International Saimoe League 2012

[Kyuu]

By the way, fill me in. What happened to the Madoka characters? I'm one of those who do not pay attention to this thing until playoffs. Even then, I missed out on most of the playoffs.

With regards to Kanade, I did fear last year was it for her -- due to potential Madoka domination.

[wontaek]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

By the way, fill me in. What happened to the Madoka characters?

I'm one of those who do not pay attention to this thing until playoffs. Even then, I missed out on most of the playoffs. XD

Because most of Madoka fans were of similar mind as you, they started off horrendously in the regular season and never recovered as what little Madoka fans there were in the start of regular season got dejected and abandoned ISML.

[Coldlight]

Kanade's long-awaited victory definitely takes the cake for me, but Yui-nyan winning her match is also oh-so sweet.

Finally, a moe tournament crown for a HanaKana character, and her most angelic one at that.

Also, I noticed the font style and color for Kanade's and Mikoto's names on their posters are practically the same.
Does that hint at some sort of standardization for future Champion posters?

[Hachiko]

This just in...Obama will win reelection. You heard it first.

Spoiler:

Brian Griffin: That was Faze to Love by Miyuki Hashimoto from her 2006 album "Lovey-Dovey." I'm Brian Griffin and in this midnight edition of the Lunch Hour, back on the menu for the final time this year is the International Saimoe League and the fifth winner of the Heavenly Tiara is Kanade Tachibana, who is with us here on the Lunch Hour. Kanade, welcome to the program.

Kanade: Good afternoon here in Tokyo, Brian. It's a pleasure to be here once again.

Brian: A pleasure to have you, dear leader of the Free Moe World. Well, are you satisfied yet?

Kanade: More than. I never thought I would see the day that I would be named the winner of this Heavenly Tiara, but...it has finally come. I was in tears, hugging Yuzuru when it happened. I can now say that I have accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish in my Saimoe career. And now everything will be a bonus.

Brian: When Eucliwood Hellscythe spoke to you over the phone telling you she conceded, what were your thoughts?

Kanade: At least I didn't die again. *laughter* No, actually she didn't feel bad at all because she didn't expect to get this far and finish runner-up in this thing. We had a chat about the race and about the future and that was that. Eu's a cool person to be with, and it was an honor to have faced him in this final race.

Brian: It's a party down at SSS headquarters, with Yuri Nakamura and Yui also picking up victories. A clean sweep for Angel Beats. What do you think of that?

Kanade: It's a bonus. Yurippe and Yui were in tears when they found out that they also won their final matches. It's been a blessed day for all of us, and I think the voters smiled at the legacy we left, the message we sent. Truly, this will go down as the best day ever in our lives. We will never forget October 30, 2012. No one here will.

Brian: What does your husband Yuzuru Otonashi think of this victory?

Kanade: He was crying too. He whispered to me: "I knew I made the right choice when I wanted you to be my wife." And we shared a long kiss and then I spoke to everyone at the rally. Our two-year old son was sleeping, so he couldn't get to see us celebrating. I think Yuzuki is going to be happy when he finds out his mother is the Leader of the Free saimoe World. Or maybe he won't care because he still thinks of me as Mom.

Brian: The three of you make a wonderful family, for sure. Let's talk a little bit about the Korea tournament. We know that Hitagi Senjougahara is now the Moe President for the Republic of Korea but there has been talk that next year's elections will possibly have an overhaul in terms of the layout. What do you think?

Kanade: I think free and fair elections are a wonderful thing, and for the committee there to change something that isn't broken is a clear sign of disrespect to the process of finding who is most moe. It's a process that is unnecessary, and I hope the committee in Korea will have a change of heart and stay the course. I talked with Hitagi last week about the plans she has for leading that country and they are big plans. She wants to help continue the legacy Homura left this year but accelerated a little bit. I think Hitagi is going to make a great Moe President of Korea and I wish her all the best.

Brian: Kanade Tachibana, the fifth winner of the International Saimoe League, is here with us. Kanade, there is only one tournament remaining and that is the 2channel Anime Saimoe Tournament, where the Saimoe Prime Minister of Japan is going to be elected. And it will go to a representative from the Saki Party. What are your thoughts on the story down there?

Kanade: First off, congratulation to Saki for finally breaking through and make it their year in Japan. However, commiserations must go to the other competitors that were left in the dust. It's not right that the number of voters in that contest has to dwindle due to IP bands. You can never get rid of multiple voting, no matter how hard you try. The world should be allowed to vote in a contest of 2channel's prestige. To limit the votership destroys credibility and really calls into question the leadership of the people at 2channel, who should know better in terms of organizing this tournament. My pick to win this all is Toki Onjouji over Kuro Matsumi. I talked with Toki two hours ago from her hospital bed and I told her to hang in there because she will get through her situation. It's great to see that she is recovering, if slowly.

