ISML 2024 Charter
The Annual Charter defines the values and limitations of and establishes a schedule for ISML. The Charter proposes to be the flexible aspect of ISML that complements the static Constitution. It aims to provide ISML with the ability to make the innovations necessary to remain entertaining each year.
I. General Rules and Outline
A. ISML 2024 will consist of: Main Tournament (Section IV), Tournament of Champions (Section XIII), and Exhibition Matches (Section XIII).
B. ISML 2024 will be held across a total of Thirty-Nine (39) match days (excluding Nomination Phase). The number of match days each phase of the tournament will take will be specified on Section XV.
C. The Main Tournament, the Tournament of Champions, and Exhibition Matches may be scheduled concurrently on the same match day.
D. A match day will consist of a voting phase and result announcement.
1. Voting phase will be held as scheduled (see Section XV) and will run for Twenty-Four (24) hours.
2. The Staff is authorized to delay the start of the voting phase should any problems arise due to technical issues or other areas of concern. In such cases, the Staff are allowed to delay the end of the voting phase and the release of results. All extensions will be reported on the Website.
3. Voting will be held on: https://international.saimoe.website/voting
4. Detailed Policies and Procedures of voting phase are explained in Section II.
5. Results for each match day will be announced approximately Twenty-Four (24) hours after the end of each voting phase, unless decided otherwise.
6. Other statistics may be posted and kept for study and analysis.
E. As constituted by Article I Section 4 of the ISML Constitution, ISML Commissioner and delegated Technical Staff will preside over ISML 2024 during the course of its duration, with authorities and duties as described in the ISML Constitution. These two parties will be referred to as "ISML Staff" in this charter.
II. Voting Policies and Procedures
A. Information such as the IP addresses of voters will be logged in order to verify ballot authenticity and voter uniqueness.
B. Voters are obliged to obey the Policies stated in Article IV of the ISML Constitution.
1. Voters may not submit multiple ballots in the same round.
2. Voters may not engage in bribery, blackmail, aggressive intimidation, or similar unethical activities.
3. Voters may not engage in any other activities forbidden by the laws of their respective country or domicile. ISML, our Commissioner, and all of our Staff are not responsible for the actions of our users.
C. ISML Staff reserve the right to decide whether a violation of the procedures has or has not happened.
D. ISML Staff reserve the right to exercise punishments to Parties that are deemed to have violated procedures as constituted on Article IV of the ISML Constitution.
E. If a voter mistakenly casts a vote, they may contact staff by emailing [email protected] to request a correction. Vote change requests must include the IP address from which the vote was cast and/or the vote id given at the confirmation page when a ballot has been submitted, the original incorrect ballot, and the requested new ballot.
F. Voters may abstain from any match in a given round, but a ballot must have a minimum number of votes to be considered valid. This value differs depending on the round and will be specified on each voting ballot.
III. General Rules of Eligibility and Qualification
A. Character eligibility will be checked according to Article III of the ISML Constitution. Full-length animations referred to in Article III Section 3 of the ISML Constitution are animated series airing more than Twenty (20) consecutive minutes or accumulating at least Forty (40) minutes of screen time.
B. Consideration of female gender (for entry into Female Division or any other Female-based tournaments) includes: the character is female, possesses a female form (in which case only the instances when the character is female shall be considered), or must regularly exhibit feminine qualities when the character's gender is unknown or cannot be determined.
C. Consideration of male gender uses the same qualification as Section III.B, except with regards to male and masculine characters.
D. A character who qualifies as both male and female may enter one division only. The staff will consider the following points in their decision:
1. The amount of screen time the character gets as each gender.
2. The character's personal identity.
E. In case a character’s gender is hard to determine, the default choice of gender will be female.
F. ISML Staff reserve the right to deem any avatar-type character ineligible for the Main Tournament.
1. We define "avatar" as any entity, virtual or otherwise, that is controlled by a distant conscience.
2. An avatar may be eligible in the following cases:
i. His/her status as an avatar has not been revealed in the anime adaptation.
ii. The character only appears as an avatar; i.e., the controlling conscience is never revealed or does not have a corporeal form.
iii. The avatar gains, or regains, his/her own individual conscience.
