R2M13 Quality

Judge Bow (Cory)

Quality:

This is an odd one to give out points for, for sure. To sum it up in so many words, if I were voting on this, it would easily net a tie. Both strats mirror each other in ways; both lean heavily on scaling, almost to the detriment of direct offensive play, and both overestimate stats in a similar way. Delibs may read similarly as a result, but they come from different lines of analysis.

Starting with Ken, I think your baseline gameplan here works just fine, sinking ships to put Mark in a bad position (I won't take points off for assuming as much, anyway). My main issue with the strat revolves around your methods of doing so; B POW is strong, but given the distance between boats you're working with here I have doubts about the efficacy of smashing them apart with the prow. There isn't too much else to say given the length of the strat, but past that this is a fine enough strategy with perhaps too much emphasis on iffy individual tactics. A 6!

As for MARK, I'm of similar mind when I read this strat. The general gameplan is very solid, and you definitely get points for planning your positioning around a situation that's very much the expected disadvantage state. I do, however, take issue with your planned offensive with fish bombs. I don't think that the fish's innate swimming speed would be able to override the D SPD of your stand here; that's precedent I would very much prefer to not be set by this match, and if you guys take only one thing from these delibs I'd prefer it be that. Still, this isn't the only element present in the strat, which by and large works well and as advertised. A 7!

Judge Port (Dice)

Ken:

So this is a generalized strategy into a potential late game payoff. The payoff though of a gasoline fire and nowhere for the opponent to go is in theory pretty good though.

For the initial setup phase, there are a few things I’d like to cover. First on the killboat, B power is a lot, but the ability to ram through and sink boats isn’t quite as simple as that between the lack of space to build ramming speed or turn the boat and the wreckage and size of the other boats blocking your paths. Then onto the rest of the inventory gathering, not quite sure how long all that will take you, but given how the strategy is playing more for a long game it’s not that big of an issue. Taking the medical supplies though is somewhat questionable, given you are already suited up most of the time. The opportunity cost is not that high, but the reward isn’t really there either, not to mention more stuff to your inventory. And onto the inventory, I think the rope + crate for a backpack is a bit much especially if you want to transition to the underwater portion of the strategy. Overall this is a lot of set up for gear that while not necessarily conflicting, do dilute each other’s payoff or have more general trade offs.

Onto the next section of set up, similar to what I said on the killboat, while the anchor can take out boats, it's probably not going to be anything too quick. The diving form is mostly reasonable, however in conjunction with the anchor I have to ask when and where are you getting the leverage to swing the anchor. If you have to surface to use it, you’ll have to pull the full chain out of the water as well. But if the plan was to swing it from underwater, that will likely be somewhat limited by the water pressure and swinging at an upward arch with a heavy object with momentum can be difficult especially since hitting the underside of a boat early can kill the momentum without dealing enough damage to puncture the hull.

Onto the payoff section, you have an array of weapons and set the remaining boats/area on fire. Then from there you wear down Mark until you can land a finishing hit.

I’m going to give this strategy a **6/10**. I see the idea you are going for here, but there are unfortunately a lot of compounding issues. Even ignoring the issues of breaking enough boats, your inventory space is very split and your offensive measures are vague where even though you have an arsenal with a wide range of coverage your offensive pushes stop at single hits. You don’t really take advantage of the destroyed environment besides trying to lock-out space, which can be a good reason but you don’t really follow up on it. Mark and his abilities are somewhat underplayed, but you have enough to passively deal with and play around them in general.

MARKharvest:

This strategy makes a number of strong assumptions. I hate to say it but I’m not sure how else to put this.
First off is the fish, fish are rather sparingly found where the further out to sea, the larger the fish tend to be. With 11 meters of water, there is little to no chance bluefin tuna or even some of the other fish species that are half as large would be found there, especially in a Canal. Smaller fish while possible aren’t really probable to find more than a few under these conditions. The argument that because the fish are normally fast doesn’t really track that they would be that fast once converted too. While I can give some benefit of the doubt that smaller fish could move faster under D Power to propel themselves, if you did manage to get any larger fish or animal in a future match they wouldn’t even have that argument going for them.

Onto the propeller, you are working with D Speed and D Power so I’m not sure how you are getting high speed off of these. You likely would need a number of propellers to generate enough power to push Mark through the water.

The rest of the fighting tactics relied a lot on these assumptions. Some of it can be mitigated by just making wooden fish constructs, but it gets somewhat more difficult. The chipdown, harassment, and big explosive are reasonable enough for fighting tactics here although the first two are somewhat generalized.

I’m going to give this a **6/10**. Your foundation here is very shaky but there were some general plays that had merit. There was a notable reliance on the fish swarm where you likely could have diversified your construct portfolio. The biggest flaw in the strategy though I think is Mark needing to rely on a propeller for underwater maneuverability, something that if Ken ever tags would leave Mark very much a sitting duck. In terms of staying underwater indefinitely while breathing isn’t necessary, I am more curious how much damage Mark could sustain before something that shouldn’t be exposed to water gets exposed to water, under this situation though I’d personally treat it as “if a human would bleed out underwater and die from that level of injury, so would Mark probably”

Judge Starboard (Bri)

Well! This is the epitome of a ‘simple match’, both in terms of the arena, the writeup, and the strategies-- which is something I’m thankful for, given how many complex matches there are (as well as the one that’s next on the table). That said, even if delibbing for this match is on the easier side, a winner still must be chosen, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Quality:

Starting on the side of Ken, I did appreciate the methods that you used in terms of clearing out the area you were assigned-- the weaving through and destroying boats so that MARK can’t use them is a pretty good play on face, and the Killboat, while expected and a little plain, isn’t too hampered by the sheer number of boats in the harbor. Your use of the anchor on a chain as a weapon is inventive and effective, and I don’t think there are too many builds that would be able to get past a flail like that. Your finisher was pretty fun to read as well.

However, I do think that there are a number of problems with the way that you approached this match. First and foremost, while your goal was to deny MARK resources, the sheer amount of time you spent setting up in the early stage (Getting resources for the killboat) makes this goal a little less effective once you do get to smashing boats around the arena. Similarly, I think that your Davy Jones Boots lack the proper logistics behind them to function properly (Ex: Two propellers attached to your feet providing B-POW pushing force would be a lot harder to finagle than you posit). Furthermore, your move of lighting the entire arena on fire through spilling fuel out of the boats just flat out doesn’t work in the slightest, given the sheer ratio of fuel to be burned versus the amount of water within the actual arena-- and even if you could light it on fire, it wouldn’t last anywhere near as long for you to jump into it and use it as cover and the like.

Overall, this is a fairly simple strategy on face with a number of logistical issues and gaps in planning that greatly impede the strategy from what it tries to do. Apart from minor skirmishes where you want to get your opponent off of you, great parts of this strategy aren’t explained well enough to be practically sound, and on top of that, what your opponent can actually do to prevent you from reaching your goal isn’t really addressed as much as I would have liked it to be. I don’t do this often, but unfortunately, I’ll be giving this strategy a high **4/10**.

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On the side of MARK, I think that this strategy is a bit of a step up from the other’s. Instead of two propellers roped to the feet and powered by drills, your strategy opts for a single wooden propeller directly attached to the back, which is much more easy to maneuver around with and reliably control. The shark on darts are a good way of exploring the arena and updating your character with information on the situation at hand, especially when it comes to you needing time to scale and prepare for what your opponent is doing. I also liked your counterplay ideas such as severing the oxygen lines of Kilroy if he gets into the water, and poking out his eyes and other vitals were good ways of deterring your opponent from a strategy that they could employ.

As far as negatives that I could spot, I don’t really think that there was anything that really stood out to me as ‘bad’ or ‘doesn’t work’ in particular. I do think that you stretch your offensive power a little too much in your assault of your opponent, but overall it’s not too big of a deal when you don’t overexert yourself all that much. This strategy is frankly pretty plain, but it gets the job done in a respectable way with a bit of flourish in Counterplay and Narrative added on. As such, I’ll be giving this a **7/10**. Good work.