LogFAQs > #942980573

>How did Emil Karma win?

Uncontroversy is a strength. If everybody thinks a song is fine, with one or two people who hate it and a few who love it, it can do well against opponents who are polarizing, depending on how the exact demographics look. For example, Emil went against Bodhisattva Kill and Laguerra del Mundo. Both of these songs have huge proponents (me and az, for example), but a lot of people hate that style. If 20 people love it and 20 people hate LdM and 2 people hate, 3 people love, and 35 people are fine with Emil, then if the people who love LdM and were going to vote for it regardless are also the people who hate Emil and a couple of the Emil people love both but prefer the latter, then the score might look something like 18-22 Emil.

Of course, those made-up numbers are obscuring perhaps the biggest reason it won: hilariously low votals. That contest had like 25 voters. You're gonna get all kinds of weirdness with small sample sizes.

Anyway, let's look at the reviews of the contest after Emil won:

GOOD SONG GOOD WINNER!:
KCF: Great winners in back-to-back years despite the majority of the two contests being disappointments.
tazzy: Scars > Extreme > Karma > Reset > Zero > Hope > Papilliones > Elferia > Truth > MGS2 Theme > Sphillia
arti: Did not expect it to win the contest when I nominated it, but pretty good champion anyway.
barrel: Good winner, better than last year's.

BAD SONG BAD WINNER!:
Orichamaru: Emil Karma is far from champion material by any means... it is one of three retirees this year I actually outright disliked
az: Emil Karma is far from champion material by any means
Sceptile: Somewhat depressing ending. Oh well, not as depressing as last year

MEH:
pyre: Ok end to what was a mostly bad contest, other than Whereabouts of Light doing well.
Janus:Contest was all over the place. Disappointing (though not outright bad) winner
Mycro: <disappointed that FCDH lost, doesn't care about Emil>
xuxon: i like Emil Karma but it's one of the worse champions in a contest that typically produces really good ones
dowolf: It's a decent finish
xp: Emil / Karma is a good song, but nowhere near champion-worthy IMO

idk:
FL: Hope > EXEC_SPHILIA/. > Zero > The Extreme > Seize the Truth! > Emil Karma > Reset (Thank You version) > Despair of ELFERIA > Papilliones > Scars of Time > MGS2 Theme

It's basically what I remember and how I described. A few fans, a few haters, and a lot of people who thought it was ok, but not exceptional in any way, and didn't want it to win... despite presumably voting for it often.

There's been discussions about stuff like this on Discord in the past (https://discordapp.com/channels/87835278454050816/SPACE 165663406735622145/590277430615474186, https://discordapp.com/channels/87835278454050816/SPACE 165663406735622145/590293496632705025), where people both notice that winners in the past tended to be the songs nobody hates rather than songs a lot of people loved, and express a preference for champions that push the envelope and do something unique and interesting rather than ones they like ok but don't think are special.

I'm not arguing that Endeavour deserves to win more than Isoleucine because a lot of people dislike it. I'm arguing that they both deserve to win. If too many people hate Endeavour for it to be a good winner... then it won't win lmao.

The trend of lowest common denominator songs winning was bucked (probably; Mycro did some analysis on this to the contrary) in VGMC 13, and I would really like it to stay that way. I'd rather have fucking DNF win that some mediocrity I can't muster any strong opinions about. Winners should be special, the best in their class, not whatever is bland enough for everybody to swallow so that polarizing opposition gets steamrolled. Obviously this depends on the voting base's tastes and not cerebral arguments, but I still want to strongly disagree with Gamebop in his core thesis that winners should be unhated. That's the antithesis of what these contests should be

---

You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.