#bracket challenge contest

[youcouldmakealife]

Bracket Challenge Contest: Finals Edition

A bit late, with the Conference Finals bundled in, but here's the results of the bracket challenge. Let's see how we all did:

First, the Conference Finals.

Who's making it to the Eastern Conference Finals (Metro):

Carolina Hurricanes 41% New York Rangers 31% Washington Capitals 23% New York Islanders 5%

Who's Making it to the Eastern Conference Finals (Atlantic):

Florida Panthers 37% Toronto Maple Leafs 31% Boston Bruins 20% Tampa Bay Lightning 12%

Who's making it to the Western Conference Finals (Pacific + Sneaky Central):

Vancouver Canucks 49% Edmonton Oilers 34% Los Angeles Kings 11% Nashville Predators 6%

Who's making it to the Western Conference Finals (Central + Sneaky Pacific):

Dallas Stars 38% Colorado Avalanche 32% Vegas Golden Knights 21% Winnipeg Jets 10%

Other than some Canucks and Leafs overestimation, the predictions were pretty good, honestly! In a completely random world, the eventual winners would receive 25% of the vote, but 7/8 of the top picks made it to the conference semi-finals (Leafs the exception), and the eventual conference finalists received an average 35% of the vote.

Now let's check out the Finals:

Who's winning it all?

Vancouver Canucks 15% Toronto Maple Leafs 10% Dallas Stars 10% Boston Bruins 10% Florida Panthers 10% Edmonton Oilers 10% Carolina Hurricanes 8% Colorado Avalanche 7% Washington Capitals 5% New York Rangers 5% Vegas Golden Knights 4% Tampa Bay Lightning 2% Winnipeg Jets 2% Nashville Predators 2% New York Islanders 1% Los Angeles Kings 1%

Florida and Edmonton were both tied in second, so that's also pretty good, honestly. Sure, it's a five way tie, but that's also pretty impressive in its own way. And 7 of the 8 bottom picks, all receiving 5% or less of the vote, were out in the first round, which is excellent work (the 8th was the Leafs. Because of course it was). Pat yourself on the back, all.

I'll be running the random number generator and reaching out to one of the Panthers predictors tomorrow, so if you guessed them -- congrats, enjoy the bragging rights, and, if the random number generator is kind to you personally, you'll hear from me soon.

[himbeaux-on-ice]

i'm actually so annoyed at the b's still honestly my bracket for the first round woulda been PERFECT if you morons hadnt chonked it AND you made patrice bergeron cry. unforgivable

[spinchip]

Will any of the fights be different than in canon? ESPECIALLY since Zane and Nya are now competing,,,, do you have any ideas for that? Is the Jay-Cole fight still gonna be a thing, and if so, how will it manifest? (I imagine it would be similar to canon except w/o all the initial fighting. But the lack of Zane in the dungeon completely removes the core of Cole's subplot while he's down there, even if it does eventually become a general "ok lets figure out how to free everyone" thing. I could also see them BOTH being sent down there,, Chen WAS trying to do that when he saw that neither of them were willing to win ("so both of you will lose" etc. etc.)... And the Jay and Cole here are different from canon in that they're much more ride-or-die w/ eachother, so to speak, given that they have no one else.)

Pixal is sort of filling in for Nya's role this season, right? How does everyone react to.. yknow... android (THE WORD NINDROID DOESN'T EXIST IN THIS UNIVERSE EITHER.... our whimsy.... gone....) or does she stay out of sight entirely (or never get her cover blown? Does she even do the disguise thing that Nya does?),,, My main question is, does Zane see her as an android and if so, how does he react...

Karlof is out on the Jade blade section of the tournament so Nya essentially takes his spot on the bracket. i thiiink that makes it evenly balanced since Zane doesn't participate. the Jay-Cole fight still happens (they're both really upset they're fighting each other) but they give it their all and Cole eventually throws the match because of Zane lol. Lloyd wins all his fights 1) because he's genuinely a fantastic ninja and he knows spinjitzu and 2) because most of them will hold back because they're fighting a literal child lol.

Zane never officially competes in the tournament!

SO the boatride to chens island in a day and a half long and then, when the arrive, there's at least three days of downtime before the actual tournament begins. this is where we get a lot of character interactions. Cole and Zane form a fast friendship then, Chen gathers all of the contestants for dinner where Zane openly challenges him and hints he knows more than Chen expects. Chen, threatened by this, makes zane... disappear.

but not before Zane catches on to the fact he's in hot water and literally says to Cole, "Come find me." the morning after that dinner, Chen regretfully announces that Zane has a family emergency and had to take their only boat back to land late last night... so everyone is effectively stranded for at least three days on the island... and zane is no longer competing. Cole realizes something fishy is going on and when he loses to Jay, he looks for Zane down in the dungeon.

Pixal IS filling in for Nyas role and she absolutely does not hide her nature. she monitors chens palace for a while, gathering intel. She ends up being pestered by a falcon that just wont leave her alone >:[ finally, She sneaks into clouses room and steals the spell page during a time when he shouldn't be there fort a while. Clouse catches her in the act and she tries to run but she's caught. Falcon swoops down and tries to grab the spell page but she tries to hide it, suspicious of the bird being under clouses control before Falcon reveals his robotic nature and attacks the members of chens cult surrounding her. reassured he's not clouse or chens pet, she gives him the page before she's captured and he disappears out into the forest around the island.

pixal is brought to the dungeon and thrown in a cell. she breaks out because she's awesome. eventually she finds cole and the others and agrees to help him hunt down Zane which they do!!

i would say everyone is visibly weirded out and freaked out by her android nature, but she doesn't let it bother her. she sees her existence as a point of major pride. Zane doesn't outwardly react to her appearance, seemingly neutral on it.

Pixal, with pride: i am the worlds first android. i am the most advanced technological being on ninjago!

zane, thinking: oh she is going to be very mad

[carionto]

The Equality Games

Once every now and then, the Galactic Coalition's Cultural Exchange department holds a large digital competitive event.

Anyone can participate, and to level the playing field, contestants aren't the ones who actually compete, but instead an advanced deep brain scan (or equivalent body part) and an unbiased AI create a digital avatar that represents the individual and autonomously acts within the digital space.

The cognitive capacity of each is analyzed to a near perfect level and a highly complicated algorithm that, honestly, nobody understands, even the AI that built it, then creates this avatar with traits and weaknesses based on an even more incomprehensible set of criteria and internal points system.

To put it simply - the scan identifies nearly every calculable aspect of a person and assigns a point value for each, then uses those points to "buy" the most relevant and appropriate traits from within its list to give the avatar. There are changing costs, negative value "flaws", and prerequisites based on other information from the scan, but basically it is the most convoluted TTRPG character creation ruleset ever devised.

