JJOCT7 R4M9 Quality

Judge Manny (Coop)

Before getting into the details for either strat, I’d just like to commend both teams for making relatively short and concise strategies considering the size and complexity of the match itself.

Starting with Chase, you have solid strategies for each of the trials and good management of Kickstart’s positive streaks throughout the match. There are a few instances where I would’ve liked more details on how a streak was supposed to be used (for example, is the Sidestepping streak increasing the distance or speed of the action? Makes a big difference in the Hook Alley where stepping too far slams you right into a hook) but for the most part everything seems to check out. What I take more issue with is how Kickstart’s main weakness, that it also accrues negative actions made against Chase, is completely glossed over in the strat. Y’all are against a guy that makes constructs that perform repeated actions (verbs) against Chase so not acknowledging the scenario where you did get caught in a combo is pretty egregious. Gonna give Chase a low **7** here.

Moving to Vasant, this is a similarly solid strategy, also with really good resource management when it comes to which Lotuses are needed at which points. Choosing to sacrifice speed/efficiency during the first trial to make the most out of having a house full of stuff to sprout Lotuses from was a pretty smart long-term move, and the strategy makes the most of that stretching this collection out as far as it reasonably can. Taking advantage of the negative streaks that Kickstart can accumulate by stringing similar Lotuses together works really well for the combat trials, though I do think Chase’s own mobility is slightly underestimated at points - especially during the Subway trial where he can fairly easily build up enough speed to outrun a motorcycle. In any case though, this is still very good overall; I’m going to give Vasant an **8**.

Judge Crowbar (Surface)

Fun match, lotta moving parts this time around.

Starting with Chase, I dig the general jist of the strategy, but I'm also not left with much to say. I think the way you kept track of your streaks was intelligent and fun, and funnily highlights some mechanical similarities between him and Vasant. In turn though, I wasn't really wowed by anything. Judge Coop also brings up a good point about how some acknowledgement of Chase's weakness would have been pertinent- acknowledging that and adding in some particular counterplay in that direction could've bumped your scores up as well. I'll go ahead and give this a **7**- pretty good!

Moving onto Vasant, I'm impressed with the level of thought put forward here. There's a definite and consistent awareness as to the capabilities of every party present, from Vasant's own skills, use of inventory, up to and including frequently making use of Chase's weakness-building mechanic to build up small effects into dangerous attacks in their own right. I'll go ahead and give this an **8**, as I have very little I could complain about here.

Judge Lilah (Logic)

Soul Train is BACK, baybee!

Similar to its T3 predecessor, this match is about comprehensively but Elegantly addressing the challenges of each car. I’m pleasantly surprised that each strat was in the mid-20ks, so that prong is well met, but time for further detail.

Streamlined to run like a dream, Vasant’s strat bullet points its response for each section for a surprisingly easy read. Even as it has some counterplay to Chase throughout the sections, the strat maintains clear Planning and Competency. I am not one to give detailed play-by-play recaps of strats, so I have little else to say.

Chase has been a joy to watch this tournament, and this strat is no different. The strat does a good job of juggling its various streaks (Logistics) within cars as well as across them, maximizing and diversifying each act’s utility (Competency/Technical). The end result is a strat that has strong motive force across sections (Planning), so I find myself repeating similar language as I had for Vasant.

However, at the risk of seeming to compare the strats, in light of my and my fellow judges’ comments, my scores are best finalized by using the “axiomatic performance” framework. Both strats do “impressive work on a [their] central aspects” to land ear high 7s, but given that emphasis on Elegance, I find Chase’s counterplay to be “preemptive” rather than “curative,” looking to prevent the negative cascade of getting hit by Lotuses by winnowing them before they can reach Chase. Additionally, I find the juggling of streaks to show strong enough circumspect according to the Planning/Logistics axes to push Chase to an [8] to Vasant’s high [7].