International Saimoe League 2012
 

Did you have a nice break? Yes? Well, the International Saimoe League is finally back in 2012 for its fifth year! Nominations will start January 1, 2012 and will last for one week. There will be some significant changes to ISML this year that will be clarified later on in the post. In the mean time, here are some nice questions to think about:

• Which characters from the Top 16 in 2011 will make Top 16 in 2012?
• Which characters in 2011 won't be back in ISML Regular Season?
• Which Stella characters will go up or down in rankings?
• Which Nova characters shows promise in ISML 2012?
• Which character do you want to win the tiara this year?

Nova and Stella
-Characters will be placed into either of two divisions, Nova or Stella.
-Nova Division consists of new characters within the last two years, plus some exceptions.
-Stella Division consists mostly of characters in anime aired more than two years ago.
-Starting with the Preliminary Phase, characters are placed into Nova or Stella.

Nomination Phase
-There will be 12 nomination slots, unchanged from ISML 2011.
-You have to nominate at least 5 characters from 3 different series.
-Slots are unweighted, so all of your nominees receive 1 vote each.
-There is no restriction on how many Nova or Stella characters you must nominate.
-This phase will last for one week, starting from January 01 to January 07 of 2012.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/3...bbea4c179c.png

Preliminary Phase
-For each division, a total of 84 characters from ISML 2011 and the nomination phase will participate.
-The format is last year's with 3 phases swapped: group, round robin, then elimination.
-This phase will last for about nine weeks, starting from February 12 to April 12, with 2 one-week breaks.

Round-Robin Phase
-The total contestants in the regular season changes to 72, 36 per division.
-There are no qualifiers directly to the regular season. All 72 contestants come from the Preliminary Phase.
-ISML Regular Season will now consist of 5 periods: Aquamarine, Amethyst, Ruby, Emerald, and Topaz.
-There will be an Necklace Match at the end of every period to determine the necklace winner.
-Each division will send 3-4 characters to each Necklace Match, for a total of 7.
-Each character can only win one necklace each year.
-This phase will last for about nineteen weeks, from May 6 through September 13, with breaks between each period.

Elimination Phase
-ISML post-season will be switch to a Single Elimination with two phases.
-Phase I determines the division winners, separately putting the Top 16 of each division into single elimination tournaments.
-Phase II determines the tiara winner, taking the Top 8 of each division from Phase I to form a single elimination tournament.
-These two phases will last for about four weeks, starting from September 30 and end October 28.

Summary of ISML 2012

Posting Rules

General Rules:

• Absolutely no campaign posts allowed.
  This includes posts containing ANY campaign verbiage whether in whole or in part. Contributing to the debate is encouraged, provided you do NOT add "VOTE ABCD!!!" (or similar to the post itself). Simply rebutting another's post or opinion with "XYZ sucks" is totally unacceptable.
  
• Please do not create a post with the sole purpose to campaign for a character!
  
• No Image campaigning.
  Do not create a post with an image or collage representation of a campaign poster. In other words: a PhotoShopped image of the character you want people to vote for with “vote for” text added to it.

Posting Etiquette:

• Please do not cross post information about this tournament in other AnimeSuki threads.
  Keep all Anime Saimoe Tournament posts, campaigns, character information, voting links, etc., within this thread only or in your signature (signature size limits still apply).
  
• No "meta-posting".
  Meaning: posting about another poster, the thread or about another post itself, is forbidden and will be deleted on-the-spot, regardless of intention. If you want to comment about another poster that’s off-topic and/or personal, send them a PM.
  
• Any flame-baiting will be deleted and those people banned.
  Please keep the thread positive, fun and clean. If your choice doesn’t win the Round and you can’t discuss the fact without complaining, swearing and baiting people into arguments, then don’t post.
  
• Do not create image only posts.
  You can, however, include an image with your discussion. If you want to visually support the character you’re voting for then please do so in the context of your original discussion and use only one or two images. We would encourage the use of “thumbnails” if possible (and please, no large images). PM the mods if you need help with posting thumbnail images.

