#OGAE Poll

[bettyg196]

So... In your opinion...

[pkmn-music-tournament]

Battle! (Team Flare Boss Lysandre) plays when battling Team Flare's boss Lysandre in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon's Rainbow Rocket epilogue.

Battle! (Rose) plays when battling Macro Cosmos's Rose in Sword and Shield.

[escmemesandstuff]

Eurovision 2024: Fan Poll Comparison

A week leading to the final show of the 2024 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, let's look at the results of three major fan polls: OGAE, INFE, and Eurojury. Now, there are numerous polls held all over the internet throughout the season, but I consider these three the most "reliable" due to them not allowing voting for one's own home country. OGAE and INFE are long-running fanclubs, whereas the Eurojury vote consists of professional musicians from member countries and an online vote.

On the table below, I have compiled the final results according to each poll.

One factor that immediately stands out is the lack of one definite favourite to win. While last year, Sweden's victory was pretty much the obvious conclusion (which was also reflected by Loreen topping all these three polls), this year is clearly more open, with each poll having a different country on the top spot. Croatia turned out as the OGAE winner, INFE voters preferred Switzerland, and Italy emerged victorious after combining the jury and online votes of the Eurojury. That being said, none of those three countries could be considered a shock winner or unpopular favourite when looking at all three clubs' results, with all of them comfortably making it to the top five along with Belgium. The consistency continues with France, Ukraine, and Netherlands getting a top ten placing in all three polls; even Greece isn't in a bad place, as they only barely missed the top ten in the OGAE poll.

It gets more interesting when you look at where the polls' opinions differ more strongly. A striking example is Germany, who takes the all-too-familiar last place in the two fan club polls, yet earned the eight place in the combined Eurojury results; a placing largely thanks to the jury vote that placed the song fifth, even higher than the fan favourite Croatia (albeit only by two points). Serbia's lovely ballad, while not being what fans tend to gravitate towards, also earned a decent score in Eurojury and got tenth overall. In contrast, Austria and Lithuania got a significantly colder reception from Eurojury juries, raising the concerns of them ending up as flopping fan favourites.

When it comes to the "un-favourites" of the polls, all three agree on Poland and Azerbaijan being among the weakest final-worth entries, both ending on bottom five. Overall the first semifinal is clearly seen as the weaker one, with all bottom fives being dominated by semi 1 songs. When it comes to borderline qualifiers of the second semi, Armenia, Georgia, and Denmark aren't getting too much love from any camp. (On the other hand, Armenia did get a top ten result in the Eurojury jury vote - a bit surprising considering the general tendency of juries snubbing ethnic entries.) As for non-qualifiers, none of the polls would give a place in the final to Iceland, Moldova, Australia, Malta, Czechia, Albania, San Marino, or Latvia. Interestingly enough, Finland got a decent result in the INFE poll, getting 16th. Said poll seems to be fonder of "funny" entires, considering they also have Estonia following suit.

Could these polls give a hunch about the overall results? We should remember that the fan bubble can differ from the general public's taste, and the eventual live performances can have a huge impact towards either direction. That being said, Eurovision winners rarely come out of the blue, and if I had to pick a most likely winner based on multiple factors, it would be either Italy or Switzerland. However, the Eurojury jury winner France also stands a chance - you shouldn't underestimate the power of good-looking men singing romantic ballads, as we saw with Marco Mengoni last year - and despite all of the worries about Croatia flopping in the jury vote, their victory is still within possibility. And based on what we've seen, Ukraine is ready to deliver a magical performance that could very well touch the hearts of both viewers and jury members.

I might revisit this post after the contest and check how the polls compare to the actual results. Exciting times are ahead, for sure!

[disneyparktournament]

Round 2 - Tiebreaker

[white-eyed-girl]

...

[escinsight]

A Deep Analysis of Melodifestivalen's Rehearsal Poll

A Deep Analysis of Melodifestivalen's Rehearsal Poll

On the last two Friday nights I have been helping out the Swedish branch of OGAE Sweden, Melodifestivalklubben, with one of their traditions each and every Melfest week. The Swedish fan club is usually provided press passes each week to cover the show and rehearsals like others do, but they also fulfil an important role to the storyline of each week of Melfest. They organise the…

[rinskuli]

Vote for Käärijä & Erika!

[omegothic]

CONGRATS BABY LASAGNA ON WINNING THE OGAE POLL❗❗❗ good luck with eurovision too!

[kushami-hime]

All wav scripts in this poll are here! I'm doing other requests as well as these (to fill in the gaps between big stuff/stuff I'm behind on x.x)

[castershellwrites]

Ghost of Tsushima CYOA Part 5

This now officially a Jin/Tenzo fic. Rated Teen.

