Zircon, the mighty, yet usually tiny, timelord served as the runner-up to MinCup’s inaugural winner olivine in 2017. It also nabbed second place against fluorite in 2022. In between, zircon competed in every MinCup, finishing with enough votes to ensure a return in next year’s cup but never enough to take the championship.

In 2023, zircon started the final battle with a sizeable lead, but was overtaken by perovskite once that mineral’s fanbase started an extensive mobilization campaign on and off-line. Both contestants had the top spot throughout the 24 hour voting period, with repeated flips making it clear that every vote would matter. Zircon’s defenders posted, memed, and giffed until their fingers were sore, while also “encouraging” their non-mineralcup adjacent friends/family/neighbors/coworkers/students to vote for zircon.

With a margin of just 61 votes, zircon bested perovskite to finally claim the Mineral Cup 2023 championship. Rest, tiny friend, there are whispers of a battle royal involving MinCup’s champions in the not-so-distant future!