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The Pits 2022: Results!

You voted. We tallied. And now the results are in. Here are The Avocado’s favourite media works of 2022.

  • First choices received 10 points, second choices received 9 points, etc.
  • All choices on unranked ballots received 5 points.
  • Ballots with only a single choice were treated as ranked ballots.
  • If I compiled the votes (books, podcasts/video, anime, video games), ties were broken first by total number of votes, then by number of 1st choices, 2nd choices, 3rd choices, etc., then by virtual coin flip. Other compilers may have used different tiebreaking rules.

But Merve, how did you flip a coin in a 3-way tie? Or a 4-way tie? The way the “coin flip” was operationalized was by drawing a random number from U[0,1] for each title that received a vote, and in the event of being tied on all aforementioned vote metrics, titles were sorted in descending order of that random number. This is equivalent to flipping a coin in the event of a 2-way tie, rolling a tetrahedral die in the event of a 4-way tie, etc.

Film

Hosted by El Santo [Ballots | Detailed results]

Robot Choice Award – Best Film of 2022

There was a clear winner this, with a whopping 232-point lead over the runner-up. Congratulations to Everything Everywhere All at Once!!!!

Also a big congratulations to our runner-up, Nope!

  1. Glass Onion
  2. Turning Red
  3. The Northman
  4. Top Gun: Maverick
  5. The Batman
  6. The Banshees of Inisherin and The Fablemans (tied)
  7. Tár
  8. RRR

Best Film of 2021

We also voted on the retrospective best film of 2021, and you can’t “dunc” on the winner: Dune: Part One!!!! The runner-up was Pig.

  1. The Power of the Dog
  2. Drive My Car
  3. The Suicide Squad
  4. The French Dispatch
  5. The Worst Person In the World
  6. The Green Knight
  7. Spider-Man: No Way Home
  8. West Side Story

Television

Hosted by Owen1120 [Ballots | Detailed results]

Best Drama

Leading the pack with 234 points, it’s fan-favourite Andor!!!! Also, congratulations to the runner-up, Better Call Saul.

  1. Severance
  2. The Bear
  3. The White Lotus
  4. The Sandman
  5. Stranger Things
  6. Yellowjackets
  7. House of the Dragon
  8. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Fun fact: Better Call Saul received the highest average rating, but Andor received the most votes.

Best Comedy

After two straight years of victory, What We Do in the Shadows was dethroned. This year’s winner is a stone-cold killer: it’s Barry!!!! The runner-up was The Rehearsal.

  1. What We Do in the Shadows
  2. Atlanta
  3. Only Murders in the Building
  4. Peacemaker
  5. Abbott Elementary
  6. Reservation Dogs
  7. Our Flag Means Death
  8. Hacks

Fun fact: Reservation Dogs received the highest average rating, but Barry received the most votes.

Books

Hosted by Warmerdam [Ballots | Detailed results]

This was a close one. The winner had 57 points, while the runner-up had 50. Coming out on top, Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Following closely, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

  1. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
  2. Fairy Tale by Stephen King
  3. Babel: Or, The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by RF Kuang
  4. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
  5. The Language of Seabirds by Will Taylor
  6. The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón
  7. Ducks by Kate Beaton
  8. Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Music

Hosted by Apples [Ballots]

Best Album

The competition was fierce, but Big Thief’s Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You came out on top!!!! Beach House’s Once Twice Melody came in second.

  1. Alvvays – Blue Rev
  2. Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers
  3. Angel Olsen – Big Time
  4. Beyoncé – Renaissance
  5. Danger Mouse/Black Thought – Cheat Codes
  6. Mitski – Laurel Hell
  7. The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field
  8. Florence + the Machine – Dance Fever

Best Song

They had one of the best albums of the year, and they also have the best song: congratulations to Alvvays for “Belinda Says”!!!! The runner-up was “Concrete over Water” by Jockstrap.

  1. Kendrick Lamar – “The Heart Part 5”
  2. Beach House – “Hurts to Love”
  3. Beyoncé – “Break My Soul”
  4. Beabadoobee – “Talk”
  5. Lizzo – “About Damn Time”
  6. Kendrick Lamar – “N95”
  7. Maggie Rogers – “Anywhere With You”
  8. Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero”

Best Live Show

There was a clear winner in this category, and it was everyone’s favourite masked cowboy, Orville Peck!!!!

The other shows to receive votes were Girl Talk, Spoon, and Black Midi.

