Finally, finally you guys, we are on the precipice of crowning a Corenament champion — the champion of idol in a very narrowly defined way! — after three increasingly stupid weeks and complicated set-ups and challenges and three of our entrants haven’t even taken a loss yet, how is this possible.

Yesterday! The results did manage to come in such that I hopefully don’t need to get extra cute in making this work over the weekend, which I’d just as soon not really do, as I’d like to be crowning a champion and not, you know, coming up with convoluted schemes. In fact, yesterday’s results were an absolute bloodbath: Poor Zekkyou, who’d held on for ever so long, finally took their second L and are out, slain at the hands of a highly vengeful (nice job, Rain!) Hanako-sn; Minna no Kodomo-chan didn’t need the late life that they got from their fans (not-sarcastically nice job, Kodomocafe!) to tear poor Saki to pieces. And because I’d promised that I’d re-award the unused Money in the Bank briefcase to either of 2& or Hanako-san if they lost yesterday — Saki, come claim your prize.*

Now we have a Final Four. Two undefeateds will face off, while the irrepressible Hanako-san will fight for her life against Hono and Cinnamon.

This Hanako situation is complicated. I mean, just for the sake of logistics, thank goodness that Saki lost, but look: If Minna no Kodomo-chan wins today, Hanako will only have her first loss, which will be the same as the upstart idols who defeated her, and there’ll be a third idol who jumps into the Loser’s Bracket after today, anyway. Basketball isn’t played three ways! I won’t try to solve the problem yet**, but I think I have an incredibly dumb solution.

This is of course all moot if Hanako-san wins, as she’ll just face the loser of BiSH/Kakuriyo for the chance to face the winner in the title match.

Sigh. Nothing’s ever easy.

We do need a different flavor of challenge, as the video option’s getting a little stale. How about:

You’re an idol promoter in your home country, and you have one slot (and unlimited budget) to fill in the festival that you’re hosting. Who you gonna call?

*So, the briefcase. If you’re familiar with Money in the Bank, carry on; if you’re not, what this means is that Saki now holds a guaranteed one-match contract to face the current Queen of the Scene (currently: Sari-oshi!) for the right to take that crown. Ownership of the original briefcase was good for one full year, starting with last year’s Queen of the Scene, but I think that its being vacated means that it’s only fair for Saki to get a full year beginning now. As Krv is all kinds of connected to Saki and Fumimi and company, I’ll ask him to lead the effort among Saki’s biggest gaijin fans to coordinate when and how to attack.

**My dudes, it is already solved