#D2 Tournament

[character-of-all-time]

ROUND 2: INGO AND oh god dammit mellis still here (pokemon) VS KIM KITSURAGI (disco elysium)

[star-wars-tournament]

Bracket 2, round 4, poll 2:

[starburstdragon]

Final Bracket Placement Poll for the Guys Who Are Multiple Guys Tournament (1 of 2)

Some characters are candidates for the bracket that, for various reasons, I'm not sure I can properly judge their worthiness myself. So we're having prelims for our fringe cases. The top three candidates from this poll and the next will make their way into the bracket properly.

(Shallan Davar image by @shuravf, according to the wiki. I'll try to make a better header for the actual bracket polls.)

Rationale below the cut.

RentheDog

I'm told there's many versions of the character. However, the Hermitcraft Wiki article is about the real human man.

Dipper Pines

He gets cloned for an episode, but it's not really that important to his character.

Noel Vermillion

Submitted without comment. She is apparently a clone, though.

Yu Joonghyuk

I'm told there's so many of this guy, but his wiki page is so bare bones I could've bought it on Wish.

Crow

He gets amnesia and a new identity. Occasionally, he has dreams about his previous self. Is this enough?

Shallan Davar

Frankly, I'm not convinced her whole situation isn't too grounded in reality for this tournament. She's the host of a system that happens to have illusion magic.

Saskia Del Norma

I'm told she's done mitosis and there's now two of her. However, the only actually accessible information on her I've found is a fan submission to a MBTI website and a one sentence introduction on the Critical Roll wiki, which is not enough for me to confirm the mitosis thing.

[alertarchitect]

So! A new Doom game got announced!

Here's the trailer for those interested, it will help with what I'm about to go into:

As a bit of a Retro Throwback Shooter Shitter myself, I have some Thoughts. Read on if you're interested.

So, first of all I like the premise of exploring the time the Doom Slayer spent fighting demons alongside the warriors of Argent D'Nur. It's a time period that was purposefully left pretty damn vague in Doom Eternal, and the Slayer's lore before waking up again wasn't even really talked about much - if at all - in Doom 2016 from what I remember, since they were trying to play it a little safe due to Doom 2016 being a soft reboot of a series that hadn't gotten a new game in 12 years at that point, with the last title (Doom 3 and its various editions that attempted to improve it a bit) being a pretty big departure that had a wealth of issues, such as it being a Doom game with one of the worst shotguns ever put into a shooter. So it's a cool idea to explore this time frame of the Doom Slayer's history, and possibly show the events leading to the Slayer's imprisonment in Hell before he was rediscovered and subsequently awoken by Samuel Hayden in Doom 2016, including the Makyrs' fall from grace.

Second, I'm actually kinda hyped to see id Software still working on making retro throwback shooters. I was worried they'd get shuttered and their IP sold off after Rage was such a flop back in 2011, and they didn't make anything after it for 5 years until Doom 2016 came out, so it's nice to see they've found their groove again - making some of the best examples of the retro throwback shooter subgenre. Doom 2016 started the BoomShoot Renaissance, and Doom Eternal is still one of the best examples of the genre, mechanically. They are masterclasses in using an old formula while keeping the level design and visuals fresh with modern game design principles that have improved a lot since the 90s, along with new game mechanics to keep the moment-to-moment gameplay feeling fresh as well (such as the weapon / stat upgrade systems, the movement abilities you get in Doom Eternal, etc.). Seeing them pushing that even further is a treat to behold, and I'm confident it's going to be a pretty damn fun game, as long as it doesn't get forced into being $70.

