[alt146]

Illy vs Mezla - Illy

I enjoyed both fights. There isn't anything concrete that makes me decide one way or the other, but I feel that Illy's entries were a little better.

Tapper vs JA - JA

This was a very difficult fight to judge, both entries were very good. The only reason I'm voting JA is because he did basically what I would have done if I had to fight Trouble (removing the violent aspects of the fight), but with way more flair.

Morgy vs BTE - Morgy

Although I liked BTE's character the most in the first round, my vote goes to Morgy here. Adding some origins really fleshed out Ben's character and I think Morgy's writing was a little more engaging.

Drek vs STD - STD

I liked Drek's reference to Rake, but the way that ST managed to shift the emphasis from the Sam to the Luke was very well done, I really liked that two of his own characters where fighting at the end. Although I did have a bit of a problem with Lippmer's sudden disappearance.

Alt vs Shin

Cant vote, but I would like to say I really enjoyed writing against Shin. Although I am a little bummed considering the boy is my second favourite character (after my own obviously) and one of us will have to step down at the end of the fight.

[Mezla PigDog]

Tapper vs JA (Tapper)
Morgoth vs BtheE (Morgoth)
D'rek vs STD (STD)
Alt vs Shin (Shin)

Tapper vs JA
I loved this fight. You both wrote really well and I like what you did with each others characters. Tapper gets it but it was very close. Violence in retirement, Valkyrie living in a trailer park and the Influenza stuff - love it. The Dukes tactics at the end almost tipped it for JA but I feel Tapper deserves the win more.

Morgoth vs BtheE
Shade is such a badass but I can't see more in him than that unfortunately so I am less interested in his development in the next round. I do feel bad for Bauchelain and Cause and I am trying not to be biased by wanting to see what Morgy and DiBs do to each other. Regardless of who the characters are based on, there just seems to be more to Ben than Shade.

D'rek vs STD
This is a very hard one to judge. I can see both of you having the same struggle that I had from my opening post where we hadn't really thought far enough ahead for our characters in terms of actually fighting! The more experienced Deathmatchers have us with that! The characters are interesting and well written and I want to see what happens to each of them in another round. In the end, my gut feeling is for STD.

Alt vs Shin
By a whisker again. I really like Alts character and writing and I want to know what Chanfar would do next but Shin's style and horror is impossible to resist.

Illy vs Me
I can't vote but it was very good fun. All I can say is, anyone who gets drawn against Illy, be prepared for your character to be totally obliterated early on!!! Subtlety is not in Illy's vocabularly

I'm still dithering about some of my votes even as I submit this post!!

[Mezla PigDog]

Voting update:

Illy 4-1 Mez
Tapper 2-3 JA
Morgy 4-0 BtheE
D'rek 2-4 STD
Alt 0-5 Shin

BtheE, Alt and myself need help

[Sir Thursday]

Illy v Mez (Illuyankas)
Tapper v JA (Jump Around)
Morgoth v BTE (Morgoth)
Alt v Shin (Shinrei no Shintai)

------------------

Illy v Mez - Really enjoyed reading this - both of you do a good job of putting humour into your writing, makes for a fun read. The Shrimp and their analysis of the quaintness of human customs is great, and Illy does a great job of developing the characters of his trio. On the other hand, I don't really see much potential for development in future rounds. I felt like the backstory Mez introduced had much more potential in the long run, but that because she was relying so much more on tropes, there wasn't as much in the way of personality evident in her two posts. I've always felt that nurturing and developing an interesting personality for your characters is the hardest thing to do in writing - if you have that down, you can build a story around it. So for that, I gave it to Illy.

Tapper v JA - Another good read. Two heavyweights duking it out () is always fun to watch. Liked the Trouble character and the backstory he brought, and the baseball bat up arse line was great . Overall I thought Tapper was the better of the two at describing the fight scenes. But JA did an excellent job of taking Duke Nukem's many catch phrases and well known character archetype and bringing it to life - always impressed when people manage to fit famous one liners into conversation, and JA was managing to do it a lot. I also felt that the eventual solution that he came up with for finishing the fight was very innovative, so overall I gave JA the win.

Morgoth v BtE - More enjoyment from the reading for me (noticing a trend here?). BtE has made an effort to show the badassery of his Shade, and it shone through in the opening post. It seemed, however, that he was afraid to let his character actually do very much once he got out into the arena, which counts against him somewhat. Morgy put in some great prose in his description of the fight scenes, and obviously seems to be having fun with his character. Definitely a win for Morgoth here.

Alt v Shin - Loved this too. Alt does a great job of giving Chanfar an alien psychology, described the action very well and did a good job of working with Shin's side of the story. But I've always been a sucker for horror - if someone can write something well enough to actually make you slightly fearful, then the writing must be very good indeed. While I was reading that sequence about the boy killing his sponsors, he managed to give me that gutwrenching sensation. Can't go against that.


Sir Thursday

[Shinrei]

Tapper vs. JA (Tapper)
Illy vs. Mezla (Illy)
Morgoth vs. BtE (Morgoth)
D'rek vs. STD (D'rek)

Tapper and Jump around : Tapper

I can't decide based on the writing alone, since I think both people did very well with the subject matter (and handling each other's characters). I have to hand it to JA for doing a spectacular job with a "known entity" which is not as easy as one might think. However, I have to hand the overall 'creativity' award to Tapper.

Illy and Mezla : Illy

Its just so... I was grinning the whole time I was reading his posts. Mezla has a genuinely funny take on the farmboy with a magic sword stereotype, but Illy's "character" is just too engaging. Again, excellent writing by both contestants.

Morgoth and BtE: Morgoth

Kind of for the same reasons he voted for me. Morgoth's writing really shines IMO. Nothing in BtE's writing is a detraction, and I like the way he set up the cliffhanger, but I guess I get caught up in Morgoth's method.

D'rek and STD: D'rek

This was the hardest one for me to make a decision. I went back and forth reading the intros and the fight again and again. STD's first person, worked really well in the intro. It was a ballzy move, but it faltered a bit in the fight itself and was a little harder to follow (especially in the final post, I had to read it several times to figure out just what was going on...). This sounds like a criticism - it isn't. I had a real hard time deciding so I'm going with my gut reaction I guess.

This post has been edited by Shinrei no Shintai : 21 March 2009 - 02:51 PM

[Shinrei]

Assuming Mezla's count is accurate, with STD and my votes in it stands as

Illy 6-1 Mez
Tapper 3-4 JA
Morgy 6-0 BtheE
D'rek 3-4 STD
Alt 0-6 Shin

[Morgoth]

soooo, when can we expect the final two posts?

[Mezla PigDog]

Shinrei no Shintai, on Mar 21 2009, 10:53 AM, said:

Assuming Mezla's count is accurate, with STD and my votes in it stands as

Illy 6-1 Mez
Tapper 3-4 JA
Morgy 6-0 BtheE
D'rek 3-4 STD
Alt 0-6 Shin

You assume too much Mr Shintai. I did double check, but I have been known to be a complete moron on occassion so if someone could do a recount at some point....?

Looks like two are going down to the wire! Good stuff *pretends to be taking Illy's score well*

[alt146]

Mezla PigDog, on Mar 21 2009, 06:06 PM, said:

Shinrei no Shintai, on Mar 21 2009, 10:53 AM, said:

Assuming Mezla's count is accurate, with STD and my votes in it stands as

Illy 6-1 Mez
Tapper 3-4 JA
Morgy 6-0 BtheE
D'rek 3-4 STD
Alt 0-6 Shin

You assume too much Mr Shintai. I did double check, but I have been known to be a complete moron on occassion so if someone could do a recount at some point....?

Looks like two are going down to the wire! Good stuff *pretends to be taking Illy's score well*

Hehe, at least you got one vote

[Jump Around]

I started to think about votes and comments. This is even harder than the fight posts

[Morgoth]

Jump Around, on Mar 21 2009, 08:11 PM, said:

I started to think about votes and comments. This is even harder than the fight posts

I have problems finding ways to describe how awsome I am too, and I've had 23 years of practice.

[Illuyankas]

Tapper vs JA - JA
Moregoat vs BtE - Moargoats
D'rek vs STD - D'rek
Alt vs Shin - Shin

Too hung over for the elaborate and frankly complimentary reviews we've seen so far, so don't feel bad if you only get a sentence.

Me and Mez, because the other way around sounds like a horrible sitcom (One has a beard! The other does SCIENCE! Together they ignore crime!): Damn good fun, you write an excellent punching bag. But seriously, it was pretty cool, and I wouldn't regret it if all the remaining voters picked you instead. OK, that's a lie, I totally would. Damn honesty.

