Madcap

/ Homicidol Maniac

See, I’m calling it that because I’m mad and it’s a recap of why I’m mad. Get it?

Okay, so the Corenament final. If you read this, you probably saw me get first suspicious, and then actionable against what I thought was probably some kind of voting bot or script. I was cryptic about it at the time, but I’ll go right ahead now and say that it was voting for Babymetal and Deathrabbits.

In the case of the former, I’m guess because of the huge Kamen Joshi influx that happened earlier that day. Unfortunately, that was earned and trackable, as we watched the announcement go out in real time from highly socially connected members of the group and their friends; it’s almost even more amazing that they didn’t get many times more votes than they did, but I think the language barrier was an issue.

In the case of Deathrabbits, well, the Deathrabbits Army has been a constant presence since we started this whole thing. On one hand, they did ultimately get actual management support, which likely got out a good number of fans; on another, they have Western fans, too. I used to suspect that somebody was up to no good — they’d get voted up really quickly sometimes, or in spurts, the kind of behavior that makes you scratch your head if you’re used to looking at website numbers. I think what happened today was the person/s responsible saw that BiSH had made another move (which I can also track fans-wise) in the afternoon and panicked.

Look, this is stupid. It’s a stupid game. There are no rewards or consequences. The fact that the idols involved, some of them, are now even aware of its existence is a miracle. The only reason I put it together was for us to have fun. So in that respect, should I even care all that much? No. And that’s why I decided to let it ride itself out when I first started to talk about what I detected and did the hard reset on the polls; I called something of a penalty audible and made sure to alert the offending parties’ favorites that this was happening, giving them another chance to engage with fans and the like. From there, it could have worked itself out cleanly.

And it nearly did. You may have seen my remark around 11:30 that things were happening, but they looked legit. At that time (I should’ve gotten a screen capture), BiSH was in the middle of a steady game of catch-up against Deathrabbits, and Babymetal was getting many more votes but couldn’t make up ground against Kamen Joshi because, again, they were organized.

I guess those situations were a little too tough for somebody/ies, because the final 15 minutes were like a panicked rush of votes for Deathrabbits and Babymetal, in the latter’s case so out of their pattern for the whole Corenament that I almost couldn’t believe how brazen it was. Like, Reddit never picked this up. It was almost all direct traffic at that point … or somebody or something refreshing, getting around the cookies and repeatedly voting.

So. Does it matter? No. Is it for fun? Yes. But your fun doesn’t trump others’, no matter how much you might care about it, and I was up front that I wasn’t going to tolerate these kinds of shenanigans. It’s not my fault that you didn’t listen.

Advancing to the final: BiSH and Kamen Joshi. That’s actually a pretty good match-up, and I have a curveball in mind to maybe make it even cooler.

Not advancing to the consolation match: Babymetal and Deathrabbits. Babymetal actually just plain lost to Kamen Joshi (again, organization). It wasn’t in the spirit of the competition, but I can’t go asking every person for their motivation, so it’s not particularly fair of me to assume that what I take to be widespread preferences are universal. Deathrabbits, on the other hand, actually probably could have beaten BiSH straight-up, but were twice just today and at least one time in the past the beneficiaries of what is at best suspicious behavior.

Advancing to the consolation match: PassCode The Spunky and Screaming Sixties. It’s not what anybody expected, probably, but I’d prefer to crown a #3 and they’re both good candidates, so why not. [Ed.: Forgot who beat who for a second.]

I’ve said enough about this. It’s not about you and it’s not about me and it’s not about your favorite or mine winning or losing. It’s about whether we can just play a nice, clean game together. No different than a game of Go Fish. If you still want to complain, please don’t. If you have non-complaining questions, feel free to ask, and I’ll be as transparent as I feel I can be.

18 thoughts on “Madcap”

  2. Look at the positive side. When the idols we adore here, actually show an interest and get involved in our world, that’s pretty darn cool, and only good things can come from it. Everyone got exposure, including this site. Does Babymetal need more exposure? Hardly. They are to busy right now laughing about the complete mayhem and destruction they just left behind at yet another foreign venue. Are the adorable little Death Rabbits girls crying their little eyes out? Doubtful. As you stated, their management was likely more involved. On the other hand, put yourself in the shoes of one particular idol who personally got involved. I bet she is smiling right now, knowing that there are people who frequent (and operate, kudos to Maniac for all the efforts) a US based website that has a passionate interest in their hard work. Not that she beat another group,in fact, most of these girls are friendly and share the same stages with each other, unfortunately, it’s the fans who do the petty bickering, For that one idol and her crew, just a little recognition from a far away country is quite a reward in itself. @snow_of_cherry

    • I was going to make a borderline-inappropriate response along the lines of “Oh, so somebody’d better get the teen-sized leathers ready” and then remembered that Kai just graduated from high school or something like that. NEVERMIND!

