International Saimoe League 2012

[KholdStare]

Yes, Eucliwood is strong enough to beat Shana for sure, and possibly Mikoto/Taiga too. The unfortunate thing is that if Eucliwood does win her bracket, she would gather so much tsundere hate that the finale will be as lopsided as it can be. It is Kanade's best ending.

[Rajura]

ARENA 01: Tachibana Kanade [Gokō Ruri (Kuroneko)]
ARENA 02: [Misaka Mikoto] Aisaka Taiga
ARENA 03: [Isanami] Rias Gremory Shirakiin Ririchiyo
ARENA 04: [Henrietta de Tristain] Tachibana Miya Yamano Lemon
ARENA 05: Araragi Tsukihi Sonya [Tanamachi Kaoru]
ARENA 06: Akazawa Izumi [Mishima Nana] Tōjō Koneko
ARENA 07: Urabe Mikoto [Xiao-Mei] Yoshida Yuki
ARENA 08: Coco Eureka [Sanka Rea]
ARENA 09: Kanoe Yūko SG550 [Tokura Misaki]
ARENA 10: Furuya Mero [Ibara Mayaka] Satō Masaki

[Sphire]

Damn, that was pretty lopsided. Not sure that bodes well, although I wouldn't mind seeing Kanade vs Mikoto in PS2 finals because otherwise they wouldn't have met for a whole year (one on one).

Maybe Eu could've been closer to Kanade, but I still think an increase in voters won't favour her. And I guess we'll have to wait and see whether tactical voting has been going on through the Stella route.

As for exhibition, I guess we'll see Sankarea and Hyouka represented next year. High School DxD and Another might make it in too. Not too sure about Yuuko.

And hopefully someone can put up the brackets for PS2 given that I have no intention of trying to figure who goes where out.

[Team Rocket Elite]

Congrats on your Circlet wins Kanade and Mikoto! In Kanade's case, I don't think many people gave her much chance of failing to get the Sapphire Circlet. She did have a scare against Kobato but it came in a match she couldn't lose and she recoved from it. Kanade nearly doubles Kuroneko in the final. It's a performance that's roughly 8 percentage points better than their regular season record (66.5% vs 58.6%). Mikoto's case is a bit more surprising. Unlike the Nova Division, she's supposed to have competition in Stella. However, not even Taiga was able to get Mikoto below 58%. That's a huge change from Mikoto's win with 51.9% over Taiga back in Emerald 7. With this the "warmup" playoffs are now over and there are no more second chances. Claiming the Tiara will require nothing less than a perfect record from here on. Will anyone be able to stop Mikoto or Kanade?

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

Originally Posted by KholdStare

Yes, Eucliwood is strong enough to beat Shana for sure, and possibly Mikoto/Taiga too. The unfortunate thing is that if Eucliwood does win her bracket, she would gather so much tsundere hate that the finale will be as lopsided as it can be. It is Kanade's best ending.

So it's possible that Kanade's gonna win? I'm going to support her.

[KholdStare]

...When was it not possible that Kanade will win? lol. Right now Kanade has a 99% chance of winning the Tiara with no one having to do anything. Her bracket simply does not gather hate votes.

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

Originally Posted by KholdStare

...When was it not possible that Kanade will win? lol. Right now Kanade has a 99% chance of winning the Tiara with no one having to do anything. Her bracket simply does not gather hate votes.

I mean with all the anti-votes she got last year, I've always thought she's never gonna win.

[Kotohono]

Meh at both of the expected wins (though better Misaka for this, than the Tiara), and Mayaka and Tsukihi's wins were nice since were some only exhibitions I voted in .

[FlareKnight]

Well too bad for Kuroneko, thought she would probably lose, but did hope she'd come a bit closer. Oh, well at least Mikoto won.

For the exhibitions, glad to see Yuki win that one dominantly. Also good for Mayaka slipping through win that win as well.

[broken270]

So, the tournament is going to look like the following?

Spoiler for Possible Actual Bracket:

Tachibana Kanade vs. Suzumiya Haruhi
Saber vs. Nakamura Yuri
Gokou Ruri (Kuroneko) vs. Nakano Azusa
Nagato Yuki vs. Kousaka Kirino
Yui vs. Akiyama Mio
Aisaka Taiga vs. Kashiwazaki Sena
Eucliwood vs Shana
Misaka Mikoto vs. Hasegawa Kobato

Why is Mikoto fighting Kobato and not Sena? Why is Shana fighting Eucliwood and not Yui? Those two are seeding questions that I do not get/see. My main question is shouldn't 2N vs 7S & 3S vs 6N be switched with 2S vs 7N and 3N vs 6S? The format on the charter would basically have the finals match for the cricket repeated in the semi-finals with most likely the same winners advancing to the finals. While indeed anything can happen in Postseason, I feel it is more interesting to have an N1 vs S2 and S1 vs N2 semi-finals than to have it the other way around. I assume this has been considered?

[Team Rocket Elite]

http://www.internationalsaimoe.com/rules/charter.php

Section XI.C.3
3rd Place is awarded to the Contestant who won two (2) matches and lost to the Contestant who won four (4) matches.

Section XI.C.4
4th Place is awarded to the Contestant who won two (2) matches and lost to the Contestant who won three (3) matches.

