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On July 2, WJSN aka Cosmic Girls were officially crowned as the winners of Queendom 2 beating LOONA, Brave Girls, Kep1er, VIVIZ, and Hyolyn. However, their win has received considerable flak, with netizens raising suspicions over score manipulation.
After the episode, an anonymous post on social media demanded that Mnet (network) reveal the raw data and outline criteria for scoring.
Netizens further demanded answers regarding the finale, which included the following concerns - revealing the total number of streams that accounted for the scores and the total number of live votes. Besides that, fans want to know why the YouTube scores changed.
WJSN’s title win sparks 'score manipulation’ debate amongst netizens
Netizens are convinced that the "overlapping streaming" scores were subtracted from all the groups except for WJSN. Not only that, netizens also allege that Mnet is in cahoots with the group’s label Starship and thus the thirteen-member group received preferential treatment over others.
According to Mnet, the winners were to be determined on the basis of firstly, the total score from YouTube’s pre-competition score, secondly, as per fans’ choice, thirdly, comeback music score on Spotify and fourthly, live voting by fans.
As per the finale, the UNNATURAL singers grabbed the winner’s spot after consistently securing the top rank. The talented 13 member group scored 81,020 points, runner-ups LOONA scored 77,988 points, VIVIZ ranked with 54,419 points, Hyolyn scored 48,761 points, Kep1er ranked fifth with 46,976 points, and finally Brave Girls scored 45,896 points.
However, netizens allege that the scores were manipulated and switched with other groups to put the BUTTERFLY singers at the top.
You can check out netizens’ reactions below:
While Ujungs (fandom) defended their idols against score manipulation claims, some other fans from the fandom refrained from commenting, fearing that further delibration of the controversy will cause more damage to the artist.
WJSN announce July comeback with a summery teaser
Netizens may continue debating over the authenticity of As You Wish hitmakers’ Queendom win, but the girls however remain unfazed as they announced that they will be making their highly anticipated comeback on July 5.
On June 2, post their title win, the UNNATURAL singers revealed a soothing, summery teaser for their upcoming unnamed album. Based on the teaser photo, the talented idols may be planning an ocean-themed summer concept.
This marks their first official comeback since its release of UNNATURAL in March of 2021. Although they did not reveal more details about their return, the date has been set for July 5 at 6 pm KST (2:30 pm IST).
