Triforce Round 1 --- Lost to (7) Master Hand, 34009 [46.24%] - 39535 [53.76%]
Extrapolated Strength --- 28th Place [14.64%]

Aside from Ridley, Kuja was the single biggest flop of the Spring 2005 Contest. At least in Ridley's case, he lost a debated match in the first round. Kuja however was put into a position where most felt that he would coast through his fourpack before being blasted away by Ganondorf.

He never made it that far, despite several warning signs beforehand that Master Hand might win the match. After Kuja began his match with Master Hand by jumping out to a 400 vote lead, Master Hand slowly worked his way back into the match -- and after a very long, painstaking period in which Master Hand went from being down by 400 to up by 200 and stalling, Kuja absolutely tanked. The afternoon vote went entirely against him, and the match went from being dead even to being ab absolute blowout.

How this happened still remains a mystery, though there are a few reasonable conclusions. During the time of this match, Nintendo was at its highest popularity point since 2002. Kuja also suffers from Albedo syndrome in that you don't see him until after you're well into the game. There are also the matters of FF9 being released at the tail end of the Playstation's life span and there being mixed emotions about the game overall. Some love it, some hate it.

But even through all of this, seeing such a large choke job come from a Final Fantasy character isn't something that most throught they'd ever see. This may have also been a prelude to the dominance that Nintendo would go to show in Summer 2005.

As for ever seeing Kuja again to see if he can make up for this performance, it's very unlikely unless CJayC is bored enough to run a villain contest again. Not only did Kuja tank in this thing, but he finished 28th in the stats. In a field this weak, that's absurd.