Yui lost to Kanade who won so Yui is 3rd. Eucliwood lost to Kuroneko so Eucliwood is 4th.
Yuki lost to Mikoto who won so Yuki is 3rd. Saber lost to Taiga so Saber is 4th.

[RegalStar]

Sphire are you happy

[Sphire]

Originally Posted by broken270

Why is Mikoto fighting Kobato and not Sena? Why is Shana fighting Eucliwood and not Yui? Those two are seeding questions that I do not get/see. My main question is shouldn't 2N vs 7S & 3S vs 6N be switched with 2S vs 7N and 3N vs 6S? The format on the charter would basically have the finals match for the cricket repeated in the semi-finals with most likely the same winners advancing to the finals. While indeed anything can happen in Postseason, I feel it is more interesting to have an N1 vs S2 and S1 vs N2 semi-finals than to have it the other way around. I assume this has been considered?

I agree that at least the number 1 and 2 of Nova (and as such, Stella) shouldn't have been placed in the same bracket. First, the likelihood of the circlet finals repeating themselves in the tiara semi-finals is very likely (albeit not guaranteed of course), which doesn't really appeal to me personally. Secondly, it doesn't provide a true runner-up, since you cannot gauge the strength between no 2 and no 3 (if they are from opposing sides).

I would've personally grouped N1 with S2, S3 and N4 (with their respective opponents) while grouping S1 with N2, N3 and S4 (with their respective opponents).

Originally Posted by Team Rocket Elite

http://www.internationalsaimoe.com/rules/charter.php

Section XI.C.3
3rd Place is awarded to the Contestant who won two (2) matches and lost to the Contestant who won four (4) matches.

Section XI.C.4
4th Place is awarded to the Contestant who won two (2) matches and lost to the Contestant who won three (3) matches.

Yui lost to Kanade who won so Yui is 3rd. Eucliwood lost to Kuroneko so Eucliwood is 4th.
Yuki lost to Mikoto who won so Yuki is 3rd. Saber lost to Taiga so Saber is 4th.

I'm not sure that was a great way to do it. Yui and Yuki essentially get rewarded for finishing lower in regular season (as they were always going up against number 1). Why forget seed there but remember it for the rest of the circlet tourney (5-8)? Granted Saber getting as far as she did throws things out of wack a bit, so Yuki and Saber end up how they would anyway even if they went to seeding. But now Eu ends up in a tougher 1st match just because of the rules.

And yea, I know regular season finish doesn't automatically determine strength, but still, what we got doesn't really say much about strength either.

Originally Posted by RegalStar

Sphire are you happy

Haha, WTF?

[RegalStar]

Have you looked at the preview yet?

[Sphire]

Originally Posted by RegalStar

Have you looked at the preview yet?

Yea, what about it? Kuroyukihime is always nice to see, but I don't really care about the rest. Well, except for Ryuuko but she didn't make this year anyway.

[KholdStare]

The brackets are set up mathematically. Postseason 1 has no consolation and its purpose is to not rank #2-16. Its purpose is to seed ranks #1-8 at that point of the competition. Shana lost, so she doesn't deserve an easier opponent. Semi-finals matchups are no way any likely or guarantee. Can 2N really beat 3S? Yuki is that weak? Shana could've easily been 3S. Taiga could've easily been 3S. The other side is the same--Eucliwood could very well snipe Mikoto as she gets closer to "reclaiming" her tiara. The main point of avoiding a 1N vs 2S / 1S vs 2N semi-final is that if 2N beats 1S or 1N beats 2S, then the tiara match will be a repeat of a circlet match. Therefore, we'd rather have a repeat in the semi-finals than the finals.

In short, it's easy to to make comments in hindsight. All systems will have unfavorable outcomes, and Shana losing plays a big role in this one.

[Team Rocket Elite]

Taiga and Shana had very little chance of being 3S. It would require Mikoto to have lost in the finals. Even if you think that's possible, there's nothing easy about turning around a 58-42 match. Section XI.C.3 and Section XI.C.4 are also an odd way of doing a tiebreaker. Assuming a completely cookie cutter tournament with 0 upsets and everyone staying exactly the same in terms of strength, the third and fourth seed would switch positions between post season phases. It also lead to Yui getting a better seed than Eucliwood despite losing out in the regular season and getting destroyed by Kanade relative to Eucliwood nearly beating Kuroneko. Actually the result of Kuroneko vs Eucliwood doesn't mean much since if it went as expected, Yui would still be above Kuroneko. However, I guess there aren't really any good ways to deal with a tiebreaker since it always relies on something other than a head to head result.

[KholdStare]

What I will agree with is Section XI.C.3 and Section XI.C.4 being an odd way of doing a tiebreaker. That's actually a relic of an older system, but we didn't take it out for whatever reason. You do bring up a good point that instead of regular season ranking, we can go with head-to-head regular season tiebreaker, for the 3/4 seed only. Maybe we'll do that next year.

Taiga and Shana had a great chance of being 3S. Remember the hindsight thing and how we shouldn't do it. Before the match, I could have easily imagined Taiga beating Mikoto. You could too, don't you?

[Team Rocket Elite]

Sure, before the post season, I thought Shana and Taiga had a chance to win. However, hindsight is what shows that that was a mistake. They didn't actually have much of a chance to win. My prediction of their ability relative to Mikoto was completely wrong.

[KholdStare]

About the next match, remember that Arena 9 & 10 are not part of our seasonal tournament. They are your true exhibition matches of postseason.