2018-11-28 21:30:11 +0000 UTC by QuietDove
Welcome to the November tournament report!
November can be considered an experimental tournament in so many ways, but mainly because it was the first time we have played in a 2v2 format. We also debuted a double elimination bracket, where you must be beaten twice before you get knocked out.
We shall get more onto the 2v2 format later, but for now, let the report commence!
Competitors
This month was the first time where we had no Fire or Earthbenders competing. Once again, Air was far and away the most popular element, but non-bending has continued its encouraging comeback.
Air - Tofu_, Benfro, Skeleton, Lemur68, Vincebobogunoosh, CheeseSandwich, Creepreeck
Water - EvieAscendant, Porku, Azog
Non-Bending - Sodie_pops, zcvn
Pairs List:
- Tofu + Porku
- Evie + Benfro
- Sodie_pops + zcvn
- Creepreeck + Azog
- Vincebobogunoosh + Cheesesandwich
- Lemur + Skeleton
Winners Bracket:
First Round
You're going to have to bear with me here, because this is going to be a tad complicated to write out. For those who don't understand how a double elimination works, there are essentially two brackets, one for winners, one for losers. If you lose on match, you go into the losers bracket, lose in that bracket, and you are out for good. Clear? At least a bit? Good!
Let's start with the winners bracket!
Match one was between Tofu + Porku, and Evie + Benfro. This fight was a bit of a formality for Team Tofu. October Champion, Evie, was knocked out early on, leaving Benfro, a former finalist, to fight them both on his own.
However, there was a slight issue for Team Tofu, an issue named 'Ice Cage'. Whilst attempting, an actually rather clever, combo of Ice Cage and Area Heal, Porku managed to trap Tofu in the ice and suffocate him to death. We call this "Doing a zcvn". Still, it meant that the fight was now 1on1, Porku vs Benfro. In an entertaining and close fight, Porku was able to come out on top.
Match two saw Sodie + zcvn go up against Creepreeck + Azog (or whatever his IGN is now...). The fight was something of a walkover for Team Sodie. Creepreeck and Azog didn't last long at all. Non-bendings surprisingly strong matchup against water was a major factor in the swift defeat of this pair. Turns out that chi blocking is very effective at stopping the healing ability of waterbenders.
Second Round
Due to the odd numbers, two pairs went straight through to the second round. The first of these pairs was Vince + Cheese, who came up against Tofu + Porku. This fight was a classic.
Cheese is taken out by Porku, leaving Vince with a tough battle against a pair of very good fighters, the smart money is on Porku and Tofu at this point. But Vince is able to fight back, taking out Tofu, levelling the match. The Vince and Porku fights have provided great entertainment in past tournaments, and this was no different. It was certainly attritional, but Vince had momentum now. In a twist of fate, he brings Porku down. It was a tight fight, but Vince put in the performance of a lifetime to take victory.
And now, we must turn out attention to the second fight of this round, where Lemur + Skeleton came up against Sodie + zcvn. Have a box of tissues ready, put on the Serge Gainsbourg, and sit back. Because this is less a tale of fighting prowess, but more a tale of romance.
As the fight started, Sodie and Skeleton rushed towards each other, the bloodlust setting in. The pair exchanged blows, hoping for an early knockout that would swing the match in their favour. However, it soon became apparent that it was only those two who were fighting, where were Lemur and zcvn?
With a glance to the corner of the arena, they could be seen. Their eyes were locked together, not in intimidation, but in infatuation. They moved together and locked in an embrace, tears flowing down their cheeks, this was a passion of a different kind, it was love rather than fighting. You could almost hear Lemur whispering in zcvn's ear "I will never let you go...". A better love story than Twilight? You bet it was.
In the middle of the arena, Sodie took down Skeleton. As soon as he did so, Sodie went towards the corner, Lemur had to be the next to go. But he hesitated, had he been taken in by this romance? Lemur looked towards his would be assailant, his eyes aflame, seemingly pleading with him to not take him away from zcvn.
Sodie was stony faced, he looked at the pair of lovers and sighed, raising his sword towards Lemur. "I'm sorry zcvn, there's no other way. It has to end here..." he said, with no hint of remorse. Zcvn looked at his teammate, tears welling up, "Please, Sodie, you can't". Sodie didn't listen, attacking Lemur with little prejudice. Lemur fought hard, fuelled by his love for zcvn. He struck firmly, Sodie fell at his feet, he bowed his head and turned around, returning to zcvn in the corner. They embraced once more, no longer inhibited by their teammates.
But soon, it became apparent that they must fight each other, for one cannot live while the other survives...
