2009.11.07 -- by Crisu
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.
2009.11.02 -- by Crisu
Perhaps the voting page timer only helped a small amount. We also recognize that today being the Championship match likely meant even
more traffic than usual, so our hosting provider unfortunately had to pull the plug for a few hours so things could calm down.
I have spoken with them, and we will definitely be upgrading our servers during the break between next week and 2010. So your donation
dollars will be going to work!
Since we were down for about 4 hours, the voting period has been extended for 4 hours until 1900 GMT. Currently, results will still be
released at the usual 0300 GMT time. We apologize for the inconvenience, but thank you always for hanging in there with us!
2009.11.01 -- by Crisu
We would like to thank sovietmisaki for his donation to ISML.
In order to help spread out the traffic and reduce server congestion errors, we have added a timer to the voting page (which you will
see when the poll opens). You will be unable to submit your vote until the countdown is finished, but it is not a very long timer.
Thank you in advance for your patience as we try to make the ISML experience smoother for everybody.
2009.10.22 -- by Crisu
ISML gives a big thank you to lrv3646 who joined our list of donors this week. As always, the money will go
towards the funding of upgraded servers and their regular maintenance. Currently we are still far from our goal, but each contribution
puts us a step closer.
Thank you everyone for being patient during our busiest hours (generally right when a voting match begins); if you get a 503 error, please
wait a few moments before trying again. We're very pleased with the volume of votes that come in! Thanks for helping make ISML successful.
2009.10.01 -- by Minhtam
For those of you who are confused about the slighty late start time or the main page still having some elements from Monday's matches,
many of the staff members are caught up in the real world right now. Rest assured, we will be updating everything else for today's match
as soon as possible. For those of you who have noticed the slightly late start time, voting is currently open and will remain open until
the scheduled closing time of 1500 GMT this Friday.
2009.09.27 -- by Crisu
We are hours away from the start of double-elimination; get excited! In addition to these matches, we are also hosting the Relegation Tournament,
which (in short) is a second-chance opportunity for some of our contenders who fell below the 0.500 (wins) line. For more information, visit
the tournament thread on the forums.
2009.09.13 -- by Crisu
The postseason double-elimination tournament will begin on 28 September. Some information about the first round is now on the front page. Other
portions of the website, including the voting page, will be ready soon.
2009.08.20 -- by Crisu
To help ensure the longevity of ISML, we have opened a donations page. Participation in ISML will continue to be free,
but if you would like to help us in our effort, we will certainly appreciate it. Contributions will go completely toward server maintenance and
domain registration fees (which the Staff currently volunteer to pay out-of-pocket). If we collect enough money, a domain upgrade may be possible
so fewer downtime errors occur. Thank you!
2009.08.14 -- by Crisu
Good news -- we were able to renew our registration and hosting services sooner than expected. However, DNS entries will likely continue
fluctuating over the next 48 hours, so we have decided to push the rest of the regular season schedule back one week. Diamond 3 will now be
officialy held next Friday on 21 August. If you already voted today, it will not be counted. Thanks for your support and patience!
2009.08.13 -- by Crisu
Sudden issues with our domain registration will mean that results of Diamond 2 and the remaining regular schedule will be postponed.
More updates will be available when possible. Please visit the IRC channel #isml on rizon.net for the latest, especially regarding a
temporary website (when it is announced) if the current one cannot be promptly restored.
2009.08.09 -- by Crisu
Three new title banners are now in circulation; thanks to kevo for producing them. The last of character biographies (Katagiri Yūhi) has been
prepared by Cytrus and is now online; we appreciate his commitment to finishing them! The recent "boxing"-style posters on the main page were
created by amdrag, and more are planned for Diamond Period.
It's the final stretch of the regular season before we begin preparations for the double-elimination round. Thanks so much to our entire community --
that includes you! -- for voting, discussing, blogging, anticipating, and contributing to our year-long, international effort.
2009.07.11 -- by Crisu
For a few weeks I tried out a new IRC chat client for our website, but it was met with mixed reviews. Now both clients are available for your use.
The community page and chat pages have moved to a new directory, so please update your bookmarks.
Stay tuned for Emerald 9 results in a few hours, and please don't forget our tiebreaker and bonus exhibition round!
2009.07.07 -- by Crisu
The contestants page and event schedule are now available in Russian.
The overtime match for Mizunashi Akari and Remilia Scarlet will be held on Friday, July 17th, at 1500 GMT. In addition to the match, we will be
having other interesting unofficial matchups for your pleasure and for our research, so please vote in them all. The preview will be available
after Emerald 9.
2009.07.05 -- by Crisu
A timer error resulted in the voting page for Emerald 7 opening one day early. This was not intended, and we have closed the poll.
If you voted, that vote has been erased, so please vote again tomorrow as normal. You will not get a "You have already voted" message.
2009.06.30 -- by Crisu
The voting page is now available in Russian (Русский)! Thanks to exec for providing the
translation; more of the site should be available in Russian soon. Also, regarding the tiebreaker, we are looking to schedule it
during the one-week break between Emerald and Ruby. Please stay tuned to further news.
