#Time to take the 1st 2nd and 3rd place winners of overall votes in both popularity polls and find out truly once and for all

[gxild-boning]

[seventeenlovesthree]

Fandom Shipping Polls - Yamato Ishida Shipping Analysis (Poll I + Poll II)

As pointed out in the main post, every single Chosen Child will get their individual analysis post to check on the status of the current popularity of their ships. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at Yamato, shall we!

The overall results / spreadsheet

Disclaimer: As the “Someone from 01/02″ and “Others” options from poll 1 and the “Someone from 01/02″ option from poll 2 have been excluded from the final analysis due to redundancy reasons and all results were culminated in another “final count”, the results will not be 1:1 to what the polls look like:

Overall votes: 116 (approx. 91 in sum after the exclusion), the main poll got 84 votes, the secondary poll got 32 votes.

The “Others” choice in the main poll received 6% (approx. 5 votes) and 0% (0 votes) in the secondary poll. The comments/tags did not specify any preferences here (aside from characters that were already part of the main choices).

Ship Analysis

1st place: Taichi (37%) led the poll from the beginning and was, at no point in time, threatened to be surpassed by any other choice. As mentioned in Taichi’s analysis already, Taiyama/Taito has always been going strong and is a very popular choice for both parties. The ship is, not only in fandom but also in canon, a relationship that is highly focused on in terms of how they clash, but also complement, support and make each other better - which is also why there are tons of official promotional art that could have been used for the graphic! Taichi is Yamato’s (development) foil for a reason and the way their dynamics are being presented make them an appealing choice for one another.

2nd place: Similarly to Taichi, Sora (28%) has sat comfortably in second place throughout the entire voting period. Which shouldn’t be surprising either, as Sorato is one of the very few confirmed canon couples in the series to end up with each other - even if their screentime is severely surpassed by Taiyama, which may explain the discrepancy in the votes.

3rd place: Likewise, the third winner never really had to fear being overthrown; Jou’s votes (17%) picked up only slowly throughout the voting period, but seeing how Joumato has gained more attention on Twitter lately, it is no surprise to see him here - as several media forms have focused on their relationship (for example the novels, the stageplay - and of course the episode that actually activated the Crest of Friendship)

Honorary mentions: Since Yamato’s polls have not received as many votes as Taichi’s (and the results are also being very clear in terms of who gets favoured), there aren’t many other choices to really point out. No other option surpassed the 10% mark after all, but Daisuke (7%) and Jun (5%) may be singled out at this point; the Motomiya siblings have actually ruled over the secondary poll (aside from the “Someone from poll 1″ choice) after all! With only 4%, Mimi also joins the squad, even if Mimato appears to be a much more popular ship in other internet spheres (such as Instagram or Facebook).

“The 1 vote squad”: This space is reserved for Ken (1%) - and Meiko (2%), who got 2 votes.

“0 votes go to...”: This group will be interesting to look at if we take a glance at the reversed results, but let’s just list them for now: Koushiro, Hikari, Miyako, Iori and Menoa.

Annotations: Takeru was automatically excluded as a choice up front. Yamakeru does not seem to be a wide-spread choice in English speaking fandoms, even if a look at Japanese centric spaces may suggest that it’s fairly popular there.

What did the other polls say?

Yamato is one of the characters who hasn’t won any other poll - but did come in second for Taichi (21%), Sora (31%) and Jou (17%), thus mirroring his own results at least to a certain degree. This underlines once more how clear the preferences appear to be in his case. 

He also came in as third choice for Meiko (13%).

He was generally a niche choice for several characters, such as Mimi (6%), Ken (2%), Daisuke (1%) - and Hikari (4%), who shall be pointed out in particular here, as she received 0 votes in Yamato’s own poll, but actually had 4 people vote for him in her poll.

He received 0 votes in the polls for Miyako, Iori - and Koushiro, making this the first poll where neither party received a vote, thus having nobody pick Yamashiro as viable option.

Notable additions / comments / thoughts

As mentioned above, his polls did not receive as much attention as Taichi’s, thus, I really hope to reach a wider audience if I choose to repeat the polls once the fandom is not as quiet as it is right now. 

The three winning pairs have never really been threatened, thus showing that the parts of the fandom that participated in the voting can agree on who they see as viable options for Yamato - and if we look at canon evidence, Taichi, Sora and Jou are likely to provide the most consistent results.

There were some niche choices that are very interesting to look at - the Motomiya siblings really seem to have left an impact in 02. Meiko and Ken did not receive a lot of votes, but people might still think fondly of them because of their anime interactions. Last but not least, Mimi and Hikari did gather some attention for their respective fandom corners. Aside from that, Yamato’s more aloof attitude in the series (and focus on the characters mentioned above) may have make it harder to see his as viable option for other characters.

The comments in the tags have only referred to Taichi overall, so the “Others” option did not reveal any other potentially preferred suitors. This leaves room for speculation, but usually, the option is reserved for OC ships or for when people prefer to not ship a character at all (which will definitely be a future option to include as well!)

Other Analysis Posts 

Taichi Yagami Shipping Analysis

Sora Takenouchi Shipping Analysis

Koushiro Izumi Shipping Analysis

Mimi Tachikawa Shipping Analysis

Jou Kido Shipping Analysis

Takeru Takaishi Shipping Analysis

Hikari Yagami Shipping Analysis

Daisuke Motomiya Shipping Analysis

Ken Ichijouji Shipping Analysis

Miyako Inoue Shipping Analysis

Iori Hida Shipping Analysis

Meiko Mochizuki Shipping Analysis

[underratedmhapoll]

Round 2 (+Round 1 Overview)

Round one has closed! I’m very grateful for everyone participating and having fun with the polls so far so let’s see how round 2 is going to go down.

There were some easy wins and some interesting surprises all around but we also had a tied match. Tsukauchi and Burnin tied with a solid 50/50, so per my last post, instead of redoing the match or eliminating one arbitrarily, both of them will still compete. Tsukauchi will face Natsuo and by a randomization, Burnin’ will be added into round 6 against Kendo and Edgeshot. Keep in mind we will still only pull one winner from that match to move on to the quarterfinals.

Round 2 will take place next Friday on March 3rd at Noon EST. 

Don’t worry I know a week is a while to wait for a damn tumblr poll, but I will post reminders periodically so you don’t miss when the polls drop. I’ve just decided that’s the best time for my schedule to post and manage the polls so it will be the same day and time for every round going forward.

I also took the liberty of ranking everyone based on their win or loss percentages. The top 17 spots will change with the next round but places 18-32 are set in stone.

Natsuo won the largest percentage in his poll, leaving him currently in first place

Mimic is our official biggest loser of the tournament at 32nd place

Testsutetsu VS Spinner received the most votes out of all round one polls

Magne and Tiger placed above Compress and Joke respectively due to their poll having more votes.

Burnin’ was placed above Tsukauchi overall due to her keeping a lead in the poll for longer. We’ll see if she stays ahead.

Ragdoll, at 18th place, wins the “so close, so far” award for round one.

And of course, here are the full numbers

1st Natsu 88.7% 2nd Fat Gum 83% 3rd Josei 80.2% 4th Nezu 76.1% 5th Shoji 69.6% 6th Edgeshot 68.3% 7th Kuroiro 67% 8th Spinner 64.2% 9th Nejire 63.8% 10th Mr. Compress 63.6% 11th Magne 63.6% 12th Kendo 60.8% 13th Gang Orca 53.7% 14th Melissa 52.5% 15th Ryukyu 52.2% 16th Burnin 50% 17th Tsukauchi 50% 18th Ragdoll 47.8% 19th Komori 47.5% 20th Rody 46.3% 21st Hagakure 39.2% 22nd Ms. Joke 36.4% 23th Tiger 36.4% 24th Mitsuki 36.2% 25th Testsutetsu 35.8% 26th Chronostasis 33% 27th Geten 30.4% 28th Skeptic 31.7% 29th Rappa 23.9% 30th Nine 19.8% 31st Sirius 17% 32nd Mimic 11.3%

In the meantime if you wanna yell at me about your feelings or have any questions, asks are wide open. See you for round 2, plus ultra!

[eurosong]

Good morning folks, and welcome to today’s, not statistical map but rather statistical posters, showing how jury and televote top 5s have diverged since 2009. It’s something that’s been on my mind since the jury results were revealed, and after @lonelyislanders ‘ suggestion, I definitely thought I should share this with you all now rather than at the start of the next season. Let’s take a quick trip through the last 11 years of ESC history of jury-televote agreement and discord!

2009 was when juries were introduced - not for nothing, this was after “western” countries’ worst-ever ESC year, where only Sweden qualified from the semi-final. All the jury’s top 5 came from Northern Europe this time, only two of which - Norway and Iceland, coïncided with the televoters’ top 5, though Estonia, the jury’s 5th, came close as the televoters’ 6th. Amongst these tops, the biggest disparities were that of Azerbaijan (getting around 140 points less from the juries than the televoters) on one side and UK and France on the other (getting 110-120 points less from the televoters than the juries.) At least the winner, Rybak’s Fairytale, was shared by both groups - though his win would have been rather less rotund if only juries had decided it.

In 2010, we saw an even greater level of disconnection, as the top 5 of the jury and the televote shared only one song in common - again, thankfully, this was both group’s winner, Germany’s Satellite. Lena romped home in the televote, but she won the jury vote over Belgium’s Me and my guitar by a matter of just two points. The jury put all the other 4 of the public’s top 5 in their top 10 - with the biggest dropper, Turkey, having around 60 points fewer from the juries - but some of the juries’ most loved tracks really didn’t get much of a response from the televote, most notably Israel with a hundred points less than with the jury, ending up only 14th as a result.

2011 is a notoriously fractious year, intriguing for us statistics lovers. Once again, the jury and the televoters shared only one country - only this time, it wasn’t the winner of both groups. Azerbaijan squeaked by an extremely narrow win in the public vote over Sweden, but were only 2nd in the jury vote behind a triumphantly returned Italy. Whilst the public only placed Madness of Love 11th with ~150 points less, the jury love was enough to place it second behind Azerbaijan, whose relatively lukewarm scores with both voting groups gave the Azeris their first win. Some of the distinctions between the tops were brutal this year. UK was 5th with the public, but 4th last with the jurors, dragging them down to 11th place. Austria, 5th with the juries, were 2nd bottom with the public, and only managed 18th with the combined vote. 2011 is kinda one big advert for the current “two separate scores” system for how much one vote cancelled out the other.

