ISML 2016

ISML 2016 was the 9th edition of the International Saimoe League, an online animated character popularity contest.

2016 was a year of transitions: with a new ISML leader being inaugurated, the Nova/Stella split was discontinued this year, merging back the Female division into a single tournament once more. The regular season's format is changed from single round robin to multiple group stages. As a consequence, the gem order was changed back to its original ordering in 2008-2011, and the "circlets" representing division titles are abolished. In addition, the preliminary period was discontinued, meaning that nominations alone will decide which contestants will play in the regular season; the number of participants increased to 128 for both genders because of this.

This year's format is unusual in several aspects: it was the only tournament in which all characters weren't featured in a single period (all 128 characters were distributed evenly from Aquamarine to Sapphire), and the year's playoffs was the only one to feature a single round-robin group stage. The contest's format also meant that a contestant needed to play just 15 matches (9 regular season, 3 playoff group stage, 3 playoff bracket) to become champion, the lowest such amount in all of ISML's editions.

In the Female division, Shana defeated Illyasviel von Einzbern in her third finals appearance to claim this year's Heavenly Tiara. Shana's victory signified the fulfillment of her long-awaited quest for a championship, after suffering two finals defeats in 2009 and 2011. On the other hand, the Male division concluded with No Game No Life's Sora beating Oregairu's Hachiman Hikigaya in the final to win this year's Lapis Scepter.

Although the Fate franchise failed to win a championship this year, it was their best performance yet as they dominated the field in terms of best finishes: Illya was the first finalist from the series, while Saber and Rin finished 3rd and 4th respectively, despite losing in the quarter-finals. In the male side, Kiritsugu finished 3rd in similar fashion to Saber, while Archer landed in 5th after being eliminated in the semi-finals.

New Regular Season Format
Gem Periods:
 * Number of Players:
 * Round of 128: Aquamarine - Sapphire
 * Round of 64: Emerald & Ruby
 * Round of 32: Diamond
 * Each period is limited to 8 groups each for male and female. As a result, NOT ALL contestants will show up in a single period, as all of the players are split into 32 players of both genders per period.
 * Because of this unique format, a contestant only needs to go through three (3) group stages in order to reach the playoffs. If we include the FINAL 16 group stage, then only four (4) group stages are needed to reach the final bracket.
 * Consequently, this edition has the fewest possible maximum amount of games required to win the Tiara / Scepter: 15 games (3 games each from group stages, then 3 games in the final bracket)

Period Format:
 * Players are divided into groups of four (4).
 * Single round-robin format.
 * Contestants are awarded points after each match:
 * 3 points for a win
 * 1 point for a draw (very rare)
 * A loss adds points equal to (Votes for / Votes against).
 * Example: Luffy loses 4200 - 6969 against  Ash. While Ash gets the full 3 points, Luffy gets 0.6027 points (rounded off) as consolation.
 * Tiebreakers:  Points   > Wins > Head-to-head record > Votes For (VF) > Vote Difference (VD) > Staff selection.
 * Eight (8) top-ranked contestants will qualify for Necklace (female) or Pendant (male). Criteria used are discussed in the "Gem and Wildcard Rounds" section below.
 * Bottom two (3rd & 4th) contestants in each group are eliminated outright. Some of them may qualify for Divine Circlet (female) / Divine Crown (male) contention.
 * After each period, the remaining contestants are re-drawn into different groups, and their points are reset to zero.

Rules
Qualification
 * 128 characters will qualify for the regular season. However, 8 female slots are allocated to the winner and runner-up of each seasonal contest from last year.
 * Hence, only the top 120 females and top 128 males with the most nominations will qualify.
 * Last-Place Tiebreaker: The ISML staff gives priority to characters who haven't appeared in the ISML tournament yet.

Qualified
''The "Last Appearances" column denotes the contestant's latest ISML Main Tournament appearance prior to this year, including Preliminaries. Exhibition matches do NOT count.''

Female From 2012-2015, the female tournament was split into two separate divisions: Nova (up to 2 ISML appearances) and Stella (3 or more ISML appearances).

Male  For male characters, appearances from male exhibition tournaments (2011-2014) will be counted for continuity purposes. RD - This year will be their Regular season debut (first appearance). Exhibitions from 2011-2014 do NOT count. OLD (Old Debutant) - Character's anime series is at least two years old at the time of their qualification.This means that the character has had chances to get past ISML nominations, but failed.

Did not qualify
Female

Male [Note 1] Tsubomi Kido (Kagerou Project) is female, but she was erroneously categorized under this year's male division due to her androgynous appearance.

Gem Rounds
Qualifying Criteria for Necklace / Pendant: 
 * 1) Group position
 * 2) Points
 * 3) Wins
 * 4) Votes earned (VF)
 * 5) Vote difference (VD)
 * 6) Whatever the fuck the ISML staff smokes
 * 7) Gem Winners are banned from participating in further gem rounds.

All Necklace / Pendant rounds use the First-past-the-post Voting format.
 * In the First-past-the-post Voting format, voters can only choose one and only one contestant from a group. The contestant with the most votes is the winner.

Playoffs
Final Group Stage
 * 16 finalists are split into 4 groups of 4
 * Single round-robin format
 * Top 2 players will advance to the bracket stage; the rest are eliminated from championship contention. Tiebreaker criteria used for the regular season still apply.

Final Bracket
 * Single-elimination bracket.
 * Eight surviving players are seeded using the Cumulative Vote Percentage (CVP) stat earned throughout the regular season AND the final group stage. Note that seedings are subject to change by the staff without prior notice.
 * Bracket Order: 1v8, 4v5, 2v7, 3v6.
 * All losers (except the runner-up) will play consolation matches to determine their final rankings.
 * The winner of the final match claims the grand prize: Heavenly Tiara for females, and Lapis Scepter for males.

Tiara Playoffs
Seedings: Surviving players are seeded using Cumulative Vote Percentage (CVP) earned during the course of the entire regular season AND the final group stage.

Scepter Playoffs
Seedings: Surviving players are seeded using Cumulative Vote Percentage (CVP) earned during the course of the entire regular season AND the final group stage.

Sapphire

 * Index > Akari Akaza (1467 - 995)
 * Yozora Mikazuki < Yui Kotegawa (1072 - 1311)
 * Komari Koshigaya > Saki Yamagishi (1377 - 670)
 * Illyasviel von Einzbern > Miku Hatsune (1428 - 1283)
 * Akane Sakurada > Manaka Mukaido (1162 - 951)
 * Cthugha > Isumi Saginomiya (1489 - 758)
 * Tina Sprout > Saya Sasamiya (1199 - 1083)
 * Flamie Speeddraw > Nanoha Takamachi (1146 - 1062)

Ruby

 * Kirei Kotomine < Lancer (710 - 1722)
 * Shiki Ryougi > Arcueid Brunestaud (1513 - 881)

Necklace and Pendant
Exhibition Winner: Riki Naoe

Winner's Gallery
Necklace & Tiara