A. IP addresses of voters will be logged to determine authenticity and uniqueness.

B. A voter may not circumvent the Policies stated in Article IV of the ISML Constitution by using multiple IP addresses to cast votes in the same round.

C. Voters found in violation of these procedures may have their IP addresses or subnets banned from voting in future ISML-hosted events for the remainder of the year. The length of ban is at the discretion of the Staff.

D. Voters may change their vote (if cast in error) by contacting the Staff by email at [email protected]. Vote change requests must include the IP address from which the vote was cast, the original incorrect vote, and the requested new vote.

A. Beginning with the Preliminary Period, Candidates and Contestants in ISML 2014 are separated into the Nova Division and the Stella Division.

B. All characters begin in the Nova Division. They must advance to the Stella Division upon achievement of any of the following:

A. No characters are permitted to advance directly to the Regular Season.

B. The Top 12 Contestants from ISML 2013 Regular Season, Nova Division who have not advanced to ISML 2014 Stella Division are permitted automatic entry into ISML 2014 Preliminary Period, Nova Division.

C. The Top 8 Contestants from the ISML 2013 Seasonal Tournament who have not advanced to ISML 2014 Stella Division are permitted automatic entry into ISML 2014 Preliminary Period, Nova Division.

D. Characters who have participated in Regular Season for three or more years and at least once in the last three years (2011, 2012, 2013) are permitted automatic entry into ISML 2014 Preliminary Period, Stella Division.

A. The Nomination Period lasts seven (7) days.

B. Character eligibility will be checked according to Article III of the ISML Constitution with one additional condition: Character data occurring after 31 December 2013 will not be considered.

C. The nomination form will separate Nova Division and Stella Division.

D. Nominated characters must be unique.

E. Invalid nominations will be discarded individually and will not void the entire ballot unless the discards result in a violation of any of the subsections of Rule C.

F. At the end of the Nomination Period, Characters with the most nominations in each Division will advance to the Preliminary Period until the allotted slots are filled.

A. Characters participating in the Preliminary Period are referred to as Candidates.

B. Nova Division has three phases of preliminary competition: N-I, N-II, and N-III.

C. Stella Division has one phase of preliminary competition: S-I.

D. Phase N-I and S-I occur concurrently.

E. No inter-divisional matchups occur during the Preliminary Period.

A. Phase S-I features eighty-four (84) Candidates.

B. Phase S-I consists of four (4) voting rounds.

C. Round 1 consists of twelve (12) groups of seven (7) Candidates. The Candidates receiving the least votes in each group are eliminated from the tournament.

D. Round 2 consists of twelve (12) groups of six (6) Candidates. The Candidates receiving the most votes in each group advance to the Regular Season.

E. Round 3 consists of twelve (12) groups of five (5) Candidates. The Candidates receiving the most votes in each group advance to the Regular Season.

F. Round 4 consists of twelve (12) groups of four (4) Candidates. The Candidates receiving the most votes in each group advance to the Regular Season. Remaining Candidates are eliminated from the tournament.

G. Ties in any group after each voting round will be broken in the following order:

A. Phase N-I features eighty-four (84) Candidates.

B. Phase N-I consists of four (4) voting rounds.

C. Round 1 consists of twelve (12) groups of seven (7) Candidates. The Candidates receiving the least votes in each group do not advance to Round 2.

D. Round 2 consists of twelve (12) groups of six (6) Candidates. The Candidates receiving the least votes in each group do not advance to Round 3.

E. Round 3 consists of twelve (12) groups of five (5) Candidates. The Candidates receiving the least votes in each group do not advance to Round 4.

F. Round 4 consists of twelve (12) groups of four (4) Candidates. The Candidates receiving the most votes in each group advance to the Regular Season.

G. Ties in any group after each voting round will be broken in the following order:

A. Special matchups for seeding purposes will occur during the Preliminary Period.

B. The size of each matchup and their rate of occurrence will vary based on Nomination Period results and based on previously completed matchups in the Preliminary Period.

C. Results from these matches will be used to seed Candidates in future Preliminary Period rounds and to seed Contestants in Regular Season.

A. Phase N-II features seventy-two (72) Candidates.

B. Candidates are divided into eight (8) groups of nine (9), seeded based on the results of Phase N-I and any seeding matches that occur during Phase N-I.

C. A three-member round-robin tournament will take place in each group. The voting rounds are seeded as follows:

D. Candidates receive the following points based on their performance in each match:

E. Ties in each group will be broken in the following order:

F. At the end of Phase N-II, Candidates with the most points in each group will advance to Regular Season. The remaining Candidates will be ranked collectively by points and tiebreakers to determine seeding for Phase N-III.

A. Phase III features sixty-four (64) Candidates per Division.

B. Candidates are divided into sixteen (16) groups of four (4).

C. A single-elimination tournament will take place in each group.

D. Ties are broken by comparing the Candidates' greatest Votes For average prior to Phase N-III.

E. Bracket winners will advance to the Regular Season. The remaining Candidates are eliminated from the tournament.

A. Characters participating in the Regular Season are referred to as Contestants.

B. Each Division consists of thirty-six (36) Contestants, who will participate in a round-robin tournament.

C. The Regular Season consists of five (5) Periods in the following order: Aquamarine, Amethyst, Ruby, Emerald, and Topaz. Each Period consists of seven (7) Rounds.

