Fans And Netizens Slam Mnet Over “Queendom Puzzle” Ranking System

Mnet‘s next survival show, Queendom Puzzle, is set to premiere on June 13. Fans of the final line-up have been waiting in anticipation for the show, though there have already been some “evil editing” issues before it aired.

Ahead of the show, the participants split into two groups to perform two songs, “SNAP” and “Charismatic.” As part of the show, each team will release singles and be judged based on the chart performance of the track.

While this is the show’s premise, fans and netizens have strong feelings about the ranking (or tier) system introduced during the show’s preview.

On June 6, an exclusive show preview was shared on Mnet’s official YouTube. The preview showed each contestant arriving on the show’s set and their reactions to the other participants.

After the show’s MC, GIrls’ Generation‘s Taeyeon, is introduced, how the women will be initially ranked is shared.

50% of their ranking would be based on their music show wins, either individually or in their groups, and the other 50% would be based on the highest first-week album sales in the “K-Pop scene.”

Of the four rankings, number one has the best scores for those two categories, while four has the worst.

Rank 1: MOMOLAND’s JooE, Lee Chaeyeon, WJSN’s Yeoreom, Im Do Hwa (also known as AOA’s Chanmi), and Lovelyz’s Kei.
Rank 2: Weeekly’s Jinha, Zoa, Park Soeun, and Lee Soojin, CLC’s Yeeun, LABOUM’s Haein, and PURPLE KISS’s Yuki.
Rank 3: tripleS’s Yoon Seoyeon, Lee Jiwoo, Rocket Punch’s Yeonhee, Suyun, Juri, Chaerin, Bora, and Jiwon.
Rank 4: Weki Meki’s Elly, LIGHTSUM’s Sangha, Miru, Fye, H1-Key’s Hwiseo, woo!ah!’s Nana and Wooyeon

Fans immediately did not like this system, claiming it disadvantaged some participants. For example, Fye, a solo singer and former member of Thailand’s BNK48, and Miru, a former member of Japanese group NMB48, have not won music shows in Korea as they did not debut there, making them rank four.

The idea of using album sales as a manner of ranking has also upset fans, who say they should instead be judged on their talents.

I HATE MNET

WHY THEY SHOULD RANK THEM WITH THIS SICK CATEGORIES https://t.co/eSovz154CA

— 피버스가 씨버스 (@bbomiji93) June 6, 2023

why do they need to be divided like this tho 🙁 https://t.co/6vLXPW5aRg

— َ (@gonlans) June 6, 2023

and when i thought mnet can't be even more cruel… https://t.co/g390wpm7MA

— amam 🩵 (@jangahnkimji) June 6, 2023

Korean netizens also do not like this system and have slammed Mnet in comments online.

• What are they even doing?
• They’re f*cking evil
• .F*cking petty.
• This is bullsh*t. I can’t believe there was not a single person on the production team who thought to stop that.
• Ranking them in their faces? They’re people, though. B*tch, this is f*cking demonic.
• How f*cking evil is this? They’re the bottom-ranking douchebags. Who do they think they are to be putting these girls into tiers and sh*t?
• I swear, Mnet is the meanest of the meanest and the worst of the worst to K-Pop idols. Let us not forget… They f*cked up SO MANY dreams with their past manipulations.
• I’m sure they manipulated the numbers for the ranks, though.
• These satanic, low-life losers.

Netizens support the contestants, however, which can be seen in how they praise WJSN‘s Yeoreom for avoiding evil editing, which you can read about below.

Netizens Applaud WJSN Yeoreum’s Clever Way Of Avoiding Mnet’s “Evil Editing” On “Queendom Puzzle”