Given the enormous complexity and diversity that individuals from across thousands of races exhibit, until this system was invented, it was thought impossible to have a sort of intergalactic Olympic Games. There were many attempts over the eons, of course, but one factor or another always made it so that someone did not accept the results.

The Equality Games, however, earned respect and acceptance as a valid alternative once the underlying system was demonstrated and people started to play with it. The avatars were made to act autonomously due to how some species had a distinct advantage when manipulating a digital interface, thus bringing up the old arguments yet again.

One curious result of the AI algorithm avatar generator is that it quite frequently created multiple avatars for each person, only the more hive-mind-like species tended to be represented by a singular avatar within the Games. It is theorized, again because nobody can understand how it really works, that most intelligent beings have multiple "personas" i.e. distinct behavior and personalities in certain common situations, primarily a "public" and "private" persona.

In fact, it is most common for everyone to generate about a three to five avatar "team" that represents the one individual. In comparison, if an ant were to get scanned and put in the games, its avatar would be a single incredibly powerful avatar with many deficiencies, but an overwhelming advantage in several disciplines.

When Humans first entered the Games, as expected, they too had teams as avatars. What was not expected, was that these avatars would sometimes work alone instead of together as a team, deliberately not help one another, and even engage in infighting and the sabotage of another "self".

The Humans suggested that it is perhaps because hypocrisy is not uncommon among them. Self destructive tendencies also appear rather frequently. These Humans almost always are themselves surprised by how contradictory their avatar team composition ends up being.

While the Games themselves happened as normal, the Humans overall placed in the top 20% brackets of most competitive challenges, and scattered roughly evenly everywhere else, they then approached us with a most unusual request.

"Give us a copy of this AI algorithm scanner thing. We think this is the most revolutionary therapy and psychological diagnosis device we've come across."

Of course we obliged and helped set up centers in a number of stations and on Earth itself.

Last we heard, some Humans have avatars that are singular nigh-nightmarish monstrosities, while a very tiny fraction have minds so splintered that their avatars are teams of dozens, one time even over a hundred distinct versions of themselves. Then there are even some seemingly regular Humans who broke the scanner - it gave the error: "Only one individual can be scanned at a time."

Upon "fixing" it with a hack, the results for those were unheard of. Two distinct avatars. Not a team of two, but by all accounts, the AI algorithm identified two separate individuals within one mind, each with very little in common with the other. Sometimes there was nothing in common, even their digital visual representation.

The mind is incredibly complex and hard to comprehend. The Human mind, while biologically quite peculiar but not outside the realms of understood evolution, neurologically it seems to hold near limitless diversity, both complimentary, contradictory, and beyond.

[swifty-fox]

“What a pair we make,” John shrugs, scratches again and gestures roughly for Gale to take his turn, “You’re a biker with no vices, and I’m a biker enthusiast who doesn’t ride.” 

Jaw working furiously, Gale stares at him for several long moments, as if working out a puzzle. Then he shrugs, bending down to line up his shot, “Fair enough.” 

The number of balls on the felt was dwindling rapidly, skewing more and more to Gale’s stripes, and John was growing louder and louder in his good-natured disappointment. “See? This is why I cheat Buck.”

When the blonde brushes past to take his shot he pauses. One arm braces itself on the polished wood edge of the table, half bracketing John in with his own body. They were the same height, but the slight lift to the heels of Gale’s leather boots meant he’d probably lose a true contest by a few inches. John grins at him, something slow and interested igniting in his gut. 

“Next shot I win, if you miss it.” 

Once upon a time, John would have already dragged Buck to a shadowed corner to get his mouth on him. Slide a knee between his legs and get a hand beneath his belt buckle. He would have done it casually, confidently. Spared no time for the slow dance. Nowadays, he found himself waiting, hanging back and allowing himself to be circled like prey. It wasn’t fear, at least he wouldn't admit it to himself because there was nothing to be afraid of after all he’d seen. But there was a new caution to everything he found himself doing, or in lighter eyes, a healthier appreciation for the chase. He makes a show of looking over his shoulder, raises his eyebrows, 

“So you will,” When he turns twisting his torso, his hip gently bumps Gale out of his space in a challenge, “Winner takes all?” 

Gale’s muscles flex beautifully as he leans on his pool cue, smirking, “We aren’t gambling, Bucky.”

Allowing a slow smile to spread across his face, John nods, “Course not.”

fellas is it gay to use pool to decide who tops?

[obscuretobyfox]

OBSCURE TOBY FOX CHARACTER BRACKET!!

WELCOOOOMEE LADIES AND- LADIES AND- TO THE Obscure TOBY FOX CHARACTER BRACKET TOURNAMENT CHALLENGE ULTIMATE 100 DAYS FOREVER TOURNEY!!! I– I–  I AM YOUR. “ALL STAR” FOR THE. AND!! YOU WILL ENJOY TODAY’S PRESENTATION! I– I– PRESENT TO. THE PARTICI”PINTS” (BECAUSE THEY ARE SO. TEEEENY!)

OUR FIRST: PARTICIPANT. IS KNOW AS! “Glyde” THIS! IS KNOWN. FOR BEING SECRET IN UnderTale, A BOSS THAT IS IN A SECRET ROOM. CAN YOU FIND. “IT”? No,

OUR. 2 ANT, “Red Demon”. They are a: SMILE, SMILE!!

OUR TIRD, PRESENTATION! “Squeezo”. They are known as the LOST COUSIN!! Of. the Huma LOOK!! (Pictured above is not the aforementioned “Squeezo.”. Squeezo is lost to time. Or perishing. Sorry)

OUR FOUR!   TH, ONE– HE– IS THE “Arn Tie Ripped” AFTER ALL!! HE HAS HAD A “Winter Quest”, you could SAY!! Known for the TOby Fox. Earthbound HACK! (The first of. 666666666

IN . FIV!E ……

punsel

FOR SIX: WE HAVE FOUND: THE. ONLY! THE One…. ….. TONY FOX! For Undertale! IT IS

SEVEN = …..NINTENY EIGHT

EIGHT! EIGHT! EIGHT! EIGHShe is the- OF THE COOL! Of “Even Flow!” I think

NUMBER …… wait, TEN! THE 10TH. CON”TEST”ANT (Because we are Testing their Likeablilety.) Is JIGSAW JOES. he tells you of the “Tu Toriel”

IN THE ELEVENTH = the Every Man! Some Say he is Every Ma

TWEL(VE)FTH of DRESS LION!!! This Funky Fellow has Found their

 It is About FOURTEEN. “Doctor Andonuts” HE IS NOT IN THE RIGHT GAME and also he might Say SOMETHING REALLY OFFENSIVE SO BE CAREFU

For a NUMBER of FIFTH EEN! We ARE LOOKING AT  Whatever This guys is named, I can’t

AND FINALLY; FOR YOUR AND FINAL CONTEST ANT! . number sixeen IS DOGE the Unknown and Obscure Toby Fox Character

OKAY!! THANK You for SEEING. LET THE GAME! (s) BEGINNING!!

