JJOCT7 R5M5 Quality

Judge Minos (Logic)

Bit of a shorter delib, but this match is pretty straightforward. Both Kid and Brighid have terrain based setplay, wanting to let their Stands fight as the users keep their distance. However, Kid’s setup is contingent on his offense, needing charge into battle, but being rewarded by the ability to continue the engagement on improved terms. By contrast, Brighid’s ability to shift between engaging and scaling gives her a smoother, more adaptive power curve.

In light of my high level match analysis, I also want to talk about the Revenants which were meant to texture the match, but not overwhelm it. The players cordoning interplay with them to section more secondary to their engagement with their opponent may warrant a scratching at, but in light of that higher level analysis, I ultimately think it comes out in the wash, and, indeed, Kid and Brighid both play roughly as anticipated.

The former’s strat is built around offense (Planning), grabbing the scantest bit of armor then covering his charge with projectiles (Competency), looking to turn melee combat into a blender—the use of various items to enable area coverage is well noted (Competency/Creativity). However, for all the aggressive positioning and awareness of getting corralled into bad positions, there’s not as much specificity with regards to Brighid’s potential defensive setup (Counterplay). If Brighid manages to make space, Kid’s path to her could require more response than suppressive fire, especially such delays risk “[wearing] himself out quickly and [being] forced to take breathers and pace himself out.” (Logistics/Counterplay)

The latter’s strat looks to slow the match pace through setup and overloading Kid’s mental stack through the Dead End (Planning). Given the swathe of geyster manipulation in the terrain, on ODA, and on Brighid and the specificity in its use—taking noted aim at KYO’s knockout button—I think the technique is incredibly effective if it goes off (Competency/Technical). However, the specificity of its setup and execution is a bit trickier in practice (Logistics). I’ve often talked of the difficulty of spanning space, and while the zone is limited to a ~10x10m area, it applies here, especially when much of the setup is somewhat agnostic to Kid’s specific pathing. This doesn’t sink the strategy, but Dead End’s efficacy is somewhat variable on a moment to moment basis.

Both strats have some Logistical inefficiencies that I may talk about were I a voter—Kid’s strat mentioned having access to plane materials “within arm’s reach” when his position is definitionally conditional on Brighid’s, Brighid’s timing and positioning are a bit more nebulous than I would like in some sections—but ultimately the strats’ core structure still stands and their theses are well expressed: [7]s.

It’s always fun to throw the knife between once allies, good job!

Judge Rhadamanthus (Yuri)

Hi! Judge Yuri here! This is the kind of match I wouldn’t normally be delibbing due to bias reasons. However, as it turns out, I’m so insanely biased for both of these characters that it winds up canceling out into a perfect neutral. Ain’t that somethin! This is absolutely a match that lives up to the hype, both in terms of the wonderful character writing on display and the fantastic mechanics. But that’s enough stalling - let’s get to those SCORES.

Starting with Gallery since that’s the first one I saw. Your opener is pretty damn solid! Brighid goes for efficiency above all else, which is fair, given the speed at which your opponent is going to run you down. A quick slice on the plane to dissuade an immediate rushdown, and some quick resource gathering. None of it feels like it’s pushing the amount you can get done before having to worry about Kid. Of course, that’s all just appetizers to the actual main course of this strategy - the Dead End.

Now, this is an interesting piece of tech, especially for this match. It is a hell of a gambit to go up against a character who’s torn through the roster through sheer environmental destruction and manipulation and attempt to do that better than him. But by golly do you pull it off - Dead End is believable and brutal to be thrust into. It’s an excellent way to completely cut off Kid’s momentum. You keep a good distance in mind, moving Brighid out of harm’s way while keeping Kid buffered by blood sprays. There’s some really really strong leveraging of his 1 endurance here; you lock in on his weak point and don’t let up once. I’m not *super* sure how I feel about the assertion that the dead end can easily wash away all of Kid’s water, though - he’s pretty damn good at getting that stuff around. Still, it can probably do a decent amount to keep things clean.

You prepare well for a long fight, and keep Kid at a lethal long range to exploit his lack of energy and tear him down bit by bit. I don’t really have any outstanding complaints - you handle the revenants well enough, and you pay enough respect to how brutal Kid is to keep yourself safe from his inevitable onslaught. I would’ve liked a little more on Brighid’s on movement, particularly on how she moves in to deliver knockout blows on Kid and KYO without getting wasted, but all in all this is a solid, well written strat. You get an **8**!

