Bottom 1024 — Week 10 — Poll 1

[This Old Neon]

Welcome to the #BGE2020 Elimination Round Lower Bracket!

Each game in the lower bracket is still seeded based on its performance in the two opening rounds of pools! Every game in the lower bracket has already been defeated by another game in a 1-on-1 poll to get to this point. This is their chance to claw their way back into the main event... but the stakes are high. The games that lose in these polls are out of the tournament for good! The games that survive will face the next crop of upper bracket losers in the next round.

Polls are updated weekly, typically on Saturday... or Sunday or Monday. Check back throughout the week to make sure you don't miss a vote!

HOW TO VOTE

This is easy. You only get one vote per poll. The game with the most votes wins. In the event of a tie, the higher seed advances.

[Kong Wen]

Coming after 2 RPGs in VII and VIII, RTK IX was a fantastic return to the top-down grand strategy gameplay for the first time in the series' PS2 entries. X did the RPG thing again, and then XI was the final entry on PS2 and it did strategy in a very different way. IX reminds me a lot of IV in that it's quite different from other entries in the series in very interesting ways. Mainly, having all the battles take place directly on the IMMENSE world map for the first time, and being able to zoom out and manage battles on several different fronts while you're also developing your interior and engaging in diplomacy—super neat. Have to wonder if your messenger will get to your ally's city in time to muster troops before your enemy gets here, etc. Love it.