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Stunt Double Tourney -- ROUND 3


Slarti

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EXCITING MATCH-UPS AND SECRETS AWAIT.

 

Round Two of the Video Game Character Stunt Double Tourney has been completed! Thanks to everyone who participated.

 

Congratulations to the 10 stunt doubles who have advanced:

 

BlackWarGreymon (The Ratt)

Delita (Nemesis)

Magus (*i)

Princess Peach (Nikki)

Pikachu (Rowen)

Poo (Lenar)

Rune (Thuryl)

Samus (Iffy)

Soma Cruz (Bloodmoon)

The Naughty Sorceress (Salmon)

 

 

Round three will take place in ONE segment of five battles. As in previous rounds, participants and spectators alike are encouraged to give their opinion on the battles, which will be taken into account when the ruling is issued. Without further adue:

 

ROUND THREE... FIGHT!!!

 

3.1. Rune (Thuryl) vs. the Naughty Sorceress (Salmon)

3.2. Samus (Iffy) vs. Soma Cruz (Angelic)

3.3. Delita (Nemesis) vs. Poo (Lenar)

3.4. BlackWarGreymon (The Ratt) vs. Pikachu (Rowen)

3.5. Princess Peach (Nikki) vs. Magus (*i)

 

 

By the way... expect something very special to happen in Round Four! The surviving stunt doubles will have to deal with a most unexpected format for the round... try to guess the format if you dare.

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3.1: The Naughty Sorceress can drain magical power, but Rune has plenty of TP to spare, and most of his best attacks don't use it anyway. Rune's high defenses will serve him well in this battle, since it has the potential to drag on for a while: the Sorceress can heal herself and has a chance to block special attacks, but if Rune lasts long enough to get in a few successful castings of Efess or Legeon in a row, he should be able to bring her down. Plus, Rune has experience killing unspeakable cosmic horrors who turn into hot chicks, so I don't see why it shouldn't work just as well the other way around.

 

3.2: This is a tricky one to referee: we have two protagonists from the same subgenre of game, and it's one in which character ability is strongly dependent on player ability. Both have powerful ranged attacks that they can unload at the start of the battle, but Soma has one disadvantage: all his ranged attacks draw upon a limited reserve of magic points. If the two can avoid most of each other's attacks for long enough that Samus runs out of missiles and Soma runs out of energy, Samus is at a clear advantage, since she still has her blaster and he's only got a melee weapon. If he tries to close in, she can run rings around him in three dimensions with the screw attack.

 

3.5: These two competitors could be surprisingly well-matched. Both have staying power, thanks to Peach's healing and Magus's barrier. Peach can't afford to turn this into a battle of attrition, though: if she just stands there and heals without putting pressure on him by doing some damage herself, Magus is going to start trying to kill her outright with Black Hole, and eventually he'll succeed. So it becomes a question of who can dish out the most punishment: both have fairly powerful but not quite top-of-the-line magic backed up by decent but unremarkable physical attacks. It's close, but I'd say the smart money's on Magus here.

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3.1. Rune's power is mostly in piling on pure damage until his foes drop dead. The Naughty Sorceress is really fought best when not fought like that. It's hard to judge a semi-puzzle boss against an RPG character, but I think Rune's reliance on magical brawn might prove to be his downfall. The Sorceress just seems to have more staying power and Rune needs to start getting things right immediately.

 

3.2. As Thuryl says, Samus can take evasive action until it's her blaster against Soma Cruz's lack of a blaster. Even if Soma does try to close the energy whip and flamethrower are probably enough to keep him at bay. He's just outclassed here.

 

3.3. Delita is a powerful fighter, but Poo has the defenses necessary to fend off quite a few attacks, healing if it becomes necessary, and enough PK to eventually prevent Delita from accomplishing much at all. Delita doesn't really have any good way to counter being frozen, set on fire, and then having the heavens dropped on him. Interestingly, this can become something of a celestial battle. Unfortunately, I think royalty will be Delita's downfall after all.

