Ms. /co/ 2023

The 6th edition of the annual Ms. /co/ tournament took place in September of 2023.

The Elite Eight this year marked the debuts of Alex and Clover from Totally Spies and Wuya from Xiaolin Showdown along with five returning girls: Harley Quinn, Toph Beifong (both 2018), Raven (2019), EVE (2020), and Eris (2021). The first three were all remarked for coming back after several years of losses, especially Toph. Outside Eris, none of the returning E8 from 2021 rejoined it. Ms. Bellum and Lord Dominator lost in the Top 16, Muriel suffered an upset loss against Sandy Cheeks in the second round, and the remaining three (Hilda, Johanna, and Miss Pauling) all whiffed out in the first round. The loss of the Hilda girls in particular came as a shock to a number of anons.

Outside those who made the Elite Eight this year, there were some other notable campaign efforts. The most prominent of these was a massive push for both Uzi and Cyn from Murder Drones, with the duo whiffing out round one after unfortunate match-ups. While some did criticize their presence in the tournament, most in the threads responded positively to their campaigns. Another major campaign was that for Tiff Krust, who received an usually massive push before and during the tournament prior to losing to Toph. Other notable campaigns this year included Queen Vexus from My Life as a Teenage Robot, Huntress Wizard from Adventure Time, Slappy Squirrel from her segment in Animaniacs, and Lois Lane as her incarnations from both the DC Animated Universe and My Adventures with Superman. Psyanon would end up crowning Uzi and Cyn as this year's "Ms. Literally Whos" after near universal agreement in the threads.

After massive pushes for both characters, the finals would end up being a match between Eris and Wuya. Both had generated tons of campaigning and OC throughout the tournament, and had gained considerable momentum as a result. Both candidates had also had their supporters generally amicable with each other, making this a tough match-up to cap off. A small incident happened late into the round when /co/'s mods foolishly left up a fake thread with an unofficial poll instead of the real one, although thankfully the hosts managed to reel it back in prior to the round's conclusion. In the end, this year's championship would end up going to Wuya in a close match by less than 3%.

This year attracted a large amount of controversy around some statements and decisions by returning host NightShiftAnon !!9A2duD1C25+. Biggest one of these by far was the sudden and unannounced decision to record emails on voting forms, which led some anons to pass on the tournaments in protest. This also caused a large dip in voters early on, although it would mostly stabilize as the tournament advanced. Despite some heavy disagreements with this decision, a share of anons would show some support toward the email requirement, especially as the results started coming in. Other drama came about from other statements by NightShift, including on the purpose of the tournament itself.

Rules
Source: Stats anon's pastebin link

How to nominate?

 * To nominate a character, a user must include their name, picture, and series in their post. Nominating 2 or more characters in a single post is not allowed.
 * All characters must either originate from /co/ media: Western animation and comics
 * Each valid nomination must garner at least nine (9) replies in order to qualify for the contest. These replies are only counted if they are all within a single thread, and do NOT carry over to other threads.

Eligible Nominees

 * All female /co/ characters (except those listed under "Excluded characters" shown below)
 * Any character that was allowed or has appeared in past Ms. /co/ tournaments (Grandfather Clause)
 * Characters can be any age
 * Puppets are allowed (e.g. Muppets, Sesame Street)
 * Generalization Statute: Multiple versions of the same character --- be it from various adaptations, spin-off series, or alternative universes --- are combined into a single entrant. In other words, you are voting for the entire history of that character, not just one particular iteration.
 * Example:   Zatanna (DC Comics, Young Justice, DC Super Hero Girls, etc.)
 * Character Limit: Each series can only have a maximum of three (3) girls in the main bracket. These are decided by their votes in the qualifying poll. However, there is no restriction on the number of girls that can be nominated from a single series.
 * Exceptions: Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Disney core universe characters + related series (Mickey, Oswald, Goofy, and Donald)

Restrictions

 * Any character that is clearly not /co/ is not allowed (e.g. /a/nime and live action shows)
 * /v/ideo game characters that did not originate from /co/ media are not allowed
 * Real-life politicians that are portrayed as cartoon characters / caricatures are not allowed, satirical or otherwise.
 * No /mlp/ characters
 * No Board-tans
 * No "OC donut steels"
 * No meme creations (e.g. Virgin vs Chad)
 * No inanimate objects that aren't treated as distinct characters in their media of origin (based on a vote in the 2022 feedback)
 * One-Month Old Clause: Any character debuting from the 1st of the previous month to the start date are ineligible.
 * Grandfather Clause: All characters who have previously made it into Ms. /co/ or Mr. /co/lympus tournaments, and are not banned by the Elite 8 rule, are eligible to participate regardless of the above restrictions. (Examples:  Dr. Eggman,  Saxton Hale,  JFK,  Wendy's,  Princess Zelda)

Other rules related to both the eligibility of trans characters and the amount of obvious joke characters are expected to be looked into following feedback on the final survey of 2022.

Excluded Characters
Elite Eight Rule: Characters appearing in the quarter-finals of the previous contest are not allowed to compete in this edition. They will be eligible for nomination next contest.

Jenny Rule: Ms. /co/ champions are permanently retired, and will be barred from participating in future tournaments.

Qualified
Full nomination list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N79IPc7qmDq--S8i_GHrJhxiXS0mz_AhXk9GsiQ1kwI/

Results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h9PdL5STeyV12k-i-uChdEjVQTlOwNNnDn1C7Pr02SE/edit#gid=0

A total of 1092 characters were successfully nominated.

This year marked a number of returning girls from previous years, along with a whopping twenty newcomers. This conversely meant a fair chunk of girls missed this year's tournament. Of the fifteen eligible newcomers from 2022, only a mere four returned a second year. In terms of long-term veterans, Ahsoka, Creepy Susie, Enid Mettle, Noodle, and Rapunzel ALL failed to qualify for the first time. This leaves a mere 13 girls who have been in every Ms. /co/ tournament to date.

Ties are resolved by series name in alphabetical order, then character name in the same order. Only the names written on the Google Docs are considered. Characters who appear in the bracket for the first time are labeled in bold.

Excluded by Series Limit
The following characters have enough votes to qualify for the main bracket, but are excluded due to the 3 characters per series rule. The series limit does NOT apply to DC, Marvel and Disney as a whole.

Tournament Bracket
Challonge link: https://challonge.com/d8u6mhtp

Psyanon announcing final results: https://voca.ro/1m8dg8O9Q7X8

Side Tournaments
In addition to the main tournament, there has been a growing prominence on various side tournaments held by other anons alongside it.

Barred from /co/
This tournament was hosted by an anon posing as Bill Clinton, and at a few points his doppelganger "Dill Clinton". The winner of this tournament was Option 1, a choice on the qualifiers survey that had accidentally been left there by NightShiftAnon. Her exclusion became the subject of joking in the threads and soon evolved into a surprising amount of OC for this black horse candidate.

Notably, three of the girls here (Nia, Lila, and Dr. Amelia Buck) all originate from popular web series. Both Creepy Susie and Blossom have qualified for the main tournament in the past, with both being added to this tournament by popular requests in the threads due to specific factors. (Susie had been in every prior tournament and made Top 16 the previous year; Blossom was the only one of the Powerpuff Girls to be left out.)

Bottom 128
Challonge Bracket - https://challonge.com/rlafoglq

Thread Links

 * Google Polls Results: