Semifinals

11/2
The semifinals commence with the desperate last stand of the non-Madokas. Erica Hartmann should receive a substantial boost, but it won't be enough. After all, magical girls are experts at slaying witches.

At 9:00, Kyouko is enjoying a firm lead that she's been holding throughout the match. However, one of those absurd cliffs of fake votes came into play. Like a glacier forming the vanguard of an ice age, it's neither exciting nor a crowd pleaser anymore, but people will have to react to it. Kyouko's total is uncertain, so fans have no choice but to assume the worst and keep Kyouko's defensive barrier up.

Results: Kyouko wins 509-334, clinching victory for her show and advancing to the championship match. All the witches are slain, and it's time for a magical girls' tea party as Madoka and Mami decide the other finalist. Prediction Record: 1/1, 4/5 Finals, 121/157 Total.

(Real vote chart to be added when available. Fakes included below)

11/3

Madoka vs Mami. Now that Puella Magi Madoka Magica has a guaranteed victory, the remaining matches will be lower volume affairs between Madoka fans, other Madoka fans, and aimless refugees. Although Mami has the strongest record within the main tournament, Madoka is the main character, she fits the saimoe champion profile, and Mami has big boobs, so the DFC and loli fans will be against her.

The tracker is showing Mami with a dominating lead and Madoka with a trickle of votes, although it's clear that fakes are in play. Will Mami manage to become Madoka's mentor, or is Madoka simply waiting for the last episode to unleash her rush? I won't lose faith in Madoka's victory, but this confusion does make things more exciting.

Results: Madoka got Mami'd. With a surprise 407-392 upset Mami has become the first character with boobs the size of her head to reach the finals in Saimoe. She has the potential to set a record for lack of screen time among Saimoe winners, too.

How did it happen? Apparently, the fans of other factions, disgruntled over Puella Magi domination, are backing Mami as a troll vote. Unwilling to settle for merely voting for her directly, they started spamming the 2ch voting thread with DESU ASCII art just before Madoka's rush was scheduled, only 6 minutes before the end of the match. Since 2ch threads have size limits of 500k, the spam forced a switch to a new thread in the middle of the rush. It's not clear exactly how this last minute confusion affected voting, but the margin of victory was only 15 votes. There were complaints on 2ch, and a notice was posted ahead of the championship match instructing voters not to wait to the last minute. Mami's rush took place slightly earlier, producing an impressively long ASCII art combination forming a Tiro Finale blast. Prediction Record: 0/1, 4/6 Finals, 121/158 Total.

Although Mami gained backing as a troll option to defeat the titular character and decapitate longstanding Saimoe tradition, she's still a worthy contender. In the future, I'm going to stop limiting myself to one official pick per tournament, since she would've been my third pick, following her left breast and her right breast (rather, Madoka and Homura as pictured above): Mami Tomoe is really moe.

This good-hearted girl lost her family and nearly her life in an accident. Nobody can blame her for contracting for survival at a time when she could barely even stay conscious - except Mami herself, who painfully regrets that she didn't wish for her whole family.

Now, all alone, coming home to an empty apartment, too busy hunting witches to have time for friends or romance, all she can do is cry into her pillow while hoping that someone will come to save her from this nightmare of isolation and deadly combat against twisted monsters. Monsters that were once girls just like her.

After what seemed like an eternity of loneliness, living the hard life of a warrior, drowning her sorrows in cups of Earl Grey, after fighting with and being abandoned by her partner Kyouko, she finally found a friend.

Madoka was the companion she always dreamed of, and the one who could fill the emptiness in Mami's soul. The veteran broke down in tears of joy after Madoka's offer of friendship, letting her cool facade fall. But it was never to be, and this was the hour of her sudden, violent death.

How could anyone not want to hug her and tell her it'll be OK? All this suffering and loneliness, all these tears, quietly endured by a girl who always put protecting the innocent above selfish gain, who always tried to do the right thing, who only wanted to make a friend.

Is that moe? Is that what moe is?!