I expect Kratos and Alucard will pull off a win here. Why? Tales of Symphonia 2 is coming out a few months and that will likely boost Kratos enough to win and advance to Round 2. I also had Alucard winning due to the fact a new Castlevania game just recently came out. Diddy IMO, probably won't impress much in the match and wound up being just like DK, a low-mid carder at best. Captain Falcon is only famous for his "FALCON PUNCH!" I don't think that will give him enough votes to move on. Overall, Kratos and Alucard.

Pikachu is the most Improved character in last year's contest and Radiant Dawn and Smash Bros Brawl will likely give Ike enough to advance. Spy could possibly be the "Tanner" of this contest and PC game characters are very unpopular at Gamefaqs. Easy one.

DK has lost his popularity over the years and Tidus and Tails aren't very popular characters from their series and Cube could possibly be the next L-Block. I had Tails and Tidus advancing due to Tails is coming off of Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood which was only out a few days ago and Tidus winning due to FF fanboys likely voting to have all of their FF characters advancing.

Mega Man is a Noble Nine member. Noble Niner's always advance from the first round and Devil May Cry 4 is popular enough I see for Nero to advance to Round 2. Platformer characters like Banjo never do well in these contets unless your name is Kirby, Mario or Sonic. Olimar doesn't have enough popularity for him I see to advance.

I had Ryu and Zero advancing due to Mega Man 9 just coming out and will likely boost Zero moving on and Superstar Ultra just also came out and I see that will also be enough to have King DDD moving on. Ryu hasn't appeared in a game in awhile and Pit put on a dissapointing contest last year. I don't see Pit doing anything better here.

If you a Noble Nine member like Snake, you are always a lock to move on from the 1st Round and the FF fanboys will also help Vivi also advance I see. Blah, blah, blah....

Sora is a very solid mid-carder and comes from a RPG game series. Usually, almost if not most RPG characters do well in these contests. While Star Fox hasn't had a game came out since Command, I think Smash Bros will help Fox advance to the next round. The RE series hasn't had a recent game from the series since RE4 which was over 4 years ago and Tim...well...yeah.

CATS is your typical character that is only in the contest only for comedy purposes. He never wins. Yoshi and Squall are above-average mid-carders that do well in these contests. I see these two without a doubt making to the Round 2 knocking out of the other two losers out of the dust.

Noble Nine Member = Lock Past Round 1. Also, if you are from the LOZ series and you debuted from the best Zelda game to date, you will also have a lock to move on to the next round. So, Cloud and Midna.

Pac-Man is like DK, popular back then but, is slowly losing popularity by today's standards so I don't see him to adavnce. Mewtwo put on a dissapointing contest last year and with Mewtwo don't included in Brawl I see that hurts his chances to advance. Travis may turn out to be a decent mid-carder here since he came from a highly acclaimed game for the Wii and Smash Bros Brawl will be there to help Ness to move on.