ISML 2022 explanation of playoffs day 4 by maglor

ISML 2022 explanation of playoffs day 4 by maglor

   This year, before the elimination period started, there were two issues of concern. One was that we had to schedule Couples Tournament during the Elimination, along with modified Nova Fall tournament where many contestants from Split 1 were also competing since we wanted to maximize the chances for most contestants. This made many characters appear multiple times in the same match day. There were concerns that having the usual one-vs-one consolation matches would exacerbate the situation. Another was that multiple members had real life issues, some being medical, that distracted them from working on Elimination period schedule. These combined to us not planning the usual one-vs-one consolation matches involving multiple characters from Split 2 who did not qualify for the Elimination Prelim match for the top 16. What we forgot during the process was that the rules for Necklace Five and Six in the Charter was written with expectations that more one-vs-one matches for split 2 characters would be taking place during Elimination period as consolation matches.

   The consolation matches that was designed were those using "More Than Two Characters" format in Range voting or approval voting format. This greatly cuts down on the number of consolation matches a character needs to be involved in. We also took care to avoid exhibition matches that contained only one of the characters that had two or more wins during split two as the Charter did not prohibit the use of exhibition matches in considering character performances, thus the exhibition wins can impact who enters Necklace Six qualifier match in Elimination day 6 and Necklace Five qualifier matches in Elimination day 5. In the whole process, we lost sight of a character who was on the bubble for both necklaces, something that was totally unexpected at the time we wrote the Charter.

   Due to a certain character being on the bubble for both necklace 5 and 6 consideration, there were discussions among voters arguing to make someone who already won the necklace to win again in order to influence the necklace match placement of the said character. I'm sure there were also arguments for the other way around, but these were not the arguments we were hoping to take places. We wished for people to consider their necklace votes primarily for characters they want to give the necklace to, and free them from other reasons if it is reasonably possible for us to do so. In order for people who wished to include/exclude the character from necklace 5/6 to have more freedom in voting for the necklace matches, we devised an exhibition for ALL the characters on the BUBBLE for necklace FIVE AND SIX. The hope was that this allowed people to have more options to consider, thus be more free in choosing who they want for the necklace.

Now, we realize that we should have had these discussions more in open, thus tried to convince people of the reasons for the matches. Due to us being unprepared for the situation mentioned above, we formulated our actions too late, thus didn't attempt to discuss the situation with the public, nor offer the explanations we are offering now. As with public desire, we will not use the results from these six matches for determining necklace qualification. Hopefully, we can put the whole episode behind us, now.