In 2012, we at least had agreement on the winner yet again - though, this time, Sweden’s Euphoria absolutely romped home with the juries but got an oft forgotten only marginal win over Russia in the televote - one more douze to the Russian grannies would have handed Party for everybody the public win instead. They got a respectable-enough 11th with the juries, which meant that they weren’t dragged down too much and came in 2nd. Serbia, 3rd in the televote and 2nd with the juries, completed the podium. Once again, the jury dragged Azerbaijan and Turkey down - Love me back was 4th with the televoters, 5th last with the juries, who gave it ~125 pts less. The Turks still managed a top 10 result in 7th place, but it was to be their final ESC participation for now.

In 2013, we saw a very similar situation to 2012 - the public and jury shared a winner, this time, Denmark, and one group gave a song 2nd place, another group 3rd place - this time, that was Azerbaijan, whose Hold me ended up 2nd in the joint votes. The biggest disparities were the jury’s 3rd and 5th, Sweden and Moldova, ending up 18th and 19th in the televote (Moldova ended up 11th and Sweden 14th in the joint vote) and the public’s 4th, Greece, ending up 14th with the juries (but 6th overall).

2014 was the most harmonious year of jury-televote results to date. Both groups agreed on not just the winner, Austria, but also 4 of their top 5 - with the Netherlands, Sweden and Armenia ending up 2nd to 4th as a result. The one disparity was with the fifth member of the top 5. There was not much difference between the jury’s 4th, Hungary, and the public’s rating of it (10th, but only a difference of 30 pts - leaving the Magyars 5th overall), but the distinction was huge with the public’s 5th, Poland‘s My Slowanie, coming fourth last with the jurors, gaining ~140 fewer points, and dragging them down to 14th overall.

2015 brought the drama of Poland’s drag moreso than the harmony of the rest of the results. The jury and televote top 5s had three songs in common, but that belies the drama: the televote’s clear winner, Italy’s Grande Amore, who had 80 points above 2nd placed Russia and almost 90 more than 3rd placed Sweden, were ranked only 6th by the juries, who gave them almost 200 pts fewer than the public, dropping them behind Sweden, the jury winner, and Russia, the jury 3rd place, in the combined rankings. The juries also only put Estonia, the public 5th place, in 11th, but in the combined rankings, it was able to hold onto a spot in the top 10. On the other side, the jury’s 4th place, Australia, and 2nd place, Latvia, got 5th and 6th overall having been placed 6th and 8th with the public.

2016 brought in a new voting system where the jury and televotes would be unchained from one another and two sets of votes given. This was supposed to increase fairness and allow for public and jury favourites to both get recognition - but this occasion was marked with some controversy, when neither the runaway jury winner, Australia (4th in the televote with ~130 votes less than with the juries), nor the public winner, Russia (5th in the jury vote with ~230 points less than with the public) got the win. Instead, Ukraine, a country that had come 2nd in both, took the win. Australia would have won under the old system despite a lukewarm response from the public, so a song winning that did well with both groups was an improvement on the old system in my eyes. Other than big disparities between this eventual top 3, the jury and televote differed on the other two songs that comprised their individual top 5. Each had a song they marked well that the other group marked decently (Jury’s 3rd, France, being 9th with the public and so 6th in the combined vote; public’s 5th, Bulgaria, who were the jury’s 7th and ended up 4th overall) and a song the other marked down radically - the jury’s 4th, Malta, were the public’s 6th last and they ended up 12th overall; the public’s 3rd, Poland, were 2nd last with the juries but ended up 8th. Under the old system, Malta would have ended up 24th and Poland 19th.

2017 brought something we’d never seen before - the juries and televoters agreeing on the exact same top 2, Portugal and Bulgaria, by a convincing distance. They disagreed on pretty much everything else though :v . The public’s 3rd, Moldova, got such a strong score that they ended up 3rd overall despite only being the jury’s 8th - they would have been 5th under the old system. Belgium’s Blanche clinched 4th in the televote and overall vote, despite getting almost 150 fewer points from the juries. The biggest disparity of the year was that of Australia - 4th with the juries, second last with an embarrassing 2 points from the public.

As I had predicted way back in March, 2018 saw a clear televote winner beating out jury vote favourite from a much more divided field. The jury’s #1, Austria, ended up only 13th with the public, but this was enough to get a place on the podium in 3rd place. What’s intriguing is that all 8 songs across the jury and televote top 5 ended up in the top 10 but would have been dragged way down under the old system - like Sweden, second in the jury but fourth last in the televote, still 7th overall, or the third to fifth sequence of Italy, Czechia, Denmark who came 17th, 15th and 20th in the juries but ended up in 5th, 6th and 9th place in the overall tally.

Perhaps 2019 was the craziest year of all. Neither the televote winner, Norway, nor the jury winner, Macedonia, the first jury winner in Eastern Europe by the way, managed to make it into the top 5, getting 200-250 points less from the other group. In Norway’s case, they wouldn’t even have qualified had the juries had their way. The only songs that were shared by both groups’ top 5s, Netherlands and Italy, ended up 1st and 2nd in a similar way to Jamala. All the songs that the juries and televote didn’t share ended up in the top 10 anyway, either because of the force of one element’s vote (Norway 6th and Macedonia 7th despite very mediocre scores in the jury and televote respectively) or because they got decent votes from the other element, as is the case for Switzerland (5th with the public, 7th with the juries - 4th overall), Russia (4th with the public, 9th with the juries - 3rd overall), Sweden (2nd with the juries, 9th with the public - 5th overall) and Azerbaijan (5th with the juries, 8th with the public and overall.) The mathematics still amaze me of this year!

As we set sail for another decade, I wonder whether 2020 will bring similar discord or what would be only our 2nd shared winner since 2015?

[daily-monsta-x]

Daily Monsta X’s 1st survey

These are the official results for the survey conducted from Daily Monsta X. The survey form was open from November 2018 to February 2019, and a total 539 individual responses were collected. 

Response data from all questions will be given here. At the end of the post, we will list all the questions in the extensive survey, as well as a link to the results spreadsheet.

Disclaimer: Results are not representative of the fandom, and should not be taken as such. This survey was conducted purely for fun.

Please note the survey was conducted before the release of Take. 2 We Are Here (and thus before Alligator) so it does not feature as a response on any of the questions. Jooheon is also used throughout, as he had not yet taken the stage name Joohoney at the time. 

Results are under the cut.

Responses shown in bar graphs/charts allowed multiple options to be chosen; those in pie charts allowed only one answer.

Favourite overall comeback

Shoot Out was the winner for favourite overall comeback, with Beautiful a close second and Dramarama third. I tracked the results for this answer, and Shoot Out and Beautiful were in close competition throughout, but in the end, Shoot Out took the win.

Favourite comeback song

Beautiful won this question, with Dramarama getting second and Jealousy and Shoot Out winning joint third. All In missed out on top 3 by 6 votes. Some songs, like Jealousy, Hero, and Stuck, won more votes for favourite song than they did for favourite comeback. Overall, competition was tougher in this category.

Favourite MV

Dramarama placed first, followed by All In, then Beautiful. Story-line MVs were comparatively more popular, although Fighter got fewer votes than expected.

Bias

I.M won most votes for bias (favourite member), followed by Wonho and then Jooheon. Don’t have a bias/all seven was also a very popular option, coming in 4th. 

Bias wrecker

No bias wrecker/all seven was the most popular response, followed by I.M and then Kihyun. Wonho, who placed 2nd for bias, came 3rd for bias wrecker. I.M was most popular bias and bias wrecker.

Favourite ship

(Due to the large number of options, I had to compile these results in MS Excel)

Most popular response was I don’t ship/no ship. Most popular ship was HyungWonHo (Wonho and Hyungwon), followed by JooKyun (Joohoney and I.M). JooHyuk (Minhyuk and Joohoney) was third most popular ship. Nearly every ship was entered in others, but KiHyuk (Minhyuk and Kihyun) were the most popular among these.

Favourite concert unit

From Zero (Wonho and Hyungwon) got first for favourite concert performance unit, with Versace on the Floor (Shownu and Jooheon) getting second and How Long (Hyungwon and I.M) getting third. 

Favourite release (album, mini album)

The Connect was voted most popular release, followed closely by Are You There?. The Clan pt 2.5 came in third, a fair number of votes behind.

Favourite promoted B track

Criteria for the options was being performed on music shows, but not as a title track. From Zero easily took first place. Second was Be Quiet, followed by Myself. This was one of the few categories Monsta X’s earlier work (Hero (album version)) got a fair amount of votes, coming fourth.

Favourite Japanese song

Livin’ It Up took first place, Spotlight second. Combined, these two options took almost 90% of the votes.

Favourite Jooheon song

Songs composed by Joohoney, not including his solo work. This was one of the most even distributions of votes, with the highest votes not exceeding 19%. First place was In Time, second White Love, narrowly beating Special. This is another category where earlier works (Blue Moon, Gone Bad) got comparatively more votes.

Favourite Wonho song

The least even distribution of votes. From Zero won almost half the votes. Second place, Oi, got roughly half. Third was If Only.

Favourite mixtape track

Options included both Joohoney and I.M’s mixtapes. Only solo-released tracks and those with MVs were counted. I.M’s Fly With Me got most votes, narrowly beating Joohoney’s Red Carpet. Combined, these two songs got nearly 70% of the votes. Third ranked I.M’s Who Am I.

Favourite OST

All songs released by members, either all seven or as solos, used in original soundtracks of dramas or games. First ranked Love Virus, narrowly edging The Tiger Moth. Can’t Breathe came third, winning around half the votes of each of the first two.

Favourite special clip

Hero (rooftop version) won most votes, followed by Stuck and then Beautiful (acoustic version). Earlier releases got most votes in this category, with the top two coming from the first three releases.

Favourite self-cam

First place for self-cam (or self-filmed) MV was Tropical Night, second Perfect Girl and third Rollercoaster. Vote distribution was relatively even in this category. 

Favourite story line MV

First place with near 40% of the vote was All In, followed by Dramarama and then Destroyer. The other options got a combined 8% of the vote, a very small percentage.

Favourite variety

Monsta X-Ray is easily the most favourite voted variety, with first season getting first, second season getting second and third season with third. 

Favourite female character

Dodo (Hyungwon) was first place voted female character, followed by Dior (Minhyuk) and then Wonhee (Wonho). Female characters from the rural village episode were comparatively less popular, with the exception of Wonhee. 

Favourite skit couple

Another near landslide victory, with Namjoo x Yeojoo (Shownu and Kihyun) winning first, followed by Sandong x Minji (Kihyun and Jooheon), and then Hangyeol x Dior (Shownu and Minhyuk). 

