/trumpets and fanfare
Welcome, one and all, to the opening ceremonies of the 3rd Annual Owl of the Year!
They've delighted, educated, and entertained you for the last 12 months, and now we see which owls have captured your heart the most.
We've taken the top 16 from last year's event and ranked them by their average scores. Previous winners, White Faced Owl and Saw Whet Owl are still the top of the game, but it is anything but certain who is going to come out on top this year.
Even with just these competitors, there are going to be some bitter matches in the early rounds. But it's no free ride for the previous owls - they must compete against some looking for rematches and some newcomers to shake things up, and that is why we are here now!
Today I will be putting up 4 groups of 6 for you to vote on. The bottom 2 owls will be eliminated, and the winners of all groups will be ranked based on their final scores.
To vote is easy - just upvote any and all owls you like. Downvotes don't count, so don't try. I'll leave this open for the week, ending sometime Saturday (I'll be on vacation so I get to it when I can!) and then the official games will begin!
Good luck to all your favorites, and may the best owl win!
I feel Spectacled is both in a good bracket and has had a popularity surge here this year to have potential. Even without knowing who it will be pitted up against, it seems to have a recent and still ongoing boost of popularity.
I don't know if it's big enough to win against someone like Snowy, which it'd have to do eventually, but if we're looking for a surprise winner like Saw Whet was, it could be the one.
Mainly I've enjoyed it didn't go to the same owl both times, and I'm hoping we can get another new one. While I like almost all of them equally, that Snowy or Burrowing haven't won so far has been a bit of a puzzle to me. Perhaps they've already enjoyed too much prior internet fame. Our community seems to enjoy the underdogs a bit, which is my theory on why White Faced Owl was popular until the end of last year's games, so much so that it still ranked higher overall than the actual winner.
It's always fun to see what you all decide to do 😄