G. Qualification for the Main Tournament will take precedence over all other tournaments except Tournament of Champions (see Section XIII.D).
IV. Main Tournament
A. The Main Tournament will consist of Preliminary Period (Section IX), a series of Group Stages (Section X), and Postseason Elimination Stage (Section XII).
B. The Main Tournament will follow the schedule as explained on this Website unless decided otherwise (see Section XV).
C. Each match in the Main Tournament will be held on a single, specific match day. Technical rules of each match day follow Section I.
D. The Main Tournament will be divided into Four (4) Divisions: the Female Nova Division, the Female Stella Division, the Male Nova Division, and the Male Stella Division.
E. Characters participating in any Division are known as Contestants.
V. Nova Division
A. The format and schedule of Nova Division are identical for both Female Nova Division and Male Nova Division.
B. The Nova Division will consist of Four (4) Splits: the Winter Split, the Spring Split, the Summer Split, and the Autumn Split.
C. Characters must appear in an anime series, excluding trailers and music videos, during the following duration to be eligible for the corresponding Split. For movies or other series with restricted screenings, the earlier date of the release date in the third continent and the BD/DVD release date will be used to judge eligibility.
1. The Winter Split: from 1 January 2024 to 31 March 2024.
2. The Spring Split: from 1 April 2024 to 30 June 2024.
3. The Summer Split: from 1 July 2024 to 30 September 2024.
4. The Autumn Split: from 1 October 2024 to 31 December 2024.
D. Characters satisfy any of the following conditions are not eligible for the Nova Division:
1. Characters participated in any of the Tournament of Champions matches since ISML 2021.
2. Characters participated in any of the Postseason Elimination Stage matches since ISML 2021.
3. Contestants who have won any Necklace or Pendant since ISML 2021.
4. Characters participated in any of the Nova Division Group Stage matches in the recent Three (3) Splits.
E. At the end of the Nova Division, the winner of the Female Nova Division will be awarded the Divine Circlet and the winner of the Male Nova Division will be awarded the Divine Crown, and both will be declared as Champions of Nova Division for ISML 2024.
VI. Stella Division
A. The format and schedule of Stella Division are identical for both Female Stella Division and Male Stella Division.
B. To be eligible for the Stella Division, a character must have first appeared before 01 January 2024. Any character data that occurred after said date are not eligible for the Stella Division.
C. Across the duration of the Stella Division, Seven (7) gem Necklace/Pendant will be distributed to the Contestant who was deemed to have performed the best on each phase of the Group Stages.
1. The potential names of the gems are: Aquamarine, Topaz, Amethyst, Sapphire, Emerald, Ruby, and Diamond.
2. The mechanism that will be used to distribute the Gem Necklace/Pendant will be ruled on Section XI.
D.At the end of the Stella Division, the winner of the Female Stella Division will be awarded the Heavenly Tiara and the winner of the Male Stella Division will be awarded the Lapis Scepter, and both will be declared as Champions of Stella Division for ISML 2024.
VII. Automatic Qualification
A. No characters are permitted to advance directly to the Group Stages.
B. Characters satisfy any of the following conditions are permitted automatic entry into the Preliminary Period of Stella Division, excluding the Contestants of the Tournament of Champions:
1. Characters participated in any of the Postseason Elimination Stage matches in ISML 2023.
2. Contestants won any Necklace or Pendant in ISML 2023.
3. The top Eight (8) characters from r/anime's Best Guy 9.
4. The top Four (4) characters from each Division of Anime Trending Character Champions League 2023.
5. The top Two (2) characters from Aniplus Character Tournament 2023.
6. The winner from r/anime's Best Girl of Year 2022.
7. The winner from each Division of AnimeClick Best Waifu & Husbando 2023.
8. The winner from the 8th Tianshidongman Moe Tournament.
9. The winner from each Division of Chinese Saimoe 2023.
VIII. Nomination Phase
A. The Nomination Phase lasts Seven (7) days (see Section XV).
B. Each Split of the Nova Division has a separate, identically formatted character nomination form.
1. Voters may nominate up to Sixteen (16) characters each.
2. At least Four (4) eligible anime franchises must be represented on the ballot.
3. At least Two (2) female and Two (2) male characters must be included on the ballot.
4. At most Three (3) characters from any given series or franchise may be nominated on the ballot.
C. The Stella Division uses a separate character nomination form.
1. Voters may nominate up to Thirty-Two (32) characters each.
2. At least Eight (8) eligible anime franchises must be represented on the ballot.
3. At least Four (4) female and Four (4) male characters must be included on the ballot.
4. At most Four (4) characters from any given series or franchise may be nominated on the ballot.
D. No character may be nominated more than once on the ballot.
E. All nominations have equal weight. There is no ranking of nominations in each ballot.
F. Invalid nominations on a ballot will be discarded individually and will not void the ballot unless any discard results in that ballot being in violation of Section VIII.B or Section VIII.C, in which case that ballot will be voided.
G. At the end of the Nomination Period, the characters with the most nominations for each Division will advance into the Main Tournament until the allotted slots are filled.
1. Characters will first be considered for the Stella Division. Only if they fail to advance to the Stella Division will they be considered for the Nova Division.
2. For the Nova Division, characters who are eligible for the Winter Split will first be considered for the Winter Split. Only if they fail to advance to the Winter Split will they be considered for the Spring, Summer or Autumn Split. Likewise, Spring Split will be considered before Summer Split, then Autumn Split.
H. The number of allotted slots for each Split of both Female Nova Division and Male Nova Division is Twenty-Four (24).
1. For each Split, the following additional rules shall be considered.
i. No series may be allowed more than Three (3) characters.
ii. The 2nd character from any series may not be ranked lower than 16th.
iii. The 3rd character from any series may not be ranked lower than 8th.
iv. At least Sixteen (16) characters need to make their first appearance in ISML Main tournament.
2. However, if any of the following conditions occurs, the number of allotted slots for each division may not subject to the Twenty-Four (24) limit. Staff may allow characters to advance who do not meet additional rules for fairness purposes.
i. Two or more characters have the same number of nominations.
ii. The allotted slots mandated by Section VIII.I.4 are not filled.
I. The number of allotted slots for both Female Stella Division and Male Stella Division is One Hundred and Twenty-Eight (128) minus the number of automatic entries permitted in Section VII.B. If, however, two or more characters have the same number of nominations, the number of allotted slots for each division may not subject to the One Hundred and Twenty-Eight (128) limit.
IX. Preliminary Period
A. Contestants are tentatively seeded based on the results from the Nomination Phase. The following sequence of tiebreakers will be used to break ties in favor of the character(s) who fits the stated description, applying each subsequent condition only among tied Contestants:
1. Automatically qualified characters (Section VII.B).
2. Greater number of nominations.
3. Characters participated in any of the Stella Division Group Stage matches in ISML 2023 with the higher final rank.
4. Characters participated in any of the Nova Division Group Stage matches in ISML 2023 with the higher final rank.
5. Selection by Staff.
B. Nova Division
1. Contestants of each Split will collectively be subjected to an Approval Voting match. The top Sixteen (16) Contestants will advance to the Group Stage, while the rest will be eliminated.
2. In case of a tie, the nomination rank (Section IX.A) will be used to break the tie.
C. Stella Division
1. The following iterative process will be used to update the rankings: the highest available rank is given to the Contestant who satisfies the following conditions, applying each subsequent condition only among tied Contestants.
i. Less Average Rank Points (ARP) of the Preliminary Period. ARP = (Average Deserved Rank of Round 1) + 4 * (Average Deserved Rank of Round 2).
ii. Automatically qualified characters (Section VII.B).
iii. Greater number of nominations.
iv. Greater Cumulative Vote Points (CVP) value.
2. The Preliminary Period consists of Three (3) rounds, defined below. Each round will be split into Two (2) match days.
i. As to Round 1, the Contestants will be split into Two (2) balanced groups based on the nomination rank. The Contestants will collectively be subjected to an Approval Voting match.
ii. As to Round 2, the Contestants will be split into Eight (8) re-balanced groups based on the Round 1 result. The nomination rank will be used to break the tie. The Contestants will collectively be subjected to a Limited Voting match. Voters may select up to Five (5) Contestants per group. At the end of Round 2, after all tiebreakers have been applied, the top Fifty-Six (56) Contestants overall will advance to the Group Stages. The Contestants ranked 57th through 98th overall will advance to Round 3. The rest will be eliminated.
iii. As to Round 3, the Contestants will be split into Two (2) re-balanced groups based on the overall rank after Round 2. The Contestants will collectively be subjected to an Approval Voting match. The top Fourteen (14) Contestants will advance to the Group Stage, while the rest will be eliminated.
