T8R2M1 Quality Delibs

Judge Blue

~~~~~~~~~ Quality


====== La Isla Bonita

I love a good opener and what you have on display here displays the strengths of one effortlessly. With your chandelier play you set the tone of your disruption immediately, and the foundations of your further plans: spread chaos and water in equal amounts with eye catching demolitions. This demonstrates in equal amounts Planning, Logistics and Elegance as you define your win conditions through their execution, minimizing what you need to reach those points in both the literal text of the strategy (~20k character length that still thrums with strong characterization is an impressive feat) and in the tactics applied. A constant theme in your work here is tactics which are simple and replicable across the map, you don’t aim for complexity but rather iterative repetition of the same guiding philosophy: ‘spreading chaos and water in equal amounts’. This makes it *very* easy for you to build a foundation of disruption to the party that steadily grows, facilitating both early game potency and a strong case for scaling later on in terms of the scope of your plays.

I do find claims of the speed at which Love can gnaw through the pipes of the estate somewhat questionable, the fish at this point as you acknowledge are operating at C power and from within the pipes themselves would not have notable access to leverage to really make the most of that when on base C pow is already hard pressed to bust a pipe through sheer brute force (and lacking in tools). You are working at higher speeds than normal, and cede this process will one way or another take time, which spares you from the worst of this, but irregardless it is a definite fact that the ‘lowest tempo’ section of your strategy is where the major disruption to the party is Old Grey Wolf claiming the spotlight in isolation. The flooding of the space and shattering of lights is a strong play and you aim to make the case that it builds to something *well* worth it - which I will get into later - but given how decisively matches can be decided in the span of time of ‘a few minutes’ it is nevertheless a choice to do so without apprehension against builds who can operate on a swift timeframe such as Baygon and Slash, largely on account of the former.

The Counterplay provided of creating noise to disorient coordination between Slash and its partner then is a strong option, regarding its execution I feel there is a lack. The din of a crowd will certainly be obstructive if not at all a constant (people aren’t eternal scream machines), but more pressingly is the assumption the band would collaborate. Sarah lacks the charisma stats to really command NPCs to do her bidding against self-preservation, and this is a constant thing you attempt throughout your strategy. Barring useful charisma stats I would’ve liked to have seen stronger argumentation for how you compel characters to your side, as it’s otherwise questionable how much you’d be able to directly compel staff members to disrupt the party, or drunks to harass Baygon. The drinking game strikes me as far more feasible, especially as Sarah is a presumed safe zone for the simple reason of the pirate not targeting herself, but I digress.

The bear rug and shoe gnawing is just fucking hilarious, and iterating back upon my statements in paragraphs 1 & 2 the fruits of ‘spreading chaos and water’ begin to bare as the fish have a wider range of influence within which to work. By mixing up the types of displeasure you induce from simple showy destruction to flooding, the physical discomfort of having your shoes torn up, and the knowledge that there are *things* in the water you create a diverse and mixed profile of disruptions (speaking of, why is the bear rug passage repeated nearly verbatim in *two* sections?). You become in that sense omnipresent, there is no refuge, and the fish’s B spd favors them in coverage. The carpool adds to this in ways which should be obvious, and while I have a number of executional concerns with the usage of the sewer pipes (at the point you try to clog it not much wastewater would be going down the drain - with the vandalization of the bathrooms and the guests decidedly *not* being in the mood to use the toilet. Moreover even assuming there was an abundance of waste to draw from, the material would need time to spread through the premises for its smell to become an issue - when your start itself acknowledges that people would be on the move out. A better timing for clogging the drains in this sense would have been at the *start* of the match) I cannot deny it is a deeply Creative play.

Which brings us to our conclusion. With a safe route of egress provided via the Elevator demonstrating Competency (both in avoidance of triggering the loss condition and a clever means of executing the objective - having to fight over who gets to go down the sole route out of the estate when the stairs are obliterated is its own form of discomfort) you culminate with a final expression of your thesis of a mounting, destructive flooding. Sending the house crashing down upon it’s foundations you sink it into the literal flooded earth, and while I would have perhaps liked to have seen more description dedicated into how the ground is destabilized (rather than working in one central point given the range OGW is working at) it is nevertheless a stunning endpoint for your work to reach and one I’m confident you can.

