The 'Shroom:Issue 100/Ultimate Character Tournament

Ultimate Character Tournament 2015 by

Welcome to the Ultimate Character Tournament 2015!

Click here to jump straight to the tournament!

Introduction
Back in September 2009, posted the idea of doing the Ultimate Character Tournament &mdash; a series of polls in a bracket-style "tournament" to determine the best character from several video game series. Originally, it was supposed to coincide with the anniversary festivities in 2010, but due to skepticism from the committee, the project was supported by The 'Shroom instead and became more closely affiliated with the publication. Planning meetings were held throughout the last few months of 2009, and the event ran from January 2010 through August 2010. It was considered one of the first major events that The 'Shroom had ever sponsored and was widely successful, pulling in hundreds of votes for each poll that was posted.

Five years later, The 'Shroom staff has decided to host a second Ultimate Character Tournament to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the event and the 100th edition of the newsletter! Several major changes have been made, though, in order to make it a truly ultimate character tournament:
 * Planning meetings were scrapped in order to set the event up quickly and efficiently. Instead, created the bracket with advice from the Core Staff, and will be the manager.
 * The list of "tournament participants" (characters) has been streamlined from 234 participants to 72 participants in order to maintain focus.
 * Whereas the focus of the original tournament was mostly on the Mario series, the event has been expanded to include major characters from 30 different franchises.

How It Works

 * The tournament will feature characters from various video game franchises going head-to-head in a series of polls.
 * The participants specifically featured in the bracket are:
 * All playable characters in the Super Smash Bros. series, including alternative costumes, with the exception of the Pokémon Trainer character from Super Smash Bros. Brawl; instead, Ivysaur and Squirtle (who were components of the aforementioned scrapped character) were individually included in the bracket
 * Tabuu, who is the central boss character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * Four characters total from the Rare franchises Banjo and Conker, in honor of the last tournament and Rare's 30th anniversary
 * Two participants will be listed in every poll, and the voters will decide who wins and moves on to the next bracket.
 * There will be one round of voting held every month, including a preliminary round to be held this month. The participants in the preliminary round were specifically chosen due to either being third-party franchises or being alternative costumes in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS / Wii U, though the match-ups themselves are randomized. The match-ups for Round 1 have also been randomized.

Schedule
Click "show" on the right-hand side of the box to view the schedule!

Information
Click "show" on the right-hand side of the box to view tournament information!

Preliminary Round
Vote for who you want to place in the tournament!