JJOCT7 R2M18 Quality

Judge Gregor Samsa (Logic)

This is a pretty straightforward matchup, all things considered. Steric is a CQC specialist with multiple unique means of redirection and disarmament, while Marcus is stance-changing scaler. The swarms of flies are a stage hazard, but one Marcus must contend with if he wants to scale. While a standard midrange (10-20m across) stage could suffice, the emphasis on verticality is a CPU Special, as Steric can summon a handhold wherever, while Marcus has some really nasty movement potential with blood.

That said, I'll reiterate my usual concerns about absolute and relative positioning, the concerns that often have led me to give strats 6 Quals. (Planning/Logistics) While Steric is understandably agnostic about his exact positioning given his more pursuit oriented tactics, many of his tactics rely on having particular material nearby (pipes, concrete) and given broader issues of prioritization across tasks and resources, exacerbating my Planning/Logistical concerns. By taking defensive positioning, Marcus has more absolute knowledge of what's near him...but he doesn't really discuss it, despite using a weapon whose reach can be a hazard in tight spaces.

Starting with PINDROP, a few comments on length and Formatting. While 31k is not so high over the softcap to warrant Conduct demerits, much of my Quality comments interface with this length. There were some sentences I found unnecessary (bullet points dedicated to information available from the match itself) and a few phrases that I think could be rewritten for concision, but the thrust of my concern is that many tactics are all clumped together.

This can partially be solved by breaking up (particularly large) paragraphs and creating subsections—for example, the Blood Constructs section could open with the generalist tactics and then subdivide into Sensors/Programming, Adhesives, and Spikes—but as is, the text can occasionally become rambly, mudding the specific points and priorities. (Planning/Formatting) As a result, the strat seems to aim for a kind of modularity after an initial skirmish, but is so full of tech and tactics that it’s hard to synchronize them in space (see my usual comments on positioning) and in time. (Logistics/Planning)

However, I cannot emphasize enough how much tech and tactics there are here. Kratangg (which I now realize is the sound of a khopesh grinding against concrete before bashing into metal) effectively looked at every aspect of Steric’s kit and every aspect of Marcus’s kit and drew lines labeled “Here’s how I beat you” from the former to the latter. I find myself genuinely impressed by creativity and circumspect on display in using every tool available to keep Steric safe and Marcus on the back foot. (Competency/Technical/Creative/Counterplay).

I’ll admit as I come to the end of the strat and its finishers, I had my concerns whether the text would cohere, but there’s a kind of mastery on display here. While it doesn’t reach the Formating/Logistical aplomb of Dawn/Chase R2M12, this strat writing is certainly scratching at it, and with a few more iterations, can hit the expressive peaks it’s clawing for. A high [7].

Good job, now let’s see Paul Allen’s card.

I have less to comment on Marcus’s strat, but not for lack of praise. The plan is very competently laid out: go to the bottom floor to scale, minimize Steric’s angles of approach and attack, before going on the offensive. (Planning/Competency/Logistics) My main comments come down to the CQC effort itself. I think it’s eminently competent, but given an opponent as specced for misdirection, the section relies on a more linear fight and first order thinking than it may get—the fact that Phantom can spawn on any surface within range is a challenge worth addressing. (Logistics/Competency/Counterplay)

Mind, and as I’ll discuss in Jojolity, the strat evidently stands on its own merits for those first sections, to the tune of a high [7].

Judge Takeshi Hongo (Alpha)

Going into this, I was almost certain that the levels between pipes would have me switching tabs to check match information on the fly while trying my bestest to get everything else done on top of that. I’m very glad that neither strat made me look that far into it.

I’ll start with Pindrop! From a formatting perspective, your approach to this strat reminded me a lot of a solid brick-and-mortar wall! While I didn’t spend too much time scaling that wall, I will say that formatting a strat in that sort of way may be daunting for voters, but I won’t say anything else past that.

A minor gripe I have with the strat itself is the idea of coating Steric in blood and viscera in the first major section, followed by Steric wanting to avoid getting covered in blood. I understand that the difference between the former and latter is that the former is the blood carried by the horseflies, where the latter is Udon’s blood constructs, but I snagged my toes on it on first blush.

Onto the meat, we have a VERY Solid strat! Much like its formatting, it is a brick wall, though its actions contradict its shape! Your motion to immediately play the fast game and spiderman your way around the arena to avoid having to deal with the foot-based maneuvering of pipes handily avoids giving me and the players more fact-checking to do, and it makes for great setpieces!

From the spinning blade-arm of doom off of Steric’s rotator cuff to the rotating arm of doom anywhere system, and back to just straight-up ranning into Udon until he is good and dispersed, the match is kept at a feverish high from front to back, with very little left on the table for me to poke at.

I’ll also make mention of your consistent, if not constant, flash-based tech to annoy and disorient the enemy, be they bug, beast, or stand. The combination of this and your own mobility between layers or around layers makes for a very interesting third dimension to the fight!

I feel altogether fine giving this strat an **8**!

Alright, onto Cause for Concern!

You have a voice here that shines through the strat from start to finish. It’s loud, it’s evocative, and in places, it’s poignant. It knows exactly what it wants to be, what it’s here to do, and why it’s here. I can respect that.

Possibly because of this near-singular-tone, the strat exists in a world where all of its moving parts are held together by some very efficient glue. It’s often hard to not lose one for the other when handling this in motion, so it’s very good work in practice!

As for the whys, hows, dotted ‘i’s and crossed ‘t’s, I’ll try to be brief. The early parts of the strat seem to meander where the later parts try to pick up the pace, but the meandering is an almost omnipresent force, as it is The Beast himself, Marcus. He is used for his spare blood, and left to his own devices for the majority of the moving pieces, but in the early work, this feels more like a plodding factor than a boon.

The plays centering on keeping the Ball of Bleeding alive via coating its fur with its own blood, and elsewise using that blood to make mallets, traps, adhesives, and nets are very well done and spread neatly across the strategy, and I feel that nothing is really out of place. Like the voice, it knows what it is and what it needs to be to get things done.

All in all, I can give this an **8**.

Judge Seth Brundle (Extra)

Starting with Steric, I'm gonna keep this extremely brief. This is a truly disgusting piece of absolute artistry. There's simply so much carefully crafted tech, all joined together with compelling narrative to create a near-perfect plan to handle the beast opposite. You pick your battles carefully, walking the delicate tightrope of being aggressive enough to limit Marcus' scaling but not so aggressive as to give him any chance to rack up damage. You handle the stage masterfully, with plans to enhance your own mobility and reduce your opponents' and you make excellent use of stealth in the cramped, crowded environment by keeping out of sight and leveraging the stage hazard to make yourself difficult to detect with Marcus's keen smell. You've prepared for almost anything here - in my opinion, more than well enough to earn yourself a **9/10.**

Moving on to Marcus, the gameplan here is much more straightforward, though no worse for it. Befitting a beast, Marcus wants to wait until the fight is on his terms and then end it quickly. The blood needles are excellent for interference, as is the adhesive to help keep Steric locked down to some extent, buying you a little more time to harvest blood. The actual confrontation itself is a little bit barebones, and could probably have used slightly more fleshing out, but the base plan of "bait the parry and punish" holds water. All in all, eminently solid work, worthy of an **8/10**