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Anniversary Poll

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The Anniversary Poll, also known as the Birthday Card Popularity Poll, Anniversary Card Popularity Poll or the New Leader Poll, is an official community poll that occurs every year during the month of June in Shadowverse in celebration of the game's anniversary.

Each year, a selection of Follower cards from the most recent 4 card expansions are separated into categories based on class. From these candidates, players then vote on which cards/characters they would like to see as leader skins for their respective classes. The results of this poll determine the leader skins that are released over the following year through alternate art "leader cards" obtainable in future card packs. For the first 4 years, it was only possible for 1st place winners to become leaders, however as of the 5th anniversary poll, it became possible for certain 2nd or 3rd place runner-ups to also receive leader skins via leader cards in upcoming expansions.

Neutral cards are not eligible for voting, however the 6th anniversary featured a New Legendary Card Poll with the only candidates being Neutral cards. The 1st and 2nd place winners of this poll were given new cards or "retrains" in card packs that followed.

1st Anniversary[]

1st-anni-results

1st Anniversary Poll Results

The winners of the 1st anniversary poll were as follows:

Because it was not introduced into the game until after the 1st anniversary, there was no Portalcraft category in this poll. However, Spinaria, Keeper of Enigmas was later essentially treated as Portalcraft's 1st anniversary poll winner, despite the fact no voting for the class actually occurred.

2nd Anniversary[]

Starting from this poll, the 1st place winners were announced along with the 2nd and 3rd runner ups for each class, along with how many votes each card in the top 3 received. The 1st place winners and 2nd and 3rd place runner-ups of the 2nd anniversary poll were as follows:

3rd Anniversary[]

The 1st place winners and 2nd and 3rd place runner-ups of the 3rd anniversary poll were as follows:[1]

4th Anniversary[]

Starting from this poll, it became possible for four total 2nd or 3rd place runner-ups (from any class) to also receive leader skins released via leader card(s) in future card packs over the following year. Cygames developers revealed in an official Q&A there are many factors that go into the selection of which runner-ups also receive leader skins, however, cards with a high number of votes are typically prioritized,[2] along with those who would add a more diverse range of characters to the leader selection pool.[3]

The 1st place winners and 2nd and 3rd place runner-ups of the 4th anniversary poll were as follows:[4]

†Received leader skin.

5th Anniversary[]

This was the only poll where cards of characters already playable in the Story Mode were eligible for voting. This poll was also the first to introduce "Gold Border" leader skins (named for the golden border that surrounds the leader skin when selecting it), where the leader skins of the 1st place winners would be animated with full lipsync, given full screen evolution animations and a unique design surrounding their portrait and evolution point orbs. These leaders also come with animated sleeves of their leader card and a special flair.

The 1st place winners and 2nd and 3rd place runner-ups of the 5th anniversary poll were as follows:[5]

†Received leader skin.

6th Anniversary[]

This poll introduced the New Legendary Card Poll in addition to the usual New Leader Poll. This was also first poll where players could vote on either the mobile or PC version of the game (previously, voting was limited to only the mobile version).

Due to backlash received the previous year, cards featuring major story mode characters, such as Taketsumi, Aconite Paladin, Itsurugi, Eager Admirer, Anisage, Lost Forsaken and Si Long, Draconic God-Queen were made not eligible for voting. Cards featuring multiple characters, such as Mistolina & Bayleon and Noir & Blanc, Brothers, were also excluded.

The 1st place winner and 2nd through 5th place runner-ups for the 6th anniversary new legendary card poll, as well as the 1st place winners and 2nd and 3rd place runner-ups of the 6th anniversary new leader poll, were as follows:[6]

New (Neutral) Legendary Card Poll[]

New Leader Poll[]

†Received leader skin.

7th Anniversary[]

As of this poll, all 1st place winners now also receive a special home screen background in addition to a "gold border" leader skin, animated card sleeves and a flair, after the home screen background feature was introduced during the 7th anniversary.

The 1st place winners and 2nd and 3rd place runner-ups of the 7th anniversary poll were as follows:

Criticism[]

Due to it being one of the biggest deciding factors in which characters become playable in Shadowverse, the anniversary poll has received various criticisms from the community, including:

Rage of Bahamut Bias[]

A recurring trend in the anniversary polls is that characters from Rage of Bahamut, a previous Cygames title considered by many to be the spiritual predecessor to Shadowverse, will often win or receive large amounts of votes, even over actual Shadowverse (original) characters. This has been widely criticized due to all international versions of RoB, including the English version, having ended service in 2016 or earlier, meaning the game has not been accessible to non-Japanese audiences since before Shadowverse even launched.

