Lurker > banshiryuu

Please don't post in this thread until the previous one hits the post limit!

Previous thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80749858

https://i.imgur.com/MjEhAVX.png

Important links
Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HBxgL9woiCMFKNOPuN_qdxmzjStJXSpC3Ocalfsavdk
Nomination playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeKaE-gusMmbVgiFLGZzuBuAK-cFhvdUv
Discord: https://discord.gg/7FVXqWj
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SAJKYJmYhccLvbf_H-5uSA7-eMwXfW8k1q74Qho1bLU
VGMC total stats sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1XdLWiUKB2kX99qYBgnRbLU_sCz4dvZSByKKJHCT6o

Timeline (all times are at 9pm Eastern US time (UTC-4) on the day specified):
April 17th - Nominations open, 5 unique nominations allowed with no limit to supports.
April 18th - Unique nominations raised to 10.
April 19th - ALL nominations AND supports stopped. 48 hours pause enacted to let people listen to everyone's top priority nominations over the weekend.
April 21st - Nominations and supports resume, unique nomination cap completely lifted. Go crazy!
April 27th - No more songs will lock past this point if the lock cap has not already been hit.
April 28th - Nominations close!

oh i missed last day cause Pokemon wasn't in the title lmfao, was a day with literally nothing i cared too terribly about so no loss

SUPERSONIC
+3 Blaziken
+2 Zeraora
+1 Wartortle
-1 Dodrio
-2 Shellos
-3 Drednaw

i swear to god im not a furry, mega blaze and zeraora are just great! actually really sad i can't give a + to claydol for having my favorite card in the entire tcg (cosmic power claydol GE)

SILK TRAP
+3 Naganadel
+2 Coalossal
+1 Brambleghast
-1 Minun
-2 Vullaby
-3 Dunsparce

Geckoeygecko posted...

support

+ Arknights | Tower Fierce | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_8rlp9ut04
+ Arknights | Come to Light | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eu33yYc-ho

These two are getting dropped cause of the 3 song per game limit jsyk

oh my god that was way too close for scrafty, but we'll take being alive

@Neocrimson @MXCM @raidenmon

So, I initially was going to let this go without thinking about it too much, but I have received word that the nominations from these accounts are likely from the same person. While using alts for nominations is not explicity stated in the rules (they are in the voting rules for the contest but I didn't actually think they'd be necessary for nominations lol), it is not allowed for nominations as well.

I looked at archives to see the post history of MXCM and raidenmon and noticed they all tend to post similar or the same votes/responses in topics within a short period of time from each other. This also extends to two other accounts that have yet to post, BSkullX and Scorpionxz. While the timing of posts in this thread have not been out of line, I can't help but notice very obvious timing differences in a number of threads these all have posted in, including the Best Game of 1994 topic literally yesterday where two accounts posted two minutes between each other, and then this morning the two that have not yet posted in this topic did the same. (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80752086) This pattern seems to go back years.

If I am making an error in my belief that these are all coming from one person, I am happy to hear clarification on this whole situation. And even if they are all just your alts I'm still just as happy to keep allowing your participation under just one account as the more people we have the merrier! I just want to make sure people do not get artificial advantage from faking more nomination slots.

For now I will keep the first five nominations in chronological order (because of the 5 songs per series limit), which means these are being kept for now:

+ Mega Man Network Transmission | Zero Gravity Area | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bylo5iC6kkY
+ Mega Man Zero 3 | Cannonball | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqFONBUozrA
+ Mega Man Battle Network 6 | Two of Braves | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouFKEpaqQSs
++ Mega Man X | Storm Eagle stage | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDcNhkVxjmM
++ Mega Man X6 | Blaze Heatnix stage | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me3Me0jikwE

Haste_2 posted...

I forgot to do @banshiryuu. See post 396.

