So round one is over.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

If you want to finish your battles for the sake of finishing your battles, I would suggest asking the powers at be to keep your thread open and move it to the Garden of Secrets or something after the scores have been laid down.

Although, I should probably ask said powers if such a thing would be possible.

That way, you can take your time and post at your own discretion.

I may not have had a good first round, but the time limit is there for a reason.

You have to keep in mind that there is such a thing as real life. It happens. It gets in the way sometimes. I can't think of a single person who has this tournament as their top priority. Deal with it. The waaaaaahmbulance can only carry so many passengers at once, you know.

[Miehm]

I would first like to state that I thoroughly enjoyed my first-round experience. I haven't battled in earnest (okay, figuratively, but hey ^^) ever since my previous haunt closed down, and it's certainly been good to get the old competitive juices flowing again. Not to mention that I've remembered just how much I like RPing with Yuka ^^.

That said, what is the opinion of everybody here about post turnover time? Considering the difficulties of different timezones, the intrusion of real life jobs and studies, and the time necessary to formulate battleplans and rough drafts, I do think that a minimum of two days are necessary... and even this is between teammates used to roleplaying with one another and willing to work together towards a common storyline. This means that a round of posting - four posts - will take a week at least, which no doubt in turn was responsible for the unfinished storylines of many of the Round 1 battles. I understand and respect the desire of the judges to enforce a strict time limit, and am more than willing to blame myself for more than my fair share of delays; I would just like to learn from this and attempt not to repeat the same mistakes.

I daresay that there are many ways around this. For example, I think that agreeing a general synopsis with your opponents beforehand could greatly speed up the battle. Certain amounts of bunnying should be permitted - within reason, of course - and there are not a few writing techniques that would be of great use here, the main thing being not to rehash previous posts and to build on what has already happened.

I would be really interested to hear what other people have to say on this subject. I think that by discussing this in the open, we can make Round 2 an even more enjoyable experience for all involved.

Two days is a frankly ridiculous turnaround. I may have some slight advantage because I get to think about these things all day at work, but by the time I read my opponents post in the morning(assuming they have one up) and get a full day of work in, my post is almost entirely written when I get home. All I have to do is type it.

It really felt like there was no urgency to this round. I know there was a period of perhaps four days where my wireless was down that I couldn't post, but nothing really happened while I was gone either. It wasn't a waste of time, but the fact that the fight ended long before it was over left me feeling like I'd been led on. Our opponents were great writers, but I think maybe they planned just a little too hard from the start on how they wanted to fight. As others have mentioned, there was some small bit of pussyfooting around, but it was understandable given the characters, so I can't complain, even if I would rather have been pummeling away at them with my knives rather than talking to them.

[Kupo!]

Even so, Round one may have tanked a bit, but in all honesty 3 weeks to finish a battle is a fair amount of time. I agree that it needs the 3 week cap because:

A: Create a sense of urgency to get the job done.

B: Weed out all those who really didn't want to be in the ToC anyway.

C: Prevent the rounds from going on until the cows come home.

Personally, at this point we all know when the deadlines are for the next round, so obviously we would know what to expect next round. ALl those who didn't want to really be here are for the most part gone. Those teams that actually wanted to be here are still here, so let's all just chill and wait for round two.

Compared to mose tournaments I have been to this is actually one of the better organized events. So just because we all are bummed we didn't get to smash the shit out of those before us doesn't mean the end of the world.

As for a writing contest VS fighting contest. Ya, it happens to be we are writing out these fights, and some people are looking for a bit more than just "Throg takes club and smashes it over Jon's head, Jon's head bleeds massive blood out of every oraffice. Jon takes sword and cuts off Throg's head."

Some people, like myself, don't always enjoy the "Hey, look people. Let's just randomly beat the shit out of them and cause a tremendous amount of collatoral damage." Instead they like to have a few lines to make the fight more memorable and actually stick to the characters.

Let's all face it, Round one was a bit disheartening, and imagine how bad the people wanted it to be succesful feel. People not posting is nobodies fault but the people who didn't post, and to get mad about effectivly does nothing but make you negative and turn you off to everything else.

And wasting three weeks? Nobody forced anybody to write, nobody demanded that you HAD to do this, so IMHO nobody waisted their time.

Round two is bound to be better guys. So just get comfy and prepare yourselves.

[Shadowed]

Well, in terms of 'making it more memorable' my opponents actually tried to communicate with me and my team. But seeing as how they don't speak any of the languages outside of their own homes, I kept up the IC realism of them not having the slightest idea what was said to them. Honuse Relaiyent's motivation is pretty basic; kill everyone in sight, and if any of them died worthily, send them to Valhalla. It's entirely out of his character to actually converse with anyone but an opponent that proves himself to be of equal strength.

[Kupo!]