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life
Zcvn is slain, Lemur is victorious. He falls to his knees at the body of his love, tears falling onto the ground. He lets out an almighty wail, the crowd starts to tear up themselves. But Lemur then remembers that it's a double elimination, and that zcvn won't be dead until he loses another fight...
Semi Final
After the heartbreak of the last fight, thoughts turned back to the tournament. The semi final clash between Team Vince and Team Lemur was hotly anticipated, but Team Vince went in a favourites.
Skeleton was knocked out early on, as is tradition, leaving Lemur to try and hold off Vince and Cheese. Despite some brave resistance, Lemur eventually falls at the hands of Vince. Team Lemur still has one more chance to set up a rematch in the losers bracket.
Speaking of which...
Losers Bracket:
First Round
The first losers round match was between Evie+Benfro, and zcvn+sabb (who has replaced an AWOL Sodie). Evie was knocked out by zcvn, who has recovered from the last round thanks to the power of love, early on. Benfro was able to gain revenge quickly by taking out zcvn, putting him one on one with newcomer, Sabb. The fight is tight, with both players showing off their potential. But, eventually, Benfro is beaten, sending Sabb and zcvn through to the next round. The defeat capped off an underwhelming tournament for the defending champion, Evie.
The second fight was between Tofu+Porku and Creepreeck+Azog. This fight was short. Creep and Azog went down with little resistance.
Second Round
I hope you're keeping up with this double elimination thing!
There was only one fight in this round, and it was between Team Tofu and Team zcvn. Once again, there was an early knock out as zcvn fell. Sabb was now left to fight alone, against a pair who had slowly become tournament favourites. Sabb made excellent use of his speed, making the fight more tricky than Tofu and Porku would've liked. But soon, the inevitable happened. Tofu took Sabb down, giving his team the perfect opportunity to reach the final.
Semi Final
The semi final clash between Lemur+Skeleton and Tofu+Porku turned out to be a little underwhelming. Both sides had been beaten by Vince+Cheese in earlier rounds, and would've been keen to have a rematch in the final.
Porku took out Lemur early on. From there it was a case of when, not if, the victory would go to Team Tofu, despite Skeletons improvements this month. Tofu made short work of him, confirming his and Porku's place in the final
Final
This was it, the grand final. No more double elimination rules here, it was winner takes all to confirm the victor. Vince+Cheese vs Tofu+Porku
The fight started strongly, neither pair wanting to give ground to the other. The slightly uneven matchup of two air vs air and water perhaps tilted things in favour of Team Vince, but it was an even start. Certainly, it was hard to separate them, even as the fight developed.
As the fight reached its halfway point, the pairs became split. Vince and Porku focussed on each other, renewing their rivalry from previous tournaments. On the other side of the arena, Tofu and Cheese were both going at each others throats and, perhaps sensing that Tofu was getting on top, Vince left Porku and went to the aid of his teammate.
But this didn't last. Tofu and Porku were eventually able to isolate Cheese, as Vince was stranded in the corner of the arena. It was the opening they needed as Tofu dealt the final blow to Cheese. Now on his own, Vince had to do what he did in the second round and take the pair of them out himself. However, Team Tofu were keen to prevent this from happening. A rare Vince mistake left him stranded in a pool of water. Tofu reacted quickest and landed several, decisive, blows, ending the fight.
It was a remarkable performance from Tofu in particular, taking part in his first tournament. He stood out, despite being in a pair with arguably the best bender around. The future looks bright for this fighter, his analytical approach and deep knowledge of bending served him well, and will surely do so in coming tournaments.
Recording of the Final (courtesy of Skeleton): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICF6WdngasE
Link to the bracket: https://challonge.com/7l1giqi7
Awards
Best Fighter - He enjoyed an absolutely storming debut, at times overshadowing his illustrious team mate, Porku. His match-winning performance in the final wins this for him, Tofu_ is the fighter of the tournament!
Best Fight - There is no doubt about this one. Team Vince's comeback victory over Team Tofu, in the second round. Cheese's early knockout swung the match heavily in favour of Tofu and Porku, but Vince put in a brilliant display to take victory.
The Jane Austen Award - This award is for the best romance of the tournament (which is not something I was expecting to say). Shippers rejoice, because LemurXzcvn is the winner today! Stopping a tournament to be with your love is definitely award worthy, if a little bit odd.
Funniest Moment - As it turns out, having Porku as your teammate may be more of a burden, than an advantage. Especially if he suffocates you in a wall of ice. Porku's inadvertent murder of his helpless teammate, Tofu, proved the comedy value in a 2v2 tournament.
Last Notes
Thank you to everyone who showed up and took part this month, it was certainly one to remember. We are unlikely to hold another 2v2 for a while, so I hope it was worth it for everyone.
