King of /v/ 2023

King of /v/ 2023

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King of /v/ 2023 was the fifth edition of the annual King of /v/ tournament. It occurred in early December of 2023.

Following in the footsteps of Queen of /v/, the Elite Eight here was half new and half returning. Newcomers included the Demi-fiend from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, Rayman (coming off several hype factors), Grimm from BLACKSOULS, and John Ward from FAITH. The four returning members were Kiryu Kazuma from 2019 and 2021, Solid Snake from 2019, Scout from 2020, and Dr. Eggman from 2021. This line-up was largely received very well by anons. Kiryu's return meant that he retains a perfect attendance record, following Roll and Fio Germi in Queen of /v/. Notably, Wario was close to retaining his record, but had the unfortunate fate of facing Eggman in Round 4. He would come in second in the final losers' bracket match, losing to everyone's favorite jobber Battler. Coming off the controversial grand finals the previous month, it was voted to NOT have Battler face the winner. Some have noted the tournament feeling quieter than a number of its contemporaries.

While several characters had strong runs this year, in the end it was Grimm who managed to pull off the win after continued campaign efforts and early defeats the previous two years. He is the first h-game / X-rated winner in any tournament, the second RPG Maker winner after the Batter in 2021, and arguably the most niche winner to date outside of /v/'s regular posters. His win was against Eggman, who many saw as a strong pick to win for much of the tournament. This makes Eggman not only the first runner-up to return to the finals, but the first to lose twice in said finals. Despite Eggman being the more well-known pick, the most obvious advantages for Grimm were his more consistent campaigning and gradual alliances with his previous opponents. He further received other positive remarks around being an uniquely "/v/-core" pick. Despite a largely positive reception immediately following his win, Grimm did receive some criticism in particular around being yet another "hype schizo pick", with the specific callbacks to Batter vs. Eggman in particular having a more mixed reception in retrospect.

While not as drama-heavy as Queen of /v/ 2023, there were several incidents. The most immediate was the sudden resignation of host BallsAnon near the start of the event for undisclosed reasons unrelated to the tournament itself. This was followed by hosts being seen as surprisingly silent in the threads, much to the ire of a number of people. A few anons were concerned at the lack of the usual Google Forms results in the finals (partially off a jump in voter count), but general thread reactions seemed to support all of the results. The afterparty threads would end up bringing several incidents. In one case, an artist's named accounts got doxxed by an anon using Erika Furudo under the accusation that they created art of Amaterasu in a muzzle during Queen of /v/. This caused mixed to negative reaction from anons in the threads at the time, though these claims eventually led to a major discovery surrounding the identity of host NightShiftAnon. Worries over the finals results would escalate further when it was revealed that one person had shared the last few voting forms in a Black Souls server on Discord. While the server was described as quiet and the forms being posted did not have much public response on there, the server also had thousands of members within it. A seeming majority of people did seem to still see the finals outcome as accurate based on the reactions within said Discord after it got raided and the number analysis by several anons, but others have been reasonably skeptical of the results coming off this revelation as well as the uncertainly over how many voters actually came over from the cross-posting. It has remained somewhat of a shadow around the tournament over the years since then, though the tournament itself has largely been regarded as a success by a majority of anons on /v/.

Rules

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
• Geralt from The Witcher
• Sam from Sam & Max
• Max from Sam & Max
• The Nerd from The Angry Video Game Nerd
• Doctor Doom from Marvel vs. Capcom
• Tony Hawk from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
• Mike Tyson from Punch-Out!!
• John Madden from Madden
• Charles Barkley from Barkley, Shut Up and Jam

Most of these picks would end up being nominated.

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.