ROUND 1

[tobiasdrake]

Ranma 1/2 01x08 - Darling Charlotte

Charlotte? Wait... Hang on... Isn't that... Is she supposed to be here this early?

Oh, no, it's THIS girl. My mistake.

Okay. Yeah. I completely forgot she even existed. My memory was conflating her with the... with that one.... You know who I'm talking about....

...

*google google*

Akari. I was thinking of Akari. For some reason I thought Akari was the "CHARLOTTE!!!" girl, and I remember Akari is like endgame late introduction. But she's not the Charlotte girl.

Apparently these guys are named Shingo and Kiichi according to their photos.

The stuff in brackets isn't anything interesting. It's just quoting the dialogue they deliver here.

The two Ranma photos are Saotome Ranma, but an interesting note is that the pair have different names. They're both Ranma, yes. Both of them are 早乙女 Saotome. Which, fun fact, means "young maiden responsible for planting rice". Have fun with that, Transfem Ranma headcanon team.

But the girl Ranma is named らんま Ranma in Hiragana while the boy Ranma is named 乱馬 Ranma in Kanji. Ranma's name, incidentally, means "chaos".

When P-chan hears Akane call out to him, the kanji in his eyes flip from 気絶 kizetsu meaning "faint" to 起床 kisho which means "getting out of bed".

Wait, that's who the Charlotte girl is? I remember this guy. This is the ice skater bro who Ranma and Akane have to do a doubles match against, with him and some girl.

I completely forgot that the Charlotte girl was that girl. ...and thought she was Akari instead. Wow, my memory of this series leaves a lot to be desired.

"...they're what now?" ~Junko Enoshima, intrigued.

Look at that happy smile. Azusa really wants to bean him with that table. This is her second time reaching for it.

FACT CHECK. Let's check out the replay. Aaaaaaaaand:

Oh yeah. Without a doubt. Ignore Akane's squealing gal pals and the romantic flowers in the background and just look at that face. Akane is half a second from splitting him crotch to throat with a fucking ice skate.

Ranma's challenge fish cake saved Mikado's life.

You know what's fucking hilarious about this?

1 - It would actually make more sense for Ryoga to be Akane's partner than Ranma. Like Akane, Ryoga is very invested in Akane winning the contest and getting to keep P-chan. He doesn't want P-chan going with Azusa any more than Akane does, while Ranma's kinda rooting for the enemy team.

2 - However, despite having a compelling reason for replacing Ranma in this contest, Ryoga can't actually present that argument. The only reason to let him replace Ranma is because he is P-chan. Without that context, this is a wild-ass out-of-left-field demand for him to suddenly burst out of their bathroom and issue.

3 - But if he did explain that context to Akane... he still wouldn't get to replace Ranma, because the entire purpose of even competing in this match would be instantly voided. P-chan wouldn't be welcome in her room anymore.

So he's just. Fucked. He's just fucked. His tangled web of deceptions has left him powerless to participate in something that really matters to him.

Try not to live your life like Ryoga.

So begins the era of Ranma weaponizing his curse in order to escape the pressures of his own interpretation of masculinity. He turned himself into a girl because men shouldn't be bad at ice skating. I like that Akane's a little bit offended when she finds out why he switched.

Akane: I'm not impressed! I can do that too!

The 100-man spar is a cool demonstration of how talented these two are at ice skating as a martial art. But also, this is just a typical weekday morning for Akane.

In fact, Akane's actually more impressive because this is choreographed as shit. These guys are wearing jerseys with the number of their engagement on them. They attack in sequence so Mikado and Azusa can take down 01 then 02 then 03 then 04 and on and on until they hit 100.

This is a performance, not a brawl. Most generously, it's a training exercise to help them work on specific maneuvers. A very complex and multi-person version of practicing your kata. But it's not a real fight, where Akane's version always is.

YOU PICK THAT UP RIGHT THE FUCK NOW

I mean, the collar is actually adorable and I'm kinda with Azusa on that. It's way better than P-chan's shitty neck-rag that probably smells like three months of unwashed wandering.

BUT THAT THING IS MADE OF STABBING AND THERE'S LIKE A DOZEN OF THEM FOLDED INTO ONE

DO NOT LEAVE THAT LYING ON THE RINK FOR ANYONE TO FALL ON.

The way Ranma reacts to Mikado's advances is... honestly fascinating.

We saw Akane earlier. She was a moment away from breaking this sex pest in half. We talk a lot about Flight or Fight response, and Akane has a well-honed Fight response to sexual harassment. It's. Kind of. Been a thing for her for a very long time, both the harassment and the Fight response.

But an oft-overlooked response is the Freeze response. Both times, when Mikado moves in on Ranma, his response is to Freeze. Freeze is an involuntary stress reaction that temporarily suspends both Fight and Flight.

Once the deed is done and Ranma's able to form conscious thoughts again, then we see Flight.

Until he can reassert his masculinity, and only then does he react with Fight.

Which is itself very interesting. Not just for how it speaks to Ranma's internalization of gender norms; That he reacts with Flight when female and Fight when male. But there's more than just that going on here.

Ranma doesn't just flee from the rink. He flees to the public bathhouse and throws himself into the hot bath. He's not fleeing Mikado. He's not fleeing Akane or the situation.

Being violated in this way makes Ranma flee from femininity. His immediate kneejerk reaction when his brain retains the ability to make conscious decisions is, very emotionally and very powerfully, that he desperately wants to stop being a girl now.

A tragic choice that many women don't get to make.

Not only was Akane the only person on the rink that was able to keep up with the action here - with possible exception of Mikado but explicitly not Azusa - but she was even able to count how many hits Ranma landed.

This fight establishes that Akane and Ranma are actually more formidable than Azusa and Mikado. Like, if this were a street fight, they'd trash these suckers, no problem. Pound for pound, they're tougher.

It's only because they have to compete in Azusa and Mikado's arena that this is going to be difficult. Azusa and Mikado have the home field advantage, in a contest where mobility is intensely challenging and must be mastered and controlled in addition to the fighting.

He says while wearing the fucking collar. XD

This family needs a TV. XD

[tohwitchesduels]

GO WITCHES DUELS!

