The Lifestream ranks Final Fantasy songs

[Flintlock]

The Lifestream ranks Final Fantasy songs: end of semi-finals report

We're nearly there! Just a couple more polls to go now. They are:

The third-place playoff: Liberi Fatali vs. J-E-N-O-V-A
The final: Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII vs. Not Alone

The playoff will start tomorrow and the final will start on Monday. As usual, they'll be open for two days each.

Monterosa is still in first place in the predictions contest, and with just five points still up for grabs, only one person can catch him: Doc Brown/Santa Christ/JasonTandro/Stop Changing Your Name So Much, who, despite trailing for most of the final 32, has put himself back into contention by correctly predicting both finalists. Kuroto is also within five points of Monterosa, but both of them picked J-E-N-O-V-A to win, so they won't be scoring any more. The full scores are available here.

I'm quite surprised to see Not Alone make the final. In fact, I think the playoff is stronger than the final. But I'm just one person. The winner will be determined by your votes, so make sure you cast them! PM me if you know you won't be around to do so.

 

[Channy]

Did you update the stats prediction page because Kuroto has 37 and Jason has 36

 

[Joe]

I missed out on the predictions but I would have 100% placed JENOVA and FFVII Main Theme together in the finals. I'm glad Not Alone broke through but I can't help but feel it doesn't stand a chance. The nostalgia is too strong and this is an FFVII Forum after all.

 

[Keveh Kins]

Spoiler: Still think Blinded by Light should've gotten through

 

[Flintlock]

Did you update the stats prediction page because Kuroto has 37 and Jason has 36

Yes, those are correct scores. Read my post carefully for an explanation of why Kuroto can't catch Monterosa despite being closer to him than Jason.

 

[Channy]

I did but I don't get it. D: Because Jason predicted the finalists?

 

[Flintlock]

Basically, yes. If the Main Theme wins, Jason will score five points, while Kuroto and Monterosa will score none. If Not Alone wins, nobody will score any points.

 

[Jason Tandro]

Monterosa is still in first place in the predictions contest, and with just five points still up for grabs, only one person can catch him: Doc Brown/Santa Christ/JasonTandro/Stop Changing Your Name So Much, who, despite trailing for most of the final 32, has put himself back into contention by correctly predicting both finalists.

Fear not the Jason Tandro you know and love shall be returning and probably sticking around for a long while after the holidays.


Also w00t for underdog possibly victories. I likes me chances.

 

[Channy]

Aha. Thanks for clarification.

 

[Flare]

The third-place playoff: Liberi Fatali vs. J-E-N-O-V-A
The final: Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII vs. Not Alone

I think the playoff is stronger than the final.

Viewing them like this, the playoff definitely seems stronger than the final. But, these match-ups kind of work, because you got two fast-paced songs racing against each other and two more slower/emotional songs against each other.

I think FFVII Main Theme will win now, but I'm not sure about the playoff... I wanna say Jenova will place third, but I've been surprised many times in these polls.

 

[Flintlock]

We have a problem. Again. Why does running a simple contest have to be so complicated sometimes?

As you may have seen, the semi-final between J-E-N-O-V-A and Not Alone was very close. The final poll tally was 15-14 to Jenova, but since Joe told me he accidentally voted for the wrong song, I counted it as 14-15 in Not Alone's favour and sent that song through to the final.

What I hadn't realised is that one of the votes for Not Alone came from Kaneki, who turned out to be a duplicate account of the permabanned member, L. Kaneki's account has now also been banned.

Now, if Kaneki had just been a random newbie who ended up being banned, I'd have no problem with letting the result stand. Unfortunately, things aren't so clear-cut. The point of this contest was to determine our community's favourite Final Fantasy songs, and now the outcomes of no fewer than three polls (the semi-final in question, the third-place playoff and the final) have been influenced by someone who we have actively decided to exclude from our community.

