ISML 2013

ISML 2013 was the 6th edition of the International Saimoe League, and the second year since the Nova / Stella split was introduced.

Defending champion Kanade Tachibana continues her dominance in the tournament, having secured her second consecutive necklace, division title, and finals appearance this year. However, she would ultimately lose to rival Ruri Gokou in the Tiara final, as the apparent growing dislike of repeat champions ultimately prevailed among voters, ensuring that a new champion is always crowned every year.

In the Male Exhibition tournament, Hyouka's lead male Houtarou Oreki defeated Raildex powerhouse Accelerator in the final to win ISML's third Lapis Scepter. Defending champion Kirito was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Mondaiji protagonist Izayoi Sakamaki.

Regular Season
Each division plays a single round-robin format. 35 matches, split into 5 periods of 7 matches. Top 16 will advance to division playoffs, ranked in this order:


 * 1) Points (3 for a win, 1 for a tie. A loss adds points based on [Your Votes / Opponent's Votes].)
 * 2) Wins
 * 3) Strength of schedule of DEFEATED opponents (SDO)
 * 4) Strength of schedule of ALL opponents (SAO)
 * 5) Vote difference (VD)
 * 6) Total votes earned (VF)
 * 7) Staff selection

What is SDO?


 * I don't know.

What is SAO?


 * I don't know. It's definitely not Sword Art Online, that's for sure.

Aquamarine
On the Nova side, there are many new faces this year. One of the strongest faction in Preliminary, Sword Art Online  ,found themselves unable to keep up with their excellent Preliminary Result, while the two Haganai girls are going well with their recent boost from the second season. Two unexpect upset among the Tier 1 happened in Round 7 was Shiina Mashiro > Takanashi Rikka and Hasegawa Kobato > Yuuki Asuna. Rikka was the winner of the Diadem of Autumn last year after crashing Mashiro at the final round, Asuna was the winner of the Diadem of Summer last year and also the winner was the match of diadem winners. The result put her as the strongest new blood from last year, while Kobato was placed 14th in the Final League. In the end, Hasegawa Kobato was placed 1st with the highest SDO in Nova.

On the Stella side, unlike last year, where she was faced with low SDO disadvantage, the former Aquamarine Necklace Winner Tachibana Kanade found herself holding the historical high SDO of 103.046, which was more than enough to combine with her strength. Despite the problem of split voting in the Hanazawa faction and many people wanted a new winner for Aquamarine Necklace. The severe disadvantage of low SDO in other contestants and K-ON! and Railgun faction out of running plus Kanade's own overwelming strength, lead the match into an completely onsided one, granting Tenshi the first necklace of the year again with no surprise and Kanade officially become the first repeat winner of Aquamarine Necklace. Necklace Winner: Tachibana Kanade

Amethyst
Despite her heavy deplete in strength after the end of Shakugan no Shana final season, Shana is refused to give up her dream of obtaining all 7 colours of necklace. But with one lose in the first round, she barely just got into the Necklace Round as a wildcard. After Tenshi's success in repeat necklace winning, her Hanazawa sister Gokou Ruri is also eager to do so. Clearing her path towards the Necklace Round with no problem, Ruri also obtained the highest SDO on the way. With Oreimo on air making Ruri stronger and stronger as each match went by, the black cat successfully obtain the necklace with an onesided match just like what happened in Aquamarine, making 2013 the first year with 2 repeat necklace winners. Necklace Winner: Gokou Ruri (Kuroneko) 

Ruby
As Amethyst passed by, the Regular Season is reaching towards its midway.

The Novas has becoming more and more unstable with many upsets and characters rising and falling in strength of big gaps, leading a high inflation of SDO towards lowest ranking Tier 1 character Asuna. Facing her daughter, the Nova wildcard, Yui, from the same series in the last round. she successfully secured her 7 wins and a spot towards Ruby Necklace Match. The former Summer Diadem winner, Takanashi Rikka, recovered from her bitter defeat in Aquamarine, took down Kuroyukihime in Round 7, leaving Shiina Mashiro the only loseless character left on stage as Ruby Period close in.

Meanwhile over in the Stella side, with the airing of Railgun, Mikoto has picked up her former strength, defeating Aisaka Taiga. But her luck is out on this period with weak matchups leading to low SDO. The unexpected inter-series upset of Akiyama Mio over her Kouhai Nakano Azusa, plus the strong match up allow her to gain the highest SDO from the Stella side.

