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Regalia Champion Crowned: Play This on Eos


Caves of Narshe Site News
Happy new year, CoN friends and Final Fantasy music fans; with 2018 upon us, we now know how the 2017 Regalia Music Playlist Championship ended up! In a pretty big blowout for the final, Balance is Restored, the Final Fantasy VI ending theme, took honors over Liberi Fatali from Final Fantasy VIII. Here's how the top five songs sorted out at the end of it all:
  1. Balance is Restored, Final Fantasy VI
  2. Liberi Fatali, Final Fantasy VIII
  3. Trisection, Final Fantasy Tactics
  4. Corridors of Time, Chrono Trigger
  5. Chrono Trigger (Crono's Theme), Chrono Trigger

Obviously, this was a very different tournament from the last one many years ago; we nominated songs differently, we included many more games and songs in the final bracket, and of course we had the neato Regalia website to help manage it all. For all that, we definitely ended up with a very different set of tracks fighting to the end, but we still ended up with one thing the same as last time around: an epic Final Fantasy VI song at the top of the heap.

Because of how differently things played out in the songs, we had a very tight race for our prizes. Only seven people even managed to get any of the songs that ended up in the top five, and of those, only one person got two songs, and that same person was the only person to get one of the songs exactly right (it was Liberi Fatali in second, for the curious). That person, our winner, is AltheaValara! Congratulations to her! Second and third place could not be separated at all, as they each got the second-best predictions for each most closely predicting the final position of Corridors of Time, so they will each get the second-place prize should they so choose. Those two people are Glenn Magus Harvey and Sherick.

Thanks to everyone who nominated, predicted, and voted along the way. I hope you all had a good time, and all the best to you and everyone at CoN for 2018!
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AltheaValaraComment 1: 2018-01-02 03:41
AltheaValara Thanks for running the Regalia, I really had fun with it! My only regret is that I couldn't be around for more of the bracket voting (December is always crazy for me). I can't remember all five songs I chose for the top five, but I do recall I kind of had a theme of "Beginnings and Endings", as those tend to be well remembered and thus I thought would do well in the championship.

I've never played FFT, alas, so Trisection wasn't even on my radar. And while I've played Chrono Trigger several times, I haven't listened to the soundtrack enough to consider voting for those songs. I'm not surprised Chrono Trigger did well, though, as its music is quite good.
BlitzSageComment 2: 2018-01-02 05:09
BlitzSage That's what I get for being away from CoN... I had no idea there were prizes! I'm glad that Balance is Restored won. I would've liked to have seen a song from VII and/or IX make it further, but I can understand Liberi making it as far as it did.
Glenn Magus HarveyComment 3: 2018-01-02 08:21
Glenn Magus Harvey Thank you so much for organizing this. I got to listen to a lot of great music from a variety of games, including a number of tracks I've never heard before. My favorite part of the tourney was how this got me to listen to a lot of really neat Final Fantasy music that I otherwise wouldn't have listened to, such as FF13's Blinded By Light and Dust to Dust and The Gapra Whitewood, FF8's Liberi Fatali and The Landing, FF9's Freya's Theme, and FF10's ending theme. And heck, I didn't really realize how FF7's Crazy Motorcycle Chase is actually a pretty nice track, and I even walked away from this with a better opinion of One-Winged Angel than I started with.

As for the matchups...a number of them this time went in ways that I didn't really foresee at all.

(It's a bit harder to go through the threads instead of just having a handy set of brackets to look at, but...)

I know one of the big shockers was definitely Dancing Mad losing to Aeris's Theme. Maybe I should have predicted that this might happen given that it beat the FF3 boss theme by a smaller-than-expected margin, but I did kinda campaign for the latter, so... Then again, Aeris's Theme did also lose to something else along the way, so...

And in some cases, these were even tracks that I personally wanted to see win even though I expected them to lose -- Trisection was actually this a number of times, especially against Black Dream.

