Anime News

Nominations Close on May 4 for Crown of Anime Tournament
Date: 4/26/2005
Nominations Close on May 4 for Crown of Anime Tournament
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NOMINATIONS CLOSE ON MAY 4 FOR SECOND ANNUAL CROWN OF ANIME TOURNAMENT

NEW YORK, N.Y. ? Nominations are now being accepted for the second annual Crown of Anime Tournament, it was announced today by tournament commissioner Jose Ramos. This comes on the heels of Full Metal Alchemist?s 11-1 romp in winning the inaugural New Star Tournament.

Keiichi.net Radio, the Internet?s number one home for the best in Anime and J-Pop music, is the presenting sponsor of both tournaments.

Patterned after the famous tournament of college basketball, the Crown of Anime and New Star Tournaments feature anime shows and movies competing in head-to-head competition. The Internet public will vote, round by round, to determine what animes continue on in each tournament, until one series remains.

Last year, about 100 people voted in the inaugural Crown of Anime Tournament, which saw a total of over 300 anime titles nominated. ?Cowboy Bebop? was voted the winner over ?Rurouni Kenshin? in the final round.

?Last year?s Crown of Anime tournament was such a success, that we decided to hold it again,? Ramos said in a statement last month. ?The debate continues as to which anime series or movie can be defined as ?the greatest.? We solved this question in 2004 with Cowboy Bebop. Now it?s time for the anime fans on the Internet to make a new decision. Is Cowboy Bebop still the top anime? Or is it time for another one to take its place?

?Ultimately, we created this tournament to answer these questions,? Ramos continued. ?We sincerely hope that anime fans of all shapes and sizes can chime in to voice their opinions and their choices.?

Anime fans from around the world that have access to the Internet can log on to the official Crown of Anime/New Star Tournament web site, located at http://www.jrhorse.info/crownofanime, and send in nominations for the Crown of Anime Tournament. Each person that sends in a nomination will be able to vote in the single-elimination tournament matches. Fans will vote on which anime show or movie is better out of the two in each match. The anime with the most votes will advance in the tournament, and the loser is out. This process will continue until only the winner remains.

A maximum of 64 titles will compete in the Crown of Anime Tournament. Each anime title that qualifies will be assigned to a tournament bracket, based on how they fared in the nomination process. There will be four brackets of 16 in the Crown of Anime Tournament.

?Cowboy Bebop,? last year?s winner, along with ?Rurouni Kenshin,? ?Princess Mononoke? and ?Gundam? automatically qualify for this year?s Crown of Anime Tournament, based on their finish in the tournament last year. As such, these four titles should NOT be included in nominations.

In addition, in response to an investigation that took place during the opening round of the New Star Tournament, great steps will be taken to ensure that only one ballot is submitted per person. ?We want to ensure the fairness and integrity of this nomination process,? Ramos said. ?This includes IP tracking and scanning of all nominations received. Anyone found violating the one-ballot-per-person rule will be excluded from voting in the tournament, and his or her ballots will not count.?

The closing of nominations for the Crown of Anime Tournament is scheduled for Wednesday, May 4 at 11 PM Eastern Daylight Time. Fans who are interested in participating are asked to visit the official website for a list of complete rules before submitting nominations.

The Crown of Anime Tournament brackets will be announced on the ?JRHorse Side Project? radio show on Sunday, May 8 at 5 PM Eastern Time, after which the voting will begin.

The tournaments are based on a similar Internet tournament format created by Tim Connolly. Connolly?s web site, home of the annual Game Show tournament and the NES tournament, is http://www.loogslair.com.

Keiichi.net Radio, which opened its doors in February of 2001, is powered by Shoutcast and offers a playlist of over 2,300 Anime and J-Pop songs, which can be requested at anytime via its web site, http://radio.keiichi.net. In addition to a live show on Wednesday evenings hosted by station owner Keiichi-san, a.k.a. Michael Morris, Keiichi.net ex2 offers special programs such as the daily ?Anime Retro Classics,? ?Anime Reload? on Friday evenings, and Yuki-chan?s ?Score Show? on Tuesday nights. The ?JRHorse Side Project? on Sunday afternoons is hosted by Jose Ramos and features select cuts of Anime and J-Pop music with a New York twist.
Source: Anime News Network