Bilibili Moe 2016 - Japanese Animation



Bilibili Moe 2016 Animated Character Popularity Awards - Japanese Animation was the second edition of the Bilibili Moe tournament for Japanese anime characters. The event ran from 2016 November 21 and ended in 2017 January 01.

The 2016 tournament underwent a major change in its format - the main event was reduced from 128 to 72 players. As a result, players are now split into groups of 3, and will only need to win just two matches (Top 72 -> Top 24) to advance into the elite 8. This edition was also the first to implement the True-Love Voting feature, which would become an important aspect of the tournament in subsequent editions.

The female division was highlighted by the rivalry between Date A Live vs Re:Zero; both shows were favorites to win the tournament due to the overwhelming support of their fans. Re:Zero ultimately prevailed as #1 overall seed Rem won the championship in a narrative-heavy run, overcoming arguably the hardest possible sequence of opponents she could get from the bracket draw: against romantic rival Emilia, then Date A Live villain Kurumi Tokisaki (which some users touted as the "true finals"), and finally DAL's imouto Kotori Itsuka, which ended in an anticlimactic blowout.

On the other hand, the male tournament concluded with Noragami's Yato winning the championship match against last year's runner-up Koro-sensei. Third place went to One Punch Man's Saitama while the unseeded Ash Ketchum finished fourth.

External links:
 * Moegirl article (Chinese)
 * ISML forum discussion thread

Tournament Format
Preliminary Rounds
 * Qualifiers: 2016 November 21 - December 11
 * Vote 5 from each group (5 male, 5 female)
 * Top 3 directly qualify to Main Event
 * 4th-7th advance to Resurrection Rounds
 * Resurrection Rounds: 2016 December 13-15
 * Vote 5 from each group (5 male, 5 female)
 * Top 3 qualify for Main Event
 * Remaining contestants are eliminated

Main Event
 * Top 72: 2016 December 18-21
 * Group stage, 24 groups of 3
 * 8 characters with the highest votes on the Qualifiers are seeded, while the rest are randomly allocated
 * Vote 1 character per group
 * Top 1 from each group advance
 * Top 24: 2016 December 22-23
 * Survivors are split into 8 groups of 3
 * Same format as previous round
 * Elite Eight: 2016 December 25 - 2017 January 01
 * Single-elimination bracket
 * Bracket placement is drawn by lots
 * A third place match will be played between semi-final losers.

If there are more than 16 hours of server maintenance and other reasons that make it impossible to vote, the schedule will be postponed by one day.

Rules
Character eligibility
 * The competition is divided into Male and Female tournaments; results from one tournament do not affect the other.
 * Only characters who appeared in Japanese anime released between 2015 October 01 - 2016 September 30 (2015 Fall - 2016 Summer) are eligible for this tournament.
 * TV series
 * Films - theatrical release date in China
 * Blu-ray / DVD releases of films - release date must be outside Japan
 * The following types of anime media are NOT ALLOWED:
 * Long-running seasons which started before 2015 October 1 and have 100+ episodes (e.g. One Piece, Naruto, Detective Conan, Gintama)
 * Special episodes (e.g. Steins Gate: Open the Missing Link - Divide By Zero, Charlotte: Tsuyoimono-tachi)
 * OVAs (e.g. Strike the Blood, Himouto! Umaru-chan OVA, Overlord: Ple Ple Pleiades)
 * Web series / ONA
 * Remakes
 * Trailers and Promotional videos
 * Hentai (R18)
 * Human and humanoid characters only; animals and anthropomorphics are ineligible.
 * The character list will be published from 00:00 on November 5 until 23:00 on November 13, during which you can apply for an addendum to the list, which will be updated once a day.

Voting policy
 * Each matchday lasts on 00:00 - 23:00 Beijing Time (UTC+8).
 * Only full members registered on 2016 September 31 or earlier and have bound their account with a cellphone number are allowed to vote.
 * You must log in and verify your account (e.g. CAPTCHAS) before you can vote. Verifying costs 1 coin. The same ID can only (successfully) verify once per day.
 * Verification codes only valid for the day of voting.

Tiebreakers
 * If a match ends in a tie, the last relevant contestant who received a vote will advance.
 * If the final round ends in a tie however, both competitors will be crowned champion (similar to AST 2014's final result).

True Love Votes
 * True Love Votes count as 2 votes for the chosen character. However, once you decide to use it, you cannot vote on other matches on a given matchday. (in other words, either vote on all matches, or only send 2 votes to your "true love".)
 * After 2016 November 21, you must log in and share the event page to receive the True Love Vote.
 * True Love Votes can only be used once per account throughout the entire event. Make it count.
 * The Saimoe Wiki will display True Love Votes in superscript beside the final score like this: 12,345 678.
 * Thus, a given result should display like this: 45,454 1000 - 67,890 4500

Participation Rewards
Continuous Sign-in
 * All users who have voted on every single match day will be awarded a commemorative medal. Lasts 3 months.
 * Merely verifying your account does not count.
 * Voting on exhibitions do not count.

Champion Souvenir
 * A custom medal for the winning character. Lasts 1 year.
 * A user must choose a character on every single match he/she is in (including preliminaries); if said character wins the tournament, they will receive a special medal depicting said character.

Exhibitions
Exhibition matches were held during break days: in December 12 (after qualifiers), December 16 (after resurrections), and December 24 (after Top 24). Some matches are related to China's ACGN internet culture.