Announcing: The Character Battle Tournament of Champions!

[a_bit_of_wit_2]

That's right, everyone: the Tournament of Champions I mentioned all during the last contest, Battle Royal, is about to begin. This contest will pit the 8 champion characters from the 8 character battle contests that were hosted on Into the Lifestream, Fantasy World, and my LJ over the last 4 years; and by your input and voting, will determine the ultimate champion of them all. And they are, as shown above going from top left:

1) Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy 7 (Contest 7: Generation 7, Summer 2007)
2) Scorpion, Mortal Kombat (Contest 3: Super Smash Melee, Summer 2005)
3) Nemesis, Resident Evil 3 (Contest 2: Video Game Villains, Winter 2005)
4) Laguna Loire, Final Fantasy 8 (Contest 1: Final Fantasy, Summer 2004)
5) Link, The Legend of Zelda (Contest 6: Video Game Heroes, Winter 2007)
6) Samus Aran, Metroid (Contest 4: Female Gamer, Winter 2006)
7) Mario, Super Mario Bros. (Contest 8: Battle Royal, Winter 2008)
8) Jessica, Dragon Quest 8 (Contest 5: Colosso, Summer 2006)

And like in past character battle contests, anyone can enter! Refer to the FAQ for information on how to enter. I do warn you, though--before you decide to enter, keep these things in mind--

As this contest will only last a week, there are a few things that have changed from the normal, full-length character battle contests. Here's two important things you may wish to consider before deciding to enter:

--This contest is for fun. There will be no monetary prizes given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. There are small prizes to be had, but nothing of the size that I usually give away for a full contest.
--Points accumulated here will be added to the Cumulative Leaderboard.

That's really it. All the other rules and other stuff that normally is involved in a character battle contest remain in play. The FAQ will better describe the contest further. To those who've entered these contests before, read the FAQ--one or two things with regard to making your contest bracket have changed...Bracket Maker's put in some new features.



Important Stuff

1) This contest is open to ANYONE. Yes, ANYONE. There is no age restriction, gender restriction, parental permission, or geographical limit. Anyone can enter this contest.

2) This contest is a competition in which you, the entrant, can earn points by correctly predicting winners via a creation of a standard elimination-style tournament bracket.

3) This contest will last ONE week, from May 15 to May 23, 2008, and will be held simultaneously on my LiveJournal (http://l-loire.livejournal.com) and Fantasy World (http://www.fwxd.net).

4) If you have any questions, there’s a number of ways to get a hold of me.

Email: LLoire01@yahoo.com (subject line “Contest Question”)
IM: AIM-Xcbrian2; YIM-LLoire01; MSN: LLoire1119@hotmail.com
Fantasy World: SRoth

5) Because the contest will only be a week long, this contest will be played JUST FOR FUN. No monetary prizes will be awarded for this particular short contest. Any points you do accrue will, however, be added to the cumulative Leaderboard. This contest follows the same rules as in the previous Character Battle Contests.

Point System:

As this contest will only comprise a total of 8 battles, nothing too elaborate here. Here's how it'll be set up.

Round 1 (4 battles): 10 points each.
Round 2 (2 battles): 25 points for a fully correct pick, 15 for winner.
Loser's Match: 50 for fully correct, 25 for just winner.
Championship: 100 for fully correct, 50 for just winner.

Bracket Setup:

As for the past several contests, I will be utilizing Bracket Maker once again for this short contest.

To begin, click on the link to be taken to the Tournament of Champions bracket list: http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=275969

There you will see two brackets, the Championship Bracket, and the Loser's Match bracket…what's that you say? Yes, there is NOW a Loser's Match bracket! You don't have to tell me what it is! You can just enter it right there! More on that later. First, click on the Championship Bracket, where you shall see the 8-player field. From there, it is self-explanatory on what you do next. As most of you have done this already, just follow the instructions. If you're new, then you will need to register with Bracket Maker (it's free) before making your bracket. And again, all is self-explanatory. Make your picks until you get the Champion, and that's it! If you do have questions, though, don't be afraid to ask.

Now, the Loser's Match bracket. The Losers' Match bracket is just one battle, as you will see by clicking on the Losers' Match bracket. This match pairs up the two losers from the two battles in the Semifinals. You will see this match displayed as Loser 1 vs. Loser 2. All you need to do is refer to your Championship Bracket, take the two losers from the two Semifinal battles (Loser 1 refers to the first Semifinal battle, Loser 2 refers to the second Semifinal battle), pair them up, and predict who wins that consolation match.

On my end, it'll tell me your pick as Loser 1 or 2, and if you have Loser 1 winning the Loser's Match, I will know that it was the Loser of the first Semifinal battle that is your pick, and vice versa. And that's it!

How the Bracket Seeding Was Determined:

The seeding of the 8 characters in the Championship Bracket was determined by how favored they were in the contests that they were in. Here's how it was broken down:

Laguna Loire (1/10): 10%
Nemesis (2/13): 13%
Scorpion (1/16): 6.25%
Samus (2/22): 9%
Jessica (1/15): 6.67%
Link (8/21): 38%
Cloud (7/15): 46.66%
Mario (13/30) 43.33%

This list shows the champions in order of contest, with Laguna being the first, and Mario being the most recent.

In the first contest, the Final Fantasy contest, there were 10 entrants. Of those 10, 1 wanted Laguna to win. This means that he was 10% favored to win.

In the second contest, the Video Game Villains, 13 people entered, with 2 wanting Nemesis to win. This meant he was favored by 13%.

In the third contest, Super Smash Melee, 16 people entered, with 1 wanting Scorpion to win. As a result, he was only favored by 6.25% of the field.

And so forth.

The higher they were favored, the higher they were seeded, and that was how seeding was determined for the Tournament of Champions.


Prizes:

I know I mentioned that there would be no MONETARY prizes given away here, like in past contests, given how short this one is going to be. However, whoever finishes in the top 3 positions will be given a soundtrack of video game music: you have a choice of either the Battle Royal Official Soundtrack (which is a collection of the full, unedited music used in the 9 Battle Royal podcasts), or a several-disc collection of music in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Final Things of Note:

Dates:
May 1--Signups begin.
May 14--Signups end.
May 15--Contest begins.
May 22--Contest ends.

There will also be ONE podcast in regard to this contest, and that will be on the 22nd, when the contest ends. Anyone who wishes to join me, then by all means, let me know.

I don't anticipate the crazy turnout we had in Battle Royal, but I can hope. You have 2 weeks to enter, so good luck! Any questions, please ask!