T6R1M15 Quality Delibs

Judge Lupin III (Dice)
In the habit of redoing old matches from previous tournaments, we have a new art heist match over T4s art heist match.

2D:

The maps to go with the strategy here are nice, it shows a decent amount of care for planning and logistics. The specifics of the smoke and how it's managed as a resource are also paid attention to. The one glaring thing though is how it treats the guards, it has ways to deal with them physically, but it underestimates them in a few respects. They are treated without due diligence in how they might respond except where their response seems convenient to you. The pathing you take while you presume to deal with the guards in advance, could be bolstered by some stealth factor or other ways to deal with guards in a more reactive fashion if/when the plan goes awry, especially with a strategy that relies on planning and resource management like this one.

I’m going to give this strategy a **7/10**, you do the job you set out to do, but there are a few things I think could be shored up. As an aside, did anybody else think that 2D would be so down with murder, just reading from the character sheet I was not given that impression at all.

Everly Brothers:

A bit of a messy strategy, although I think that’s just a bit due to the nature of a duo character like this in a match that promotes covering multiple spaces at once. The level of detail put in how extra flesh and organs, as well as combat with the guards is a nice treat. Overall I think the strategy plays well with having the guards in mind, although the opener is a bit optimistic. In terms of completing the objective, signposting when you are getting things better would help a lot, and some of the pathing can feel a bit obscure especially with the split format.

I’m going to also give this strategy a **7/10**. I don’t think I have much else to discuss here.

Judge Joker (Persona 5) (Logic)
Compared to the more eccentric objectives of Cops vs Robbers and Sales, Collectathons and Race matches have occasionally gotten a bad rap for how simple they are comparatively. While they can become rote quickly, their simplicity lets teams show off their fundamentals of positioning, timing, and resources management, making it easy to earn high marks in Planning, Logistics, and Elegance if teams play their cards right.

In that regard, this match pits 2-D’s raw output against the Everlys’ biological bag of tricks, the former able to flood the mansion with his smokebending but needing to physically open the doors to do so while the latter has only one Everly’s worth of mass to spread, but wider versatility in how to do so. It’s not only a question of speed, but measure—what resources to spend, when to spend them, and how you set up for their success.

KC:

KC has some very strong pathing and organization (Planning/Logistics) through the match, having learned from M4 to enable their high SPD rather than use it as a crutch, and complementing their pathing with maps. (As an aside, I would have appreciated the main maps being numbered to show the order of steps, but I quibble.)

The meticulousness of this strat is very much appreciated, which leads to my one notable criticism. The guards are a system wide concern that are leveraged at points, but not mitigated. They have 333 physicals with flashlights (meaning that turning off the lights isn’t a absolutely effective) and Stand effective batons, meaning that they can swat away E DUR smoke or become a major concern for the 232 2-D, especially if swarmed, which is an issue when much of 2-D’s stealth is to shroud himself in smoke and creep through the halls...where guards are patrolling. What makes this more concerning is 2D’s more aggressive approach; killing guards and flooding the area with smoke is going to attract a lot of heat.

As my shorter comments imply, this would be a 8, but the weaker plans to deal with security bump this down to a **7**. I can appreciate a good ‘rushdown’ strategy, especially with the efficient use of smoke, but as many have said, rushdown takes careful understanding of the resources of “your opponent.” This doesn’t mean to have taken a more conservative approach, but to further understand the costs of not doing so. Nonetheless, it looks like y’all are hitting your stride; keep tightening your workflow and you’ll be solid contenders: kick some ass in M20. Discloud’s looking forward to it.

AM:

Speaking of rushdown, we move onto AM, employing something of its opposite by ‘scaling’ with some biological utility and making use of their two bodies on the field. Contrasting with 2-D’s stealth action gameplay, the Everly’s weave themselves into the systems of the match, bending and manipulating it with disguises and 4 Inflitration.

While this shows good Competency, I found the strategy a bit harder to follow, partially due to the split focus between Wyatt and Aeson, mostly because how tech, contingency, and plans were all mixed together in each section—often each paragraph—making individual tactics and overall plans unclear.