Following survey questions focused on the respondents.

Age

Majority of respondents, more than 40%, ranged from 18 to 22 years. Next most common age range was 13 - 18, and then 22 - 26. Very few respondents were outside the age range 13 - 40.

Location

Over half the respondents live in North America. Next most common region is Europe, followed by South East Asia. Together, these regions counted almost 90% of the total responses.

Language

Most of the respondents spoke English as their first language, taking final count as roughly 60% to 40%.

Source of updates

Majority of respondents got their Monsta X updates from tumblr, and second-most from Twitter. Together these were more than 400 out of the 539 responses. Instagram came third. As the survey was conducted on tumblr, results might have been skewed towards the site.

Introduced: how

Majority of respondents were introduced to Monsta X through their MV on YouTube. The second most common way was by a friend, followed by through a meme or funny video. There were a varied number of responses entered under others, including through live performances, YouTube reviews, etc.

Introduced: when

Most respondents became fans in the Dramarama and Jealousy eras, followed by Beautiful era, and then Rush and Hero era. No.Mercy and debut (Trespass) era converted relatively fewer fans.

Fan content

Most respondents, over 60%, are do not create content. The most common created content is fanfiction, which has around a third of the votes of non-creators, followed by graphics/photo edits/memes, and then gifs.

One word descriptions

Shownu: Most common response was Bear. Others like Dad (or variations thereof, like father, fatherly) and Leader were also very popular, as were attributes of him such as shy, humble, etc.

Wonho: Most common response was Soft. Most responses were on the more innocent side. Bunny (and squishy) were common as well, as was Sweetheart and Angel.

Minhyuk: Most common response was Sunshine, by a large margin. Other common responses included Extra (and similar), Adorable (surprisingly, very few instances of cute), as well as energetic, moodmaker, etc.

Kihyun: Most common response was Mom. Most responses were like this, with traits associated with mothers (fussy, gentle, etc.). Accordingly, Caring was a very popular response. Another very popular response was Talented (or vocals, vocal king, similar words).

Hyungwon: Most common response was Meme. Handsome was popular as well (along with ethereal and beautiful). Another common response was Prince.

Joohoney: Most common response was Cute. Similarly, adorable was also very popular, as was Honey. Another very common response was Talented, as well as Charismatic (and similarly, powerful).

I.M: Most common response was Baby. A large number of responses also stressed on how he was Eccentric (unusual, unpredictable, weird, etc.). Deep (and introverted) also featured a number of times.

Monsta X: Most common response was Family. There were a lot of responses in this vein (connected, brothers, united, etc.). Perfect/Flawless was also a common answer, as was Talented and Extra (and synonyms of such). 

Favourite song

Many, many different responses were received. The most common answer was Beautiful. Second most popular song was easily Lost In The Dream. Other popular answers included From Zero, Underwater, and Destroyer. 

Discussion

Overall, older comebacks tended to garner fewer votes, with some exceptions. Trespass and Rush were comparatively unpopular overall, but certain individual tracks from those eras were popular.

Although efforts were made to have the results as unbiased as possible, there were many sources of error. Firstly, most of the respondents found the survey through tumblr, which explains its high rank as a source of updates. Secondly, most of the admin’s fandom circle are writers, which could be why fanfiction is found as the most popular produced fancontent. Most importantly, the sample size is very small compared to Monsta X’s fanbase, so results are obviously not indicative of the fandom as a whole.

Survey questions

Favourite comeback overall?

Favourite comeback song?

Favourite music video?

Bias (favourite member)? 

Bias wrecker (second favourite member)?

Favourite ship (pair)?

Favourite concert performance unit?

Favourite release?

Favourite promoted B track?

Favourite Japanese release?

Favourite song composed by Jooheon?

Favourite song composed by Wonho?

Favourite mixtape track?

Favourite OST?

Favourite special clip MV?

Favourite self-cam MV?

Favourite story line MV?

Favourite variety show?

Favourite female character?

Favourite skit couple?

How old are you?

Where do you live?

Is English your first language?

What is your main source of Monsta X updates?

How did you become a fan of Monsta X?

When did you become a fan of Monsta X?

Do you create any fan content for Monsta X?

Full spreadsheet of results are here.

Thank you to all participants of the survey! Do to all of you, we were able to conduct a successful survey. Please don’t hesitate if you have any questions or suggestions for any future surveys ^^

[rockmiyabideusexmachina]

2019 Megaman Valentine’s Day Contest Rules Post

It’s year number 12 of lovey dovey-buku contest art, and I’m back at it again. No secret categories, no surprise themes. These are just the two options you all voted on the most, this time around. Let’s do it!

Two categories, in which you are allowed to submit one entry for each category, if you would like. If you place in one category, you will be automatically disqualified from the other, for reasons of fairness, and to give other people a chance to win a prize.

CATEGORY 1:  The Way To A Mega Man’s Heart Is Through His Stomach (Talent)

Content Requirements:

        * A pinup category focusing on Mega Man characters who are cooking, baking, eating, feeding their partner, lounging on or around supersized pieces of food,  or creatively wearing clothing that appears to be made out of aesthetically appealing food products. Basically, some sort of delectable food must be drawn along with at least one character.

        * As this is the talent category, judging will be based primarily on the overall composition of your piece and your artistic skills. How well can you bring delicious, appetizing food to life, along with your delicious, appetizing character(s)?

Who says robots can’t enjoy food? Certainly not Fully Charged Guts Man. XD

A popular proverb has long held that one can often fall deeper in love due to their partner preparing their favorite food or sharing a romantic meal with one another. There have been many instances of Mega Man characters who would likely operate in a similar fashion, due to their love for their fave dishes. Netto has his insatiable craving for curry, while his papa Yuuichirou’s palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, as he holds his fork waiting for mama’s spaghetti. Megaman Volnutt wants his sweets so badly, he’d kick a vending machine to pieces to get them, or bug the lady at Jetlag Bakery for those yummy confectioneries. Kelvin Stelar went a more healthy route and loved carrots as much as his wife’s homemade carrot gratin. And don’t forget the delicious cake waiting for Ashe or Grey in the fridge of Hunter’s Camp 4.

So, your task for this category is to draw the Mega Man character(s) of your choice tempting their Valentine with some delicious food. Some sweets for their sweetie, if you will. But the character you draw can be pretty tempting themselves, to go along with their treats. Create a tastefully seductive combo meal that will leave our mouths watering for more!

Now remember, as much as some of you out there might have first thoughts to draw some melons, bananas and glazed honey buns, this category is not meant to get explicit. No frontal nudity is allowed. So please follow tumblr brand censorship guidelines™ when creating your art, or it will be flagged, hidden from the public and not included in the competition. ;p

CATEGORY 2: Princess Sigmia Returns (Humor)

Content Requirements:

           * A Megaman character who takes the primary form of another, opposite gender Megaman character due to a magical crown/mystery tank/navigator’s headset/biometal/battle chip/etc. This character is looking for love this Valentine’s Day. How they attempt to obtain a date/partner is up to you.

           * As this is the humor category, judging will be based primarily on how funny your piece is. Consideration will also be given to a lesser degree on your creativity in combining your characters into a hybrid, and your overall design for them. But the point of this category is to make us laugh!

Following 2018’s hottest videogame art trend, that of the genderbent transformation of Bowser and crew into Princess Peach-looking alternate forms of themselves, it’s time to continue that spin with more Mega Man characters.

Looking to clean up real nice in the ultimate battle body for a night of love and romance, Princess Sigmia is ready to hit the club/restaurant/park/etc., and this time she’s brought friends.

Your goal for this category is to create the funniest romantic scenario this hybrid character can get into on Valentine’s Day. What made them use this magical, transformative item? What are the reactions of other characters to this newly made up character, who resembles someone they thought they knew? Let your imagination run wild, and draw most hilarious creation you can come up with!

There are no restrictions on what characters you merge, and no, you don’t have to stick with my combination of Sigma and Alia. You can base your transformations off of heroes or villains, minor enemies or main characters. It just has to follow the similar format of gaining the appearance of a familiar character of the opposite gender, while still retaining some characteristics of the original character. So, whether you create Mistress Ashebert, Mega Man VolBonne, Rainbow Cieldevil, Prince Praika, or Crimson Akane, the combinations are all up to you!

PRIZES:

It’s the usual, ‘get-what-you want’ option, for the top 3 artists in each category. As always, if you prefer a cash prize through Paypal, and just need the money, that’s typically the easiest and quickest option to get your reward.

But like normal, I will be flexible and work with the winners to purchase Megaman-related prizes, if there’s something you’ve really had your eye on and would like ordered. Be it a Roll Caskett 4-inch Nel, Fully Charged figures, artbook re-releases, Mastermix issues, or some other trinket. If I can find it within your prize price range and order it to be shipped straight to you, I will do all I can to make it happen!

The winners for both the Talent and Humor categories will receive the following:

          *1st Place: $100 USD or an item(s) up to that value.

          *2nd Place: $50 USD or an item(s) up to that value.

          *3rd Place: $25 USD or an item(s) up to that value.

PARTICIPATION PRIZE RAFFLE:

Since they have gone pretty well in the past, I once again will be offering participation prizes. Some might say a few of these are quite X-cellent prizes, in honor of X’s 25th anniversary this year. In order to be eligible for the participation prizes, all you need to do is enter a pic for either the Talent or Humor Category!

Like previous years, if there is a prize here you are NOT interested in, please note that when you send in your submission(s) to me. Otherwise, you will be automatically entered in the raffle for a chance at each of these items.

If you draw a pic for both the Humor and the Talent Categories, you can double your chances to win! (Odds of course, depending on how many others enter and also draw two pics.) You will be able to add your name into the drawing a second time for just 1 of these prizes.

Raffle Prize #1 – Rockman 8 Anime Cel (with Genga)

Name a more iconic Duo. I’ll wait. This cel of Duo is a tight headshot from the midgame cutscene. After waking up, Duo sees the vial of Evil Energy by Doctor Light’s computer, crushes it, and proceeds to say “HE STILL LIVES!” before screaming in this frame and blasting off through the ceiling of Light Labs.

This is almost quite certainly your last chance to win a Rockman 8 cel from me, so best of luck to all who want to take it home!

Thanks to a generous donation from @silentally, there are also 3 other pairs of raffle prizes (*pictures to be edited in and added soon):

Raffle Prize #2 – Set of Mega Man X Official Complete Works Artbook and a beaded Zero keychain

Raffle Prize #3 – Set of a framed 3D sprite art piece of X’s iconic Vile battle, as Zero comes to the rescue, and a handmade Zero plush

Raffle Prize #4 – Set of Tamashii Buddies Zero figure and a Zero emblem wristband

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

When you submit, I would prefer you to include the following information in this format, along with your entry:

•   (Your name/preferred alias) – As much as I usually know who you are, there’s always someone new or somebody who has a different preference from what their email name says.

•   (Category this entry is for) – You can either say 1 or 2, or Talent/Humor

•   (Participation Prize Eligibility) – Just write “All” if you are interested in the chance to win anything. Write: “Exclude from # __” if you do not have interest in winning a particular participation prize.

In the event you are submitting your second entry, please specify which prize # you would like your bonus chance in the raffle to be put towards.

Only submit your own work, as usual. Any character, major or minor, from any series is allowed. Pairing characters from different series is totally allowed. Same-gender pairings are completely fine. OCs are allowed, as long as your art contains at least one canon Megaman character.

As always, participants are allowed to submit from all over the world. It’s easier for me to get prizes to US entrants, because international shipping is complicated and pricey, but I’ll do what I can for you guys who aren’t in the States.

Paypal is still the preferred method for cash prize payouts. Please have a valid account to receive your winnings.

Youngin's, get your parents permission before entering.

Entries do not need to be colored, but it is preferred. The more effort put into things as always, the better chance you have!

Entries can either be e-mailed to me at rock2125[at]hotmail[dot]com, or you can just PM/note me a link to your pic.

DO NOT post your pics in this journal, your dA galleries, Twitter, tumblr blogs, other sites, etc. until the contest is over. This is the fairest way for competitive reasons. I prefer to keep them all secret until the deadline has passed.

I'll edit a confirmed entry list in this thread when I receive them. So you won't be in the dark about whether or not I've received your entry.

DEADLINE:

The deadline for this contest will be Tuesday, February 12th, 2019 by 11:59PM CST. *EXTENDED!* New deadline is Wednesday, February 27th, 2019. This gives you a little more than 5 weeks to finish your entry!

MISCELLANEOUS INFO:

As usual, If you don't plan to enter, but would like to help me judge, please let me know through DM or mention so here. Never hurts to have extra opinions on all the entries.

Bug me with questions if you have any. Please join in, and good luck to everyone who enters!

CONFIRMED ENTRIES:

Cat. 1 (Talent) - @prar-draws, @larytello, @drewblossom, @bracedshark, subzeroiceskater, @irischroma, @papillonthepirate, SockMonkii

Cat. 2 (Humor) - @drewblossom (x2), @bracedshark, subzeroiceskater, 

[queenraiden]

Eurovision 2019 Afterthoughts

I have stuff to do so no overly detailed series of posts explaining highs and lows (adult responsibilities get in the way). I can’t leave this hanging with my top 10 posts and reviews without a reaction so here I go.

Edit 23/05/2019: The following was made before recent result changes. My favourites Norway and Iceland still remained in the top 10 (albeit Norway moves down a spot), but North Macedonia has been declared winner of the jury votes which is awesome (and a first!).

The Winner: The Netherlands

First and foremost, congrats to Duncan Laurence with his winning song “Arcade”. While it was my 14th overall favourite song out of the 41 (and 9th out of 26), I’m chill with it as a winner. My take on the song can be found here. As for the performance, it was simple, but slightly elevated. With simple performances you can focus more on the song and not be distracted by props/staging (though I do like some props and ostentatious staging). The drawback to simple staging can be the performance coming off as concert like (Lithuania, for example), but just a few props (like a lantern and varying light patters) can elevate it. 

No surprises here

Jury votes. They’re meant to provide fairness but at 50% split, there’s bound to be discrepancies between them and the televotes. Juries tend to have certain voting blocks such as the Balkan countries who will give votes to each other. Cyprus and Greece almost always give each other 12 points, especially if both are in the final. Then there’s the opposite in which countries don’t vote/give top points for each other because of politics, namely Armenia and Azerbaijan (each put their songs at 17th in their semi, Armenia ranked Azerbaijan 26th which makes me wonder if putting these songs at 16th or 25th is showing an ounce of treason).

There’s also one country that tends to dominate jury votes and that’s Sweden, no matter what voting block you’re in. I preferred “Too Late for Love” over “Dance You Off”, but still get vibes from Austria’s last year entry (which did lead the jury votes). I wouldn’t be surprised if in 2020 some other country sent in a similar tune and that won jury votes.

If Netherlands was your top entry out of all the 41 songs, then it wouldn’t be a surprise.

All the surprises!

Starting with the first semifinal: I didn’t have Belarus as a qualifier, but I’ll have to agree her performance (as much as I dislike the song) had spunk. Her branded outfit was over the top in my opinion. My guess is she wouldn’t have made it in if Ukraine was still in the competition. San Marino got into the final for the second time ever. Power of the internet maybe? I was hoping Portugal would make it but maybe the song was too niche to not make it through (though I’d argue Hatari with their aggrotech/industrial/dance-punk stylings is a niche thing too, and they finished 3rd in the semi). Estonia was a surprise qualifier for me as I found the song bland, but when I heard it announced as a qualifier there was no chance Finland would make it in (and they finished last in their semi).

Second semifinal the surprise qualifier for me was North Macedonia. It was one of my top entries but I had doubts of it making the finals. While still competing under FYROM, they’ve sent in a lot of good entries but were underrated and were previously in the final in 2012 with Kaliopi’s “Crno i Belo”. To this day the country has place their best performance at 2nd with the juries and 8th overall. I thought Romania would make it, but what jurors at the national selection stage like didn’t translate to the contest’s semifinal stage. Would Laura Bretan fared better? Maybe, but she still wouldn’t win the contest (should have sent Bella Santiago). There was only one point separating 11th place Lithuania from 10th place Denmark. So close for them.

My champions Norway took 1st in televotes in the final! I was worried that they wouldn’t make it into the final because of reading about how the song is too close to “Monsters”. I’m sure there are still people salty about it.

A surprise, but you saw it coming

During the televotes, when Iceland was announced, members of Hatari stirred up a frenzy (not like this frenzy was stirred up for the first time, they were explicit on joining Eurovision as a form of protest). Without taking a side (though it might seem I am), I wonder, had they won, would they have unravelled the Palestinian flag banners on stage, or would they have said something else acknowledging human rights issues? Had they won, would they have done the same thing and be stripped of winner status? While I was expecting a stage jumper during one of the performances, their actions would be the equivalent of it. The risk they took doesn’t make me change my opinion. They brought to the Eurovision stage something you don’t often hear among the summer pop hits and the ballads. 

Interesting tidbit

Sergey Lazarev for Russia finished 3rd in the 2016 contest, he finished 3rd 3 years later.

There’s definitely more that happened, but I’ll end it here. Looking forward to May 2020 and maybe a duo or group can win the contest for once (since 2011 was won by duo and it’s been soloists since).

[mexicaneurolover]

Eurovision 1966 my top 18

Hello and welcome to another episode where I look back to the ESC history, and we go now to March 5th 1966, where the 11th edition took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg after France Gall win in Naples. 18 countries took part as well and it was the first contest in where a majority of the songs were uptempo. The winner of this edition was Austria with Udo Jürgens (finally) with the song Merci, Chérie, in it’s third in a row attempt. And now let’s review the songs, also this one was a very hard year to rate because almost all the songs are great.

1st Place: SPAIN/Raphael-Yo soy aquél (Real Placing: =7th-9 points) 

RAPHAEL AT ESC I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM AND WITH THIS SONG OMG. This song is one of my all time favorites and I also love Raphael, so imagine my surprise when I knew he was in Eurovision and with Yo soy aquél which is well known in my country. His voice has always been one of my favorites and this song is everything, powerful, amazing, cool, beautiful, romantic, anyway, one of Spain’s better entries and... YO ESTOY AQUIIII AQUIIII PARA QUERERTEEEEE. 

2nd Place: NORWAY/Åse Kleveland-Intet er nytt under solen (Real Placing: 3rd-15 points) 

This is one of my favorite Norwegian entries ever, dark at some points, uplifting in others, her voice is wonderful and the music is brilliant, just an amazing entry and a well deserved 3rd place. 

3rd Place: LUXEMBOURG/Michèle Torr-Ce soir, je t’attendais (Real Placing: =10th-7 points) 

AGAIN HOW THIS FINISHED SO LOW, Michèle gave one of the best performances of the night, the song was absolutely one of the best that night, I’m just in love with this one, I always listen to it in repeat because I LOVE IT. 

4th Place: BELGIUM/Tonia-Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel (Real Placing: =4th-14 points) 

Also this one is very good, Tonia’s voice is very good and the song is catchy and happy, such a good entry and yeah, I like this one a lot. 

5th Place: PORTUGAL/Madalena Iglésias-Ele e ela (Real Placing: 13th-6 points) 

ONE OF MY FAVORITE EVER PORTUGUESE ENTRIES, Madalena delivers a lot of energy in the stage, the song is catchy, upbeat, and makes me smile every time I listen to it. IMO this deserved more than other entries that finished higher on the scoreboard. 

6th Place: GERMANY/Margot Eskens-Die Zeiger die Uhr (Real Placing: =10th-7 points) 

There is something that I love about this one and it’s the chorus, makes me feel nostalgic and her voice is very good. The music is amazing and I like this one a lot. 

7th Place: IRELAND/Dickie Rock-Come back to stay (Real Placing: =4th-14 points) 

Another well made Irish ballad, so emotional, and Dickie sings it so well (I can’t take his name seriously sorry), overall a nice entry and something beautiful. 

8th Place: DENMARK/Ulla Pia-Stop-mens leger er go (Real Placing: 14th-4 points) 

WHY THIS FINISHED SO LOW, this is amazing!!!! Ulla is such a singer and the song is as good as her voice. That interval with the dancers is good. Absolutely a modern entry for 1966. 

9th Place: FINLAND/Ann Christine-Playboy (Real Placing: =10th-7 points) 

Oh this little one is very catchy and enjoyable, she’s a good singer, and delivers a lot of good vibes on the stage. Also a playful entry and wow, a nice song from Finland. 

10th Place: YUGOSLAVIA/Berta Ambroz-Brez besed (Real Placing: =7th-9 points) 

This one is very sweet and Berta’s voice is lovely, the music is amazing and her in the chorus delivers a lot of energy and makes the song even better. One of my favorite first entries from Yugoslavia. 