Fixed, I just.... completely forgot to actually add them to your file after I posted them in here >_>

oh damnit kama

+ Einhander | Thermosphere | https://youtu.be/shwrxKyfSTQ

+ Muse Dash | Destr0yer | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bV0HxsKHdc
+ Gekirindan | PURE SPIRIT | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kj5lznf9mg
+ Grand Knights History | Assault of Brave Flame | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVjxfiepiAM
+ Tekken 4 | Kitsch | https://youtu.be/380rSziMpxg

From Haste_2:

+ Kirby: Planet Robobot | Re:GREEN GREENS (Plains Area 2) | https://youtu.be/wWxOfZ2zwmQ?si=Er2RyLHVKGVGiB_q
+ Phantasy Star Online 2 | Assaults of Mother Cluster | https://youtu.be/OmWCtC8VZXc?si=6Hqke5EKAdNCZJOY

Well, forgot to actually hit post! Hilarious!

The freeze is now over! You may use your 20 nomination slots in any way you like now!

AQUA TAIL
+3 Scrafty
+2 Ho-Oh
+1 Vikavolt
-1 Lillipup
-2 Primarina
-3 Oddish

my favorite pokemon :)

POWER TRIP
+3 Palkia
+2 Keldeo
+1 Starmie
-1 Delcatty
-2 Gumshoos
-3 Smoliv

i love water types

uh i never make a topic until bracket cause otherwise the important bracket stuff isn't in the topic post lol

and also cause one during nominations would just attract people trying to skirt as close to rallying as they can without doing it

but if one is wanted then i won't complain about one existing right now!

Neocrimson posted...

++ Mega Man 2 | Wily Fortress 1 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTbfpkByIM8
+ Mega Man Network Transmission | Zero Gravity Area| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bylo5iC6kkY
+ Mega Man X5 | X vs Zero | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3qYAvmiKRs
+ Mega Man Zero 3 | Cannonball | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqFONBUozrA
+ Mega Man Battle Network 6 | Two of Braves | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouFKEpaqQSs

Wily 1 and X vs Zero are on our retired list for their stellar past contest success, and Zero Gravity Area has already been nominated, so you can pick three other songs if you want. I realize I said no supports in the freeze but I guess this is a weird edgecase that I'll accept it lol

Also have new nominations from Geckoeygecko:

+ Arknights | Morning Dew | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU9qCC1dP4Q
+ Arknights | Minima | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=morqLX5tff8
+ Arknights | Speed of Light | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5sfOOvWwA
+ League of Legends | Everything Goes On | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEFVxI9lqjU
+ League of Legends | Pantheon, the Unbreakable Spear | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zub8agQjrw

The listening freeze is now officially in effect! Thank you everyone for your nominations so far!

No supports after this post will be counted until the freeze ends! However, if you are just finding us now and have not made nominations at all yet, you still may nominate up to 5 songs and they will be counted. Otherwise, all activity will not be reflected in spreadsheet updates.

Happy listening!!!!

(Oh also, link updates and what not will also still be counted Ill just be fixing them manually lol)

WONDER ROOM
+3 Carvanha
+2 Blacephalon
+1 Reshiram
-1 Smeargle
-2 Finneon
-3 Komala

G-MAX RAPID FLOW
+3 Salamence
+2 Braixen
+1 Manectric
-1 Sewaddle
-2 Parasect
-3 Pidove

oops vgmc distracting me

From Eggert:

++ Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky | Memories Returned | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7q4xQYFzAE

Supports

+ Sonic Adventure 2 | Live & Learn... Main Theme of "Sonic Adventure 2" | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sefGW__p6WE
+ Fire Emblem: Monshou no Nazo | Holy War | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8xBr1B6Spk

Welcome to Day 2! Original nomination limit is increased to 10 per person!

+ Missing-X-Link ~Ten no Yurikago, Togi no Hana~ | The Blue Sanctuary | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=why71Dt_uyw
+ Espgaluda | Fort City - Stage4 | https://youtu.be/5XS_8D4ztkk
+ Espgaluda II | Deserted - Younger Brother and Elder Sister and... (Stage3) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRd75lxH2Ig
+ beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED CS | INORI | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF0tAr2nlE8
+ MUSYNX | Life is PIANO | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf9vXkvjRro

From TunnelScene:

++ Zork Grand Inquisitor | GUE Tech Theme | https://youtu.be/pHp6PBO3xY8
+ Uru: Ages Beyond Myst | Convergence | https://youtu.be/a56JiSdRsPE
+ Boing Boing & Roger | T11 | https://youtu.be/E3fbKsvn4Nw
+ Mega Man ZX Advent | Whisper of Relics | https://youtu.be/OgKJKhSJNnw
+ Another Eden | Cardinal Palace | https://youtu.be/Zw1-84AktuQ

Yeah, agree with the above. I did miss one already happen earlier that it's kinda too late to take back now (Haste's Blue Desert Hotel) but I would say you can drop it but renomming something else straight up breaks the rules about the five nom limit.

