So round one is over.

[Shadowed]

Waiting on some judgments for Bracket A, Bracket B will be up in a week or so I'm guessing. Waiting for another podcast, too. But aside from that...

How do you all feel it went? Any predictions on your own score, or someone else's battle? Any fights you particularly liked? I'm primarily disappointed that one of my opponents hit computer troubles just after the start of the round; it was already shaping up to be a good fight.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I'll be speaking with Christoph hopefully within the next couple days about arranging a time to do the next podcast.

[Christoph]

I did very much like your battle, Shadowed. I was very disappointed when Synical was forced to drop out, especially since it wasn't under his control.

[Saxon]

Round One wasn't really all that spectacular. Cory and I didn't even get to fight our opponents the entire round and didn't get to finish the battle. Not really worth the investment of time to come all this way and not even draw first blood from either side.

If we succeed into getting into the next round, I expect we'll be putting up with less bullshit.

[Taskmienster]

That could be more pleasantly worded, please.

And I was more surprised by the short amount of posts in the battles, taking into account that there were 4 people (for the most part) in each one. I assumed that 3 weeks would be enough time to post a full battle with another team, but it seems that a lot of people were taking their time and the round went slow.

It'll be interesting to see the next round of fighting. I hope that it will be more exciting and more complete.

[Miehm]

It blew. I realize it was a writing contest, and not a fighting contest per se, but it's set as a fight, and we didn't even get to the "fighting" till my second or third post. That means at least 8 posts before ANYTHING happened. Pretty damn boring.

[Shadowed]

I don't see why you can't write yourself into combat by your second post. Presumably, your opponent's first post will at least end with him describing where he is on the battlefield, at which point you can get set up and launch your first attack. That pretty well forces things to get started.

But anyways, when it comes to the lack of activity, I think a lot of it comes due to the fact that the round began right around the same time as school; I think my round began one week before my first class. My partner spent the better part of a week without internet access due to moving to his school, and I'm sure the same is true of other people. But also, in every competition you'll get people who sign up, but don't really care. Hopefully, those people will be gone next round, leaving (more) people that actually want to compete.

[Saxon]

That could be more pleasantly worded, please.

No, no it really can't, Task and I'm a little shocked that you'd ask me to church up my own opinion of how our experience was. It was terrible and really not worth the three weeks we had to get things done. I'd expect our next couple of rounds if we advanced to be better, but that remains to be seen.

I would never ask anybody here to cast their opinions in a more a 'positive light' to make it look better, so don't ever tell me to be anything other than candid or truthful. That's how rifts get created in our community and people are shocked about how some members or guests have a wide range of opinions, not all of them positive, of how things are in these kinds of events. It's bullshit, Task.

[Taskmienster]

I agreed that it was a disappointment, and was less than what I had come to expect for the first round. However, calling it bullshit, or saying that the battle with another team was a waste of time is an easy way to start drawing this thread into just an attack on other teams. That is why I would request that you remain respectful in your response.

If you would like to take this to PM's that would be fine with me.

[Lord Saladin]

Round One was, for me, a little disappointing yet also a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

I was very annoyed that my original partner disappeared a week before the tournament was to start, which ruined a lot of the character concept the two of us had developed. However, it did give me the opportunity to write with someone completely new - Miehm. This gave way to a whole new, if entirely unexpected, dynamic to the fight: My character wondering where her brother was.

Miehm proved to be a darn good partner, and showed very good writing skills; which is always a good thing in tournaments like this. Though no particular team work took place either ICly or OOCly due to the nature of the IC situation, I certainly enjoyed writing with him.

Our opponents were both friendly and, once again, very good writers, and I enjoyed reading all of their posts. The OOC interaction between both our teams was refreshing to say the least - within my 'usual' community, OOC for fights generally involves e-peen twirling and baiting for arguments. So, to have a wholly friendly relationship with the opposition was nice.

Following Miehm's sentiment, I did feel a little disappointed that by the end of the bracket we had only just begun actually fighting. It did leave an unsatisfactory after-taste, but that was, in part, caused by the also previously noted lack of posts I too noticed throughout the round. If posts had been more frequent, I think the fight would have been VERY enjoyable and satisfying. A shame it didn't work out that way.

Hopefully, should we progress to the next round, this issue will be solved as the heat is picked up and people, again hopefully, feel a need to complete the fight.

Overall, Round One was a mixed bag, but generally an enjoyable one.