This is it. After launching this tournament waaay back in April, we are finally drawing it to a close. Today marks the start of the Finals, after the semi-finals concluded yesterday. But before we get into that, let’s go over the results.

First, we have a had surprise outcome in the Shattered Horizon vs. Torchlight tournament match up. Honestly, I was expecting Torchlight to handily defeat Shattered Horizon and, in fact, for the first half of the week it was. However, slowly, but surely, the Shattered Horizon community just kept pushing forward, making strides, and eventually eking out a victory over Torchlight. The end result was 51.74% to 48.26%. Great effort by both communities involved.

Next, we had Dwarf Fortress vs. Spelunky. Arguably two of the indiest of indie games to get released. The match up started off well enough, with both games trading places quite frequently. However, it seems like the Spelunky community just didn’t have the gears to keep the momentum going and Dwarf Fortress pulled ahead by a healthy margin. The end result was 61.62% for Dwarf Fortress to 38.38% for Spelunky. Great effort by both games, truly.

And so here we are. We’ve got our trophy, we’ve got our two finalist competitors, and now we’ve got our final. There’s nothing more I can say about these games that you don’t already know at this point. Both are fantastic in their own right, and both truly sought to do something amazing with their game.

Two things before I get to the tournament:

1. You’ll notice this is a BLIND tournament. We’ve done this to generally ensure that everything is fun and fair. This is the final, after all, and we want to make sure there are no more controversies like in the past. Don’t worry, though, as soon as the tournament concludes, we’ll simply flip the switch and you can see the exact percentage and total votes cast in the Final.

2. The Final match-up is running from today until Wednesday the 14th. Unfortunately I have scheduling conflicts for the latter part of next week, so this contest will be a day shorter, but it should still be fun regardless.

Here is your Final Match Up:

UPDATE! Wow… I am so sorry for the delay in announcing the winner. It just so happened my internet crapped out on me the day before the announcement and then I had a vacation planned for the day after and, up until this point, I did not have any access to the internet at all. It’s been crazy, hectic, and above all else, infuriating. Especially since non of the other writers have access to the polling account. So, I’m terribly sorry for any inconveniences this caused. This is our first year running the tournament and mistakes were bound to happen. The winners should be available to see now.