I think it probably wouldn't come to that...maybe.
Whichever one people think is the best I think it would most likely come out of the few that people just in generally accept as top teir. Final Fantasy's 5-7, Suikoden 2, The Baldur's Gate Series, Dragon Age: Origins, maybe the Witcher 2(wouldn't top my list but I can see where the argument could be made), Fallout 3, KOTOR, and a few others.
In my experience the more, shall we say, "inflamed" conversations about RPG's typically spark up from conversations about more controversial ones, which some gamers think are great and other think suck ballz. Like Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2, Final Fantasy 10-13, Fable 2-3, Diablo 3, stuff like that.