King of /v/ 2021

King of /v/ 2021 was the third edition of the annual King of /v/ tournament held in the /v/ board of the anonymous imageboard 4chan. Featuring 961 nominees and a 128-player randomized single elimination bracket, the tournament concluded with the 19th seeded purificator from OFF winning the championship over the evil genius  from Sonic the Hedgehog. Third place went to former yakuza from the Like a Dragon series, while the YTP icon  from The Legend of Zelda claimed fourth place.

Useful links:


 * Plus4chan pre-tournament discussion thread
 * DominosAnon's Tourney info Pastebin
 * /v/alhalla booru

Nomination Rules

 * To nominate a character, you must post their name, image, AND series. Nominations must garner at least 10 replies (supports) within a single thread in order to enter the qualifying poll.
 * If any of the three infos is missing in the nomination, you can reply to add the missing relevant info, although that reply won't be counted as a support.
 * All characters must either originate from a vidya property or be a member of a vidya's universe.
 * Example 1: and  Miss Pauling (Team Fortress 2) are eligible even though they appeared in the comics first.
 * Example 2: Danganronpa series also includes characters who first appeared in the Danganronpa 3 sequel anime (e.g. Chisa Yukizome, Juzo Sakakura)
 * Example 3: Android 21 (Dragon Ball franchise) is eligible because she debuted in the fighting game Dragon Ball FighterZ, while mainline manga characters like Goku and Vegeta do not.
 * Characters must be sentient (i.e. no inanimate objects / weapons unless they can talk or think on their own. Sorry L-Block.)
 * Characters whose gender is neither female nor male (sexless, unknown / ambiguous, gender-fluid, or can possess both sexes) are eligible for both King and Queen tournaments. However, if the character was successfully nominated for the Queen contest, then they cannot be entered into the King contest.
 * Examples: NiGHTS, most Pokemon species (i.e.  Gardevoir, Vaporeon, Lucario, etc.)
 * No depictions or caricatures of real-life people. (E.g. JFK from Call of Duty Zombies, Gandhi from Civilization, Charles Barkley from Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden)
 * No fanmade characters (e.g. Coldsteel the Hedgeheg)
 * Unreleased games are not allowed, but episodic games that are not fully finished yet (e.g. Deltarune) are eligible.
 * FOTM Rule: All characters must be at least one month old. This means that a character is ineligible if their game was first released, or the character first appeared on 2021 October 1 or later.
 * No Grandfather Clause - just because a character qualified for the main bracket once doesn't mean that they'll be allowed again
 * The Elite Eight of /v/'s 2019 King contest will be eligible for this edition after serving their temporary ban in 2020:, , , , , , and.

Excluded Characters
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.

Qualifying Results
Live nomination list: Google Docs Results (w/ votes): Google Sheets A total of 968 nominees were successfully nominated.

All nominees will be subject into a single qualifying poll, where voters select any number of nominees that they want to advance into the main bracket (approval vote). 128 contestants with the highest votes - excluding those over the series limit - will qualify.


 * Voters can change their choices here, but only for this round.
 * If the 128th and higher spots are accessible for multiple characters with the same amount of votes, whoever gets the spot will be decided on either a wheel spin or whoever character got the 10 replies first.

Series Limit: Only the  top three (3)  characters with the highest votes in the qualifying poll will be entered and the rest will be disqualified.


 * Spin-offs are treated as separate series if they have 2 or more installments. Examples: Shin Megami Tensei -- Persona, Drakengard -- Nier.
 * For crossover series, each character will be based on which series they originally appeared in. If their original appearance was in that crossover, they will be entered under that name instead,
 * Examples: Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Aqua, and Riku (original)
 * King of Fighters: Leona (original appearance), Fatal Fury (Terry Bogard, Mai Shiranui), Athena series / Psycho Soldier (Athena Asamiya), Art of Fighting (King)

Advanced
Polling Error Notice: Shortly after the round 1 poll was posted, it was revealed that, the 3rd rep of Yakuza series, was actually a mistake; rather it was who actually qualified instead of him. Fortunately, this error occured early in the round, and Ichiban was replaced with Kuze in the poll. As a result, Ichiban's prior votes were retroactively added to Kuze's tally.

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

Recap
Pre-Tournament:
 * The Alliances (Schizo, Merchant, Daddy, Femboy, etc.)
 * Spamton (Deltarune) and Garland (Final Fantasy I) being vocal favorites
 * Battler, Rance, and the "sacred ointment"

Gallery
TBD