Fellow Lost fans, having completed the Character Cup, it is time to move on with whatever new and exciting things Dark has in store for us. But as a final goodbye to what have been two of the most memorable months of my life, I have created the following video, which I think acts as an appropriate send-off to the Cup. Below it are the awards ceremony, where over two dozen awards have been handed out to a number of Character Cup participants. I hope you enjoy both.
In the next 24 hours I will post my final thoughts on the Character Cup as a whole in the Forum section. Enjoy!
THE 2007 CHARACTER CUP AWARDS CEREMONY:
THE CHARACTER CUPRecipient: John Locke
This award is given to the character who succeeds in winning the entire DarkUFO Character Cup tournament. John Locke suffered 0 defeats during the course of the Cup and defeated all 6 of his competitors.
THE MEDALLION OF RUNNER-UPMANSHIPRecipient: Desmond Hume
This award is given to the character finishing in 2nd Place in the DarkUFO Character Cup. Desmond was the surprise of the tournament. He was known to be popular, but few anticipated his appearance in the Finals, where he lost to John Locke.
THE BRONZE STAR OF THIRD-PLACEDNESSRecipient: Jack Shephard
The Bronze Star of Third-Placedness is awarded to the character coming in 3rd Place in the DarkUFO Character Cup. Jack Shephard was another surprise contender for the title, given the low expectations for his success going into the Cup. He reached the Semifinals but was defeated by Locke. In the 3rd Place Matchup, he edged out Sawyer for the win.
THE GLASS WINDOW OF DESPAIRRecipient: James "Sawyer" Ford
The Glass Window of Despair is awarded to the character finding him or herself on the outside looking in. They reached the Semifinals but failed to achieve one of the top three places in the tournament. Sawyer was upended by Desmond in the Semifinals and then lost a close match to Jack for 3rd place. He ended the tournament in 4th Place.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYERRecipient: John Locke
The MVP award is given to the character who showed the best overall ability to excel at both aspects of the Cup- acquiring votes and defending a lead. John Locke was among the top vote earners in the entire Cup. In his later matchups he had to fight from behind and, once ahead, defend his lead. His ability to come from behind to reclaim the lead and to defend all of his leads makes him the most deserving of this award.
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE CHARACTERRecipient: John Locke
This award is given to the male character who goes the farthest in the tournament. Having won the entire Cup, John Locke wins this award by default.
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE CHARACTERRecipient: Kate Austen
This award is given to the female character who goes the farthest in the tournament. The last three female characters in the Cup (Kate, Juliet and Danielle) were eliminated in the same round. To break the tie, the total votes earned by each character were compared. Kate earned the most votes in that round and therefore wins this award.
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A NON-HUMAN CHARACTERRecipient: Smoke Monster
This award is given to the non-human character who advances the farthest in the tournament. The Smoke Monster was the only non-human character to advance to the third round, thereby earning this award.
ROOKIE OF THE YEARRecipient: Juliet Burke
This award is given to the farthest-advancing character that was introduced in the past season of Lost. The intriguing Juliet Burke was introduced to viewers in Season 3 and was the only freshman character to advance to the third round.
BEST DEFENSIVE EFFORTRecipient: John Locke
This award is given to the character displaying the greatest defensive effort in an individual matchup. In the Semifinals, John Locke held firm against two separate surges in voting that brought Jack Shephard within reach of the lead. This display of defensive prowess kept Locke alive and put him through to the Finals.
THE HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO AWARDRecipient: Desmond Hume
The Hungry Hungry Hippo Award is given to the character receiving the highest overall number of votes throughout the entire Character Cup. Currently the poll website is down, making an exact number impossible. We do know, however, that over the entire six rounds of the Character Cup tournament, Desmond received over 18,000 votes, nearly 1,000 more than Cup winner John Locke.
