JJOCT7 R2M3 Quality

Judge 8th Day (Logic)

While many stage hazards are meant to complicate matchups, this one enables this matchup. On paper, Thomas’s mobility gives Ruby, who already has difficulty damaging opponents, much difficulty to hit Thomas, while by contrast, if Ruby is given enough space, Thomas cannot effectively reach her as she teleports around the map at high range. The damage-redirecting artwork thus gives both characters means to damage their opponents despite their mobility.

Both strats show competent Planning—Thomas rushing down his opponent’s artwork as Ruby looks to stymie and winnow Thomas’s approach—but I find Competency and Logistics somewhat lacking. Ruby’s use of Mounds and Visages to terraform the battlefield is well conceived but somewhat lacks specificity in use beyond “reactive to his pathing:” Thomas’s burst mobility and swarm have particular strengths and use cases that can be forthrightly addressed, more emphatically explaining how Ruby’s strat stops Thomas. (Logistics/Competency/Counterplay)

An improvement over his R1 showing, Thomas similarly relies on generalist arguments and observations, particularly in how he sweeps the top half of the map. Setting aside how much of a sightline the cluttered displays offer (especially when looking through consecutive displays), even when disregarding the height of the space and ｢Storm｣’s low PRE, scanning “the entire upper portion of the map,” an approximately 48x44m area is unlikely to be done within a minute—spanning space is very difficult. (Logistics)

The final section (and the contingencies leading up to it) are a bit scattered, shifting to targeting Ruby directly “in a game of tenacity” but relying on the same Silent Storm scouter, without modifications for how Ruby’s scaling may have reached that point. (Counterplay/Competency/Logistical) Moreover, as a multiform Stand, ｢Fury｣’s boosts and ｢Storm｣’s area coverage cannot be used simultaneously (Technical); while this only moderately impacts Thomas's midgame (since Thomas can re-up on KE), aggressively entering into Ruby's terrotory becomes risky, especially without ｢Fury｣’s mobility. (Planning/Counterplay/Logistics)

Both Strats had right ideas for how to go about the match (Planning), but more specificity to the changing situations and their opponent would push them to higher scores. Ruby gets a high [6], while the Technical/Logistical unspooling of Thomas's lategame pushes him to a [5].

Judge Rishi (Coop)

So I think Ruby has a pretty strong mid game approach and a decent enough setup to justify her more “passive aggressive” finishing moves. That being said, the early game here is what drags this down the most and is most likely the cause for the rather unwarranted “pop-stomp” this match; although I would disagree that “not preparing for Thomas’ aggression” is the main factor in that (will get into that more in the Thomas delibs).
Ruby’s entire strategy hinges on making use of the cramped and labyrinthine arena to build up sand as fast as possible so that she can burial-teleport around to counter Thomas’ extreme aerial movement. A solid plan on the surface, my main issue with this however is *how* exactly you plan on doing that. The Mounds technique makes sense once it's set up, but how each of the initial Mounds pile up seems more “assumed to happen” rather than “planned to happen”.
To better explain what I mean, as ｢Starved for Glamour｣ can only produce sand from the anchor portion of it, you would need to move the anchor to separate locations  in order to set up these initial Mounds. But whether Ruby herself carries enough sand to different locations to do this (as according to the character sheet: “should anything become totally buried within the sand, as long as it remains buried the user can “unearth” that thing from any piece of stand-produced sand wide enough to fit its cross section”), or Ruby is desummoning/resummoning her Stand in different spots (which is a legally dubious move given the “automatic” nature of the Stand), or Ruby is simply dragging the anchor around the maze is very unclear. All of these options have their own separate challenges to attend to, and in a match where your opponent is most likely going to rush you down immediately, it is imperative to clarify your opening moves for set up and defense as much as possible.
Going back to the remainder of the strategy though, once the halls are filled with more sand, I think you take great advantage of teleporting art pieces to bait out Thomas and to chew up any footholds for him to utilize to stay out of your sand. Waiting it out in the safety of your sand pits to drain away at Thomas rather than recklessly going after his “idol” in the sandless portion of the map was a smart move and I feel there is still a lot of momentum here from Ruby to get Thomas to slip up and fall into her traps despite what would normally be a lackluster “war of attrition” strategy. Overall, I’m going to give Ruby a solid **6**.