That being said, there is very good chance I will revive Karma at some point lololol

pyresword posted...

Yeah, the video is the one I meant to link. Phantylia is the name of the boss fight the song plays in, and I think what I grabbed was an unofficial upload before the OST with official titles was released. The songs that appear on the official OST ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kQ7WKSGU9ftg8vHOtSVmatWy23a9Xb9ts ) are just the tracks for the 3 individual phases (roughly 0:00-2:00, 2:00-4:00, and 4:00-6:15 in what I linked), which are titled:

Pedujara: Ephemeral Cycle
Pedujara: Even Immortality Ends
Pedujara: Demiseless Existence

I'm realizing I did misread the rule in the Google doc for multi-phase boss music, but I think there's precedent where we have been allowed to nominate combined versions of multi-phase boss themes even if the combined version does not appear as a single track on the OST--which is the scenario here. @banshiryuu if this is wrong tell me and I'll change the nomination.

Edit: Fun fact did you know GameFAQ's doesn't let you put words (or links...) with longer than 80 characters in a message? What a good and helpful feature.

Yeah as long as it's not like (song playing)-(big pause for story stuff or smthn)-(next phase plays) then I might be tempted to say that's leaning more into separate songs. But if the phase change happens dynamically or instantaneously then I think it should be totally fine.

From Eggert:

++ Xenoblade Chronicles | You Will Know Our Names | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7yNyhLOIa4
++ Klonoa: Door to Phantomile | Untamed Heart | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W9RG4LvL0E
+ Sonic Unleashed | Endless Possibility | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9G3U8akOCk
+ Final Fantasy VII | J-E-N-O-V-A | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs0JGX4dD3g
+ LIVE-A-LIVE | Megalomania | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmh4Qs20DZA

Thank you for waiting patiently!

Nominations are now open! Please remember, only nominate five songs for now!

+ SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR | FAR GONE | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSfPS3TB1jI
+ SOUND VOLTEX III GRAVITY WARS | Completeness Under Incompleteness ("true prooF" Long ver.) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhdmLj-zlvw
+ Sixtar Gate: STARTRAIL | 9876734123 ("Hyperprime" Full Version) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-cxGElxYXA
+ Tone Sphere | STAGER (EXTRA STAGECLEAR) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV2kq1Omr8k
+ Live A Live (2022) | MEGALOMANIA | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_MKOlfXKmY

BRACKET PHASE

Population and Bracket Design
After the closing of nominations, the bracket for the contest proper will be populated by songs in the following priority:

1) Songs that were locked before the end of the first week, which were guaranteed a spot into the bracket.
2) Songs with the highest number of nominations, based on total unique votes. (Thus 5 total/5 unique prioritize over 5 total/3 unique)
3) Remaining slots that are on the bubble will be chosen based on a number of hidden criteria, prioritizing those nominators that were not as successful in nominations as others.

...

Bracket Design
Once the field of 256 is finalized, the hosts will work swiftly on creating a bracket based on a number of criteria to make the most reasonable and interesting bracket possible. All the while everyone chants "WE WANT BRACKET! WE WANT BRACKET!" from the sidelines! As soon as we release it, a BracketMaker page will be posted to allow predictions to be made before the contest itself starts (provided BracketMaker is still a website that exists and functions.) The contest should start in the first part of May.

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Head-to-Head Matches
Once the topic starts, every topic will go up at 10pm Eastern and have three matches. All six songs will be posted and users can vote for their preferance after listening to all the songs. And by "after listening to the songs" I really mean after listening to the songs! This may by a popularity contest on the surface, but we still would like everyone to judge matches based on the quality of the songs, and not just because a song you know and like has come up. If the hosts believe voting rules are not being followed, your vote could be disqualified, and repeated offences can lead to being barred from voting in matches.