Brian: Your thoughts on the Diadem winners: Ririchiyo Shirakiin and Kuroyukihime?

Kanade: These are two friends of mine that will get it done next year. If I don't get assigned to the Stella Division next season, I expect to give both of them a stern challenge because I want to take on the best moekkos out there. Hime and Chiyo have a huge upswing and I can't wait to face them, if it is possible.

Brian: Finally, any message you want to give the fans out here in America?

Kanade: Thank you for your support throughout this campaign. I hope to represent everything great about the world and I look forward to taking part in this competition next year. And to the people on the East Coast, please stay safe and dry. My heart goes out to all of you out there. Take care of yourselves. I love you all, from the bottom of my heart.

Brian: Kanade Tachibana, our 2012 International Saimoe League champion. Thank you for stopping by.

Kanade: Any time. I look forward to talking to you again soon.

Brian: Up next, we talk about the storm that has been ravaging the East Coast and left destruction in its wake, Superstorm Sandy. This is the Lunch Hour on 97.1 WQHG, and if you want seconds, don't go anywhere...

[broken270]

Talk about utter domination. No let loss here. Congratulations to Kanade for finally winning that Tiara. Will her power wane off because of this victory will ultimately be the question. I love how every other match were all pretty close. So I guess the remaining girls look like this:

16. Kashiwazaki Sena
15. Kousaka Kirino
14. Hasegawa Kobato
13. Suzumiya Haruhi
12. Saber
11. Nakamura Yuri
10. Shana
9. Yui
8. Nagato Yuki
7. Nakano Azusa
6. Misaka Mikoto
5. Akiyama Mio.
4. Aisaka Taiga
3. Gokou Ruri
2. Eucliwood Hellscythe
1. Tachibana Kanade

[Sphire]

Congratulations to Kanade. A masssssssssssssssssssssssssive doubling over Eucliwood. Too bad we didn't get as many voters for the final as last years. With such a huge win though, I don't see Kanade waning in strength anytime soon.

Kanade's picture looks ok, but damn Kuroyukihime's pic looks awesomely sweeeet! Thumbs up!

I'm not too sure Nova winning was that much of a surprise, they did claim 3 of the first 4 necklaces, so there was always quality there. More than anything, Stella's strength went haywire. No doubt though the influx of voters for post-season changed things (moreso for PS2). Too bad they all seemed to be Kanade fans.

And it seems there are solid Tiara contenders entering next year. Definitely looks like next year will be more spicy than this year. Hopefully it delivers.

[RegalStar]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

By the way, fill me in. What happened to the Madoka characters? I'm one of those who do not pay attention to this thing until playoffs. Even then, I missed out on most of the playoffs.

With regards to Kanade, I did fear last year was it for her -- due to potential Madoka domination.

Madoka characters were overhyped and badly underperformed. Homura was able to ride it in when the format was still beneficial towards her, and Kyouko literally got in by the skin of her teeth, while everyone lost at the prelims. They ended with 7 and 2 wins (I thinks) at the end, respectively.

[Team Rocket Elite]

Congrats to the 2012 International Saimoe League Champion Tachibana Kanade! It's a year later than most expected buta fantastic achievement nonetheless. Only three times this entire year did anyone break 40% on Kanade and no one managed to clear the 45% mark. Kanade was absolutely untouchable from start to finish. For the most part, characters aren't as strong after they win the grand prize. However, considering how much room Kanade has over her opponents, I looked forward to Kanade's attempt to defend her crown next year.

I'm still amazed at how much Eucliwood improved since last year. Was it really just last year that Eucliwood could barely match Yui? Now she was the frontrunner to try and beat Kanade and completely ran over the top end of Stella. I'm not sure how much more material there is in Kore was Zombie, but if she keeps getting new material she may actually win one of these days.

Kuroneko really surprised me with her performances in the post season. Earlier this year she was passed up by Eucliwood for 2nd place in Nova and continued to fall behind into a distant third. In the end she's still third but after she beat Eucliwood back in Elimination 3, she's got a strong case for being the real second strongest this year. OreImo is getting a second season so Kuroneko's future looks good. Like Eucliwood, she too may win top prize someday.

7 6 5 4 so just 3 more years? In previous years I would talk about how amazing Taiga is for continuing to improve despite getting nothing since her series ending ending nearly 4 years ago. However, she did get a new OVA this year. It was barely anything but she used it to put up some big wins on her opponents over the year. Taiga really should be falling in strength but she's been bucking that trend for years. It's not something she can really rely on forever. I'm not sure if she has it in her to win the Tiara but if she wants to avoid Shana's fate, she needs to take first place soon.