Thomas has a fairly by-the-books strategy going on here and, if pop votes have anything to say, it seems to have worked out pretty well in your favor. While the core idea and gameplan is solid enough though, I find the “flesh” of this strategy surrounding it to be rather lean. You make a good case for consistently staying out of the sand and correctly identifying “puppy-guarding” the fountain to largely be a waste of your time, but tracking and attacking Ruby seem to be more taken for granted here and are a bit lacking as a result.
Sure, you can technically see Ruby’s movements a bit through the clutter of art installations, but once she’s got enough sand built up it's going to be harder and harder to pin her down and shoot her. In regards to the “Silent Storm” technique, it’s a nice idea but its effectiveness is somewhat limited. There’s nothing on the character sheet stating that Thomas can see through his individual ｢Storm｣ shards so getting a direct visual on Ruby with this wouldn’t work; however, Thomas would reasonably know whenever the blades take damage from spreading sand. Granted, Thomas can move fast enough that he shouldn’t really *need* this technique, it is relied on enough throughout your strat to warrant mention and lowered Quality in terms of Technical Understanding.
In addition to all of this, there is little to acknowledge the gradual destruction of Ruby’s sand and how that will, overtime, give less and less artworks and surfaces for Thomas to continue to jump off of. In a war of attrition especially, Thomas would eventually be less and less capable of his hardcore parkour as his stamina runs out (either naturally or due to the draining sand kicked up by his reckless Fury blasts). I don’t think “more aggression” would be the answer here, rather “smarter aggression”. You already have the arsenal of Fury blasts ready to go, instead of solely using them as movement or evasion boosts, utilizing them to blast sand away from Ruby and then shooting (thus preventing her from teleporting away) would’ve been a far better usage of your resources here, for example.
Overall, a decent core with lacking details and contingencies, I don’t think I can give Thomas more than a **5**.

Judge Saori (Ceep)

Starting off with Thomas, this is a significant improvement from Round 1 and a damn stylish strategy! A lot of the big picture ideas here rule, and I feel that this is a strategy you should be proud of. That said, I think there are some major sticking points that are going to lead to a lower score. Thomas’ biggest sticking point in the match is his use of ｢Storm｣ as setup and ｢Fury｣ for schmoovement. Now, let me be clear, I think that his use of ｢Storm｣ on himself to charge up ｢Fury｣ rules, and that the play patterns that he uses are great. That said, I feel like there is a mark somewhat missed by how he uses them. The strat seems to want ｢Storm｣ to be active constantly, while ｢Fury｣ has all his best ways to move around the battlefield. I was convinced that his ability to move above Ruby’s setup is strong, but the devil is in the moment that he swaps between the two.

To get the ｢Fury｣ charges, he needs to slow himself down significantly, and give up the long-range harassment that ｢Storm｣ gives, something that’s even more of a vulnerability when he’s in a zone Ruby can summon her Stand under him and get sand onto him. Since he’s the only real vector for ｢Storm｣ used, this makes him a sitting duck. Which is fine! The strategy does treat Ruby with the respect she deserves, but it has the stated goal of wanting to deal with her quickly. The pauses taken in the opening are fine, but I feel that this plan-- rushing Ruby down-- is at odds with the plan that seemingly plays out where Thomas settles into a controlling style, aiming to find Ruby’s painting and attack her through it.

While these strategies aren’t really flawed, and a rushdown start when she’s most vulnerable into slowing down and cutting away paintings once she gets some scaling is still a solid gameplan, but the strategy feels like the logistics are constantly fighting against each other. The individual gameplans that I see are individually solid and interesting, but the specific ways they grind against each other make me inclined to give this a 4/10, for not quite landing the key details the strategy need to tick.

This is probably enough for a proper delib, but I feel that a 4/10 doesn’t communicate properly what I mean by this. So I’ll praise some of the details here as well; I feel that Thomas has a solid gameplan for really, really punishing Ruby. If she ever overextends and makes herself open to him, despite the inefficiencies in his movement I feel that he can put himself into dominant overwatch positions, to where her poking her head out is basically instant death. His plays-- like setting up ways to keep himself from falling directly onto sand with paintings-- are flashy plans that still keep him in the running.

Despite my “um erm” kvetching with the micro mechanics, I fundamentally thought that Thomas’ strategy was fun and likeable, and showed off his style. But I feel that despite this the internal tensions get it down.

There are a few other points about inefficiencies and the like, but this delib is long enough and they don’t matter too terribly much.

For Ruby, I was very impressed. While there’s something to be said for a lack of specificity and I feel a few visuals for her early game objectives would have done wonders, it has just about everything to respect Thomas as a threat and handle the points that Ruby can become a nightmare in the match.

Honestly I don’t have too terribly much to say about this strategy. While I think that some amount of clarity with the early game would go fine, I really like how Ruby makes use of the teleportation in more interesting ways than just zooming around the map; making cover for herself is something I genuinely didn’t really consider, and gives her a lot more play when she gets in the sightline of Thomas.

While I’d considered a 7, I think the strategy deserves an albeit low 8/10 for what was a smooth strategy that knew what it wanted to do and got it done stylishly. It’s well paced and gets to the heart of what can make control based builds like Ruby sing- taking whatever openings they can make to mill down the opponent while not assuming they win easily or inevitably. Props!