User blog comment:DoomFest/~The Great Thumbnail Contest - Season 2 ~/@comment-4363364-20160506221011/@comment-26561766-20160509091647

The one from Sniper's you think is nearly perfect has just a little lack of framing, but I seriously hesitated between this one and the one I chose.

When I'm talking about the quality of the Link's pic in GBA's thumbnail, I mainly talking about the many white points, aside this, the pic has a correct quality and fit perfectly with the drawing style of Sora's (like you said, it's more a matter of drawing style and not quality here for Sora's pic).

And for your thumbnail, I thought of this vibe you describe when I see it, but I just forgot to put it too in the critic. You get the first place because the two pics fit each other really well and all the criterias for a good thumbnail are here (which isn't the case for the two others thumbnails you've done in my opinion, even if they're pretty good too).