It took 5 rounds but we finally had a Linux Mint DE exit Distro Madness. Of course it only happened once every other distro had been eliminated, but it still happened.
Our semifinal matchups were not particularly close in the end. I can’t say I was surprised by the result for Cinnamon vs LMDE. LMDE evolved as a backup plan and I think that it tends to be viewed as such by many. That’s not to diminish LMDE in any way, I think it serves a very important purpose, but I don’t think that you can call the result a surprise.
The dominance of Mate over XFCE was a bit more of a surprise to me, both had been equally dominant leading up to the semifinal so I expected a little more competition. Given this result I honestly don’t know what to expect in this final matchup but I am excited to finally be able to choose our champion. As always thanks for the participation and support.