Lore: It's been a minute since the Collector visited Boiling Isles (a few months after defeating Belos), however now they're back and willing to play a new game with the Demon Realm. After some talk with King, they both decided to host a tournament known as WITCHES DUELS (that's the name you have chosen). The 16 most powerful teen witches in Boiling Isles will participate (willingly) in a tournament to decide who is the most powerful teen witch in the Boiling Isles!

Information about the tournament: The tournament will feature 16 characters of my choosing competing with one another based on their strength and skill. This by no means is a popularity contest, so I don't care if you know or like the characters featured in battles, as ultimately the battle shall decide who would win a witches duel. The tournament rather than a simple bracket will also feature side battles that would decide the position in the rankings, so get ready as there will be a lot of duels.

The first round is composed of 8 1v1 witches duels between characters that were paired randomly (except for one case but I will explain it later once I introduce the bracket). After this, the winning eight will catch a break so all the losers can face each other in a grand battle royale against one another to decide their positions in the tournament (occasionally if some people tie they will also get their own battle). Once the battles of losers are over we shall advance to the second round which shall decide who gets to semi-finals. The elite 4 themselves will catch a break as I will feature a minor bracket featuring the losers of the second round. The winner of this bracket might have a chance to battle the elite 4 once the semi-finals are sealed, in which there will be 5 battles: 2 official semi-final battles; 2 winner vs losers battles; the battle between the losers of the semi-finals. Then a champion of the second round bracket can yet challenge the elite 4, which can change their placement in the ranking and finally, there will be the last battle between the champions of the semi-finals.

The Format will naturally be polls, however, under each poll, there will be an explanation of what participants can and can't do during the duel: what spells they know and can use depending on the battle format; whether or not they can utilise specific tools like palismen for example; what is their mindset going into the battle. Now keep in mind those are not Death Matches, so no need for calculations on how much raw power the characters have and only a brief summary of what they can and can't do, and the battles are decided in imaginary scenarios by either stadium out or losing consciousness (under the Collector's supervision no one shall die).

There will be no "See results" options as I don't want them to mess up the voting so you will have to make some tough choices, but that's why I feature explanations so you can have a better idea of how strong featured characters are, even if you don't know them or their capabilities. I also would appreciate it if you could provide your own propaganda and agendas regarding what characters are capable of.

If there is a situation in which participants tie, they will either be featured in a battle royale in which the person with the least votes shall be out, or they get their match-ups switched if there are more ties (though only even numbers of battles). There are no repetition if matches unless there were issues with voting or the post. However all battles are final and characters won't meet twice unless it's a battle royale.

Who will not participate in the tournament:

All adult characters are off-limits for this tournament as they shall have their own league. This is strictly a teen championship. I decided to do such separation as adult characters just outclass the teen characters, meaning hardly it would be a fair match for young rising stars.

Only characters with importance and established capabilities shall participate so no background characters that have only 5 seconds of screen time

Vee shall not participate in the tournament. Vee is in this awkward position where she either gets so stomped she shouldn't have considered participating in the first place or is just too OP to give anyone else a chance. As a Basilisk Vee only possesses two abilities: magic absorption and shape-shifting. Because of the nature of magic absorption which can render the opponent powerless if used correctly, Vee simply has an unfair advantage towards most of the competitors. However, Vee herself possesses next to no experience when it comes to battling. Vee doesn't utilise her shape-shifting powers creatively and only limits herself to taking forms of other people which is effectively useless as she does not gain their powers (and even if she did it's either unfair since she will transform into someone who naturally counters her opponent; it would be near impossible to see which form could she actually take at this point, and technically speaking it would be another character battling and not Vee herself) but such deception is effectively useless in 1v1 duels. Vee's absorption powers are also pretty slow and can be easily interrupted as Helos demonstrated (and are not as final as the Greater's Basilisk) and as I said, Vee has no experience in battles so she can't really fight with her personality, nor doesn't know any spells to use to help her.

Masha shall not participate as they have yet to discover magic. So Veesha is only cheering on others

The Collector shall not participate since he's OP, so he rather organizes the entire tournament and arranges the game specifically so no one could get hurt while the kids go all out.

King shall not participate as much as Vee, he's either too strong or too weak to participate. King is not yet fully realized Titan so he does not possess the prowess that Titans possess, only being capable of basic light spells (weaker than average ones), squeak of rage, and barrier (which while strong, can also be easily countered). King instead becomes the announcer and the host of the tournament, along with the Collector.

Hooty shall not participate as he is both too strong and too memorable to give it a fair fight (as Hooty isn't OP, but he might as well end up as such due to the voting). He also becomes the host and announcer of the tournament, but rather the adult league.

Adult league: The characters of the past like previous Grimwalkers, Caleb and Evelyn, etc. shall not participate since we literally don't know how strong and capable they actually are.

Adult league: Camila shall not participate as she barely has any battling experience. She's the best mom and she is willing to throw hands, but she simply lacks experience with magic and her battling style can be easily countered. There's also memeable potential of her swiping everyone with La Chancla, which is hilarious, but not realistic. It would be satisfying to see her try to hit Odalia with a sandal, but Odalia can unleash the phantom that would steal such a sandal and then straight-up knockout Camila if we're being serious and no fun regarding this (but in our hearts Camila is the true winner we all know that)

Adult league: Dell Clawthorne shall not participate as he never used any magic within the show and now he's disabled.

Teen League: As the name suggests, only teenagers will participate, toddlers will not

Adult league: Only a few established Covenheads will participate since the others don't have fully-realised potential

Adult league: Titan Trappers shall not appear as they barely have any champion showcasing the true extent of their magical skill.

Adult league: Jacob Hopkins shall not appear as he lost to Camila who herself can't participate for not having enough skill (I did consider Camila to participate but I ultimately decided that she won't)

Invitations - to those who showed interest in the tournament or TOH in general, but no pressure or need for you to participate in the voting. Just wanted to invite you and ensure there will be some audience to the tournament. Oh, and I also don't mind if you use more than one account to vote as long as those are established blogs and not some spam blogs (like try to not rigg the game too much):

@lilcactusboi @wren-writes-things @the-god-of-chaos-himself @violet-prism-creatively @watery-melon-baller

@thescarletdaffodil @akmonasyrk @lapluieellepleut @damianwaynelives @crushpunchh

@impact801 @evermorecatra @rosetyler42 @memory-overload @cwolfnerakagnome

@branmuffins22 @zyrafowe-sny @metalinjector95 @michaela-artist @goingtohellwithyou

@iheartleopards @thatwierdquietkidthatdraws @sophiesophsofia @tbonner2 @amity297

@itslilacmoon @lucascii @fabseg-reader

Anyone can vote in this tournament of course, but I'm not sure if everyone will see it so I hope at least you can spread the popularity of the tournament or decide on your own who wins and who loses

[zee-rambles]

ANNOUNCEMENT!

