As you can see in the image, the Patreon poll was pretty one-sided, the Fanbox people showed Yawen some love. In the end the the votes were roughly 65% Shantae and 35% Yawen, which at least told me both characters are popular enough to be considered as participants. And since noone (except me) knows which fighter got replaced by taking in Yawen ... win-win for everyone? :D
As a side note, should I do such a tournament again in the future, I might just give ~16 possible participants, and people can then vote which of these will participate. That makes it easier on my part (as I then KNOW all the characters and their fighting style), and you (the supporters) have more control who will participate in the end. We learn as we go! :)
The full tournament tree will get published on Monday.