Winners advance, losers are out, ties get re-run, and double tiebreaks will come down to a special sudden death scenario should a tie not be resolved by that point.

...

Retirement
If a song does well enough to reach Round 5, or the Round of 16, then said song has proven its strength and worth as a "best of the best", and will be added to the "retired list" seen previously in the rules.

NOMINATIONS PHASE

Nominations Rules and Guidelines

* You have a total of twenty (20) nominations which can be used either on new songs that have not been posted before, or songs already suggested by others that you like. Both cases are counted as a single "nomination".
* Of these 20 nominations, five (5) of these can be "double nominations", which counts as two regular votes but only one unique vote. Like regular nominations, these can be on a song you posted yourself, or another person's suggestion.
* Under no circumstance will you be able to use more than 20 nominations, nor more than five doubles.
* You will only be able to nominate 5 unique songs for each of the first two days of nominations: 5 new, unique nominations on day 1 (April 17th) and an additional 5 new, unique nominations on day 2 (April 18th). All 20 nomination slots and all doubles are available for use beyond five new unique nominations so long as you are supporting an already-nominated song.
* This does mean if you hop in on day 2 (April 18th), you'll be able to nominate 10 new songs!
* After the end of the listening pause at 9pm on April 21st, you can remove and add nominations and doubles as you wish without limit to the number of new, unique nominations until the end of the nomination period on April 28th.
* If a song you have nominated or doubled is locked (see locked section below), then you will not be able to change that vote.

...

Song Eligibility and Game Limits

* You may nominate at most 3 songs from the same game.
* You may nominate at most 5 songs from the same series.
* You can't nominate two versions of the same song, including remixes of the same song and alternate versions of the same song.
* You can't nominate songs that are on the retired list. (See VGMC total stats sheet listed in the first post)
* In short, a song is eligible if it plays in-game, or if it appears on the original soundtrack or material that is meant to be OST-adjacent. A dedicated document for eligibility rules with examples can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1irtq3XJ9d4GMD8XJtmKBUl6zAHQ_zkzXFo0d2jEO-20
* If all else fails, just ask! The hosts will have the final say of if something is eligible, but with new changes that have come in the past few years even stuff that has been denied before could be eligible now.

...

How to Nominate

We're using a script to automatically tally votes rather than hand counting votes, so there's a bit of a format you'll have to follow so that it can actually pick up your nominations. Please use the following format:

+ Game_Name | Song_Name | Youtube_Link

The "+" can be replaced by a "++" (immediate double), "-" (remove nomination), or "--" (completely remove a double). For example:

+ Pokemon Diamond/Pearl | Lake | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOmznKTv74M (Adding a nomination, or upgrading to a double)
++ Pokemon Diamond/Pearl | Lake | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOmznKTv74M (Adding a doubled nomination)
- Pokemon Diamond/Pearl | Lake | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOmznKTv74M (Removing a nomination, or downgrading a double to a regular nomination)
-- Pokemon Diamond/Pearl | Lake | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOmznKTv74M (Removing a double completely)

Please try to match the exact text of nominations if you are supporting or altering a nomination that has already appeared before in topic. This includes links; please use the same exact link as the original nomination.

Please, please, PLEASE avoid special characters like accented letters or symbols! The script does not like those kinds of things and they're a bit of a pain to clean up. Also don't edit posts to try and fix mistakes or add/remove stuff from your posts, just notify a host about mistakes or you can also fix them yourself with a - and + in the same post.

...

Locking

Locking system is back once again, but requires even more of a push to lock than last year! If a song reaches 7 nominations, it is guaranteed a spot in the bracket. However, anyone that has nominations on that song will not be able to retract any support on that song under any circumstance. No going back, so make sure that you're completely willing to have that song take up your nomination space! Once a host confirms a lock, the lock is irreversible.

Once 128 songs have reached the lock requirement, then that's it! No more songs will lock and nominations will end with the highest scoring 128 songs filling the remaining slots in the field. There will also be a deadline on locks of 24 hours before nominations close, at 9pm on April 27th.

