one insufferable ship vs another. mines better tho

a celebration of fandom and a showdown between fandom's top femslash ships!

[ao3topshipsbracket]

Congratulations to Ava and Beatrice on their victory!

[ao3topshipsbracket]

shoutout rpf 🖤

[ao3topshipsbracket]

statistics!!

Beatrice/Ava received 18,387 votes, at 59.9% of the vote

Utena/Anthy received 12,305 votes, at 40.1% of the vote

For third place, Homura/Madoka received 2,345 votes, at 61.0%

And Alphys/Undyne received 1,497 votes, at 39.0%.

Graphs can, as always, be found at glittering.world, but here they are for both polls this round:

And here's a graph of the top ships by total vote count:

[ao3topshipsbracket]

well shit dude. way to lose any form of respect as a tourney

You think we do this for respect? We do this for chaos and also our own personal amusement. And boy have we had both of those in spades! :)

[ao3topshipsbracket]

at least do a recount or something. its not fair to allow warrior nun to win if it was botted.

The position of this blog is, and has always been, that the winner of our polls is whoever has more votes when the poll closes.

Or, to quote ourselves:

This has never been fair. Voter fraud has literally always been allowed. If you don't like it, fraud harder.

[ao3topshipsbracket]

genuinely asking: why do you have such an enthusiastic stance on voter fraud? im not casting moral judgement here, im genuinely curious as to the reasoning behind this stance. ty :)

We've discussed this before on the blog, but in summary: we allow voter fraud because there is no feasible way to prevent it. We're lucky enough to have graphs that allow us to track one particular strain of easily detectable cases of fraud (i.e. one person spamming votes by repeatedly making new accounts), but there are plenty of other variants that are above our skill level we can't track or prove.

There are also ways of getting votes that some people may consider legitimate that might, to others, feel ill-gotten. We've seen fans flooding in from Twitter and other platforms to vote for their favorite ship. Does that count as fraudulent? How about someone promising to write/draw requests for any of their followers who vote for their preferred ship? Or maybe someone just has one alternate account that they use to cast a second vote?

Ultimately, if we try to say that X, Y, and Z are not allowed, then people become incentivized to accuse the opposition of X, Y, and Z to get them removed from the bracket. So, how do we stay fair and set rules when we have no way to reliably enforce them?

Easiest solution: level the playing field. Make it clear that everything goes! If any side is allowed to fraud, then it becomes a game of passion! And that's significantly more fun.

[ao3topshipsbracket]

How do you commit voter fraud asking for a friend

As impartial moderators, I'm sure we couldn't say. That said, if you go looking in the notes of the finals poll, I'm sure you'll find people who are more than willing to help.

[ao3topshipsbracket]

Top Femslash Ships Bracket - THIRD PLACE

Alphys/Undyne (Undertale) vs Akemi Homura/Kaname Madoka (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Alphys/Undyne

Homura/Madoka

Voting ended onJan 25, 2025

[ao3topshipsbracket]

Top Femslash Ships Bracket - FINALS

Sister Beatrice/Ava Silva (Warrior Nun) vs Himemiya Anthy/Tenjou Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena)

Beatrice/Ava

Anthy/Utena

Voting ended onJan 25, 2025

[ao3topshipsbracket]

Welcome to the Unofficial Top Femslash Ships Bracket!

Many people on Tumblr might have engaged in the practice of "shipping" in relation to "media". Some, according to legend, even have opinions on these matters.

If the above happens to apply to you, you might be eligible to vote in this bracket! We have pitted the most popular femslash pairings against each other to see who will emerge victorious. Finals, as well as the bronze poll, drop on Tuesday, January 21st at 4PM PST, and will run for three days.

Check current vote counts here!

FAQ:

How was the bracket made and seeded?

This bracket was made with a combination of centreoftheselights' Ao3 data, the Tumblr 2024 Year in Review list, and a few notes of historical interest, and seeded according to the results of this survey!

What are your stances on voter fraud, campaigning, bribing people with drabbles and/or art, etc?

Enthusiastically in favor! We do, however, ask that you don't DDOS Tumblr, and ideally don't commit any murders that can be traced back to us.

I have an issue with [x] being included in this poll.

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with some of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement of anything included in the bracket, and refrain from harassment.

In general, please remember that this is intended to be a fun time for the wide community which is fandom culture, and treat each other with respect!

Bracket Schedule!

[ao3topshipsbracket]

Semifinal statistics!

Most voted for: Beatrice/Ava, with 6921 votes

Most voted in: Avatrice vs Alphyne, with 10,654 votes

Best graph: Avatrice vs Alphyne! Check out their graph below.

