JJOCT7 R2M1 Quality

Judge Toodles Galore (Logic)

My usual high-level match analysis is left as an exercise to the reader. Rather, I want to talk about the Bizarre stage hazard, particularly general jurisprudence on stage hazards and Judges’ conception of this one.

Since the tournament asks players to persuasively write how they manage both known and then unknown information in 24 hours, it is important that Judges show some amount of grace to the slip-ups and mistakes. Every judge will pass over them with some amount/no commentary, citing the lack of materiality of the mistake or granting some simple, feasible alternative at the cost of efficacy or efficiency. Such grace is especially given to stage hazards, neutral effects with new rules that both teams may “stumble” with in similar ways.

However, there are limits to this grace in the name of fairness; part of the competition is dealing with the time limit and unforeseen challenges, so we still have to mark down points for material mishandlings, under some combination of Competency, Technical, Logistics, or Counterplay depending on the context.

So thus, Shrivya’s Stand (｢Paranoimia｣) “renders the rules of engagement under slapstick logic.” The goal of this match was to enable cartoon effects /without/ leading to the reality warping effects of “toon force,” therefore much of the emphasis and text was directed towards that mechanical core: “While this does add partial cartoon logic, this does NOT mean that these can be used…rewrite reality to do whatever you want…Instead, this changes the rules of cause and effect…Fundamentally, it acts as a Durability boost, rendering normally lethal hits as merely dangerous, while more flashy, ‘hijinks’ based attacks are more likely to work.”

Both teams occasionally overstepped this to spin some of their plays (often for the Jojolity’s sake): where minor I may or may not comment and where major I will. What keeps tourney fair and playable is our collective adherence to the text, be it sheets or the match itself. Even as we may and will occasionally slip up, I implore you to keep the text in mind.

Pluto remains the coolest motherf@%#er around, this time to the tune of a [7]. The opening makes several plays, going into the kitchen to grab some items then covering his retreat with rakes. (Logistics/Planning) With the Stand’s C SPD, I think it’s all possible, but the section Reads as a bit cluttered—the interaction/contingency for Jyotsna (“Assuming the opponent…while she can.”) breaks up the flow of a section that focuses on item and positional scaling; I’d move that to the end of the section.

The midgame is somewhat loose, looking to flood the house (Planning) and detailing ways to disengage from Jyotsna depending on the room (Counterplay/Competency). The individual setpieces are fun enough, and although I think calling them “happy path” is a bit of a mischaracterization, I think they could more robustly engage with Jyotsna’s capabilities as a combatant (Counterplay/Competency). As a steady-state, this more neutral focused section need not “build to” its finale, but emphasizing and tightening how it wins trades/engagements in general and in specific would reinforce its immediate and eventual goals. (Planning)

The finale makes good on the scaling way back from section 1 (Planning), giving Pluto another vector of cold damage as he and ｢My Collection｣ brawls with Jyotsna. I’m unsure of the vacuum sucking up Jyotsna given her B DUR/STP, and while the strat doesn’t make the argument, I find a “stage effect” justification a bit tenuous. (Technical)

Nonetheless, grappling and bashing Jyotsna into the shape of a nail is within bounds and a culmination of the solid strat.

Jyotsna makes like spinach and leaves for the refrigerator, swallowing it to incorporate its mass into her gaseous body. The incorporation of the fridge is a consequence of Jyotsna’s ability (its size and weight, contra reforming her steam in R1, will affect her mobility granted), and the swallowing itself is a quibble.

However, “sprouting wings from the backs of her shoulders…to soar and spin through the house, now even more aerodynamic and maneuverable than before” due the scent of the pie is flagrantly outside of the “rules of engagement/Durability-enhancement” purpose and text of the stage hazard which affects attacks. Moreover, “though she can use her Stand to bolster her mobility and support her weight, she can’t actively fly using it.” (Technical/Competency)

There is a principled argument that such a this constitutes a “major part of the strat relying on iffy tactics;” even if one were to respond that it is hyperbole, it is text contradicting sheet and match with intended material effect: Jyotsna’s airborne mobility is highlighted throughout the strat and cited by voters—I can’t waive it as a overstatement due to time or mark it for reduced effacacy when it's so willfully relied on.

We slip on a banana peel into the next section, which I think is well met. As someone who was bearish on Jyotsna’s R1 strat for being too generalist and not showing specifically how it reached its opponent, I think this strat does a better job of addressing the challenges this opponent poses. (Planning/Competency/Counterplay) While I’m unsure how a coat made of Jyotsna (steam) would keep Jyotsna (Jyotsna) warm, I think the “offense-defense” nature of the tech efficiently deals with the match at hand.