Tapper vs JA: Both awesome fight scenes, both with the minimum required amounts of brutality. But JA's ending exploded my socks off.

Morgy-Worgy vs BtE: Maybe it's the amount of awesome swording people from the last one. Maybe it's the extreme overpopulation of swordwielding badasses in general fiction since whenever. Maybe it was just all those shots last night. But, I really preferred the Morgopheles material here. You had a pretty cool character, BtE, unfortunately I just enjoyed Morgington's stuff that little bit more.

D'rek vs STD: Drunky the Possessededed got my vote. Michael Crichton soured me on the whole nanobots thing for at least a few more years. The deceased bastard.

Alt vs Shin: Scary childs are awesome, and thank you for resisting the urge to make it a girl with stupidly long black lank hair. Aliens are awesome, especially with genocidal tendancies, but THERE'S THOSE NANOBOTS AGAIN. It's an irrational dislike, but I'm an irrational guy sometimes. Mostly with hangovers and timing votes when I'm at the peak of my analytical ability. Also Shin very slightly pipped you at the writing, at least for me. Not halfassing all the explanation. Just most of it.




So, current tally is:

Illy 6-1 Mez
Tapper 3-5 JA
Morgy 7-0 BtheE
D'rek 4-4 STD
Alt 0-7 Shin


Split into, unfinished matches included:

Illy: Morgoth, dibs, BtE, Alt, STD, Shin
Mezla: Tapper

dibs:
Cause:

Tapper: Morgoth, Mez, Shin
JA: dibs, BtE, Alt, STD, Illy

Morgoth: dibs, Tapper, Alt, Mez, STD, Shin, Illy
BtE:

D'rek: dibs, BtE, Shin, Illy
STD: Morgoth, Tapper, Alt, Mez

Temp:
Grief:

Shin: Morgoth, dibs, Tapper, BtE, Mez, STD, Illy
Alt:


Missing votes: JA, Temp, Grief, Cause, Ment if he gets one I can't remember. Probably.

[Illuyankas]

drinksinbars, on Mar 17 2009, 11:36 AM, said:

it will be first to seven votes anyway

Oh, I forgot this. In that case, Morgoth and Shin are through. Commiserations to BtE and Alt.

[alt146]

Illuyankas, on Mar 22 2009, 02:14 AM, said:

drinksinbars, on Mar 17 2009, 11:36 AM, said:

it will be first to seven votes anyway

Oh, I forgot this. In that case, Morgoth and Shin are through. Commiserations to BtE and Alt.

Must say I'm a bit bummed to be out, but well done to Shin and Morgy!

[Morgoth]

Woooo! You have no idea how nervous I was waiting for the votes. Seriously, I have been stopping myself from writing whole posts in my head because I'd be so dissapointed not to be able to make them..

BtE, I think you lost more because of lack of experience in these kinds of competitions than you did because of any lack of skill. I've played every one we've done this far and so had a bit of an advantage I think.

Same for alt and Shin to an extent.

[Morgoth]

By the by, can we impose a final limit on submission time? I'm getting a bit bored waiting for the game to progress at this point.

we're two months in and haven't finished a proper round yet.

[drinksinbars]

Quarter Finals draw.

1 (dibs or Cause) Vs Shin

2 (Drek or ST) Vs Ment

3 (Illy or Mez) Vs (Grief or Temp)

4 (Tapper or JA) Vs Morgoth


TIME LIMIT ON ROUND 1 ENTRIES FRIDAY THE 27th MARCH

TIME LIMIT ON ROUND 1 VOTING FRIDAY THE 3rd APRIL

This post has been edited by drinksinbars: 23 March 2009 - 01:02 PM

[Morgoth]

ah, this will be brilliant. Tapper or JA, both will be great to play against I think

And thank god I didn't meet DiBs

[Tapper]

Damn, Shin would have been my absolute favourite to fight. Must say though, Morgy was my second choice, mostly because both would allow me to change tack in writing style to something a bit darker. Still, gotta collect 4 votes first, somehow

[Mezla PigDog]

drinksinbars, on Mar 23 2009, 05:27 AM, said:

3 Illy Vs (Grief or Temp)

Hey! I could still mathematically take him to a tie!!