Well, boys and girls...the time for the BIGGEST competition in MK5.org/MKO history (and a lil' ol' ziplock bag) has arrived! It's time for the 5th edition of MKO Idol, and if everything goes as planned, this one should be the best one yet (to be honest, I'll probably be stating that every time I do this from here on out ).

For those who aren't familiar with the competition and its rules or for those who have forgotten (shame on you), here's the deal: There will be 100 participants, all vying for the chance to be the next MKO Idol. Who are those 100? They're the ones who asked to be included plus a couple dozen personal picks of mine. The only ones who WON'T participate are past winners, the most recent runner-up (which is why SST can't participate this time but is more than welcome to give it another try next year), those who asked to not be included (plus others who I didn't include for a number of reasons, including not being that active lately -at least that I'm aware of-), and myself.

As I was saying, there are 100 participants. These 100 will be divided into 10 groups of 10. Each group will have 5 matchups, where everybody EXCEPT the 2 individuals involved in the current matchups (and myself, 'natch) can vote for whom they'd like to see move onto the next round. So, if the matchup was Blade-Tsung versus SubScorpTile (MKO Idol 4's Grand Finale), everybody EXCEPT BLT, SST and moi can vote. Also, each group will have one (sometimes 2) "Featured Bouts". There isn't anything special about these matchups except the fact that I PERSONALLY believe that it's an interesting (in other words, tough)matchup. This will go on until there is only ONE individual left. This person will be the 5th MKO Idol.

The new thing about this edition of MKO Idol is what I'm doing with my sig. My sig currently has the names of the 100 participants. 8 of those names will have a blue color, meaning that they are among the current participants. 2 of those names will have a white color. These 2 are the competitors involved in the "Featured Bout". Once the voting period (roughly 48 hours, btw) for each group is over, the 5 winners will change colors once again, this time to yellow, meaning that they have advanced to the next round. When BLT takes over the competition during the week of Nov 20-27 (hope he still wants to), it'll be totally up to him if he wants to do the same thing with the sig. Also, there might be times when I won't be able to end the voting period/announce the next group on time. In those cases, I hope Shingo and/or Shoe can help me out there. If not, volunteers (preferably somebody that ISN'T participating) are welcome.

Before I forget, I should add that this competition DOES serve a purpose: To have a fuckin' good time for the next month and a half. No DPs will be handed out to the winner, and that's a good thing, since basically, this is nothing more than a glorified popularity contest (one that I gotta give props to the higher ups for letting me do yet again). So please, don't take this seriously. If you "lose", it doesn't mean anything at all. Same if you "win". One more thing: When you vote, you DON'T have to explain why you voted for that person. Totally up to you if you want to, but if you do, I'd appreciate it if you kept any personal issues/reasons out of this thread of mine.

This thread has made history before, so let's make history happen one more time

So without further ado, here is Round 1's Group A:

-Kabal20 versus Libra
-travelingwilbury versus devilkiller
-LinkSkywalker versus GreatQueenSindel
-Keith versus DragonEnergy
FEATURED BOUT
-ReggaeGandalf versus Afghanblade


Let the voting....BEGIN!