However, K-ON! has had their time and their strength is falling. With two Hanazawa characters already out with their respective necklaces, and Taiga and Mikoto suffering from low SDO. Yuuki Asuna managed to be the first Nova to obtain a necklace this year despite the overwelming performance from Mikoto. Necklace Winner: Yuuki Asuna 

Emerald
With the necklace win from Yuuki Asuna in the last period, the Nova are getting ready to challenge the Stella again. Mashiro, now the only loseless character in Nova, successfully secured her title by defeating Kuroyukihime in the last round. The unstable strengths of Nova characters continued with many unexpected upsets between two characters with big ranking gaps.

Two undefeated character, Tachibana Kanade and Gokou Ruri, remained undefeated through Emerald. This period has proved the first time ever Shana, the representative of Kugi and Tsundere in ISML, lost in a inter-seiyuu match to her Kugi sister Aisaka Taiga. Mikoto, despite growing stronger from the airing of Railgun anime, is having trouble with her opponents performing badly, leading to a low SDO. The second powerhouse from OreImo, Aragaki Ayase, has proved herself to be the first Tier 7 character to enter a necklace round.

Despite the even bigger Vote Difference, Mikoto was unable to upset Rikka's high SDO, with a difference of 1.38 in necklace socre, Takanashi Rikka followed Asuna's step and took away another necklace for Nova. Necklace Winner: Takanashi Rikka 

Topaz
The Round 1 of this period has proved itself to be the most intense round of the year in Regular Season, with the amount of votes almost doubled from the usual 7000-8000 voters. It is the first time ever, the undefeated Tenshi, Tachibana Kanade, lost a match in her Regular Season journey, leaving her Hanazawa sister Gokou Ruri to be the last loseless character standing in Stella. The upset of Izumi Konata over Holo also marked the first time in the history of ISML that the last finisher in Regular Season is not winless. Then finally, the time has came for the Nova 1st Shiina Mashiro to shine. With the highest SDO ever in this year, Mashiro managed to win the Necklace Round without much trouble. Necklace Winner: Shiina Mashiro

Consolation Gems
These awards are given to the bottom-placed girls after each period.

Playoffs
Format:


 * 16 females from each division play in a single-elimination bracket.
 * Winners of the Round of 16 match advance to Tiara playoffs
 * Winner of each division claims the Sapphire circlet (Nova) or Diamond circlet (Stella)
 * Third place is awarded to the semi-finalist who lost to the division winner.
 * Rankings from quarter-finals and below are decided by their final position in the regular season
 * These rankings will be used as seedings for the Tiara Playoffs.

Tiara Playoffs
Format:
 * 8 quarter-finalists from each division are combined together in a 16-player single-elimination bracket.
 * Nova girls will always play against Stella girls in the Round of 16.
 * Bracket: N1-S8, S4-N5 N2-S7, S3-N6, S1-N8, N4-S5, S2-N7, N3-S6
 * Winner of the final match claims the Heavenly Tiara and declared as this year's champion.

Characters are seeded by the following criteria:
 * (1) Winner
 * (2) Finalist
 * (3) Whoever lost to the division winner in the semis
 * (4) The other semi-finalist
 * (5-8) Quarter-finalists, arranged by final regular season position