So it begins....again. For Year Five.

Finally a chance to witness this mysterious event from the start.

^ Same here, man. :heh:

What? It's Saimoe season again already? What the heck? :uhoh::eyespin:

Yea, yea. I know. Y'guys got this whole year thing going... which makes ISML somewhat synonymous to MLB. :p See you come playoffs time. Though, with this new format, I might take a peek a tidy-bit more often. Sorta; just to see how it comes out.

Ditto. Last year I missed nominations, and the news that prelims moved a bit earlier so I missed prelim 1 as well.

Kuroneko, of course, but I'll see what I can take when the matches actually come.

I will have to put some more "research" into moe anime. :D

Right now, I would root for someone from the Steins;Gate cast. Not sure which one yet, I will just nominate them all and see how far they get. ;)
They would run in the Nova category, correct?

Yes, they will.

And do nominate Mayushii, please.

...Huh. I thought at least one of the Madoka gals would have auto-qualified. It's surprising, but I guess it shows you that anything can happen in the WWE ISML.

obligatory page 1 post from Game8910 \o

Also nominations already!? dammit I havent even started thinking on who I want yet

You won't need long. I only needed about 5 minutes to think of 12 that stood a chance but weren't already in the prelims. I'd give you about an hour.

Actually I already have 8 names there. But thats all I really care about for nomiations for this ISML...I guess what im trying to say is, I have 4 free slots of nominations up for discussion for anyone interested :heh:

I don't like ISML and yet every year I end up voting anyway, heh. Obviously it will happen again this year. :heh:

I guess I'll be cheering for Madoka and Homura. Sayaka is my favourite Puella Magi, but she is not as moe as them and nobody likes her.

Sure, why not. Opportunity knocks.

Same here, the whole post (though this is the first first-page post for me).

I guess I'll use today to make up my list, I only have about 4 characters decided already.

So first page posts are awesome?

Wow, I have two three of them now, did I step on a goldmine here? How much does having such a post increase my chance of building a personal 2D harem?

Never disclose harem info, for one thing. Lest someone else covet yours.

Wait so we get 12 Nomination between the two groups? hmmm.... this will make deciding a bit worse for me :eyespin:.

Edit: WTF
Can someone explain to me why these characters got auto-qualification when they had BAD W-L last year?....
Haruna
Kuroi Mato
Aragaki Ayase
Iwasawa Asami

And why they were given a spot over Tomoyo, Kyou, and Kagami? :frustrated:; I was under the impression that the top 24 were the ones who got auto-qualification... so seeing top 20 + 4 random losers rather annoys me.

http://www.internationalsaimoe.com/f...php?f=2&t=2628
(see first post)

I was thinking the same thing that the top 24 should auto-qualify regardless of which division they qualify to. Instead, it will be the top 12 equally for each division. There were more representatives with winning records in the stella division. The Nova division still had a few spots available.

Only one that got a second chance despite her record that I wanted to see in the preliminaries <My opinion> is Haruna.

Get used to it. It will be on for young and old - quite literally.

Just a few hours remain until we flood this with who we nominated for 2012. I have a pretty decent list here myself, but, of course, I hope that all of the girls I have nominated make it this year. One can only hope.

Or the Inner Sphere and Clans from Battletech?

Will returning iDOLM@STER characters be considered Stella or Nova? It was a gap of slightly under 4 years between the end of Xenoglossia and the new series.

That only works on this transition year to two divisions. There won't be a combined top 24 at the end of 2012 to use for 2013 preliminary auto-qualifications.

Will Nova and Stella not face off in the end to get a final winner?

If not, why? Is there such a huge fanbase behind certain old characters?

I'm going to assume that this rule will come into play when determining idolmaster characters's status.