The finale feels less set up, lacking positional discussion as to how to get Pluto outside beyond a willingness to “take a few hits herself to reposition the fight.” (Planning/Logistics) Theoretically the finale could occur anywhere because it’s an escalation of the brawling techniques from above, but the impact is mitigated.

Ultimately, I think the strat's Compentency/Counterplay succeed over its material Technical misstep, earning a [6] on balance for “[covering] the central core of what it wants to a sufficient degree, but…makes some notable missteps.”

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Judge Lola Bunny (Flamechar)

Starting this round off with a slapstick cartoon of a match between two ex-COLOSSI members. Starting with Pluto, he starts by turning the wall of the kitchen into ice to jump through Kool-Aid man style, before taking the pieces to create a new wall from the shards to protect himself while he gathers supplies (Logistics) - a Plan has been made as well for if confrontation occurs, slamming an empty freezer across into his opponent before locking her in and preparing the oven to lock her with one of the mini-tourney judges (reminder to Reddit-only spectators that we have a discord server!) into before/if she escapes the Freezer (Creativity).

After leaving the taps on he moves on into the parlor briefly to create a set of ice-rake traps and to collect the harp while leaving the rest for later (Logistics/Competency) before bursting water pipes to continue the flood. The hallway is much the same - set up rakes, collect an item in the form of the vacuum cleaner before moving upstairs. Moving onto the midgame, Pluto’s Plan gets split into how he moves about the map, and what he’ll do at specific rooms and generally in regards to his offensive and defensive options against Jyotsna in order to win each encounter (Logistics/Counterplay). Overall the goal is the same as before - get water running and overflowing.

Eventually he brings the fight back down into the flooding ground floor, the raised water adding to his offense both as a free source of ice and as a danger to his opponent alongside Pluto going all out on hitting her in order to make an opening to get in one precise stab with a transparent ice knife, before sucking her up with a vacuum and turning her into a nail to drive into the ground with one last strike. That said, I’m slightly unsure about whether or not the vacuum cleaner play would work just from the Stage Hazard alone? I can see an argument for it, but that argument isn’t present. Otherwise, this strategy is very solid and succeeds in its aims. A high **7**!

Moving onto Jyotsna and starting off with similar concerns to the other judges: the Stage Effect is largely focused on affecting Durability and the severity of injuries as opposed to letting someone rewrite reality, and while both parties have made some missteps in regards to this the largest issue is that she solely justified her flight - something explicitly stated in her sheet that she cannot do - on this stage effect, an action which in this instance lands on the latter category as opposed to the former.

While this is largely the reason I am ending up giving this a high **6**, the strategy otherwise is pretty good: clear Planning shown in the Layout of the strategy, while playing with the recent archetype of section goals to add some Narrative/flavor. Speaking of, she goes all in on the Narrative and Creativity - the latter of which have a frozen solid example in the Refridjyorator technique (which on a similar agreement among judges, does work) to surround the fridge with her own steamy body in order to have a weapon to smash through Pluto’s defenses with a tornado spin - other fun Counterplay maneuvers include a creative burst/explosion to expand any area of her body to break the ice and warm up. The strategy shows good Competency, with each individual goal linking together (get defences against Pluto, get defences against [My Collection], with defenses move to finisher), and the finisher itself is a fun cumulation of the match’s aesthetic - the american football into thunder cross split attack combo.


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Judge Jessica Rabbit (Surface)

I'm going to format this one a little different from my usual delibs in that right off the bat I'll say that both strats earned a solid **7** in Quality! My reason for doing so is simple- I think they both could've gone for higher heights but overstepped in their own particular ways. In Jyotsna's case, there's a sort of stretching of the stage effect that often just felt a little *too* extreme; I can give some of these effects (such as the growth of wings) a pass in the sense that she could probably preform similar (and likely more believable or effective) maneuvers rather easily through the use of her stand or a few seconds of setup, but the spirit of going just a little too far past the line remains. On Pluto's end, I think it falls prey to the tourney standard of "overestimate me, underestimate them" a bit- Pluto pulls out a lot of fun ballsy plays (I especially adored the field of rakes) but also has some overstepping unrelated to the match hazard. I agree that the vacuum play is questionable given Jyotsna's stand stats (although it did make me smile), and I'm unsure of the efficacy of the "red-out" technique takig advantage of Jyotsna's stand sight for various reasons. All in all though, VERY fun strats to read and I hope equally (if not more so) fun to write!