In a battle between former champions, Mio was the one that came out on top. As a former champion, she doesn't really have anything left to prove. Her series has ended and chance of a repeat championship are low, but it's good to see she's still got quite a bit of fight left in her even if she's just playing for a high placement.

I had the highest of expectations for Mikoto but she let me down. I guess repeating is harder than I thought it was. She looked so good after winning the Diamond Circlet but completely collapsed after that. It just didn't seem like she was trying anymore after that. Maybe she'll get a kickstart for a new season of Railgun. Like Kanade, I think Mikoto has a chance to repeat someday. However, like Mio, Mikoto doesn't really need to prove anything since she's already won. I guess it's not bad if she just sticks around the high tier without winning again.

Azusa continues to be in Mio's shadow this year. For most of the year, Azusa looked to be the stronger of the two but in the end she couldn't keep up. Since K-On has ended, Azusa should but at her strongest right now. Hopefully she can keep up for a few more years but it's only a matter of time before she starts to fade away.

Yuki bounced back after a pretty lousy postseason last year. She continues to float around the middle of the top tiers. Haruhi material comes out slowly but it shows up eventually. I think Yuki will be able to stay around here for quite a while.

Yui and Yuri end up doing quite well for themselves. Angel Beats ended over 2 years ago now and it's usually the less popular characters that start getting hit by age first. At least for now, these are are among the strongest there are. Hopefully, Kanade's victory doesn't hit them too hard.

What's there to say about Shana that I haven't already? She gets her long awaited final season and plummets in the rankings. There's really nowhere for Shana to go but down from here. After watching Shana get so close so many times, I'm really disappointed to see this is how her last big attempt ends. I still expect Shana to stick around in the top tier for a long time but I fear her days of trying to claim 1st place may be over. I'll be pleasantly surprised if she proves me wrong someday.

Saber had a big upset over Shana early on and nothing to show after that. In the end she even ranks below Shana. I think there's still more Fate stuff that can be animated so Saber should be able to maintain this strength level for a while. She'll have to work hard to keep making the playoffs, though.

Haruhi just wasn't her usual self in the playoffs. Normally she's about as strong as Yuki but she looked significantly weaker in her last few matches. As new Haruhi material comes out, I think Haruhi should still be able to stick around for a while longer but like Saber she needs to work to make the postseason.

Kobato, Kirino and Sena are just happy to be here. These three were a fair bit weaker than everyone else in the combined finals and Sena in particularly just couldn't find the strength she had during the regular season. These three will need a lot of luck if they want to make it back to the combined finals next year (assuming it works like this year).

That's everyone. Congrats again to Kanade on winning and everyone else for making the playoffs!

Originally Posted by KholdStare

And why would you expect a repeat winner to perform better in postseason? You were predicting 58% for Mikoto over Eucliwood, That's a 24% swing that cannot be explained other than regular season results were way off. Please do look forward to the final match results. Of course, Kuroneko, Shana, and Kobato shuffled as well, and everyone except Kanade/Eucliwood actually.

I heavily favour results shown in actual matches over side factors like anti-champion votes. Mikoto was doing really well in the Diamond Circlet tournament. She messed up against Hasegawa Kobato but my system reacted to that too slowly due to Kobato vs Kanade giving a bad signal earlier (Kobato still had the best postseason performance on Kanade!). I don't see what you mean by "regular season results were way off". The 58% prediction was made using post season results. Using my stats at the end of Topaz 7, I had Eucliwood winning with 55.67%. That's not far off the 56.84% she actually got. Some characters seem to move and some didn't. I'll nice some time to work out exactly what I think of the results from post season.

[KholdStare]

So it ends what was in my opinion the most interesting postseason we have in ISML, because quite a bit of it were upsets with unpredictable outcomes. If this continues, then I guess there's reason for ISML to exist in the future, because the results won't be exactly the same as in regular season.

EDIT: Please come back December to vote in our male tournament and the second half of our seasonal tournament.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by RegalStar

So why has Kanade's buttmad produced results, while Shana's years and years of buttmad ended up poofing every year?

Kanade is a thoroughly inoffensive character, while Shana is a polarizing KugRie Tsundere.

As much as many people love KugRie Tsunderes, many other people absolutely can't stand them (or most of them, anyway).


Last Sinner once wrote "ISML is not about who's loved the most, it's about who's hated the least". For good or for ill, I think there's a fair bit of truth to that. So the key to ISML success is to be well-liked but not polarizing.

