O.V.E.R.L.O.R.D WINNER - Who Was the Worst of 2023?

Daniel Sobey-Harker -

You voted. We saw. Here's the Windscribe O.V.E.R.L.O.R.D 2023 results!

For those that don't know, over the holiday season, we held a little awards show on Twitter/X called the O.V.E.R.L.O.R.D award. The premise was simple: we grouped 32 of the worst people of 2023 (based on both the news and the suggestions of our users across social media) and let you all vote for who the absolute worst was.

So, how did it go?

The Brackets

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ROUND ONE

A strong round but the Russian antics of the past few years has worn everyone's patience pretty thin.

Round one quickly became a classic bout between the US and Russia. While many Americans are irked at the political circus in the White House (to the tune of 29.7% of the votes), everyone's favorite ex-KGB-cum-Dictator Vladimir Putin, took a clear lead with 42.2% of the votes. Special shoutout to Ali Khamenei of Iran, who, despite being up against arguably the two biggest targets in the world, managed to muscle 19.7%; a record to be proud of, y'know, if you're an absolute scumbag.

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ROUND TWO

With Xi in the round, no one stood a chance.

In round two Xi Jinping took the lead rather handily with 55.7% of the votes, and no one else in round 2 seemed to stand a chance here. Personally, I thought we would perhaps see Recep Erdogan put up a bigger fight, mostly due to the restrictions we saw on the Turkish internet during the 2023 earthquake censorship drive. It seems that the GFW continues to draw ire from all over, though, meaning Xi heads into the Semi-Finals with a strong win under his belt.

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ROUND THREE

Shamed sexual trafficker Andrew Tate absolutely destroyed his bracket.

We've dunked on Tate before but for him to so strongly beat out the competition in this bracket tells us that maybe it was deserved. The dude-bro champion of misogyny took 40.4% of the votes; hopefully, we'll hear less of him in 2024.

Everyone's favorite crypto scam artist, SBF, and Canada's very own Mr. Blackface, Justin Trudeau, fought hard for 2nd place with 23.2% and 24% of the vote, respectively.

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ROUND FOUR

It seems the transition on Twitter has been handled poorly, based on these results.

Elon Musk, self-proclaimed savior of free speech, was clearly the most contentious of his round with a strong 57.5% of the votes going to him. It's not all doom and gloom for the man Tesla would be horrified to realize is his "heir", though; this is a relatively soft round, considering many won't have heard of the competition.

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ROUND FIVE

The American round was fun but painfully unbalanced it turns out.

The American-focused round 5 saw Donald Trump take a majority of the votes at 55.3%. Insert Surprised Pikachu face here. What I was slightly surprised to see was the Taylor Swift hate, coming in 2nd at 19.9% of the votes. It's fair to say she's somewhat of a tame media personality compared to the others, but hey, maybe it just represents the environmentalists she's pissed off this year.

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ROUND SIX

I apologize for the fat-fingering typo of Israel here. I had to do this on mobile and, apparently, I type like an old man.

At 41.5% of the votes, Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the Hamas attack and his nonchalance about Israel's response has clearly not been received well. An unpopular figure at the best of times, he moves into the semi-finals. Amusingly, James Corden - despised in his and my home country, the UK, for lukewarm recycled everyman jokes, lack of public personality, and reportedly shitty private personality - managed to beat out some other contentious politicians to take 2nd place with 26.5% of the votes.

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ROUND SEVEN

North Korea has been making the headlines again and for good reason. Making it almost obvious who was going to win here.

I would genuinely be surprised if anyone at all expected any other result in this bracket. Not only are the competitors relatively unknown on the world stage, but Kim Jong Un is at this point a caricature of Shrek villain proportions. With the current situation in North Korea seeing more famine, poverty, and international dick-waving than ever before it's no wonder that the Jack Horner-looking psycho was the most voted for in the opening bracket.

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ROUND EIGHT

It just goes to show that writing children's books is a polarizing profession

I was truly hoping our own founder & leader Yegor Sak would get a little more than 10.6% of the votes, but alas, the meme of a Putin vs Sak showdown in the finale has died in the first round. Instead, J.K Rowling, master of spitting stupid to keep herself relevant even while many HP fans try their best to ignore her, takes an easy win with 46.3% of the votes. The only challenge came from Majorie Taylor Greene; if you don't know who that is, I won't ruin it for you.

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SEMI-FINALS

Unsurprisingly Putin draws ahead. Putting his rivals to shame.

The semi-finals kicked off with Vladdy P making an even more dominating turnout than his first round, this time sitting pretty at 52.9% of the votes. Xi Jinping, who dominated his first round more than Vlad, could only muster second place with a comparatively paltry 20.9%. Musk and Tate bowed out with low numbers, though I find it amusing that Musk got more votes than Tate.

J.K. Rowling just couldn't compete with an actual dictator. She showed so much promise, too.

In a very different event, the second Semi-finals was a closely fought affair. J.K. Rowling was just along for the ride, but Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu gave Kim Jong Un a real fight. But, with 37.4% of the votes, the man who weighs thrice his average countryman advances to the final round.

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FINAL ROUND

Putin walking away with his only prize of 2023.

Kim Jong Un performed admirably (at being a bastard) to make it to the final round, but it was a clear slam dunk for Vladimir Putin with 67.5% of the votes. We officially declare him the O.V.E.R.L.O.R.D villain of the year!

Spoils to the Victors

Congratulations! Our Windscribbles editor, Ben, will promptly be in touch with you to arrange an interview so that you can tell the world exactly how and why you managed to be the single biggest douchebag of 2023!

(During this time, Ben, I strongly recommend you pay close attention to any cups of tea you drink. You never know!)

With the announcement of the contest winner, we will also be in touch with our own winners, the followers of @Windscribecom. We are giving out 204 3-month licenses via DM - chosen at random from those following Windscribecom.

Keep your eyes peeled because if you don't claim your prize within 24 hours it'll go to another person!