2022 Elite Eight (Will be eligible next contest)
2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
Jack Frost	JC Denton	AM	Travis Touchdown	Phoenix Wright	Albert Wesker	Luigi
Shin Megami Tensei	Deus Ex	I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream	No More Heroes	Ace Attorney	Resident Evil	Super Mario

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

King of /v/alhalla (PERMANENTLY RETIRED)
2019							2020							2021							2022
Senator Armstrong							Dante							The Batter							Jack Garland
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance							Devil May Cry							OFF							Final Fantasy

No Double Duty Clause

Characters who are eligible for both tournaments cannot be nominated here if they previously appeared in Queen of /v/ 2023's bracket: Gardevoir from Pokémon Baba from Baba is You JPEG Dog from Ace Combat Cacodemon from DOOM

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

Live nomination list by NightShiftAnon: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1prgFyIcZjTj625FGu0vF7rCjwtAg7Ni1wXZ9V3EcBn8/edit#gid=1208532275

Qualifier Results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QTQK9vHEnUyxYycaLzR4WlqkYDrqBA2rthXL9FC3Pzs/edit#gid=0

Any 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. Metal Gear, Devil May Cry, OFF, and Final Fantasy also have restrictions.

Advanced

Bold text indicates character who appears in the bracket for the first time.
Shin Megami Tensei, Deus Ex, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, No More Heroes, Ace Attorney, Resident Evil, and Super Mario will only be eligible for 2 guys in the bracket instead of 3. Metal Gear, Devil May Cry, OFF, and Final Fantasy are currently under an indefinite restriction of only 2 picks.