  5. The funny fact is that i gave almost 30 votes last week, i did make BISH pass to this week round. despite i knew BISH was going to loose vs Death Rabbits, i really appologize for doing those 30 votes, i just didn’t want to se BISH loosing vs a group that i dont like. I didn’t even vote this week and i see someone did the same i did (but probably most times and in a different way) and i didn’t know that was forbidden to vote multiple times, since i use private’s chrome mode all the time, and i never have cookies, So every time i did came to this page i had no cookies and i always had the oportunity to vote. But if someone did just 200 times delete it’s cookies and voting again, that’s stupid for me, again i’m sorry if my voting did you take this decision.

    • No, it’s okay, and I appreciate your honesty. One of the things that’s basic Internet 101 is that what you put out there for the world to interact with will almost always very quickly stop being a thing that you can control; people will do with it what they want. I lost some sight of that and maybe even encouraged some behavior counter to the original intent.

      Like, if it actually cost money, I’d probably offer refunds. It was a lousy last weekend, and I wish that I had done better with it.

  6. I can’t say for Deathrabbits since I’m not a member of any of their communities, but I can say for a fact that for the Babymetal voting that it was posted many times in all of the facebook groups and on reddit for voting. They have a lot of support. People get so worked up about voting that if there is a one hour time till the next vote they will literally set a timer to vote every hour on the dot. They don’t resort to petty voting bots.

    • I know for the loudwire votes people would set alarms and wake up at night every hour to vote… Babymetal fanbase is insane.

      • This is for the both of you (need to get a cascade system set up a la Reddit):

        I really wish I could reproduce what I was seeing in real time. Babymetal was doing their usual thing, and then a really big surge right at the same time as Deathrabbits, in the same numbers. When voting for both stopped when I started to call it out, I knew that something was up, and then it got confirmed at the very end with another blast just as BiSH was catching up and Kamen Joshi was solidifying. The irony is that Babymetal didn’t even benefit all the much; the margin that they had to make up was really big.

        A Twitter user has all but outed themselves as the culprit, btw. I fear that the person in question maybe doesn’t understand why there is a problem and seemed to have genuinely just really wanted their favorite to win.

        It’s fine. It really is. It’s a game, it’s been fun, and Tara44DD’s point is a really good one about the ultimate takeaway. Does Babymetal or BiSH or Deathrabbits or Kamen Joshi ACTUALLY get anything out of this? They don’t. They literally can’t, as this isn’t an RPG, but real life. But they can get nice little boosts among music fans who maybe don’t know them that well, and they can get a good feeling from knowing that their music and performance are getting attention from audiences far away from home. So that’s the upshot. The disqualifications are less about whether they’ll be in the final than if there’s a good opportunity to highlight some other groups. (No, that wasn’t the reasoning at first; I was just pissed off. But now I’m looking for silver linings and see a good one.)

        From here, I’d like to just have a nice closing day tomorrow and be able to learn from the experience. I hope you stick around and continue to enjoy the music and the idols and the other games we’ll play. This is meant to be a community site, so your feedback is welcome and will always be considered.

  7. The funny thing is, the BM voting is most certainly legit.

    Maybe it’s all just ‘fun’. But if you’re just gonna go the flip side of what you’re insinuating here, why bother at all.

  8. Eso fue decepcionante. No por eliminar a BM bajo sospecha de trampa, sino porque muchas veces así ha sido respecto a que su fanbase hace lo posible por ver ganar a estas chicas en cualquier contienda. Así se ganaron su portada anual en Metal Hammer, La gente se enteró un poco tarde pero fueron muchos hispanohablantes los que votaron por BM en esto. Fue legítimo, y es una pena, pero sería bueno ver quien gana.

    • Amigo, mis disculpas si el español es malo; Necesito la ayuda de Google.

      Entiendo tu punto. La cuestión que las personas no son capaces de ver es en el que sólo los datos que puedo, y lo que vi en esos datos era malo. Yo no quiero estar en esta situación; Voy a decirlo en español porque tal vez otros no pueden leer, pero me había dicho a mis otras que tipo de quería BM que perder así que alguien podría tener el centro de atención. Ellos sólo reciben tanta cobertura en el sitio porque son el mayor acuerdo en Occidente y son de fácil acceso de esa manera.

      No tengas miedo, estoy feliz de que tantos grupos tienen tantos seguidores en todo el mundo, incluso en América Latina. De hecho, me espero para incluir artículos en español y portugués en breve con un poco de ayuda de nuestros amigos. 🙂

  9. Pingback: 2016 Homicidols Corenament Final | Homicidols

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