For example, “Back to Aeson” begins contingent on 2-Ds pathing, (If 2-D went to left wing or not upstairs, Aeson goes to the Master bedroom) but halfway through, shifts to a separate case (If 2D went to the right wing, Aeson goes to the left guest rooms). These are wholly different plans that are presented together, making the plan harder to follow; if you want a more reactive strategy, you not only need to mind the thrust of the objective, but also to signpost the situations to react to.

Sectioning these out and keeping the core plan clear would help greatly sell the urgency the match requires. As is, the strat comes off as lackadaisical and unfocused without signposting the thrust of the Everlys’ system play; throughout the strat, I should know how you’re actively completing the objective without having to parse for it.

With that, while I admire the system play, muddy execution brings this score to a **7**. With your veteran experience and newcomer enthusiasm, y’all bring a lot to the table, and I can already see that you’ve addressed past comments, particularly how you use quote text. The key from here on out is prioritizing and organizing so that you better articulate the core thesis of the strat.

Judge Arsene Lupin (Bri)
Great job to both players here! I really appreciate the effort that was put into both strategies, and this match really took a turn I didn’t expect. I like both 2-D and the Everly bros, so picking a winner from this match is going to be a little hard, to say the least. There’s a lot I could say about this match, given how complex it is– but both players took fairly straightforward and orthodox approaches, so I think that I’m going to keep it a little short here.

Quality:

Ashen Memoriam:

First of all, I would like to note something (And this won’t detract from your score at all); I think that you should proofread your strategies a little more before you submit them. There were a few grammatical errors throughout it and a couple of sections that were difficult to understand due to the way they were worded in a way that took a bit away from the strategy itself. I think that spending a little more time spell checking or having an extra pair of eyes to look over things could be pretty beneficial for you. I understand 24 hours is a bit of a time crunch considering the circumstances and complexity of the match, but it never hurts to give things a 5 minute once-over before you submit.

Onto the match itself– I think that you guys did a great job accounting for what your opponent could do, and your flesh trickery as well as the way you handle getting around the guards when they could potentially pose a big threat to you is a lot safer than the murder spree that 2-D goes on, even if it might not be as effective or could backfire depending on the circumstances. My biggest gripe with this strategy is that you spend a good chunk of time starting up, with changing your clothes and spending a fair amount of time using your operating skills and D speed stand to reshape your body. Not saying it won’t take more than a couple minutes (Even with the above professional-level surgery skill), but that’s a head start you allow your opponent to have in securing paintings and getting closer to completing the match objective.

That said, I think that your methods of controlling your environment and manipulating the guards’ movements throughout the arena itself is a solid choice, and like 2-D, you play to your strengths and perform a generally orthodox strategy to follow what’s expected of you. The way you position yourself on the stage and protect yourself doesn’t leave much else to be said, and while you make a few missteps and give your opponent a time advantage taking into account your slower start, I think this is a solid strategy. You did execute your slow start well by mimicking the guard closely and performing surgery on yourself to make your blending in as seamless as possible– but I don’t think that you maximized the advantage you had for the time investment you put into this. If you had moved a little faster and taken initiative while you worked instead of pausing to engage in setup, I would be inclined to score this higher– but for now, I feel comfortable giving this a mid-high 6/10.

Karma Collectors:

As I said in my opener, I feel like this is a fairly straightforward strategy. While I didn’t expect 2-D to be the murderous type, I think that it plays well into the goal of the match by preventing guards from noticing or taking care of him down the line. I think that you underestimate the amount of time it takes to kill the guards that you set out to take care of as well as the capabilities of them to take you out if something goes wrong, but overall you came up with a pretty solid plan to take out the guards, maneuver your way around the mansion, and escape with the most paintings.

I think that the primary strength of your strategy is its simplicity– you played exactly to what was expected of you by using the smoke to obscure vision in a convincing and efficient manner, and the reasoning behind the tech you pull itself is fundamentally sound. You don’t waste time getting right to work, and while you miscalculate the ‘opponents’ you have to face in the guards, you play a pretty honest and orthodox game, which is never a bad thing in my book. I think that this strategy deserves a solid, middling 7/10; there are areas you can improve on, but I don’t really think there’s anything damning or a significant hindrance at all. You show an innate understanding of the map and manage your positioning pretty well throughout it, which is always good when it comes to a large arena. I look forward to seeing what you can pull off in the future.