u/dquon15

After a very challenging qualifying campaign, 28 b-sides have now entered the grand party where some powerhouses have been patiently waiting for them to join and compete for the GFRIEND+ World Cup. Powerhouses such as Navillera, Maniac and Rough, amongst others, look to go deep into the tournament and eventually claim the title.

And that’s precisely where we start. In the region of the bracket where the #1 overall ranked song sits. First released in 2016, it has been running through time ever since in the hearts of Buddy with the same passion and emotion from day one. #1 ranked Rough will look to continue running strong as it kicks off the tournament amongst today’s 4 matchups.

1 Rough v 64 No Matter | Vote Here

32 LOL v 33 Reply | Vote Here

17 Season of Memories v 48 Windy Windy | Vote Here

16 Crossroads v 49 White | Vote Here

https://preview.redd.it/b556cikivt2h1.png?width=311&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2accb7d7dd2cb0cfb2a6de0da0661bf66c6dfc0

This post is to recap B-Side Qualifying and also for me to do some final organization for the main tournament. I realized that in my initial rules I didn't have a tie-breaker parameter set up for the main tournament. So I'll be adding it here.

Main Tournament

• 64 song single elimination bracket tournament. Songs will be ranked and placed accordingly based on the data I've gathered.
• Title tracks (25) and b-side exemptions (9) (total 36 songs) automatically qualify for main tournament. These 36 songs will occupy rankings 1-36.
• B-Sides that made it through qualifying (28 songs) will occupy rankings 37-64.
• If a matchup ends in a draw, we will simply go again but with a shorter voting timeframe.

Thanks to everyBuddy who voted in Groups H and I. Here are the results:

Group H

Song	Votes
Hear the Wind Sing (GFRIEND)	18
Windy Windy (GFRIEND)	14
Eye of the Storm (GFRIEND)	14
My Buddy (GFRIEND)	14
Bad Blood (Yuju)	13
9 Years (Yuju)	8
It's You (GFRIEND)	6

Group I

Song	Votes
Room of Mirrors (GFRIEND)	23
Vacation (GFRIEND)	16
Overdrive (VIVIZ)	13
Under the Sky (GFRIEND)	12
Save Me (Yerin)	9
Party Pop (VIVIZ)	6
Fall In Love (GFRIEND)	5

Absolute madness on the final day of qualifying! In the tightest group of them all, Group H finished with 3 songs earning the same amount of votes. And another song only 1 vote shy of them. Applying the tie-breaker rule, Windy Windy (GFRIEND) and Eye of the Storm (GFRIEND) advances in 2nd and 3rd place over My Buddy (GFRIEND) after they all finished on 14 votes.

The best 4th place finisher is Love Bug (GFRIEND) from Group F and it will advance to the main tournament.

B-Sides qualified for the main tournament:

Songs	Group
Untie (VIVIZ), Rain in the Spring Time (GFRIEND), Orion (Yuju)	A
You Are Not Alone (GFRIEND), Here We Are (GFRIEND), Ave Maria (GFRIEND)	B
Flower Garden (GFRIEND), Memoria (GFRIEND), No Matter (Yuju)	C
White (GFRIEND), Eclipse (GFRIEND), Always (GFRIEND)	D
Gone with the Wind (GFRIEND), Love or Die (VIVIZ), Three of Cups (GFRIEND)	E
Love Love Love (VIVIZ), Cliche (VIVIZ), Flower (GFRIEND)	F
One Half (GFRIEND), Only 1 (GFRIEND), Water Flower (GFRIEND)	G
Hear the Wind Sing (GFRIEND), Windy Windy (GFRIEND), Eye of the Storm (GFRIEND)	H
Room of Mirrors (GFRIEND), Vacation (GFRIEND), Overdrive (VIVIZ)	I

Top 4th Place Song:

Song	Votes	Group
Love Bug (GFRIEND) (advances to main tournament)	16	F
Crush (GFRIEND)	16	A
My Buddy (GFRIEND)	14	H
Under the Sky (GFRIEND)	12	I
Lemonade (VIVIZ)	11	G
Believer (Yerin)	11	E
The Killa (Yuju)	10	B
Bye (GFRIEND)	9	D
Tarot Cards (GFRIEND)	8	C

Hello everyBuddy! For those of you who don’t visit the weekly discussion thread too often, I previously mentioned there that due to this summer being a World Cup summer, I wanted to bring some of the fun energy and excitement I have for that to r/GFRIEND and host a GFRIEND+ “World Cup” song tournament. I know song tournaments have been done previously here but it’s been a while and plenty of new music has been released since. And as much as the World Cup is a competition, it’s also a worldwide celebration of the sport. So in that spirit I’m putting together a song tournament spanning everything from GFRIEND’s discography all the way to VIVIZ, Yuju and Yerin’s discography to celebrate the work that these 6 wonderful women have blessed the world with.

The tournament won’t be one that includes literally all their songs of course (that would take forever). So with data I’ve gathered on all their songs, the main tournament will be comprised accordingly. Before the main tournament even begins however, there will be a preliminary stage I’m calling B-Side Qualifying for us to finalize the main tournament. Details below.

 

Selection Criteria/Parameters

• Only Korean language songs (apologies to Fallin’ Light and their Japanese discography).
• Only songs from albums. Covers, OSTs, single releases (ex. Red Sun, Awake, First Love Is A Curse, etc.) are not eligible.
• 50% + 1 songs are selected from each album. Example: if album has 5 songs, 3 are selected. If album has 10 songs, 6 are selected. The exception to this is Season of Memories because there’s only the 2 songs.
• I grouped Parallel & Rainbow together for obvious reasons.
• Songs selected based on data gathered from these sources:
  • Youtube data
  • Melon data
  • Spotify data

B-Side Qualifying

• With the above criteria I’ve narrowed down more than 100+ b-sides to 62 songs. These 62 songs will partake in B-Side Qualifying to earn their spots in the main tournament.
• Using the data gathered, these 62 songs will be separated into 9 groups. 8 groups of 7 songs and 1 group of 6 songs.
• The top 3 most voted songs from each group will win their spots into the main tournament. If there’s a tie for 3^(rd) in a group, the data will be used as a tie-breaker.
• One 4^(th) placed song will also win a spot into the main tournament. That one being the 4^(th) placed song that received the most votes compared to the others. If there’s a tie, the data will be used as a tie-breaker.
• So if you’re following along and doing the math, that’s 28 b-sides that will enter the main tournament from the 62 that began qualifying.
• I’ve selected 9 b-sides (other than the 62 above) to exempt from qualifying because they’re “'one of a kind'”. These 9 songs will automatically go into the main tournament:
  • LOL – because the album is named LOL so it feels weird to me to leave this out.
  • Rainbow – same reason.
  • Labyrinth – same reason.
  • Secret Diary, Better Me, and Night Drive – because they’re the only unit songs in GFRIEND’s discography.
  • Hipnotic, Love Language, and Milky Way – because they’re the only solo songs in VIVIZ’s discography.

Main Tournament

• 64 song single elimination bracket tournament. Songs will be ranked and placed accordingly based on the gathered data.
• Title tracks (25) and b-side exemptions (9) (total 36 songs) automatically qualify for main tournament. These 36 songs will occupy rankings 1-36.
• B-Sides that made it through qualifying (28 songs) will occupy rankings 37-64.

And with that, let's kick things off with Group A of B-Side Qualifying!

Vote your top 3 from Group A in the poll via this link

Group A consists of:

1. Untie (VIVIZ)
2. Mermaid (GFRIEND)
3. Rain in the Spring Time (GFRIEND)
4. Crush (GFRIEND)
5. Orion (Yuju)
6. Wildflower (VIVIZ)

In the days to come there will be 2 groups a day to vote on until B-Side Qualifying is finished and we move onto the main tournament. I hope everyBuddy has fun, enjoy the music and maybe listen to some songs you haven't listened to in a while.