Today is the potential rebirth of the "Leggy Top 10 Serie(s)". And I figured, what better way, than by inciting potential controversy among the post bots, who will no doubt use this thread in their quest for the TDV (hopefully, I am wrong, and have just tempted people away from posting here!).

Today, I will be listing out the top 10 "Tour de Vizzed Races". For the purposes of this list, the following criteria was used:

1. Which contest had close races?
2. Which contest had the highest quality members?
3. Which contest had the highest quality posts?
4. Which contest had the most entertainment value for impartial observers?
5. Which contest ruined people's enthusiasm the least?

For the purposes of this list, however, we will not count the 2012, Summer TDV, won by yours truly, because I cannot be impartial (it would rank, however, in at least the top 5, and maybe higher than that, personally) about its race.

There have been 14 races, and since we are not counting one, this knocks the number down to lucky 13.

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10. 2012 Spring TDV - Tabbing Galore

To start this list, we'll go with the first truly controversial result in the history of the TDV. It was the second running of the TDV, and the competition was tight... for a few days. Shortly thereafter, tabbing was the name of the game, as septembern utilized the now frowned upon method of tabbing to boost his post totals, and dominate the jerseys all month. At the end of the month, he ended up with the yellow and red jersey, and second in the other two, and ultimately won the rainbow banner.

He ended up winning by 84 points over second time second place finisher legacyme3 (who went on to win in the next TDV, convincingly), setting the tone for what "domination" looked like.

9. 2012 Autumn TDV - Singelli Domination

Next, we will look at the first time the TDV was over before it began. The long and the short of it is that Singelli won every jersey. All of them. Convincingly. She also nearly scored twice as many points as runner up Crazy Li. In a TDV, where only 3 people scored above 100 points, it was just never a close enough contest to make things compelling. Anyone who was watching and not competing found the competition boring, and anyone who did compete found it frustrating to have to compete on the playing field and gave up.

Domination can be fun... for the person dominating. But for everyone else, it's just a reminder of how crappy it is to be out of it.

8. 2014 Spring TDV - Zanderlex Sweeps

Another case of domination, this one was on a lesser scale, and thus, more fun to watch, though it was still incredibly boring for the most part. The first of his two TDV wins, zanderlex basically swept through the competition like a broom in a dusty attic, and won every jersey, just as convincingly as Singelli... except the red jersey, which he won by default, even though he was tied with megamanmaniac (who I maintain, should have been given the jersey) at the end of the competition.

One of the slowest competitions ever, zanderlex took advantage of literally no one wanting to compete (it was so bad, that me, despite no longer being an active member, managed to place 5th by pure accident for the entire month), and destroyed the competition. Again, only 3 managed to get above 100 points, which is truly sad, since it was literally anyone's to grab.

7. 2013 Winter TDV - Thud in the Night

Another example of a slow TDV that had few competitors, the only thing that saved this competition was a universally likable winner, and the fact the competition was as close as it was. Four users finished with at least 100 points, and the final result was wicked close (173-141), despite thudricdholee (the winner) taking a lot of time off in the final week.

The TDV was kept civil, and there was little bickering or complaining about DQs and such. Just what each TDV should strive for, really.

6. 2014 Winter TDV - The EideticRampage

This one was also a bit of a domination mold, in the vein of 9 and 8, but this TDV was helped along by the revival of what was becoming a stale exercise. The past year had seen less likable winners and less enjoyable contests than the first year of the competition's existence, and EM set out on a quest to win the TDV, but ended up capturing all our hearts, and utilizing his success to catapault himself into a much deserved mod spot (we miss you EM).

One thing that made this domination more enjoyable, was that despite him winning each jersey (except the red) convincingly, he was able to keep the contest relatively close, being within 57 points of second place finisher, Bintsy.

5. 2013 Autumn TDV - The Thin Razor's Edge

This was another close contest, as Razor-987 managed to edge out Barathemos 188-160. But this wasn't what defined the competition...

Six users (almost seven!) managed at least 100 points in the contest, and several members held, or were close to holding, the rainbow banner and it led to something most TDV's didn't have... competition. The best competition from the 2013 TDV cycle, it had everything a good TDV needed. A good winner, little spam, and a civil, friendly atmosphere.

