Kuzco

Kuzco is the main protagonist of the 2001 Disney film The Emperor's New Groove. The ruler of a Peruvian empire, Kuzco is turned into a llama after firing longtime advisor Yzma. With the help of Pacha, a villager whose village is planned to be destroyed by Kuzco before the transformation, he goes on an adventure to return back to a human, learning to cool his arrogant nature along the way.

Kuzco started off the tournaments as a strong contender, initially seeding 5th in the original Mr. /co/lympus. In this tournament, Kuzco managed to make it to the first Elite 8 for male contestants, losing to eventual tournament champion Johnny Bravo in the quarterfinals. He would then place 8th in the quarterfinal consolation round.

However, Kuzco is best known as the example of how a former contestant can decline in form if a character from the same series sees success. While he was vacationing in 2019 as part of the required year off for Elite 8 contestants, Yzma's partner Kronk entered the tournament for the first time. Similar to Kuzco, Kronk showed an immediate strong showing, with similarly high seeding. Unlike Kuzco, however, Kronk managed to break past the Elite 8 and win 2019's tournament. Most tournament winners are either the sole clear front-runner for their series, or another strong contestant is in the other gender's tournament. This presented an interesting case where a series already has representation as a winner, but has another character with a significant chance to win the same tournament.

Mr. /co/lympus 2020 showed some sparks of life, but already the fatigue of another character from The Emperor's New Groove running for the crown was showing. Kuzco managed to qualify for this tournament, but at a significantly lower 56th seed. Kuzco did manage to win his first round opponent Mung Daal before falling to Iroh second round. While morale was low that Kuzco could ever make another serious run due to Kronk's win, hope still existed that he could inch his way towards another high finish in future tournaments.

Mr. /co/lympus 2021 has perhaps the most infamous slip in tournament history, and easily the lowest point for any former Elite 8 finalist or perhaps any former contestant. Kuzco did not make the tournament, nor has anything to discuss because he wasn't fucking nominated despite over 900 characters being successfully nominated to the qualifying round. While a very small number of former Elite 8 characters (such as Black Canary) have not qualified for some tournaments after their run, Kuzco remains the only former Elite 8 finalist to not even be nominated for an eligible tournament.

If Kuzco has a career revival and returns as a contestant remains to be seen.