Saimoe 2006

Saimoe 2006 was the 5th edition of the annual Anime Saimoe Tournament organized by users from the Japanese textboard 2channel and held within its own dedicated website. It began with the nominations on July 1 and ended with the final match on October 28. Nanoha Takamachi was the defending champion, but she was eliminated in round 4 by her partner Fate Testarossa. This was the first tournament where users from several English-language forums were majorly involved, such as the anonymous imageboard 4chan - specifically /a/ - Anime and Manga, and AnimeSuki - the forum whose users created the spin-off ISML contest 2 years later.

The final match was contested by Lyrical Nanoha and Rozen Maiden, a repeat of last year's final but with different girls: Fate Testarossa came into the final with Nanoha's blessing and looked to secure her series' second straight championship, while Rozen Maiden's Suiseiseki sought to avenge her fellow competitor's defeat. The match produced the highest turnout out of all J-Saimoe finals with 4545 votes, a record which stands to this day. Fate initially held the lead for the first half, but Suiseiseki's votes steadily increased as the match progressed, eventually overtaking the blonde magical girl in the final few hours. Suiseiseki held on to win the match by 67 votes, and therefore the championship.

The 2006 edition is also notable for being one of only two tournaments (the other being 2003) to have eight different shows in the Elite Eight bracket: Fate/stay night, Haruhi, Lyrical Nanoha, Rozen Maiden, School Rumble, Shakugan no Shana, Strawberry Panic, and Utawarerumono. This is a rare feat because in most editions, at least one series has at least two girls in the finals bracket because of the tournament's limited selection of animes and the voters' natural tendency to gravitate towards more popular and more familiar shows.

Schedule
All dates are in Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00).
 * July 01-02 - Nominations
 * July 05-13 - Preliminaries R1 Part 1
 * July 15-23 - Preliminaries R1 Part 2
 * July 26-31 - Preliminaries R2
 * Aug 03-10 - Main Bracket R1 (Groups A-B)
 * Aug 15-22 - Main Bracket R1 (Groups C-D)
 * Aug 24-31 - Main Bracket R1 (Groups E-F)
 * Sep 02-09 - Main Bracket R1 (Groups G-H)
 * Sep 11-18 - Main Bracket R2 (Groups A-D)
 * Sep 20-27 - Main Bracket R2 (Groups E-H)
 * Sep 30 - Oct 07 - Main Bracket R3
 * Oct 10-17 - Main Bracket R4
 * Oct 20-23 - Quarter-finals
 * Oct 25-26 - Semi-finals
 * Oct 28 - Final

Rounds 1-4
Players per round: 288 > 96 > 32 > 16 > 8 > 4 > 2

Tournament format is single-elimination. All contestants are initially split into 8 groups of 36 girls, which are composed of multiple matches. Vote only one girl per each match, regardless of number. If a match is tied for 1st place, all tied contestants will advance into the next round. If the final is tied, then both girls will be crowned champion.


 * Round 1: Three girls per match. Some matches have 4 girls instead to accommodate excess contestants.
 * Round 2: Three girls per match.
 * Rounds 3 and beyond will be 1v1 match. The winner of round 4 (group finals / top 16) will advance to the elite eight bracket, where they will be re-drawn.

Group A
Round 1

Round 2

Group Finals

Group B
Round 1

Round 2

Group Finals

Group C
Round 1

Round 2

Group Finals

Group D
Round 1

Round 2

Group Finals

Group E
Round 1

Round 2

Group Finals

Group F
Round 1

Round 2

Group Finals

Group G
Round 1

Round 2

Group Finals

Group H
Round 1

Round 2

Group Finals

Elite Eight
Single-elimination 1v1 bracket.