Greetings all, and welcome to Video Game Music Contest 18!! VGMC is legally an adult now!! Only a few more and then it can drink in the hosts' country! ....Well, what a great weird way to kick off the contest, huh? No matter, we have more important things to do, like getting this show on the road ASAP!

...

What is VGMC?
Video Game Music Contest (VGMC for short) is a single-elimination tournament of video game music that we run right here through GameFAQs forums. The community comes together to determine a pool of songs to populate the bracket with, and then run daily head-to-head matches to slowly determine the best of the best of the field.

The community, you say? Does that mean I can help get songs into this bracket?
Of course! This process of finding songs to use in the tournament is known as the "nominations phase", which is what is starting right now. Anyone and everyone can participate, and the more the merrier! There's a few rules and formats you'll need to follow which will be laid out in the post right below this one, but we'd more than love to see what you can bring to the table!

How exactly does the song pool get decided then?
Everyone who participated has a pool of 20 songs that they can "nominate", which can be either new songs or supporting other songs people have posted. During the two week nomination period, you can move around these nominations as you please, and once nomination time is over, the most nominated 256 songs (simplified, there's some other stuff that'll go down) will be our field for the bracket. Then your hosts will conjure up a bracket, and a while later the bracket will be released and the contest will begin!

Where can I talk to people about the contest?
We have a dedicated channel for VGM on the Board 8 discord, which is linked in the first post above! Find us in the #vgmusic channel!

What kind of stuff has done well in past contest?
Our previous host, azuarc, compiled a playlist of the winners of past contests here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RElFQnUIoUjxk4_bi-uLbVQ
Additionally, you can see the brackets for previous years linked here: https://p0p0p0p.github.io/contests.html (thank you to PIayer_0 for this beauty of a site!!)

Please do not post until your hosts tell you you can!! We have a few posts to make before the flood gates open, thank you!!

Be sure to read all the rules over even if you are returning from previous years, just as a treat!

https://i.imgur.com/MjEhAVX.png

Important links
Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HBxgL9woiCMFKNOPuN_qdxmzjStJXSpC3Ocalfsavdk
Nomination playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeKaE-gusMmZizGIZV6rD3UonjmBYJoii
Discord: https://discord.gg/WDvMS4a
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SAJKYJmYhccLvbf_H-5uSA7-eMwXfW8k1q74Qho1bLU
VGMC total stats sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1XdLWiUKB2kX99qYBgnRbLU_sCz4dvZSByKKJHCT6o

Timeline (all times are at 9pm Eastern US time (UTC-4) on the day specified):
April 17th - Nominations open, 5 unique nominations allowed with no limit to supports.
April 18th - Unique nominations raised to 10.
April 19th - ALL nominations AND supports stopped. 48 hours pause enacted to let people listen to everyone's top priority nominations over the weekend.
April 21st - Nominations and supports resume, unique nomination cap completely lifted. Go crazy!
April 27th - No more songs will lock past this point if the lock cap has not already been hit.
April 28th - Nominations close!

Sorry I never ended up responding to the convo here before noms started... I knew this past Monday would be when I finally have literally Nothing Except VGMC and could read everything and then I... just didn't! But I should be able to during the noms period, just gimme a lil bit.

Speaking of noms, less than two hours away now!!

OrangeCrush980 posted...

Would Celestial from Pokemon Scarlet/Violet count? It was written for Pokemon, but it was released as a single ahead of time and is clearly more in the style of Ed Sheeran's other works.

it would definitely cause an uproar lol but yeah i think it would have to be allowed since the song is clearly more tied to scar/vio than something like the eligibility docs' example of Ace Combat 04 and Blurry

SUBSTITUTE
+3 Deoxys
+2 Alakazam
+1 Clauncher
-1 Pidgeotto
-2 Floette
-3 Budew

okay i've called divisions fucked, but this is FUCKED. not being able to give points to dusclops, clauncher, and golett is FUCKED!!! but Deoxys (specifically Defense) is my 4th fav mon and my namesake [note: not this gfaqs username lmao] and is there with Alakazam and a crustacean (i love crustaceans) so that's. just a stacked positive side. and then i have to give a negative to Pidgeotto that's so not okay i'm not okay