Thus, for a strat that is punchy through a combination of a strong core of Elegance, Readability, and Planning I’m going to grade your efforts here today at a high **8**! In another universe I feel as though your charisma plays would be more detrimental to the work, but they largely played third fiddle to everpresent flooding heralded by an uppity Old Grey Wolf and a swarm of pesky fish.


====== The LKA Leviathan

To address the elephant in the room this is a strictly unfinished strategy - an unfortunate result of time constraints within the LKA stratroom. Nevertheless I’ll be aiming to grade your work best I can based on what is present.

Starting off at the start: For builds who benefit from scaling an important question arises of ‘when, and how is best?’ LKA answers that question much as LIB does, by using their scaling to further their own objectives. Not only opting to take food for themselves they in turn claim *all* of the food available either through their own ravenous hunger or through the stain of birdshit , which is a deeply fucking hilarious and Creative application of being a ‘superhuman’ level bird. You go Slash, you stupid poop-factory you. With this exercise in solid Logistics you transition towards the party itself, which I think demonstrates perhaps the strongest aspect of what is present within your work: Technical Understanding. Intentionally weaponizing a loss condition to further your goals is a *ballsy* fucking play, but the usage of Misdirection in sequence with Baygon’s 4 skill and low potency Bloodhound Dashes makes an excellent case for doing so. I am fully confident in the lingering discomfort and agitation within the crowd Baygon will be able to get party goers to ‘go at it’, fooling Baygon’s own teammate Benoit into booting her own guests out. The application of Baygon’s sensory advantage to isolate agitated partygoers to piss off even more just adds to the social manipulation game present.

Infact, the usage of her mosquito senses in general to optimize her route is a *strong* application of the formerly mentioned Technical Understanding in sequence to Logistics.

The usage of the Super Slash Stairwell is a creative bit of synergistic movement tech sequenced into crowd control that ultimately proves useless in its initial use case in the latter sense - as the ground floor doesn’t *have* people in it as according to the additional info (I assume given my foreknowledge of your outline that the fact a ‘second floor’ section prefaced the ground floor one that there were initial plans to corral people downward that couldn’t come to pass due to aforementioned constraints, which I would like to say for the record) - I nevertheless want to pause to appreciate it as I move onto the next and final section of the strategy.

The stunt with the car is charming! I unfortunately don’t have much more to say than that as the ground floor plays are more interesting to explore from a jojolity perspective than a quality one, but vandalizing the cars demonstrates a good grasp of another avenue to approach when ruining the guest’s day and the showmanship involved isn’t half bad - even if more Logistics work could be done to ensure that your plays therein are more likely to be seen (the garage being *underneath* the estate is a snag) the airtime mitigates the concerns here.

Which brings us to the end!

Grading this is difficult given it’s incomplete. What’s present here is content I for the most part am a great plan of - I feel in particular that Baygon’s approach to disrupting the crowd could have formed the foundation of an incredible performance and nevertheless stands on it’s own quite well. In this sense I feel for LKA, it’s a shame when life gets in the way. If I were to grade the sections independently from Quality perspective I’d say the Opening is an 8, Section 1 is a 10, and Groundfloor is a 7. Unfortunately I must work from a holistic view as a judge, and thus for an incomplete work which is nevertheless solid in what it does infact do I’m going to give a 6. If there was more coverage of the upper floors even in its current state I might have honestly even considered a 7, regardless, what’s present is work I’m fond of!


Judge Ruse

LIB

The everpresent threat of injury is certainly a way to destroy a party, and this is what LIB focuses on throughout. The opening play gives us a promise that it (spoilers) more than fulfills: this house is coming down and it’s going to be an absolute spectacle.

