SR2Q

- Eleanor Rigby -

So this match is a veritable gauntlet, albeit one that Geoff and Anna, at least on paper, have the endurance to, well, endure. With 40 minutes to travel between each area, defeat each stranger, and get to the end, they have their work cut out for them, but in turn they have the advantage of being able to outdo every single one of these guys on paper. Will it wind up that way in execution? I intend on taking each part of this strategy one by one and finding out, averaging out how I would score each part, unless I happen to believe that Geoff and Anna fall before then. I'll also say up-front that there's nothing really wrong with their traversal strategies and leave it at that, talking about it more if it's relevant to an individual match. Everything checked out there. The portable cover strat is a pretty cool starting point.

MILJA

The PHDs have to break through a wall of lasers and keepaway strats just to have a chance at taking someone down at a much larger distance, and Anna's main method of griefing her is also not particularly decisive. It's easy to remove connections if she's hit with them, and such a basic action can be assumed to be doable when she has a free moment to, and she makes the smart move to prioritize Geoff when she has to, and coupled with the PHDs prioritizing protecting Anna in the event of her exact opening move, Geoff is liable to get pretty messed up in this matchup. Ultimately, though, they'll be able to bring Milja to the point where she has no choice but to use Soul Sacrifice, and in CQC, Heat is more than prepared to ruin her before she has a chance to suicide bomb Geoff to hell. A rough, time-intensive first match for the PHDs, but with both of them alive and better-equipped for the future, they press on.

TANG

Pretty racist how you guys went after these two first. Jokes aside, again, no issues with your approach. Even having taken quite a bit of damage from Milja, Geoff is in a fine position to get through that with Anna backing him up. A bit surprised, after such an emphasis on stealth as part of his kit, that August sort of foregoes it here, so the PHDs sort of overprepared for that aspect of the fight. He prioritizes Anna, and at least makes good usage of his home-cooked obstacles and the most versatile weaponry of the Strangers well, at least, so I can see him hurting her a bit, but with their own strategies, and Geoff playing as aggressively as he is with Toto support to cover his wounded state, I can see them managing to take him down without too much trouble after, at most, a couple cycles of his weapons. Both are mildly-to-moderately wounded now, but not debilitatingly enough that they can't keep going.

TOM

Honestly, Tom has the most suitable environment for his power of any of the four. Hypermobility like this is actually something that Toto-in-this-environment and Heat are at a disadvantage against, and while they do play against that relatively well, I feel like they underestimate just how prepared for projectile attacks their opponent is. Tom actually has a very realistic chance of taking one or both of them out here, though ultimately I do still suspect that their preparation beforehand will make a victory perfectly feasible for the philosophers regardless. Due to the PHD Achilles Heel of underestimation, they won't exactly come out of it unscathed, and this is the single biggest place short of a time out I can see their journey ending. If they make it out of this, it's mostly a matter of 'can they power through DeadMan in time and escape?'
CODY

All the philosophers have to do is get there, but wounded, fatigued, running low on time, even if they've managed to squeeze out a few moments of rest, that's easier said than done. Geoff is in the high red, healthwise, and a lesser user would've already fallen, and Anna might not be doing so hot herself depending on how aspects of the previous two fights played out. They're lucky they have an all-around decent damage redirection strategy, with the admitted complication of the person tanking the blows being the one who isn't prioritized here. That considered, if they've made it this far, they'll probably make it to the end of this hall, and from there it's a classic N'Doul vs Jotaro style close-range quick-draw, between their door-circumventing strategy and the fact that, if any of his tracking rounds have been doing their jobs, he'll know he has to fire off his rockets early. Who will win out here? I'm inclined to say the players, but it's legitimately possible that it'll be too minute a difference in reaction times to even matter; that said, since they predicted this final blow at all, if they get here, I'll give it to them.  If they get through there, the last leg will only be a problem if they're extremely crunched for time. If they have time to just walk at a reasonable pace, they'll make it out.
FINAL SCORE

If I had to rank the performance of the strangers here, and how much they were a thorn in the PHDs' sides, I would say Tom > Milja > Cody > August. Milja puts in a valiant effort and does a lot of important damage to Geoff right at the start, August sort of flounders but at least holds his own, Cody has some really solid strats that ultimately I'm unsure of, and Tom downright has the potential to take Geoff and Anna down under the circumstances. Hell, even if he only managed to defeat Geoff, I don't think Anna alone could overcome Cody like she and Geoff as a team could, so she would fall right at the end. I've gone back and forth a lot, given it all much thought, and ultimately the sum of these strategies parts are so great that I cannot certainly say who wins, if anyone. I have to give both teams a 9/10.

- Simon 'Jack' Rodgers -

Like the judge before me, I'm going to judge this on a room by room basis.
Some miscellaneous details: I do like the little flavor bits in the SR stuff. Good writing is always a plus in my book, or at least never a negative. While not affecting score: I do like the naming theme of PhD's strat. I'll keep that naming theme in mind if they win this strat when deciding victory theme.

Now, enough stalling, let’s get to the first wing:

`1- Put Your Lights On

For this one, I think the PhD’s got this one in the bag. The portable cover strategy on the intro is a good starting point and one that’ll prove very effective against Shadow Sun. I also like the idea of beating up Anna in order to beat up your opponent, for a variety of reasons. This is a well thought out, though simple strategy.

However, it does prioritize protection of Anna over protection of Geoff, which does put a tad bit of a damper on it, due to Brand’s strat focusing on Geoff primarily. There’s a good number of counters in this strat, including one which does help against her final attack.