11th Place: AUSTRIA/Udo Jürgens-Merci, Chérie (Real Placing: 1st: 31 points)

I feel so guilty because of the placing i give to it, a marvelous song, Udo as always an amazing singer and the music is great, but I think there is something that it’s missing in this one. A worthy winner though. GRANDE UDO.

12th Place: SWEDEN/Svante Thuresson & Lill Lindfors-Nygammal vals (Real Placing: 2nd-16 points)

Ok I usually like Sweden’s entries, but this one as a runner up... NO. The performance is what I like about this one but that’s it. Both are amazing singers though. 

13th Place: SWITZERLAND/Madeleine Pascal-Ne vois tu-pas? (Real Placing: 6th-12 points)

I don’t have so much to say about this one, the music is kinda boring but good somehow, her voice is quite out of tune. 

14th Place: THE NETHERLANDS/Milly Scott-Fernando en Filippo (Real Placing: 15th-2 points) 

This one is a guilty pleasure for me, I like the music because it’’s kinda Mexican in some way. Also her entrance and her exit were funny because of the stairs and the wire microphone. 

15th Place: MONACO/Téréza-Bien plus fort (Real Placing: =17th-0 points/last) 

I kinda love this one, but maybe it was the wrong performer, an average entry overall, and Tereza would return with one of my favorite entries for another country. 

16th Place: ITALY/Domenico Modugno-Dio, come ti amo (Real Placing: =17th-0 points/last)

Ah Domenico, not your best song but far from the worst, nice music but maybe he was the wrong singer to this. I certainly enjoy more the version of Gigliola Cinquetti, sweeter and greater. I don’t think this song deserved 0 points, but the voting was quite unfair. 

17th Place: UNITED KINGDOM/Kenneth McKellar-A man without love (Real Placing: 9th-8 points)

I love his kilt but the song it’s not my cup of tea, his voice is nice but I don’t have anything to say. 

18th Place: FRANCE/Dominique Walter-Chez nous (Real Placing: 16th-1 point) 

No France, just no, this is annoying and repetitive, you were doing amazing and this came, nothing else to say. 

[yyhfanfiction]

Rare Fanfiction Contest FAQ

This post will be updated as questions are asked. Feel free to bookmark.

Updated: 3.6.18

Q: For the fanfiction contest: have you chosen the writers already or can people still join the contest? If we would like to join as a writer, how do we do so?

A: Ah! Sorry this wasn’t clearer. We haven’t even started yet! We will choose the topics in this poll and the winning, top three* chosen topics will be announced with the formal rules for submissions. Between that, we will also throw out the official rubric judges will use and allow adequate time for feedback. I think we’re looking at a minimum of 2-3 weeks before we officially start! Then, there will be about a month or more where people can write their stories and submit them. Everyone will be free to join! The only other rule set in stone is that the story(ies) you submit should be new content (they might’ve been in your writing folder for a while, but they shouldn’t be posted on any other website before the contest start date). Hope that clears that up!

A, updated: We have officially started and everyone is welcome to join. Please see this post for the latest information.

Q: Is everyone voting on every one else's stuff?

A: Fan favorite will be a public vote, but all other placements will be by the judges (me, @tv-writes-ff, and @sinfully-offensive). That’s why I’m going to make the rubrics public.

Q: So I just write something and tag it then you guys do the rest?

A: Mostly, yes. I think I’m going to have a submission poll where everyone throws some basic information into a survey (e.g., your author name, a link to the story, topic tackled, and maybe some other stuff) and then we take over and judge it based on the rubric. You’d be allowed multiple submissions as well, but you can only win once.

A, update: To submit: Post your content to either fanfiction.net or archiveofourown.com and submit the link to your story as well as some basic information about it in this survey: https://goo.gl/forms/UTnmRe8BGvSXTS4G3

Q: What will the stories be allowed in terms of length?

A: The min number of words per entry is 1,500. The max number of words per entry is 15,000. You are allowed multiple entries, but may only win once.

Q: What if I do not want to give out my mailing address?

A: You can choose to send your gifts to a friend if applicable or reallocate them to another tier (e.g., 1st/2nd/3rd place).

Q: Would it be okay if you crossed over Greek/other myths with YYH or does it just have to be Japanese mythology?

A: You’re welcome to use any kind of mythology or cross-over. I encourage creativity – use whatever will allow you to play to the strong points of the chosen topic.

Q: I know three of the topics can feature YYH characters but what about the last two? 

A: Totally open for including canon or original characters of any sort. Just want to fully explore the topic in depth and creatively. These ones, theoretically, your characters would maybe be a vehicle to such end.

Q: For the contest, the fanfiction review you do for the winner, can it be a fic posted in a later date or does it need to exist by the contests conclusion? 

A: Any time is totally fine. I will just review it whenever you’d like - be that completion or at a certain in progress point.

Q: I wanted to ask since I didn't see in the FAQ about it, but is it alright to include more than one topic in the contest or is it a hard definition? I have an idea, but it touches on two of the topics. One more so than the other, but I wanted to be sure that it was alright to explore both before I proceeded. Thank you for your time! 

A: I’ve thought about this myself. I will say that the topic you choose to submit it under will be the one evaluated under “topic exploration”. This will contribute to 30% of your overall rating. If this main topic is not well-explored, it will affect the rating negatively. However, as long as that original/main component is strong, there is no issue with also including another topic. Essentially, it should be icing. Just make sure you play to the strong points of the first topic first and foremost.

Tags for the contest posts will be YYHFFRrareFFcontest.

[survivor-svalbard]

FINAL IMMUNITY CHALLENGE: FIGHT TO THE FINISH

For the last time, come on in guys! Rachael, I’ll take it back. Jarod, John, Rachael, William... this is your FINAL TEST of challenge strength on the snow-covered beaches of Svalbard. The winner of this challenge will win themselves a spot in the final 3 where they will have the chance to plead their case to the jury as to why they deserve to win Tumblr Survivor Svalbard.

Now, I know some of you both still in the game and on the jury have been wondering whether we will be going with post or pre-tiebreaker challenge rules that the show implemented starting in Survivor U.S’s 35th season. We will...

.

.

.

.

.

NOT be following the new rules of the show. That means that there WILL be a vote between all four of you. The only point in which we will head into a fire tiebreaker challenge is if there is a 2-2 tie in the FIRST round of voting, meaning that there will be no re-vote. Only fire.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into your final challenge of the season. For today’s challenge, you will be competing in a gauntlet of challenges reminiscent of past challenges in the season. There will be four (4) challenges in all, and they will be categorized by the following: Physical, Mental, Endurance, and Creativity.

Your job is to obviously do the best you can on each portion. However, the way we score the challenges is a little different. This is how the grading will work:

1st place in a challenge wins you 3 POINTS.

2nd place in a challenge wins you 2 POINTS.

3rd place in a challenge wins you 1 POINT.

4th place in a challenge wins you 0 POINTS.

In the event of a tie, we will be going into a tie breaker that will not be announced until after the initial results are given. So don’t worry about sending one in yet!

Also note: THERE IS TO BE ABSOLUTELY NO COLLABORATION OF ANY KIND DURING THIS CHALLENGE. IF WE FIND OUT THERE IS, THERE WILL BE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES.

With all of that out of the way, let’s get into the individual challenges.

PHYSICAL

For this challenge, you will be competing in the flash game:

Chromatoids

When you are satisfied with your score, screenshot your entire screen with your name in the URL and the time and date somehow visible. As always, you may submit as many screenshots to your host chat as you want and we will take your highest score submitted.

Keep in mind that like other flash games, you may need to enable flash on your web browser. If you need any assistance, just let us know!

Order of scores for the overall challenge totals will go from first to last based on scores from highest to lowest.

MENTAL

For this portion, you will be competing in a 3x5 LOGIC PUZZLE. The format we will be using for this logic puzzle will be from this website. While you can use this website to practice, we will be using a screenshot of the same logic puzzle for each of you as to keep things fair and consistent.

To play this portion of the challenge, just message your host chat. There, we will get on a call with you and send you the screenshot of the logic puzzle you must solve. How you submit the completed puzzle is up to you. You can use a photo editing tool, or can draw out the puzzle physically. As long as it is legible when you send a picture of it back to us, then you’re good to go!

You are attempting to complete the puzzle the fastest. Overall totals for the challenge will be based on who completes this puzzle the fastest. Time will start when we send you the puzzle. Time will PAUSE when you send it back. If it is wrong, we will let you know and the time will start again. If it is correct, then that is your final time.

ENDURANCE

For this portion of the challenge, you will be playing a Tumblr Survivor classic: Stairway to Heaven. Here’s how it will work:

When ready, you will create a NEW CHALLENGE CHAT with all of the hosts in it. You will then proceed to do the following:

I grab step 1

I place step 1

I grab step 2

I go up step 1

I place step 2

I go down step 1

I grab step 3

I go up step 1

I go up step 2

I place step 3

I go down step 2

I go down step 1

I grab step 4

etc. etc. etc.

Each command must be in its OWN MESSAGE. If you mess up, you may edit messages. However, it is up to you to catch those mistakes.

In order to submit your total, you. must enter this command at whichever top step you are at:

I place my flag

The total overall of the challenge will be graded by how far you get up your staircase and place your flag vs how low.

CREATIVITY

For your last part of this challenge, you must submit something creative that has to do with this season. This can be in ANY FORM you want. So let your creative and artistic sides soar! This challenge really doesn’t have any set boundaries, just make sure it is created by YOURSELF and has to do with our season!

Whatever form of media about the season that you decide to create will be judgej based on:

Creativity

Effort

Overall Appeal

These will all be scored out of 10 by our unbiased judges panel.

Everything must be submitted by 9 PM EST on MAY 14TH. This means that you have 48 hours to complete these tasks to the best of your abilities! If you’re really hungry for this immunity, then you will have to EARN IT.

Good luck.

[seventeenlovesthree]

Fandom Shipping Polls - Sora Takenouchi Shipping Analysis (Poll I + Poll II)

As pointed out in the main post, every single Chosen Child will get their individual analysis post to check on the status of the current popularity of their ships. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at Sora, shall we!  

The overall results / spreadsheet

Disclaimer: As the “Someone from 01/02″ and “Others” options from poll 1 and the “Someone from 01/02″ option from poll 2 have been excluded from the final analysis due to redundancy reasons and all results were culminated in another “final count”, the results will not be 1:1 to what the polls look like:

Overall votes: 107 (approx. 84 in sum after the exclusion), the main poll got 78 votes, the secondary poll got 29 votes.