2009.06.26 -- by Crisu
The tie between Akari and Remilia will be resolved at a later date when we can fit the overtime match into the schedule. For now, the
match will be marked as a draw, and points will be awarded accordingly.
2009.06.15 -- by Crisu
Beginning Emerald 1, voting times and release times for ISML will shift three hours. Instead of running from 1200 GMT to 1159 GMT, voting
will take place from 1500 GMT to 1459 GMT. Results will still be released twelve hours after voting ends, which will be 0300 GMT.
2009.06.01 -- by Minhtam
We apologize for the inconvience regarding Sapphire 1 earlier today. From 1200 GMT to approximately 1248 GMT, voters were unable to
cast their votes. The problem has been fixed, so you should have no problems regarding voting for this match.
As per rule III.iii.C.1, Regulation Matches will last for a total of no less than twenty-four hours. If an internal voting
problem exists, regulation Matches may receive a time extension at ISML Staff discretion. However, as the delay has only been
48 minutes, many voters who would usually vote at this time have been able to patiently wait for the problem to be fixed and
should have already cast their votes. Because we should still receive at least 99% of the voting sample we would receive regularly,
Crisu and I therefore feel that an extension will not be necessary regarding this match. Therefore, Sapphire 1 will end at its
regularly scheduled time on Tuesday, June 2, at 1200 GMT.
We thank you for being paitient with us regarding this issue.
2009.05.23 -- by Juice
Follow ISML updates now via Twitter!
2009.05.15 -- by Crisu
Standings now show rank changes since the last Round, so you can more easily track how wins, losses, and the tiebreaker system affect our
contestants as each Round resolves. Don't forget the overall standings on the statistics portal in addition to
the Period standings on the front page. Rank changes were implemented late last year, and I apologize for the delay in getting them
started up this year.
2009.05.08 -- by Crisu
Apologies for the lack of updates. Most of us are still students in school, and this time of year has been full of exams. The summer is
quickly approaching, though, and we should have more time to address any issues that come up. Regarding the server errors, we may be at our
limit without having to pay extra money. For now, please be wary of hours when we're most busy.
melange has completed the maps for the end of Topaz, so you can view them on the main page until Amethyst starts and in the
statistics portal. Congratulations to Nagato Yuki!
2009.04.12 -- by Crisu
We're one day left from the start of Topaz 1; I hope everybody is back and ready for some more voting! Congratulations to Sakagami Tomoyo for
winning the Aquamarine Necklace. The Period rankings will now reset for Topaz Period; however, the overall standings now posted on the
statistics portal will keep track of vote totals over the entire Regular Season. The Top 16 candidates for the
Tiara in the Postseason will be determined from these cumulative standings.
2009.04.10 -- by Crisu
We thank Cytrus for providing a Polish translation for ISML. More will be on the way! Also Kōzuki Kallen's avatar has been updated.
2009.04.01 -- by Crisu
Happy April 1. Had I thought of the idea more ahead of time, I could have tried to put Jun and Hayate on the voting page, but too many
variables would have to be changed in the template, so it's not worth the risk (or confusion actually). For those curious, we assure you
that all official voting results (including Aquamarine 7 released earlier today) are real and honest; we would not risk jeopardizing the
integrity of our tournament on a joke.
2009.03.27 -- by Crisu
The rules page now has a FAQ (currently in English only) for your convenience. We hope it answers a majority of
the most common questions about ISML without your needing to go through our extensive list of rules. The FAQ is meant to be a quick summary
only, though, so please reference the full rules if you are looking for some finer detail.
2009.03.25 -- by Crisu
Avatars for Kushieda Minori, Illyasviel von Einzbern, and Kawashima Ami have been updated. Please visit the forum if
you want to make avatar suggestions. Also the schedule page now has a copy of the schedule cards also seen in
the statistics pages. The large graphic containing all the match cards has been removed; download the spreadsheet file or visit the
statistics portal to access them. The portal will be updated regularly on schedule.
2009.03.21 -- by Crisu
Featured match descriptions and results maps of completed Rounds are now available on the statistics page.
We apologize for any 503 server errors you may be getting during voting, but be assured that your votes are being counted and we are doing
our best to fix the issues! Please don't hesitate to email us, though, if you have any concerns.
2009.03.19 -- by Crisu
We welcome Mialou to our translation staff for French. He has provided instructions on the voting page and contestants page so far
with more to come. Our Spanish welcome message is complete, too, with thanks to DarkEdgar. KholdStare has completed the official
ISML PV for 2009. View it on the welcome page! A download link can be found in the forums.
2009.03.18 -- by Crisu
Round 1 went very well in my opinion; we are excited about the great turnout for this first Round of ISML and hope the momentum continues.
Some graphics were slightly late at 0000 GMT, but efficiency will increase now that we've gone through one Round and know what the workload
is like. Please stay tuned with the main page, statistics page, and forum for the latest information and discussion!
2009.03.16 -- by Crisu
The schedule page now has schedules for individual contestants. Contestant pages also have schedules. On
the front page, our staff and contributors have provided the first set of featured match descriptions. Anyone is welcome to offer their
writing skills for ISML; please see the forum for more information. Aqumarine 1 is about to start; get excited!
