R1E1 Quality Delibs

Gearless Joe (Logic)

First Exhibition match of R1 and it’s a duel that both players have been itching for since stage select; good enough reason for the match up given how *bad* Casco ACT1 would have fared against Lincoln. But now, while both sides suffer from low AGI, they boast powerful A POW Stands with ample stage manipulation and END to take some heavy punishment. Put ‘em in a small, simple stage like this and there’s many ways to take the match.

AM:

Lincoln goes for a swarming style, aiming to mob Casco immediately to end the match...and that’s it. This was a bit of a tougher one to delib because the rubric’s lower scores speak more to mixed output, good and bad together, than to output quantity. As a result, I found myself reading the delib document and my past jurisprudence to figure out how to score this.

Although it was much longer, I’m reminded of Deimos R1M4. (Sorry, CdK, I need to snag some holdings and precedent for this one; all my love and blessings to you.) There, I found “little of how to maximize the [efficacy] (Competency)” and “ a lot of the (Counterplay) interactions [to be handwaved by overestimations of SPD discrepancies],” concluding that “everything here works on a 'minimum viable product' level, but in a very predictable and basic manner.”

Here, however, I think the core thesis is clear: ”I’ll only need one round to whoop you into shape.” Given the nature of the match and Casco’s advantages, looking to start and maintain pressure is cogent (Planning), and I do think the Counterplay to CTD2 itself is smart enough, even if I think there’s some Logistic concerns in how you get to doing the terrain setup given the aforementioned swarming style. Formatting wise, that the main body of the strat hits multiple separate points that I think could have been split off into their own paragraphs for clarity and elaboration, but there is a solid expression of a core idea.

That said, there’s not much else Logistically. Boxing is as much about positioning and footwork as mere slugging, and when you’re leaning heavily on your Stand body, there’s much you can look to leverage. Little is said of CTD’s Stand body beyond it being a target and the assurance that The Boxer can reposition to block attacks. Additionally, the attacks are just explained as a general flurry without further explanation or leveraging; note that the issue isn’t making use of The Boxer’s high physicals, but that not much is done with them beyond effectively stating “they are being used.”

Additionally, “making Casco less mobile, dealing more damage, and making it easier to defend from his attacks” is poorly explained beyond “increasing his friction” which requires incredible granularity and specificity to leverage at best and does not follow from the definition of friction at worst. (Technical) (Given that the third is explained as “Casco’s blows will stick”, which only applies if Casco tries to slide his fists off rather than the much more likely “pulling them back”, I’m unfortunately inclined to think it is the latter.) The response to CTD1 is to make the ground slippery to disrupt setup, but neglects that the mines have a wide 2m coverage radius, potentially causing them to detonate before counter-setup can go off. (Counterplay)

To paraphrase myself again, while there aren’t structural or substantial flaws, “doing impressive work on a strat’s central aspects alone is enough to reach somewhere in the ballpark of 6-7. I mentioned that the Plan of ending in one round is strong, but that I’m left wanting on other aspects central to the strat (Competency, Logistics, Counterplay, etc) and the misunderstanding of friction lead me to conclude that this strat “has some interesting or good ideas for getting its objectives done, but parts of it have issues. In general, the strat gets the job done decently, if messily,” earning itself a 5. It is important to note that calling my comments “this should have been longer” is reductive: even with only 3 people stratting, it is more than possible to get 8+ Qual strats in under 10k, especially when the path to victory is already this clear and clearly stated. The core advice I have repeated is that T6’s jurisprudence rewards constructive, positivist strategies, finding a thesis and executing it rather than throwing as many tech ideas as possible at the wall. You clearly found the idea, understanding it and following it through with a bit more circumspect and leveraging of the core ideas within and behind the strat would have greatly improved this score.

COL:

Casco takes a more defensive, ‘scaling’ approach by looking to absorb blows with rope-a-doping and build up mines, using them to keep his stamina up regardless of total damage accumulated as he looks for decisive blows against The Boxer or Lincoln with CTD2. Logistics and Planning are on full display here: careful mind is paid to footwork given Casco’s 1 AGI (even if the Double Dempsy might push it) and The Boxer’s terrain manipulation, and I find the defensive tactics in taking A POW blows/holding onto a stamina lead cogent. Boxing techniques to withstand and overcome a more physically mighty opponent are shown in full force, and I want to make my praise clear. However I have a few concerns.

First, the expectation of stockpiling 400, 500, 700, 900, 1000 mines over the course of the match is...a lot, given the rate of 8 mines/A POW hit, meaning that Casco has tanked 125 A POW blows. Even with A DUR, that certainly raises questions of whether Casco is still standing. Given that you can fit 9 ~30cm wide dinner plates to a square meter (for a max of 576 mines over the full ring), I doubt you can carry them all, but I also don’t think that all these mines are necessary.

While I don’t think you need those numbers, I’m not quite as sure the damage differential is as even as you imply it to be going into the final rounds. Given your observation that “whittling through The Boxer’s B DUR shouldn’t take too long considering ACT 2’s A POW” and allocation of 3 rounds of concentrated offense, having taken up to 7 rounds of similar punishment is worrying at only one rank higher. Even with “greatly reduced damage transference” on CTD1, the sheer amount and duration of punishment puts a lot of weight on that clause, and given The Boxer’s SPD differential, the number of hits get by and onto Casco by sheer chance increases.

It took me a few read throughs of the sheet and the strat to determine how you could create “inert mines” with E PRE, but I think finding targets out of relevant range is cogent, but should be explained. However, I think setting up the Mine Shotgun is a bit harder to set up, given created mines are scattered at E PRE, so shotgunning all 8 in midair at C SPD D PRE is a bit tenuous, but I think the tech ultimately passes muster, maybe at reduced efficacy.

Nonetheless, I think this gets a high 7 for being a very competently and interestingly put together strat that is a bit ambitious in the amount of punishment it can take and the scaling it can do as it takes it, but ultimately is impressive in its expression of a core thesis.

TJ Combo (Discloud)

In honor of Lincoln’s straight-to-the-point strategy, I’ll try and keep this short. Speaking of Lincoln, I’ll start with him. There’s not much to say here. Aside from some contingencies and counterplay, this strategy is ultimately a Deathmatch boiled down to its core element: “I hit him until he goes down.” This is all well and good, but there’s genuinely not much here beyond saying your bigger stats are gonna keep hitting Casco, with very little tactical reference. I think this is going to settle at a **3/10** from me.

Casco’s is a bit longer, befitting COLOSSI’s general lengthy writing style, and Casco’s own outboxing strategy. On the whole, I really liked what I saw here - an equally simple premise to that of his opponent, but taking the opportunity to get into the micro of how exactly this is going to be accomplished. I’ll try to get into the specifics of why I liked the tactics on display in JoJolity, but suffice it to say I was thoroughly convinced by the writing that Casco had a winning plan on his hands, using both ACTs to their fullest. A simple **8/10**.


Muhammad Ali (Dice)

Casco:

First looking at your first option opener, hot swapping between ACTs 1 and 2 for the tosses and mine gathering. There are a few issues here I see, individually they aren’t that big of an issue but together you run into a few bottlenecks. All of this has to do with the Speed and Precision of the two ACTs. In order to swap, you need to be able to recall your Stand and then Summon the other ACT, not that big of a deal seeing that means the Stand just has to stick to Casco to recall. Then we get to loading up, you have to fire 8 mines with ACT 1 where you can pick them up with ACT 2 to throw, then pick them up, toss them up, then punch rush them, and then swap back to rinse and repeat. I believe you overestimate your capabilities here on the toss up into a punch rush to get all 8 plates, let alone getting a high power spread of them considering how the impact would be dispersed across the mine. You say you do this to buy yourself a moment, but that moment is being used up just so you can get back to the swap and go through the motions again so once that projectile window passes, you still have a pretty open wind-up. Your greed is what I think gets the better of you here, going for all 8 mines at once where if in theory you do it once, you’d likely be set for the match on mines, but it has so many variables where it could go wrong or interrupted.

Moving on, Casco seems to be settling for a long game, the defense here is something that would work in a traditional boxing set-up plus more mines and projectiles. Focus and Foresight I think are a bit overplayed here as a method of reacting to a B Speed Stand. While it can save you in a pinch, putting yourself into positions where you have to react is not always the strongest option. Quick Switching as well, I think you oversell the unpredictability of a 50/50, while it’s not the worst odds, 50/50s can be inherently risky especially in cases where your bluff gets called or if a reaction is provoked early.

If you do survive till the long game though, with more mines than you could possibly use, learn Lincoln’s patterns and tire him out, you do have a pretty good shot at things. The way you are playing does give you the most chances to reach this state, however I do not really see a use for 1000 mines and given the set up I doubt you’d even get to use upwards of 200 of them.

I’m going to give this strategy a **7/10**. Overall the strategy is fine, but I think you overestimate your capabilities and underestimate Lincoln’s and his Stand’s abilities. Friction alterations don’t seem to be accounted for beyond staying near the ropes and your projectile set up coupled with hot swapping leaves you with larger opening windows than I think you realize. Also in hindsight we probably should have gotten a referee to break up clinches.

Lincoln:

Well, for a short strategy this does cover its bases offensively and defensively. However it’s gameplan is lackluster, where you have the options to wear down your opponent and deal with their abilities, it’s a bit disconnected. Ideally you’d be able to handle any of these issues one at a time, but you don’t really put yourself in a position to do so beyond having to lock down Casco early on and keep them there.

I’m going to give this strategy a **6/10**, for as short as it is, there is technically nothing incorrect or any major mistakes. That said it doesn’t put much forth on the table and could be expanded upon between dealing with Casco’s Stand in a head to head, patterns of attack/approach, and positioning yourself to land decisive hits. A more detailed or nuanced version of hitting the other guy really fast could elevate the quality and strategic merit.