While Japanese players, of which Shadowverse's playerbase consists primarily of, are familiar with these characters from having played RoB, players from the majority of other countries are not and have no means to learn more about them, their personalities, stories and/or lore, aside from what little is presented in Shadowverse itself through voice lines and card flairs. Information from the defunct English version of RoB is not well-archived, and there are currently very few members of the international or English speaking Shadowverse community with access to the Japanese version of RoB, as well as the capability or time to translate its content.

The most egregious example of RoB bias typically noted by the community is the 5th anniversary Portalcraft poll, wherein minor RoB character Lucille, who just happened to be the sister of other popular RoB character Spinaria, won over Iceschillendrig, one of the game's most well-liked, interesting and noteworthy villains, albeit by a paltry 1975 votes. Unofficial polls made and distributed by the community predicted Iceschillendrig winning by a landslide, with Lucille only making it into the top 3 at best. A similar instance occurred with the 6th anniversary poll, as Mars unexpectedly won over community and fan favorites Octrice, Hollow Usurpation and Kagemitsu, Lost Samurai, with Kagemitsu ultimately not even making it into the top 3 despite leading in various unofficial polls and even winning the NetEase published Chinese version's yearly poll.

Female Character Bias ("Waifuverse")[]

The most prominent trend in all anniversary polls to date is that conventionally attractive humanoid female characters are provenly most likely to win or receive extremely high amounts of votes, a phenomenon sometimes referred to by the community as "Waifuverse," due to these characters being favored by the game's exceptionally large audience of casual, mostly straight male players. As of the 7th anniversary poll, the only non-female 1st place winners have been Albert, Aldos, Kuon, Milteo, and Kyrzael.

Albert and Aldos were the only male characters to have won 1st place for their respective classes during the 1st anniversary, and these characters held the title of the only male characters to have ever won 1st place until Kyrzael's victory during the 7th anniversary, where he was also the only male 1st place winner. This makes the 1st and 7th anniversary polls the only ones to feature male 1st place winners. Meanwhile, Kuon and Milteo are somewhat feminine, but are nonbinary, encompass multiple genders or of ambiguous, unspecified gender, so some players have admitted to voting for them under the impression that they were women. Despite Kyrzael's victory in the modern day, many members of the Shadowverse community still believe that it would be nearly impossible for Albert or Aldos to win today, with their victories having been considered lucky due to the game having a smaller amount of casual players, who are known to vote for female characters en masse, early in the game's life.

Kyrzael's win for the Portalcraft class broke a 6 year streak of only female or androgynous first place winners and came as a surprise to the entire community. Most have attributed it to the strong popularity of the characters from the Eightfold Abyss: Azvaldt expansion in general, as Magachiyo, Barbaros and Sephie also won 1st place for their respective classes that year, as well as the especially low vote count of the 7th anniversary poll. All of Portalcraft's top 3 voted characters during the 7th anniversary poll received less votes combined than the 6th anniversary poll's 1st place winner for Portalcraft individually, leading many to suspect there were simply less people, particularly casual players, playing the game during the 7th anniversary poll's voting period.

This phenomenon was addressed by game director Yuito Kimura in an official livestream from 2020, prior to the release of Storm Over Rivayle. This stream revealed Valdain's leader skin with Kimura stating that due to the continued mass prevalence of female poll winners, as well as many players requesting to see more leader skins of male and nonhuman characters, they would now be creating and releasing leader skins for certain runner-ups, "otherwise all of the leaders would be female."[7] This introduction of additional leader skins featuring runner-ups, with apparent priority given to male and nonhuman characters with the largest number of votes,[8], was widely praised and celebrated until the introduction of "Gold Border" leaders.

5th Anniversary and Story Characters[]

The most widely criticized anniversary poll was that of the 5th anniversary, the backlash from which caused several changes in the implementation and distribution of leader skins, as well as rules regarding which cards could be eligible for voting. In the 5th anniversary poll, cards of characters that were already playable leader skins in the Story Mode, such as Maiser, Neighborhood Hero and Sekka, Fatebound Fox, were eligible for voting. Characters such as Maiser and Sekka were introduced as "New Leaders" along with their story mode campaigns, which some players considered to be misleading marketing on the part of Cygames. Many players feared this meant that these characters would subsequently never become playable outside of story mode unless they won their respective polls or received a high enough amount of votes. Additionally, Bunny & Baron, Specter Duo was eligible for voting, despite the fact Baron's leader skin had already been released through a previous premium Battle Pass. This left some players unsure exactly what they were voting for if they chose to vote for this card.