D. At the end of Preliminary Period, all advanced Contestants will be re-seeded according to their results before being allocated to their respective groups of the next Stage.
X. Group Stage
A. General Rules
1. Each Contestant will have exactly One (1) opponent per match, excluding Necklace and Pendant Showdown (Section XI) and Wild Card Matches (Section X.C.2) of Stella Division.
2. At the end of each match, the Contestant who received the greater number of valid votes in his/her match will be declared the winner of that match; the opposing Contestant will be declared the loser. If opposing Contestants have an equal number of valid votes, their match will be declared a draw except for Knockout Stage of Nova Division (Section X.B.3); both Contestants will record a tie in their statistics, and no overtime match will occur.
3. A ranking system for each group will be utilized to record the Contestants' results. The following iterative process will be used to update the rankings within a group: the highest available rank is given to the Contestant who satisfies the following conditions, applying each subsequent condition only among tied Contestants.
i. Greater number of cumulative wins and draws, in which a draw will be counted as half (1/2) the value of a win.
ii. Greater Cumulative Vote Point Difference (CVPD) value.
iii. Greater Cumulative Vote Point (CVP) value.
iv. Selected by Staff.
4. After each Stage, all advanced Contestants will be re-seeded according to their results in prior Stages before being allocated to their respective groups.
5. Eliminated Contestants may be seeded into the Consolation Brackets that will determine the final rankings from 17th place to last place. These matches will take place during the Elimination Stage at the earliest possible opportunity.
B. Nova Division
1. The Group Stage of each Split will consist of Opening Stage and Breakout Stage.
2. Opening Stage
i. Contestants will be split into Two (2) groups of Eight (8). Contestants in the same group will compete in a round-robin format.
ii. At the end of each Split, after all tiebreakers have been applied, the top Four (4) Contestants in each group will advance to the Breakout Stage.
3. Breakout Stage
i. Contestants will be split into Two (2) groups of Four (4). Contestants in the same group will compete with Stepladder rule. In Stepladder rule, Contestants with lowest seed will compete first. Only the winner of that match will compete against Contestants with higher seed.
ii. The 1st and 3rd ranked Contestants from the same group of Opening Stage and the 2nd and 4th ranked Contestants from the other group of Opening Stage will be split into a same group. The rest will be split into the other group. Contestants are seeded according to their performances in the Opening Stage.
iii. The winner of each group will advance to the Seasonal Final. The winning Contestants of the Seasonal Final are awarded the corresponding Seasonal Diadem.
iv. If opposing Contestants have the same number of votes at the end of a Breakout Stage match, the Contestant who had won their previous head-to-head match during the Opening Stage will be declared the winner. If that match was also a draw, or did not occur, the same procedure as the one used in the Opening Stage will be used to break it (see Section X.A.3).
v. The top Four (4) Contestants in the Breakout Stage will advance to the Postseason Elimination Stage.
C. Stella Division
1. The Group Stages will consist of Four (4) Stages. On each Stage, Contestants will be split into groups of Six (6) Contestants. Contestants in the same group will compete in a round-robin format.
i. The First Group Stage will consist of Eighty-Four (84) Contestants, including Fourteen (14) groups.
ii. The Second Group Stage will consist of Sixty (60) Contestants, including Ten (10) groups.
iii. The Third Group Stage will consist of Forty-Two (42) Contestants, including Seven (7) groups.
iv. The Forth Group Stage will consist of Twenty-Four (24) Contestants, including Four (4) groups.