Link to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Part 5 of the fic and the poll for part 6 are below the cut.

“We’re going to scout the camp,” Jin whispered. He’d let go of Tenzo’s hand as soon as they’d left the camp, but Tenzo had continued to follow silently in his wake.

Upon hearing Jin’s plan he made a strangled noise of protest. “I thought you knew their defenses!” He scolded.

“I know my uncle’s plans, and how I was trained on Tsushima. It’s possible the Oga Clan samurai have slightly different tactics. Though I doubt that, or that my uncle learned anything after our first failure to take this island.”

“Excuse you, samurai.”

Jin turned to look at Tenzo in confusion. Oh… shit… he’d implied… “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Tenzo groaned and rubbed his face, “I know. I know. I’m working on little sleep here Saki, give me a damn minute.”

They reached the edge of the forest. Jin cursed. The samurai had set up camp in the middle of a field. There were no rocky outcroppings to perch on. There was a river to the south, the woods to the northwest, and yet more plains and a few burnt out husks of houses to the east. Absolutely no cover within bowshot distance. “Fuck,” jin swore aloud.

“We could muster all our forces, try and pin them against the river.”

Jin shook his head, “There’s too much open ground between. They have more horses so they’ll have the advantage in the field.”

“The houses? They’d provide plenty of cover,” Tenzo offered.

“True, but hard to get out of, the samurai again have more horses and would surround whoever used it as cover.”

“Then how do we beat them?” Tenzo asked. His breath clicked. Jin turned to see Tenzo’s hand raised and his mouth opened in exclamation, but he quickly closed it and shook his head.

“You had an idea?” Jin prompted.

“A bad one. You wouldn’t like it…”

Jin sighed. He knew. “Lure them into the gorge, divide their numbers, and pick off the leader.”

“Yeah,” Tenzo groaned.

“I don’t think Shimura would be stupid enough to fall for it.”

Tenzo groaned. “There must be another way.”

“I could walk up to the front gate and announce myself,” Jin said with a quiet laugh.

The expression on Tenzo’s face was clear. It said ‘don’t you dare’.

Jin raised both hands in a placating gesture, “Not the time for jokes. Right. Alright.”

Tenzo frowned and went back to staring out over the field at the well-fortified samurai camp.

Jin joined him in once more surveying the place. Their walls were much sturdier and better defended than the Mongol camps he’d slunk into on Tsushima. He let his eyes roam and counted their numbers. Though it was difficult in the gloom with only starlight to see by he managed to make out Shimura and Oga banners and armor. Considering Tsushima he knew the Oga’s were the bigger threat. Anyone in Shimura garb would be less trained.

His thoughts turned to planning once more. Confronting Shimura alone would get himself killed. Luring them into the gorge was the next best plan, but with the ghost of his father looming over the island it was doubtful anyone would follow the raiders in. Though… ghosts… Jin could—        

Tenzo leaned in and gave Jin a quick peck on the cheek.

“What was that for?!” Jin whispered sharply.

“Well, I didn’t get any action when we slept together, and since we’re going to report back at Fune’s refuce for reinforcements it’ll be a while before I get another chance. Don’t want anyone to think you’re sleeping with a raider.” Tenzo winked and elbowed Jin’s armored side.

Jin scoffed. “Don’t joke about such things. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing… would it?”

“It wouldn’t? … The sleeping or people thinking?”

“Nevermind,” Jin interrupted, “We need to focus on the camp and I—”   

Tenzo kissed him.

Jin’s mind went blank. It was like ink spilled on parchment, thick and heavy, blotting out all words and thoughts that had previously existed. All the neatness and orderliness of tidy calligraphy was replaced with “Black.”

“Black?” Tenzo parroted back.

“Your hair. Your eyes.” Jin paused, town between continuing to cover for his mental slip by blurting out stupid imagery or just giving in and kissing Tenzo again.

“And my pirate heart?” He joked.

“Yes. All of it,” Jin admitted, perhaps a bit too honestly. He leaned forward to steal his own kiss.

Tenzo jerked away, pushing Jin and putting distance between them. “We don’t have time, Jin.”

“R-right.” Jin blushed and rubed a hand across his face, as if scrubbing away the kiss. Tenzo was right. They had to focus. “I was going to say I have an idea. We could bring back The Ghost.”

“Of Tsushima?”

“Iki,” Jin declared. “Kazumasa Saki will ride again.”

“Tell me everything.” Tenzo demanded.

Jin explained his plan, using the Sakai clan armor and the horse’s armor to impersonate his father and his steed. Then, with Jin playing ghost and the raiders support, they could scare or lure the samurai where they wanted them.

[bunny-banana]

israel above slovenia in the ogae polls is my villain origin story

[bettyg196]

Here we go again !

