Forum - View topicCoolest Character Tournament - Post-Mortem
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18252 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Round 2 Group D: Mixed Group #2 is now closed.
Only 20 votes in this time - a little depressing considering how fiercely-contested the Group was: only two matches had greater than a 60-40 vote spread and four finished at 11-9. The results: A-17: Lupin outfoxes Ladd Russo, 15-5. A-18: Spike Spiegel crushes Jin, 18-2. A-19: Duke Togo assassinates Paprika, 12-8. A-20: Alucard slips by Firo, 11-9. A-21: Yang Wen Li out-strategizes Saeko Busujima, 11-9. A-22: Motoko Kusanagi eliminates Dark Schneider, 12-8. A-23: Honoka sword-dances over Shizuo Heiwajima, 11-9. A-24: Kamina's manliness proves too much for Sebastien, 11-9. All but the first two matches (especially A-23!) were tight right up until the end, with neither side able to take a substantial advantage. In the Bad-Ass vs. General Cool match-ups, the Bad-Assess had only a 3-2 lead in match wins. That, combined with Dark Schneider's defeat, strongly suggests that supreme bad-assery alone is not going to be enough to win this tournament or even necessarily make it to the late rounds. And this also illustrates, more clearly than ever, the effect that the compromise on the tournament theme is having on the tournament. I proposed the Cool idea in an effort to get a tournament featuring bad-asses to get enough support to go off, and here's where I'm now regretting that compromise the most. As a couple of people pointed out, in a pure Bad-Ass tournament the result in this Group would have almost certainly been different; there's no way Dark Schneider goes down to defeat this early in that format, not even to The Major. There have been some other results in this tournament that I haven't liked, but this one truly galls me. Granted, it's hardly like DS lost to a wimp, but that only softens my irritation a little. This result is wrong enough in my mind to sully the rest of the tournament for me. And we still have three more months to go yet. Sigh. . . Anyway, enough complaining. Onto business. |
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Olliff
 Posts: 550 |
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Key, if its any small consolation, I majorly botched this last round, and to a certain extent I share your view. However, I don't think this unpredicted event is necessarily bad. I came into this tournament knowing that badass characters with characteristics that are less than cool may fall short.
I may have underestimated this disdain for arrogant badasses with DS and with another character, but heck you can't predict them all and have them all go your way or be judged based on your criteria. Sometimes the fun of it all and seeing how the people vote, and this round surprised the heck out of me. And not only that, but people provided pretty consistent reasoning for not voting for DS. Unless, everyone else did bad, I think the minigame just got a lot more interesting, too because I didn't just lose out on half of this round's points, but on a several future opportunities down the road reaching out as far as round 4. Oh well, these sorts of things happens and instead of wallowing that your personal criteria for this tournament didn't win out, try to take it in stride. Even though I progressed who I did, I understand why this happened even though I strongly believe that the picks with the most merits did not win this round. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18252 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Round 3 Group A: The Bad-Asses is now closed.
Results can be found here. Boy, it’s hard for me to muster up enthusiasm for this round and Group, as I honestly don’t see any of these matches being the least bit competitive. (Well, maybe A-28, but certainly not the other three.) Still, this has to be done so we can get on to the fiercer matches in later Groups (and next round for this one), so let’s get to it! Oh, and the Guide entries do include video clips this time, courtesy of ccdx. Do be sure to watch those if you aren’t familiar with the characters, because. . . Arguments are now required for all matches. Please heed this and don’t put me in a situation where I have to negate someone’s votes for not following the tournament rules. Side Point: The clip for Claire definitively puts to the lie one of the significant arguments used in his favor (over Teresa) last round: that he never uses a weapon. Anything to this effect will not be considered an acceptable argument going forward. Group A-25 Balalaika, Black Lagoon vs. Izumi Curtis, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise Group A-26 Roy Mustang, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise vs. Guts, Berserk Group A-27 Claire Stanfield, Baccano! vs. Black Jack, Black Jack Group A-28 Roronoa Zoro, One Piece vs. Mugen, Samurai Champloo Last edited by Key on Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18252 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Oh, my griping has absolutely nothing to do with the minigame. (And you probably aren't in that bad a shape comparatively speaking, as I also took both a short and long-term beating this past round.) From the moment I came up with the idea I considered DS one of the defining characters of the whole tournament. I genuinely think the tournament loses a lot with him gone; whatever one may think about his perceived flaws compared to Motoko, he is undeniably a stronger character (in the sense of being colorful) than she is. The other problem here is that the very fickle nature of the voting criteria is bothering me much more in this tournament than I had expected it to. For instance, the voting and arguments so far generally seem to be favoring substance over style (Alucard was a rare exception), which is something that I've already made clear that I have a problem with in a tournament dedicated to cool, and yet Honoka - a character with a lot of depth - only barely beat the very shallow Shizuo. 
