The ISML 2009 schedule announcement has been postponed to Saturday, 8 November. Special thanks to raizoo and KholdStare for their work on the award poster for Fate. Final rankings and standings are posted.
2008.11.04 -- by Crisu
Congratulations to Fate Testarossa for winning ISML 2008. Because Yuki is eliminated, we will not be having the second Final Round on Friday. Instead, Friday will be reserved for announcing the schedule for ISML 2009--I repeat, just the time schedule, listing important dates of nominations and matches. The actual contestants have yet to be determined.
On behalf of the staff, I'd like to thank everyone for being patient and cooperative with us this first year of the International Saimoe League. We've learned a lot so far, and we have big plans for next year. So please stick with us and prepare to have a lot more excitement and fun come 2009.
2008.11.01 -- by Crisu
I hope everyone had a happy Halloween last night. We're now down to the final round; it's been a wonderful tournament this year. Will Fate take the win and go 5-0? Or will our championship take two matches to finish, first with Yuki winning on Tuesday and then a dramatic finale in the stars? ...In either case, while Daylight Saving time ends in the United States (and possibly other locations, our matches will still run from 0200 to 2600 GMT. So please update your schedules if DST is ending for you this Sunday; to you, they would appear to begin and end one hour earlier than usual.
melange has been added to the staff page for managing our awesome-looking tournament bracket and match maps. Ichigo-Sora has been doing a great job on the the final round posters, too!
2008.10.25 -- by Crisu
We're now in our final set of matches: one-on-one struggles to determine the bearer of the tiara once and for all. This first match between Fate and Kagami has ended smoothly, although we had to go through vote-checking twice in order to be completely sure that we cleared out all illegal votes. The results as you see them now (999-658) are final, and Fate advances to the final round.
Additionally, the probation and ban lists have been revised. I've added some explanation that would hopefully help to differentiate the two groups. The wording may change slightly over the next 24 hours as I continue to get feedback from Minhtam on his official stance on the probation and ban policies. Thanks, everyone, for your patience. As always, please use our contact form if you have any comments, questions, or concerns about our tournament and its execution. Enjoy the rest of the matches!
The staff page has undergone some reorganization as well.
2008.10.23 -- by Crisu
Juice has been added to our staff as a Scheduling Advisor. He has been helping us tremendously with the planning for ISML 2009. Welcome, Juice!
The poster for the Fate vs. Kagami match is online. Some revisions to the probation and ban list have been made, too.
2008.10.22 -- by Crisu
Our staff hopes the tournament has been as exciting and full of surprises for you as it has been for us. I apologize for the lack of updates on this page, but not very much has changed concerning the flow of the tournament. Since we have much better control of our files and scripts on this server, voting has been proceeding on schedule with few to no delays, and results reporting has been taking no longer than an hour (sometimes ten minutes on good days).
The main page has been condensed a little bit more, with the promotional videos being moved to the prologue page and the tournament bracket thumbnail temporarily moved to the top of the main page until we get some new promotional posters online for the final set of matches.
While this year's tournament is coming to an end, we have been preparing for the nomination period for ISML 2009, so stay tuned with us for more details soon!
2008.10.10 -- by Crisu
Apologies for the server troubles. Because nobody could access the site for several hours during the voting period, we have decided to extend the match for 24 more hours. So the match will end at 2600 GMT on Saturday, 11 October 2008. If you were able to vote on Friday before the server went out, you do not need to and may not revote. We haven't lost your vote, so you're okay. The extension is to give people who missed their chance to vote another chance. Thanks for your patience!
2008.10.07 -- by Minhtam
First off, I would like to thank those voters who have been participating in this tournament. So far, it has been such a blast and it's been a good ride. I would especially like to thank the returning voters who have participated in the regular season as well. Although are numbers are low compared to the two pre-qualifying tournaments, I feel that we've hit a gold mine, and we would be able to continue this league at least next year.
One minor update for those of you who have bookmarked to www.saimoearena.com/vote.html to be redirected here. Because we have successfully relocated to our new server, the owner of the old one has decided not to renew the saimoearena.com server and domain. Therefore, after Tuesday of this week, www.saimoearena.com/vote.html will no longer be active. I would highly suggest that you bookmark our home page and/or voting page so that you would not have trouble finding this site. Of course, with our new name, it will be much easier to look for it.