G-MAX CANNONADE
+3 Thundurus
+2 Latias
+1 Torterra
-1 Togepi
-2 Panpour
-3 Impidimp

i know people hate the genies but thundy-therian is actually great

HYDRO CANNON
+3 Hitmonlee
+2 Luxray
+1 Zigzagoon
-1 Stakataka
-2 Mudbray
-3 Steenee

totally did not think i'd give it to ziggy over raging bolt but galar ziggy is too fuckin cute (one of the few instances i think "cute" is a big positive for me lol)

LEAF TORNADO
+3 Excadrill
+2 Metang
+1 Terrakion
-1 Farfetch'd
-2 Vulpix
-3 Aromatisse

HURRICANE
+3 Buzzwole
+2 Torchic
+1 Eelektrik
-1 Aron
-2 Shelmet
-3 Barboach

love all these pokemon as well :( once again thanks to the tcg eelektrik squeaks out positive points lol

CLOSE COMBAT
+3 Chi-Yu
+2 Shaymin
+1 Glimmora
-1 Rattata
-2 Wurmple
-3 Sliggoo

Paratroopa1 posted...

-17 Ting-Lu
-32 Regieleki
-37 Swoobat

genuinely distressing

OBLIVION WING
+3 Dialga
+2 Spiritomb
+1 Bewear
-1 Furret
-2 Hatenna
-3 Burmy

bewear boosted by pokemon sleep tbh

ELECTRIFY
+3 Marshtomp
+2 Garganacl
+1 Nidoking
-1 Phanpy
-2 Tympole
-3 Audino

another division with 100% good pokemon lmfao

SOUL-STEALING 7-STAR STRIKE
+3 Regieleki
+2 Ting-Lu
+1 Kangaskhan
-1 Wailmer
-2 Swoobat
-3 Lopunny

man i know yall gonna meme minus regieleki into last or some bullshit cause "It's Not One Of The Old Ones!" but regieleki is such a good mon, although to be fair this division is CRAZY good i even like lopunny a lot because of its mega and i'm giving it -3 that's fucked

SHADOW BONE
+3 Bisharp
+2 Roaring Moon
+1 Archaludon
-1 Graveler
-2 Spewpa
-3 Weedle

bisharp being a midevo now is still so fucked i dont wanna accept it!!!!! archaludon is stupid and gmax duraludon's design should've just been it but still its kinda funny and crazy good and i love using it so guess it gets a plus!

Kartana drop easily the worst result so far what the heck

TORMENT
+3 Kartana
+2 Empoleon
+1 Cyndaquil
-1 Torkoal
-2 Nosepass
-3 Quaxwell

i love kartana!!!!!! all these mons rock i'm very sad any of these have to get minuses (except quaxwell i dont like quaxwell that much soz)

PSYCHO CUT
+3 Golurk
+2 Xerneas
+1 Spectrier
-1 Palpitoad
-2 Mareep
-3 Feebas

okay no now i ACTUALLY like every single one of these mons :( i did not realize i actually really, really like xerneas until literally right now wow

KINESIS
+3 Spheal
+2 Torracat
+1 Klinklang
-1 Illumise
-2 Drampa
-3 Watchog

what a weird ass division with two of the NFEs i care the most about overall lol

HEAL BELL
+3 Swampert
+2 Tornadus
+1 Pyroar
-1 Slurpuff
-2 Liepard
-3 Tadbulb

swampert my beloved

COURT CHANGE
+3 Electivire
+2 Lampent
+1 Solgaleo
-1 Glaceon
-2 Eiscue
-3 Doduo

TECTONIC RAGE
+3 Melmetal
+2 Gallade
+1 Gigalith
-1 Muk
-2 Popplio
-3 Flabebe

man i'm actually devastated i can't give avalugg points here, both forms of avalugg slap. but gigalith is amazing and mega gallade is amazing (reg gallade is just rly cool) and both melmetals are fuckin amazing so.... yeah this division is kinda stacked actually wtf

G-MAX VOLCALITH
+3 Combusken
+2 Mamoswine
+1 Dottler
-1 Tranquill
-2 Slakoth
-3 Greedent

finally a gen 3 starter shows up LOL

G-MAX SWEETNESS
+3 Greninja
+2 Feraligatr
+1 Stoutland
-1 Teddiursa
-2 Ledyba
-3 Dartrix

wow it's XD early game down in these minuses

VGMC 18 nominations will open on Wednesday, April 17th at 9pm Eastern time (UTC-4)!!
Note that the time for rollovers has been pushed from last year's 7pm to 9pm since I am likely to have to work later this year.

