The final stage of the Summer 2006 Contest will be a six-character Battle Royale.

The winning male character (Solid Snake) and winning female character (Samus Aran) will join the members of last year's Tournament of Champions (Link, Cloud, Sephiroth and Mario) for five extra matches. On the first day, voters will have to choose between all six. Whichever character has the lowest vote total at the end will be eliminated, and the following day the process is repeated with the remaining five. On the final day, the last two characters will battle it out for the ultimate prize.

Yes, it's probably going to be Link and Cloud. Again.

Battle Royale is also the title of a Japanese novel, adapted into a film and manga series, which is moderately popular on Board 8. Set in an overpopulated future Japan where gangs of unruly teenagers terrorise the populace, it involves a class of students who are kidnapped, taken to an island, and forced to kill each other off until only one remains.

It's rather violent, and bloody brilliant.