Anime

Hosted by Lutair [Ballots | Detailed results]

Miyazaki Award for Best Anime Film

This was a squeaker, with the winner beating the runner-up by just one point. Second and third place were tied, with the tie broken by the number of first-place votes. The winner was none other than shōnen favourite Jujutsu Kaisen 0!!!! And coming in second by a hair, Laid Back Camp Movie.

  1. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
  2. Belle
  3. Inu-Oh
  4. One Piece Film Red
  5. Fruits Basket – prelude –
  6. Goodbye, Don Glees
  7. Drifting Home
  8. Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island

Watanabe Award for Best Anime Series

This contest, on the other hand, was not close. With a 30-point lead over the runner-up, the victor was SPY×FAMILY!!!! Coming in second was dark horse candidate Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.

  1. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
  2. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
  3. Chainsaw Man
  4. Bocchi the Rock!
  5. Lycoris Recoil
  6. Mob Psycho 100
  7. Sasaki and Miyano
  8. Ya Boy Kongming!

Comics

Hosted by Mister Splendiferous [Ballots]

Kirby Award for Best Comic Book

It’s superheroes galore! Coming in first place with 47 points is Nightwing!!!! The runner-up is The Flash at 41 points, followed by Batman/Superman: World’s Finest in third place at 31 points. A big congratulations to all!

Mary Worth Award for Best Comic Strip or Web Comic

These results should come as no surprise to the degenerates of the Comic Strip Club. Coming in 1st with 96 points, we have perennial winner Wallace the Brave!!!! Next, in second place at 81 points, we have Sally Forth. And rounding out the top 3 at 44 points, coming off a particularly strong year, there’s Pooch Cafe! Congrats to all the winners!

Podcasts and Online Video

Hosted by MrsLangdonAlger [Ballots | Detailed Results]

Best Podcast

There was a was clear winner here, and it wasn’t even close. More than doubling the score of the runner-up with a whopping 88 points, we have Blank Check!!!! And eking out the runner-up spot by a single point, we have Comedy Bang Bang with 41 points.

  1. Knowledge Fight
  2. Revolutions
  3. Behind the Bastards
  4. Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
  5. A More Civilized Age
  6. The Weekly Planet
  7. You Must Remember This
  8. Maintenance Phase

Best in Online Video

This was a much closer contest. Coming in first place at 39 points was Jenny Nicholson!!!! And in second place at 34 points was Defunctland.

  1. Todd in the Shadows
  2. 3Dbotmaker
  3. Mr. Sunday Movies
  4. Scott the Woz
  5. Noah Caldwell-Gervais
  6. Scott Manley
  7. Ryan George/Pitch Meeting
  8. Game Maker’s Toolkit

Video Games

Hosted by Merve [Ballots | Detailed results]

Brenda Romero Award for the Best Game of 2022

This wasn’t even close. With a whopping 63-point lead over second place, at 149 points we have open-world RPG Elden Ring!!!! Congratulations to FromSoftware! And in second place at 86 points, we have delightful platformer Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Congrats to HAL Laboratory!

  1. God of War Ragnarök
  2. Horizon Forbidden West
  3. Stray
  4. Pentiment
  5. NORCO
  6. Vampire Survivors
  7. Neon White
  8. Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Fun fact: Elden Ring received both the most votes (17) and the most first-place votes (10). The next most first-place votes garnered by a single game was 4 for Horizon Forbidden West.

John Romero Award for the Retrospective Best Game of 2021

The top two remain the same as last year. In first place at 47 points is Psychonauts 2!!!! And in second place at 37 points is Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy!

  1. Metroid Dread
  2. Sable
  3. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
  4. The Forgotten City
  5. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
  6. Bravely Default II
  7. New Pokémon Snap
  8. Hitman 3

Fun fact: Psychonauts 2 and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy both received the same number of votes (6), but the former received higher overall scores.

Commenting

Hosted by Merve [Votes]

Our annual awards show wouldn’t be complete without taking a second to honour you, the community. We have 29 awards to hand out, plus Hall of Fame inductions.