The “Others” choice in the main poll received 5% (approx. 4 votes) and 7% (approx. 2 votes) in the secondary poll. The comments/tags did not specify any preferences here (aside from characters that were already part of the main choices).

Ship Analysis

1st place: This is the interesting part - as it also includes a tiny bit of bias overall. While the numbers suggest that Taichi (32%) won the poll over Yamato (31%) by the tiniest bit of advantages (and also led the main poll for the majority of the time), tumblr STILL displays both Taichi and Yamato as winners (see graphic below). And while the overall numbers even everything out in favour of Taichi once again, please excuse my non-scientific, childish excitement over this outcome by quoting one of the comments in the poll: “Sora has two hands.” So we shall go for this result for now and pick the OT3 - as both Taiora and Sorato, obviously, have very valid reasons to be here, which are highly supported by canon in one way or another. Taichi is the “childhood football friend”, one complementary soul that went through thick and thin with Sora throughout their adventure, fueling each other’s development. Yamato is the other complementary soul, mirroring and understanding Sora’s struggles, enabling her to make her own choices for once (in more than one way). And even if canon let her choose one over the other in the end - it’s no surprise that after all this time, both are considered to be the most viable options in their respective fandom corners. Canon itself tried to play it neutral for quite some time now (see the graphic above), even hinting at possibilities of other potential futures (which may or may not be taken with a big grain of salt). Long story short, it would feel wrong not include both of them.

2nd place: After the two top options, there has been quite a gap - but Mimi (18%) proudly claims the honorary second spot now (which, technically would be third place). And it is no surprise that she’s considered viable - both Sora and Mimi went through quite a development together, with Sora starting off as the steady rock to protect Mimi at first, just for Mimi to grow up to become a steady rock to encourage and support Sora herself, with a looooot of physical closeness and gentle affirmation on both sides.

3rd place: Again, under normal circumstances, Jou (7%) would be part of the “Honorary mentions” squad, as he appears to be more of a niche choice - but one that is still held dearly by its respective supporters. Jyoura are widely considered to be “The Dad and The Mom” of the group and both of them also struggle with their senses of obligation and making choices, which may be the reason they’re considered compatible.

Honorary mentions: As the choices mentioned above already take away most of the votes, the only niche options worth mentioning here are Meiko (6%) and Daisuke (3%).

“The 1 vote squad”: Probably the most niche choices in fandom overall are being represented by Koushiro (1%) and Takeru (1%).

“0 votes go to...”: Hikari, Ken, Miyako and Iori did not receive a single vote in her poll.

Annotations: Sora is among the characters who don’t have any viable “other” choices outside of the main (+ movie) characters. Additionally, she was the character who received the second least votes overall (after Iori), which doesn’t give a lot of variety to her results.

What did the other polls say?

Sora is one of the characters who hasn’t won any other poll - but did come in second for Yamato (28%) and third for Taichi (16%) and Mimi (13%, tying with Taichi), thus mirroring her own results at least to some degree. Her shipping choices are not as consistent as Taichi’s and Yamato’s, but still indicate certain preferences, despite the low sample sizes.

In Jou’s poll, she was more of a niche choice and came in fifth (5%, tying there with Koushiro).

Thus, for the majority of the rest, she was merely a niche choice, such as Takeru (2%), Daisuke (2%), Iori (2%), Koushiro (1%) and Miyako (1%). 

She received 0 votes in the polls for only Ken - and Hikari, so neither of them received a mutual vote, meaning nobody picked Sokari as viable option.

Notable additions / comments / thoughts

Sora’s polls have been quite a matter of extremes - on one hand, she received a comparably low number of votes in general, somewhat mirroring the results of the “Most popular Chosen Children of Adventure” poll. But that, on the other hand, caused very clear results to happen. It’s not much of a surprise to see her two most popular and most visible choices compete for first place - and actually kinda succeeding in that in the end. Especially, since the Taiora vs. Sorato debate has been going on for decades already. Thus, Taiorato overshadowed basically every other choice besides Somi and Joumi (and the latter was already comparably niche), resulting in even the less obvious ships not getting much attention at all. Daiora and Someiko can be named as honorable mentions indeed, as the former is having its own little niche in fandom and the latter absolutely had a development basis in Tri. Thus, I really hope to reach a wider audience if I choose to repeat the polls once the fandom is not as quiet as it is right now.

On a interpretative level, Sora’s status as being “the mom/big sister” of the group (as well as a general absence in some pieces of media) may have contributed to her not being as visible in the votes. She may take care of the others in a loving way and is very persistent in doing so, but that may be taken more on a platonic level.

The comments in the tags have only referred to the already mentioned choices (yet the “Sora has two hands” comment deserves special mention once again!). So the “Others” option did not reveal any other potentially preferred suitors. This leaves room for speculation, but usually, the option is reserved for OC ships or for when people prefer to not ship a character at all (which will definitely be a future option to include as well!)

Other Analysis Posts 

Taichi Yagami Shipping Analysis

Yamato Ishida Shipping Analysis

Koushiro Izumi Shipping Analysis

Mimi Tachikawa Shipping Analysis

Jou Kido Shipping Analysis

Takeru Takaishi Shipping Analysis

Hikari Yagami Shipping Analysis

Daisuke Motomiya Shipping Analysis

Ken Ichijouji Shipping Analysis

Miyako Inoue Shipping Analysis

Iori Hida Shipping Analysis

Meiko Mochizuki Shipping Analysis

[ny-watcher]

#BBB19 The Winner of Big Brother Brasil 2019 is -- PAULA <-- Congrats!! 🏆👏🙂

After 88 Days the 19th Edition of Big Brother Brasil came to an end and the Grand Finale took place on Friday 4/12/2019 with Paula beating Alan to Take the Win. In my Opinion which many agree with including the Host of the Show - Paula Was the Main Protagonist of this Edition from the start. She was Ratings Gold and provided the viewer with non-Stop Entertainment while playing her Game in the BBB House. Her Fun Crazy Energetic personality along with her High Pitched Baby talk Voice made her an instant attraction when she walked into the BBB House. However that wasn't the Reason She became the Winner. Despite her Voice which at first the other Housemates didn't take serious, she had to prove to them in her own way she wasn't just the voice they heard - she was alot more. Something she proved with her social skills and intelligence - She had no filter and when she needed to say something to someone she did it directly to their face without fear. Her non-filter quick witted Personality made her crack jokes and make everyone laugh daily. Then came the Serious Gamer Part - Paula was in it to Win it and she proved to everyone she wasn't weak and was a force to be wreaken with - In Fact she become feared every time they heard the next competition would be endurance - Paula won 3 Hard Endurance Competition.

She was Loyal to a fault and on the 1st day in the BBB House she became friends with another Housemate called Hariany and they became BFFs. She made it clear she would protect her friend all the way to the Finale and she did. However in the Last Party of this Edition the BFFs got Drunk - This led to silly arguments stirred up by Hariany which then turned aggressive due to Hariany not being able to control her Anger and in a Drunken Rage she did the dumbest thing you could do in the BBB House - I call it BB Suicide - Yep she used physical aggression towards Paula by pushing her hard to try and get her point across to Paula and this made Paula fall to the Floor and hurt her butt area. In that moment Hariany Knew she screwed up and sobered up fast well not totally she knew what was coming and spent the rest of the Night Crying and in the Morning they called her to the Confession room and gave her the News -  she was Disqualified and had to be removed from the House. Paula - Carolina and Alan got the News later on and they all broke down Crying especially Paula who remained that way the rest of the day. She was also Facing the Last Eviction with Carolina that Night - So it was a Tough Day for Paula to say the least but it got better in the end as I will describe below.

The Grand Finale Stats:

Paula Von Sperling (Age 28) is the WINNER with 61,09% of the Votes - She Takes Home R$1,5 milhão (million) - 2 Cars she Won in Lider (Leader) Competitions and a few other Prizes

Alan Possamai (Age 26) Takes 2nd Place with and goes Home with R$150,000 mil (Thousand) and a Car he Won in the Last Lider Competition

Carolina Peixinho (Age 33) Takes 3rd Place and goes home with R$50.000 mil (Thousand) how she won 3rd place I will explain Below

Alan Won the Last Lider Competition and Automatically became the 1st Finalist - He Directly Nominated Paula and since Carolina and Hariany's Vote would cancel each others out since they couldn't nominate Alan or Paula. Then it was up to Paula to decide who she wanted to go up against in the Last Eviction - Carolina or Hariany. Paula wasn't going to Nominate her BFF Hariany so she saved Hariany by Picking Carolina to Face the Last Battle. This automatically made Hariany become the 2nd Finalist. The Housemate that survived the Last Eviction Battle would become the 3rd Finalist. In BBB there is always 3 People in the Finale.

However due to Hariany being disqualified for breaking the No-Aggression -aka- Physical Violence in the House Rule by Pushing her Friend Paula to the Floor in a Drunken Rage  BBB was forced to restructure how the Final 3 Finalists scenario would play out.

They Decided without Paula and Carolina knowing that Both were now actually the 2nd and 3rd Finalist due to the Hariany incident and whoever was Evicted since the Last Eviction wasn't canceled - that person would win the 3rd Place Prize Money and had to Leave the House immediately - Since the Last 3 always take home Prize Money. So the Eviction ended with Carolina being Evicted and she took the 3rd Prize Money with her - Paula then became the 2nd Finalist and instead of 3 in the Grand Finale it would only be 2 - Paula would now Battle with Alan for the Win. And the rest is History Since Paula beat Alan and became the Winner of #BBB19 - Congrats to Paula!!

Extra Info - Paula's Competition Stats:

On Day 3 Paula won the "Super Nomination" Endurance challenge where the Housemates had to Stay inside a Car then Step out when they heard a Buzzer and do a Memory sequence using Cubes over and over again and whoever Lasted the Longest would win the 3rd Immunity available that week and the rest of the Housemates would Automatically be up for Eviction - This was Paula's 1st Endurance Competition Win which lasted 18+ Hours and she also won her 1st Car. 

Then She Won the 2nd Endurance Comp where they had to keep their Arm in the air without tipping the Coca Cola filled barrel above their Heads - She Won after 19 Hours with one arm in the air.

The 3rd Endurance Comp they had to last standing chained to a Car facing the Weather Elements Cold - Hot - Rain - Wind and she won it after 24+ Hours and also won her 2nd Car. 

