If there's anything to be said about how the Miss Earth pageant selects the semi-finalists, that will be that its the MOST transparent, if not necessarily the fairest and most perfect selection process. And when I said it's not necessarily the fairest and most perfect, I only meant to recognize the fact that we have different ideas as to how its applications ought to be.
While most of us are happy and content with the top 2 best performers from each continental-regions earning automatic pass to the semi-finals, to be joined by the next top 10 highest scorers as well as the recipients of the Eco-video and Eco-media awards; there are also those who believed that the top 20 or even just the first top 18 spots must be given exclusively to the actual top 18 based on the scores sheet and let whichever continental group that failed to field a candidate strong enough to make the cut suffer a blackout!
Unlike with Miss World, where we're practically in the dark as to the basis of the selection process other than that the Fast track events' winners earned automatic slots at the top 40 or 30 or 20 semi-finalists; or even with Miss Universe where only 2/3 of the preliminary competitions are being made public, Miss Earth is the only pageant that allowed the public to witness, observe and see for themselves how the girls perform in almost all aspects of the competition since all preliminary rounds , where 95% of the girls' total score are at stakes, are being done publicly, livestreamed and recorded for anyone interested to review and re-watch. as many times as he'she wants.if only to understand or just to came to terms with what happened during the finals' night..
Miss Earth after all also has the easiest elimination process to follow.
For the top 20 slots, all you need to do is to first compare your bet or favorite's performances during the preliminaries to how the other girls from her continental group performed. Was she among the two best performers in her group? If you believed so do you strongly felt that the actual judges agree with you? Bear in mind that the two highest scorers from each continental groups are to be given automatic placements in the top 20!
If you felt that your bet was not among the two highest scorers from her group, then start comparing her performances to the rest of the delegates even to those who belonged to other continental groups as 10 slots are to be given to 10 of the over-all highest scorers. Be careful though and bear in mind that even if your bet seemed to have performed better than the entire contingents of a continental group, their two strongest bets whom your candidate might have eclipsed performance-wise will still be the ones that will make the top 20 again due to the automatic slots afforded each continental group.
Then the last but definitely not the least is through the Automatic passes given to the winners of the major awards - the Best Eco-video and the Eco-media Awards.
Now, not to further rub salts on their wounds nor to justify their supporters allegations that they were robbed or cheated of a placement let us do the re-cap, review and compare the performances of the delegates whose non-inclusion surprised or not surprised us. Namely INDIA, VENEZUELA and UKRAINE.
Of the three it was India's case that was the most interesting as she could have made it via all the routes that could land a candidate a semifinals spot namely via the continental placements (was she really better than the four Asia-Oceanian who made the cut - Guam, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines?) . The actual scoresheets (Do you believed that she should be among the next 10 delegates who earned a slot based on their over-all scores? Do you thinks she scored higher than some of the girls in the top 18 that comes from the other continents?) And /or by winning the two major awards (Was her eco-video better than that of England's and/or her eco-media entries much better than that of Thailand's?).
Let us do the recap and review Misses India Ukraine and Venezuela's performances and compared those performances to the others. This time though let us try to be more rational than emotional as whether we admit it or not, we might have been influenced by their "sash." In the case, again, of India, when we wrote her name in our predictions, was it really because we truly believed that she deserve it or was it because we are just desperate to see India placed again that we ended turning a blind eyes on her weaknesses?
Then of course with Venezuela, did she really deserved to be in the top 20 or was it because we're just so accustomed to seeing a Venezuelan making the cut at ME that we expect them to always make it?
VERSUS
EUROPE
VERSUS
AMERICAS
VERSUS
Beauty of Face and Poise
I thought a lot of us focused to much on judging the girls solely on their beauty of face, while the delegates were also judged (separately) on their poise
Beauty of Figure and Form
Intelligence Round
ECO-VIDEO
VERSUS
A/N: I did not include Ghana and Nigeria on the list as their rankings in the scoresheet did not in anyway affect the others' placement. Even if let say India, Ukraine and Venezuela were ranked as top 17, top 18 and top 19 and Ghana and Nigeria were at the 21st and 22nd or even on the 30th and above positions both Ghana and Nigeria will still advance to the top 20 for being obviously the two highest scorers from Africa
You mean hocus-pocus ?? 