Onto the KING HIMSELF!!!!! I’ll go into this more on jojolity, but the writing is here is super stellar as per usual. King Savage has pushed himself up to a high standard of quality and held to it - only to be expected of royalty. This strat reads *angry as hell.* Your setup is quick and easy, scooping up some metal from the plane, and that’s certainly pretty doable. You don’t waste time or mince words - you get straight to the good stuff in the form of the One Man Firing Squad. You can only imagine how much it would hurt to be on the receiving end of that, and more importantly, it answers Kid’s poor precision with a shotgun spread that makes it far easier for him to target the inevitably slippery Brighid. Your treatment of the revenant is extremely confident, but it doesn’t come off as too happy path - Kid probably could smack them around like that, actually, and more importantly, corralling Brighid into the Guard Towers to combo projectiles off of them is a *really* smart play that increases the scariness of your projectile game tenfold.

I adore the simplicity of your finisher - really, sometimes all you need is to just throw some really heavy shit on top of someone. Nothing works like a well motivated boulder, as the saying goes. This is real good stuff. Well written, confident but not foolishly so, and ridiculously brutal for as simple a plan as it is. No stopping the King, baby. You get a **9**.

Judge Aeacus (Archerous)

Two former allies set against the other, a true tragedy indeed! Brighid Rhodes from the Gallery of Wayward Reverie vs Kid Savage, who’s been giving more and more of a Cause for Concern. Both opponents are seeking justice in their own way, but in a battle like this, only one can come out on top. Which justice prevails?

Starting with Kid, we make a rush to the plane, taking out chunks of metal from the fuselage and plexiglass from the windows. He also takes some wiring for a surprise tool used later on. Using his newfound tools, he makes quick use out of them, making a shrapnel projectile out of the metal chunks and Knock You Out’s piston punch (the Firing Squad), a collection of spinning blades for when she’s too far out (Guillotines), and Wiring Whips for when she gets too close. He makes further use of his environment to attack Brighid at every opportunity he gets by using the Spotlights to redirect his projectiles back into her, while throwing wolves aside with the piston punch to keep her further distracted. Once she’s been weathered down enough, Kid uses his remaining metal chunks to bury her under the weight of both it and the force of Knock You Out’s pressure until she gives.

Kid knows that Brighid can outlast him, so he makes a priority to rush for materials to not only defend himself but deal massive amounts of damage in turn. Once he’s equipped, he doesn’t let her know peace until the pressure finally gets to her. It’s a simple strategy, but one that understands the position that Kid is in and acts upon it brilliantly. For that, I’m giving this strategy an 8. Well done!

Onto Brighid, we have another dash to the plane, but this time she’s prepared. She covers her tracks with a Blood Curtain to give her a precious few seconds to rummage through the luggage, giving her ammunition to equip herself with resources, chief among them being the access to Blood Knuckles. Once she’s got what she needs, she makes an effort to out CQC Kid by using Outlando d’Amour to create a variety of geysers along the battlefield to create walls of high pressure blood whenever she needs it; which is to say, whenever Kid is in range. By creating this Dead End, Brighid hopes to go on the assault herself, and push Kid into a corner, where the only options are deadly force walls or bleeding out from Brighid.

Everything else Brighid does throughout the match is in service to this Dead End, including her boxing wolves in with Kid to create even more problems for him. And, if Kid’s not careful, she’ll send a Blood Bomb into a Spotlight’s way, creating a devastating blow onto the boxer. Brighid also presents a simple strategy, which is understandable given the deathmatch, but its very effective. If you don’t want your opponent to scale, don’t give them the opportunity to. I believe there are some hiccups with keeping this pressure up, especially given that there is little done in the ways of mitigating resource denial from the Spotlights and only so much bleeding that can be applied to the ground without opening Outlando d’Amour to powerful hits from Knock You Out. Even still, blood walls are crazy strong and will serve as proper punishment for Kid’s overextending, creating a formidable and competent challenge to Kid’s reign. Thus, I’m giving this strategy a 7. Well done!