Elite Eight
The Elite Eight is a key concept in the character tournaments hosted on 4chan, simply referring to the final eight characters left in a given contest by the quarterfinals. Since most of the tournaments employ a 128-man single elimination bracket, the Elite Eight usually corresponds to Round 5. In this stage, all losers of the quarterfinals will play a separate four-man voting round afterwards in order to rank them from 5th to 8th. Likewise, the semi-final losers will also play each other to decide 3rd and 4th place.
Reaching the Elite Eight is generally seen as a mark of strength, and is also treated as a sort of an "exclusive club" because relatively few contestants are able to reach that stage; and membership is permanent. To keep the competition fresh, two rules have been implemented from 2019 onwards:
- Elite Eight Rule: Every time a character advances into the quarter-finals, they will be temporarily banned from participating in the next Mr. and Ms. /co/ tournament. After this period, they may be nominated in subsequent contests (until they manage to get into the elite 8 again).
- Champion Rule (AKA Jenny Rule): All champions of Mr. and Ms. /co/ntests, dubbed the /co/lympian Pantheon and Waifuhalla respectively, are permanently retired and will be barred from entering in future editions.
Some anons have criticized the Elite Eight rule. A primary argument has been that some contenders may exploit this rule by deliberately losing in the last 16, in order to give themselves a better chance to win next year due to "weaker" competition. Others have simply questioned the rule's usefulness, or argued that it simply isn't a fair reflection of the best a tournament's specific medium has to offer. Despite this, the rule has survived several votes against it and persists in all relevant tournaments to the present day.
Mr. /co/ and Ms. /co/ edit
Main Article: Elite Eight (Mr. and Ms. /co/)
King of /v/ and Queen of /v/ edit
Main Article: Elite Eight (King and Queen of /v/)