Though not playable in the story mode, major characters Iceschillendrig, Nahtnaught and Vincent were also included in the vote. Of them, only Nahtnaught won 1st place, with Iceschillendrig in 2nd and Vincent in 3rd. Unfortunately, while Iceschillendrig secured enough votes to receive a leader skin as a runner-up, Wolfraud received 182 more votes than Vincent, leading to him getting a leader skin over Vincent and leaving the trio of Rivayle's Titans incomplete. Coincidentally but compounding the issue, this would be the second time only the Runecraft member of an important story character trio would be excluded from a leader skin release, as Tetra also did not receive a playable leader skin due to only placing 3rd and 2nd in the 3rd and 6th anniversary polls respectively. This led to intense community demand for these characters as leaders and were eventually released as such through the in-game shop during the 7th anniversary.

At the time of the poll, Entropy's Abyss and Entropy's Abyss: Reconclusion had not yet finished. This meant the eventual popularity of characters such as Drache and Aluzard were not reflected, as what many consider to be the parts of the story that made them highly enjoyable characters hadn't been released yet. Ultimately, Sekka was the only playable story mode character to win for their respective class, although Bunny & Baron and Selena also placed 3rd. This led to the story mode version of her leader remaining unreleased and Sekka instead being released as a "Gold Border" leader, with her leader card obtainable in Dawn of Calamity. All other playable characters from Rivayle and Vellsar, with the exception of Baron due to his Battle Pass inclusion, were then not released outside of story mode for over a year until the game's 6th anniversary, where they then became available for purchase through the in-game shop.

The backlash caused by the handling of the 5th anniversary poll in regards to the Rivayle and Vellsar characters subsequently changed how Shadowverse would distribute leader skins of its playable story mode characters as of the following year. New playable story mode characters would come to be advertised as "New Characters" as opposed to "New Leaders." Cards of major and playable characters from The Empyrean Inn were made ineligible for voting during the 6th anniversary poll. Beginning with (the young) Itsurugi and season 7, most new characters playable in the story mode now have their leader skins released through the premium Battle Pass, with some such as Mizuchi and the adult Itsurugi receiving a release through the in-game shop instead.

"Gold Border" Leaders[]

Named for the golden border that surrounds the leader skin when selecting it, "Gold Border" leaders were introduced with the winners of the 5th anniversary poll. Gold border leader skins are animated with full lipsync, given full screen evolution animations and a unique a design surrounding their portrait and evolution point orbs. When obtaining their leader card, gold border leader skins also come with animated sleeves and a special flair. As of April 2023, only 1st place anniversary poll winners from the 5th anniversary poll onward, certain collaboration leaders such as Hatsune Miku, and characters of Cygames's own choosing during certain events such as Aurelia have received gold border leader skins.

While the improved quality of these leader skins compared to the "standard" leaders has been greatly praised, their implementation has not been without criticism. Plans to implement them were not communicated until the release of Sekka's leader card and gold border leader skin in Dawn of Calamity, meaning when they voted in the 5th anniversary poll, players were unaware that the winners of the poll would receive anything but the standard leader. Some have said this knowledge would have influenced their decision on who they voted for.

Others have criticized gold border leader skins for contributing to the issue of female character bias (see above) and reintroducing a problem that the 4th anniversary's introduction of leader skins for runner-up characters had already solved, specifically by giving higher quality leaders only to the "waifus" who always inevitably win 1st place. For instance, Belphomet and Ralmia, characters who's popularity differed by relatively small 7771 votes, both received leader skins of equal quality. However, due to the implementation of gold border leaders the following year, Lucille received a much higher quality gold border leader skin compared to Iceschillendrig, who received a standard leader. This was compounded by the fact Lucille won by only 1975 votes, an even smaller margin than the previous year's 1st place winner and 2nd place runner-up for Portalcraft.

Kyrzael will be the first non-female character to receive a gold border skin, as well as a special home screen background, a feature introduced as of the 7th anniversary.

  1. ↑ Official results page
  2. ↑ English translation of the Q&A
  3. ↑ In an official livestream announcing Valdain's leader skin, game director Yuito Kimura stated some runner-ups would be receiving leader skins, because otherwise all of the leaders would be female and players had been requesting more "male and other" leaders. (Livestream took place in 2020 prior to the release of Storm Over Rivayle; if it was archived, a link will be added.)
  4. ↑ Official results page
  5. ↑ Official results page
  6. ↑ Official results page
  7. ↑ Stream may not have been archived; if it was, a link will be added.
  8. ↑ Characters such as Belphomet, Iceschillendrig, Wilbert, Omnis and Tactical Dog receiving leader skins suggests that the male and/or nonhuman characters who receive the most votes each year are extremely likely if not guaranteed to be given leader skins.
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