[pkmn-music-tournament]

Battle! (Legendary Pokemon - Sinnoh) plays when battling Heatran in Black 2 and White 2.

Battle! (Ultra Recon Squad) plays when battling Dulse in Ultra Sun or Soliera in Ultra Moon.

[escmemesandstuff]

The top 10 results of the OGAE poll and the Euro Jury (jury voting only)

[disneyparktournament]

Round 2

Group 2 - The Future

[mindastardust]

My thoughts regarding the esc 2023 final/results

Okay, I’ve had some time to think about this (and actually sleep a bit) and this is my (probably a bit disorganized) thoughts on the situation. (I’m from Sweden, so I’m a bit biased, but I’ve done my best to give a fair answer/judgment to everything that I’ve seen)

1. The blatant misogyny and racism

The amount of misogyny and racism directed toward Loreen that I’ve seen is truly disgusting. I’ve read things that seemed like direct quotes from the Swedish democratic party (aka the racist party) and that’s never, ever okay. It’s completely fine to dislike the song/the number/the singer we still need to treat them with the bare minimum of respect.

2. This is not the first time (and probably not the last)

This is not the first time a former winner is back. A recent example (that I also have seen other people talk about here) is Alexander Rybak who returned in 2018. I’m well aware that he didn’t win but he did win his semi-final and was, for a while, one of the favorites that year. And I don’t remember people campaigning against him for a whole week for that? I have seen some people talk about how his entry was fine since it was clear that he “didn’t even try to win and was just having fun”. I can’t find any source confirming this but I can find one interviewwith Loreen where she says that winning again wasn’t her main motivation for returning. And still, I see Loreen being accused of only caring about winning and being annoyingly “fake humble” (again, see 1).

Also, quite a few times in the past ten years, the televoting winner and the overall winner have not been the same. For example, the last time Sweden won, Måns only came third in the televoting category and this hate storm was mysteriously silent. Same thing 2016 and 2019, when Jamala/Duncan won in neither the televoting nor the jury votes but still won overall.

3. What is Eurovision about and who is it for?

Finland’s entry this year (and most years to be fair) is funnier than Sweden’s. Tattoo is not meant to be a funny song and Sweden generally sends more “normal” (or boring, if you prefer that word) pop songs rather than the more colorful, camp songs that most of us fans have come to associate with Eurovision. Do I think Esc would be more fun if we actually tried to send songs like that? Yeah, I do. I’d love for that to be a thing. Unfortunately, as esc works right now, it’s not the most “effective” thing to do if you want to win. As boring as it is, the more “normal” pop songs generally perform better than the more camp/crazy/creative ones.

We also need to remember that most of the 200 million viewers aren’t us. They are not live-blogging the whole show on Tumblr. They causally follow the show, most of them probably watching only the final. To call Tattoo “jury bait” is fine, cause it’s 100% true. To call it “normie bait” is less so. It implies that those more casual viewers (who might prefer music similar to “normal” pop rather than “classic esc camp”) don’t have the same right to an opinion as the “true esc fan” (whoever that might be). It also brings us to the question of how to identify that true fan. OGAE (the network of esc fan clubs) perhaps, who organizes the OGAE fan poll each year? But since Loreen won that one this year, I’m guessing that’s not a solution that’s good either.

Yes, Käärijä won the public vote (with quite a big margin) but Loreen came in second place and to act like everyone who voted for her doesn’t deserve to have an opinion is trying to silence quite a lot of people.

4. Was Eurovision rigged?

You all do realize that some of you sound a bit crazy, right? We clearly did not bribe the jury nor (do I believe at least) was this whole thing planned before the competition began. At best (if you want a conspiracy), Melfest (Sweden’s national competition) was rigged so that a “good artist” (in this case Loreen) would win with a very ESC-friendly song so that Sweden could have the highest chance possible of winning. Do I think this was the case? No. I don’t have any proof that our television network didn’t plan this. At the same time, no one else has any proof that they did.

5. So what now?

Loreen played by the rules and won. You are allowed to think the rules (the jury) suck (I can assure you that several Swedes hate the international jury we have at our Melfest each year). Should the rules change? I’m open to that. The rules have changed many times before and it might be high time for another change. There’s certainly much to gain in terms of goodwill by removing the jury right now. Also, kick out Israel while you’re at it. The fact that they’re still allowed to compete is disgusting.

TLDR; If you want to criticize Loreen (or anyone else), do it without being racist or misogynistic. Remember that former winners have been back before and that other entries than the televoting winner have won before. Realize that we Tumblre fans might not be the typical esc viewer. I personally don’t see how esc could have been rigged for Sweden to win and I do believe Loreen (and Sweden) played 100% by the rules, but I can agree that if those rules cause this much outrage, they might be due for a change.