Congratulations to Shana on winning the Diamond Necklace! This is her third for the year and fifth overall — a record that will be difficult to beat in future years. But the final prize of the Tiara still eludes her; how will Shana fare in the postseason? Fifteen other competitors have the same goal and have the same chance this year.

Now that the regular season is over, the cumulative standings finally have the head-to-head tiebreaker applied. This tiebreaker precedes SDO, which had been the dominant tiebreaker all season long until now. Here, the tie is first broken by the Contestant who won the one-on-one (head-to-head) match between the two who are tied. For example, Suzumiya Haruhi finishes above Sakagami Tomoyo despite having a lower SDO, because she won her match against Tomoyo in Ruby 4.

The effects can compound, as with the case of Fate Testarossa, who drops below both Furukawa Nagisa and Shiina Mafuyu after losing to them in Ruby 3 and Sapphire 4 respectively. Mafuyu ends up on top for her defeat of Nagisa in Topaz 3.

Sometimes a “loop” occurs. Towards the bottom of the rankings, we have Ushio who defeated Nymph (Sapphire 7). But Nymph defeated Chiaki (Aquamarine 1) who then defeated Ushio (Aquamarine 7). Because nobody has the advantage, the tiebreaker is dropped from consideration, and SDO is the next tiebreaker to be applied.

Overall, not too many changes were made as a result of this tiebreaker. It did not play a role in deciding the very last Top 16 slot.

We go on break to prepare for the postseason; congratulations to the Contestants who advanced! We have to say goodbye to the other 34 for now, but many of them are likely to return in the preseason of ISML 2011. Thanks to everyone who has voted and stayed with us so far; we hope you come back soon for the grand finale!