Thanks to Vince and Grangoon who both ensured that the tournament ran smoothly. Also thanks to, err, myself for putting the bracket together, even though it made to turn to drink afterwards...
Keep an eye out for details about the December tournament, as it may run to a different week than usual, due to the Christmas schedule. It may or may not be winter themed, so bring your wooly hats, scarves, mulled wine, and mince pies!
As a final, final, note. Martdamp has asked me to put the bending changes into this post, as well as to let you know that the store has been updated with some exciting new items for you to choose from! :
- Feather Weight now uses the speed stat points instead of a potion effect, this means it will give less speed when you have some points in the speed stat. (Sorry Lemur)
- Air Scooter has received some tweaks, you can now use it on water and it should climb hills a little better, but watch out for any damage done against you as the cancel threshold has been decreased.
- All the bending icons have been converted to use diamond swords instead of skulls, this means they are all the same big size and might look a little different.
- All the armour moves now use the stat point system, you can get more than 100% protection and when you take no damage you won't be knocked back anymore.
- Water Healing is a little slower, but will still heal the same amount.
And, with that out of the way...
Thank you again, Dove out!
2018-10-29 20:49:11 +0000 UTC by QuietDove
Welcome back to the Tournament Report! It's me, QuietDove, back with another round up of the best of the action from this months tournament.
If you want me to sum this month up in one word, it would be "Long". The tournament took over two hours to complete. I came out of the womb faster than that!
Anyway, here's the report!
Competitors
I am delighted to say that this was one of the biggest tournaments we've ever had, with 20 competitors taking part. And with defending champion Porku unavailable, the tournament was wide open.
After their absence last month, it was nice to see a non-bender taking part this time around, new build team member Sabb_ was the brave soul taking that role. The other elements were represented by:
Air - Vincebobogunoosh, J_L_T, mastrgamr, Cheesesandwich, radostin04, lemur68, lolcreator8000,
Water - EvieAscendant, TheSirDoc, YaguraKaratachi, Greeniac916, zcvn
Earth - martdamp, Sodie_Pops, TurboClicks,
Fire - FireLordIzumi, Creepreek
As in previous tournaments, air is the favourite choice for most competitors. It is the most successful bending style in all the tournaments so far, with two victories.
First Round
As we had 20 competitors, the tournament ran slightly differently. Rather than everyone playing the same number of matches, some played an extra round to make up for it. This resulted in four (or three in this case, but we'll get to that later) matches in the first round.
To make a change, let's start with two humble underdogs. J_L_T has barely recovered from his devastating loss to Radostin last time out. This time is up against a late replacement, the newly coronated build team leader Turbo, a man with no fighting experience what so ever! If J_L_T was going to get his first win, surely this is the best chance. The fight is not a classic display of bending prowess, if we're being honest, but both fighters showed plenty of heart and gave it their all. J_L_T does prove victorious in the end, not even a restart could stop him! Turbo, however, gave a good account of himself on his debut.
In the other fights:
- Vince and FireLordIzumi played out an odd fight, with Izumi wanting to test some new tactics. Vince easily prevails and advances to the next round.
- TheSirDoc vs mastrgamr was next on the agenda. Doc provided a professional and efficient victory over mastrgamr, despite the latter seeming to forget about assigning stat points.
- Evie was given a bye to the next round, after Caljitsu somehow mixed up Sunday and Friday.
Second Round
There is only one place to start with the second round. The fight between Vince and Mart. Let's just get this out there, this is possibly the best fight we've ever had in these tournaments.
Vince went in as the favourite, particularly as Mart had underwhelmed in previous tournaments. Mart needed a good performance here, mainly for his own reputation, but also because Vince is one of the best benders on the server.
The fight was brilliantly tight, both fighters landed good hits on one another, and neither gave the other an inch. It was a terrific display of bending prowess, Vince showing his obvious skill, and Mart blowing away the cobwebs on his talent. As the fight came into its closing stages the tension was palpable, you could cut it with a blunt penknife. It was oh so close, Mart landed with a shockwave that nearly hit Vince, but he was wise to it and landed a perfectly aimed Air Spear that finally knocked Mart out. But how close did Mart come to victory?
5hp.
That's all that was between Mart and one of the best victories we may ever see. Well played by both, it was a privilege to watch.
Elsewhere this round:
- Cheese and zcvn (may the lord bless him) fought a one sided bout that ended with zcvn (blessed be his name) suffocating himself in a wall...again.
- Sabb marked non-bendings' return to the tournament with an excellent win over lolcreator, as he made good use of his long range attacks.
- Creepreek was soundly beaten by Lemur, who rarely looked like losing this one.