D. At the end of each Round, the Contestant who receives the greater number of valid votes in her Match will be declared the winner; the opponent will be declared the loser. If the Contestants have an equal number of valid votes, the match will be declared a draw; both Contestants will record a tie in their statistics, and no overtime match will occur.

E. A ranking system for each Division will be utilized to track the Contestants' progress throughout the Regular Season and in each of the five Periods.

F. Contestants in the same Division may not have the same rank at any point in the tournament. If Contestants have the same amount of League Points after a given Round, tiebreaker procedures will be applied in the following order:

G. At the end of the Regular Season after all tiebreakers have been applied, the top sixteen (16) ranked Contestants of each Division will advance to the Postseason.

H. Every ballot submission will be recorded in a database. At the end of each Round, the Staff will validate and verify each submission before calculating totals.

I. All Voter Policies and Procedures stated in Article IV of the Constitution apply with the following additions:

A. After the end of the seventh Round in each Period, a free-for-all voting round called Necklace Showdown will occur to determine the winner of the Necklace representing that period.

B. There will be only one Necklace awarded per Period. Contestants from both Divisions will face each other for the Necklace.

C. Only Contestants who have not already won a Necklace this year are eligible to participate.

D. A total of seven (7) Contestants will participate in the Necklace Showdown based on their Rank for the Period.

E. The voting round will last twenty-four (24) hours.

F. Voters may select only one (1) Contestant among the finalists on their ballots.

G. At the end of the round, each Contestant receives a Necklace Score, calculated as the sum of her SDO for the entire Period and her voting percentage for the round multiplied by 220. (SDO + 220*Vote%)

H. The Contestant with the highest Necklace Score is awarded the Necklace. Ties are resolved using the same procedure in Regular Season rounds.

I. Exhibition matches will be scheduled alongside the Necklace Showdown.

A. Sixteen (16) Contestants from each Division will participate in a Swiss-system tournament consisting of four (4) matches.

B. Contestants advance through the bracket according to Swiss-system rules.

C. At the end of Phase I, Contestants in each Division will be ranked from 1st to 16th by the following procedures:

D. The top eight (8) ranked Contestants in each Division will advance to Postseason Phase II. The remaining Contestants are eliminated from the tournament.

A. Eligible Contestants from each Division combine into one single-elimination tournament.

B. Contestants advance through the bracket according to traditional single-elimination rules.

A. Exhibition Matches are official ISML-hosted events designed to raise awareness of anime series and Japanese media characters who are not currently participating in the current year’s contest. The matches may focus on anime series airing after ISML had begun or on other outlets possibly previously unknown to members of the Community.

B. Exhibition Matches have no effect on the Main Tournament.

C. At least one Exhibition Match will be scheduled during each round of the Regular Season.

D. Exhibition Matches may be scheduled during each Period’s Necklace Showdown.

E. Several Exhibition Matches will be scheduled during the Postseason voting rounds.

F. Voting or abstaining in an Exhibition Match carries no benefit or penalty.

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. All tournament matches will last for 24 hours. Staff may extend the time period if system errors prevent votes from being submitted during this period. All extensions will be reported on the Website.

D. The Nomination Period is scheduled from 0000 GMT, 1 January 2014, to 2359 GMT, 7 January 2014.

E. The Preliminary Period is scheduled from 2 February 2014 to 18 March 2014.

F. The Regular Season is scheduled from 13 April 2014 to 21 August 2014.

G. Postseason, Phase I is scheduled from 7 September 2014 to 14 September 2014.

H. Postseason, Phase II is scheduled from 21 September 2014 to 5 October 2014.

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 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. During vote-checking, Staff shall not show any favoritism to any Contestant during the validation process. Once voting results are released for a match, a member of the Community may appeal the results within 24 hours. Once an appeal is accepted by the ISML Commissioner, the Staff will repeat the validation procedures and make any appropriate adjustments. After 24 hours have passed, the result is final and cannot be changed.

D. 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. Staff will work to the best of their ability to minimize the occurrence of these situations.

E. All scheduled dates and times are subject to change without prior notice. However once changed, the Community will be notified on the Website.

F. Each year, ISML and the Staff attempt to present a fair system of matches such that Contestants have a chance to compete against all other Contestants. While the fairness and parity of the Regular Season as a whole is guaranteed, the fairness and parity of each of the five Periods is not. The Staff have assured their best, honest, and virtuous effort to arrange a respectively even Strength of Schedule for all Contestants without bias or favoritism or discrimination.

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. [5-6 January 2014] Portions of Article XIII were rewritten to clarify the tournament structure. The original wording of single-elimination plus consolation is better described as a Swiss-system tournament. The plans for the tournament remain the same.

E. [16 April 2014] The Necklace Score calculation was updated for the 2014 Regular Season.