4. 2015 Winter TDV - IgorBird122 gets his 15 Minutes of Fame

IgorBird122 set a then (I'm too lazy to look up the exact results) record for points in a TDV. zanderlex had a then second place record... trailing Igor by only 15 points. The final score of the epic showdown? 335-320. Ferdinand also made his mark, scoring high enough to be seen as a threat in future contests, but it was the Igor/zander show that was the main event of the card.

Igor also became only the second moderator to win the competition while being a moderator, behind only legacyme3 (who won in the Summer of 2012). This helped fuel the ego of the man who now calls himself "The IB122", and has lended itself to numerous comparisons between the two.

That aside, it was one of the true battles in the history of the TDV, and both men walked out a little beaten and bruised. Zander would go on to win another TDV. Igor wouldn't be a serious threat in the next one.

3. 2014 Summer TDV - The Most Active Pac-Man Festival

This TDV will go down in history for having a close race, and for being one of (if not the) most active TDVs ever. With three users scoring above 200, and the winner only scoring 226 himself, there was a fierce competition all month, as pacman1755, Davideo7, and tgags123 did battle.

pacman1755 of course, emerged victorious, but the how is just as important as the why.

We'll start with third place finisher tgags123, who started the competition with a healthy lead, taking it a week into the competition, and not looking back. By the middle of the competition, he had built up a huge lead over Davideo7, who had seemingly no hope of catching him.

David didn't even make the top 10 until about a week into the competition, but once he did, he steadily rose, and rose, and rose... until he passed tgags123 for.... second, because...

pacman1755 took control, and leaped over both of them on the same day that David passed tgags123.

The final result will show pacman1755 beating David, and the hero coming up just short...

2. 2012 Winter TDV - Vizwiz is our First Champion

There's not much to say about this event. Being the first, it was very rough around the edges, and featured far less rules than are used today. It may as well get its own category for being so different... but one thing has to be understood...

The TDV as it is today, would not exist without our first TDV.

It was a routine stomping, as vizwiz123 managed to stomp out legacyme3 and Lazlo Falconi, the only people who could have challenged for his crown, but it wasn't without importance. He showed the model of what a champion had to be. Relentless. Even when legacyme3 went inactive, he didn't take his foot off the gas pedal, and rolled into first place with an easy victory.

1. 2014 Autumn TDV - The Owner Owns the Competition!

It's exactly what it says. The godfather of the competition was finally able to win it, after a heart breaking loss in the previous event. Coming up just shy of it last time, he didn't take his foot off the pedal, and managed to put away every comer for his crown.

No one was even close to David, and that's not because people let him just win. It was one of the more active TDVs, and with the new rules, it was getting harder to score a ridiculous number of points... but points, David put up. He ended up scoring over 300 points in what was a total rout of the competition. It may not have been competitive, or exciting... but the competition was definitely entertaining, and had the best story arc of all TDVs ever (including legacyme3's tale of redemption in the 2012 Summer TDV).

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Do you agree with this inconsequential list? What is your personal top 10?

And since I'm looking to revive the series... what other things should I make a top 10 list of?

I haven't been around for that much, I only knew about the TdV when accidentally placing in top 3 for daily Yellow and Red last summer after I became staff. I would still have to count the current TdV to even make a top 5, so nothing much I can say.

I like seeing memories of the old Vizzed days, it's interesting to know how the site was before and realize how much it has improved changed, because not everything has changed for the better.

I see you left out the last completed TdV, when zander achieved his second win. I agree that there wasn't much competition to talk about, but even you were amazed by Ferdinand's performance, who got even closer to the win than in Winter. That was the most interesting part, as everyone knew that zander was the only serious participant. It was also a very slow competition, all in all had everything to be left out of this list.

Judging by the final results, I'm impressed that Spring 2013 wasn't listed. The four jerseys and two banners ended up split within just two users. True is that the leader was also dominant, seeing how he held rainbow for the whole month, but didn't the white banner get snatched away in a fierce second half, or am I interpreting the results in a wrong way?

Also, even though I guess what the answer will be, do you think the current TdV will make it into this list?

EX Palen :

With regards to zander's second win, I gave it consideration (along with the others left out) for the last spot, which I ultimately gave to septembern's win.

The main reasoning behind my leaving it out...

1. It just wasn't an impressive showing
2. It was inactive.
3. Someone almost won without posting a single thing, basically.

