R2M20 Jojolity

Judge Grill (Cory)

Writing Jojolity delibs first this go around!

Starting with Nep, this is a fun collection of charm. Cute moves, a dessert feast, and a general sense of crowdwork contributes to an overall sense of panache evident throughout the strat. Nothing I didn't expect, but that's not a bad thing. A 7!

As for Valentine, I'm super impressed with the focus on the food you make and the ingredients you use to make it. It's an admirable bit of focus that didn't need to be done (I, of all people, know that much), but it absolutely goes the extra mile and that's very much appreciated. There's so much flash and panache sprinkled throughout, but it would have been enough to have netted an 8, but that attention to detail cinches it in my opinion. You get a 9!

Judge Barbecue (Dice)

Both teams here did a very good job on jojolity here, every section of both strategies had one or two dedicated bits to showing their appeal and personality in a way that made sense at each moment of the strategy. Both strategies also do a good job of setting the tone of what they are going for as well.

Neptunia:

The Lagtrain, dessert course, and plates are highlights beyond Neptunia’s direct actions and antics. The pocky game was an interesting choice although I could see some more use out of trying it more with the crowd or amping up your interactions with the crowd beyond dancing. The strategy itself is written in a way that it is constantly playing off of Neptunia’s mannerisms and things like Lagtrain being described consistently under the jojolity’s scope. I’m going to give an **8/10** here, it commits well to the jojolity and has good descriptive highlights throughout the strategy. That said, I could see more direct action taken, where a lot of the action is told not shown for lack of a better term. It is a great jojolity, and I debated on giving it a higher score, but in the end I settled with an 8.

Valentine:

A lot of short bursts of dialogue that really show Valentine’s character here as well as using food that match up with their character as well. The way Valentine sells what they are cooking, moves the crowd, and interacts with them are all well done and integrate into the strategy itself very well in a narrative and mechanical manner. The use of all caps and normal speaking voice sells the tone of dialogue pretty well without needing extra explanation. I’m going to give this a **9/10**, it really is something special about the flow of this strategy, where it’s concise and straight in your face and being a whirlwind to read through. Even with all of the in-character dialogue, actions and call outs the jojolity additions blend into the strategy seamlessly.

Beyond everything, I tend to give higher qual/jojolity scores to strategies I think people can learn something from. In both of these strategies there are a lot of nuances I think you can read deeper into, Valentine’s in particular being a top notch example of this sort of whirlwind style of objective play, but also can teach a lot in terms of creating a fast paced strategy in general. Neptunia’s strategy as well doing a good job of playing their jojolity through their use of consistent adjective descriptors to Lagtrain and their general actions in line with what they are trying to highlight for jojolity.

Judge Smoke (Flamechar)

Players were tasked with showing off their unique senses of charm and appeal. On Nep’s side of the court, Lagtrain and the final ‘Desert’ are both really good cutesy jojolity plays, the latter being quite creative and both certainly able to be surprising and I feel elevate the strat (Lagtrain for instance being both play in terms of both Quality and Jojolity). On Val’s side, coolness has certainly been shown throughout the joj plays - the Boombox with the match-long playlist, the gun shooting into things (air, cans, birds), chugging the beer. Both strats I feel show off the character’s style and how they interact with the match very well - both get **9**s!