 

3.4. Mon fight? I don't know enough about BlackWarGreyMon, but he seems to be designed as an unstoppable killing machine. Pikachu just isn't. Unless he has a huge enough edge in agility that he can keep plinking away with lightning indefinitely it seems like he would become a thin read paste under the excessive might of the StudleyCapsMon

 

3.5. Magus is an evil overlord who never captured a princess. That already should show that he has an edge over Peach's usual foe. He has a powerful defensive barrier against everything but the correct elemental attacks; Peach doesn't have elemental attacks for the most part. Peach has healing, but if she keeps healing and Magus keeps blasting she loses eventually. Neither wins with melee, but Magus doesn't need to rely on it and Peach might. I think Magus's ability to ignore most offense and concentrate on spraying out plenty of damage will win this one for him with the clincher being his amulet and therefore his total immunity to all the status effects that Peach might try to drop on him. This really does have to be a war of attrition, and Magus already has plenty of experience with those.

 

—Alorael, who is miffed about PK freeze apparently having higher priority than ice arrows. He will, however, acknowledge that a battle in which both combatants spend most of their time in unmoving blocks of ice is probably not an interesting battle.

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No -- too unpredictable and reliant on chance factors -- but I did consider that originally.

 

Quote:
—Alorael, who is miffed about PK freeze apparently having higher priority than ice arrows.

Ice arrows can be dodged, don't do tremendous damage on their own, and Poo's equipment prevents their ancillary effect. PK Freeze can't be dodged, and its primary effect is to do tremendous damage (only Starstorm and Ness's Special can do more).

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Don't try reason with me! I'm being huffy until further notice, sir.

 

—Alorael, who would cry foul about dodging arrows except that it's pretty well established by now that all projectile weapons and most energy weapons move at a pace that not incidentally can be avoided with some degree of success by the reflexes of the average gamer.

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3.4- Well for starters, Pikachu has no known resistance to darkness. In general and the pokemon type. BlackWarGreymon, while not immune to lightning, no doubt has some resistance considering his armor and the fact that he is a dragon; dragon type pokemon are resistant to lightning. The resistances combined with the massive attack of BlackWarGreymon's Gaia Force give BlackWarGreymon the advantage at range. He also has the advantage at close combat too. Both competitors can move at the same speed (i.e. running), and Pikachu can dodge better. Pikachu, however, has no effective way to deal damage at close range. His physical strength is lacking, and charging and electric attack would just give BlackWarGreymon time to get a solid attack. Pikachu would need to be very lucky to win this one.

 

@ Alorael: If you think the guy I chose is overpowered you should see some of the ones I didn't pick.

 

My prediction of what Slarty is going to do is add in random terrain effects like swamp or sand, and/or do something to get the number of contestants to 4 so the competition finishes nicely.

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3.4 BlackWarGreymon has power and lots of it. Pikachu has agility and speed and lots of it. BlackWarGreymon will win if he can get in one or two hits on Pikachu. Pikachu will win if he can keep moving with his agility and teleports while getting in a few electric attacks over a long time.

 

I can see both fighters winning the fight. It is a very balanced fight in my opinion.

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  • 1 month later...

The participants picked game characters and they are fighting duels to the death to determine which character is the most stupendous.

 

—Alorael, who recommends taking a look at the library round to see what sorts of characters entered. You could also use your own search fu to find previous deathmatch rounds. Now, is the Spiderweb member deathmatch ever going to be finished?

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  • 1 month later...

Sooner. This one wasn't actually abandoned -- I disappeared entirely, first unexpectedly due to an all-consuming love affair, and then as planned for my beyond-all-consuming summer job which, mercifully, has just ended. Expect judgement on this round within a few days... the next round is going to be unexpected and fun.

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Originally Posted By: Slarty
Sooner. This one wasn't actually abandoned --


Really? Seriously, Slarty? There's only three left to write and you're quitting now? If it's entirely that difficult, I can go ahead and just finish it up. You won't like the results cuz I probably won't change my last suggestions much, but it'll be done. So... seriously?
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The other one hasn't been abandoned either, but requires a little more effort to get back to, both in terms of the thinking required to break the stalemate (your contributions remain welcome) and the tact (not my strong suite) required to avoid messages like the above. If I've already failed on the last count can we just move this to PM, s'il vous plait?