Advanced to Main Bracket (128)
#	Character Name	Franchise / Series	Votes
01	Miles Edgeworth	Ace Attorney	245
02	Dr. Eggman	Sonic the Hedgehog	241
03	Peppino	Pizza Tower	235
04	Doomguy	DOOM	234
05	Vergil	Devil May Cry	233
06	Mario	Mario	228
07	Heavy	Team Fortress 2	219
08	Solid Snake	Metal Gear	218
09	Scout	Team Fortress 2	211
10	Spamton	Deltarune	209
11	Grimm	Black Souls	206
12	Wario	Wario Land	206
13	Captain Falcon	F-Zero	205
14	Raiden	Metal Gear	198
15	Agent 47	Hitman	196
16	Coach	Left 4 Dead	194
17	King Dedede	Kirby	193
18	Leon Kennedy	Resident Evil	193
19	Sonic the Hedgehog	Sonic the Hedgehog	193
20	Spy	Team Fortress 2	193
21	Father Garcia	FAITH	191
22	Gordon Freeman	Half-Life	187
23	G-Man	Half-Life	184
24	Harry Du Bois	Disco Elysium	182
25	John Ward	FAITH	181
26	Duke Nukem	Duke Nukem	179
27	Dagoth Ur	The Elder Scrolls	177
28	Postal Dude	POSTAL	175
29	Banjo	Banjo-Kazooie	175
30	Isaac Kleiner	Half-Life	174
31	Alucard	Castlevania	173
32	Simon Belmont	Castlevania	172
33	Donkey Kong	Donkey Kong	172
34	Dracula	Castlevania	171
35	Joshua Graham	Fallout New Vegas	170
36	CJ	Grand Theft Auto	170
37	Chris Redfield	Resident Evil	170
38	The Nerd	Angry Video Game Nerd	170
39	Solaire	Dark Souls	168
40	Goro Majima	Yakuza	168
41	Funky Kong	Donkey Kong	167
42	Quote	Cave Story	166
43	Alex Eggleston	YIIK	166
44	King K. Rool	Donkey Kong	166
45	Dr. Neo Cortex	Crash Bandicoot	165
46	Bill	Left 4 Dead	163
47	Kazuma Kiryu	Yakuza	163
48	Nero	Devil May Cry	162
49	Dick Gumshoe	Ace Attorney	161
50	Dung Eater	Elden Ring	160
51	Cave Johnson	Portal	160
52	Frog	Chrono Trigger	159
53	Demi-fiend	Shin Megami Tensei	159
54	Battler Ushiromiya	Umineko no Naku Koro ni	159
55	Brad Armstrong	LISA	157
56	Giygas	Earthbound	156
57	Meta Knight	Kirby	156
58	Link	The Legend of Zelda	156
59	Pepsiman	Pepsiman	155
60	Christopher Robin	Winnie the Poohs Home Run Derby	155
61	Ganondorf	The Legend of Zelda	154
62	William Afton	Five Nights at Freddys	153
63	Master Chief	Halo	153
64	Kirby	Kirby	153
65	Bowser	Mario	153
66	Rayman	Rayman	153
67	Isaac Clarke	Dead Space	152
68	Adam Jensen	Deus Ex	152
69	Big Smoke	Grand Theft Auto	152
70	Shadow the Hedgehog	Sonic the Hedgehog	152
71	Rance	Rance	151
72	Mega Man	Mega Man	149
73	King Of All Cosmos	Katamari Damacy	148
74	Jacket	Hotline Miami	148
75	Tom Nook	Animal Crossing	147
76	Crash Bandicoot	Crash Bandicoot	147
77	Ridley	Metroid	147
78	Johnny Cage	Mortal Kombat	146
79	Crono	Chrono Trigger	145
80	Patches	Dark Souls	145
81	Morshu	The Legend of Zelda	145
82	Sans	Undertale	141
83	Little Mac	Punch-Out	138
84	Ness	Earthbound	137
85	Zero	Mega Man	137
86	Isaac	The Binding of Isaac	137
87	Bomberman	Bomberman	136
88	Gene	God Hand	136
89	Waluigi	Mario	136
90	X	Mega Man	136
91	N	Pokémon	136
92	Fox McCloud	Star Fox	136
93	Wheatley	Portal	135
94	Asura	Asura's Wrath	134
95	Nick	Left 4 Dead	134
96	Roland	Library of Ruina	134
97	Conker	Conker's Bad Fur Day	131
98	The Hunter	Bloodborne	130
99	Big Daddy	Bioshock	129
100	Sephiroth	Final Fantasy	129
101	Niko Bellic	Grand Theft Auto IV	129
102	Shovel Knight	Shovel Knight	129
103	Frank West	Dead Rising	128
104	Jevil	Deltarune	127
105	Kim Kitsuragi	Disco Elysium	127
106	Kefka	Final Fantasy	127
107	The Knight	Hollow Knight	126
108	Pit	Kid Icarus	126
109	Helltaker	Helltaker	125
110	James Sunderland	Silent Hill	125
111	Icon of Sin	DOOM	125
112	Handsome Jack	Borderlands	124
113	King Dice	Cuphead	124
114	Max Payne	Max Payne	124
115	Andrew Graves	The Coffin of Andy and Leyley	124
116	Red Crewmate	Among Us	123
117	Anon	Snoot Game	123
118	Tohru Adachi	Persona	122
119	Red Pikmin	Pikmin	121
120	Charles	Mafia City	121
121	Not Important	Hatred	120
122	Hollow Knight	Hollow Knight	120
123	Earthworm Jim	Earthworm Jim	119
124	Gex	Gex	119
125	Geno	Super Mario RPG	119
126	Geralt	The Witcher	119
127	King Boo	Luigi's Mansion	117
128	Cuphead	Cuphead	117

Did not qualify

Excluded by Series Limit

The following characters had enough votes to qualify for the main bracket, but were excluded due to the 3 characters per series rule.

Characters Excluded by Series Limit
#	Character Name	Franchise / Series	Votes
24	Revolver Ocelot	Metal Gear	184
39	Engineer	Team Fortress	169
39	Soldier	Team Fortress	169
46	Medic	Team Fortress	166
49	Demoman	Team Fortress	162
60	Saxton Hale	Team Fortress	155
61	Sundowner	Metal Gear	154
71	Richter Belmont	Castlevania	151
71	Template:Barney Calhoun	Half-Life	151
84	Pyro	Team Fortress	140
87	Sniper	Team Fortress	137
92	Template:Blade Wolf	Metal Gear	136
93	John Freeman	Half-Life	135
98	Liquid Snake	Metal Gear	133
99	Metal Sonic	Sonic the Hedgehog	133
101	Monsoon	Metal Gear	130
104	Ellis	Left 4 Dead	129
111	Scientist	Half-Life	125
112	Francis	Left 4 Dead	125
112	Louis	Left 4 Dead	125
127	Psycho Mantis	Metal Gear	119
127	The Merchant	Resident Evil	119

Excluded by Meme Status

The two following characters had enough votes to qualify for the main bracket, but were excluded due to their status as internet memes.

