket challenge and the all-new battle challenge.

The brackets have been seeded based on two sources: The top 104 games were seeded based solely on the number of nominations received. The final 24 were voted in by users on the Poll of the Day. Bear in mind that nominations do not always mean vote popularity, so take that into account when filling out your bracket.

Remember: This is a popularity contest, and nothing more. While we do make every effort to stop individuals from voting numerous times without restricting anyone from voting that wants to legitimately, outside forces can and will attempt to push the vote for their favorite. As in the past, we reserve the right intervene in the daily tally when there is a clear evidence of mass voting fraud, and we will also take action against any users (especially contest entrants) who attempt to vote multiple times. Take all of the above into the account when filling out your picks!

Bracket Challenge

This is the traditional contest: For each of the 127 battles, pick the game that will move on from each day's poll by getting the most votes. For the first round of 64 polls, picking each the correct game will score one point. For each successive round, picking the winners will earn double the points of the round before (Round 2: 2 points, Round 3: 4 points, Division Final: 8 points, Quarter-Finals: 16 points, Semi-final: 32 points, Final: 64 points). The sum of all points earned is your final score.

A valid GameFAQs account is required to enter the challenge, and in order to be eligible for the prizes, you must provide your real name and address. Once you fill out your bracket initially, you can make as many changes as you like, but you can only enter for prizes once per household or Internet connection, so if you share board accounts with others, make sure only one of you enters a prizes-eligible bracket in each challenge. Due to legal restrictions, only residents of the US and Canada may enter the contest for prizes, but anyone with an account may enter a bracket (or more than one) for fun and bragging rights. You may enter as many times with a "Fun Entry" as you like, but only one "Contest Entry" per challenge will be permitted.

Battle Challenge

New for this contest: For each of the 127 battles, you have up until each battle begins to pick a winner. Each correct pick gets you 100 points, and each successive correct pick increases a bonus multiplier by one (1st correct: 100 points, 2nd correct: 200 points, 3rd correct: 300 points...). But, those points you earn are at risk until you skip a battle and "bank" them, which also resets the bonus multiplier. Pick incorrectly, and you lose all of the points you haven't yet banked. The longer your streak, the more points you can earn, but you could lose it all on a bad pick. For example:

Battle	Pick	At Risk	Banked
1	Correct: 100 points	100	0
2	Correct: 200 points	300	0
3	Correct: 300 points	600	0
4	No pick: Bank	0	600
5	Correct: 100 points	100	600
6	Correct: 200 points	300	600
7	Incorrect	0	600
8	Correct: 100 points	100	600
9	Correct: 200 points	300	600
10	No pick: Bank	0	900

A valid GameFAQs account is required to enter the challenge, and in order to be eligible for the prizes, you must provide your real name and address. Once you fill out the contest entry form initially, you'll need to come back and make your picks for each battle as the tournament progresses. Remenber, you can only enter for prizes once per household or Internet connection, so if you share board accounts with others, make sure only one of you enters a prizes-eligible entry in each challenge. Due to legal restrictions, only residents of the US and Canada may enter the contest for prizes, but anyone with an account may enter the challenge for fun and bragging rights. You may enter as many times with a "Fun Entry" as you like, but only one "Contest Entry" per challenge will be permitted.

Contest Prizes

Each contest has its own set of identical prizes:

• Grand Prize: A PlayStation 3 Move Bundle, an Xbox 360 Kinect Bundle, a Black Wii Bundle, or 10 games of your choice
• Second Prize: A PSP Bundle, a DS XL Bundle, or 4 games of your choice
• Third Prize: Three games of your choice
• Fourth Prize: Two games of your choice
• Fifth-Eighth Prize: One game of your choice

Karma Bonus

For users outside of the United States and Canada or who are otherwise not eligible to enter the official contest, you can now enter your bracket or battle picks as a "Karma Entry". This is an unofficial bonus challenge with no monetary prizes awarded. Only one entry is allowed per household or Internet connection, and you may not enter both the Contest Entry and a Karma Entry on separate accounts (if you do, the Contest Entry will be accepted, but the Karma Entry will be treated as a Fun Entry, not eligible for any reward). For the Karma Entries, the prizes will be additional Karma added to the message board account associated with your entry account.

• Grand Prize: 200 Karma + a private message board
• Second Prize: 100 Karma + a private message board
• Third Prize: 75 Karma
• Fourth Prize: 50 Karma
• Fifth-Eighth Prize: 25 Karma

In addition, every entry (Contest, Karma, or Fun) that beat SBAllen's score in each contest earned 10 Karma (1903 in the bracket contest, 975 in the battle contest)