Last edited by Key on Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:26 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6536 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Group A-25
Balalaika, Black Lagoon vs. Izumi Curtis, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise Well, I’m going to put in a quixotic vote here (well, I did nominate her). Izumi Curtis because she fights her battles whereas Balalaika delegates hers. Izumi has more guts (although technically she doesn’t, if you know what I mean). Please note that I’ve only seen the first series of each franchise. Group A-26 Roy Mustang, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise vs. Guts, Berserk There’s an appealing daggy streak to Mustang that fatally undermines his bad-assery. Guts has significant flaws but they shouldn’t be enough to let Mustang slip by. Group A-27 Claire Stanfield, Baccano! vs. Black Jack, Black Jack Claire Stanfield is one of the Baccano! one trait psychopaths. Boring! Having watched the “Australian” episode of Black Jack and viewing the video clip I cannot see how he was nominated as bad-ass. I can see he’s cool but bad-ass? Who to pick? Who to pick? Black Jack because, of the two, he is at least cool. Group A-28 Roronoa Zoro, One Piece vs. Mugen, Samurai Champloo The video clip of Roronoa Zoro kinda killed it for me. At least Mugen is amusing. |
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Olliff
Posts: 550 |
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Well, I progressed DS to the fourth round and besides him another one of my third round picks was knocked out. Also if the voting trends continue, I might not even get any points for this group starting round 4. I do agree with you that the voting seems to be fickle. Why the support for Aculard and not vote for DS? To be fair, voter arguments were divided and the tallies were close. I'm still wondering why with all of these close matches why there wasn't more of a turnout. I for one hope that Guts at least manages to surpass the mediocre Roy, but then again FMA is a popularity powerhouse. |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Group A-25
Balalaika, Black Lagoon vs. Izumi Curtis, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise Izumi Curtis. Balalaika for me is more of a shadow of Motoko Kusanagi in a lot of respects, and whatever she does, the Major does it better. (Yes, I realise that the duel is against Izumi Curtis). We don't really see her fight, her back story is not very interesting, and I simply can not vote for someone whom I find pretentious and arrogant more than cool/badass. I am not saying she has no merits, but I found Balalaika a lot cooler in the first season of BL, while the second totally kileld the character for me. Izumi o nthe other hand had some brilliant moments in both of the FMA series. Despite lacking some vital internal organs, Izumi actively joined in the Elrics' mission to save the country. She has a big heart full of compassion, but that does not make her soft, and in Brotherhood especially her skill and her fearless attitude gained her a lot of respect from everyone. Group A-26 Roy Mustang, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise vs. Guts, Berserk Mustang This is a tough one, and hopefully I will not end up regretting... I have not seen the whole of Bastard yet, and what I saw from the clip was really impressive. Mustang was one of my favourites in this tournament, and I still have in front of my eyes his fight with a certain Homonculi when he had to seal his wounds with his fire alchemy in order not to bleed to death. He can be a jerk, surely, but I think he manages to redeem himself in the end. Group A-27 Claire Stanfield, Baccano! vs. Black Jack, Black Jack If it was anyone else by Black Jack, I would have loved to vote against Claire. I was never really fond of him. But I think he wins here with his bold style and unconventional attitude. He definitely has got more to him than Ladd, which makes him a bit more than psychopatical serial killer. And although not very likeable, he is quite interesting. I found Black Jack was moralising a bit too much for my taste. Group A-28 Roronoa Zoro, One Piece vs. Mugen, Samurai Champloo[/quote] Mugen. Again a character I really really like against someone whom I dont know, and this time again Ill go with what I am familiar with. I am not saying that Roronoa is not cool, but I find Mugen's style more fitting in the competition. He is proud, flashy, skilled and fun at the same time. His fighting style is quite spectacular to watch as well. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18252 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I don't think you have anything to be worried about there. Even some people who have supported Roy in the past have acknowledged that he's not a top-rate competitor. He has a few brilliant moments of bad-assery across the two series and movie, but they don't come as consistently as they do for Guts and he has far more vulnerable points than Guts. (Ineffective in the rains is a big weakness at this stage, for instance.) Not having his strongest possible clip available doesn't help his cause, either. No, I will be very surprised if Roy doesn't go down to a resounding defeat here; hell, I'll be surprised if he's even competitive. He might fare a little better if he wasn't in the all-bad-ass bracket, but as a bad-ass he's one of the weakest options left. |
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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Oh dear lord. 
