It was an intense battle up until the final seconds. Over 30,000 votes were cast by fans, but in the end, Rand al'Thor defeated Jaime Lannister and won the suvudu cage match... by less than 200 votes.

At one point on Sunday, just hours before the contest ended and fueled by a narrative write-up from George R.R. Martin on his blog, Jaime took a small lead (by about 40 votes). But a last minute rally of fans from the various Facebook and Twitter communities, was enough to push Rand forward one more time.

This morning, after the results had been announced, Brandon Sanderson posted this excellent wrap-up of the event. Here's an excerpt:

You can read the entire post on Brandon's website.

Be sure to also read the suvudu.com wrap-up for the event. Also, we'd like to give a special thanks to suvudu for hosting such a fan event that so many people enjoyed. Maybe next year Rand can come back to defend his title... or let Mat do it in his place. (Quarterstaffs anyone?)