Final point, though, is a bit of a downer for me personally. Why in the fuck are they making a game in the Doom series that's going for a more medieval-ish feel, when the Quake franchise is right fucking there and begging for a better modern entry than goddamn Quake Champions?? Seriously, making a Quake game calling back to the first game in the franchise - with the Lovecraftian inspirations, the more medieval-ish setting, the unique monsters like the Shambler you didn't see much of past Quake 1 - would be a fucking money printer. But no, Microsoft wants them to play it safe so they can get a guaranteed blockbuster because Quake Champions hasn't done very well since it came out of early access in 2022, which is definitely a fault of the Quake franchise not having any consumer interest and 100% for sure not because Quake Champions pivoted into being a fucking hero shooter trying to emulate the feel of old arena shooter deathmatching!! It's not like a soft reboot wouldn't be sorely needed after the goddamn disaster of a story that was the Quake 4 campaign! It's not like a modern Quake game that actually relies on having a fun weapon sandbox instead of relying on taking your opponents off guard with fucking superpowers on cooldowns is something the fanbase they're trying to pander to would nut in our fucking pants over or anything!!!!

TL;DR: This game looks really good and fun, and I like to see id is still making banger games, but I'm actually kinda angry that they'd rather make a Doom game with medieval vibes rather than using that other fantastic retro shooter IP they own to make something that kind of vibe would actually fit into better.

[disneyparksattractionstournament]

Favorite Disney Parks Attraction Showdown: Round 1 - Group D2

Videos and propaganda under the cut!

Journey into Imagination with Figment: Epcot

Propaganda:

"Okay, look. I am sad that I never got to know the Dreamfinder. BUT. I can't be too sad about it because this ride is at the center of some very fond childhood memories. I remember the rest of my family and I being so excited to run around and ride the attraction again. I love the hijinks Figment pulls in the senses labs. I remember being convinced each ride that this would be the one we would get a scent other than skunk. I was absolutely delighted to see Figment's upsidedown house. And the One Little Spark song and the grand finale just fills me with joy. I'm always going to have a place in my heart for this ride."

Alice in Wonderland: Disneyland

[guardian-battle-bracket]

BRACKET RULES

This bracket is exclusively for Lightbearers and Guardians canon to the series.

Polls run for one week and are published every Wednesday at 2:45 EST.

During the Crown Bracket, multiple polls will be running at once.

In the event of a 1-1 tie, a one day tiebreaker match will be held.

Whoever wins the tiebreaker takes the versus.

PLAYER RULES

No targeted attacks of other players.

Propaganda is allowed, but be nice about it.

If your propaganda involves directly attacking a character in the poll you will be blocked.

Respect your fellow Guardians.

Submissions are open for propaganda all tournament and new fighters to be added until we reach the final six.

Propaganda will not be added until the Blood Tournament. Because fuck me, man. I cannot manage it before.

Factions will be fighting within themselves to claim the crown as representative for their own faction before moving to Blood Bracket. This is known as the Crown Bracket. Following the Crown Bracket, champions will face against champions of other factions in the Blood Bracket. Once we are down to the final six, the Champion Bracket begins. Winner of this faces against everyone's favorite motherfucker, YOU. The Young Wolf.

PLEASE NOTE: NOT ALL NAMED GUARDIANS ARE ON HERE. ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE. I'M NOT DOING THAT TO MYSELF.

May the best Guardian win.

CURRENT BRACKET: THE CROWN RUN

THE CROWN RUN

The Lucent Brood

The faithful of Savathun, Hive raised by Light, a heresy to Guardians.

Ken vs Savathûn, the Witch Queen Crownbearer: Ken

This previously had every member of the Lucent hive but fuck no that's too many. We narrowed it down to these two.

Rogue Lightbearers

Risen beyond the City, no gods, no masters to tether them.

Ayrin vs Cenric - Victor: Ayrin

Gryphon-11 vs Otto - Victor: Grypon-11

Rience vs Thalia - Victor: Thalia

Crown Bearer: Thalia

Warlords

The Lords of the Dark Age, powerful Risen, beholdent to no one.

Benyo Lukacs vs Carnunta - Victor: Carnunta

Castor vs Cathal - Victor: Casotr

Citan vs Heyka-4 - Victor: Citan

Jaxxen vs Kandak - Victor: Kandak

Lord Shaxx vs "Red Man" - Victor: Shaxx

Reich vs Rience

Segoth vs "The Wake"

The Iron Lords

The now silent howls in the night, the first Lightbearing defenders of the surviors.

