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!
2018-10-01 18:39:11 +0000 UTC by QuietDove
Hello, after a brief hiatus last month, the tournament report has returned! The third of our monthly tournaments certainly didn't disappoint, with some classic fights being fought, and one of the tournaments biggest controversies to date.
Competitors
For the first time in the tournaments history, there were no non-benders taking part, hopefully we see them return in October.
The other four elements were represented by:
Air - Vincebobogunoosh, Porku, Cheesesandwich, J_L_T, radostin04, SkeletonXF238, nanook4219
Water - EvieAscendant, zcvn, Kidletz5
Earth - FireLordIzumi, Caljitsu, Sodie_Pops
Fire - MewRayquaza, Failbourgh, Creepreeck
Once again, air proved to be the most popular choice, especially after Porku's success with it in the last tournament. Perhaps it's popularity is a sign to even organisers that the competition may need levelling out.
First Round
The first fight saw a tasty matchup between FireLordIzumi and Vincebobogunoosh, a pre-tournament favourite. The fight was something of a formality as Vince was able to comfortably dispatch Izumi, throwing down the gauntlet to the rest of the competition.
Another notable match was the surprisingly entertaining encounter between Caljtsu and Porku, the defending champion. Cal found more luck than his fellow earthbender, Izumi, in landing a few significant hits against his air bending opponent. However, the fight ultimately came down to a relatively easy victory to Porku.
The third fight was a confusing battle between Mew and Cheese. The fight had to be restarted twice, first due to Cheese using PEGM's (Performance Enhancing Game Modes), then Mew suffering an injury called "Random DC".In the fight, Mew appeared to be the one with the advantage, Cheese appearing to be unable to land any significant hits. But then, in a twist, Mew appeared to forfeit the match, allowing Cheese to defeat her. This is believed to be due to an illness known as "Lag"
In the other fights:
- Evie comfortably dispatched zcvn after a drawn out fight.
- Radostin defeated J_L_T, despite some intriguing fighting techniquesfrom the latter.
- Sodie was victorious over Fail in an entertaining fight,
- Skeleton and Creepreeck had an attritional battle that ended in asurprise victory for Skeleton. (Who has now regained some of hisdignity after his horror show in the first tournament.
- Nanook knocked out Kidletz, despite his stubborn and promising resistance.
Quarter Finals
The headline fight in this round was undoubtably the fight between the tournament favourites, Porku and Vince. The fight did not disappoint as neither fighter left anything on the arena. It was an excellent display of air bending prowess from the pair, any aspiring fighter would do well to observe this fight.Both competitors landed big hits and the lead changed hands several times early on. But eventually, Porku was able to land some decisive blows that saw him defeat his arch rival.
The fight between Evie and Cheese was another long fight, one for the purists of the sport. Evie made good use of her water bending and, in truth, she never really looked like losing.
Sodie and Radostin provided an entertaining, if slightly one-sided, fight. Sodie gave a perfect demonstration of earth bendings capabilities, with Rad unable to keep up (which is slightly ironic for an airbender...). The fight went to Sodie, as their excellent run continued.
The final quarter final bout was a slightly underwhelming affair between Skeleton and Nanook. Neither fighter seemed to be comfortable with air bending tactics, making for a slightly slow fight. Eventually, Nanook emerged victorious.
Semi Finals
The first semi final, between Evie and Porku, was a cracker. Although there were few fireworks, the fight gave us a gripping battle of wills. Evie appeared to be landing most of the hits from the safety of her pool of water, but Porku was able to keep her honest using his speed and landing hits of his own.In a fight lasting six minutes, it eventually came down to Porku knocking Evie out of the water and landing several significant hits. The fight was ended by a perfectly timed Air Burst from Porku, breaking Evie's defences. Porku advanced to his third successive final.
The second semi final was fought between Sodie and Nanook. This was another long fight, totalling nearly ten minutes, by far the longest of the tournament so far! Sodie took an interesting, and ulitmately misguided, approach to the fight.The tactic of continually using Earth Wall may have been a masterstroke... Not this time though. The lack of attacking intent from Sodie allowed Nanook to eat and regain health, eventually paving the way for his victory.
Final
The final match of this tournament promised much, both Porku and Nanook had fought well in the previous rounds, but it ended in controversy.The fight began slowly, both fighters taking time to size each other up, with few punches thrown. As the fight developed both sides grew into it and started to land some hits. Porku had the slight advantage in the early stages, proving his skills. But, Nanook was able to come back into it and peg Porku back, this wasn't going to be easy for Porku. The bout continued in this manner for some time, with Porku able to hold a slight advantage.However, as the fight headed towards its closing stages, we were presented with one of the tournaments biggest controversies yet. Porku began to use his air ball to travel around the arena, allowing Nanook to get a few hits, before his was blown up into the air. Making no attempt to break his fall, Porku hit the ground and lost the fight.
Initially, this appeared to be a major mistake from the defending champion, as airbenders are difficult to defeat with fall damage, but it later emerged that Porku had deliberately lost the fight.
With this information, the Board of Stewards decided to disqualify Porku from the tournament, citing a breach of the competitions spirit. The stewards are currently in the process of discussing further punishment, news of which should break in the not too distant future.
Despite this, Nanook was named as the champion and went away with the top prize. Congratulations to him!
Awards
Best Fighter: Porku - Despite his underhanded tactics in the final, his excellent form must be acknowledged. He once again provided some memorable displays on his route to the final.
Best Battle: Porku vs Vince - An obvious choice. The best two fighters in the tournament were on display in their brilliant quarter-final bout. A true masterclass of air bending from the pair of them.
Worst Battle: - Skeleton vs Nanook - Sorry Skeleton, you're here again! I promise I'm not doing this on purpose... The fight was underwhelming to say the least, its long length didn't help.
Funniest Moment: - The slightly farcical Cheese vs Mew fight, which required three attempts to get started. It was ultimately ended by Mew's terrible internet connection, time to invest in fibre optic I think!
Last Notes
Thank you to everyone who competed this month! You have a whole month to prepare for the next one, so get on the training ground!
Details about the October tournament will be released shortly, so keep an eye on the Discord for all the information.