This year, I want to start off by making a tournament over all the GOOD-EST boys across media! SO! RULES BELOW!

RULES!!!

NOTE! All contest events will take place on my other page @rise-april-art-challenge (I’m too lazy to change the name, lol!)

1. Contestants

There will be 32 contestants!

Contestants will be recommended by the audience!

They can be from movies, video games, TV shows, books, audiobooks, anime, cartoons and so on.

Contestants must be the goodest boi you can think of.

And yes, trans characters count!

Only ONE character per series!

2. How to recommend a contestant!

Send your recommendation through the ask box to @rise-april-art-challenge

The recommendations period will open from Midnight tonight, January 7th (US Pacific Time, UTC 12:00 am) and will close on January 13 (11:59 US Pacific time).

Contestants are first come first serve.

If there are MORE then 32 contestants, we will have a preliminary battle royal to choose the winner! I will choose 10 of the most popular recommendations and have them duke it out!

3. Contest Rules!

Every week, we’ll have a battle between two contestants on the right bracket, and two contestants on the left.

Voting will happen throughout the week, and whoever gets the most votes will move on to the next round!

SO tune in and vote for who you think is the GOODEST BOY!

4. Conduct!

Please note, this contest is for fun, not to one up anyone’s opinions! Please be kind, patient, and good sports!

5. Use the right tags!

If you’re talking about the contest, want to make art, or support it, please use #goodest boy 2024

Have FUN!

I mean…I hope y’all do!

[ivanttakethis]

In this edition of ALIEN STAGE Magazine, we have an exclusive interview with fashion model and Round 10 contestant, Tov!

With the start of supersized Season 39 of ALIEN STAGE right around the corner, Tov sat down with us for her first ever interview and opened up about her life and her thoughts on the upcoming competition.

————————————————————

1) What have you been up to since your graduation from the Anakt Garden? How has your life and routine changed since then?

Tov: I’m a model full time now for my guardian’s fashion house, Cassiopeia. Mostly photo shoots for print or billboards, but occasionally I have the opportunity to walk in shows. I also sing in lounges sometimes for vocal practice.

Thankfully, my daily life hasn’t changed too much since graduating. It’s been an easy transition.

I’ve even been able to reconnect with one of my friends from Anakt Garden, Himei. She’ll be competing in this season of ALIEN STAGE too, though we’re in different brackets.

2) Have you noticed a shift in the public’s perception of you since the season was announced?

Tov: Somewhat, yes. People outside of the fashion industry have started to recognize me. Not a whole lot, but a few. It’s a nice feeling when they wish me good luck.

3) How do you feel about the start of the new ALIEN STAGE season? Does being on Side B take some of the pressure off?

Tov: Yes and no.

Yes because it gives me the chance to rehearse and refine my performance without having to rush.

No because there are so many strong performers in Side A that it will be a big challenge to follow up.

4) If you had the opportunity to sing a duet with any competitor from this season, regardless of bracket, who would it be?

Tov: My first answer would be someone I was close to in Anakt Garden, but I think any of us would say that.

Aside from them, I’d like to sing with Azure. He has very nice tone and smooth vocals. I could see our singing styles working well together.

5) What do you think is your charm?

Tov: It’s hard to say from the inside looking out. I’ve been told that people find the stars in my irises charming. Though Cassio insists it’s my smile.

6) Is there anything that you think sets you apart from your competitors?

Tov: I would say my voice. It tends to be deeper and a little more soulful than people expect when they first see me. I believe it adds to my strong stage presence.

7) Speaking of your voice, some of your competitors learned to play instruments as well as sing in their formative years.

If you could go back and do your time at Anakt Garden over again, would you pick up an instrument as well?

Tov: Possibly. I wasn’t really drawn to any particular instrument at the time, but if I had a do over, maybe I would try learning to play the harp.

8) What are your recent interests?

Tov: I’ve always had a strong interest in the stars, but lately I have been learning more about different galaxies and deep space. Luckily there is a lot of information and research to read about, so I don’t see myself getting bored anytime soon.

9) Has your guardian been involved in your preparation for ALIEN STAGE?

Tov: Very much so. Cassio has designed all of my outfits themself and they’re all custom made to fit my frame. Each of them is one of a kind and I am grateful for the work they have done for me.

They’ve also asked that I accompany them to work over the course of the first bracket so I can learn how my round will go from a production standpoint.

10) How are you preparing for your performance with Minori?

Tov: The same way I would prepare to perform with any of my classmates. I will do my best because I know she will do her best. It’s how Anakt Garden taught us.

11) Speaking of Minori, what do you think of her?

Tov: I remember her being very energetic back in Anakt Garden. She was always running around during playtime. I couldn’t run like she could because of my heart condition, but I enjoyed watching her race our classmates. She always won. Athleticism was her gift, but she was also good academically as well. I admire her varied talents.

12) Do you think you can win?

Tov: I hope the stars will align for me, but it is ultimately up to the audience which of us shines brighter. I will place my fate in their hands.

13) If you won ALIEN STAGE, what would you do after?

Tov: I’m not thinking that far ahead yet. I prefer to focus on each round as it comes and perform to the best of my abilities.

14) Do you have anything to say to your opponent?

Tov: I’m glad we will get to sing together one last time.

Tune in to see Tov face off against Minori during Round 10 of ALIEN STAGE Season 39!

————————————————————

Thank you to @shakingparadigm for sharing their questions! I also added some of my own as well.

Minori belongs to @skyisjusthere / @minori-dash.

Himei belongs to @lookatmysillies.

Azure belongs to @azureitri.

[youcouldmakealife]

Bracket Challenge: Round One

A little late, because the NHL decided to be unorthodox and spring the second round before the first was even through (rude), but here are everyone’s predictions!

Florida Panthers 67% Tampa Bay Lightning 33%

Toronto Maple Leafs 52% Boston Bruins 48%

New York Rangers 58% Washington Capitals 42%

Carolina Hurricanes 75% New York Islanders 25%

Colorado Avalanche 68% Winnipeg Jets 32%

Edmonton Oilers 75% Los Angeles Kings 25%

Vancouver Canucks 87% Nashville Predators 13%

Dallas Stars 60% Vegas Golden Knights 40%

Pretty damn solid predictions, everybody, possibly YCMAL 'verse related amount of faith in the 2023/4 Washington Capitals aside (also probably YCMAL 'verse Vancouver Canucks bias, who 23 of 24 ESPN pundits expect to die an unceremonious death in the coming round, a piece of information I hope will fuel the underdog arc they’ve already established with the ‘All-Star goalie injured put in the second string — oop, second string goalie injured, put in the AHLer’ storyline. (It does help when said AHLer beat Team USA to win Latvia’s first Bronze medal in Worlds last year and is a hero of the people as a result, tbh. That’s EXCELLENT underdog storyline setup by the hockey gods a year in advance).