Ashraven vs Bretomart - Victor: Ashraven

Colovance vs Crimil - Victor: Crimil

Deidris vs Dryden - Victor: Dryden

Efrideet vs Felwinter - Victor: Felwinter

Finnala vs Frostmire - Victor: Frostmire

Gheleon vs Gunnora

Haakon vs Jolder

Jorum vs Nirwen

Orewing vs Orimund

Perun vs Radegast

Saladin Forge vs Silimar

Skorri vs Timur

Tormod vs Weyloran

The Vanguard

The elite of the elite, Guardian commanders supervising the actions of Guardians and the safety of the City.

Andal Brask vs Aparajita-4 - Victor: Andal Brask

Caliban-8 vs Cayde-6 - Victor: Cayde-6

Ikora Rey vs Kauko Swiftriver - Victor: Ikora Rey

Osiris vs Saint-14 - Victor: Saint-14

Tallulah Fairwind vs Commander Zavala - Victor: Commander Zavala

The Guardians

The Light in the Dark, the protectors of the Last City, Risen given purpose, to fight, to die, to rise again, in the name of the Light.

Ana Bray vs Aunor Mahal - Victor: Ana Bray

Blue Boaz vs Dredgen Yor - Victor: Dredgen Yor

Eris Morn vs Fenchurch Evris - Victor: Eris Morn

Jarden Ward vs Marcus Ren - Victor: Marcus Ren

Randy vs Shin Malphur - Victor: Shin Malphur

Shiro-4 vs Taeko-3

The Crow vs The Drifter

The Speaker vs Tevis

That's all we got.

Also don't fight me on The Drifter being in Guardians. He's part of the Light Alliance. He lives in the Tower. He works with the Vanguard. He's a Guardian.

Submissions are open, send in propaganda or suggest more Guardians to be added!

SUBMIT YOUR GUARDIAN FOR THE GUARDIAN OC TOURNAMENT!!

[mlmshipbracket]

ROUND ONE: POLL #9

R2-D2/C-3PO art by jadenvargen on tumblr

JayVik art by p4ndster on Twitter

ROUND 1 ALL POLLS [HERE]

NO PROPAGANDA SUBMITTED

[unleashthegoats]

UTG MARCH MADNESS (ROUND 4) - FINALS!

Single-elimination tournament to determine the best comic relief character in Star Wars (aka if they lose in round 1, they're out - only the winners continue on!)

For the casual fans:

R2-D2 (Prequels, OT, Sequels, literally everything)

Hondo Ohnaka (The Clone Wars, Rebels)

[chronotsr]

No. 4 - D1, Descent into the Depths of the Earth (August 1978)

Author(s): Gary Gygax Artist(s): David C. Sutherland III (Cover), David A. Trampier Level range: Average of 10, preferrably party size 7+ players Theme: Underground exploration Major re-releases: D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth, GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders

Wait, really? This adventure has never gotten an official adaptation after 1e? That feels really weird. Granted Queen of Spiders in particular would absolutely work with 2e, but, wow. Is there a reason for that?

Ahh, 1e cover art. Looks like hot fucking garbage in the best way. Well, at least it's not a trace? You may be aware that early DND had a bit of an art theft problem (mostly stealing off of comic covers), but I don't actually have a list of all the known cases -- finding art credits at all is enough hassle as is without tracking down which paintings are also stolen. The usual suspect is "Greg Bell" and if you want to look this up the word you need to google is "Swipes", not traces. Just, be aware that's a thing going forward.

We start off on a weak footing: a light retcon. The ending of G3 didn't really imply that the drow had an escape route to the underdark in the Hall, at least not going off the map, but the text of D1 does. It didn't really even have a reason to pursue any drow into the, well it's not called the Underdark yet. In fact, it's going to be a hot minute til then, it'll receive that name in '86 from a not particularly liked supplement that got pumped out during the TSR Money Issues era. So for now, it's just The Depths. G1-3 were highly enclosed dungeons, D1 is a wilderness hexcrawl situation. Which is kinda strange, since like the G series, the D series was a tournament module. The answer to this conundrum, is that it isn't a conundrum, because only D2-D3 were used at GenCon XI, as well as an alternate Q1 that never was. Shame! The Lolth egg raid sounds cool.

