Today, on September 21st,�AKB48 held their special "AKB48 19th Single Senbatsu Jyan Ken Taikai" event at Tokyo Budokan.� The event was held to select the featured singers for the upcoming December 8th single, and they did so through a series of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" matches.

The matches were between the 47 regular members of AKB48 and four of the research students for the group, for a total of 51 competing members (Ono Erena declined to participate).� All of the members competing were fighting it out for the center position,� a much coveted spot in a group with so many members.� After about three hours of brutal competition, Team K's Uchida Mayumi came out on top and earned herself the center spot for the first time.

Fan favorite Ohshima Yuko, who won first place in the June elections, was eliminated from the competition in the very first round.� Other favorites, Shinoda Mariko, Watanabe Mayu, Itano Tomomi, and Takahashi Minami didn't even make it to the top 16. Maeda Atsuko just barely made it into the selections at 15th place. The method of leaving the selections of members up to chance has certainly brought new members into the spotlight for their chance to shine.

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The 19th single participating members are as follows:

1?Uchida Mayumi?Team K?
2?Ishida Haruka?Team B?
3?Kojima Haruna?Team A?
4?Nakagawa Haruka?Team A?
5?Maeda Ami?Team A?
6?Sato Sumire?Team B?
7?Sato Natsuki?Team B?
8?Takajou Aki?Team A?
9?Nakatsuka Tomomi?Team K?
10?Kuramochi Asuka?Team A?
11?Kobayashi Kana?Team B?
12?Tanabe Miku?Team K?
13?Kasai Tomomi?Team B?
14?Matsui Sakiko?Team K?
15?Maeda Atsuko?Team A?
16?Chikano Rina?Team B?

Source: natalie