Today, we're proud to announce Push Square's Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament. Hurrah!
This is something that we've wanted to do for a long, long time, and now we're finally putting our plans in motion. Without further ado, let's just take a minute to explain what this tournament is all about.
Those of you who have been readers of Push Square for a long time may remember our Who Would Win Wednesday series. Every Wednesday, we would put out an article in which two PlayStation characters would face off in a popularity contest. The winner would be decided by community vote through a poll. It was a fun idea and it was well-received, but we sadly had to end the series due to time constraints.
The Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament, or UPCT, will take the Who Would Win Wednesdays format and apply it to an entire tournament. On a weekly basis, we'll be asking you to vote for your favourite PlayStation characters as they go head-to-head. Eventually, only one winner will be left standing.
The Rules
- The Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament will feature 128 participants. These participants have been decided by the Push Square editorial team. (We've tried to keep things varied and fair.)
- The Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament is a single elimination tournament. That means if a character is beaten, they're out. Gone. Done. Finished. The winner moves onto the next round.
- The Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament features a randomised bracket. This essentially means that we put all of the participants into a pot and pulled them out at random.
- Push Square will publish one Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament article per week (every Wednesday). Each article will feature at least one poll which the community can vote on. Voting will remain open until the following Wednesday.
What You Need to Do
If you want to have an impact on how the Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament plays out, all you need to do is make sure that you have a Push Square account and turn up every Wednesday to cast your vote(s).
The Tournament Bracket
We've created the Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament using Challonge.
We've included the full tournament bracket below. Every Wednesday, we'll make our way down the bracket. Once the first round is over, we'll be moving through the next, and so on.
In the interests of time, each Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament article will feature more than one poll -- at least until we reach the later rounds of the tournament. If we did just one match per week, the tournament would take over two years to complete!
(You can click the images to enlarge them.)
When Is the First Match?
The first Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament article will be published next week, on Wednesday the 25th October. A new article will be published every following Wednesday until we have a champion.
We hope that you're looking forward to our Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament as much as we are. Feel free to predict the eventual winner in the comments section below, and we'll hopefully see you next week.
Comments 87
If anyone has any questions about how this is gonna go down or how the tournament works, just let me know.
And yes, all of the matches were decided by random. Even Solid Snake vs. Big Boss!
Wouldn't Ratchet & Clank be two characters technically?
@lacerz Technically yes, but we had to squeeze it down to 128, so Ratchet and Clank as well as Jak and Daxter are grouped up.
Crikey. Dante vs Ezio. A big player set to fall at the first hurdle!
Ooooh I really like the sound of this. I wasn't here for your "Who Would Win Wednesday" thing but I'll definitely be sticking around/creating multiple accounts til Crash Bandicoot wins for this one!
@roe Honestly, I don't think Crash needs much help to go far here!
Ethan Mars FTW! "JASON!"
@ShogunRok what a tease!!! I came here to vote haha
Ahhhh Intresting choices there.
I wanna see who will win Lady Maria or Cloud Strife 95% they will pass in the next round.
I can already tell some of these will be tough picks.
@ShogunRok I dunno, I'm pretty sure the inevitable last 16 matchup between Crash Bandicoot and Ellie is the plot for The Last of Us: Part Two..
Big first round matchup between John Marston and Nathan Drake. Drake is like the face of playstation so hard to not see him winning but Marston is a well-developed, more subtle character that I love as well!
I want them all to win.
Would it be possible to add the names of the games/franchises? I assume this will be detailed in every article though.
And is it one vote every week? That means this will last for 127 weeks, late 2019...
@BLP_Software Specifically PlayStation-owned characters? I love my exclusives but that would be a pretty limited tournament.
Looking good. I see some of my choices in there, which of course you could never have thought of without my help, so you're very welcome for that. 2B ftw!
This will be fun, at first I couldn't figure out why I couldn't vote and then I realized it was just the brackets and the event didn't start till next week.
@Octane Yeah, the articles will have more detailed info on each character, specifically what games they've appeared in.
As for the 127 week thing: "In the interests of time, each Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament article will feature more than one poll — at least until we reach the later rounds of the tournament. If we did just one match per week, the tournament would take over two years to complete!"
The plan is that we do four matches a week until the third or fourth round, then two matches until top 8. It'll still take months, but it's either that or have a much more limited pool of characters.
Already made my bracket predictions excel document.. /nerding
@roe I... I may have done the same.
@Lonejester John Marston gets my vote. Nathan Drake is kind of cheesy and nowhere near as hardcore as John, and plus he's basically a mass murderer. (I know John can be a mass murderer if you choose to play Red Dead that way, but still)
@BLP_Software I read em no problem on my iPhone, pinch too zoom, pinch to zoom.
