RESULTS - Seeding 1

[Demi.]

My poor Fate-chan...
T_T

It's okay, the real battle is the regular season. :3

[ithekro]

It is early yet...for Ushio I mean. It wasn't exactly an easy group. We shall she if the tide turns for her when facing one on one.

[Team Rocket Elite]

Ushio won't have the power to compete in the Round Robin tournament. Maybe if it was a 64 character tournament there would be a couple weaker characters she could deal with, but there won't be many in a 50 character tournament. I guess she's still probably stronger than Nodoka and Mihoko. I guess Ushio might be strong enough to put up a fight against Saten Ruiko. Shinku and Isumi for Prelim Phase 2 also aren't that strong and they'll probably make the round robin. Ushio is still going to finish near the bottom even if a couple weak characters sneak into the round robin.

[Kaito_Dash]

Various Thoughts of Mine:

Mio's debut was fantastic.
Shana and Hinagiku sure met expectations.

Fate and Kyou are quite below expectation.
It does not tell much without 1-1 match, but this makes their status as big-name shaking.

Tomoyo did quite well, it seems that CLANNAD are still some power.
Glad to see Mikoto finished in Top 8. If things go on like this, she might end up being Tier 1 or Wild Card.

Seitokai are not very powerful against big names, but Mafuyu rocks.

I'm in despair with Saki.
We have 2 of them, and it turned out that they ridiculously finished at the bottom...

[rainbowizard]

Anti-votes greatly affect to 1 vs 1 matches. For example, in Haruhi vs. Rena, Rena can gain many votes from people who hate Haruhi, so it is not impossible for Rena to be as strong as Haruhi. (In Korea Best Moe 2009, Haruhi defeated Rena by 1403-1393.)
Ushio is strong at 1 vs 1 because she can get a lot of opponent's anti-votes. No one hates Okazaki's little cute daughter.

We shall she if the tide turns for her when facing one on one.

Japanese word ushio means "tide". The tide must turn for Ushio.

[melange]

The Saki girls though are going to get annihilated.

On a chinese forum that's watching ISML there was this comment "麻将就是今年的春日步" -> "Mahjong (Saki) is the new Kasuga Ayumu" lol

[Eisdrache]

Group D was probably the most heavily staked group with three high vote totals and three relatively low vote totals, I think B Group has the highest vote totals but it could be A Group. C and E group seems to have the lowest with D group in the middle.

You are pretty good at guessing.
Vote totals:

A: 9685 (2)
B: 9693 (1)
C: 9587 (4)
D: 9604 (3)
E: 9539 (5)

Overall votes are very close to each other.

[ithekro]

154 vote difference between top and bottom, eh? Since each person has two votes per group, that should equal 77 voters. That a lot different that the 1,00 or so voter difference between high and low matches in the Preliminaries and last year's Diamond matches.

[Toady]

I'm not surprised that the Saki girls didn't do better, we could tell form Phase I with pathetic Saki, Yuuki and Kana results. Amae Korome did ok, but she had some weak opponents.

But I'm really surprised that Mikuru is last !!! I didn't expect her to win this, but being behind Kurimu... That's so sad.

And I knew that Mio was very strong, but she just did better that Taiga and Yuki ! Yeah, just that.

Good result for Sengoku Nadeko too (though she's 4th...) She's quite close to Nagi's level, that's going to be interesting.

It also seems that Misaka Mikoto will shine better than last year. I hope this stays tru when the Railgun anime will be over.

In Bracket E, Saber certainly won because votes were split between the others. It's a very good result though. But I don't think she would win against Azusa or Kyou...

[maikun]

Happy Tomoyo lead her group... lol suprise to see mafuyu beating yui... minatsu 5th in her group

[ilkaid]

So Shana wins

But the results for Saki fail horribly, unsuprising but still...

[Umi]

More people are jumping on Mikoto's bandwagon after Railgun aired.

