character design tournament

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Welcome to the Character Design Tournament blog!

This is a poll bracket for the best character design, specifically for animated characters - it's focused on video games and visual novels, but other animated/drawn mediums like anime, cartoons, and things with official/concept art e.g. DnD podcasts are also accepted! So no live-action characters here.

Although the way you participate is really up to you I do strongly encourage not voting just because you know or like/dislike a character or piece of media - this is supposed to be about the designs themselves!

How does this blog work?

The first tournament held was a huge one that encompassed all fandoms, that had submissions in the thousands!

It was decided that once that tournament concluded, we would go on to do some smaller fandom-specific tournaments that are a little more casual - for instance, pitting only Hades characters against each other, or Overwatch skins, etc. Each time a tournament concludes, another poll is posted with a random selection of fandom suggestions people have sent in, and the winner of the poll will be the next tournament theme.

After we've done a few of these, to allow both myself and voters a break from the Big Ones, and once we hit a similar number of submissions to the first time around, another major all-fandoms tournament will be held!

Submissions for that are currently OPEN and you can send in your characters at the Google Form HERE!

The only notes are that they must have a full-body image of their design available, and that they should be characters that were NOT already included in the first major tournament - you can find a list of characters included in that one here. (It's totally fine if they've been included in one of the smaller, fandom-specific tournaments - just not one of the big ones.)

I'm also always taking suggestions for fandom tournaments via askbox! They're a little more lax, so characters don't necessarily need to have full-body visuals available as long as the framing is consistent throughout the media to ensure characters have the same amount of their design visible - for example, Hades, where all characters are viewed from the waist-up, is fine.

Previous Tournaments / Winners

All-Fandoms Tournament #1: Amaterasu (Ōkami) - runner-up: GLaDOS (Portal)

FAQ:

Why did you choose this picture of X? / This is a bad picture of Y! I don't choose most of the images. They're generally sent in by whoever submitted the character. The only reason I change it around is if it's too low-quality to use.

Why was my reply deleted? The only time I ever delete replies is if you're being actively hostile/rude to another commenter, or if you're being inflammatory about a design you don't like. Criticising a design is fine - "anyone who votes for Z should die" is not. Don't make personal comments about voters you disagree with.

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about the all-fandoms tournament: are we allowed to submit a character who was already in the first tournament but with a different design or from a different game from the series where they look different?

Yes, that's totally fine! A character can be submitted multiple times if they have different outfits, skins, etc. and any looks of theirs that weren't specifically in the first one would be treated as new designs, provided they look sufficiently different.

[character-design-tournament]

Welcome to the Character Design Tournament blog!

This is a poll bracket for the best character design, specifically for animated characters - it's focused on video games and visual novels, but other animated/drawn mediums like anime, cartoons, and things with official/concept art e.g. DnD podcasts are also accepted! So no live-action characters here.

Although the way you participate is really up to you I do strongly encourage not voting just because you know or like/dislike a character or piece of media - this is supposed to be about the designs themselves!

How does this blog work?

The first tournament held was a huge one that encompassed all fandoms, that had submissions in the thousands!

It was decided that once that tournament concluded, we would go on to do some smaller fandom-specific tournaments that are a little more casual - for instance, pitting only Hades characters against each other, or Overwatch skins, etc. Each time a tournament concludes, another poll is posted with a random selection of fandom suggestions people have sent in, and the winner of the poll will be the next tournament theme.

After we've done a few of these, to allow both myself and voters a break from the Big Ones, and once we hit a similar number of submissions to the first time around, another major all-fandoms tournament will be held!

Submissions for that are currently OPEN and you can send in your characters at the Google Form HERE!

The only notes are that they must have a full-body image of their design available, and that they should be characters that were NOT already included in the first major tournament - you can find a list of characters included in that one here. (It's totally fine if they've been included in one of the smaller, fandom-specific tournaments - just not one of the big ones.)

I'm also always taking suggestions for fandom tournaments via askbox! They're a little more lax, so characters don't necessarily need to have full-body visuals available as long as the framing is consistent throughout the media to ensure characters have the same amount of their design visible - for example, Hades, where all characters are viewed from the waist-up, is fine.

Previous Tournaments / Winners

All-Fandoms Tournament #1: Amaterasu (Ōkami) - runner-up: GLaDOS (Portal)

FAQ:

Why did you choose this picture of X? / This is a bad picture of Y! I don't choose most of the images. They're generally sent in by whoever submitted the character. The only reason I change it around is if it's too low-quality to use.

Why was my reply deleted? The only time I ever delete replies is if you're being actively hostile/rude to another commenter, or if you're being inflammatory about a design you don't like. Criticising a design is fine - "anyone who votes for Z should die" is not. Don't make personal comments about voters you disagree with.