It does help that there was only one upset in the first round, and y’all predicted said upset would happen. But pat yourselves on the back, everyone: we went 7/8 in the first round, with only a 4% margin on the one series that went the other way (in OT of Game 7, so 50/50 seems pretty fair). Better than most of the pundits!

[bluehax6]

Format Explanations

Single Elimination

Single eimination is the most basic, and popular, tournament format. How it works, is that every contestant fights against one other contestant in each round. The winner moves on to the next round, while the loser is dropped out of the tournament. Whoever wins all of their matches and wins the final round wins the whole tournament.

Double Elimination

Double Elimination is similar to Single Elimination, however each contestant must lose twice in order to fully lose, and instead of the loser of each round being dropped out of the tournament entirely, they are instead dropped into the loser's bracket, which is a secondary bracket which gives each contestant a second chance to move forward in the tournament. For every round of the winner's bracket (which is the main bracket that everyone starts in), there are 2 rounds of the loser's bracket, besides the first round; one for the losers of the winner's bracket to face the winners of the previous round of loser's, and one for the winners of the previous round to fight each other. The winner of the loser's bracket will then be able to fight the winner of winner's bracket, in a final challenge to win the whole tournament. However, because the winner of the winner's bracket hasn't lost even once yet, the loser's bracket winner must beat them twice, while the winner's bracket winner only has to beat the loser's bracket winner once.

Round Robin

Round Robin is a very different bracket, which aims to have every contestant fight every other contestant exactly once. In each round of the bracket, every contestant fights one other contestant, and the win or loss is recorded. The next round, each contestant fights a different contestant that they haven't fought before. This repeats until every contestant has faced every other contestant exactly once. Then, the winner is decided based on whomever won the most amount of matches in the whole tournament.

Swiss

Swiss is the rarest tournament format, which aims to have every player play the same amount of rounds as each other, no matter how many wins or losses they get. In the first round, every contestant fights one opponent. In the next round, the contestants who won fight other contestants who won, and the contestants who lost fight other contestants that lost. In the next round and following rounds, each contestant fights other contestants with the same win-loss ratio as they did, i.e. a contestant who won once and lost once will fight another contestant who one once and lost once. In the end, there will be one contestant who won all of their matches, and they wil be crowned the winner of the tournament.

[vickyvicarious]

Beetle Bracket

The substack is over now, it's time to be honest. None of us truly needed The Beetle in our lives. And do you know what we need even less? That's right:

The Beetle Sexyman* Bracket!

*gender, species, and probably even sexiness-neutral

That said, let's subject ourselves to this anyway.

There will be a grand total of five rounds, at the end of which the burning question will finally be answered: who is sexiest in Richard Marsh's The Beetle?

The Beetle Bracket is complete! See below for our final competitor's trophies, and below the cut for number breakdowns/writeups of each round.

Round One Breakdown

In the exact opposite of a shocking twist, Mr. Lindon was absolutely demolished by Train. Out of 130 votes, he got only 0.8%, compared to Train's whopping 90%. Excluding em-dash votes, that adds up to 117 for votes for Train and a measly 1 for Mr. Lindon.

Perhaps the biggest challenge this round was telling the contestants apart (at least in the wonderful accompanying art). However, people pulled through for Edwards, deeming that his ability to survive Sydney is the sexier quality. Out of 55 votes, Edwards won with 52.7%, compared to Peter's 27.3%. Excluding em-dash votes, that's 29 votes for Edwards, and 15 for Peter.

Brick Guy aimed his stones at the voters' hearts, it seems! Out of 58 votes, he won handily with 87.9%, while Mrs. Henderson netted a mere 5.2%. Excluding em-dash votes, that makes 51 votes for Brick Guy, and 3 for Mrs. Henderson.

Another easy victory! The Flirty Constable was confirmed far sexier than Louisa Coleman, who could only disapprove out her window. Out of 47 votes, he got 83%, against Louisa Coleman's 8.5%. Excluding em-dash votes, that's 38 votes for Brick Guy, and 4 for Louisa Coleman.

We always knew this would be the real nail-biter of Round One, and it didn't disappoint! The vote was the closest by far, and both contestants exchanged the winning spot multiple times, but in the end Cat narrowly eked out a win... true to life, at least in my experience of cat vs. carpet battles. Out of 152 votes, Cat won with 44.7%, against Carpet's 42.1%. Excluding em-dash votes, that makes 68 votes for Cat, and 64 for Carpet.

One last gimme to finish us off this round. Out of 65 votes, Glove Seller won with 80%, Matthews trailing at 15.4%. Excluding em-dash votes, that adds up to 52 votes for Glove Seller, and 10 for Matthews.

Round Two Breakdown

Look, he's no Superman - Robert Holt stood no chance against this runaway Train, it seems. Out of 102 votes, it barreled to victory with 58.8% against Bobert's 31.4%. Excluding em-dash votes, that makes 60 votes for the train, and 32 for Holt.

Nearly everyone agrees that No One is sexier than Augustus Champnell! No, not like that. I mean, the detective is significantly less sexy than the mere concept of no one at all. Out of 64 votes, No One handily won with 81.3% against Augustus's 9.4%. Excluding em-dash votes, that is 52 votes for No One, and 6 for Augustus Champnell.

Marjorie Lindon may have three men canonically head-over-heels for her, but neither Edwards nor Tumblr count among those numbers - though this was the closest match this round. Out of 41 votes, he quickly defeated her with 48.8% against her 31.7%. Excluding em-dash votes, that makes 20 votes for Edwards and 13 for Marjorie.

Percy Woodville doesn't want to fight - but luckily the voters were willing to do so for him! Out of 43 votes, he took 58.1%, compared to Brick Guy's 30.2%. Excluding em-dash votes, that becomes 25 votes for Percy, and 13 for Brick Guy.

The Beetle has many mystical abilities. Chief of these, it seems, is being literally the only main character to survive their first round in the sexyman contest! Speaks to the (lack of) sexiness in Marsh's writing, I suppose. Out of 104 votes, The Beetle won easily with 66.3%, while the Flirty Policeman only had 13.5%. Excluding em-dash votes, that makes 69 votes for Theb (nice), and 14 for the policeman.

He survived it twice, thanks to Edwards and The Beetle (more worthy competitors according to this round), but the third time seems to have been the charm. Sydney Atherton was absolutely slaughtered by Atherton's Magic Vapour! Out of 47 votes, the murdergas got 72.3% compared to Sydney's 17%. Excluding em-dash votes, that adds up to 34 votes for the vapour, and only 8 for its creator.