Paula also won an Angel Competition

So Yea Paula proved she is a Very Strong Woman on many Levels! An Overall Great Player! and definitely the Protagonist of this Edition! - So Once again - Congrats to Paula! 😉👌

[hellyeahomeland]

20 Questions, or: The Great Amazing Homeland Finale Prediction Contest

Since we’ve had such an awesome time this season, we decided to open a prediction contest that puts a whole new spin on the phrase “guessing game.” We at HYH have compiled a (hopefully) quick survey of 20 questions and the person who’s both the most right and the least wrong takes home the prize. What are those prizes, you ask?

THE PRIZES:

1st place:

Your choice of any handmade scarf from Afghan Hands, a charity Claire supports that helps disenfranchised women in Afghanistan

Guest on the HYH podcast (we’ll talk about anything you want) or a guest post on HYH about any topic you want (within reason -- i.e., nothing hateful, racist, homophobic, bigoted, etc.)

Sara will say “Quarrie”

2nd place:

$100 to spend however you want at the Showtime store

3rd place:

$50 to spend however you want at the Showtime store

4th place:

Homeland Revealed by Matt Hurwitz

5th place:

Homeland Revealed by Matt Hurwitz

(We considered also giving away a “biggest loser” prize but suspected the competition might be too fierce for a #HomelandLamp or “Brody Is My Hero” t-shirt.)

You DO need to be a Livejournal member in order to vote for this poll. To create an account, go here. You do not need to be a member of the HomelandStuff community in order to vote, nor will being a member of the community impact your chances of winning.

GROUND RULES:

Our “survey” plays out kinda like Jeopardy. If you predict correctly, add those points to the bank. But if you make a guess and end up being wrong, subtract those points. We’ve weighted points very scientifically* using a formula that gives more points to things we at HYH have deemed overall riskier (i.e., on the whole less likely to happen based on canon and past seasons). We have a tie-breaker question at the end in case Sara’s math turns out to be horrifically off. If it comes to it, we’ll choose winners based on how close you were on this question (so be descriptive!).  After the episode we’ll tally up everyone’s points and then declare the winners.

The poll will close Sunday night at 2pm EDT (what time is that for me?), which means you’ll have two extra hours to reflect on all the choices you should have made before the finale airs. (If the finale ends up leaking, we’ll close the poll right away, so there’s value in not wasting time entering!)

One entry per person, please. Anything seriously fishy will be disqualified. Our panel of judges has final authority on the veracity of any submissions.

Winners will be chosen and announced by Sunday, April 16 at 9pm EDT.

*Sara literally just came up with numbers that sounded ok-ish HOW TO PLAY:

The survey is here. You need a LiveJournal account to enter. While you're at it, you should also join the HLS community, which is really easy and takes like eight seconds. Plus you’ll have quick and easy access to this wonderful support group after what we’re all sure will be a hell of a finale. Then simply enter your predictions, sit back, and relax panic.

THE CATEGORIES:

Death and All His Friends

#NotThisShowButFic

Birds and Bees

"Previously on Schmomeland..."

READY TO PLAY? LET’S PLAY.

[auburnfamilynews]

I’ll warn you in advance, this is extensive, but here’s a look into who Auburn will be seeing out in Maui this week.

Aloha! Welcome to the Maui Invitational Preview! Your Auburn Tigers will play 3 games in Maui, beginning tomorrow afternoon against Xavier. Let’s start this by taking a look at the bracket and teams participating this year.

Your 2018 @OfficialMauiJim @MauiInv matchups. Is it November yet? #MauiHoops pic.twitter.com/4paMAPlRXL

— Maui Invitational (@MauiInv) July 24, 2018

I reached out to the other teams that Auburn will see out in Maui and got feedback from several of the other schools that will be represented out in Maui. Special thanks goes out to the following people for answering my questions:

Arizona - Ryan Kelapire, AZ Desert Swarm

Gonzaga - Peter Woodburn, The Slipper Still Fits

Iowa State - Levi Stevenson, Wide Right and Natty Lite

Xavier - Bryan Dobney, Banners on the Parkway

You will see some of their thoughts throughout this preview. We’ll go down the list of teams participating in this year’s Maui Invitational, in alphabetical order.

Arizona Wildcats

Record: 3-0

Coach: Sean Miller (10th season)

Results: 90-60 over Houston Baptist, 82-61 over Cal Poly, 79-46 over UTEP

The Wildcats lost a lot of players from last year’s group and are working on integrating the new guys together at Arizona. When it comes to how the new faces are fitting in so far...

RK - “It’s hard to say. Arizona’s first three opponents were Houston Baptist, Cal Poly, and UTEP, so it’s hard to accurately gauge how good they actually are. The talent level is lower this year, though, so this team won’t be as good as last year’s.”

This tournament will definitely be a step up in competition for the Wildcats. They play Iowa State in their quarterfinal matchup on Monday night.

A notable player to keep an eye on for the Wildcats is freshmen Brandon Williams.

RK - “He (Williams) is expected to be one of Arizona’s top two scorers, and he is the most talented player on the team, in my opinion. The craziest part is he has 16 assists and zero turnovers so far. I’m actually really interested to see how he fares against major-conference guards, since Arizona hasn’t faced anything like that yet this season. Arizona needs Williams to play well to have any chance of winning. Nothing would surprise me, though. He’s had his fair share of freshman hiccups early on.”

As far as realistic expectations for Arizona in this tournament...

RK - “There really is no expectation. There are so many new faces and Arizona hasn’t played anyone yet, so they could go 0-3 or 2-1 and no one would be surprised. The overall talent level is lower than usual this year, though, so I tend to believe they’ll go 1-2.”

#9 Auburn Tigers

Record: 3-0

Coach: Bruce Pearl (5th season)

Results: 101-58 over South Alabama, 88-66 over #25 Washington, 103-52 over Mississippi College

Auburn looks to be a trendy pick to finish 3rd in this tournament behind Duke and Gonzaga and for that to happen, it would mean they go 2-1 in Maui. I think that’s honestly a realistic goal for this group and would be quite the accomplishment. The first game against Xavier is most important because it determines what part of the bracket you go onto for the remaining of the tournament. Playing teams in the winners bracket, no matter the results, will help Auburn moving forward. We saw Austin Wiley play well the other night and I would expect him to take another step towards establishing himself as one of the best big men in the SEC this week. Add in the excellent pieces alongside him in the frontcourt plus Jared Harper, Bryce Brown and Samir Doughty playing well and this team can do extraordinary things in this tournament.

#1 Duke Blue Devils

Record: 3-0

Coach: Mike Krzyzewski (39th season)

Results: 118-84 over #2 Kentucky, 94-72 over Army, 84-46 over Eastern Michigan

If you’ve been paying attention to College Basketball this year, then Duke has been the best team so far. They absolutely destroyed Kentucky on opening night behind their outstanding trio of freshmen in Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish. Barrett and Williamson are each averaging 25.3 points a game so far and Reddish has 16.7 points a game. This is the one team Auburn fans have dreamt of facing during their time in Maui and with a win over San Diego State Monday afternoon, paired with an Auburn win over Xavier, and we get this matchup Tuesday night. If the thought of Zion Williamson vs. Austin Wiley doesn’t get you excited for this tournament, then nothing will.

#3 Gonzaga Bulldogs

Record: 3-0

Coach: Mark Few (20th season)

Results: 120-79 over Idaho State, 104-67 over Texas Southern, 94-71 over Texas A&M

I watched a bit of the Gonzaga game on Thursday night against the Aggies and I came away impressed with their depth and interior defense. The Zags blocked 10 shots in their win Thursday night over the Aggies. They have 5 guys averaging in double figures so far and expectations have never been higher in Spokane.

PW - “Undeniably yes. Part of that isn’t exactly our fault. It is hard not to have the highest expectations ever when national pundits casually toss Gonzaga as a Final Four/championship level team. Even in 2017, when the Zags finally made their first Final Four, they opened the season ranked No. 14. This year, we not only had our highest preseason ranking ever, but also received a first place preseason vote for the first time ever. And, leading up to the Killian Tillie injury (recovering from a stress fracture in his ankle), it made sense. The Zags have two first round draft picks in Rui Hachimura and Tillie on the squad, Zach Norvell could easily bolt for the NBA this year as well. Combine that with a senior point guard in Josh Perkins, a senior grad transfer guard in Geno Crandall, and one of the more underrated forwards in the nation in Brandon Clarke, and the hype train took off for the moon. I still haven’t figured out how to get down from up here.”

One matchup that would be a lot of fun to watch would be the battle of the backcourts featuring Auburn’s Jared Harper and Bryce Brown against Gonzaga’s Josh Perkins and Geno Crandall.

PW - “The biggest advantage for Gonzaga going in is the size advantage. Both Perkins and Crandall have a few inches on Harper (although Brown packs on the pounds so that is an even matchup). The wild card for Gonzaga will be the 6’5 sophomore Zach Norvell. He is an aggressive guard who loves flying recklessly to the rim as much as he does shooting a three. Auburn will have to find a way to defend him. Otherwise, this is as balanced of a matchup as you could ask for. Two senior backcourts going at it would be a great thing to watch.”

Illinois Fighting Illini

Record: 1-1

Coach: Brad Underwood (2nd season)

Results: 99-60 over Evansville, lost 88-80 to Georgetown

Brad Underwood took over a program that was quite frankly, a mess in March 2017. The Illini are extremely young and essentially have an entirely new look from last year’s team. There are just 2 seniors/Grad Students on this roster but 6 freshmen. The most notable is Point Guard Ayo Dosunmu, who is averaging 21.5 points a game in his first 2 games in Champaign. We’ll see if this Illini can make any noise in this tournament but they have an extremely difficult first round matchup facing off against Gonzaga on Monday night.

Iowa State Cyclones

Record: 3-0

Coach: Steve Prohm (4th season)

Results: 79-53 over Alabama State, 76-59 over Missouri, 85-73 over Texas Southern

If I had to pick a sleeper team in this field, this would be the team. Last year was a difficult one for the Cyclones, but they have gotten off to a good start this year and have a win over a decent SEC team in Missouri to start their year. They are led by Virginia transfer Marial Shayok who is averaging 20 points a game over his first 3 games.

LS - “So far, he’s (Shayok) been pretty rock steady on offense, and is clearly enjoying the opportunity to play in a high tempo offense. His senior leadership will be crucial in keeping all of the young talent pointed the right direction. He’s shot well from the perimeter, but his favorite shot is the jumper from the elbow. Him being able to create that shot on his own will be a useful tool to have, especially late in the shot clock.”

Iowa State brought in one of the most talented freshmen class in program history and Coach Prohm looks for his guys to gel as they prepare for Maui. They will be without one of their better players in Lindell Wigginton, who is recovered from a sprained foot. Still, the Cyclones have optimism entering this tournament.

