Cid Kagenou OOT Judgment

Cid is OOT.

Please read the Judge OOT and Darg's response before this judgment; it will build off concepts mentioned therein.

Darg's main reasoning for why Cid is in-tier despite striking several times faster than the tiersetter is that the tiersetter has reaction times 5ms faster than Cid's. Fundamentally, I and the other judges disagree that this is significant in the context of a fight between the two, mainly for the reason that Cap is not able to press a win condition on the basis of any particular 5ms disparity in actions. This is the case because, simply speaking, Cid is attacking too quickly and strongly at too close a range with too dangerous of a weapon.

Darg wants to highlight a difference of 5ms and 10ms as "reacting twice as fast," but despite being facially true, it does not equal a strong ability for Cap to retaliate. Cap takes between 15 and 20ms to execute a cross, by virtue of his hands moving at 150mph. By comparison, if the business end of Cid's sword is moving at Mach, his hands are still moving almost twice as fast as Cap's. If his hands are moving at sonic speed, then a strike lands in less time than Cap flatly perceives the blow to occur.

Darg additionally argued that Cid's swordsmanship does not translate to hand-to-hand combat. I do not believe this to be consistent with what has been argued in-round, nor do I believe even if it were argued to apply only to sword-fighting, that it actually does. The swordsmanship skills Darg highlights are not fundamentally swordsmanship skills alone, but instead combat mastery.

Particularly, the part of Cid's statpost that says, "Cid is highly skilled and competent with bladed weaponry and facing unarmed and armed opponents" (Skill/Abilities, bullet 2) and when it is argued that Cid can "read an opponent's style b[y] looking at subtle cues at the start of a fight, even if they use something esoteric like magic" (Skill/Abilities, bullet 2.3), I do not read this as applying only to sword-fighting. I read this, as it seems to be written, as a general skill of Cid's to be able to analyze his opponent's abilities at a glance, because he is experienced in combat.

The afterimages and danger of the sword are essentially mooted at this point by the previous considerations, but I will discuss them anyway; the magical projectiles, I could take or leave, but I would give that point to Darg because it seems to be true he did not argue that they move at a relevant speed to Cap, nor is there hard evidence that they do.

The afterimages are potent against Cap not because they necessarily work flawlessly at all junctions, but because they compound Cid's other advantages when taking into account comparable strength and durability to the tiersetter while obfuscating the location of his attack vector. Cap has to react to the use of the afterimages; he does not know of them beforehand. When Cid is swinging his sword at the speed of sound, if it ever works even once, Cap is likely dead. The fact that he has good senses does not totally cover the bases of, "Your opponent leaves an afterimage and now you must respond to that fact repeatedly."

Cid's sword is strong, and there was no debate in the OOT discussion from either party that if it hits Cap's body, he is getting cut. The main contention was whether it was meaningful that Cap is able to block it with less movement. To a degree, it is, because Cap is able to spare himself from damage, but it isn't as though Cid is just hitting him once and then receding to try again. Cid is attacking in combination against an opponent without a sword. Cap has to get it right repeatedly against an opponent who is moving his hands much faster and attacking much more often, using a weapon that can put him down essentially on contact.

By comparison, Cap has to beat Cid down with multiple strikes and multiple junctions in order to secure a victory.