I was worried at first glance that the focus on pure physical destruction would become monotonous, but the follow through with exactly how each act of violence not only builds toward the ultimate climax but also helps the team to do so more efficiently is inventive enough to keep things interesting. Choosing to start the festivities with a good ol’ chandelier drop sets the tone early and is a great bit of foreshadowing, as expected from LIB’s demonstrated expertise with pacing in strats.

The full-on demolition approach does lean hard into Old Grey Wolf’s wheelhouse for sure, the turtle is made into a hell of a wrecking ball toward specific prioritized targets: light fixtures (eventually bathing the party in darkness), windows (facilitating mobility for Sarah and Love) and water fixtures (building to the eventual flooding of the entire area, further assisting Love). This is done floor-by-floor, with detailed maps that use solid positioning to cover ground efficiently.

With the inside destroyed in short order, the outside is where more spectacle-focused destruction takes place, mainly against the parked vehicles (who doesn’t love a good car’d pool?) ensuring that even when guests do escape the party they will have to do so on foot. Back inside for some quick last minute demolition before the turtle’s job finishes with the complete collapse of the building, a fairly definite premature end to any indoor party. The steps taken to earn the setpiece end are all quite realistic in scope, logistically sound in the time and positioning it takes to execute, and builds on itself enough to show solid planning and technical understanding of the builds in question.

As for Sarah herself, it does feel like she takes a bit of a backseat in regards to the core goal of the strat. That being said, she is responsible for my most favorite parts of the strat: the non-destructive party disruption. Insisting on getting a good number of patrons drunk and ornery, freaking people out with a floating bear rug, blasting ill-fitting music on a found boom box, it all speaks to a jerkass approach to ruining a party and I very much appreciate the mixup in approach for big creativity points. I would have loved to see more of this type of thing while the core destruction was going on just to make things that much more awkward for those in attendance.

There are a few notes of critique I should address, most prominent of which being the danger all of this poses to the guests themselves. While there is effort throughout to make sure guests aren’t caught in the ‘swinging of the ball’, the demolition is still making the entire area hazardous and is directly putting them at risk of physical harm. Especially with OGW’s notable lack of precision, I can see death as a relatively likely outcome to most of the bigger pieces of destruction throughout which risks Benoit’s ire. On top of that, Love’s capabilities are stretched quite far in regards to their Pow interacting with the various pipes and metallic objects they are manifested inside of with the intent to destroy. I’m not sure how a barracuda is supposed to bite their way out of the inside of a pipe with the curvature being how it is, especially when acting with C Pow as stated in the strat.

Altogether, I quite enjoyed LIB’s bit of chaos! Their characteristic elegance with strat pacing and planning is in full force here, each action taken leading to increased efficiency for the next eventually snowballing into the building coming down shows a fantastic standard for objective matches to strive for. There are a few technical hiccups that mire the details a bit and, while I won’t go so far as to say toeing the line of disqualification, definitely gives the line a knowing look, but nothing anywhere close to damning the strategy as a whole. Just enough room is given for characterization and flavor to come through in the mechanics to make it all a joy to read to boot. Very well done! Eight

LKA

It is a shame that the team fell on some tough productivity in this match, as I think what was presented here is a very solid basis to a great strat. Baygon brings the exact sort of ‘creacher’ energy that I was hoping to see and backs it up with some solid technical consideration.

Targeting the food first and foremost is a simple but very wise decision, as both players in the match rely on caloric intake to get the most of their respective abilities. While doubling as a disruption by being just nasty while doing so, this opening play sets up for the rest of the match while incorporating some elegant counterplay at the same time. Following through with further interference with the party’s food by taking advantage of Slash’s biology (there's nothing worse than a party with no spread, let alone a poisoned one) is honestly my favorite play of the match from either side. Very well planned and executed here.

For the main body, we transition into some petty thievery that puts Baygon’s agility and high senses to good use, while Slash focuses on making egress between the floors easier with some gravity-generated stairs, which doubles as a hell of a spectacle for the party. There's some good positioning consideration on display here, including the prioritization of lesser-panicked areas to spread the chaos as much as possible. Baygon flexes the threat of physical harm to aggro guests to and from where they want them, employing her bugs for some light roughing up to get the point across and drop more and a couple monocles.

The strat unfortunately cuts off once the vandalism starts in earnest, but what is done with the cars was promising. Both teammates’ abilities are used to make the destruction as much of a spectacle as possible, ensuring the most people see and are offended by the treatment as possible. I could easily see a world where this sort of philosophy was applied to more objects and situations around the party, but alas we come to the one and unfortunately quite damning elephant in the room for the strat.

It is very disappointing that time ran out for the team to get this strat the follow through and finish it deserves, as I think the fundamentals on display and the creativity used throughout are an ironclad basis for something next-level: the combination of objective play with setup and scaling is done phenomenally well while managing to keep strong characterization for both of the absolute gremlins that are Baygon and Slash. The abrupt ending unfortunately fails to address enough for me to consider the strat robust enough for a score in the higher end of things, but what is shown is very well done and can comfortably earn a high Six.


Judge Stream

LIB:

This strategy was absolutely brimming with character from the very start, making it very clear that you were going to utilize your partner’s destructive ability to its full extent. The chandelier crash served as an amazing set piece to open things up, and calling the cops is a very flavorful way to underline your actions throughout the match.

True to your first play, much of your strategy involves wreaking destructive havoc on every facet of the mansion. To this end, I thought your plays built on each other well as time went on, not just going for more generalized destruction, but specific and very annoying inconveniences for everyone in the party. Knocking the lights out is already very inconvenient and annoying, but adding in flooding the map throughout the match, including eventually with sewage, makes for a very uncomfortable experience. I do think that Old Gray Wolf likely contributes to the flooding more than the barracudas in the pipes, as I think you’d have a fairly hard time breaking them from the inside in the way that you’ve stated; while this might slow the timeframe in which you flood it to the extent that you desire, OGW still carries a lot of weight there, so I don’t think it impacts you too badly.

I found your utilization of the dark and flooded environment as an ideal means for Love to move around a very strong way to facilitate your methods of generally terrorizing the partygoers, such as the barracuda under the bear rug and targeting guest’s shoes. Sarah does a lot of fun social plays amongst the guests as well, goading people into drinking games and getting them more drunk to make the problem worse. Meanwhile, outdoors, more general destruction of the guest’s cars, as well as the Carpool adding yet another large and memorable piece of vandalism to your list.

The climax of all of this destruction, the overall collapse of the villa, is a really strong finisher and carried out rather convincingly, putting a nice ribbon on top of a very entertaining strategy.

My only other main concern with the strategy here is whether or not you can get everyone out safely to carry this out; while you do make an effort to scare people out and give them ways to leave throughout, the extend to which you’re not only destroying the structure, but making movement difficult via the flooding, in addition to the general impediments faced in a crowded party, means that it’s not unlikely you’d inadvertently get someone seriously hurt or killed in the process, despite your efforts to scare them away. I think the efforts you make to mitigate it do matter here, but it could have been done in a more thorough manner.

Overall, I found this strategy very competently utilized Sarah and Old Grey Wolf’s capabilities to execute a bold, stylish plan that certainly left the party, and the mansion itself, in shambles. This gets a solid 8/10 from me!

LKA:

Despite the strategy unfortunately not being completed, I found what was there demonstrated strong fundamentals and an effective understanding of how to apply your abilities here, and to the core of the match.

Starting off with you and your party fowl’s party fouls, eating the food and then ‘poisoning the well’ so to speak is a great starter, and a creative use of your assist character’s capabilities.

With the main content of your plan, you play a very personal game, Baygon generally being an asshole and agitating people in the crowd who are already upset about what’s going on, and Slash doing what Slash does best and grabbing shiny things. I found this a nice contrast to LIB’s more straightforwardly destructive plays, going for a very social game.

Moving outside, using Slash to grab keys and take someone’s car for a joy ride, I once again found the overall social annoyances on display here an excellent way to go about things.

Looking at what’s here, I’m going to give the strategy a 6/10. You make great use of both your teammates to go for a very fun plan of social disruption, and the foundation here is very strong.