King of /v/ 2022

King of /v/ 2022 was the fourth edition of the annual King of /v/ tournament held in the anonymous imageboard 4chan. The tournament was hosted by NightShiftAnon !!9A2duD1C25+, BallsAnon !th0DR5qBxs , and Ghost !!eh0Fgi0FQSV. Featuring 1373 nominees and a 128-player randomized single elimination bracket, the tournament concluded with the 5th seeded knight from Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Originwinning the championship over the icy demon  from Shin Megami Tensei. Third place went to the augmented from Deus Ex, defeating the computer  from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream in the consolation match. In quite the coincidence, Garland won exactly on the 35th anniversary of both the Final Fantasy series and the original incarnation of the character.

How to nominate

 * Character must appear in a video game (vidya)
 * You must post the image, type the character name AND the correct series name (e.g. [I nominate] Link from Legend of Zelda)
 * 12 replies / (You)s are needed in a single thread to qualify as a nominee.
 * One nominee per post only
 * Check the nomination list (Ctrl+F, click the "three vertical dots" icon, and enter character name) to see if your guy is already nominated

Character / series eligibility

 * FOTM Clause: Characters who first appeared at the month before the start of this contest (November 01 and later) are banned.
 * Visual novels / eroge games / galgames are allowed
 * Characters debuting in a game that is part of a non-vidya / multimedia franchise are accepted
 * Characters debuting in non-vidya media that is part of an established vidya franchise are accepted. Limited to 3 characters only in the bracket.
 * Characters who are not male/female or whose gender is unknown are eligible for both Queen and King tournaments, but if they appear in the main bracket in the Queen contest, they will be ineligible for nomination in King (and vice versa).
 * Spinoffs and crossovers are counted as separate series. This rule mainly applies to characters debuting and/or are better known from said series.
 * However, if a given character has previously appeared in another game prior to being featured in a spinoff/crossover/guest appearance, they will be entered under their original series whenever the host deems it convenient.
 * No real-life people allowed
 * No fan-made characters, including memes, OCs and custom characters
 * No inanimate objects (e.g. L-Block, Ebony & Ivory)
 * No grandfather clause: a contestant that appears here may not be allowed for future editions.

Whitelist
This is a list of characters who break at least one of the above rules, but are approved by anons and/or the host anyways. They can still be excluded for future editions if enough people desire so through a survey held during the final round.
 * All Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby characters
 * All Vocaloid characters
 * AM from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
 * Tony Hawk from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
 * Mike Tyson from Punch-Out!!
 * Sam (Sam & Max) from Sam & Max
 * Max (Sam & Max from Sam & Max

Elite Eight Clause
Characters who reached the Elite Eight of the previous tournament are temporarily ineligible this year; they will be eligible for nomination next contest.

Tournament champions, on the other hand, are permanently retired and will be banned for future editions.

Voting policy
All rounds last 24 hours starting from the first relevant thread posted. Countdowns via the its.almo.st website will be provided by the host.

Starting from the qualifiers, all polls and results will be held in Google Polls. A Gmail account is needed to access the voting form. Emails will not be visible to the host and other users. Before voting, a user must answer a question related to 4chan board culture and tournament history, and must fulfill a CAPTCHA test before they can submit their votes. A user can change their choices at any time before the round ends; this is to allow campaigns like fan arts, voice recordings, video edits, songs, and poetry to convince someone to change their mind.

In the main bracket rounds, you must vote for all matches.

Qualifying round
1341 successful nominees will be consolidated into a single massive group where voters select the guys that they want to advance. There is no restriction on how many guys they can select. This format is called Approval voting. After the round ends, 128 guys with the most votes will advance into the bracket. Ties are broken by whoever gets properly nominated earlier.

A maximum of 3 guys per series can enter the bracket. However, if a series makes it into last year's Elite Eight, including the champion, their limit will be reduced to 2 guys for this edition.

Advanced
Bold text indicates character who appears in the bracket for the first time. OFF, Sonic, Yakuza, Legend of Zelda, Wario, Resident Evil, Team Fortress, and Persona were only eligible for 2 guys in the bracket instead of 3.

Tournament Format
To see what the bracket would have looked like if no series limit was enforced, click here. Format: Same format as before: 128 characters, single-elimination bracket. 7 rounds, 7 days. Characters are seeded based on their rankings in the qualifying poll.
 * Which means that in the first round, top seed plays the lowest seed, second-highest seed plays the second-lowest seed, and so on. The bracket is designed so that the top 2 seeds will only meet in the final, top 4 in semi-final, etc.
 * Each round lasts 24 hours after the link to the poll was posted. Countdowns are provided by the its.almo.st website.
 * If a match is tied in votes, the better-seeded contestant advances. If a tie occurs in the final, an extra runoff vote is held instead.
 * All guys who reach at least quarter-finals will be granted Elite Eight status, making them temporarily ineligible for King of /v/ 2022.
 * Losers of the quarter-finals will play a 4-way consolation match in order to rank from 5th-8th. This will take place during the semi-finals.
 * Semi-final losers will play each other at the final round to decide 3rd place.
 * Lastly, the winner of the final match will ascend into /v/alhalla as the 2021 King of /v/, and will permanently retire from the tournament.

Voting policy:

 * You must log-in to a Gmail account in order to vote. All emails will be anonymous to the organizer and other voters.
 * You must answer one or more questions related to 4chan and /v/ culture before you can access the voting form.
 * You must vote on all match-ups. In other words, no abstaining.
 * You cannot change your votes for the entire bracket You can change your votes at any time.
 * You must answer one or more Captchas before you can submit your votes.

Tournament Bracket
Google Polls Results: Round 1 - Round 2 - Round 3 - Round 4 - Quarters - Semis - Final Responses per Round: 1159 > 1207 > 1138 > 1456 > 1348 > 1221 > 1418