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How many times I have to tell you, Slarty? Most everything I say is said with a smile. That's the way the kids are talking these days. "Seriously? Seriously!" It's the new "Dude!" Gotta catch up on the lingo. Seriously. Though once again I forgot my tongue. Can't you see behind the words?

 

Edit: v is a shameless spammer. Tisk, tisk. Bad example for the kids. wink

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  • 1 month later...

Okay, public announcement to shame me into acting: the current round will conclude TONIGHT (eastern time). Then you will be able to hear the announcement about the form of the next round, which will be even more seat-gripping than I expected it to be when I first concocted it.

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ROUND THREE -- OFFICIAL RULING

 

3.1. Rune (Thuryl) vs. the Naughty Sorceress (Salmon)

 

Legendary, game-liminal sorceror versus game-breaking sorceress. Another extremely tough call.

 

Both characters have exceptional defenses against both magical and physical attacks. Rune's defenses are innate, so are not affected by the Naughty Sorceress's debuffing ability. Her magical draining ability is not too relevant since Rune's magical reserves are both deep, and not used by his key abilities. The Naughty Sorceress has a chance of blocking all relevant actions Rune might take. However, this chance depends on surprise, which Rune's telepathy (and possibly also the defenses of his Psy-Shield) should lessen... although not negate altogether. Seals and the Psycho-Wand are not going to be effective on the mortal forms of the Sorceress (the only ones allowed in the Tourney, as ruled at the start of the Tourney).

 

Rune will take picayune damage from her attacks. Rune can't heal... so the Naughty Sorceress can eventually defeat him, it will just take a long time. The question is if Rune can kill her first. The Naughty Sorceress, on the other hand, can heal herself. The problem is that it is a relatively weak heal, restoring only about 5% of her total HP. Legeon, Efess, and Rune's other top-tier attacks are going to do significantly more damage than that, looking at loose conversions of HP value between the two games. Rune has a lot of uses of these attacks, but not an infinite number. It's not clear if there are limits on the Sorceress's healing ability, but I'm not going to assume any.

 

So the Sorceress can win if she manages to block Rune's actions at the moments so she can heal up the damage from Legeon et al. without suffering too many of those attacks with not enough time to heal. If she can survive his entire arsenal of high-end spells, she can heal up and plink away at him until he dies. If she doesn't get enough actions blocked, though, the succession of magical explosions will take her down. I think that Rune can try for an advantage by launching an opening volley of Nafoi, Nawat, or Tandle to lower her HP slightly, and then going for broke with Efess and Legeon. It's still a toss-up, but in the end, I think Rune has enough charges of his best attacks to put the odds in his favor.

 

WINNER: RUNE

 

 

3.2. Samus (Iffy) vs. Soma Cruz (Angelic)

 

Another doozy... two characters with wide-ranging, versatile, AND powerful skill sets, as well as robust stats. Both characters have some crazy-powerful, crazy-flexible jumping moves and attacks that they can use out of those moves. I don't think missile-type attacks are going to be very effective for either character, and neither Mandragora nor Samus's bombs are going to do significant damage. It's going to be a battle of airborne maneuvering and sudden melee. Samus, however, is not as fragile as Soma Cruz's previous opponents in the Tourney, and I think she can survive Soma Cruz's attackers longer than he can survive an onslaught of screw attacks from this most famous of lady warriors.

 

WINNER: SAMUS

 

 

3.3. Delita (Nemesis) vs. Poo (Lenar)

 

Finally... finally... an easy match-up! Holy Explosion is a great attack, but Poo resists confusion, and Startstorm is a better attack. Poo can heal; Delita can't. Delita has no particular advantages over Poo, really... and the royalty-loathing pauper falls, at last, to the ascetic prince.