2. At the end of each Group Stages, after all tiebreakers have been applied, Contestants who have performed well will advance to the next stage.
i. After the First Group Stage, the top Four (4) Contestants in each group will advance. The 5th ranked Contestants will collectively be subjected to a Limited Voting match. In this match, voters may select up to Four (4) Contestants, and the top Four (4) Contestants will advance. The rest will be eliminated. This additional match is known as a Wild Card Match and will occur alongside the Necklace and Pendant Showdown (see Section XI).
ii. After the Second Group Stage, the top Four (4) Contestants in each group will advance. The 5th ranked Contestants will collectively be subjected to a Limited Voting match. In this Wild Card Match, voters may select up to Two (2) Contestants, and the top Two (2) Contestants will advance. The rest will be eliminated.
iii. After the Third Group Stage, the top Three (3) Contestants in each group will advance. The 4th ranked Contestants will collectively be subjected to an Approval Voting match. The top Four (3) Contestants in this Wild Card Match will advance. The rest will be eliminated.
iv. After the Forth Group Stage, the top Three (3) Contestants in each group will advance to the Elimination Stage. The 4th and 5th ranked Contestants will collectively be subjected to a Wild Card Round. Contestants will be split into Four (4) Range Voting matches by their performance in the Group Stage. The Contestant with the best record who has not yet been scheduled will compete against the Contestant with the worst record who has not yet been scheduled. The winner of each match will advance. The rest will be eliminated.
XI. Necklace and Pendant Showdown
A. At the end of each Group Stage of the Stella Division, there will be a Necklace Showdown for the Female Stella Division to determine the winner of the Necklace for that Stage. The Male Stella Division will have a Pendant Showdown with the same rules.
B. Only one Necklace and one Pendant will be awarded per Necklace/Pendant match. Each match will consist of Eight (8) Contestants.
1. Two (2) Necklace/Pendant Showdowns will take place in the First Group Stage: Aquamarine and Topaz.
2. Two (2) Necklace/Pendant Showdowns will take place in the Second Group Stage: Amethyst and Sapphire.
3. Two (2) Necklace/Pendant Showdowns will take place in the Third Group Stage: Emerald and Ruby.
4. Diamond Necklace/Pendant Showdown will take place in the Forth Group Stage.
C. Best performed Contestants from each Division will participate in a Necklace/Pendant Showdown based on their performance during the relevant Stage.
1. After the First Group Stage, the Second Group Stage and the Third Group Stage, a total of Sixteen (16) Contestants will advance.
2. After the Forth Group Stage, a total of Eight (8) Contestants will advance.
D. For each slot, the slot will be filled by the eligible Contestant who satisfies the following conditions, applying each subsequent condition only among tied Contestants. The seeding of Necklace/Pendant matches will also be decided according to the same procedure.
1. Highest ranking (Section X.A.3).
2. Greater number of period cumulative wins and draws, in which a draw will be counted as Half (1/2) the value of a win.
3. Greater Period's Cumulative Vote Point Difference (PCVPD) value.
4. Greater Period's Cumulative Vote Points (PCVP) value.
5. Selected by Staff.
E. Voters will rank the Contestants in each of the Showdown matches. At the end of the Showdowns, the winning Contestants, as decided by an Instant-Runoff Voting system, are awarded the Necklaces and Pendants.
1. Ties are resolved in favor of the Contestant who was ranked highest on the most ballots. A continued tie will be broken using the number of second-highest ranks, and so on.
2. If the tie persists after that, the same procedure as Section XI.D will be used to break it.
F. Contestants who win a Necklace or Pendant are ineligible for later Showdowns for the remainder of the year.
XII. Elimination Stage
A. General Rules
1. Sixteen (16) Contestants from each Division are seeded according to their performances in Group Stage.
2. Each Contestant will have exactly One (1) opponent per match.
3. At the end of each match, the Contestant who received the greater number of valid votes in his/her match will be declared the winner of that match; the opposing Contestant will be declared the loser. If opposing Contestants have an equal number of valid votes, the Contestant who had won their previous head-to-head match during the Group Stages will be declared the winner. If that match was also a draw, or did not occur, the higher-seeded Contestant according to the initial Elimination Stage seeding will be declared the winner.
4. Eliminated Contestants may be seeded into the Consolation Brackets that will determine the final rankings from third place to last place. These matches will take place during the Elimination Stage at the earliest possible opportunity.