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Addendum re: future major all-fandoms tournament

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I've decided I'm open to holding another major all-fandoms tournament, but that it will be a while before it happens in order to do a few smaller fandom tournaments in the meantime and give me (and all of you) a bit of a break before another huge one.

After some thought I've chosen to open Google Form submissions for it now and to keep it open long-term! This will allow people to submit characters for it while the smaller tournaments are ongoing, and I can simply go ahead with it when a) enough time has passed and b) we've hit a roughly similar amount of submissions the first one had.

The same rules apply, plus an addition:

Only characters from animated media such as video games, visual novels, anime, cartoons, webcomics, etc. are allowed.

Characters must have a full-body image available to show the whole of their design.

Any characters who were already part of the first major tournament will be disqualified from running again. A WIP list of those characters can be found here, and I'll be actively updating it as quickly as I can. It's not the end of the world if you send in a duplicate as I'll just delete it, especially while it's incomplete, but you may want to check the list first!

You can find the submissions form HERE - again, you can start submitting now and it will be open until the next all-fandoms tournament eventually begins.

The pinned post will be updated later to include all of this as well :)

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Would you be open to someone else making a blog for a Pokemon (as in the creatures, not the humans) design tournament? I saw some people saying they thought it was overdone and that it would take too long for this blog and I thought maybe I could give it a shot on a separate blog if people were interested so that way you wouldn't have to run a tournament for 1000+ Pokemon. But of course it was your idea first and I LOVE your blog and definitely don't want to step on anything you're planning, so I wanted to ask your input first especially because I would be heavily inspired by the way you run your polls.

Of course, that's more than fine! I make no claim at all to the idea, like I said they were all suggestions sent in by followers :) You're entirely welcome to run it yourself and I'd be happy to give it a shoutout if you do!

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I absolutely love the new tournaments idea, I'm so excited to get started!!! Are you planning on including a list of every winner, maybe in your pinned post? It'd be fun to have a link to the winning post for each one so people could keep track. You already do so much already, so no worries if that's too much!

Also, would you like fandoms to be submitted via the Google form in your pinned still, or via ask? Thank you!!

I am! I was planning to update the pinned post with things like that later today actually :D

Askbox is fine! The form was just for character submissions so it's no longer used

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Different anon here

Here are some poké polls going on right now (although they aren’t design centric)

randompokemonpolls

giant1v1poketourny

shinypokemonpolls (this one is design-centric)

Oh like I said I definitely know there are a lot of Pokemon poll blogs in general! I've actually followed one of these myself for some time :) I just hadn't seen any that were about design specifically (and I guess the person who sent in the suggestion hadn't either)

The shiny blog existing actually works out because I wasn't planning to include shinies, I'd likely stick to base Pokemon and possibly regional variants since they look sufficiently different enough and aren't just recolours - anything other than that like including Mega Evolutions etc would just get too complicated for me

Of course this is all only relevant if people actually vote Pokemon as the tournament theme

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Re: anon that sent in an ask about thinking Pokemon tournaments are overdone (I accidentally deleted your ask in the middle of answering it 😐) - that's a completely fair perspective! I've definitely seen a lot of general "favourite Pokemon" tournaments around, but I haven't seen one specifically about their designs, which is (obviously) this blog's focus. However, if there has been a recent major one dedicated to that, someone can let me know and I can void that option and focus on some others for now!

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Fandom Tournament Details + First Vote!

So we're onto the smaller fandom-specific tournaments! A lot of you have sent in suggestions throughout the months of the larger tournament, and I am very much still accepting them and will be indefinitely, so don't be afraid to send in some more even while one is going on.

The only rules are that the fandom must have a fairly sizeable cast of characters or cosmetics/skins with distinct appearances, and full-body images should be available for all of the major characters - with the exception of e.g. games that show all characters from the same non-full body angle, such as waist-up. So no tournaments with inconsistent views from character to character, but all full-body or all waist-up would be fine. This is just to ensure every character has the same amount of their design shown.

Each time a fandom tournament concludes, a poll will be held with a random selection of ideas that have been sent in to determine the next one.

There will likely be less propaganda throughout these tournaments than there was in the main one, as it would presumably only be sent in by members of each fandom, but if you do want to submit any you can do so at any time via the askbox! No Google form this time. A list of characters that will be included will be posted ahead of each tournament's start, so you can a) see if there are any you'd like to send propaganda in for and b) let me know if there are any characters I've missed.

If you have any further questions, I'm happy to clarify!

Which takes us onto...

Which of these fandoms should be our first specific tournament?

Pokemon (humans)

Overwatch

Dead by Daylight

Pokemon (Pokemon)

Date Everything

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Honkai: Star Rail

Danganronpa

Fortnite (concept art)

Genshin Impact

Fire Emblem Engage

Critical Role

Voting ended onJun 24

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We're finally here...