Group A-25 Balalaika Izumi had her moments of badassery, but just like in the previous round, I still think of her as more of a frustrated mother. Group A-26 Guts Mustang is definitely a good contender, but he generally fails as a leader, and on the field he's neither really wise nor badass. Group A-27 Claire Stanfield You don't have to be kind to be cool. Claire has his own sense of justice, which may be warped, but not technically bad from my perspective. But I pretend to understand why others would consider him evil. Regardless, he's a very strong character and fills the badassery character very well, while his rival is a doctor. A doctor who performs surgeries calmly. Group A-28 Zoro Tough choice. I'm voting for Zoro because I'm quite positive he won't win. I do consider him a better contender, but the franchise's reputation in the tournament won't get him that far despite the fact that he definitely deserves it. Either way, he won't beat the Gits' character regardless of how good he is, which is why I'd rather see him go down against a character I respect and isn't just plain overrated *cough* Gits *cough*. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Group A-25
Voting for: Balalaika, Black Lagoon Reasons: IIRC, Izumi was the FMA contestant considered to be the weakest. And everything I've heard about Balalaika definitely makes her out to be anything but weak. Group A-26 Voting for: Guts, Berserk Reasons: Sorry FMA, coming down on you again. This one was a bit harder but, based on what I know about both of these guys, I think Guts deserves to be here just a little bit more. Group A-27 Voting for: Claire Stanfield, Baccano! Reasons: Uh, not much to go on here really. Neither constant has made an impact on me yet in this tournament so strength of guide entries will have to do. Group A-28 Voting for: Roronoa Zoro, One Piece Reasons: The three swords fighting style still does it for me on this one. |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5633 Location: Southern California |
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Group A-25
Izumi Curtis, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise Going with my heart here. While both care about those "under" them, Izumi just wins me over because she fights more of her own battles. Group A-26 Roy Mustang, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise Again, with my heart. I just think that Roy is the better choice. Group A-27 Black Jack, Black Jack While Clair may have a particular code...I have to go with Black Jack because he's a real operator! (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Group A-28 Roronoa Zoro, One Piece If it was Jin vs Zoro I would pick Jin but in this case I'm going to go with Zoro because of the description and previous comments. |
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Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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Results. Well that round certainly shook things up. Olliff managed only a single-digit score for the first time this tournament, which puts him only two points ahead of second place. This will be a small consolation to some other entrants, though, as 7 of them no longer have enough different choices from Olliff in play to make up their deficit. Wait, sorry, 4 of them; the other 3 can't make up the point deficit against Mow.
So, the actual results compared to mini-game predictions provide some interesting comparisons. The Lupin vs Ladd match up was the second closest split (closest being Yang vs Saeko). Alucard, Motoko, and Kamina were all favored to win by landslides. There was an upset this round, too, with Shizuo being highly favored over Honoka, as well. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16941 |
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Late to the party I see but that's ok. Fashionably late in the new hip thing lol.
Group A-25 Balalaika, Black Lagoon Reason: Gotta go with my woman Fry Face here. Balalaika just exudes bad assery from her pores. She is just menacing standing there doing nothing. All through Black Laggon when she is around shit is gonna go down yo lol! Plus beyond just being badass, like say Revy, she's competant, smart, and skilled at being badass. She has her troops in Hotel Moscow but she leads by example and will throw down whenever needed. She's cold blooded, razor sharp, and just the baddest b*tch on the block as they say. She gets my vote. Group A-26 Guts, Berserk Reason: To me Roy is not "badass" but rather just a good fighter. He's does not exude that badass aura to me. There are several others in FMA I would say have morebadass qualities over Roy. And here Roy is up against Guts....his freaking name is Guts for crying out loud! If you knew nothing else about him that should seal the deal right there. However I do know more about him and Guts and his big ass Cloud from FF7 sword would slice circles around Roy in terms of badassery. Roy might beat him in a fight using his intellect and wit but if we're talking about a straight up white knuckle badass fight off Guts has him in spades. Group A-27 Claire Stanfield, Baccano! Reason: Not very fond of either really. Though thinking about them in their respective shows, and considering arguments, I have to go with Claire simply because he is a bit more....malicious I suppose. That to me tips the badass scale in his favor. It might not tip the "most lovable" scale in his favor this is about badassery so in that he narrowly wins this time. Group A-28 Mugen, Samurai Champloo Reason: Tough choise for me really. I love them both and both are badasses in my book. I think I gotta narrowly give it to Mugen for the same reason as I gave it to Claire. That edge in the malicious and not caring attitude. To me often that propels someone in the area of being a badass. It's not just kicking ass and taking names it's also attitude for me. So in this match with the technical ass kicking part tied I gotta fall back onto the attitude aspect of badassery. And in that Mugen has more IMO so he gets the nod from me. |
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Olliff
Posts: 550 |
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Welcome back Pyscho101. It sure has been a while, hasn't it? Sure, there are some new faces, but most of the regulars in the minigame are still around. Abunai hasn't been poking his head around here as much he's used to, but I think Key does a fine job of keeping the peace around here. We happened to pick the topic that you were campaigning for a while, but it's a corrupted version of that with cool characters thrown in. Compromises sometimes work, but as we can see DS from Bastard is already down for the count; something that would never happen if this were a pure badass tournament.
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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Group A-25
Balalaika, Black Lagoon vs. Izumi Curtis, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise Balalaika I don't think that Izumi is that cool. And besides, Balalaika has a formidable presence and is good enough to get my vote in this round. Group A-26 Roy Mustang, Fullmetal Alchemist franchise vs. Guts, Berserk Roy Mustang because he is the coolest character in FMA. It helps that the clip of his opponent managed to lull me to sleep, at least it makes the choice easier for me. Group A-27 Claire Stanfield, Baccano! vs. Black Jack, Black Jack Claire Stanfield for being a cool character and the most adorable psychopath. Group A-28 Roronoa Zoro, One Piece vs. Mugen, Samurai Champloo I'm not familiar with either, Mugen's clip impressed me more, so my vote goes to him. |
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