Archerous' R4M8 Delib

Quality

The life of a spy is dangerous. Threats come in all sorts of packages, and you have to be vigilant as attacks can come from both the seen and the unseen. We have a few strong agents on the field, though it's truly anyone’s game as to who can come out on top. Titan Patel and Rishi Panchatantra of the Moonbeam Riders vs Paranoia and Carol Brown from the Gallery of Wayward Reverie. In a battle of Spy vs Spy, only one can emerge victorious. So how do they do?

Starting with the Riders, they elect to take on their opponents in an endurance battle. We have a defensive strategy, revolving around zoning and positioning as means of control in this match. Using heated zones and pasta barriers, they create a maze that forces ranged and melee attackers alike to extend themselves, making them vulnerable to attacks from SOMA’s agents. They also target the lights throughout the area while creating a variety of pasta-shaped tripping hazards. This works to create an environment that favors the animal spies and their enhanced senses while debilitating their human* counterparts. From there, they work around Din to wear down the Gallery before finally taking them out, all while keeping themselves from tiring out. It’s a solid strategy and one that takes advantage of both Rider’s strengths.

However, there is another part to the game. How do they fare against Din? He’s a perceptive boy, and quite the debilitating obstacle. He proves to be quite a challenge if not managed properly. The Riders understand this very well and elect to take every advantage they can with him. Using a combination of Titan’s cute nature, and the Rider’s dedication to engaging fully into Din’s fantasy, they hope to keep his attention as long as they can. This gives two major advantages to the Riders, namely that Din engaging with Titan allows for Rishi to be more direct with their opponents without Din’s watchful eye. It also allows them to monopolize Din’s attention, not only limiting Carol’s ability to gain skills from him, but giving them the means to unleash him onto the Gallery at their convenience, as well. It’s a smart play, thus, combined with their defensive tactics from above, I’m giving this strategy an 8. Well done!

Moving onto the Gallery, they opt to focus on surveillance and information gathering. They spend the match making use of Headcams to keep information flowing seamlessly between the two agents, letting them keep tabs on the battlefield in their absence. Much like the Riders, they operate in the shadows, hoping to obscure their plans. In terms of combat, Paranoia takes the lead, causing her to be a big target for Din. Thankfully, she has the means to escape with her Smoke Bombs, buying her enough time to allow Carol to take on Din duties. Paranoia elects to target Rishi first, given his threat, targeting his Stand arm to debilitate his effectiveness and using Carol’s decoy to distract the mouse, giving Paranoia more opportunities to take her out. Once Rishi’s been taken care of, it's only a matter of using Din’ Decoy to distract Titan long enough for Carol to get in the final blow. This is a robust strategy, taking a lot of care to set up all the moving pieces to take out their opponents before they realize it's too late.

It just so happens that Din plays a big importance in this plan. As mentioned previously, Din is a persistent obstacle that can't be dealt with outright. The Gallery takes this factor into account when coming up with their master plan. They pass the boy back and forth, giving each other the room they need to operate their portion of the plan while the other keeps Din busy. This is used to great effect towards the end when he’s following Paranoia, the big aggressive target, outside of the building, allowing Carol to send in the fake Din to take out Titan. The Gallery was patient, biding their time until they were ready to go in for the kill. With all that being said, I’m giving this strategy an 8. Well done!

Jojolity

As for Jojolities, I’ll be brief. Between the Rider’s concerted efforts to engage in the boy’s fantasy by keeping up the bit; codenames, melodrama, and all, along with the Gallery’s dedication to subtlety and sneaky tricks throughout their strat, I think both teams performed their roles as spies very well! They both understood the assignment, and thus, I’m giving both teams an 8. Well done!