The official winner of the Character Design Tournament is AMATERASU from Ōkami!

Shoutout to the other designs that made it all the way to the top five:

GLaDOS (Portal)

Lemuen (Arknights)

Hornet (Hollow Knight: Silksong)

The Nowhere King (Centaurworld)

Thank you to everyone who's stuck with the tournament and participated along the way! This has been so fun and I'd be delighted if you guys enjoyed it even half as much as I've enjoyed running it.

As I said throughout this one, I'll be going forward with some smaller fandom-specific tournaments for a while! I'll post some details about that as well as a poll to decide the first one later today.

However, good news - after some asks, I've decided I am open to holding another major all-fandoms tournament again at some point! Only characters not included in this one will be accepted, but I'll reshare the list beforehand so people can check through it. This won't be for a while though - I need these smaller ones as a break for now 😭

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FINAL — Amaterasu (Okami) vs. GLaDOS (Portal)

The better design is...

Amaterasu

GLaDOS

Voting ended onJun 21

(Your usual reminder that you're encouraged to vote based on design regardless of any personal feelings for or against the characters themselves or the media they're from!)

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Semi-Final, Match 2 — GLaDOS (Portal) vs. Lemuen (Arknights)

GLaDOS propaganda:

N/A

Lemuen propaganda:

Lemuen is an ambulatory wheelchair user who was an npc for a good few years before becoming playable just this year. Her wheelchair was redesigned in this process to be based on a sports wheelchair, and the 3d PV really showcases how much care was put into making her disability a primary focus of how cool she is. I can't really think of many video games having playable characters in wheelchairs who are treated with as much care and dignity in their design and writing as their able bodied peers. She's also incredibly pretty and her artist (IRIS_口艺) was insane for making those boots.

The better design is...

GLaDOS

Lemuen

Voting ended onJun 17

(Your usual reminder that you're encouraged to vote based on design regardless of any personal feelings for or against the characters themselves or the media they're from!)

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Semi-Final, Match 1 — Hornet (Hollow Knight: Silksong) vs. Amaterasu (Okami)

The better design is...

Hornet

Amaterasu

Voting ended onJun 17

(Your usual reminder that you're encouraged to vote based on design regardless of any personal feelings for or against the characters themselves or the media they're from!)

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Round 9, Match 1 — Lemuen (Arknights) vs. The Nowhere King (Centaurworld)

Lemuen propaganda:

Lemuen is an ambulatory wheelchair user who was an npc for a good few years before becoming playable just this year. Her wheelchair was redesigned in this process to be based on a sports wheelchair, and the 3d PV really showcases how much care was put into making her disability a primary focus of how cool she is. I can't really think of many video games having playable characters in wheelchairs who are treated with as much care and dignity in their design and writing as their able bodied peers. She's also incredibly pretty and her artist (IRIS_口艺) was insane for making those boots.

The Nowhere King propaganda:

Spooky mass of blackness with too many legs and a deer skull makes for an amazing main villain design imo

The better design is...

Lemuen

The Nowhere King

Voting ended onJun 14

(Your usual reminder that you're encouraged to vote based on design regardless of any personal feelings for or against the characters themselves or the media they're from!)

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Round 8, Match 4 — The Nowhere King (Centaurworld) vs. Merengue (Animal Crossing)

The Nowhere King propaganda:

Spooky mass of blackness with too many legs and a deer skull makes for an amazing main villain design imo

Merengue propaganda:

i love the strawberry shortcake / parfait thing - the white topping as whipped cream, the horn as a strawberry (and it’s upturned so it literally looks like it’s perched there), her hooves are like little dollop feet, and the tail puff being peachy-strawberry is such a tiny detail that makes it feel cohesive instead of random. and the chef outfit on top of that

The better design is...

The Nowhere King

Merengue

Voting ended onJun 9

(Your usual reminder that you're encouraged to vote based on design regardless of any personal feelings for or against the characters themselves or the media they're from!)

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Round 8, Match 3 — GLaDOS (Portal) vs. The Knight (Hollow Knight)

GLaDOS propaganda:

N/A

Knight propaganda:

Effective at being bug-like but clearly distinct and more ghostlike than other bugs in the game. Also really cute

The better design is...

GLaDOS

The Knight

Voting ended onJun 9

(Your usual reminder that you're encouraged to vote based on design regardless of any personal feelings for or against the characters themselves or the media they're from!)

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Round 8, Match 2 — WALL-E (WALL-E) vs. Amaterasu (Okami)

The better design is...

WALL-E

Amaterasu

Voting ended onJun 9

(Your usual reminder that you're encouraged to vote based on design regardless of any personal feelings for or against the characters themselves or the media they're from!)