This year, I don't have any really big things to announce, just some tweaks. But one might be a little bit of an impact so we'll go over that right away!

Lock Threshold Change
The requirement to lock a song is being bumped from 6 +s up to 7. I debated bumping this even up to 8, but last year locks didn't go super insane so I think a bump by one will do for now. But with our community holding pretty strong after the influx we got after locks were introduced I think it's almost a requirement to raise the number. Those with a good memory may remember I almost did this last year even, but yeah I can't let it go by as it was any longer.

The Schedule
9pm Wednesday, April 17th - Nominations open, 5 unique nominations allowed with no limit to supports.
9pm Thursday, April 18th (start +24 hours) - Unique nominations raised to 10.
9pm Friday, April 19st (start +48 hours) - ALL nominations AND supports stopped. 48 hours pause enacted to let people listen to everyone's top priority nominations over the weekend.
9pm Sunday, April 21rd (start +96 hours) - Nominations and supports resume, unique nomination cap completely lifted. Go crazy!
9pm Saturday, April 27th (end -24 hours) - No more songs will lock past this point if the lock cap has not already been hit.
9pm Sunday, April 28th - Nominations close!

The main difference here is that noms are extended an extra day to encompass the entirety of the second weekend as well.

Like last year, this topic is getting out later than I really would have liked, but that's my fault for taking on other stuff that took up my March (looking at you GENRE-SHUFFLE 4 lol). Regardless, if people were hoping for other changes, since I didn't have much of a chance to hash more things out myself nor get discussion going in the community earlier then I am still open to considering other changes!! There's some bigger ones that I actually would've liked to iron out for this year (i.e. the "drop protection" system UF8 used for BOST 2022) but I'm also sort of in a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset and last year really kept me a believer in the lock system as well.

Anyway, get hype!!!!!!

SIMPLE BEAM
+3 Galvantula
+2 Suicune
+1 Mudkip
-1 Togetic
-2 Bellsprout
-3 Nickit

STEEL BEAM
+3 Lunala
+2 Slowking
+1 Staraptor
-1 Servine
-2 Tepig
-3 Shroodle

slowking saved by its galar form

TECHNO BLAST
+3 Sharpedo
+2 Toxtricity
+1 Noibat
-1 Wormadam
-2 Skiploom
-3 Arboliva

BESTOW
+3 Obstagoon
+2 Carracosta
+1 Frosmoth
-1 Roggenrola
-2 Arctozolt
-3 Dolliv

sorry olives i dont like you in real life either

guess who was sick for multiple days oops

POWER-UP PUNCH
+3 Celebi
+2 Tapu Fini
+1 Carkol
-1 Sawsbuck
-2 Espurr
-3 Metapod

ACUPRESSURE
+3 Darmanitan
+2 Cobalion
+1 Tyrantrum
-1 Paras
-2 Thievul
-3 Quilladin

SNORE
+3 Chesnaught
+2 Porygon-Z
+1 Walrein
-1 Sunkern
-2 Pichu
-3 Dachsbun

chesnaught gets so much hate but its such an absolute unit

G-Max Tartness
+3 Ferrothorn
+2 Skeledirge
+1 Lugia
-1 Weepinbell
-2 Toxel
-3 Bonsly

this group is really the "awesome group, and then there's babies" of all time. tragic i cant give accelgor and mienshao points :(

LATE even when day is posted late i still cant get in till later fml lmfao

STUN SPORE
+3 Barraskewda
+2 Corphish
+1 Gurdurr
-1 Mimikyu
-2 Nidoran F
-3 Cufant

CORE ENFORCER
+3 Moltres
+2 Snom
+1 Swadloon
-1 Magikarp
-2 Kricketot
-3 Mr. Rime

if barraskewda/corphish die because of me ill be sad :<

DIAMOND STORM
+3 Iron Moth
+2 Applin
+1 Pawmo
-1 Dracozolt
-2 Pansage
-3 Glameow

oh hey look its the one other good future pokemon i talked about with iron boulder! iron moth is sooooooo good, both it AND slither wing take up shop right alongside volcarona in my top 20 pokemon and, honestly? iron moth is probably even top 10. whoever thought volcarona needed to become a robot and also be able to be a cannon deserves all the love in the world. amazing mon i think the only way i could love it more is if it actually got quiver dance lol (i love quiver dance a LOT)

TACHYON CUTTER
+3 Tapu Bulu
+2 Latios
+1 Regirock
-1 Wynaut
-2 Ducklett
-3 Capaskid

cherrim/scizor was an absolute banger budget deck back in the day so cherrim wins a lot of points there but unfortch the legends all are here and theyre all good ones :( sorry cherrim......

FOCUS ENERGY
+3 Krookodile
+2 Cryogonal
+1 Basculin
-1 Pikipek
-2 Marill
-3 Smoochum

aw man cant give stupid rat a - cause two other mons are more boring than it and one other sucks major ass anyway HELL YEAH GEN 5 WOOOOO

ASTRAL BARRAGE
+3 Chien-Pao
+2 Centiskorch
+1 Mewtwo
-1 Klefki
-2 Aipom
-3 Grumpig

chien-pao rules so much, centiskorch is amazing and has one of the only good gmaxes, im kind of mad i have to give a + to mewtwo but i mean cmon its mewtwo, actually what the fuck every mon in this division is great i hate this!!!! murkrow floatzel and conkeldurr all would be +3s in some other divisions lmfao

Aw man rip ferroseed and beldum :(

FLAME WHEEL
+3 Blastoise
+2 Ferroseed
+1 Riolu
-1 Misdreavus
-2 Ekans
-3 Bidoof

really good group, sad some of these have to die, also sad that blastoise gets this free a pass cause yeah it's great but it's not THAT great

BELCH
+3 Charmeleon
+2 Beldum
+1 Hitmonchan
-1 Inkay
-2 Dhelmise
-3 Chikorita

um HELLO this group is ALSO GREAT???? today sucks man for the right reasons lol. swirlix should be -3 here but i had WAY too much fun with it in the beginning of XY LC before it got rightfully banned lol so i respect it a lot now

Backdoor

....don't ask >_>

OCTAZOOKA
+3 Serperior
+2 Urshifu
+1 Beartic
-1 Woobat
-2 Stantler
-3 Fidough

PAIN SPLIT
+3 Kingambit
+2 Iron Boulder
+1 Marowak
-1 Glimmet
-2 Mr. Mime
-3 Unfezant

kingambit is so unnecessary and my life has been turned upside down by my sixth favorite pokemon ever becoming an NFE suddenly but i mean it's still god tier lmao, also iron boulder (and one other one that has yet to appear) is the only good future mon and its not just good its amazing (actually i forgot iron crown actually is okay too i prob gave it a + before right yeah okay so maybe theres three)

PIKA PAPOW
+3 Giratina
+2 Bagon
+1 Zweilous
-1 Crabrawler
-2 Trubbish
-3 Mantyke

giratina is so fucking sick dude how did they come up with this thing and make Two forms and they BOTH are amazing. also i love everything crab related but crabrawler/bominable are TOO ugly imo

AMNESIA
+3 Azelf
+2 Lucario
+1 Quilava
-1 Rockruff
-2 Regidrago
-3 Spinda

spinda sucks but i do really like regidrago and rockruff so yeah this sucks to do

TRIPLE DIVE
+3 Zygarde
+2 Victini
+1 Duosion
-1 Buneary
-2 Carbink
-3 Enamorus

complete form saves zygarde what a cool ass mech ass pokemon

HYPER BEAM
+3 Falinks
+2 Sirfetchd
+1 Sealeo
-1 Chingling
-2 Patrat
-3 Oinkologne

hell yeah finally another top 10 mon appears i love those lil guys so much go my falinks