Okay, X vs. Cloud. I anticipate a lot of grief over this one.
My vote went to Cloud. Why? There were a number of key factors that went nearly unnoticed by the participants, and mainly because Senesia is a particularly shrewd customer.
Here are the points against X
1) X is incapable of switching armor in mid-fight. Kuja mentioned this, I believe. A good portion of the arguments posed in X's favor either ignored this point entirely or
masked it behind interesting argument structure. The fact is, a lot of the armor-based advantages X was being given by the participants were conflicting, and seemed much more voluminous than we were lead to believe. The fact that he can't switch armor types in mid battle means that he would only have a few of the armor bonuses he would get from that particular suit, inhibiting his overall versatility.
2) Z-Saber or not, X is not a swordsman. He has an extremely limited number of melee capabilities, and he was fighting against a superhuman swordsman. X's advantages are ranged combat and agility. True, he can air-dash all over the place, but he's not particularly fast otherwise, and I know because I've played a number of the Mega Man X games. Plus, shooting in midair, mid-dash and during extreme evasive maneuvers are not strong points of his.
Cloud also has the ability to fly. Yes, it was stated that Cloud needs a breather after:
BlueCube said:
After he's done with his little rampage (about 20 seconds worth) he gets extremely tired - to the point where he completely stops for about 5 seconds or so, leaning on his sword, out of breath. At that point, he's easy as heck for Sora to get a few combos on. I'd say that X would take him out right there, if Cloud were to pull his little flying move.
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No one said he'd be flying for even so much as 20 seconds. Sprinting at full-bore can wear a person out in 20 seconds, but for
five? Not really. Cloud has the advantage of flight, and he doesn't need to go all-out "rampaging" for 20 seconds in order to catch X.
3) X has an extremely limited amount of health and special weapons energy. Sh0e pointed out that X's special weapons are not particularly strong against enemies unless they have a specific weakness to that weapon, and he is most certainly correct. Cloud simply has a lot more health to play around with, Sub Tanks or not.
4) Cloud doesn't technically even need to use his most powerful abilities to win. Sh0e convinced me thoroughly that throws do not activate any kind of shields X may have, and that there are a number of ways around X's defenses.
On a side note, the arguments that Cloud "defeated Emerald Weapon and Ruby Weapon" didn't impress me in th slightest. It was a party effort, and Cloud had Materia to rely upon in those battles.
The arguments that convinced me were that X can't change his armor in mid-fight, which drastically cuts down his overall advantages, the fact that Cloud can fly thereby giving him an exponentially greater amount of maneuverability, X has a very limited amount of health
and a very low threshold for damage, and the fact that X's seemingly impenetrable defenses have loopholes after all.