Let’s get to the awards!1

  1. Best Discovery: Tie between Star Trek: Lower Decks, recommended by lyona5 and Dan Pierce, and For All Mankind, recommended by multiple people [13 votes each]
  2. Best Comment — Funny: My My My with a great Flowers for Algernon reference [29 votes]
  1. Best Comment — Serious: Agnew showing an academic citation for one of his articles on The Avocado [35 votes]
  1. Best Conversation: Edgar Allan Hoe, Wasp, space, and Nate the Lesser with an exchange about a smutty Christmas movie [12 votes]
  1. Best Use of The Avocado as a Response: Herniated Disqus burns us all [9 votes]
  1. Best Username — Regular: Uncanny Valet [16 votes]
  2. Best Username — Holiday: Warmerdam with Walking in a Winter Warmerdam [16 votes]
  3. Best Avatar: Jon Bovine’s holiday avatar [6 votes]
  1. Best Gimmick Account: Oh No! Beta! [3 votes]
  2. Best Pet Photo: Holly Jolly Giggle Fits’s dog Zoey in a Celtics uniform [21 votes]
  1. Best Photoshop Job: Disquified’s edit of a famous painting [14 votes]
  1. Best OT or PT Header: Tie between Robert Maitland, Architect‘s OT header about the L.A. DWP building and Kevzero‘s OT header about Ponyhenge [3 votes each]
  2. Covfefening of the Year — Best PT Meme Spiral: The Butt Spiral was ineligible, since it happened in 2021, but it was the only nominee, so it wins for the second year in a row. Please meme harder in 2023, PT denizens. [0 votes]
  3. The Train Sandwich Award — Best OT Meme Spiral: The one where we all posted old pictures of ourselves (surprisingly not a Friends episode) [6 votes]
  4. Best Recurring Thread: Color Outside the Lines [18 votes]
  5. Best One-Off Thread: Black Women Making Music by Headphone Princess [11 votes]
  6. Best Avocado Tournament: Tie between Best Video Game Songs 2013-2016, run by Katie, and Best Female+ Voice, run by Louie Blue [7 votes each]
  7. Best 30-Day Challenge: Day 6, Twilight Zone, from the 30-Day Horror Challenge [2 votes]
  8. Best Werewolf Game: Whose Line, run by sic humor [10 votes]
  9. Best Rabbit Screening: Night and Rust: A Film Noir Series by Wolfman Jew [7 votes]
  10. Best Live-Chat: World Cup Final by Kajigger Desu [12 votes]
  11. Best Review: Review of A League of the Their Own by Lovely Bones [18 votes]
  12. Best Spotlight: Nudeador Viking the Third’s LUUUUNCH “spotlight,” which isn’t really a Spotlight article. Nonetheless, it did garner the most votes, and I must respect the will of the people. [8 votes]
  13. Best Original Media for The Avocado: The PT artwork contributions of Disquified [22 votes]
  14. Best Recipe: Overcat’s turkey breast recipe becoming the Thanksgiving tradition for Colonel Mustard [11 votes]
  15. The Ack-Ack Memorial Kindest Commenter Award: Ice Cream Planet [25 votes]
  16. Best Buds: Headphone Princess and Scarlet1815, media buds [20 votes]
  17. Best Rookie: Eleanor [15 votes]
  18. The Holy Guacamole Lifetime Shitposting Achievement Award for Most Active Commenter: Joey Blowey [14 votes]

And now it’s time for the Hall of Fame inductions. We have a record 11 inductions this year!

  • SadClown, for his hard work with the LGBTQ+ threads and his thoughtful analysis of queer media
  • This Time, It’s Personal, for helping hold the community to account for sexism and misogyny
  • Hatopher, for providing alternate and international perspectives to the Politics Thread
  • exexalien, for his hard work with the Weekly Music Threads and cultivating the Musicado community
  • Agnew, for his hard work with the History Threads and for being a general fount of knowledge for the Politics Thread
  • Katie, for managing the video game music tournaments and writing the very detailed One Giant Leap column
  • Headphone Princess, for Clampost wrangling, providing amazing music, and being a voice of reason
  • Immortan Scott, for being the go-to voice for movie opinions, having cute dogs, and being a nice, thoughtful person
  • forget_it_jake, for running multiple daily and weekly threads, as well as multiple Werewolf games
  • Lovely Bones, for running the comprehensive Games New Roundup column
  • Andy Tuttle, for running Tuesday New Games, particularly its historical overview section

And that concludes the 2022 edition of The Pits! Before we go, a big thank you to all the topic leaders for running their respective categories, diligently filling out spreadsheets, and compiling results. This would not have been possible without you! And also thank you to the community for another great year here at The Avocado. It’s been fun shitposting with all of you. See y’all in 2023!