Cyan's theme getting edged out by FF10's ending theme was also a surprise. I think it might have beaten Liberi Fatali handily had they been matched up. Then I don't know what would have happened with Corridors of Time.

Clash on the Big Bridge was another example of a track I expected to be a heavyweight, losing pretty early on. Searching For Friends did turn out to be unexpectedly popular amongst the voting crowd here, and the margin between the two wasn't even close.

FWIW, here were my picks for the prediction contest:
1. Dancing Mad (FF6)
2. Aerith's Theme (FF7)
3. Corridors of Time (CT)
4. Clash on the Big Bridge (FF5)
5. You're Not Alone (FF9)

Clearly, my picks were some perennial favorites as far as I knew them...but clearly, I didn't know them well enough. One example is FF9's You're Not Alone, which isn't a track I personally adore but I remember it being really popular from the last time around. I'm surprised this time it fell to CT's Black Omen theme -- I know I voted for the latter, but the margin wasn't just by one vote.

Another thing that surprised me was that some tracks I remember being pretty well-received last time didn't show up at all. Hunter's Chance, for example. FF1's Ocean/Sunken Shrine theme is another example. I remember being really impressed by its official remix.

Anyhow, here's my nominations:
1 FF3 Boss Battle - I just really wanted this track to get in.
2 FF4 Fight 2 - Another of my personal all-time favorites, and basically my go-to example of what a really good boss track should sound like.
3 CT Black Dream - Another one of my personal all-time faves. I've mentioned how its coldly evil tone is one of its most intriguing aspects for me.
4 CT Sealed Door - Again, one of my personal all-time faves, for one of the most profoundly sad moments in Chrono Trigger. It was the one point in the game I actually felt a taste of true hopelessness. Even losing against Lavos, I knew in the back of mind I could try again. But I can't change [spoiler character name]'s fate, no matter how hard I want to.
5 FF5 The Decisive Battle - Seeing how the tourney played out, I knew this track wasn't that popular, and I was really surprised it came in as a #1 seed, and I was also not surprised it lost in the first round, though what it lost to -- an FF13 track -- I didn't expect, given that I generally heard a bad reputation for FF13 as a whole. Of course, I've also heard the same for FF8 but FF8's music is roundly praised... Anyhow, the #1 seed placement of this track convinced me that there was some amount of "strategic voting" (or "gaming the system", if you prefer being harsher) in the nominations. I mean, I knew I did some of it myself!
6 CT Frog’s Theme - If I had known this would be a #1 seed I would have probably have swapped this out for something else. I think I was afraid that CT nominations would be too diffuse. But hey, this is a pretty good track. Though, like Crono's theme, I find it to be a little one-note, emotionally -- compare Cyan's theme for example.
7 FFT Apoplexy - I actually like this track more than Trisection, but Trisection I remembered was a strong enough track to show up in the last tourney, so I wanted to boost this. I wonder if I should have boosted it more. But as I mentioned in my comments in the tourney, I could probably make a whole list of 15 tracks just from the FFT soundtrack alone. And this is despite not even having played the game!
8 FF6 Cyan’s Theme - I love FF6's soundtrack but I figured that it'd get a lot of love from people here already so I could sorta shirk on boosting it. But I had to include some FF6 or else my palette would be incomplete. I figured Dancing Mad and Terra would get in without my help (which they did), so I went with nominating somewhat less notable tracks. And of course there's a ton to choose from. Even amongst character themes, there's Setzer's, Mog's, Umaro's, and Strago's themes which I quite like, and then there's the Coin Song (which I probably should have nominated), and then there's the probably-overlooked event themes Save Them!, Metamorphosis, and Catastrophe, and the very distinctive area themes Slam Shuffle and Another World Of Beasts, and even the fun Spinach Rag. I could make an entire nomination list from this game alone!
9 CT To Far Away Times - Hey, this did get in, only to be thrashed by Black Dream in the first round. But I gotta say I really like this track. This is among the ending themes that I really like. Ironically, FF6's ending theme isn't one of them, but this is, as is FF4's (which lost to OWA in the first round).
10 FF7 Requiem - This is one of my odder nominations. I didn't expect this fanfare-type track to get anywhere unless there was low nominator turnout.
11 FFT Mission Complete - Another one of my odder nominations, and another fanfare-type track. Honestly this type of track gets little attention.
12 FF6 Strago’s Theme - I already mentioned this earlier. Cyan's theme I figured to be more popular so I wanted to boost that, but in case FF6 tracks were prevalent, I wanted to help this one get in.
13 CT Tyran Castle - Another all-time fave of mine. I'm really surprised this track isn't all that popular here while Corridors of Time is.
14 FF9 Aloha de Chocobo - Another nomination I didn't expect to get anywhere, because it didn't seem particularly notable except to me for an out-of-game reason (but I haven't actually played FF9). In fact I was expecting the Chocobo theme nominations to go to the main Chocobo theme from FF4 or Boco's theme from FF5 or the surfer dude version (Electric) from FF7. Though none of those made it, surprisingly.
15 FFT Trisection - Just giving this a boost in case it needed one. It came in at #13 so maybe it was worth it? I dunno what I could have boosted had I picked something else.