Edit: Actually it's pinch to zoom out. What's the reverse of a pinch? Unpinch? Depinch? Repinch?
We'll know the tourney is rigged if the avatar from Journey wins it all
This should be fun! I never take these seriously as you always end up with a match between two characters that have no right going up against each other, so the winner doesn't really mean much at that point. Like Sonic vs Luke Cage or something.
Can't wait for this to start!
I think you should be doing one bracket every 24 hours to generate interest.
@kyleforrester87 On an iPhone, to zoom out just spin counterclockwise as fast you can while chanting out the names of every Lovecraft old one you can think of. Always works for me!
I swear this makes me think of PlayStation All Stars xD
Prob Cus I can see tournaments n such for a remake/sequel...
Dante Vs Ezio
1 question: which Dante original or DmC?
There are some great first round matchups! Should be fun .
@Wesker yeah I'd agree that a daily matchup would be better than a few per week because it'd still last a long time but would keep the interest going every day. Appreciate it'd be more work for the staff here to keep the articles/polls going etc, but I'd be happy to help out if required?
Also I don't know what the daily traffic is like here though or how the vote count would compare daily to weekly
@BLP_Software tsch android scrub, you should know I judge people solely on the phone they carry
@glassmusic which way is counterclockwise again?
Where the heck is Tifa Lockhart?!
Guess I'll throw in behind Solid Snake.
Some of my stand outs from round 1:
Victor Sullivan v Cole Phelps - I'm expecting Sully to infamously smoke out Cole here but it's an exciting matchup
Croc v Cloud - Can Croc ka-splat his way to a shock first round victory? Unlikely, but just remember how adorable he was!
John Marston v Nathan Drake - DAMN! This is a straight up duel and I've got a sneaky feeling that Nate is getting dead-eyed straight into the loser's saloon.
and no doubt the biggest draw of all here..
Big Boss v Solid Snake!
The Push Square equivalent of them rigging the FA Cup draw so we get Liverpool v Man U in one of the early rounds.
@roe Drake ain't bad, but he's a bit of a try hard compared to Marston, who's just effortlessly cooler.
As for Snake versus Big Boss it's Snake all the way. He's a chain smoking engineered flirt, his Dads just a bit of a sappy moaner.
Aurons looking at that list from atop Zanarkand wondering what in Yevons name went wrong.
Must have been beaten by Clementine/Big Boss/Kiryu in the last 256, its the only explanation.
@BLP_Software Open the pic in a new tab, then you can zoom in.
Agent 47 vs Garrus Vakarian. That'll be one he'll of a snipe off. I'm voting for Garrus to peel that bald cap back.
@ShogunRok Whoops, that's what you get for not reading the first paragraph and skipping right to the tournament brackets...
Yeah, how the Universe can randomize Big Boss and Solid Snake to go head-to-head in round one is beyond explanation.
Perhaps in a way it is good to filter down some of the characters from the same series early on so the final rounds aren’t heavy on one particular game or series. But still, that’s crazy!
@DLB3 Oh and poor Knack will likely not even make it past Squall. 😂 And if he does, there’s no way he takes down Geralt in the next round. Prepare for another Knack eulogy.
@ShogunRok what, no Batman?? Surely the Arkham games count.
@roe Yeah. They're never going to keep interest going throughout such a long slog. Should have consulted @themcnoisy
None of my suggestions made the list
Bit surprised that GlaDOS at least didn't make it.
There go my dreams of Sly lasting a single round
Aloy vs Ratchet & Clank on the first round? Are you serious?
Come on....
@Neolit haha! Yes, but RNG loot boxes. Who knows how many votes you will get.
@Wesker @roe Nah, 24 hours wouldn't work — we need as many votes as possible, and each new article would eat into the last. A week gives us plenty of time to keep things ticking along and gives people a large window of opportunity to vote.
@GlynCR I think it has to be original Dante, purely due to popularity.
@b1ackjack_ps It's a popularity contest, basically. Ultimately I think most people are going to vote for their favourite character in general, regardless of fighting skill, strength, etc.
@Th3solution Yeah we couldn't believe it when we first saw the bracket. Was worried people would think we've rigged it.
@Mega-Gazz This is something we mulled over for a while, but if we include characters like Batman, we questioned where we'd draw the line. Would we extend out to Marvel characters? Anime characters? It starts becoming more about geek culture rather than PlayStation, if that makes sense.
@ShogunRok that's cool, I'm happy enough with one set of votes a week anyway. It gives us a bit more time to appreciate each character and their franchise as well because you guys have done a good job of keeping the line up balanced with so many different game series included.
