The best part of this competition so far is the epic writeups that the staff (or just minhtam) comes up with.

It is like a journey through space, despite the fact that we cross the deserts of the Sahara and Gobi, and we are now halfway toward finding the beautiful radiance of the sun. Mathematically, all of the girls are still in the running, but we are now at the point where some must either keep winning or set their sights on the luminance of the moon. But as the girls get closer, the sun keeps getting warmer, and although it is 93 million miles away from the earth and just about 720 million miles in diameter, a number of girls are close to holding it in their hands.

But like the sands of the Sahara, momentum shifts toward other places, and it seems as while some contestants get stronger, others can get weaker, and it is now that only two - Haruhi Suzumiya and Tomoyo Sakagami - are left undefeated. How far can they still go? And for the young girls who are on the rise to the top, could both Haruhi and Tomoyo fend off their remaining opponents or could a virtual unknown steal the sun?

How could you not want to participate in this tournament if every struggle sounds this epic? We’re talking moe battles on a GALACTIC level here. Haruhi is essentially a universe-altering god, and Tomoyo can make the universe shake with those glasses of hers. (Although I still want Kagamin to win. She rocks my universe at least.)

The tournament is about to finish the second of seven divisions, symbolized by the Topaz Necklace. But that’s after May 10, so I’ll start off by reviewing the first division, Aquamarine. The seven gems are based off seven Chinese elements, so these aren’t picked completely at random. I rather like how it’s organized.

I feel like I’m reading football scores while looking at the standings table. You can talk about the girls with super winning records, super losing records, and records “on the bubble” of the top-16 playoffs that will start this fall. Since at the end of Aquamarine only 9 rounds (576 matches) have been played so far, the results don’t have too much fluctuation. But I imagine it’ll get mathematically interesting toward the end of it all.

Of course this is a competition based on only voting, not dynamic athletic/magical ability, so there are obvious limitations to how suspensful and unpredictable this can get. But entropy still manages to find a way. The Rena-Kagami upset from Saimoe Japan 2007 is still oddly significant despite it being just a voting contest (where campaigning is perhaps negligent to the actual results; people will vote who they think is cutest; it’s not like real-life politics where Nagisa wishes for monthly dango festivals or Rena promotes a lax concealed weapons policy or Konata fights for a fair consumption tax on manga and magazines).

Well anyway, Aquamarine. Detailed standings are found on the website. But notable stuff to point out in general is the undefeated record of four girls so far: Shana, Yuki, Tomoyo, and Haruhi. However the 1-loss girls aren’t far behind at all. Remember there will be 63 matches played, so a record of 48-15 could still possibly be a winning one for the playoffs.

The Hiiragi sisters have already gone against each other in Round 9 with Kagami winning 209 to 79. Fate Testarossa has one loss so far … by a mere two votes to Kyou in Round 8. And Kyou lost to Shana in Round 3 by 40 votes. A few overtime matches have already been played, with those generally being settled by a small margin of votes just like their tied regulation votes. Kugimiya girls Louise and Nagi faced off in Round 6 with Nagi winning 144-92. Chiaki, Louise, and Tamaki sit with losing records of 3-6, 2-7, and 1-8 respectively so far. It’s sadness, but I guess somebody has to lose from the start. But it’s not too late for them! And at quick glance I see only two matches where the loser gets less than 40 votes, so every one of the 64 girls here has a following; we may have a chance for some good upsets this season.

Shana ends up as the winner of Aquamarine based on vote differential (the third tier of tiebreakers). I don’t think individual necklace winners has any bearing towards the final winner of the whole tournament, but they’re nice intermediate prizes to note.

Go, Kagami, go!

Join discussion about the tournament on the official boards or on the AnimeSuki official thread. While translators are still wanted (and possibly some biography writers), at this point you should just sit back and enjoy the tournament as it gains momentum in the summer months when us Internet junkies have more free time.

Stay healthy, minhtam!

~Crisu

All images are copyright their respective creators, all drawn from here (except for Kagamin).

Topaz results coming soon! But in the meantime, you can vote now in the final Topaz round! Topaz 9 ends Saturday, May 10, at 2500 GMT.