The Cat is no longer just lurking outside Paul Lessingham's house in hopes of pets and food. Oh no, it's shaping up to be a fierce competitor indeed! Out of 58 votes, it won easily with 58.6%, versus Paul's 29.3%. Excluding em-dash votes, that makes 34 votes for our favorite feline, and only 17 for the erstwhile statesman.

Glove Seller took an early lead, and Dora Grayling simply never caught up. Honestly, she'd probably be fine with it, she only cares about Sydney anyway. Out of 74 votes, Glove Seller easily won with 47.3%, Dora only getting 33.8%. Excluding em-dash votes, that equals 35 for Glove Seller, and 25 for Dora.

Round Three Breakdown

In any other sexyman bracket this matchup might not have meant so much, but I think we all understand these were some top contenders who both deserve our respect. Still, only one could continue on... and with the narrowest margin of victory in the entire bracket thus far, that turned out to be the Train! Out of 56 votes, it won with 46.4% against No One's 41.1%. Excluding em-dash votes, that makes 26 votes for Train, and 23 for No One. (Cat vs. Carpet had a difference of 4 votes, being the second-closest match. I'm loving that the fiercest battles are the ones with no people involved.)

Percy Woodville's charms carried the day once again, this time with a rather dramatic lead. I'm sure he's much more surprised than we are. Out of 38 votes, he had 78.9%, leaving Edwards in the dust with 10.5%. Excluding em-dash votes, that adds up to 30 votes for Percy, and 4 for Edwards.

Perhaps it's The Beetle's sheer unbridled charisma, perhaps it's the fact that the vapour has 'Atherton' in the name... Either way, this round was a slam dunk for our favorite coleoptera, proving that at least in this case canon was onto something. Out of 83 votes, The Beetle took 72.3% while Atherton's Magic Vapour could only muster up 13.3%. Excluding em-dash votes, that equals 60 for Theb, and just 11 for the vapour.

Well, it had a good run... but in the end the Cat just didn't know what to do in the face of that many gloves, just like everyone else Glove Seller has come up against. (It's fine, I'm officially declaring that she adopted it. These matches only end in death when the loser sucks.) Out of 52 votes, Glove Seller won with 53.8% versus Cat's 40.4%. Excluding em-dash votes, that would be 28 for Glove Seller, and 21 for the kitty.

Round Four Breakdown

He put up a good fight, and managed to close the initial gap somewhat, but in the end Percy just didn't have the requisite sexiness to defeat the mighty Train. Out of 63 votes, it won with 60.3%, against Percy's 28.6%. Excluding em-dash votes, that equals 38 votes for Train, and 18 for Percy.

Glove Seller may be many things (to us; she is admittedly very few things in canon), but apparently those do not include immunity to The Beetle. Winning with their narrowest margin yet, they still easily took over half of all votes! Out of 47 votes, Theb won with 63.8% versus Glove Seller's 23.4%. Excluding em-dash votes, that makes 30 votes for the Beetle, and 11 for Glove Seller.

As per vast majority vote, there will now be a third-place match next round. Apologies to the three of you who didn't want it, feel free to seek out your nearest hypnotist bugperson and ask them to erase the memories of whatever the results may be from your mind.

Final Round Breakdown

It seems that we are all the Train fiends today. At least for this one particular train. Out of 128 votes, it took the win with a solid 56.3%, against The Beetle's 31.3%. Excluding em-dash votes, that adds up to 72 votes for Train, and 40 for the Beetle. It seems some things are just meant to be. Theb will simply have to fly away with the silver, for now...

While the finale results were accurate to canon, that's not the case for third place! Percy Woodville made one final effort and overtook Glove Seller's early lead. Out of 57 votes, he won with 47.4%, against Glove Seller's 31.6%. Excluding em-dash votes, that equals 27 votes for Percy and 18 for Glove Seller. Honestly, I think she'd be proud of him, and if my official stance means anything to you, then you should know that Glove Wins (aka Persally aka this ship) is beetle bracket canon in my heart.

[yen-sids-tournament]

Summer of Superheroes: Assemble!

Think of this round like a type of Hero Placement test! Where some will be on the hero track, able to move on to the next challenge along their journey, and others are on the loser track. And none of these "hero support" contestants will be snagging extra credit to change lanes this time around.

Round 1 will have 16 total showdowns. The first 8 will be July 3 with those along the top row. The second 8 will be July 5 those on the bottom (the Marvel characters). All 16 polls will run for a week.

Here is a list of the match ups for Round 0 and Round 1 in words.

The fine print: Propaganda is allowed and encouraged as long as you understand these are not hills to kill over (read: don't be mean) and while we would like you to stick to the version on the bracket, we aren't going to forbid extra lore. We also may have the occasional extra poll which will have no impact on the actual bracket, they're just for funsies!

[spoonyglitteraunt]

Sooooo.

I just checked something on mobile, and that means having to deal with the ads which, sure ok I guess. Usually I either ignore them, or grumble to myself if they are particularly teeth grindy like the diet ads. Because really, Tumblr? Can we just not? Can we just yeet these and their fatphobic bullshit into the nearest trashfire? Just sell me gadgets and gizmos aplenty or something.

So normally I would have zero inclination to share one of these. The less seen of them the better. But I'll make an exception this once. Because, well.

Tumblr, I have questions.

I just...

Ignoring the bullshittery of the topic with the barely legible 'meal plans" that I'm sure are to die for. (As in they'd kill you if you actually followed them for real.) What in the seven fandom hells even IS this. 😂

Just look at that thing and let it sink in for a second.

So you start with the 45 to 55s.

Weird place to start, but ok. You get dude who looks like he ran away from a conan the barbarian game with a woman where the only thing they did to make her look "older" was to give her sort of vaguely grey hair. Has the designer ever seen a woman in their 40's early 50's? Or seen any humans in that age range? Any humans at all even? That bicep is bigger than her whole head. Also why are they naked? And why are they the only ones that look computergame rendered compared to the more "photorealistic" ones next to them?

Not to mention none of these "people" look particularly happy or excited about this challenge they are trying to sell you. What is the message here? Take our challenge and be so miserable you need naked hugging times in space to recover? I mean, that's more honest than most diet ads then.

So we move onto the 25 to 33 bracket.

Weird age to cut it off at, but sure. I guess this age group can expect to suddenly feel the urge to have "supportive Bro time" as part of their need to recover from the hells of depriving the body of natural energy sources. But look at that manly support. Look at the nuzzling, I mean the smelling of eachother's manly musk, I mean the bros will be bros solidarity with definitely no subtext as displayed on the subtext site.