I'd like to thank todkapuz for letting us borrow his domain throughout the regular season. Without his services, we wouldn't have this much championship fun right now. And remember, keep spreading the word on this league, for it will grow to something far more amazing then we will have ever seen.
2008.10.03 -- by Crisu
The next round of voting (Winners' Bracket 1) should be going on right now; I hope everything on this site is working properly for you! As you may have noticed, a GMT clock has been installed on the main page to help you keep track of when voting begins and ends. Not that 2600 GMT refers to 0200 GMT of the following day, because a day has only 24 hours of course, but it's shorter to say "3 October 0200 to 2600" than "3 October 0200 to 4 October 0200." Japanese television uses hour numbers greater than 2400 all the time, so this system is not new.
Also much thanks to Kit-Tsukasa and Minhtam for writing our match descriptions. To view older match descriptions, visit this page.
2008.09.30 -- by Crisu
The tournament should be under way! Go to the Arena to vote, and please use the Contact form to report any bugs or errors! Happy voting!
2008.09.28 -- by Crisu
Match descriptions are uploaded. The Arena page should show the voting form, and it will be active at 0200 GMT on Sept 30. We're excited about the start of this double elimination tournament! Good luck to all our finalists!
2008.09.25 -- by Minhtam
Greetings, folks. Long time no see. It's been quite a long while since I wrote a long article like this. As you can see, things have changed since our Yuki vs. Kyou finale. I would like to talk about some things that have happened over the past four weeks. As you can see, a lot of things have changed and some... well... haven't. So this article will probably be too long to pique your interest, but I'll see if I can keep you awake.
Tuesday, September 30. It's a big moment, and it's only about four to five days away. I can't believe that we are ready for this, but we are. It is rather unbelievable, And with Saimoe Japan taking a one day break... on that day, this is our opportunity to take the spotlight and hopefully stay there. 8 crucial matches, and whoever loses first will already be in that hole for elimination. From then on, it will be a crucial battle, spanning thousands of miles over the world. I personally cannot wait.
Unfortunately, I myself haven't done much work on ISML at all since the past four weeks. To tell you the truth, I kind of put myself in a bombshell as we went through the regular season, back when I was virtually running the complete show... by myself. I sacrificed a lot for this league, but I may have sacrificed a little too much - I do have a life, and that life took a tumble, and it all came down to either running this or continuing college. I took the biggest compromise of my life - handing virtually almost everything to some of our more devoted staff, leaving just the overseeing work for myself, and so far, they have done a good job. So kudos to Crisu, Mokuhazushi, KholdStare, Qtipbrit, and all of the others who pretty much took over and kept this site running. Without them, ISML may have very well been in critical condition, and both this and my real life would burnout before we would crown the eventual champion.
Not to say that the site actually is perfect at the moment. The rules and the international message still needs to be revised, and unfortunately, that is still my duty. I do have to take into account the fact that if I take one day off for ISML, I will be behind in my studies, and this year may be the hardest year of my life. I have to keep pushing in college and trust in my ISML colleagues to run this league smoothly.
I will no longer do the vote-checking alone. We now have an actual team of vote-checkers who should be able to vote check without my assistance. I will assist them should my time allow, but seeing as how I picked the worst possible two days of the week to run a match, I most likely won't be able to do so. However, I trust that our team will get the results right and hopefully they will make the right decisions.
Speaking of which, ALL matches will take place Tuesday and Friday at 0200 GMT. We now have a new section called the Arena, and it is here that the polls will now be located. Yes, we are ditching saimoearena.com as well. Because our scripts have been massively updated, we now have a rotator system that automatically adds the voting radio buttons on exactly 0200 GMT. So no more of those uneven get away with extra minutes that I tend to be generous with. This system will be as strict along with time as it can be, so make sure you vote at the right time.
For those of you who do not understand the double-elimination system, not to worry. I'll give a reminder. Sixty-four contestants took part in a 5-month long round-robin competition, and the sixteen with the best records were seeded 1-16 respectively, so no randomness - just accurately measured levels of pure moe. The name of the game is to just win. Lose twice and you're out. We currently have a double-elimination bracket image that will help you understand the format a little more. The links are provided on the main page and the schedule page.
We no longer have a forum board due to low turnout. I know that the Diamond Period was when we were actually peaking, but needless to say, I had to postpone it for personal matters. Thank God it exists. However, because we never had a strong participation rate in the forums to begin with, we have decided to cut those out. We do have an IRC channel, #ISML at irc.rizon.net, so check us out there if you have IRC. If the demand for forum boards reaches an ultimate high, I will consider making a joint with AnimeSuki, the forum board that always seems to relay Saimoe information to English speakers. Until then, we will make do with what we have.