Mafuyu > Holo/Yui is fail.

[LiuXuande]

It's hilarious and sad at the same time how the Saki girls were crushing every opponent in their path in Saimoe Japan last year, so much that everyone thought China would storm and try to get a Saki final four...and they can't even get a decent seed (some of whom can't even hold their own in the prelims...) in ISML.

[Cassiopeia]

It's hilarious and sad at the same time how the Saki girls were crushing every opponent in their path in Saimoe Japan last year, so much that everyone thought China would storm and try to get a Saki final four...and they can't even get a decent seed (some of whom can't even hold their own in the prelims...) in ISML.

Majong is almost unknown in the world outside China and Japan, so Saki girls would need a very strong support from China and Taiwan, since they may struggle in other countries. Well I guess Saki even failed to get support from those two countries as well, but I kinda understand, since Saki's majong game scenes are impossible to understand without basic Majong knowledge. I don't know much about Majong either, so I didn't get surprised whenever Saki girls had those impossible hands Saki is enjoyable for just watching its amazing casts, but the cast alone may not be enough to compete against other high profile anime series.

I think it is a bit of waste that Saki girls even got the guaranteed spots to the regular season based on their performance. If they also competed in the preliminary, they may not even make it into the regular season at all.

BUT yeah I agree Saki needs more recognition. I love some of the Saki girls, so I even nominated and supported Takei Hisa even if I knew she would fail.

[ithekro]

Majong is known, but it is a game played by old women in every instance I've encountered it.

[Fate]

If Demi.'s not upset, then it's a-okay.

[bluemage]

On a chinese forum that's watching ISML there was this comment "麻将就是今年的春日步" -> "Mahjong (Saki) is the new Kasuga Ayumu" lol

LOL I can actually understand that comment even without the translation, being a Chinese voter from Canada. Regardless, I will support Nodoka as much as I can.

If Demi.'s not upset, then it's a-okay.

I definitely know what you mean.

I hope you assholes are proud of yourselves.

Looks like the hate from MyAnimeList has extended to even here. These matches are only for seeding purposes after all. Who knows what may happen in the regular season for any of the characters.

I think it is a bit of waste that Saki girls even got the guaranteed spots to the regular season based on their performance. If they also competed in the preliminary, they may not even make it into the regular season at all.

Still, it was fair how the auto-qualifiers were determined, even if it is a waste. This just shows that the demographics of the three main Saimoe tournaments can be very different.

[Demi.]

If Demi.'s not upset, then it's a-okay.

I definitely know what you mean.

What does it mean?

[hinakatbklyn]

It also seems that Misaka Mikoto will shine better than last year. I hope this stays tru when the Railgun anime will be over.

The added screentime for Hinagiku in Season 2, may have been the reason for her winning 2009 ISML last year. If there was a specific reason, I would point to her singing performance in one of the episodes.

While the railgun series has boosted Mikoto's chances to do well in the regular season, I have my suspicions that she may try and copy Hinagiku with her own performance in the most previous episode (even if the performance was only instrumental). I wonder if it would boost her stats even more than what they already are (maybe Top 16 range). (too early in ISML to assume)

[Cassiopeia]

I think it is a bit of waste that Saki girls even got the guaranteed spots to the regular season based on their performance. If they also competed in the preliminary, they may not even make it into the regular season at all.

Still, it was fair how the auto-qualifiers were determined, even if it is a waste. This just shows that the demographics of the three main Saimoe tournaments can be very different.

no I don't mean it's unfair, and I agree this shows the difference in demographics in 3 Saimoe tournaments.

However, if this pattern continues, ISML may need to reduce the number of auto-qualified spots assigned to two other Saimoe's top performers.
Including top performers from other leagues makes sense, since ISML is supposed to be the international tournament which also represents voters from the other two but lack of participation from Japan kinda ruin the results unfortunately.

SOO Please support Saki more I hope Takei Hisa qualifies to the regular season.