B. Nova Division
1. The Elimination Stage will consist of Swiss Stage and Playoff Stage.
2. Swiss Stage
i. Contestants advance through the bracket according to a variation of Swiss System. For every round, each Contestant will compete with a Contestant with the same number of wins.
ii. The 1st Round will feature the following matches based on seed: 1st vs 9th, 2nd vs 10th, 3rd vs 11th, 4th vs 12th, 5th vs 13th, 6th vs 14th, 7th vs 15th, and 8th vs 16th.
iii. The 2nd to 5th Rounds will feature the matches based on seed. The Contestant with the highest seed who has not yet been scheduled will compete against the Contestant with the lowest seed who has not yet been scheduled, unless they previously had a head-to-head match in this stage.
iv. The top Eight (8) Contestants who receive Three (3) wins will immediately advance to the Playoff Stage. Contestants who receive Three (3) loses will immediately be eliminated.
3. Playoff Stage
i. Eight (8) Contestants from each Division are re-seeded according to their win-loss record in Swiss Stage. For Contestants with the same record, performance of Group Stage will be considered.
ii. Contestants advance through the bracket according to Double-Elimination rules without Preliminary Round. In Double-Elimination system, the losers in the Winners' Bracket matches will be placed in the Losers' Bracket, and the losers in the Losers' Bracket matches will be eliminated. The Contestants without any loses in the Swiss Stage will be initially placed in the Winners' Bracket, while the rest will be initially placed in the Losers' Bracket.
iii. Playoff Stage will feature the matches based on seed. The Contestant with the highest seed who has not yet been scheduled will compete against the Contestant with the lowest seed who has not yet been scheduled.
iv. The winner of each Bracket will advance to Final. The winner of this match will be declared as the Champion.
C. Stella Division
1. Contestants advance through the bracket according to Double-Elimination rules with Preliminary Round. The winners of Preliminary Round will be placed into the Winners' Bracket. The losers of the Preliminary Round will be placed into Losers' Bracket.
2. The Preliminary Round and each Round of Winners' Bracket will feature matches based on draw.
i. The remaining Contestants will be balanced split into seeded Contestants and unseeded Contestants before each round.
ii. Each seeded Contestant will compete with an unseeded Contestant in every match.
3. Each Round of Losers' Bracket will feature matches based on their seed. The Contestant with the highest seed who has not yet been scheduled will compete against the Contestant with the lowest seed who has not yet been scheduled.
4. The winner of each Bracket will advance to Final. If the winner of this match is from the Winners' Bracket, she/he will be declared as the Champion. Or, a rematch is required. The winner of the rematch will be declared as the Champion.
XIII. Tournament of Champions
A. The most recent Eight (8) Tiara winners and most recent Eight (8) Scepter winners of ISML will participate in a side tournament to be held during the Main Tournament. This tournament is referred to as the Tournament of Champions.
B. The Tournament of Champions will consist of Round Robin Stage and Elimination Stage.
1. Round Robin Stage
i. Contestants will compete in a round-robin format.
ii. The top Four (4) Contestants with the most wins will advance.
iii. In the case of a tie, the same procedure as the one used in the Main Tournament will be used to break it (see Section X.A.3).
2. Elimination Stage
i. Elimination stage will be run with Stepladder rule.
ii. Contestants are seeded according to their performances in Round Robin Stage.
iii. The winning Contestants in the Final will be crowned the winner of the Tournament of Champions.
C. Each match in the Tournament of Champions will be held on a single, specific match day. Each Contestant will have exactly One (1) opponent per match. Technical rules of each match day follow Section I.
D. Characters participating in the Tournament of Champions are ineligible for the Main Tournament.
E. Past champions who fall outside of the Tournament of Champions bracket are eligible for the Main Tournament.
XIV. Exhibition Matches
A. Exhibition Matches are designed to raise awareness of anime series that are not represented and Japanese media characters who are not participating in the Main Tournament. The matches may focus on anime series airing after the Nomination Phase had begun or on other outlets possibly previously unknown to members of the Community.
B. Exhibition Matches have no effect on the Main Tournament, unless an exception for a specific match or an exhibition tournament is announced at least one week before the start.
C. Each Exhibition Match will be held on a single, specific match day. Technical rules of each match day follow Section I.
