JJOCT7 R5M6 Quality

Judge Soichi Isurugi (Flame)

Starting with Honeydew, she enters this match with a goal to limit the effectiveness of her opponent while reorganizing the map to manipulate Tachibana’s gameplan to her advantage. She begins by closing in the distance across the first map, Romantico grabbing barrels to slide forwards on the detergent inside as well as to launch them and other obstacles across to the second part of the map, all while Honeydew appears to be hiding underneath and attached to her Stand—except here is where Evergreen have made a truly Creative play in creating a mystery for readers to solve, with the reveal later on being that the second barrel thrown was containing Honeydew herself, who uses the distraction of the match to secure the barrel to the floor and lie in wait.

When her Stand crosses over into the second part of the map, it keeps itself hidden from Tachibana as it gets to work creating a maze in the southern portion of the map (with all the materials selected earlier to not be able to be moved by Dawn or Tachibana’s Stands), removing any other cover that the Kamen Rider could use to force him into it, and Planning around his mechanics to jump him with her Stand or jump him after he is herded to her barrel. Furthermore, the layout of the maze (and additional obstacles) had been made to hinder Dawn’s attempts at making ranged attacks against the target, as well as generally making Counterplays against any interference against herself by the ranger.

Overall a really great strategy! The only thing I could think of to elevate this strategy would have been to gone in further with the Narrative as opposed to just having it in the end, but this gets a high **9**!

Moving onto Dawn, her plan is to rush ahead and be the first in the fray, using a variety of items modified to increase her movement capabilities—in particular at this first stage, where she flips herself forwards across the map by launching herself with a flipper and then using a bumper on her hat to jump further across. She then gathers some poles to use as weapons, along with emptying some barrels to turn into shrapnel bombs, before grabbing a ceiling fan which she leaves with most of her beetles to operate it as a catapult (sending herself over to part 2 using it). This and the strat for the next area of the map has plenty of ways to adapt to ways things could go wrong or if she is interfered with, such as forgoing prep when Honeydew is faster than expected, or by using the walls or a midair jump to combat intense gravity (Planning/Counterplay).

She then moves in to immediately start brawling with the Rider, modifying her weapon in a multitude of ways to slice and grapple her opponent while using bumpers to both parry attacks as well as bounce her around so she can dodge or make fast follow-up attacks. The catapult is also important to her battle plan as it is used to launch attacks out of the range of Tachibana or to supply Dawn with objects and new weapons—and has plans for both sets of gravity, which Dawn also has such as attaching herself to the cabling in the room to prevent herself from falling up into the fans, grappling the rider when he goes to shift gravity to either flip him onto the floor or to toss him against the wall, and even uses the pits when in reverse gravity to attack him from ‘above’. And then when she has him grappled against the floor, she begins to stomp on him and open up the floor to toss him into the spikes below. Add on several alternative attacks and finishers, along with a good narrative throughline, and this gets a solid **9**!

Judge Gai Amatsu (Arch)

The King of Swords has arrived, and just in time for a bonafide ass-kicking from two dangerous women. Dawn Hu from IMPACT competes with Honeydew Blue from Evergreen to see who can do the most to defeat Tachibana, with both bringing their expertises to this legendary battle. We’ll go over this in two phases for each combatant: how well do they deal with Tachibana and how do they deal with counterplay from the other? With a variety of abilities and tactics on the field, this is sure to be a fight to remember. So how do they do?

Starting with Dawn, we’ll focus on her handling of Tachibana first. She offers a strong counter to his defensive strategy by actively dodging and bumping any deadly projectile falling her way, while making great use of her rope and beetles to keep her in an advantageous position no matter what gravity tricks he throws at her. When it comes to actually fighting him, she opts to meet him in melee combat, taking weapons from the warehouse and catapulting them to her inside his fortress. These weapons prove to be invaluable to her assault, especially given the various modifiers she can give them with her bumpers, turning her into an unpredictable force of nature when attacking the King. With these tools in place, she stacks the odds incredibly high in her favor, making sure that Tachibana knows that he is leagues beneath her.

As for her fellow combatant, Dawn is able to keep Honeydew’s tampering to a minimum by not directly engaging with her, instead focusing on Tachibana the entire time. In the events she interferes anyways, she’s able to keep her and Romantico at bay with her bumpers and any set up she has is mobile enough to simply move it away from a disruptive Honeydew.

With these two aspects combined, Dawn makes a strong case for contributing the most to Tachibana’s defeat. She takes charge and doesn’t let up once she’s got her momentum going. This proves to be very effective and well-executed, to boot. Thus, I’m giving this strategy a 9. Well done!

