SaiGar 2008
SaiGar 2008 (also written SaiGAR 2008) was the second annual "Man among Men" tournament, held on 4chan and hosted by SaiGar Guy. It ran from 05 January 2008 to 25 February 2008, ending prematurely before its 09 March 2008 final due to allegations of rampant cheating and loss of legitimacy. Much like the original, the tournament fulfilled an (albeit reduced) role for generating original content and unearthing good shows from the last several seasons that went under the radar of the typical /a/sshole. Unlike the previous tournament, SaiGar 2008 was ill-received from first round and trolling the tournament became an ongoing theme - most of the complaints stemmed from newfag voting coalitions, hordes of joke characters, proxies, bitterly divisive pairings and the inclusion of women in a tournament of men. Ultimately, while SaiGar 2007 was viewed as a cure for the faggotry brought about by viral marketing, its sequel (combined with /a/day) was seen as making matters worse, and served to illuminate a depressing truth about the declining quality of /a/.
Announcement
The bulletin for an upcoming successor to SaiGar 2007 was posted by SaiGar Guy on 22 October 2007 here at LURKMORE Wiki[1]. News of the second tournament was slow to break on 4chan because the servers were down, but once back online nightshift learned of the upcoming competition, with mixed results. Most of the first responses were negative, and an Anonymous ## Mod appeared to say "oh hell no". Many Anonymous were upset with the notion of another "/a/ versus /m/" and shuddered at the potential faggotry that would be brought about in light of Newfag Summer doubling /a/'s population while halving the intelligence; even more brushed off the tournament as meaningless, due to the presence of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, which was anticipated to cause a shut-out for the finals. Reception grew more positive as the day went along, with many people getting hit with a nostalgia bomb for the massive amounts of original content and anime recommendations coming out of the first tournament; its success and the love for a now long-dead /a/ of early 2007 gave these Anonymous hope that, after months of bearing the nightmarish fail of Newfag Summer and shitty shows like Lucky Star, SaiGar 2008 could redeem 4chan and "make /a/ great again".
However, possibly in part to the poor initial reception, talk of the new tournament was rather rare on /a/ in the upcoming months; most of the information on SaiGar 2008 spread through other anime-related communities, like ADTRW (SomethingAwful), AnimeSuki, NarutoFan, and numerous anime blogs run by 4channers. Tournament topics appeared more frequently than for SaiGar 2007, though fewer blogs covered SaiGar 2008. The "leaking" of the tournament's existence to mainstream forums unnerved some /a/ssholes, particularly those who dislike the cocksucking surrounding popular shows; in a repeat of 2006, SaiMoe 2007 crashed and burned miserably, with Furude Rika ultimately snatching the Moe Queen crown from Sanzenin Nagi due to the help of a thousand weeaboo votes from English-language communities (notoriously AnimeSuki). Despite Suiseiseki's polarizing status with /a/ssholes, most agreed the faggotry of 2006 paled to that of 2007, and many feared what would happen with the new SaiGar.
Structure
Manlybadass.com initially reported that there would be 96 contenders, compared with 144 from the all-time competition; this pleased many Anonymous who complained that the original tournament was "a month too long" by cutting down the number of participants by a little more than two blocks (36 candidates) worth, shaving off that extra month. Though not stated explicitly, the 96 candidates implied that each block (A-H) would only have twelve competitors each, rather than eighteen. The fewer number of entries also suggested that this tournament would only allow characters to appear in the previous year; this change follows suit with SaiMoe by removing the voting weight of newer characters from recently aired shows, who traditionally have always had an edge over older and more obscure characters.
- 96 candidates changed to 144 again
- "Anime and Manga" became just anime; visual novels excluded
- Silence on the inclusion of women, widely believed to be permitted unlike 2007
- Only shows airing from December 2007 to November 2008 allowed
Early Stages
Aspergillus Niger v. Kamina (v. Coach)
Viral v. Raoh
Kino's Upset
Proxies
Block Finals
Cancellation