On to the 33 to 44 aged.

I guess if you are 33 you can pick your fighters meal plans. But not if you're 44 or 45 then you only get ONE! This one is the most ambiguous and thus boring. Is it a particularly muscly lady, a msclady if you will, or just a well hidden second dude? Or could they actually have tried to appeal to beyond the gender binary, quickly confused themselves, and then just went meh throw in some muscles hide the head and it will probably be fine. We'll never know. So let's put this down as ambiguous snuggles and hope that dude goes to see a doctor for whatever AI art went wrong with that arm.

Now all of that was vaguely nonsensical and stupid, but nothing that would compel me to share. No that's for our next contestants age groups.

So, my 55+ dudes. No ladies mind, the only feminine presenting people allowed in this challenge need to be between 45 to 55, maybe 33+. The rest of you ladies get to escape the challenge and find your own reasons to do some sad naked cuddling.

But my 55+ dudes, you get the chance, nay the unexplainably privilege of tenderly embracing a lion.

Was the lion rewarded to him by the challenge as a comfort animal? Was he already in a committed partnership with the lion? Was the lion just nearby and got caught up in a moment of emotion? And what has any of this to do with diets? Who knows? Certainly not me that's for sure. But our totally real and not badly AI photoshopped apex predator is clearly making the most of snuggling up to the muscly 55+ dude who incidentally looks younger than the two previous categories. Conclusion: cuddling lions in your time of need may in fact be the source of anti aging. Let's all not try this at home.

And then we arrive at the whippersnappers amongst the lineup of tender manly dudes.

You get to gently kiss a panther on the head. As one does with an apex predator, obviously. Funny though how there are more feline paramours than any other category what with the ambiguous third. So furry is clearly the ultimate relationship dynamic for sad naked cuddling in the aftermath of their product. Maybe they should have given them all cats then. Although I must say the panther seems far less pleased to be used for comfort than the lion did. Maybe they didn't feel photogenic that day. Maybe it's a relationship on the rocks. Maybe they were not paid enough to deal with this shit. Neither were we, my friend. Neither were we.

So, as I said. Tumblr, I got questions.

But I don't suspect you have any answers.

[essektheylyss]

World Wizard Entertainment: After Hours

I did want to write a little thing now that I am done making a vicious mockery of Vince McSam, because this was really a WILD week and I do love a debrief.

Honestly, when I sat down to make a bracket last week, I was not committed to posting it, I was not going to make any graphics, and I definitely was not planning to run a tournament.

....Obviously that changed, but you already know that.

Really I just wanted to figure out how hard it would be to properly seed a tournament in fandom. I've already talked about that elsewhere so I won't get into it, but when you're building a tournament, you want it seeded for intrigue in later rounds, even if round one match-ups are very lopsided.

But once I had it, I was thinking about how different polls have gone in the past. Specifically, I had written a post during some earlier polls with Laerryn and Essek competing that was commenting, you know, if we're talking duel, Essek loses, 100%. He'd have a prayer in hell of winning, and there are no gods here or whatever. And the poll in which Laerryn and Essek were matched up, which Aabria made a very funny joke about, wasn't even a wizard poll! It was just sexiest character or something. But the thing is, a lot of polls have been really vague about what criteria to vote on, and there's a reason for that! A lot of polls like that are going to have an obvious winner. And because of how these spread, you are going to have a lot of people voting purely on popularity or name recognition, including plenty of people who are not super engaged in fandom since there are lots of lurkers (and we love them! hi, lurkers!), and also random people outside the fandom who just vote on any poll, so you have to account for that.

But we have polls now, and fandom is fun and chaotic, so I wondered... could you game it for an unexpected result?

I cannot turn down a challenge once I've come up with it for myself, so at that point, I actually built a tournament.

For a lot of the week, in all but the most meaningless and random of situations, I thought the answer was no! We got Ludinus kicked in the first round, which I mostly did to stir up a little drama, because round one was pretty calm and quiet.

By the quarterfinals, it got tougher. At that point there were more folks engaging, but a lot of the tags were, "Didn't we already decide this?" and I was like, well, no one is watching March Madness year after year going, "Well, Gonzaga* is the best and that's decided I guess," (except maybe Gonzaga fans, but knowing some of them, they are really serious about their basketball). They're there because there's chance involved. A great team can lose to an underdog in an early upset. Also, there's always the bracket contest, which is another layer of gamification that adds some interest. (Sidebar, can you tell yet that I wrote a paper on gamification when applying to grad school? Lulz.) But like I've mentioned, fandom polls are highly stacked to be popularity contests. How do you introduce some chance and intrigue?

As it turns out, you call the Veth stans, which I sure wouldn't have guessed, so I'm glad they turned up anyway.

But in all seriousness, with a poll like this, it's really not about deciding who is The Wizard. (For the record, with my url fully visible, the answer is absolutely Laerryn Coramar-Seelie. She is seeded first for a reason!) It's about seeing if you can be weird and wacky enough, or maybe just heartfelt and sincere enough, to turn the tide of what's expected. But it's only fun if it's collaborative.

And here's where I say it all comes back to collaborative narrative and storytelling, because when does it not with me, but seriously—I seeded Veth pretty high because she was a PC, but wasn't sure if she was going to hold that far through the polls. By the time she was, I wasn't asking, "Why is Veth beating Yussa, the most no-brain cell wizard in the northern Exandrian hemisphere, with one wizard level?" It was clear that the Veth fans had decided to make this their mission.

So I do hope the takeaway, based on everyone making content and giving speeches and doing a fun kayfabe, is that you can make a really interesting and fun tournament by committing to the bit. You have to get ridiculous and you have to stick with it, but that's... really what fandom is. It's really not about "is my fave gonna win," and it's honestly not even about who wins (you may have noticed that the winner section of my results post is... small, which is intentional), it's about building a little story together.

And I'm really glad we all did that. I feel like I need to go around and do a virtual 'good game' high five to the Veth stans, and the Caleb stans, and Aabria herself, and everyone who wrote in defense of someone and put on a kayfabe and ran with a bit, because it really was a fun roller coaster of a tournament.

And if you didn't join in this week, but kind of wanted to, I hope the next time someone runs a tournament you just go for it! I was also a lot more timid about fandom participation as a teen, but honestly, if you are really excited about, I don't know, Realmseer Eskil (who is super cool by the way), don't take it too seriously and write an overwrought defense of them! Make a funny meme! Be sporting about it, come up with the most ridiculous reason you can name to vote for them, and run with it.

(Also, my other takeaway is that it is really easy to ape the overblown wrestling host voice. Please do it, it's literally so funny.)