Best Year in Gaming: The Second Round (and Sweet 16) Begins

Welcome back to our Best Year in Gaming March Madness bracket competition! On Friday we wrapped up the first round of our competition and now it's time to speed things up as we move into the second round. Today we're moving back to the Northeast Conference, kicking off our Sweet 16.



Last time we looked at 2019 vs. 2005 and as compelling a case as 2005 could put up with Resident Evil 4, ultimately a year which gave us Shadow the Hedgehog couldn't get there.

Result: 2019 Wins

Today we have not one but two matchups in our sweet 16: First up, our 2-seed competitor, 2004, is squaring off against 1985, fresh off its win over 2013.

VS.

2004 is a dominant force in this tournament, sporting half a dozen of the most important games of all time, including World of Warcraft, The Sims 2, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, GTA: San Andreas, and Warhammer 40k's fourth edition. On the other side, 1985 is a formative year for games with the launch of the NES and Tetris. Going to be a tough matchup.

VS.

Our other matchup pits 1999 against 2003. 1999 is one of the strongest years in our competition, a year featuring the launch of the Dreamcast and one of the strongest years for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. In the other corner, 2003 gives us WarCraft III, the Eye of Terror Campaign, DnD 3.5, and Call of Duty. This may be one of the toughest matchups in our competition and I expect voting to be close here. This article is part of a larger series on the best year in gaming. For more years, click this link. Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.