Onto Honeydew, we’ll address her own measures against the King of Swords. Unlike Dawn, she doesn’t charge straight into battle, opting to set up traps and tricks instead. She recognizes that speed and power aren’t where her own strength lies. She spends the battle in a few key locations, being under Romantico for a time and inside a barrel for the majority of it. Combined with her strategy to have Romantico fling big piles of junk over into the fortress, Honeydew carefully crafts a maze of her own design, giving her total control over any inhabitants unfortunate enough to find their way inside. During this phase, she uses Dawn’s aggressive nature to her advantage, allowing any shifts in gravity to be triggered by her alone, while Honeydew remains bolted down in her barrel, relaying any relevant information about the ongoing fight to Romantico. Once Tachibana is in her court, she’ll use her impressive stealth to get the drop on him, surprising him with a crushing attack while Romantico finishes off his protection.

As for Dawn, Honeydew doesn’t directly interfere with her fellow combatant, but that doesn’t mean she lets her have all the fun. Though she mainly uses Dawn to distract Tachibana, she debilitates her attacks whenever convenient for her to make sure that the Ranger’s distractions don’t become anything more. Using the junk maze, she purposefully lures Tachibana into it, forcing Dawn to step into it, as well. With the added walls, ricochet shots will land with less power. If Dawn gets too close, she’ll throw objects at Dawn to make her use her beetles defensively, limiting their use in sabotage.

Honeydew plays a subtle game, but a finely-tuned one at that. Dawn is allowed to act, but not anymore effective than she’s permitted to. Tachibana responds to Romantico’s actions without realizing the true threat that Honeydew brings. Combining both of these efforts, Honeydew offers her absolute best to make sure she’s the one who contributes most to taking out the King. Thus, I’m also giving this strategy a 9. Well done!

Judge Shiro Kanzaki (Ceep)

Starting off with Dawn, there's a lot of really good stuff in this strategy. Her progress through the beginning section is speedy and fairly safe, while setting up the Beetles for the effort against Tachibana later on. I don't have a lot to say about the early section because it’s gone through quickly and proficiently. Speaking of the first section, I do want to especially shout out the Catapult as a midrange harassment tool that conveniently keeps vulnerable Separate Ways units out of the line of fire. It's a smart use of the environment that would normally go unused past the first section.

Her efforts to combat Tachibana focusing on close range is an interesting use of her kit that hasn't really been seen before. While her grappling has been shown off before, now in respect of Tachibana's weaponry Dawn brings to bear a mix of differently specialized melee weapons held down by her Death Grip, with a goal of pinning Tachibana down long enough to finish him off. Overall I think you do a damn good job with your approach. I think your preparation for the high gravity is especially good, with the bounce shoes giving Dawn an unexpected amount of mobility.

I don't have too much to say mechanically, really. Everything here is solid and works well for the end goal of pinning and skewering Tachibana. I do want to focus on two things that really went right. The use of Dawn's tools, and the narrative. Not a lot of this strategy is “new”, and it repackaged a lot of older tech. However, unlike some situations where older tech is used, the melee focus really helps sell the strategy as doing something new and not just retreading old ground. Second, the narrative throughly of Dawn as this confident, dynamic force helps keep the strategy moving forwards. It doesn't ever feel like it bogs down or gets too caught up with minutea that doesn't matter.

All in all, a 9/10 is warranted here.

As for Evergreen, this is a whip smart plan held together by a strong narrative throughly of its own. Instead of Dawn's rush and lack of focus on Honeydew, Honeydew herself has a massive amount of respect and focus on Dawn's capabilities, and from the word go is interfering with her opponent. The early misdirection and distractions for Dawn, while I feel not sufficient to slow her down, do have the effect of significantly distracting both her and Tachibana to Honeydew's schemes; I feel Honeydew's Infiltration and scouting of the second area goes off without a hitch.

As for the second section I truthfully don't have to much feedback besides “you cooked”; even though Dawn goes for a melee strategy I feel that the rat maze you make does still slow her down, and between your interference efforts and use of the environment I feel like you slow down the pace of the match sufficiently to wear down and mix up Tachibana. Honeydew has the fortune of being able to dodge both stages of Tachibana's defense while in the barrel, and Romantico is played very well in its bizarre nature to surprise and take down Tachibana, with Honeydew herself even able to take the last hit in a gummed up situation.

Overall, I feel like a 9/10 is warranted, good job!