Introduction
ISML is now over for 2009! We thank everyone for participating and staying with us the whole year. While we're in the off-season, we will move to a more robust server which should increase the efficiency of the 2010 season. Your donations help! The 2010 preseason will begin in January, so please look forward to more exciting saimoe action. Register for our forums, too.
The format of this contest has been and always will be a 64 x 64 round robin tournament, where each candidate is to face all the other 63 candidates once each, and their statistics will be recorded. The "regular season," which will hold all 2016 matches, will be divided into seven three-week periods, each holding a necklace that will go to the top performer within that period. At the end of the regular season, the 16 candidates who have the best records will move on to the post-season double-elimination tournament.
It was only but a fateful morning that a young girl discovered seven mysterious jewels, said to hold the seven elements that comprise the universe. She found them, took them, and emblazoned them into a tiara like no other. However, unbeknownst to her, when the seven crystals combine together, they reveal the secrets of the universe only to the one wearing the heavenly tiara. And she herself was not worthy.
So she sought out the perfect girl, and discovered the phenomenon that was Saimoe, and after seeing many promising candidates, she, along with her fiancé and most of her friends, began what is now, the International Saimoe League.
Last year, sixty-four were chosen to take part in this prestigious and mysterious contest. Five of them were worthy to hold the seven elements of the world. And after six grueling months of competition, sixteen had topped the leader board. It was then that the tiara disappeared for forty days, after which it reappeared as the Tiara of the Heavens. And with its appearance came a revelation like no other. By night's end, the bearer was chosen to be Fate Testarossa Harlaown. And the dream for many others, especially for those who came so close, was shattered. Many believed a competition like this would never happen again.
Or so it would seem. Weeks later, Fate called a meeting with the organizers of the tournament as well as the necklace bearers, and she revealed that there was more than one tiara. In fact, there is one for every star in the sky. And every year, the seven necklaces will be duplicated so that the power of the seven elements will grow. Every year the next brightest star will send the next tiara, so as long as a tiara is forged by the young craftswoman, the next Tiara of the Heavens will come forth. As long as the competition continues to thrive, the revelation will continue to exist.
This year, the sixty-four candidates will look toward the starry sky for a star the human race has named Sirius. This star is where the next tiara rests...