@roe Worth reiterating that we'll have more than one poll per article for a long time to begin with. We're looking at four matches per week until we get to the third or fourth round, then we'll be concentrating more on individual matches.
Omg tbis sounds like a blast , but there gonna be alot of hurt feelings lmao , cant wait !
Awesome idea, can't wait until it gets rolling. Glad to see Kanji Tatsumi, but no Joker? That guy exudes coolness. Oh well.
@ShogunRok I was gonna say Ezio wipes the floor with DmC Dante, at least it's a fight to actually think about with the OG varient
So many names that I don't recognise.
@crimsontadpoles Yeah, I’m actually excited to read the articles too and be introduced to all these awesome, revered characters who I don’t know about.
@Salt_AU There's a fair chance we get a Joel v Ellie final in this imo
Kratos, cloud, crash and aloy (or perhaps Nathan) in the quarter finals....calling it now
@zimbogamer Solid prediction. I’m guessing the final four of ...
Geralt, Crash, Aloy, and ... man, the second bracket is tough to predict .... I think I’ll wager Joel, but 2B is a dark horse there.
No Sophie Neuenmuller? Come On!!! It is cool to see Rean Schwarzer in it though. Will be voting for him!!!!
I loved Who'd win Wednesday! It's nice that you guys included non PlayStation characters! Go Bayonetta!
@Shogunrok Shame Hana from Fear Effect didn't make the bracket but glad you included Lady Maria and Suzuki though.
When I saw Heihachi against Akuma and Big Boss against Solid Snake I was like "are you sure this isn't rigged"? Though it's appropriate that Clementine is up against an undead character
@adf86 Yeah, Akuma vs. Heihachi is a canon fight!
There's nothing "Ultimate" or fair about a tourney with randomized seeding, but it should still be fun nevertheless.
This is going to be really fun! Some of the match ups are going to be tough, though. Drake vs Marston is an excellent duel, for example.
Looking forward to getting started
Awww it is ONNNN
I hereby proclaim it my new goal in life to organise a movement to help Croc beat Cloud Strife in this tournament.
@johncalmc I'm in.
and the winner is..
@roe Your new avatar and that gif have convinced me, great work.
Ooh this is cool, looking forward to it!!
Where possible, could we have this enacted with action figures just so we can get the jist of what went on.
@Shellcore I'll definitely be looking into it.
@PK_Wonder You really think people wouldn't complain if we had somehow found a way to seed all 128 characters? That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
I will vote for Trico, Toro Inoue and Kat every chance I get.
@ShogunRok Witch Raiden is referring too, Mortal Kombat or Metal Gear Rising?
@ShogunRok I must say, this is AMAZING and totally fun. I can't wait!
I think @PK_Wonder does have a point, as some of these match-ups are brutal for a round one. Eliminating these big names like either Drake or JM in the first round does tend to suck the wind out of the sails. You wouldn't have to seed the list, but take into account these type of big name match-ups so early. The drama doesn't get a chance to build up.
no one from snk!
@HungryWolf Metal Gear.
@starhops Yeah, should be fun! We (me and Sammy) are looking forward to see how it turns out.
Nice, fun idea. Should be interesting.
We could have Parappa vs Trico in the second round and maybe Amaterasu vs the winner in the round after that. There's potential for some epic canine clashes here.
@ShogunRok People would absolutely complain, BUT it would be best to have made sure the (potential, projected) top 16 (no way to know for sure who they would have been) were as far away from each other as possible starting out. I wasn't suggesting you can or should account for all 128 characters, just the super heavyweights. Say Nathan Drake and Kratos would be top 2 under normal circumstances, they should be on opposite sides starting out no matter what. Everyone but Sly, R&C, Joel, Ellie, Sackboy, etc. can still be randomized. Otherwise you could in theory end up with a very obvious winner in an anticlimactic and lopsided grand finals. Something it's not to late to do to fix this issue would be making this a double elimination tourney. Would take a lot more time, but it would results in a better ranking as opposed to a 64-way tie for last place.
Either way I'm going to participate and think this will be fun. It's in general a good idea, I just would like to see a more accurate approach if we're going to say this is for the DEFINITIVE PlayStation characters.
An open draw is fine for this imo. At the moment you could be looking at a semi final lineup something like this:
Aloy v Joel
Ellie v Knack
And if Knack ends up beating those as well as whoever he's smashed his way through to get that far, then fair play to him and we'll get Sammy on the phone to Mark Cerny to make sure Knack 3 gets the green light.
All this is hypothetical of course, seeing as we all know Croc is winning this thing. #VoteCroc #LegendofthePSUPCT
This is awesome! Ashamed to admit that I haven't been reading much game news recently. Happy I stopped by!
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