Starlight Queen Cup

Starlight Queen Cup (スターライトクイーンカップ) is the most influencial audition at Starlight School, and determines the top idol within the school.

Data Carddass Game
In the Data Carddass game, the cup was held from September 2 until September 30, 2013. The goal of the event is to be the number one ranking idol as seen on the website during the tourament. There are also four stage performances that are being featured in this cup, and those are:

Season 1
In the anime, the cup essentially starts on Episode 46, Respect J☆, where Orihime invites the members of STAR☆ANIS to her office. She tells the eight girls that they will be the participants of the annual Starlight Queen Cup. This excites everyone, since its finally their chance to show if they've caught up with Mizuki. Each and everyone of them begin to train intensively, as the Cup was to begin in a month's time.

Episode 47 is the episode in which the cup officially starts. Mizuki, who was supposed to perform the opening act, fell ill due to having too much work on her plate. As all of her fans are awaiting for her performance, Masquerade suddenly takes the stage in her place and dazzles everyone in the audience with their concert. After resting for awhile, Mizuki then performs her part of the act, and according to Ichigo, "Masquerade and Mizuki-san made this an amazing opening concert!"

In Episode 49, Ichigo receives the Star Festival Coord and the first round of the Starlight Queen Cup begins. After the girls perform "Moonlight Destiny" Mizuki steps onto the stage to announce the winner who will advance to the final round and compete against her for the title of "Starlight Queen." The one who was chosen was none other than Ichigo Hoshimiya. After the results were unveiled, Aoi rushed to the cafeteria to order Ichigo a victory parfait. There, Aoi learns from Kaede that Ichigo is leaving for America right after the cup is over, which was brand new news to Aoi.

In the final episode of the first season,Episode 50, Mizuki and Ichigo go head-on-head in the last performance of the Starlight Queen Cup. Again, they perform "Moonlight Destiny." After the concert, it is revealed the Mizuki won by just a few points. Although Ichigo needs to leave for her flight to America, Mizuki lets her take the encore performance. Ichigo, Aoi, and Ran then perform "Calendar Girl" one last time together. After their performance, Ichigo left to go to the airport, and everyone gave their goodbyes to her. When they all get back to Starlight School, Orihime informs them that another idol has left - Mizuki. She tells them that she left to follow her own ambitions.

Somewhere in between the events of the first and second seasons, another round was held to decide who would be the new Starlight Queen. Aoi reveals that she and Otome were selected to compete against each other to take the spot, and the she was defeated by Otome.

According to the anime, the Starlight Queen cup is limited to middle school.

Season 3
Season 3's Starlight Queen Cup was encapsulated into one episode, which is Episode 124. Akari, Sumire, Hinaki, and Juri competed in this cup but were eliminated in the first round. The loss then inspired them to start preparing for the Season 4 Starlight Queen Cup with Akari, Sumire, and Hinaki declaring each other as rivals to the crown in Episode 125. Akari made an even bolder claim at the end of the episode of promising to Ichigo that she will be Starlight Queen next year. The winner and new Starlight Queen is Sakura Kitaōji. Her ascension to the crown made Powapowa-Puririn the only unit to feature more than one Starlight Queen.

Season 4
The announcement of the Starlight Queen Cup took place in Episode 166. Sumire, Hinaki, and Akari all unveiled new Premium Rare dresses and new songs and stages in the episodes that followed, as well as showing the motivations of Madoka, Rin, Nono and Lisa.

The Queen Cup officially starts in Episode 173, with WM performing the opening act. Starlight also released the performance schedule for all the participants.

Episode 174 marks the first day of the performances with a new grading system. The new grading system uses the old system of Stage Points like in the previous Starlight Queen Cups, but is also weighed together with a Special Appeal Rank. The highest level of the Special Appeals are the Fever Appeals. Appeals are executed depending on audience excitement and immersion. The more the audience is into the performance, the higher rank the appeal may be. However, the Appeals of higher ranks are harder to perform and land - thus carrying a higher risk of failure. Appeals are ranked from C to Special A (SA), with Mizuki making note that she has never seen a SA-rank Fever Appeal. Day 1 ended with Juri in first place, with Lisa coming in second. They are the only two to score an A-rank Fever Appeal on Day 1.

Day 2 was held on Episode 175, with Nono, Rin, and Madoka performing that day. All three had scored an A-rank Fever Appeal, surpassing Lisa but not Juri. The top 5 rankings for Day 2 in descending order is now: Juri, Madoka, Nono, Rin, and Lisa.

Episode 176 shows the first part of Day 3, focusing on the preparations of Akari, Sumire, and Hinaki. Hinaki starts off and wows the audience and takes first place, overtaking Juri and the others. Sumire is next to perform - however in the middle of her performance, she attempts to do a SA-rank Fever Appeal and fails. The episode ends on a cliffhanger right after the end of her performance.

Episode 177 immediately starts right where the last episode leaves off. Sumire gets her score where despite not having a Special Appeal rank, she ranks 7th behind Lisa due to her extremely high Stage Points score and would later fall to 8th in the final rankings. Akari and Sumire have a brief chat before they pass each other. Right as they begin to walk away from each other, Akari squeezes Sumire's hand as they walked away, consoling Sumire. Akari takes to the stage for her performance and successfully performs a SA-rank Fever Appeal and maxing out the Stage Points meter, overtaking Hinaki in the rankings to take the crown. The Starlight Queen Cup ends in the middle of the episode with Akari being crowned the new Starlight Queen by Ichigo Hoshimiya.

Candidates

 * Mizuki Kanzaki (former Starlight Queen)
 * Otome Arisugawa  (former Starlight Queen)
 * Ichigo Hoshimiya (runner-up to Mizuki)
 * Aoi Kiriya (runner-up to Otome)
 * Ran Shibuki
 * Yurika Todo
 * Sakura Kitaoji (former Starlight Queen)
 * Kaede Ichinose
 * Akari Ōzora (current Starlight Queen)
 * Sumire Hikami
 * Hinaki Shinjō (runner-up to Akari)
 * Juri Kurebayashi
 * Rin Kurosawa
 * Madoka Amahane
 * Lisa Shirakaba
 * Nono Daichi

Trivia

 * In Season 1, only the top 8 selected candidates were allowed to participate in the Starlight Queen Cup while in Season 3 and 4, the competition was open to everyone.
 * The Starlight Queen Cup in Season 4 are individual performances with self-chosen songs, while Season 3 is a set song, and Season 1 is a group performance for a set song.
 * All participants in the 3rd Starlight Queen Cup can attempt to pull off a Fever Appeal regardless of Coord.

Season 1

 * First Starlight Queen Cup

Season 3

 * Second Starlight Queen Cup

Season 4

 * Third Starlight Queen Cup - Juri Kurebayashi's Performance