THE LAUGHING STOCK OF UNDERACHIEVEMENT AWARDRecipient: Susan Lloyd
This undesired award is handed out to the character who earns the fewest votes of the entire Character Cup. In her first and only matchup, Susan Lloyd received only 58 total votes. Her opponent was Danielle Rousseau.
MR./MS. POPULARITY AWARDRecipient: Desmond Hume
The Mr./Ms. Popularity Award is given to the character who leads the voting in the most individual rounds of the tournament. Desmond was the highest vote earner in three separate rounds (1, 3 & 4). John Locke led voting in two round (5 & 6), while Sawyer led voting in Round 2. The 3rd Place matchup is not included in determining this award.
THE EARLY EXIT OF SHAME AWARDRecipient: Paulo
Another unwanted award, the Early Exit of Shame is given to the first main character to be eliminated from the Character Cup. Paulo was the victim of the first main character upset. While not very popular to begin with, Paulo also suffered the misfortune of being the first upset in the order of the tournament.
THE ETHAN ROM LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD AWARDRecipient: Ethan Rom
This award is named after its inaugural recipient. Ethan was a minor character with limited appeal, yet still managed to make his way into the third round.
THE LIAM PACE LUCKY S.O.B. AWARDRecipient: Liam Pace
This award is named after and given to Liam Pace, a recurring flashback character who moved on to the second round by fortune of being matched up against another recurring flashback character. His blind luck will heretofore be recognized in future tournaments.
THE ARZT-HAWKING NAIL-BITER AWARDRecipients: Dr. Leslie Arzt and Ms. Hawking
The Arzt-Hawking award goes to the closest matchup in the Character Cup and is named after its first winners. Arzt and Hawking had the closest battle, showing up as 50/50 on the polls. Ms. Hawking won by 27 votes.
THE LLOYD-ROUSSEAU BLOWOUT AWARDRecipients: Susan Lloyd and Danielle Rousseau
This award is given to the participants in the widest blowout of the Character Cup. Danielle Rousseau decimated Susan Lloyd by a 98%-2% margin, by 2,878 total votes.
THE HUME-SHEPHARD AWARDRecipient: Tie between Desmond Hume and Jack Shephard
This award is given to the character(s) who make for the most surprising upset(s) of the Character Cup. This year, two very surprising upsets occurred. Desmond defeated Sawyer in the Semifinals, advancing him to the Finals, and Jack Shephard defeated Ben Linus to earn a spot in the Quarterfinals. Both matchups surprised us, and are being recognized. Due to the tie, the award is named jointly after the winners of the upsets.
THE JARRAH-REYES HEAD-SCRATCHER AWARDRecipients: Sayid Jarrah and Hugo "Hurley" Reyes
This award is given to and named after the characters who provided us with what has been judged to be the most difficult matchup in the first Character Cup to take sides on, Sayid and Hurley. From reading the comments, this matchup was the hardest for people to make up their minds on.
THE KWON MEMORIAL VASERecipients: Sun & Jin Kwon
This award is given to the character(s) who is/are judged to have been to saddest to see eliminated when they were. It is named after this year's recipients, Sun and Jin Kwon. The untimely departure of both Kwons in the same round was felt and voiced by many in the comments sections.
INDIVIDUAL BEST IN SHOW AWARDSRecipients: Juliet Burke, John Locke, Kate Austen, Desmond Hume, and James "Sawyer" Ford
Individual ribbons of merit are awarded to each winner of the Best In Show competitions that followed the completion of each round. Juliet, Kate, Desmond and Sawyer each won a single award, while John Locke earned three. Their pictures are below:
OVERALL BEST IN SHOW AWARDRecipient: Juliet Burke
This award is given to the winner of the Overall Best In Show competition that was run at the end of the Character Cup. Juliet and her, ahem, assets won over the voting populace and won the award. The winning picture is below:
THE GOLDEN CAMERA OF EXCELLENCERecipient: James "Sawyer" Ford
This award is presented to the character who the Cup organizer feels had the best picture set during the entire Cup. Sawyer's pictures did an excellent job of mapping out his journey on the Island from Season 1 to Season 3 and are considered to be the best overall picture set of any character in the tournament.