While some would argue #3 makes the TDV more impressive... it's only enough to warrant top 10 if it actually did happen. I also felt as if zanderlex was rather... spammy in that month, and that hurt the overall feeling of that TDV.

Spring 2013 was also close, but suffers from lack of entertainment value outside of the white banner victory.

As for the current TDV... it has a real chance to be top 10.

1. Zlinqx - 188
2. gamerforlifeforever2 - 158
3. zanderlex - 149
4. Ferdinand - 146

On score alone, the top 4 are doing well enough that we could see four people break 200 points.

Entertainment-wise, there are three results there that would be intriguing. And as far as spam goes... it's not been a bad month.

The one thing that could hurt it, is the level of competition. It seems rather low key compared to past TDVs.

If I were to make a prediction, it would be that this one would finish 8th all time, pushing zander's first win and the Singelli-fest down to 9 and 10, and septembern out of the top 10 completely.

Lazlo Falconi... there's a name I haven't heard in awhile. I wonder how him and his wife? , KG, are doing. 

I personally think with your ranking system, that the Summer 2013, I think it was, TdV should have been in the middle somewhere. I am in no way tooting my horn, but that is the one that I actually managed to win, thus lifting my " curse " . I think there were 4 lead changes, 3 for a fact, and I was the final one to grab in in the last 2 weeks. 

As for the top 10s, what exactly are you thinking about doing? Do you want to keep it to Vizzed topics, or are you going to do sports topics, video game topics, etc? I have some suggestions for each. 

Awesome thread! This needs to be voted as the best thread of 2015 at the vizzed awards

It is cool to see you pick the TdV I won as #1 on this list. The Summer 2014 TdV was easily my most memorable TdV, even if I didn't win it. That TdV was probably the most competitive TdV ever and it'll be hard to top a TdV like that.

Since you already did TDV, why nit do another that's based on competitions? Like either single competitions like a month, or an entire competition, like VCS, CP VCS, Minecraft competitions, Netplay, etc?

zanderlex :

The thing is, I refuse to cover competitions I've won (like the summer 2012 TDV).

If I extend that to VCS's, then there would be far less to choose from (since I'm the all time champ in VCS history).

I won't ever cover the CP VCS history though, as there were only a few, and it was pretty boring for most everyone to watch.

I might cover Minecraft builds at one point, but I wouldn't base it off competition, rather, I'd base it off all the buildings and creations I find on the server.

legacyme3 : Definitely cover Minecraft builds and what you think were you favorite among all of the Minecraft competitions. Another fun thing you could do is go through the top rated songs in all of the music competitions and make a list of the top 10 that you think were the best overall among all of the music competitions. And since you'd just be sampling all of the top rated songs, you wouldn't have to worry about listening to 100s of songs.

Davideo7 :

That's an idea as well, I might come around to those ideas, although the tricky part is timing.

For example, right now, I want to wait for the current Minecraft build challenge to end so I can include those in any hypothetical list.

As for contests, the hard part with covering those is the amount of them. There have been, roughly, what, 10 Minecraft contests total or so? I don't know off the top of my head, but I'd like that number to be a little higher, since more or less, the contests to date are the same (build something in ______).

Once there have been more, I'll consider that as well.

legacyme3 : Yeah I would definitely wait until the current Minecraft competition is over because there have been some epic builds that have either been finished or will be finished within the next 2 months. You actually might have to make a revised top 10 list for Minecraft builds every few years if I continue to host MC competitions.

Davideo7 :

I've never thought about revising lists, but I just might consider it.

For example, I have a Top 10 Consoles list, but I know the PS4 and WiiU would crack it, if I were to write it today.

legacyme3 : I always love reading top 10 lists and I'm not alone (there's a very successful YouTube channel dedicated to top 10 lists called WatchMojo). Another thing that I and the users of this site also love are vizzed and video games. Any time you can make a list based on one of these things (or even both) is a list that users will be interested in.

I've actually thought about doing my own top 10 lists in the form of YouTube videos but that wouldn't be anything any time soon. Maybe we can do some sort of collaboration eventually in the future.

Davideo7 :

Maybe so.

I actually do watch WatchMojo (though my series started before I knew about them) now, and find them to be more entertaining than videos containing original content, most of the time.

Top 10 lists are addicting.