 

WINNER: POO

 

 

3.4. BlackWarGreymon (The Ratt) vs. Pikachu (Rowen)

 

Digimon versus Pokemon. An interesting fight. BlackWarGreymon has superior staying power while Pikachu has superior speed and maneuverability. Both have strong attacks. Pikachu's will be extremely effective if BlackWarGreymon takes flight; presumably, the digimon is smart enough not to do so. Nonetheless, Pikachu's ability to dodge and teleport away from BlackWarGreymon's attacks -- amplified even more once the pokemon lands a Thunderbolt -- is killer, here. A fairly decisive victory.

 

WINNER: PIKACHU

 

 

3.5. Princess Peach (Nikki) vs. Magus (*i)

 

The lovely and polite levitating princess with magical powers who is habitually kidnapped by evil overlords who want to marry her vs. the levitating evil overlord prince with magical powers whose lovely and polite princess sister with magical powers was taken by a cosmic evil who merged with her. Psych Bomb vs. Dark Bomb. Emotional vs. Emo. Pink vs. Purple. You get the idea...

 

Magus's exceptional defense against magic attacks means that Peach, once again, has to rely on her Frying Pan if she's to win. Peach can probably break through Magus's magical barrier (the one against physical attacks) either with her magic, or some kind of trick involving a Starman; it will take her a little time, though, and that's time she doesn't have. Although Magus's magical attacks are unlikely to take her down in one shot, she IS going to have to heal frequently to survive them; and while she has plenty of healing ability, staying alive will preclude her from taking down Magus's defenses. Peach's status-inflicting powers won't help her either, thanks to the Amulet Magus received from his sister.

 

Schala... it always comes back to her, doesn't it? Peach's only hope lies in using her powers of emotion to sway the former prince's tormented heartstrings, taking advantage of her princessly resemblance to Schala. Unfortunately for her it's a shallow resemblance: Princess Peach actually has a spine and stands up for herself; she leaves her home and tricks her caretakers when the fate of the world is at stake, while Schala remains passive and obeissant. Also, Princess Peach appears to have several wigs or hair dyes, but none are violet.

 

WINNER: MAGUS

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Originally Posted By: Dantius
Who gets a bye next round? There are five winners, so unless there will be a three-way death match (awesome), there might be some problems.
Slarty has made it cleat that there will be special rounds coming up, I'm sure your question will be answered shortly.

Also, boo Salmon! tongue Yay, Thuryl, though! Guess you picked a good character. Makes me want to look up his game, as I'm pretty sure I'd never heard of it before this Tournament.
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Originally Posted By: Dantius
There is no zero- it skips from 1 BC to 1 AD. The real question is... when was Jesus born then???


Jesus was born on Christmas. Anyway, I've always been taught that AD, anno domini, refers to the year he was crucified, not the year that he was born. Although, both Christmas and 1 AD are based on approximations, so the issue shall remain a mystery.
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6 BC is probably the correct answer, calculated by finding the lunar eclipses mentioned in the Bible and then working backwards. Herod died in 4 BC, so he obviously lived before that. I believe that the calender starting 6 years after was because of the switch to the Gregorian calender, and too much effort required to change it after the precise date was discovered.

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The Christian calendar is stated to begin with the birth of Jesus. It doesn't work that way, but that's what it's measuring from.

 

—Alorael, who at least thinks it's doing a better job than the Jewish calendar, which several billion years off from the beginning of the universe.

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Originally Posted By: Sleeping Dragon
Also, boo Salmon! tongue Yay, Thuryl, though! Guess you picked a good character. Makes me want to look up his game, as I'm pretty sure I'd never heard of it before this Tournament.


Phantasy Star IV is a great game, but a lot of the fun of it is recognising callbacks to the earlier games in the series... and the earlier games in the series haven't aged well. It's still a pretty cool game on its own merits, though.

Originally Posted By: Leaf and Stalk
Hence the "1, rather." And Jesus was born in 1, as in the first year of the life of our Lord.

—Alorael, who invites argument over whether and in what form Jesus existed before 1 AD.


Actually, January 1st of 1 AD was traditionally the date of Jesus' circumcision, which would mean Jesus was born in 1 BC. The dates are all wonky anyway, of course, but that's what the guy who thought up the whole BC/AD system said.
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