Last year, RedEye's "Best Character on TV Tourney" crowned Kara "Starbuck" Thrace the ultimate victor.

Photo credit: Justin Stephens/Sci Fi

The first round of voting for this year's Tourney has just opened, but unfortunately they've decided to make last year's winners ineligible, so I you can't go there and vote repeatedly for Starbuck again this year. But there are some other good possibilities.

The tourney is divided into four regions: the George Costanza Region, the Carmela Soprano Region, the Smoking Man Region, and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer region. Guess where our favorite ladies are to be found? (Well, not in the George Costanza Region.)

In the Smoking Man Region, we've got Battlestar Galactica's Number Six (Tricia Helfer) vs. The Shield's Det. Shane Vendrell (Walter Goggins).

Photo credits: Sci Fi/Justin Stephens (Helfer), Prashant Gupta/FX (Goggins)

Well, Six is a super-powerful Cylon with the ability to seduce and manipulate pretty much anybody she wants — plus she plays for our team (half the time). Det. Vendrell is ... who is he? My money's on Six.

Also in the same category is Ugly Betty's Marc St. James (Michael Urie) vs. Friday Night Lights' Tami Taylor (Connie Britton).

Photo credits: ABC/Bob D'Amico (Urie), NBC/Mitchell Haaseth (Britton)

Hmm. I don't quite get this one. I mean, Marc St. James is hilarious and all, but he usually does the bidding of Queen Bitch Wilhelmina (who would have made more sense in this category). And though Tami Taylor certainly has a strong hand at home, she's the kind of mom you'd love to love, not love to hate. If she and Marc were put in a boxing ring and forced to fight, though, I'm pretty sure Marc wouldn't survive for long.

And in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Region (obviously the best one), we have The Riches' Dahlia Malloy (Minnie Driver) vs. 30 Rock's Liz Lemon (Tina Fey).

Photo credit: Michael Becker/FX (Driver), Mary Ellen Mathews/NBC (Fey)

I haven't seen The Riches so I don't know if Dahlia compares to Liz Lemon at all, but I do object to RedEye's description of Liz as being "like a bad hair day." No, she's not! And "mostly she's cranky, strange and messy"? Dear RedEye Staff: Have you ever watched 30 Rock?

I think this calls for an emergency lesbian intervention. AfterEllen.com readers, go to RedEye.com now and vote repeatedly for Liz Lemon. The first round of voting closes on Friday, May 9! And if you were creating your own Best TV Character Tourney, who would you choose?