[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

However there would be a nice cycle since Nova at present is only the previous two years.

It would be better if it was just the previous year, period. That would give a true newcomer a chance to be the star of her division, which in my mind is a lot more helpful than this odd idea of somehow gaining "worth" by getting to be the latest curbstomp victim of an Angel Beats! girl.

Even as somebody who has compared ISML to pro sports in the past, the comparisons do have limits.

Yes, in pro sports, it can be a good experience to go up against a top competitor so you know just how good you'll have to be in order to become the best. But that obviously doesn't apply to fictional characters that are being voted on. It's not like Akemi Homura is going to come away from a loss to Kanade, thinking "Well, that was an experience. I'll have to come better prepared with more moe missiles next time I face Kanade!"

In my experience, there's three things that can shift power levels (and hence "worth") in ISML:

1) Building up fame/notoriety through winning a lot.
2) Having a currently airing anime featuring that character in question.
3) Not having been featured in an anime in a looong time (hence gradually weakening over time).

Letting a new girl dominate a division could cause 1 for her - Getting curbsomped by Kanade won't. 2 and 3 will have their impacts regardless of division setup.

Only the best from this Nova will move on to Stella...so it might be best to see everyone in action for more than one year to be sure they are worthy,

Degree of "worthiness" can change anyway, without a two-year ISML run. Some characters can fall out and come back. You could have somebody who's weak for two years, then a new anime makes them popular in the third year, regardless of how much they've been in ISML.

Angel Beats this year has a massive advantage over everyone else in Nova,

And that's precisely the problem, and it's a big one, imo.

If the entire Nova is only newbies each year, there will be years were we get basically chaff for half or more than half the entries.

We're getting plenty of chaff as it is. Some of the older girls are basically chaff (as ion475 just pointed out).

Personally, I'd rather see one of the hopelessly weak older girls (like Sora) "retired" (by possibly not making the veterans division), and give more new girls a shot.

Those sorts of duels are fairly uninteresting and voters will ignore them if they are able to do so (and focus on Stella matches).

I strongly disagree. I'm much more interested in watching a first-time ever new girl vs. new girl match than I am in watching a highly predictable old girl vs. old girl (or weaker new girl) match.