Placement Matches
TBD

Winner's Gallery
Necklace & Tiara

Trivia

 * The will be 20 Nova characters from this year that will be going into Stella division next year if the rule stays the name.
 * They are:Shiina Mashiro, Kashiwazaki Sena, Hasegawa Kobato, Mikazuki Yozora, Touwa Erio, Yuzuriha Inori, Oshino Shinobu, Makise Kurisu, Honma Meiko, Kanzaki H. Aria, Akemi Homura, Kirishima Shouko and Konoe Subaru, Saten Ruiko, Shiina Minatsu, Akaba Chizuru, Sakurano Kurimu, Okazaki Ushio, Haramura Nodoka, Fukuji Mihoko.
 * Toshinou Kyouko, despite being 10 votes away from being eliminated in her first match in Preliminary Phase 1, managed to survive until the last round, while other character who preform better than her during their first match could not.
 * Kotegawa Yui and Kurasaki Fuuko are the only 2 Regular Season Nova characters that did not survive to the last round of Preliminary Phase 1.
 * At 366 ballots and ranked 5th in the Nomination, Inaba Himeko is the Nova character with the highest nomination ballots that failed to advance into Regular Season.
 * A5 91 ballots and ranked 51st in the Nomination, Yuuki Mikan is the Nova character with the lowest nomination ballots that managed to advance into Regular Season.
 * At 1538 ballots and ranked 9th in the Nomination, Kasugano Sora is the Stella character with the highest nomination ballots that failed to advance into Regular Season.
 * At 889 ballots and ranked 17th in the Nomination, Iwasawa Masami is the Stella character with the highest nomination ballots that managed to advance into Regular Season.
 * The top 4 ranking of Stella Nomination is exactly the same as last year's Nova Regular Season result.
 * This year marked the first year of 3 ISML veterans who had never missed a single Regular Season being unable to advance into Regular Season for 2013, they are Sanzen'in Nagi, Hiiragi Kagami and Asahina Mikuru.
 * Mikuru was 2 ranks away from making into Post Season Phase 1 in Stella last year, marking her the highest ranked character from 2012 Regular Season to missed out on ISML 2013 Regular Season.
 * Hiiragi Kagami is the winner of two necklaces in 2008, and had been the leading character of Lucky Star on the stage of ISML until last year.
 * All the Stella Regular Season contestants from last year managed to advance into Preliminary, except for Hecate, who disappeared.
 * 26 out of 36 Stella Regular Season contestants from last year survived Preliminary, the ones who didn't are: Asahina Mikuru, Hiiragi Kagami, Ikaros, Sanzen'in Nagi, Kotobuki Tsumugi, Index L. Prohibitorum, Ichinose Kotomi, Shirai Kuroko, Shiina Mafuyu, Hecate
 * 33 out of 36 Nova Regular Season contestants from last year survived Nomination, the ones who didn't are: Himeji Mizuki, Suzutsuki Kanade and Nakagawa Kanon.
 * 22 out of 36 Nova Regular Season contestants from last year survived Preliminary, the ones who didn't are: Haruna, Elucia de Lute Ima, Haqua du Lot Herminium, Himeji Mizuki, Shiomiya Shiori, Irisviel von Einzbern, Suzutsuki Kanade, Mine Riko, Nakagawa Kanon, Fear Kubrick, Kasugano Sora, Shimada Minami, Sakura Kyouko and Gasai Yuno

Vote Records

 * Highest Votes Earned in
 * Preliminary Phase 1: Tachibana Kanade - 6794 (Preliminary Phase 1 Day 2)
 * Preliminary Phase 2: Ayano Keiko (Silica) - 4243 (Preliminary Phase 2 Day 1)
 * Preliminary Phase 3: Takanashi Touka - 6167 (Preliminary Phase 3 Day 1)
 * Necklace Match: Tachibana Kanade - 3052 (Aquamarine Round 8)
 * Lowest Votes Earned in
 * Preliminary Phase 1: Komori Kiri - 841 (Preliminary Phase 1 Day 1)
 * Preliminary Phase 2: Mouri Ran - 648 (Preliminary Phase 2 Day 2)
 * Preliminary Phase 3: Mouri Ran - 1224 (Preliminary Phase 3 Day 1)
 * Necklace Match: Kousaka Kirino - 516 (Aquamarine Round 8)
 * Regular Season
 * Highest Winning Votes: Tachibana Kanade - 6750 (Aquamarine Round 1)
 * Aquamarine Period: Tachibana Kanade - 6750 (Round 1)
 * Amethyst Period: Tachibana Kanade - 6415 (Round 5)
 * Ruby Period: Tachibana Kanade - 6003 (Round 1)
 * Emerald Period: Shiina Mashiro - 5492 (Round 1)
 * Lowest Winning Votes: Sakagami Tomoyo - 3088 (Ruby Round 6)
 * Aquamarine Period: Roromiya Karuta  - 3489 (Round 6)
 * Amethyst Period: Yuuki Mikan - 3266 (Round 3)
 * Ruby Period: Sakagami Tomoyo - 3088 (Round 6)
 * Emerald Period: Ayano Keiko (Silica) - 3799 (Round 1)
 * Highest Losing Votes: Misaka Mikoto - 4933 (Aquamarine Round 1)
 * Aquamarine Period: Misaka Mikoto - 4933 (Round 1)
 * Amethyst Period: Misaka Mikoto - 4480 (Round 1)
 * Ruby Period: Yui - 4119 (Round 1)
 * Emerald Period: Shana - 3779 (Round 1)
 * Lowest Losing Votes: Iwasawa Masami - 1549 (Ruby Round 4)
 * Aquamarine Period: Hirasawa Ui - 1978 (Round 6)
 * Amethyst Period: Izumi Konata  - 1777 (Round 6)
 * Ruby Period: Iwasawa Masami - 1549 (Round 4)
 * Emerald Period: Izumi Konata - 2395 (Round 1)