THE BROKEN CAMERA OF FRUSTRATIONRecipient: Danielle Rousseau
This award goes to the character judged by the Cup organizer to have had the weakest picture set throughout the entire Cup. Danielle Rousseau, while a terrific character, looks very much the same in each of her pictures, making for a boring picture set.
THE RIGHT UNDER MY NOSE AWARDRecipient: Jack Shephard
This award goes to the character whose pictures were the easiest to find when making the new matchups each round. Because Jack is in nearly every episode, pictures of him are quite literally everywhere and easy to find.
THE EASTER EGG HUNT FROM HELL AWARDRecipient: Sayid Jarrah
This award goes to the character who the Cup organizer had the most difficulty finding good pictures of. Even though Sayid is a main character, there are very few iconic scenes with him present where he his images were any good. He made for some very difficult image searches.
THE VIRTUAL HUG OF APPRECIATIONRecipient: Danielle Rousseau
This award goes to the character with the highest ratio of positive vs. negative comments. Comments needed to include some substance and referral to Character attributes or actions to be included in the count (so "Rousseau rocks!" didn't count) After re-reading all the comments sections, Danielle had a +/- ratio of +41. During the Cup she had 44 positive comments and only 3 negative comments written about her.
VIRTUAL DEATH GLARE OF MALICERecipient: Danny Pickett
This award is given to the character with the lowest +/- ration in terms of positive and negative comments. Pickett only 3 positive comments and 30 negative comments, giving him a +/- of -27. Kate Austen was a surprise close second, with a +/- ratio of -25.
THE MOST AWARDS AWARDRecipient: John Locke
The last award of the night honors the character receiving the most awards during the DarkUFO Character Cup Awards Ceremony. John Locke received 7 awards tonight- three individual Best In Show ribbons, Best Defensive Effort, Outstanding Performance by a Male Character, Most Valuable Player, and the Character Cup. This award for earning awards puts his award total at 8.
RECOGNITION OF PARTICIPATION:
PRELIM TOURNAMENT PARTICIPATIONThe following characters are being recognized for participating in the Preliminary Tournament of the Cup: Achara, Bonnie, Brother Campbell, Colleen Pickett, Dave, David Reyes, Diane Janssen, Dr. Brooks, Eddie, Edmund, Emeka, Emily Annabeth Locke, Essam Tasir, Isaac of Uluru, Isabel, Jin's Mother, Johnny, Kevin Callis, Lucy Heatherton, Mr. Kwon, Rachel Carlson, Ryan Pryce, Sabrina Carlyle, Sam Austen, Teresa Cortez, The Piilot, Thomas, and Tom Brennan.
PRELIM WINNERSThe following characters are recognized for winning the Prelim Tournament and earning a spot in the main tournament: Aaron Littleton, Leonard Simms, Ms. Hawking, and Steve Jenkins.
THE ALSO-RANSThe following characters are recognized for participating in the Character Cup, but not winning any awards this evening: Alex, Ana-Lucia, Anthony Cooper, Bea Klugh, Bernard, Boone, Carmen Reyes, Cassidy Phillips, Charles Widmore, Charlie, Christian Shephard, Cindy, Claire, Mr. Eko, Goodwin, Helen, Jacob, Jae Lee, Karl, Kelvin, Libby, Marvin Candle, Michael, Mikhail, Mr. Paik, Naomi, Nikki, Nadia, Penny, Randy Nations, Richard Alpert, Richard Malkin, Rose, Roger Linus, Sarah Shephard, Shannon, Tom/Mr. Friendly, US Marshal Ed Mars, Vincent, Walt, and Yemi.
Congratulations to all our winners, and thank you all for participating in the Character Cup!