The Mujer strategy isn’t to be discounted, it’s good and anticipated a lot of moves, just not the cover.


2- Red October

This is what I think is the Perfect Stranger’s worst performance. August seems to just not anticipate the thought of Geoff or Ana using projectiles, which is a dangerous mistake. He has a counter for if they approach them, but not one for projectiles.

They smoke him this time.


3 - Mob Psycho

Unlike the last wing, Adrenaline Mob is the one that I feel has the better strat in this one. His flat out speed makes him a nightmare against them, and he anticipates for a LOT of what they do, so as projectiles and the theft of guns. Anna’s defenses are mostly useless due to Adrenaline focusing on Geoff.  However, this is something that the PhDs anticipated, and does have one weakness, the fact that he goes in close to attack Geoff, which can be a problem due to Heat’s high speed. This is their only saving grace for this room, however.




4 - Leave Your Body and Soul At The Door

Another clever use of cover mechanics helps the PhD’s pull ahead, and I like the idea of just sniping him from through the door. Their cautious nature kinda nullifies Deadman’s last attack, which may not even happen if he’s sniped through the door.

They won’t take much damage from this, due to their excellent defenses. Lucky for them, due to the ball they dropped in Mob’s room.



Final:


Each of these two strategies countered each other a lot, and pulled things that the other team didn’t really anticipate at certain points, and dropping the ball at certain points. However, I’d have to give an advantage to the PhD’s, due to the beginning prep and dropping the ball a tad less.

9 for Ana+Geoff, 8 for the Shining Butterfly, Dig Weevil, Jumping Cricket, and Command Ant



- Ken Nard -


This match is giving me some Megaman vibes, what with the flexible “choose your own mission” style layout here.... Anyways, this is a very long match so I’ll be dividing up things similarly to my other judges, to keep things consistent.


Sun Woman

The Soul Rebels grab up some rudimentary shields and armor to help defend against the [Second Sun] blasts coming their way, and as Geoff has built-in heat immunity, he can prioritize protecting Anna and taking reduced damage from any direct shots from Magica. With his a speed and b precision, I can buy that Geoff could pull his punches if a link gets removed, although if he had slightly lower stats in those categories I’d be pretty suspect. For Magica’s suicide play, while it could be devastating, being in such close proximity to heat of the moment is a very dangerous choice, one that I don’t see panning out. The outcome of this fight as I see it shaking out is that while Anna remains mostly unharmed, Geoff will have had to tank a few shots from shadow sun, and while the heat damage is negated, the lasers still carry concussive force and are at B strength.


2. Gun Man

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I’ll have to echo the other judges’ points here. August doesnt have a very strong plan in the event that his opponents try to counter his keep away game with their own. They also use their shield to provide a stepping stone over any damaging or unstable terrain that might be placed in their path. With a strong defense of dead bodies and metal shields, and an effective offense of steam grenades and the other weapons taken off Magica, this match seems pretty easy to go by without major injury.

3. Guts Man II

This is where the momentum shifts in favor of the Perfect Strangers. His high mobility jumping around makes him a difficult target for the Rebels to get a bead on, and he has plans in place for if they bring guns or other projectiles, aiming to disarm them before they can try anything too funny. With time being an important factor this match, his hit and run strategy can eat away at both players stamina and stall them quite a while, and once the match has begun to wind down he can get in and break the arms or legs of his opponent with his B power grip strength. Even if Geoff has endurance of 5, hes going to lose at least an arm if not more before he can take down Adrenaline Mob, and both contestants will get out of this room very worse for wear and much shorter on time.

4. Drone Man

At this point, I see Anna as being bruised but not out, while Geoff is limping around with a broken arm and then some, so a few good shots will take him out. Lets see if Deadman can make those shots count. The moment that Hotm throws the portable cover to block one of the entrances, that will incite the swarm of [Good Monster]’s to come out of their secret corridors, preventing the entrance blocking from working elsewhere, and from there Geoff and Anna have to survive an onslaught of gunfire without their main metal cover. If both players were at peak stamina it would be fairly easy to ward off the slew of drones, but the damage they took from Adrenaline would kick in here to weaken their showing here.

Even if he manages to take out a lot of the drones, i don’t see Geoff making it out of this room conscious. Pain, blood loss, bullet wounds, his own adrenaline wearing out over time leading to fatigue, there are a number of factors that can take him out here. So now the question is how well can anna handle herself here?

Well, losing [HotM] means that Anna doesnt have another quick stand to watch her back as she heads down the halls, so getting flanked by drones is a real concern, but with Geoff taking out a good chunk of drones before he passes out should cut down on that risk. Once she gets to Deadman, the door trick can still be pulled off, flicking projectiles at the closet from a safe distance. And with that, Anna has finished what the team started, but this match isn’t over yet…

5. Dr. Wily

There’s still the matter of getting out of dodge with the canister before the time limit is up. Assuming that anna is carrying Geoff with her stand or personally, it's a fairly straight shot to get to R&D with him. Now comes the ultimate enemy to this strategy; A single guard! Nah, Anna should be in fine enough position to take him out herself, grab the supplies, and get out. With Geoff out they won’t be able to collect as much tech, but that's a topic for another category.

In the end, although i see Players suffering a heavy loss, that loss doesn’t come until near the end of the gauntlet and with Anna’s safety being the priority for most of the matches, she’ll be in good enough shape to drag the retired body of Geoff past the finish line. For players, im giving you an 8/10, while the Perfect Strangers get the not-so-perfect score of 7/10. If they had managed to deal just a bit more damage to the player team, they would have taken the win, but the Soul Rebels managed to whether the storm and escape with payload in tow.