Graphs for every race, both completed and ongoing, can be found at glittering.world, but here are the graphs for this round:

[best-tournament-blog-bracket]

What is the better tournament blog?

ao3topshipsbracket

pennysperfectpolls

Voting ended onJan 27, 2025

@ao3topshipsbracket @pennysperfectpolls

ao3topshipbracket propaganda:

god this bracket's datavis was so sexy. they had LIVE UPDATING GRAPHS.

"voter fraud has always been allowed. blackbonnet will advance until it is beaten" is the funniest mod ruling i have ever seen in my life.

if you have time to send death threats, you have time to do voter fraud!!!!!

they've run two brackets (ao3 top ships in 2023, tumblr top ships in 2024). BOTH brackets had insane site-breaking discourse, and yet the mod team is still going strong and promising a return next year. no other big poll bracket does it like these guys do it

Very awesome, very cool, good ships

[ao3topshipsbracket]

A reminder that we are promising to run a Top Platonic Ships Bracket if we win this tournament!

(Note: we will most likely run the bracket regardless, because we like to have fun here. But consider voting for us anyway, just to be nice.)

[ao3topshipsbracket]

Top Femslash Ships Bracket - Semifinals

Himemiya Anthy/Tenjou Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena) vs Akemi Homura/Kaname Madoka (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Anthy/Utena

Homura/Madoka

Voting ended onJan 21, 2025

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with some of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement of anything included in the bracket, and refrain from harassment.

[ao3topshipsbracket]

Top Femslash Ships Bracket - Semifinals

Alphys/Undyne (Undertale) vs Sister Beatrice/Ava Silva (Warrior Nun)

Alphys/Undyne

Beatrice/Ava

Voting ended onJan 21, 2025

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with some of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement of anything included in the bracket, and refrain from harassment.

[ao3topshipsbracket]

even though the graph doesn’t look like the other voter fraud graphs, vrisrezi v. alphyne was most definitely rigged/botted (i find voter fraud fun and exciting so this is not a complaint) and you can tell because the uptick of vrisrezi votes at the end—when it was being passed around homestuck femslash blogs—is mirrored *identically* by votes for alphyne. i am very much not an expert at all but IIRC this type of rigging is done by a bot/bots casting a vote for alphyne to match every vote cast for vrisrezi. that’s why even though vrisrezi had an influx of votes at the end it didn’t gain any ground at all.

now, vrisrezi has won the whole thing before, so while this is a blow for toxic yuri and good taste generally, it is a DELIGHTFUL and interesting turn of events. i love tumblr polls. thank you for your time and effort

Not so! If, as you say, a bot was matching every vote equally, we would see both graphs increase at the same rate. However, if you look closely, the incline is rather steeper for Vrisrezi than it is for Alphyne - here's just that portion of the two graphs overlaid:

As you see, Vrisrezi votes do increase more than Alphyne! A sharp uptick in votes on both sides of a poll is something we've seen before, and it's just a natural conclusion of a poll being exposed to an audience that has divided opinions.

[ao3topshipsbracket]

Welcome to the Unofficial Top Femslash Ships Bracket!

Many people on Tumblr might have engaged in the practice of "shipping" in relation to "media". Some, according to legend, even have opinions on these matters.

If the above happens to apply to you, you might be eligible to vote in this bracket! We have pitted the most popular femslash pairings against each other to see who will emerge victorious. Semifinal polls drop on Friday, January 17th at 4PM PST, and will run for three days.

Check current vote counts here!

FAQ:

How was the bracket made and seeded?

This bracket was made with a combination of centreoftheselights' Ao3 data, the Tumblr 2024 Year in Review list, and a few notes of historical interest, and seeded according to the results of this survey!

What are your stances on voter fraud, campaigning, bribing people with drabbles and/or art, etc?

Enthusiastically in favor! We do, however, ask that you don't DDOS Tumblr, and ideally don't commit any murders that can be traced back to us.

I have an issue with [x] being included in this poll.

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with some of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement of anything included in the bracket, and refrain from harassment.

In general, please remember that this is intended to be a fun time for the wide community which is fandom culture, and treat each other with respect!

Bracket Schedule!

[ao3topshipsbracket]

Quarterfinal statistics!

Most voted for: Beatrice/Ava, with 7,870 votes

Most voted in: Avatrice vs Harumichi, with 14,188 votes

Best graph: Avatrice vs Harumichi! This round we had a battle of truly epic proportions, but Avatrice has once again prevailed.

Graphs for every race, both completed and ongoing, can be found at glittering.world, but here are the graphs for this round: