More about Cortez...
Games: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Sports Hall Record: 5-3, Round Three Qualifier (6), Rank 50
W: Yaridovich (5-1), Hooktail & Pokey (6-1), Lava Piranha (6-1), Bowser Bones (6-1)
L: Super Blooper (5-1), Waluigi (5-2), Shadow Mario (6-3)
 
Once upon a time Cortez was a feared pirate sailing the high seas and pillaging as he went, with a fiercely loyal crew at his command.  Then one day he was still a feared and powerful pirate only then he was dead.  But let's face it, in the Mushroom Kingdom death is often little more than an inconvenience.  In Cortez's case it essentially made him invincible because you can't generally die when you're already dead, and since he wasn't exactly law-abiding to be begin with, this was a really dangerous combination.  So basically he did as he pleased until one day he was tricked and the Skull Gem that powered his ship was stolen.  Then he was in a fix, stuck as he was in Pirate's Grotto and unable to leave this mortal coil.  As for why he didn't just build a new ship, well, his crew after dieing as well came back as fire spirits so they just burnt up all the wooden planks they touched.  And Cortez seems to have swords and hooks for hands so that wasn't helping him to construct a boat either.  So that left Cortez without much to do except try to scare whatever few passersby appeared.

Until the day Mario sailed to Pirate's Groto, looking for one of the Crystal Stars.  He battled Cortez and appeared to have won, except Cortez can't die and was ready to fight again.  But when Cortez found out Mario was looking for only one piece of his treasure, he couldn't be bothered to fight again and let Mario have it.  This could have been the end of Cortez's relevance except that when Mario and his crew needed a boat to fend off Lord Crump, Flavio offered the Skull Gem that his ancestor had stolen, and Cortez grudgingly offered his services in exchange.  After driving off Lord Crump, Cortez chose to continue ferrying Mario around, and after the adventure was over he was seen carrying Mario's old partner, Bobbery.  But I think the day will come when Cortez tires of this and we'll see him terrorizing the seas once more.  Oh well, who doesn't love a pirate, eh?

Cortez should be more than a match for just about anyone in the Sports Hall.  He's huge, can attack with a whole bunch of weapons at once, oh, and there's the part where he can't die.  But I guess he has this kind of honor or something that leads him to allow himself to be defeated.  In Season Six he speared himself a few victories and reached Round Three, but was defeated by Shadow Mario.  Weighing anchor once more for the Season Ten Tournament, his honor code presented no problem as he turned Piranha Plant to salad in the first round.  Then the tide of battle flowed in his favor as he was able to wash out Shadow Mario in the second round to settle an old score.  Cortez has overachieved by defeating two higher ranked opponents, but he may get a break in the third round as he will be matched up against either Bob-omb or Robo-Chomp.

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