XV. Schedule
A. All dates in this Section will be published on the Website for easy access by the Community.
B. All dates are subject to change. ISML may change the schedule without updating this section of the document; however, any and all changes must be published on the Website as early as possible.
C. Nomination Phase
1. The Stella Division Nomination Phase is scheduled from 31 December 2024 to 7 January 2025.
2. The Nomination Phase of the Nova Division Winter Split is scheduled from 7 January 2025 to 14 January 2025.
3. The Nomination Phase of the Nova Division Spring Split is scheduled from 14 January 2025 to 21 January 2025.
4. The Nomination Phase of the Nova Division Summer Split is scheduled from 21 January 2025 to 28 January 2025.
5. The Nomination Phase of the Nova Division Autumn Split is scheduled from 28 January 2025 to 4 February 2025.
6. Nomination Phase will be extended if system errors prevent nomination submissions for more than Twenty-Four (24) cumulative hours.
7. Result of Nomination Phase will be announced approximately in Seven (7) days after the end of the Phase.
D. The Main Tournament is scheduled from 13 February 2025 to 1 August 2025.
1. All matches in this period are scheduled to start at 1200 GMT on the dates reported on the ISML Calendar.
2. Nova Division
i. The Preliminary Period will take place from 27 February 2025 to 28 February 2025.
ii. The Group Stage of Winter Split and Spring Split will take place from 28 March 2025 to 23 May 2025.
iii. The Group Stage of Summer Split and Autumn Split will take place from 5 May 2025 to 20 June 2025.
iv. The Elimination Stage will take place from 30 June 2025 to 1 August 2025.
3. Stella Division
i. The Preliminary Period will take place from 13 February 2025 to 28 February 2025.
ii. The First Group Stage will take place from 10 March 2025 to 28 March 2025.
iii. The Second Group Stage will take place from 7 April 2025 to 25 April 2025.
iv. The Third Group Stage will take place from 5 May 2025 to 23 May 2025.
v. The Forth Group Stage will take place from 2 June 2025 to 20 June 2025.
vi. Elimination Stage will take place from 30 June 2025 to 1 August 2025.
XVI. Legal
A. The information presented on the website, including but not limited to biography information, statistical history, and copyright information, is not guaranteed to be completely accurate. ISML, including its staff and owners, cannot be held legally liable for any harm caused by the use or misuse of information contained within the pages located on the international.saimoe.website and internationalsaimoe.com domain.
B. The names of all characters and Japanese productions featured on the Website do not in any way belong to ISML. All copyrights and intellectual property belong to their respective owners. Images are used for identification purposes only.
C. ISML community members and Staff may not engage in any other activities forbidden by the laws of their respective country or domicile. ISML and all of our Staff are not responsible for the actions of our community members.
D. During vote-checking, Staff shall not show any favoritism to any Contestant during the validation process.
E. Once the results are released, the results cannot be changed unless staff find major errors. People are allowed to appeal the results to bring into attention any serious errors. Staff may not give unnecessary information in replies to any appeals, except informing them whether their complaint has been accepted.
F. While the Staff will attempt to enforce the Voter Policies as strictly as possible, situations may occur where not all votes in violation of the Policies will be detected or where voters banned for Policy violations discover alternate methods to submit votes. The Staff will work to the best of their ability to minimize the occurrence of these situations.
G. Each year, ISML and the Staff attempt to present a fair system of matches. The Staff will ensure their best, honest, and virtuous effort to arrange a respectively even schedule for all Contestants without bias or favoritism or discrimination.
H. In the event of any discrepancy between the English version and the translated version, the English version hereof shall prevail.
XVII. Amendments
A. Once approved and published, the contents of this document shall not be altered. It may only be amended, in which amendments may update or supersede the statements in this document.
B. Amendments may be suggested by any member of the community and are subject to approval by the Staff and Commissioner at any time during the course of the tournament.
C. Approved Amendments must be reported on the Website.
D. On 27 December 2024, Section XV.C were revised to fix the incorrect schedule.
E. On 1 January 2025, Section XII.B.3.i were revised to fix an error.
F. On 23 January 2025, Section V.D were revised to remove an invalid clause.
G. On 23 January 2025, Section VIII and Section IX.B were revised to address possible fairness issues in the Nomination Phase of the Nova Division.