- TheSirDoc continued his promising start by defeating radostin in efficient fashion.
- J_L_T couldn't carry his momentum through to this round after he was, eventually, beaten by Greeniac.
- Sodie was given a bye into the quarter finals after Mew failed to show. She was buying a kebab or something...
Now, last and most certainly least, was the fight between Evie and Yagura (henceforth known as Azog). One word to describe this one, LOOOOOOOOONG. It took 25, soul crushing, minutes to complete. I would like to formally apologise to both Skeleton and Shila, I never thought I'd see a fight reach the same level of tedium as yours in the first tournament, but I was wrong...
As the minutes started to pile up, I began to wonder if I would ever see the light of day again, or would I just be locked in the inescapable trap of an all waterbender fight until the heat death of the universe. I began to consider the meaning of life and stared out of my bedroom window. I saw a spider hanging there, outside, on the pane of glass. I began to ponder what this spider could be thinking about at this moment, is it thinking about eating flies? Terrorising me? Observing the beauty of the warehouse that you can see over the back hedge of my garden? What a dull life spiders must lead, hanging there day after day. If that spider can survive that, then I could surely survive watching this fight...
HOW MUCH HEALTH?!?
Ok, fine, back to the spider. God, I hate them, too many legs. At least it was safely on the other side of my window, which will remain firmly shut until I'm certain it's left, or is dead. Yes, I know they kill flies, and that's a good thing, but I just can't help it, they're horrid! Someone change my mind, help me see the beauty within!
What's that? You want to know about the fight? Ugh, fine... The fight ends once Izumi removes their healing, and Evie wins. NEXT PLEASE!
Quarter Finals
The first semi final featured Vince, who now had momentum behind him, facing off against Sodie, who was about to take part in his first fight of the tournament! Sodie showed little sign of rustiness as he went toe to toe with Vince initially. The fight was tight once again, but Vince soon gained the upper hand and shook off that earlier close call with Mart, striking Sodie down and advancing to the semi-finals.
Cheese and Evie were the next into the ring. Evie was on top at the start of the round, landing several consecutive hits on Cheese. Cheese was unable to get a decent run of hits in, and was forced into defensive mode for much of the fight. One final flurry of hits proved to be Cheese's undoing, he was out as Evie advanced to her second successive semi-final.
The fight between Lemur and Greeniac proved to be a surprisingly entertaining affair. Both fighters were well up for it and attacked with little let up. It was certainly a long fight, there's no getting away from that, but the action was constant and it was enjoyable to watch. In the end, Lemur was just too much for Greeniac, and he prevailed.
The final quarter final was between SirDoc and Sabb. Sabb was able to keep Doc at arms length for most of the fight, preventing the waterbender from landing any significant hits. Once again, Sabb showed the benefits of non-bending in his victory.
Semi Finals
Confession time, I had to leave about halfway through the first fight of the round, to eat dinner and to watch the Mexican Grand Prix (it was important, ok!). Izumi kindly provided me with his chat logs which give a broad overview of what happened, however, my patience only goes so far... Here's a brief summary of what happened:
Evie and Vince took ages to end their fight, but Evie won in the end. Happy with that? Good.
Lemur and Sabb took no time at all to finish theirs. Lemur seemed to win in about a minute.
Final
Again, I was watching the Grand Prix at this time, so I can only go on what the chat logs say.
Evie won, I don't think it was a very interesting fight. But still, a waterbender won! Hooray!!!
Oh, and if you're wondering what happened in the Grand Prix, Max Verstappen won the race, but Lewis Hamilton won his fifth world championship! It was probably more entertaining than the latter stages of the tournament, let's be honest here...
Awards
Best Fighter - Normally, this award goes to the winner of the tournament, but I'm going to give it to someone else this time. Turbo! After stepping in as a late substitute, he gave an excellent account of himself. It took courage for him to come in with absolutely no fighting experience at all, and it's exactly what these tournaments are about!
Best Fight - There is only one winner here. Vince vs Mart. Will we ever see a more closely fought bout? It would take a hell of a lot to dethrone this one as the best of all time.
The Cure for Insomniacs Award - Several candidates for this one today, but let's be honest, it was always going to be Evie vs Azog.Don't make me think about it again....
Funniest Moment - zcvn. Just him...
Last Notes
Once again, thank you to everyone for taking part! I hope you all enjoyed this special themed tournament. Also thanks to FireLordIzumi for organising it, MewRayquaza for building the dragon statues, and Martdamp, for making sure the server worked!
Details about the November tournament will be out in due course, so keep an eye on Discord for that.
Enjoy your Halloween. QuietDove, out!