While I'm sorely tempted to just leave things as they are, the fact remains that if it hadn't been for L breaking the rules with his dupe account, Jenova would be in the final instead of Not Alone. Since I'm not really sure what to do, I'm asking for your input. This is your event, really; I've just been running it for you. Whatever consensus emerges, I'll be happy to go with it. As I see things, we have the following options:

1. Keep the results as they are (do nothing)
2. Keep the results as they are, with Jenova and Not Alone swapped
3. Re-run the final
4. Re-run all three affected polls

While the last option would give us the most "authentic" result, I really don't want to extend this event any further; it's already taken close to two months. My personal preference would probably be for the second option, but maybe you feel differently - perhaps you voted for the Main Theme over Not Alone but you would have voted for Jenova over the Main Theme in the final - in which case, please make your case here and we'll come to an agreement.

Edit: To clarify, since Jenova was the higher-seeded song in its semi-final with Not Alone, it would have progressed to the final in the event of a tie.

 

[Starling]

This is an annual event right? I think things would probably drag out too long if we did more than re-run the final.

 

[Flintlock]

This is not an annual event by any means, it's just too big. This is, as far as I can tell, the first time we've run such a big music event on TLS. We previously ran an event to determine the best FFVII song, but I can't find the final polls for it, so it's possible we didn't even finish it.

 

[ForceStealer]

I did this several years ago, but that was obviously less "definitive." Fun, though.

 

[Monterosa]

Ah, this is unfortunate.

Although I do not want to see this event drag on, I'm hoping to see a final ranking that will provide an honest reflection of the preferences of our active members. Particularly at this final stage of the competition, I think it's important that the results are definitive, especially given that the contest most likely won't be run again for several years.

For those reasons, I would like to see a rerun of the final, with Not Alone swapped out for J-E-N-O-V-A. I don't think it is necessary to rerun a third place play-off, however, as the vast majority of those who voted for Not Alone did not manipulate the results and genuinely preferred it.

perhaps you voted for the Main Theme over Not Alone but you would have voted for Jenova over the Main Theme in the final

This is me.

 

[Starling]

I'm pretty sure I remember seeing mention of a previous music voting event where the FF7 main theme won. I suppose it could've bee part of ForceStealer's music thing

 

[Flare]

I would still probably vote for Main Theme, myself.
I think the best thing to do is either keep the final results as-is, or re-do the last poll with Jenova instead of Not Alone. Either way is fine to me.

 

[Ghost X]

Let's vote on it . I personally am not fussed about the results.

 

[The G'randiest' Daddy]

I'd be happy with either option 2 or option 3, though I do have a slight leaning towards option 3, as had I had the choice, I would have voted for J.E.N.O.V.A. over Main Theme...

 

[Flintlock]

It looks like option three, re-running only the final, is going to be the consensus choice. I'll give people until the time I wake up tomorrow (about 12 hours from now, probably) to weigh in before I make a decision.

 

[Airling]

This is definitely tricky, because he did technically have permission to have that account, and he is -all else over-looked - a Final Fantasy fan. So I guess my vote goes to 1. You deserve a break now anyway Flint.http://thelifestream.net//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[Flintlock]

Thanks, but you know me, I won't rest until justice is done.

I guess we could also do a three-way poll for first place. Might have to pull a bit of jiggery pokery to make it make sense, but it would kill two birds with one stone. Consider this option five.

 

[The G'randiest' Daddy]

Oh damn. Five is my favourite number... Now it's all complicated

 

[Kuroto]

My opinion is to either leave it as it is or rerun all the three polls. And if it doesn't feel right to just keep it as it is then we can just agree that I voted for Not Alone, because I didn't vote in that semifinal but if it makes things easier and people don't mind, then I can give a super late vote. Flint has done great job with this competition and I don't want all these trouble makers to give him a lot of extra work.

 

[Channy]

To lessen an already high-workload event, I say just leave it as it. I mean... some things happen but if Kuroto is also suggesting she would have voted for Not Alone anyway, and I think some of us would accept that, then just leave it?




she says, only because Aerith's Theme is not one of the affected polls