Characters Excluded by Meme Status
#	Character Name	Franchise / Series	Votes
100	L-Block	Tetris	131
101	Grand Dad	7 Grand Dad	129

Terrible Twelve

Did not qualify? Try again next year.
#	Character Name	Franchise / Series	Votes
129	Ezio Auditore da Firenze	Assassin's Creed	117
130	Sneed	The Simpsons: Hit & Run	117
131	Prince of All Cosmos	Katamari Damacy	116
132	Oersted	Live A Live	116
133	The fat fuck who talks about technology	Pokémon	116
134	Astolfo	Fate/Grand Order	115
135	Sissel	Ghost Trick	115
136	Parappa	Parappa the Rapper	115
137	Brick	Pizza Tower	115
138	The Judge	OFF	114
139	Matias Torres	Ace Combat	113
140	Steve	Minecraft	113

Tournament Format

Full bracket

Format: 128 characters, single-elimination bracket. 7 rounds, 7 days. Characters are seeded based on their rankings in the qualifying poll, but this doesn't affect the randomized bracket.

DOUBLE ELIMINATION: The losing contestants will still partake in a losers' bracket, which uses four-way matches. The winner of this bracket recieves guaranteed qualification for King of /v/ 2024 and gets recognized as 9th place.

• 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/ 2024.
• 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 2024 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 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 - Quarterfinals - Semifinals - D̵̥͇͍̉̅͝Ǫ̴͚̙̐̀͝ ̴̩̼̓̾͝N̸̖̩̏͜͝͝Ô̵̝͔̅͘T̶̫̋̑ ̵̮͝Ŕ̶̻̱͇̀͠E̷͓̯̋͊̓S̵̹̞̀̍E̶̗͑Ã̵͚̤͐͠Ȑ̴̢̉͛Ċ̴̯Ḧ̷̝͈́̍͆
• Responses per Round: 708 > 735 > 693 > 642 > 795 > 818 > 1030
• Challonge Link: https://challonge.com/Kingv2023

Tournament Bracket

Rounds 1-4

Bracket A

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Bracket B

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Bracket C

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Bracket D

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Bracket E

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Bracket F

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Bracket G

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Bracket H

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Elite Eight

Elite Eight
Quarter-Finals (R5)				Semi-Finals (R6)				Finals (R7)
53	Demi-fiend	450
66	Rayman	345
				53	Demi-fiend	345
47	Kazuma Kiryu	309		2	Dr. Eggman	473
2	Dr. Eggman	486						2	Dr. Eggman	430
								11	Grimm	599
11	Grimm	439
9	Scout	356		11	Grimm	445
				25	John Ward	373		3rd Place Match
8	Solid Snake	337						25	John Ward	650
25	John Ward	458						53	Demi-fiend	379

5th-8th consolations

5th-8th Match Result
Contestant	5th	6th	7th	8th	Total
Scout	571.50				2045 (Points)
Solid Snake		500.50
Kazuma Kiryu			487.50
Rayman				485.50

External Links

• New Booru: Booruplus (DEFUNCT)

Navigation

/v/idya Tournaments
/v/idya	Queen of /v/	2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 • 2023 • 2024 • 2025
	King of /v/	2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 • 2023 • 2024 • 2025
Side Tournaments	Barred from Queen	2023 • 2024 • 2025
	Barred from King	2022 • 2023 • 2024 • 2025
	Queen Bottom 128	2022 • 2023 • 2024 • 2025
	King Bottom 128	2022 • 2023 • 2024 • 2025
	Queen Next 128	2024 • 2025
	King Next 128	2024 • 2025
/tnt/ Tournaments	/v/ Co-op	2023 • 2024 • 2025 • 2026
	/cov/	2024 • 2025
	3-Player	2026
	Heroes of /v/	/v/ Heroes 2023
	Villains of /v/	/v/ Villains 2023