The necklace showdown is common, so the top 3 characters in both divisions, plus the better ranked of the 4th character in either division will all compete for a single necklace. There will also be additional 1v1 exhibition matches between characters of two divisions that do not affect anything. Also, after each division's own SE tournament come to an end, the top 8 participants in both divisions will join together for a single SE tournament aiming for the tiara.

The top 8 from Nova and Top 8 from Stella was face off in a final single elimination tournament to crown the champion.

Hmmm, who to nominate...

I think Madoka and Homura will get in without my nomination vote.



That leaves me with four slots left.



A big mix of old and new in there. The new split divisions is giving me the feeling that some new "old" characters might be viable this year. Last year you only needed 93 votes to make it past the nomination.

I'm wondering if most of the nominations are made in the "Nova" field, if that will leave the "Stella" field with a lower nomination threshold. Or will it be vice versa?

So guys, Fate will make Top 16 this year!

@Sackett: Some of us think that Stella will have more nominations.

They will be considered as Nova. Also, if we waive the alternate universe rule to force Idolmaster to be placed in Stella ( thus meaning proper interpretation of the rules says Idolmaster is Nova ), I know several Koreans and also several other people from English Anime fans that will threaten to harm all the staff members.

Nova might have more nominations since people will probably have the mindset of nominating new characters(And the fact that most of the top tier stella characters are already auto qualified...while I imagine a few new Nova characters might be heavy hitters...but only a few), but they'll have fewer overall votes otherwise. They will win 2 necklaces at most with Kanade guaranteed to win one of the two.

That's my prediction anyways.

While the old characters now have their own section to indulge themselves, I like to keep my nominations fresh every year even if I like some of the older characters and will most likely support them more overall.

These are my confirmed nominations
1. Elsie - Kami nomi
2. Haqua - Kami nomi
3. Kanon - Kami nomi
4. Yune - Ikoku Meiro
5. Sana - Mashiro Iro
6. Sena - Boku wa Tomodachi
7. Ohana - Hanasaku Iroha

8-12 are open slots if anyone wants to remind me of good characters (keep it 2011) I might like to add (or trade if you nominate some of the ones I picked above SPECIALLY THE TOP 3)

Xenoglossia exists! Don't let the haters say otherwise! But seriously, I think it's probably the right the decision to have them in Nova.

There's only 5 necklaces so a 2-3 split between Nova and Stella is pretty much the ideal with neither side dominating. Well maybe not if the two Nova winners are Kanade and Kuroneko who have both won necklaces before and no one else for Nova gets close.

It still won`t be simply if the priority is an equal number of contestants for both divisions. After all, some of the Nova characters of an year becomes Stella characters in the next.

That's pretty much what I'm expecting since I think Homura will be the strongest new contender this year...Even if I think her performance against Kuroneko is way above what her norm will be in the regular season...But if I consider that to be her true strength, then I think she will be the best of the new contestants. If it's not...then I don't really know.

But even Kuroneko has a good chance of not winning a necklace when there is only 5 necklaces to win. I don't think she's the fifth strongest character...Close, but not quite.

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
How about Yuru-Yuri characters? Though I'd think they'd get there anyway... I would seriously appreciate Wanko from Majikoi or Minami from BakaTest.


I'm not including Kurisu because I figure she doesn't need my vote, but I hope not too many people think that way.

Five years... I remember when I used to be young.

So for nominations, my list is already set.

Makise Kurisu - Steins;Gate
Christina - Steins;Gate
Assistant - Steins;Gate
2channer - Steins;Gate
The Zombie - Steins;Gate

What? What do you mean, that's illegal? :(

If Kuroneko isn't 5th this year, I highly doubt she will be in 2012. Newcomers always weaken at a faster rate than veterans.

This isn't always true. Sometimes exceptions show up.

2009 - 7th
2010 - 6th
2011 - 5th

And Taiga did that with absolutely nothing in terms of new material.

Fix'd and improved.

All veterans were new at some point in time, remember.