Graf vs. Trevor Goodchild!
This is probably the most painful matchup for a lot of you! These are two people who either you respect sincerely, or you hate deeply. Either way, today is the day you have to make the choice between them!
First, we have the 10th seed - ANIME GRAF MAYS. This man's lengthy tenure as the man who runs the largest fediverse instance has led to him acquiring a very large number of enemies, and a cult of people who generally hate him! It's almost impossible to be on Fedi without having an opinion on him: most people who wind up here land on his instance for a month or two, and then end up somewhere else entirely.
What do his haters say about him? They often say he's quick to defederate, but that he also shelters some of the worst vermin on Fedi. They mock him for his romantic failures, and every little word he says gets scrutinized. Conspiracy theory upon conspiracy theory about how he takes in money gets thrown about, and due to Poast's sheer size this is almost inevitable. His haters are so intense that they're often said to have "Graf Derangement Syndrome."
Graf got knocked out in round 1 last year. With the number of enemies he's built up over time, he's essentially a permanent fixture in this tournament. Is the amount of respect he's built up from giving people their first home enough to knock him out the same way as last year, or will Graf Derangement Syndrome propel him to the second round!
Next, we have an other bottom-seed: Trevor Goodchild! You may remember this man as one of Judge Dread's long standing friends, and undeniably part of his crew. Having been knocked out last year in round 2 after a close, depressing match against Jeff Cliff, he's back for the exact same set of crimes that landed him there the last time: Trevor is partially responsible for the Gab influx last year, which has permanently and irreversibly worsened Fedi culture!
Those of you unacquainted with this event: the wave of Gab refugees last year was so intense that it caused people to mute poast. These people would quote post everywhere to keep anyone from being able to either follow or mute conversations, they would cluster together to bother people, and they generally made Fedi an unpleasant place to be for multiple months. Multiple features that are otherwise nice and novel to have are now looked upon with disgust, and it took a sequence of bans/defederations to return Fedi to being a remotely usable place.
Regardless of being partly responsible for this event, Trevor *himself* is a reasonable person who has built up a very large amount of good will among people here. The fact that he interacts with people in a respectable fashion *himself* is what kept him from progressing too far in the tournament last year. Is this the saving grace that knocks him out this year, or will he again be heading to round 2?
