Delighted for Séyetana, our 13 pointer! As a second timer that’s an unimaginable length of time to wait for your first win, and I’m sure knowing you it won’t have been due to a lack of strong entries along the way.

Also great to see both semi last placers from 186 in the final top 5, and Rontvia was an instant 18 point smash with the New Helvetians! Nice to see a strong result for Fljótavik which was our other medalist, and thanks very much for the unexpected 18 back!

36th isn’t a great result on the face of it after 13th last time, but actually it’s really pleasing to see that we received 20 sets of votes, just many of them were very low scorers. Thanks Sovarasama and Spod for the bronzes and Jadakissnia, A-Konohagakure and Aelandor for other double figure scores.

We’re a little unsure where to go next: maybe will try and find something with slightly broader appeal but keeping the New Helvetica aesthetic.

And thanks Skall for the great hosting job!

Congratulations Iz!! What a song to finally win with. ❤️ Also fab to see Bronzil and Ojnoj both do well in the end.

Big congrats Séyetana on a long overdue first time win, and the entry is my fave amongst the podium. Aeroche and Fljótavík finishing top 10 are most welcome too. shame about the underperformance for Land of DW but the rest of my faves were comfortably mid table.

20th is not bad at all a position for my holiday entry, having had no indication of how the entry had been received in the sync tube sesh and lack of visible forum hype, and next to my top pointer in the scoreboard.

our 150th anniversary next month then!

Huge congrats Iz. Wasn't my cup of tea in the slightest but brilliant to see you finally take that elusive first win after so many years trying, a feeling I can certainly relate to!

who is next on the list

This might seem a bit overly geeky for no reason but I wrote these things up last contest purely because I was intrigued about what kinda "groups" got the highest averages/myself & Lew getting comfortably the most votes but finishing 3rd & 4th and stuff like that... but I know other people like stats so thought I'd post it here incase it interests other people.

Most voters:

36 Seyetana

30 Botanikka

29 Ojnoj

25 Fljotavik

24 FSR Rontvia

24 Lentyll

24 Nelionoir

24 Republique d'Askorza

Highest average points per person:

11.5 Bronzil

10.52 East Rukahavian

10.32 Aeroche

10.29 FSR Rontvia

9.86 Greenfroze

9.47 Seyetana

9.4 Botanikka

9.4 Sovarasma

9.25 Lentyll

8.77 Kluminican Republic

Most 18s:

06 Seyetana

04 Aeroche

03 Ojnoj

03 FSR Rontvia

03 Lentyll

03 Bronzil

03 N DNTN

03 Greenfroze

03 Freidland

Most Medals:

11 Seyetana

08 Aeroche

08 Bronzil

07 Ojnoj

07 FSR Rontvia

07 East Rukahavian

Biggest progression from semi finals to final:

+32 Nelionoir

+20 Seyetana

+19 Kluminican Republic

+14 East Rukahavian

+8 Ojnoj

Biggest regression from semi finals to final:

-28 Land Of DW

-18 Cor Lupus

-12 Aesthetica

-12 Republique d'Askorza

-11 Terra Avium

You wouldn't guess simply from listening to them in isolation that Bronzil and East Ruk have "strong but relatively narrow appeal" as high average points implies!

6 minutes ago, RobBot said:

Biggest progression from semi finals to final:

+32 Nelionoir

If anyone has a song that they know is a grower, you should go for it. Getting through the semi is the tricky part, and it can be difficult to find the balance when the contest obviously rewards immediacy, but the risk is worth it sometimes 🖤

I'm sure it happens every month where a few songs leap massively from the semis to the final

37 minutes ago, uhsting said:

who is next on the list

East Ruk almost certainly, then probably myself now in second. #sportsmodtop2

Well done Iz! It was a good song and glad to see you finally get another win!

In other news, we have guests over this weekend and I was playing my chart playlist while I was doing my hair... One of the guests says: "What is this shit?!" ('Mushroom One' is playing)... I say: "it's called 'Mushroom One's"... He says: "is that because you need to be on mushrooms to find it bearable?". Wow.

why do i have a feeling east Rukh is cooking up something to get that win

14 hours ago, dandy* said:

@Harve that nice text version was for your eyes only! I wanted everyone else to struggle with the playlist option! 😂

14 hours ago, Harve said:

Especially @Jade who has an extremely customised commiseration song.

As do I great work dandy, I'll be giving some of this playlist a listen too!

Kidz Bop Kids appearing though *___*

19 minutes ago, Harve said:

You wouldn't guess simply from listening to them in isolation that Bronzil and East Ruk have "strong but relatively narrow appeal" as high average points implies!

Absolutely agree!

Last month's for comparison (which is partly what lead to me doing little stats with myself in the first place):

11.14 Eledan

11.07 Skall

10.32 Aelandor

9.88 Kathaldazia

9.86 Jadakissnia

There was a much clearer vision as to what drew people into big points (and it's generally the more left-field/experimental entries) so I thought it was interesting that Bronzil's entry had a stronger average than any of those this time, with an entry I wouldn't have expected to be divisive at all!

Can we have a list of longest participating nations without a win so far (not to make them feel bad but to manifest the next overdue nations win).

i think pop entries which are so pop it hurts can have high average points too the other example i can think of is summericia's cocaine

Comgrats @Iz様 🌟 for winning, what a rollercoaster reading these results earlier, great winner!!

@Harve you did a fab job hosting!!

See you next contest I have a vague idea of what I wanna send

2 hours ago, RobBot said:

Highest average points per person:

11.5 Bronzil

10.52 East Rukahavian

Most Medals:

11 Seyetana

08 Aeroche

08 Bronzil

2 hours ago, Harve said:

You wouldn't guess simply from listening to them in isolation that Bronzil and East Ruk have "strong but relatively narrow appeal" as high average points implies!

Basically the opposite of this then

On 20/08/2026 at 12:43, blacksquare said:

Bronzil sounds like one of those crossover songs that picks up a lot of votes and sails towards the top without needing the 18s

I'm as surprised as anyone else - I had 15 votes in 1st-7th (18 down to 9 points), then only 3 in 8th-15th. I received a fair amount of commiserations though, so it looks like 16th-20th would have been well populated.

On 21/08/2026 at 13:50, jimwatts said:

Won't be able to follow much of the final live, so I'll try to catch up by reading everything through in order, so I can live the experience of crashing out of contention after a promising start (as happened with Jain 2 years ago which I also had to read through after the event).

This did actually happen again this time, albeit much earlier!

24 points clear at the top after 15 votes, but that was also the start of a 13-vote drought, resulting in dropping to 13th after 30 votes (whereas Jain dropped from 2nd after 34/55 votes to 13th at the finish), but at least Isabel had time to recover for the top 10.

Unfortunately Bronzil (and Rontvia on the more alternative side) had to be given a false sense of hope early on in order to disguise the Seyetana landslide!

42 minutes ago, Harve said:

Unfortunately Bronzil (and Rontvia on the more alternative side) had to be given a false sense of hope early on in order to disguise the Seyetana landslide!

I figured that was the case when I saw it wasn’t order of receipt so certainly wasn’t expecting to hold on when I checked in halfway and was on top.

But nothing wrong with some reveal engineering when the result is obvious early on.

The drought counter will have to wait for its grand return when/if I ever manage to find a winner again 😄