Hope vs. Despair V.6

Smugdere said:
(Duplicate thread of the one made by user @Deago here)

Hello there and thank you for coming here. I thought we should try something different besides sadist vs. masochist, you know? Since the number of sadists are far greater there.

In this case, I wish to see which side would prevail in a battle between the optimist and the pessimist, or Hopes and Despairs as we will call it here. You may choose which side you like.

We will start the game at 500
The Hopes will count up to 1000
While the Despairs will count down to 0

Let's begin.

Score's currently 8 - 6