Polarizing characters like Shana, Haruhi, and Kirino are probably always going to be limited in ISML. More inoffensive characters like Kanade, Eucliwood, and Yuki Nagato will always have an edge there.

[woxx]

The results of this votings are easily made by botnet for 15 dollars and few script commands... And 2 thousand "unique" votes most of them from China and asian countries from one computer. Why so easy? ISML don't even requires captcha to enter.

I'm not mad, I don't remember me vote atleast once this year. I just don't understand how some people can find any sufficient character ratings here.

[HasuMasu]

Let's see how she wanes next year, if at all noticeable.

Our angel has been avenged, I like dat.

[wontaek]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Kanade is a thoroughly inoffensive character, while Shana is a polarizing KugRie Tsundere.

As much as many people love KugRie Tsunderes, many other people absolutely can't stand them (or most of them, anyway).


Last Sinner once wrote "ISML is not about who's loved the most, it's about who's hated the least". For good or for ill, I think there's a fair bit of truth to that. So the key to ISML success is to be well-liked but not polarizing.

Polarizing characters like Shana, Haruhi, and Kirino are probably always going to be limited in ISML. More inoffensive characters like Kanade, Eucliwood, and Yuki Nagato will always have an edge there.

That generally is a reality in real world politics as well. ( http://www.polarizationandconflict.o...meta040630.pdf ) . One of the consequences of having larger number of the voters is that the median or mean of the voting people are likely to be closer to the true median or mean of the entire population, due to Central Limit Theorem and median Theorem. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median#Variance ) Thus larger the number of voters, more likely the candidate closer to the "center" wins.

[Darth Atma]

Congrats to Tenshi <3

[Ithekro]

Originally Posted by woxx

The results of this votings are easily made by botnet for 15 dollars and few script commands... And 2 thousand "unique" votes most of them from China and asian countries from one computer. Why so easy? ISML don't even requires captcha to enter.

I'm not mad, I don't remember me vote atleast once this year. I just don't understand how some people can find any sufficient character ratings here.

Such claims need to be backed up.

The other thing is, if you are correct, than how many people are "really" voting? Hmmmm?

[wontaek]

Originally Posted by woxx

The results of this votings are easily made by botnet for 15 dollars and few script commands... And 2 thousand "unique" votes most of them from China and asian countries from one computer. Why so easy? ISML don't even requires captcha to enter.

I'm not mad, I don't remember me vote atleast once this year. I just don't understand how some people can find any sufficient character ratings here.

First thing I want to ask you is, please show us those script commands, and also where you can buy a botnet for less than $20.

We have more than 2000 votes originating just from American Continents. We also got more than 2000 when you add all the Europe and Russia in the final. ISML has myriad of vote checking system that catches those botnets and anything that is possible with few lines of script. Just because we don't require captcha does not mean we don't have means to distinguish bots from humans. Prove your case by first showing us those script commands. Since you said it is easy, surely you can show them to us easily as well. It will be especially enlightening if you can demonstrate how a few lines of script commands can handle all the changes in our vote format, as the number of arenas, number of candidates within a group, and number of choices you can make within a group constantly changes.

Finally, I wonder if you are aware of how many people are "discussing" ISML in Korean websites and Chinese websites. There was a Korean website which had more than 100 people discussing ISML and Best Moe Tournament in 2008. That was just one website and also in 2008 when ISML was much smaller.

[KholdStare]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Such claims need to be backed up.

They will never be backed up, as many of the claims I see about ISML are.

It's somewhat understandable, of course. From a random person's point of view, we do not have captcha, registration, or any hint of stopping the multivoters. So what should we do? If we give proof that we do have ways stop them, then that would just be telling them how to bypass us next time, which is why we keep things a secret. But yes, people do try to cheat, and lots of them.

[FlareKnight]

Well good for Kanade, while I never really cared about her character it doesn't take away from the achievement.

Will see how Eu does next year. Whether this is her best result or if she can make it to the top.

So, that's that. An interesting ride though to be fair I kind of jumped in half way.

[Coldlight]

Originally Posted by KholdStare

If we give proof that we do have ways stop them, then that would just be telling them how to bypass us next time, which is why we keep things a secret. But yes, people do try to cheat, and lots of them.

Good point. Better to keep the would-be cheaters in the dark as to what countermeasures they are actually up against.

If cheating really were so easy, then we should have seen a lot of unexpected, troll outcomes for matches. Anybody remember the now defunct SaiGar tournament?

[Ithekro]

That was fun. I can still clain Rena is moeGAR and with take you home as she came in 9th before the whole thing shut down.