Slightly disappointing was that there wasn't really a stronger showing of the Prelude, the Chocobo theme, or the Moogle theme (which didn't even show up at all). And there were two instances of the series's Main Theme, but neither of those got much of anywhere (FF4's Prologue lost to FF6's Phantom Forest, while FF15's Main Theme got past my own preferred The Landing (FF8) only to fall to Crono's theme.)

Actually there were a number of notable tracks from FF4, which I expected to go places due to their classic status, but...unexpectedly, they didn't. But seriously, though, how did the Airship theme get a #1 seed??? Of all things, seriously.

Anyhow...

Since there's a tie for second, how will the fate of the soda be decided? Given that that's the difference between second and third. Though I wonder if, if I receive it, I might just be too unwilling to drink it at all due to its distinctiveness, haha. In any case, congrats to the winners.

One last question: was the tourney finishing on New Year's Day a planned result?
Rangers51Comment 4: 2018-01-02 14:35
Rangers51 If I get time, I'll make it so people can view their nominations, predictions, and the brackets again. I've just been overwhelmed over the holidays and it took everything I had to get the site updated yesterday and the winners tabulated.

I was able to scrounge around and find a second bottle of soda, so if you want it, GMH, you and Sherick can both have one! It won't hurt me to purge a little extra memorabilia that's lying around.

Edit
I didn't have a hard-and-fast schedule when I started, but when I saw that the calendar made sense to let it all end on New Year's Day, I thought that was a nice idea. smile.gif
Elena99Comment 5: 2018-01-03 22:01
Elena99 Congratulations to the winners! This was a lot of fun.
Rangers51Comment 6: 2018-01-05 18:18
Rangers51 I've yet to have time to turn the brackets et. al. back on, nor get the prizes shipped, as I've had a rough week back at work from the holidays - long story short I broke something in my company's newest iOS app release, oops. smile.gif

Going to see if I can get back on track for everyone next week!
Glenn Magus HarveyComment 7: 2018-01-05 19:02
Glenn Magus Harvey Even if you never send me my prize I'm okay with it. The bigger prize was honestly getting introduced to all this great music. So take your time.

If anything I'd gladly trade my prize for getting to see the stats on the nominations. I'm more curious about that.

(On a more relevant note, I'm wondering how to leverage this, one way or another, into actually getting more activity on the site...)
PerigrynComment 8: 2018-01-06 00:35
Perigryn That was a blast.
The last music competition was one of my favourite things ever, not just on this site!
Thanks for organizing another! I look forward to seeing what the next musical event shall be!
Congrats to the winners!
GMH, I seem to recall having a fairly similar top five as you... but lacked the CT which is where I was ousted. I mostly based my predictions on recalling what was popular in the past with a dash of something new. Ah, well! That was great!
StiltzkinComment 9: 2018-01-06 12:38
Stiltzkin Congrats! Damn, I was miles off...

