ISML 2010: The race for the final six slots begins...

ISML 2010: The race for the final six slots begins...



March 1, 2010

With 44 of the 50 slots filled in the 2010 International Saimoe League, the race for the final six slots began as Phase III of the Preliminaries kicked off.

Phase III is a final set of group-based matches lasting 2 rounds scheduled over 3 days. Candidates with the lowest vote totals will be eliminated until the final 6 winners are decided.

In Group 1, Ryou Fujibayashi, Sakura Kinomoto and Souseiseki remained in the hunt with 1,729, 1,410 and 1,180 votes.

Group 2 saw Kuroko Shirai, Hayate Yagami and Alice keep their hopes alive with 1,521, 1,306 and 1,269 votes.

Suigintou led Group 3 with 1,518 to keep her outside hopes of a ISML berth well in place. Nayuki Minase and Amu Hinamori also stayed in the hunt with 1,364 and 1,076 votes, respectively.

Golden Darkness (Konjiki no Yami) is one of two To-Love-Ru characters in the running for one of the last six. She finished first in Group 4 with 1,696 votes. Ai Enma and Evangeline A.K. McDowell also stay alive with 1,136 and 1,069 votes.

Ikaros topped Group 5 with 1,633 votes to keep her ISML bid intact. Koromo Amae and Haruka Nogizaka finished second and third with 1,177 and 1,125 votes to stay in the hunt.

Ui Hirasawa is still alive in her quest to rejoin her sister Yui in the tournament. She finished first with 1,631 votes. Mikan Yuuki, the other To-Love-Ru hopeful was second with 1,441 and Kobato Hanato was third with 1,230. Both stayed in the race.

Nymph topped Group 7 with 1,409 votes. Izumi Segawa was second with 1,378 votes, and Makoto Sawatari kept her hopes alive by finishing third with 1,124 votes.

In the third round of ISML Seeding, Hitagi Senjougahara finished first with 1,402 votes.

Ichinose Kotomi
(CLANNAD) 928
Senjōgahara Hitagi
(Bakemonogatari) 1402
Maria
(Hayate no Gotoku!) 1070
Furukawa Nagisa
(CLANNAD) 1093
Takamachi Nanoha
(Mahō Shōjo Lyrical Nanoha) 996
C.C.
(Code Geass) 1156
Akaba Chizuru
(Seitokai no Ichizon) 904

Preliminary Period, Phase III, Day 1 - Results

Group 1
Fujibayashi Ryō
(CLANNAD) 1729
Kinomoto Sakura
(Cardcaptor Sakura) 1410
Sōseiseki
(Rozen Maiden) 1180
Oshino Shinobu
(Bakemonogatari) 1020
Haibara Ai
(Detective Conan) 778
Alice Carroll
(ARIA) 662
Isurugi Noe
(true tears) 491

Group 2
Alice
(Pandora Hearts) 1269
Shirai Kuroko
(To Aru Majutsu no Index) 1521
Yagami Hayate
(Mahō Shōjo Lyrical Nanoha) 1306
Isayama Yomi
(Ga-rei Zero) 932
Tsukamoto Yakumo
(School Rumble) 836
Miyanaga Saki
(Saki) 699
Tōyoko Momoko
(Saki) 437

Group 3
Suigintou
(Rozen Maiden) 1518
Minase Nayuki
(Kanon) 1364
Mizuno Kaede
(Nyan Koi!) 861
Akashiya Moka
(Rosario + Vampire) 992
Hinamori Amu
(Shugo Chara!) 1076
Felli Loss
(Chrome Shelled Regios) 581
Yuno
(Hidamari Sketch) 645

Group 4
Konjiki no Yami
(To Love-Ru) 1696
Enma Ai
(Jigoku Shōjo) 1136
Shihō Matsuri
(sola) 929
Evangeline A.K. McDowell
(Mahō Sensei Negima!) 1069
Teletha Testarossa
(Full Metal Panic!) 839
Winry Rockbell
(Fullmetal Alchemist) 969
Lambdadelta
(Umineko no Naku Koro ni) 466

Group 5
Ikaros
(Sora no Otoshimono) 1633
Amae Koromo
(Saki) 1125
Nogizaka Haruka
(Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu) 1177
Hoshina Utau
(Shugo Chara!) 1033
Ushiromiya Ange
(Umineko no Naku Koro ni) 767
Senō Natsuru
(Kämpfer) 778
Niche
(Letter Bee) 353

Group 6
Hirasawa Ui
(K-ON!) 1631
Yūki Mikan
(To Love-Ru) 1441
Hanato Kobato
(Kobato.) 1230
Minami Kana
(Minami-ke) 929
Sawachika Eri
(School Rumble) 1014
Hinaichigo
(Rozen Maiden) 531
Ranka Lee
(Macross Frontier) 339

Group 7
Nymph
(Sora no Otoshimono) 1409
Sawatari Makoto
(Kanon) 1124
Segawa Izumi
(Hayate no Gotoku!) 1378
Misaka Shiori
(Kanon) 857
Ayanami Rei
(Neon Genesis Evangelion) 1035
Lisa
(Seiken no Blacksmith) 518
Nagi
(Kannagi) 794


ISML 2010 Preliminary Phase III voting continues on Tuesday, March 2. Fans, vote for your favorite candidate online at InternationalSaimoe.com.

Vancouver: Mutton Dressed as Lamb



We all knew it weeks before the game started, with accusations about doping being levelled at Russian athletes, and we all saw it on day one of the games, with the death of a Georgian athlete on a corner which miraculously was elevated the following day. Vancouver is not fit to hold the Winter Olympics.

We already have the case of a Russian skier being hounded to produce a urine sample after qualifying for a race, and if she had given the sample, she would not have had the possibility of entering the following round. Natalya Korosteleva was asked to provide a urine sample during a half-hour pause between the quarter-finals and semi-finals of a skiing event. “This seems against all the rules,” she stated, as she refused to have the sample taken, alleging that if she did, she would not have had time to continue in the next phase. Why her? Far from being a question of sour grapes, Russian commentators were already expressing their reservations as to the integrity of the Vancouver Lobby being able to host the Olympic Games weeks before the start. After all the IOC was starting to fire off in all directions before the first aircraft arrived.
We all know Canada has problems with the future lines drawn on Arctic maps and we all know Canada lives in the shadow of its larger neighbour to the south. The abject cruelty shown by Canadian soldiers in international conflicts is scantily referred to, as indeed is the utter incapacity of this county to host a major international event, due to its inferiority complex, born of a trauma being the skinny and weakling bro to a beefy United States and a colonial outpost to the United Kingdom, whose Queen smiles happily from Canadian postage stamps.
Maybe it is this which makes the Canadians so…retentive, or cowardly. So it is not exactly a huge surprise to have international skating experts from the four corners of the Earth criticising the decision to award the Men’s figure skating Gold medal to the US athlete Evan Lysacekv over the reigning Olympic Champion Evgeny Plushenko, whose superior performance was inexplicably ignored.
As Plushenko explains, “I did a great short program but did not get the marks I deserved. When I asked why, they told me I was skating early and they had to retain top marks for the last group…Then in the free program, I was the last to skate, did everything clean and still didn’t get the marks”.
Everybody who knows anything about Olympic skating, Winter Olympic sports and international politics will infer from the pitiful and dangerous conditions provided by the Canadian authorities, which already caused one death, that Vancouver is mutton dressed as lamb. Take off the outer veneer and the stench is horrific.
It is a surprise that any Russian athlete would wish to remain in that sort of environment for a second longer.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru