JJBA OCT #8 R1M14 Quality Deliberations

JUDGE CLEVERUSE

CARC

Hadrian as a character is tired. He’s fought like this before, hell he’s done something extremely similar to this exact match before. But in all of that, he’s gained experience, and that degree of experience definitely comes through with the strat CARC has put out.

Very strong fundamentals throughout, with a plan focused on a specific win scenario that is well backed up through a midgame that knows exactly what has to happen to get there. Early game is spent making up for the main weakness of the stand, instructing each piece of their role in the battle, while keeping the approach slow and careful. The defensive measures here and throughout are a little on the weak side, underestimating the opponent’s mobility if not the opponent as a whole, but not to a degree that is too damning. Contingencies shore this up a bit later on but in the early game I feel like Hadrian leaves himself open for a bit too long to be comfortable.

Once he gets to work, however, it's easy to see him setting the pace for the rest of the fight. The delegation to [Rivers] is simple but effective, keeping one close to keep him a threat should CQC occur while the other four are an assembly line of ranged harassment using water and ice. Weaponizing the water specifically is quite clever, and even if I’m not entirely sold on how universal its application is the fact that it both counters hidden ice constructs and puts the enemy’s low End on a timer through the cold it passively inflicts is undeniably effective. The inevitable CQC is a mix of high power melee from ‘Numbah One’ and point-blank ranged attacks from the other [Rivers], making for a highly effective blender situation. The hidden [Rivers] gambit is a very creative piece of kit and a highlight of the strat for me; if it catches the opponent out of position it can easily end the game right then and there.

With a healthy amount of contingencies to cover what the highly focused main plan doesn’t touch on, I think Hadrian proves himself a seasoned and terrifying force. The defensive measures are the only soft point of the whole plan, given the jojolity the teams shared more attention could have been put on the mobility they were surely going to use, but assuming he can start the midgame pressure I can very much see everything flowing into the expected win state. Logistically sound, creatively and technically well planned, and simple to follow. Very well done. ***Eight***.


T8

Typhon 8 goes extremely hard on [Abbey Road]’s ability throughout in order to set up an extremely robust toolbox of options. Care is made to never risk going above the material limit, as well as specific care in handling Eileen’s own 1 Endurance while keeping themselves a hard target to pin down. The Ice Paths and Shield serve extremely well defensively, even if the enemy manages to land a hit it is sure to be a glancing one, while the myriad of projectiles on offer keep the pressure on from quite early on. Shurikens for quick low-commitment damage, Water bombs and Snowglobes for AoE denial and control, and the Spear-slash-Plow for some quite effective hit-and-run when combined with the constant skating all speak to a midgame that does very well to account for just about any direction the match can take and responds to its needs competently. I do like the effort made to not only account for the Shark’s presence as a threat but to weaponize the secondary effects of its attacks to hinder Eileen’s opponent as well.

I can understand the intent behind the Winter Wonderland, pushing the opponent into an area that very much favors Eileen between the Ice Paths giving her unparalleled mobility and a ground rendered slick from Water Bombs and freezing from Embedded ice. Holding such an arena with all the tools at her disposal is a solid plan, though one that could have used a bit more attention in achieving. I have no doubt that the Wonderland can be made or that Eileen lasts long enough to do so, but it’s hard to see for certain how she intends to get the opponent into such an area in the first place. The endgame with this combined with the modular Death Spiral is a fantastic setup and payoff, but the stepping stones leading from that early toolbox to this state of the game are left a bit rough. Even with all the options presented, I believe it would have served the overall plan very well to have chosen one or two specific applications of the tools as approaches to commit to. This would have helped the flow of the plan better show how we arrive at that end game, even though I believe it does a reasonable job doing so as is.

I always love a good finisher that weaponizes players in some way, and the Death Spiral somehow manages to do so to both players present and still come off as quite effective. The creativity of this and all the pieces of the toolbox is commendable, and the through-plot of Eileen finding confidence in herself makes for a satisfying read overall. There is great care put into handling the weaknesses of Eileen from beginning to end, and while that throughline from midgame to end is a little hazy I’m ultimately quite impressed with what’s been shown. ***Eight***.


JUDGE REDANON


Starting with Hadrian, I do like a lot of what I see- things are played very methodically and effectively in a way I found both easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to see how it could result in a victory. One immediate criticism stuck out to me, however. It can feel a little "happy path" at times, eager to assume that Eileen simply won't have a proper recourse to the techniques being thrown at her; ones that could be pretty handily countered by a single technique, like making a bell of ice she can hold up or what have you; all these ranged attacks can be easily umbrella'd into a single "anti-projectile" technique. I don't think there's anything wrong with playing the zoning game, of course, but for a character like Eileen I think the strategy could've done to respect her capabilities and the chance she could put Hadrian on the back foot a little more. I feel confident giving this a **7**; fun, strong, with a flaw or two that holds it back from a higher score.

Moving onto Eileen, A very intelligent and well-executed strat! I think this is very much the "standard Eileen gameplan", which isn't a criticism (especially considering it's her first match), but in terms of execution nothing particularly too special or unique gets pulled out of her kit (again, not a crit!). I dig the good planning on using the ice-paths instead of relying on the potentially uneven glacier surface. One major concern I do have with the strat is that I think it has a real risk of overtaxing Eileen's END; her sheet specifically words her 1 END as "sedentary", and Ice Skating (even with her skills in the art) is *not* a practice that is easy on the body. Endurance isn't just "health", it's also energy and constitution. Additionally, I'm not entirely sure that the bombloons would function- I understand the principle, but if you're "chilling" the water with B POW cold, I don't think that would work without some additional trick at play without just freezing the water. B POW's nothing to sneeze at. I'm giving this a **7** for much the same reasons as Hadrian's.


JUDGE BLUE (daba deeba daba)

~~~~~~~~~~CARC

The overall Planning on display here I find as all together pretty solid! You aim to create a persistent wall of force in the form of an artillery barrage, using its pressure to winnow stage control and endurance whilst setting up the eventual coup de gras in the form of your stealth ambush. The Narrative conveyance of this strategy is multipurposed, both serving strong characterization and pacing the match out on the basis of how much information Hadrian can convey to his units. This in turn lends towards the merits your work has in Logistics - the layering of your orders *is* the timeline of your strategy.

Where this work suffers, I worry, is in the technical element. The confidence with which you assert your ability to saturate areas with water contrasts directly with the fact that at maximum your stand bodies are equivalent in volume to half a human body - and that's all of them in total. Compression can only get you so far as it comes to water high power or not, and this misalignment of expectations when it comes to your build’s capabilities results in your water blasting efforts being a bit stretched thin. I would have liked to see more care to the execution, over time your efforts will bear out fruit but assuming this would have an immediate effect on the match hurts the Competency on plays I’d otherwise find both Creative and strong in the Counterplay angle. Weaponizing Elieen’s cold is *deeply* clever, and destabilizing her ability to skate effectively is an obvious means by which to topple her metaphorically and literally.

This exposes a deeper concern I have regarding the strategy - Hadrian doesn't fully engage with being at a disadvantage. The defensive contingencies explored at the end of the strategy pose a satisfactory defense towards immediate pressure, but not towards the setbacks Eileen’s aggression can incur towards his long term setup of the stage. If Hadrian doesn't control the stage, he doesn't control Elieen’s movement, ergo he the odds of his finisher misfiring increase. Hadrian is fully willing and capable of tanking damage and relying on his dodging skill to help him float throughout, but regardless there is an air of dismissal towards the setbacks Elieen could theoretically pose. Once again this harms Hadrian in terms of Competency - more acknowledgement towards what match states would slow his scaling down were vital, especially given the inefficient method of water dispersal.

By contrast as formerly alluded towards Hadrian's offense is incredibly well conceived when one ignores water management/scaling concerns. His usage of the stage is deeply inventive and the tandem coordination of his swarm to overwhelm Elieen's options. When the momentum of the match swings to his favor there is a deeply threatening endgame at play here, all my critiques merely come from a point of highlighting the obstacles this strategy creates for itself in reaching for it. Overall the end product will earn a **6** from me, there is a lot to love here, but I cannot score on the basis of offensive potency alone.


~~~~~~~~~~T8

Eileen's planning presents a strong core, snipe at Hadrian and his assorted swarm pieces to chip them down and create persisting freeze zones to operate out of whilst simultaneously spreading her terrain control through the extension of her Winter Wonderland, each eventually culminating into her three branching finishers which all ultimately boil down to versions of taking on a worn Hadrian in CQC. This makes for a straightforward, ‘honest’ plan, which is executed in a similar manner. Eileen kites, she shoots, she kills.

The star of this strategy in my eyes is it's Technical Execution, the myriad of tech you create are all simple in execution but work to compliment your core thesis of ranged harassment and defensive evasion segueing into eventual increased aggression. Logistics similarly is decent, with you steadily tightening the noose and increasing the risks you take as you become increasingly confident in your setup. The ranged harassment is a smart approach, and the simple choices - such as in how you approach targeting Avalon through assassinating/splitting off units and weaponizing their peculiar need to be communicated with are savvy choices as it comes to Counterplay.

Where the strategy falters for me is in terms of its Competency, whilst the broad strokes of your convergence to closer quarters engagement is cromulent I'm left uncertain towards how Eileen is meant to push Hadrian into her zone of influence. How comfortable is she leaving the Winter Wonderland to force him in? Under what circumstances would she try to do so? Does she have other means in circumstances when she can't push him in due to positional circumstances? In this regard I find the breadth of options your strategy creates for itself becomes a kind of weakness - your contingencies in aggregate are more fleshed out than your ‘core plan’. There's more meat to it than there are bones, to use allegory.

That said, I do not find these flaws to be too inherently debilitating to your work, but they are worth mentioning in general for purposes of improvement. I think you could benefit from better cohesion between your end, middle, and opening states. Regardless what's here is strong work, accordingly I am going to give a low **7** for your efforts!