I agree, not everyone is going to have an easy time. I fought Slayer of the Rot, a guy who saw my character as nothing more than a giant snack? But he was willing to work with out team, a team he wouldn't have given the time to piss on IC'ly, and give us some form of skeleton theme for the debotchery of our souls as we get chased and eaten alive. (Let's face it, a moogle doesn't have much...)

Fight's can be memorable, even if the Character's don't have ways to communicate. But Having your sword blocked or watching an opponent get up from one of your best attacks should be universal for "This person's a badass..." and open up some form of dialouge while fighting.

These are fights, yes, but just because your guy is a brash person doesn't mean you can't also insult people as you parry blows or gain the upper hand. Anybody can write "Bob stabbed Steve, steve is bleeding." But it's another thing to write out bob getting the parry, making a knock off about Steve's mother and job statis on weekends behind olive garden, and then get it back full circle when Steve gains the upper hand again.

Checks and balances, give and take people. Ego's make very short rounds.

[Flames of Hyperion]

@Saxon - I agree, communication is a two-way thing. There's little you can do when the other side is unwilling to talk to you. That said, we have to try, right?

@Miehm - Is two days really that ridiculous? I know that at any one time I'll be juggling at least two or three separate projects on top of my job, so two days is certainly the best I can do... and that's actually almost pushing it. I hope I don't sound like a child when I say I sacrificed a few hours of sleep for this, because I certainly enjoyed doing so. I agree that there was a certain lack of urgency about the round, although I attribute that more to people finding their feet and getting used to things rather than anything else. I also feel for the people who tried to get a good story in but failed, for one reason or another.

***

As stated previously, I concur on the need for a time limit, and I think that it's part of the duty of the participants to attempt to create a story within those constraints. Which is why I brought up the matter, to attempt to discuss how to do this ^^. After all, at the end of things, this is about writing, isn't it?

Perhaps we should make it standard that if you don't post for a certain amount of time in a thread without an appropriate reason, your partner has to bunny you or you forfeit your place in the order? I know I'm just tossing out random ideas here, and that it should be up to the individual teams to standardise this at the beginning of their battle (or for the remaining members to work this out amongst themselves according to the situation), but it may help to reduce the lack of posting in certain threads.

In any case, whether I'm in it or not, I'll be looking forward to Round 2.

EDIT:

Checks and balances, give and take people. Egos make very short rounds.

Well said ^^/

[Shadowed]

There are still exceptions to that. I've had my best attacks completely nullified through my opponent's complete misunderstanding of what I just did. And with a character like Honuse, who has literally spent the last half a millennium killing things, you have to expect a bit of experience. Aside from the fact that in Norse culture, respect comes from dying well.

Edit:

I get your point, though. To me, a memorable battle comes from someone finding innovative ways to fight. For example, I use a lot of electricity - throwing your sword into a nearby dirt wall to ground it, while running around and stabbing me with a knife would be my idea of good tactics, thus a good fight.

[Atle]

Simply put, I rather enjoyed my first round.

If Team Awesome continues on I would dearly like to fight either Silas Gesse or Honuse.

That's all.

[Miehm]

In one day I try to make at least two posts. Now, I'm going to come out and be honest. My posts are nowhere near as good as yours, which is ok by me, because sometimes reading something that long on the internet makes my brain hurt. I haven't managed to post much at all(barring here) the last few days for one reason or another.

Two days to write one post seems almost criminal to me. I might post again for some of my threads tonight, assuming I can find my coke can and remain awake with sweet sweet caffeine. Not to sound like I'm belittling your time constraints(they are after all your own, and your average post looks better than all but my most inspired work), but on top of my job I have two battles, the tourney if we advance, three or four quests, and I'm trying to start something in the Salvar FQ as another account. Right now. I owe two replies and am waiting on 4ish(?) more before I can post again. I actually have time in the mornings to get bored while cruising Althanas because my posts are all up to date. That bugs me just a tiny bit.

Also, every time I see your characters name, I picture a Swedish Guitarist. Just to throw that out there. He's very good at it....

[Flames of Hyperion]

I do tend to be a bit of a perfectionist about my posts, I suppose. Stepping away from the debate on whose writings are "good" (personally I believe I write in a pompous, long-winded manner horribly unsuitable for reading, in contrast to writers like - for example - Inkfinger or Caden), in the end it's a matter of personal style. I don't like posting writing I consider to be substandard, and I can't create satisfactory work that quickly with my time constraints.

It's certainly something I might have to look into, if the possibility exists that it would help to create a better all-around experience for team-mates, opponents, and the general public. The problem being that I've never really been great at simply brainstorming and submitting semi-rough drafts, either. Hmm...

I do know for sure that I'd never be able to keep up with so many threads at a time like you seem to be able to - too many independent storylines floating about my head ^^.

Not sure about Swedish guitarists. My current character's pseudonym was acquired somewhat randomly, so...