We have made other changes to the website of course, but I cannot possibly discuss them all here. I strongly suggest that you take a look around and get acquainted with our new look. We would love to have you visit various parts of the site.
Also, we have a bunch of advertising content for Double-Elimination. Marina's made the four special Tiara posters that you see in the front page. Also, give some special credit to KholdStare for making a promotional video for this league. Hopefully, we should be able to bring some of our voters back, and along the way, retrieve new voters as we prepare for one huge battle. Now that we do have expectations, I'm hoping to reach a goal of at least 1000, and along the way, I see some very close battles along the horizon.
In outside news, Korea Best Moe, one of our qualifying tournaments, is now having their Round of 16 matches right now. This will be huge in determining the new roster for 2009, and boy, does it look very well thought out. Remember that the top 24 are currently locked in for next year's show, with the next 9 on the wait-list, hoping that someone from the top 24 will take out a potential spoiler. The Korea matchups are interesting in their own merit. Nagisa, Nagi, Shana, Hinagiku, Tomoyo, Kyou, Rika, and Horo will take on seven brand new potential contestants, along with the sub .500 Chiaki Minami, who are looking for a spot in next year's competition. Along the way, the candidates currently ranked 25-32 are on death row, hoping that the former eight will win and steal the show. It's going to be an exciting one, and you have to make a decision. The following are fighting for a spot in next year's competition (Left side currently not qualified.)
Golden Darkness (To Love-Ru) vs. #22 Nagisa Furukawa (CL)
Ryogi Shiki (Kara no Kyoukai) vs. #17 Nagi Sanzen'in (HnG)
Kagura (Gintama) vs. #4 Shana (SnS)
Chiaki Minami (Minami-ke) vs. #9 Hinagiku Katsura (HnG)
Akari Mizunashi (ARIA) vs. #2 Tomoyo Sakagami (CL)
Miku Hatsune (Zetsubou) vs. #6 Kyou Fujibayashi (CL)
Shion Sonozaki (HNKN) vs. #15 Rika Furude (HNKN)
Shirley Fenette (CG) vs. #19 Horo (SW)
If any of these candidates want an opportunity to take on the most moe characters of all time, they have to beat the best in the game. And you can help them out too. Log on to moet.anizone.net and vote now, and help set the roster for next year.
There's a lot more to be said, but I am sure you are exhausted as I am. All I can say is that if you want to see how much we changed, take a look around, and e-mail me using the contact form if you have questions. We will continue to make updates even as we go through our first ever double-elimination championship, and I hope you will be prepared for what is to come.
2008.09.24 -- by Crisu
We're closing in on the start of the tournament. A promotional video has been produced by KholdStare and is now on the front page. You may also download the high-res version of the video in XviD and H264.
JR Salazar from the ISML community has also put together a video describing our 16 finalists in further detail and summarizing their path to this double-elimination tournament. View it here, and it's also embedded on the prologue page. Thanks for the hard work, JR!
2008.09.12 -- by Crisu
We are getting things further set up for the tournament. Various comestic changes have been made. The Arena now has a sample voting form while we test the new server. Feel free to vote on it to help us collect some trial data.
2008.09.02 -- by Crisu
The website has been updated with some more tournament information. Please see the schedule page for a bracket. The voting events are as follows:
9/30 - Preliminary Round of Judgement
10/3 - First Round - Winner's Bracket (Revelation of Sun and Moon)
10/7 - First Round - Loser's Bracket (Cleansing of Shifting Deserts)
10/10 - Second Round - Loser's Bracket (Cleansing of Avalanching Mountains)
10/14 - Second Round - Winner's Bracket (Revelation of Fire and Water)
10/17 - Third Round - Loser's Bracket (Cleansing of Erupting Volcanoes)
10/21 - Fourth Round - Loser's Bracket (Cleansing of Raging Oceans)
10/24 - Third Round - Winner's Bracket (Revelation of Wood, Metal, & Earth)
10/28 - Fifth Round - Loser's Bracket (Cleansing of Swaying Forests)
10/31 - Sixth Round - Loser's Bracket (Cleansing of Rusted Cities)
11/4 - Championship Match (Cleansing of Arid Foundation)
11/7 - Championship Match (Revelation of the Heavenly Tiara) *[if necessary]