[Misc] Girl Group Visual Power Rankings IV: Battle Royale (Introduction)

For this edition of Visual Power Rankings, I've decided to go 200% with my most ambitious piece of writing for any rankings yet. This will either be super fun or mentally exhausting...hopefully the former. Anyway what we have here is a pure cheese post as visuals are the most subjective thing to look at in Kpop. We have visual representatives from 64 groups here. I've done some cheating because I had to use defunct groups and duos. The whole "visual vs. face" of the group is kinda silly but in those cases I defaulted to the visual unless it was very extreme. If a group has either no listed visual or multiple visuals, it was my choice of member. For disbanded groups or visuals that left, I usually went with the legacy choice over the most recent visual. An example would be Wonder Girls, where Sohee is the representative as she was the visual longer than Yubin was.

There are four brackets of 16 visuals each. The reason behind using four brackets is so some nugu visual doesn't go up against Naeun early on - makes for more interesting developments within each bracket. They'll combine once a top two are selected from each bracket and make the final bracket. This introductory post will show each set and brackets, as well as each visual's seed within the bracket. To determine seeding, I did a very loose Power Ranking of each group within each bracket. Like any bracket, the 1st seed goes against the 16th seed, the 2nd seed against the 15th, and so on. As for actual content besides picking winners, I don't have much in store. Talking about visual competition is as exciting as talking about the stereotypical Kpop MV: it's boring and repetitive, ultimately serving no purpose besides taking up space. The seeding reads as the #1 to #8 seed from left to right, then #16 to #9 from left to right directly below them so you know what the matchups are.  With all that out of the way, here are the contestants for Visual Power Rankings IV: Battle Royale.

The groups in Queen Bracket are established veterans or highlights of the current generation. Either they were a top girl group during their prime years or are on the up-and-up. Some groups like f(x) and AOA are clearly trending downward now but were extremely popular at some point in their careers. You have classic visual members like Goo Hara and Krystal, along with the renaissance of younger talent like Junghwa and Sowon. This is a deadly bracket for sure.

1. Yoona (Girls' Generation) vs. 16. Jisoo (Black Pink)

2. Sohee (Wonder Girls) vs. 15. Sowon (GFriend)

3. Dara (2NE1) vs. 14. Solar (Mamamoo)

4. Hara (KARA) vs. 13. Irene (Red Velvet)

5. Bora (Sistar) vs. 12. Tzuyu (Twice)

6. Jiyeon (T-ARA) vs. 11. Naeun (Apink)

7. Yura (Girl's Day) vs. 10. Junghwa (EXID)

8. Hyejeong (AOA) vs. 9. Krystal (f(x))

The Relic Bracket is best summarized by wasted potential. Many if not all the groups here never quite made it to the top echelon of girl groups, and have remained in neutral (Hello Venus) or disbanded entirely (Rainbow). Thankfully this is a Visual Power Ranking so we don't care how their group did. Some of the biggest names here are Kyungri, Minhee, and Nana.

1. Gain (Brown Eyed Girls) vs. 16. Nari (Wa$$up)
2. Kyungri (9MUSES) vs. 15. Minhee (Stellar)

3. Jihyun (4minute) vs. 14. Haeryung (BESTie)

4. Minkyung (Davichi) vs. 13. Subin (Dal Shabet)

5. Nana (After School) vs. 12. Rise (Ladies' Code)

6. Jaekyung (Rainbow) vs. 11. Nara (Hello Venus)

7. Jiwon (SPICA) vs. 10. Jei (FIESTAR)

8. Suzy (miss A) vs. 9. Hyosung (Secret)

Rising Bracket contains the star groups of the future. With the exception of Brave Girls (and technically Dreamcatcher) every group is very young. Sonamoo and Lovelyz being one of the oldest, debuting in late 2014. Plenty of heavyweights here including Chaeyeon and Doyeon of DIA and Weki Meki respectively.

1. JiU (Dreamcatcher) vs. 16. Nakyung (fromis_9)
2. Jiae (Lovelyz) vs. 15. Shuhua ((G)-IDLE)
3. Somin (KARD) vs. 14. Chaeyeon (DIA)
4. Nahyun (Sonamoo) vs. 13. Hana (gugudan)
5. Jiyoung (Bolbbalgan4) vs. 12. Kyulkyung (Pristin)
6. Jiho (Oh My Girl) vs. 11. Doyeon (Weki Meki)
7. Yujin (CLC) vs. 10. Yuna (Brave Girls)
8. Bona (Cosmic Girls) vs. 9. Choerry (LOONA)

Here lies representatives from Nugu Bracket. These groups come from a variety of backgrounds but are in the same destination currently: nuguland. Crayon Pop and Momoland don't quite deserve that moniker but with only 16 spots per bracket they had to be bumped down. Finding pictures for a lot of these girls were rough but hopefully I've got 'em all down. You can expect Rui and Yeonwoo to make waves.

1.. Ellin (Crayon Pop) vs. 16. Yun (Poten)
2. Yeonwoo (Momoland) vs. 15. Yujin (Playback)
3. Yuna (KHAN) vs. 14. Hyungeun (Bulldok)
4. Solbin (Laboum) vs. 13. Gaeun (Marmello)
5. Sehyung (Berry Good) vs. 12. Bomin (Good Day)
6. Naeun (April) vs. 11. Sohee (Elris)
7. T-ae (BP Rania) vs. 10. Rui (H.U.B)
8. Eunyong (Purfles) vs. 9. Jerry (Tahiti)

This will come in three parts. First we'll go through the Queen and Relic brackets until there are two representatives from each. Then the remaining two brackets will give us our last four contestants. Lastly, the finale will have all eight in the ultimate bracket to determine who will be the top visual of 2018 - because I sure as hell won't be writing another Visual Power Ranking anytime soon.