Thanks for organising - must have been a lot of effort but it has definitely been appreciated!
CefcaComment 10: 2018-01-07 21:31
Cefca There were so many crazy results this time around, my top five list was way off. One of my top five went out in the first round. pinch.gif

Thanks for running it all though, it was still good fun.
Glenn Magus HarveyComment 11: 2018-01-08 03:48
Glenn Magus Harvey
Quote (Perigryn @ 5th January 2018 19:35)
That was a blast.
The last music competition was one of my favourite things ever, not just on this site!
Thanks for organizing another! I look forward to seeing what the next musical event shall be!
Congrats to the winners!
GMH, I seem to recall having a fairly similar top five as you... but lacked the CT which is where I was ousted. I mostly based my predictions on recalling what was popular in the past with a dash of something new. Ah, well! That was great!

Yeah, honestly I just got lucky. When most of my list went out the door, I wasn't expecting to win anything, honestly, especially given how I kept voting against Corridors of Time myself.
Rangers51Comment 12: 2018-01-08 16:42
Rangers51
Quote (GMH)
Yeah, honestly I just got lucky. When most of my list went out the door, I wasn't expecting to win anything, honestly, especially given how I kept voting against Corridors of Time myself.

Not as if we've had any issues lately with people voting against their self-interests out in the real world... wink.gif

I'm really glad to see folks posting that they enjoyed doing this. Of course, it would have been wonderful had this brought in more people who would stick around to do the same, as I was hoping, but there's always another chance.

For our three winners, your prizes have been mailed and should be showing up at your door this week. The two guys who got sodas will actually get two packages each, because it was way easier to mail them that way. If you want tracking numbers, PM me and I'll get them your way.

I also made the changes to the Regalia site so that if you're logged in, you can see your nominations and predictions, too. It was a quick job, so it might not look perfect on everyone's screen. Let me know if it's unusable for you.

And finally, a photo of my assistant helping get the prizes out the door:
user posted image
SherickComment 13: 2018-01-09 02:46
Sherick I actually already got my packages! You sure don't mess around; wish literally anything else in my life was that on-the-ball.
Needless to say I was really pleased, and I didn't even remember what the prizes were happy.gif It was just fun to participate.
AltheaValaraComment 14: 2018-01-12 03:02
AltheaValara Your assistant is adorable!

My package came yesterday. The art cards are gorgeous! I wish I had the money to get them framed, but that will have to wait for a while.
Rangers51Comment 15: 2018-01-12 17:05
Rangers51 Glad you guys got them already! GMH should have them as well but he hasn't been around yet. smile.gif I mailed them as quickly as possible because I wanted less clutter in my house. The prints are a slightly awkward size, of course, because the artist who created them is in Scotland and therefore used European standard print sizes; it's why I don't have my copies framed yet either!

With regards to my assistant, she got into the lipstick a little heavy before we went out that day, but she was proud to be included. smile.gif

I'm sure I mentioned it back during the time, but with the way that nominations worked for this run I decided to load my top slots with songs that probably were under the radar to try to force them into the final 64. I think I was pretty much solely responsible (between my nominations and lobbying in chat) for getting Cape Caem and most of the 13-series tracks in. I won't bore anyone with my whole list of fifteen, but my top five in order were Cape Caem, The Promise, Blinded By Light, New Bodhum, and Starting Over - of those, only The Promise (13) and Starting Over (13-2) didn't get in.

Luckily I didn't want to award any prizes to myself, either, because my predictions were a disaster. I tried to play it very safe based on the last run, so I didn't have a single thing from CT or later than FF7 in my top five:

Dancing Mad (FF6)
Clash on the Big Bridge (FF5)
Aria di Mezzo Carattere (FF6)
Terra's Theme (FF6)
One Winged Angel (FF7)

Woe to me, indeed.
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