LS - “I think Iowa State should have a good chance to take down Arizona in the first round, but beyond that it will depend heavily on how well we shoot the ball from deep. After Arizona would likely be Gonzaga, which is looking like a Final Four contender this season. If the Cyclones get hot from deep, they also have a decent shot to take down the Zags, but not having Lindell’s scoring pop is going to hurt in that one. Going 2-1 in Maui would make every Cyclone fan happy, but even going 1-2 while play Gonzaga and whoever the third opponent is close would be good enough to feel solid about going forward.”

San Diego State Aztecs

Record: 2-0

Coach: Brian Dutcher (2nd season)

Results: 76-60 over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 103-64 over Texas Southern

The Aztecs have 5 guys averaging in double figures but they haven’t been tested yet. That changes tomorrow when they get the unenviable task of facing Duke in the first round of this tournament. An NCAA Tournament team last year, this is a team that is known for priding itself on defense. The Aztecs scored 9 points a game more last year than the previous season and we’ll see if that carries over to this year. Their leading scorer through 2 games is senior guard Devin Watson, averaging 17 points a game.

Xavier Musketeers

Record: 2-1

Coach: Travis Steele (1st season)

Results: 82-69 over IUPUI, 91-85 over Evansville, lost 77-68 to Wisconsin

I’ll have much more on Xavier tomorrow but the Musketeers are coming off a tough loss to Wisconsin leading into this tournament. They have several guys who can challenge Auburn’s big guys. They’ve also been prone to giving up a lot of points so far this year so how they play defense against Auburn’s fast-paced explosive offense will be a key in the result of this game.

Finally, I asked each of the participating writers how they saw a potential matchup with Auburn going down. Here are their thoughts.

RK (Arizona) - “Not very well. Arizona is still learning how to play together, and I just don’t think they’re ready to beat a team like Auburn yet. At the end of the year that could be different, but they still have a lot to sort out.”

PW (Gonzaga) - “These two teams are borderline carbon copies of each other, so, easy way out, I have no idea. Auburn is fantastic at offensive rebounding. So is Gonzaga. The Zags can shoot from long range, so can Auburn. I think that Auburn’s defense has a leg up on Gonzaga, especially when it comes to intensity, pressure, and forcing turnovers. I think that Gonzaga’s offense is better than Auburn, and I’m not sure how they can effectively stop all of the weapons the Zags employ. If the Zags play smart basketball and withstand the defensive pressure, I think they eke out a win here. However, if Auburn is able to dictate the game through its defense, that is going to make it very difficult for Gonzaga to put any sort of pressure on the Tigers. Therefore, I’ll just say it’ll be the first tie in Maui Invitational history!”

LS (Iowa State) - “This one would be a really fun game to watch, as both teams are very good on both ends of the floor. If Iowa State was at full strength, I’d probably give the slight edge to Iowa State, but without Lindell’s scoring punch and Cam Lard’s borderline-automatic double double, the Cyclones would likely face an uphill battle that would require them to get hot from outside to have a shot at taking down the Tigers.”

BD (Xavier) - “I’m an optimist by nature, but after seeing you guys run Washington off the floor, I am not holding out a lot of hope. I think X will show better than against Wisconsin, but I also think Auburn is a better team than Wisconsin. 86-75 Auburn. Please beat Duke.”

Stay tuned for more Maui Invitational coverage including my full Q&A with Xavier’s Bryan Dobney, from Banners on the Parkway, tomorrow morning. War Eagle!

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2018/11/18/18097669/maui-invitational-preview

[mexicaneurolover]

Eurovision 1991 my top 22

Hello, and welcome to another episode of this ESC series of tops and we go back to May 4, 1991, when the 36th edition of the contest was held in Rome, Italy after Toto Cutugno’s victory in Zagreb last year. 22 countries took part, The Netherlands withdrew but Malta returned after their last entry in 1975. This contest IMO was the most chaotic one because of the hosts, Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, both of the Italian winners, they messed up so many times, they spoke all the time in Italian and the voting was so painful. The winner this year was Sweden with Carola and the song Fångad av en stormvind, after a tie-break with France because Sweden had more 10 points than France. And now, let’s review the songs.

1st Place: SWEDEN/Carola-Fångad av en stormvind (Real Placing: 1st-146 points) 

But this song... I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH. And I love Carola as well so this entry is very good and I enjoy every second of it. This year, as in 1968, you have Team Sweden or Team France, and I’m Team Sweden because Carola is such a wonderful singer, the song is catchy and I found it thanks to a WatchMojo video and I fell in love with it, also it’s one of my alarm songs and I always wake up with good vibes thanks to this song. OJ SVERIGE, this winner is epic and thank God the tie break existed. 

2nd Place: ISRAEL/Duo Datz-Kan (Real Placing: 3rd-139 points)

Another amazing Israeli song, this is so wonderful, the music is very good and they are such great singers, also the overall performance is very good and the dancing is memorable, and to think this was 7 points shy of the winner and the runner up, it would’ve been an amazing winner. 

3rd Place: SPAIN/Sergio Dalma-Bailar pegados (Real Placing: 4th-119 points) 

This ballad is an absolute delight to hear and the lyrics are cute, his voice is excellent and he’s so charming and handsome, the music is superb and this is a perfect song, I want to dance it someday with someone special. 

4th Place: GREECE/Sophia Vossou-I anixi (Real Placing: 13th-36 points)

Oh this entry is so powerful as well, the music is stunning and she has such an angelical voice, that sax solo is so scary and horrendous, but leaving that unfortunate detail, this is such a delightful entry. 

5th Place: SWITZERLAND/Sandra Simó-Canzone per te (Real Placing: 5th-118 points) 

Again this is an amazing song, the music is very strong in the verses as well as in the chorus, also her voice is so strong and lovely, and the performance here is pretty wonderful. I’m so astonished for this song. 

6th Place: PORTUGAL/Dulce Pontes-Lusitana paixão (Real Placing: 8th-62 points) 

Another lovely song from Portugal, I enjoy this so much and her voice is perfect, the music is amazing and it’s a very strong entry, I really like this song so much and wow, I’m in love with her.  

7th Place: ITALY/Peppino di Capri-Comme è ddoce 'o mare (Real Placing: 7th-89 points) 

Another great song from Italy, and his voice is so special, also kudos for this being in the Neapolitan dialect. The music is perfect and the song itself is very good, and it sets me on the right mood to enjoy this song. 

8th Place: TURKEY/İzel Çeliköz, Reyhan Karaca & Can Uğurluer-Iki dakika (Real Placing: 12th-44 points) 

OOOOO WHAT A CHEERFUL SONG, this lifts me so much and this is so happy and catchy. I love their voices and the music is perfect, one of the catchiest songs from Turkey, and certainly, an amazing one. 

9th Place: MALTA/Georgina & Paul Giordimaina-Could it be (Real Placing: 6th-106 points) 

Another great ballad and what a comeback for Malta! They are amazing and the music is pretty, I like so much the chorus and the power of their voices. This entry was the best from Malta at the date, and I see how this ended high. 

10th Place: FRANCE/Amina-C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison (Real Placing: 2nd-146 points)

This entry was for a long time in my top 3, but then I started to get tired of it, and even if I still find it enchanting, now I think it’s kinda annoying, but still her voice is perfect. 

11th Place: IRELAND/Kim Jackson-Could it be that I’m in love (Real Placing: =10th-47 points) 

This again is a sweet song sung by a singer with a sweet voice and quite a memorable chorus, this entry is very nice and I like her voice so much, it fits the song so well. A nice song and ballad from Ireland. 

12th Place: CYPRUS/Elena Patroklou-SOS (Real Placing: 9th-60 points) 

The verses on this song are brilliant and her voice is so good, but for me the chorus is quite dull, but still is very memorable, a nice entry overall and so easy to listen. 

13th Place: YUGOSLAVIA/Baby Doll-Brazil (Real Placing: 21st-1 point) 

Oh this is such a guilty pleasure for me, the music is great and her voice is quite special but it’s effective for this song. I’ve always enjoyed this one because it makes me happy. 

14th Place: UNITED KINGDOM/Samantha Janus-A message to your heart (Real Placing: =10th-47 points) 

Another song that is quite nice, and the music is pretty nice, but maybe her voice is quite off putting, also the lyrics are kinda beautiful but maybe the performance wasn’t right. 

15th Place: FINLAND/Kaija Kärkinen-Hullu yö (Real Placing: 20th-6 points)

This song is great, the music is powerful and the guitar here is a nice detail, a good rock song and her voice is stunning, this entry is very catchy and I love the sound of Hullu yö. 

16th Place: NORWAY/Just 4 Fun-Mrs. Thompson (Real Placing: 17th-14 points)

They are all amazing singers and OMG EIRIKUR AND HANNE!!! Overall this is a very catchy song but IMO fails to impress me in this field of strong songs, but anyway, I enjoy this song so much. 

17th Place: ICELAND/Stefán & Eyfi-Draumur um Nínu (Real Placing: 15th-26 points)

Their voices are so lovely, also the song is quite nice and cute, I enjoy the music so much and Stéfan’s voice is wonderful, as in 1988. A nice little song from them. 

18th Place: BELGIUM/Clouseau-Geef het op (Real Placing: 16th-23 points)

Oh this song... it’s weird, the beginning is good but the rest is repetitive and annoying, nice voice from the lead singer though. 

19th Place: DENMARK/Anders Frandsen-Lige der hvor hjertet slår (Real Placing: 19th-8 points) 

This song is kinda good but the verses aren’t memorable at all, the music in the chorus is lovely and his voice is good, but this song isn’t one of the best this year. Kinda feels flat though. 

20th Place: AUSTRIA/Thomas Forstner-Venedig im regen (Real Placing: 22nd-0 points/last) 

I have quite a problem with this song, his voice is awesome but the music is kinda mediocre in the verses, and in the chorus you think It will take off but doesn’t work. His entry in 1989 was MIIIIIIILES better than this one and that look... so weird, still I think this isn’t nul points material. 

21st Place: LUXEMBOURG/Sarah Bray-Un baiser volé (Real Placing: 14th-29 points) 

Aaaaah this one is plain as well, her voice is good but the song doesn’t say anything to me, the chorus is nice but the rest is boring. Also that guitar ruins the song for me. 

22nd Place: GERMANY/Atlantis 2000-Dieser Traum darf niemals sterben (Real Placing: 18th-10 points) 

Oh what a boring and forgettable song, I can’t remember this because it’s so lame. Not a good song and IMO one of the worst songs ever from Germany.