And with that, the 2025 #BestVidyaGirlContest is TRULY over – however, I did want to set up one final poll, to decide just what kind of tournament we will have next year. The thing is that @stoner713 came up with a really interesting variation on the typical vidya waifu tournament, namely a Best Vidya Waifu Duo tournament. This also fits in nicely with the fact that this whole tournament is inspired by the GameFAQs Character Battles, because they’ve actually done similar things over the years (like a Best Villain Contest and a Best Rivalry Contest).

So essentially, for 2026 I was thinking of going with one of the following 2 options:

- A standard 1v1 Best Vidya Girl Contest, with former champions Samus and Fio Germi retired from the tournament. In order to spice things up however, there will be NO auto-qualified girls, all 32 girls appearing in the tournament will have to qualify through the Nomination Thread and/or the Qualifying Poll. After main tournament has ended and the 2026 Champion has been crowned, there will be an additional mini-tournament of sorts starring the two previous champions, as well as the two 2026 finalists, who will fight for the title of 2026 Grand Champion.

- A brand new Best Vidya Waifu Duo tournament. The regular rules will still apply, including franchise caps, but now the girls will be competing in pairs. Any kind of relationship between the girls are grounds for qualifying as a duo (be they family, friends, rivals, enemies, meme pairings or even engaging in Forbidden Love), there just needs to be a fair few pictures (Not AI) out there of the girls together.

Samus and Fio Germi will remain retired. Due to the existence of Smash Bros, there are a number of girls who Samus could plausibly Carry to a trophy despite the lack of a canonical relationship, so I think she should be kept out of it. And if Samus is out, I think it’s only fair that Fio Germi also be removed, since she already had the chance to take full advantage of a Samus-less tournament. And I see that Metal Slug *does* have other girls for Eri Kasamoto to pair up with, so I don’t think this completely screws the blonde over.

Obviously, the big advantage of this format is that it lets way more girls get their time in the spotlight, 64 girls instead of the regular 32 – because yeah, no girl will be allowed to appear in multiple pairings. So if Pyra/Mythra qualifies (and I’m thinking that it will…), pairings like Pyra/Glimmer or Mythra/Brighid will be ineligible. I personally think this could make for a lot of interesting and even surprising pairings, not to mention matches.

But anyways, I will let you guys decide what we’re going with for 2026, personally I’m really liking the Vidya Waifu Duo idea, but I have no reservations about setting up a 4th 1v1 Best Vidya Girl Contest as well.