A big hexcrawl, in fact! It's almost weird to me that D1 is the middle of a sequence at such a high level, rather than the beginning of a sequence at a low level, simply because there's so much stuff? Hexcrawls aren't my jam (admittedly I've only played in one ever, but I have Forever GM syndrome very hard so maybe one day that'll be fixed…) so it's hard to not see something this huge and go "wow this must be totally overwhelming to run". But we will press on dauntlessly!

We get some guidance on how to run this, including to really sell the "spooky cave" vibes. Gary is one again strangely invested in the importance of caving itself, but here it feels a bit more appropriate than it did in G2. Happily, shockingly, excellently: there IS a way to secure the Drow's favor from the word jump! Wiping out the Mind Flayer camp will have a, not 100% but extremely high chance of the drow FINALLY leaving you alone. Yay! And included in the module are some bonus cave battlemaps in case you need to random encounter in a cave. Also yay! Actually, in general in this introductory section Gary is generally sending out good game design vibes, going to great trouble to mention "if they're being careful, don't fuck them over" and "just straight up tell them you can't teleport very far down here" and "make sure you tidy up this framework into a real adventure". All very good signs!

The artwork is, broadly, much cooler than it has been up to this point. Which is good, because we're getting a whole lot of random tables here. They do a nice thing in this section, where they give 'purposes' to a lot of the random encounters, not full-on spark tables but at least knowing that the ghouls serve the drow is a very handy "why are they here?" to know.

The adventure lightly, reasonably, railroads you into your first encounter -- a checkpoint. It's a pretty rote fight, there are two factions but they can't really be posed against one another in any obvious way. The sub boss has a faerie fire grenade, and the big boss has a cloak that lets you turn into a lurker to fly away in a pinch. It's lightly teased that they worship Lolth here. But otherwise it's mostly just "welcome to the underdark motherfucker!"

There's a brief illithid encounter, which is likewise rote. Chop em' up and move on.

Finally, you have your dungeon-dungeon, which is a trog warren. It's mostly just Some Drow and Some Trogs, and it almost feels obligatory? It's got that "bunch of random caves" vibe that I do not like in dungeons. B1 and 2 will both end up doing this. But among the funny things is:

The first appearance of a death lance (drains d4 levels) on some bad motherufcker drow fighter lady

The medal you can negotiate from the drow can also just be looted

A lich is just, kind of taking a nap. the cheeky little fucker has put a magic mouth on basically everything everywhere, so you're flooded with magic aura if you think you're going to see shit coming. He's got some really neat shit, like a portable hole, but unfortunately his non-magic valuables are extremely cursed. Figures.

Sometimes I forget that ghouls and ghasts are sentient and intelligent, since I have had it so trained in my mind that ghouls are essentially smart zombies rather than people in any meaningful sense, but not so in ADND land! These ghouls are trying to ditch the drow they serve, which, understandable.

Thing I only learned now: ADND had many, many sphinxes. Andro (big tough and good), crio (smaller, dumber), gyno (smaller, a little meaner, classical sphinx behaviors including riddles), and hieraco (evil, vicious, and animalbrained). Ours here is the hieracosphinx, which is a pet of some drow lady.

Hopefully we can agree that old timey bugbears were silly little guys. I don't buy that they're evil, they're too silly! And yawn the usual lady monster / child monster dilemma is here, how droll. Your party picked a side 30 sessions ago and now it's just procedural.

Apparently the dark elves and trogdolytes practice mutual aid with one another, though Gary specifies it's coercive so not like that put your flag down. I do think it'd be pretty funny to reveal that the trogs are Actually Really Good and have a lot to teach others about societal organization. There's not really much to say about it as-written, it's just more of that mothers/child dilemma tripe.

At the end, an actually cute little trick that I cannot fathom the party ever working out without the Drow Merchant just straight telling them: There is a room with a magical pool in it. The pool is surrounded by a ton of small gem, which if removed, magically reduce any nearby gems in size and value. But, if you toss gems into the pool, they increase in size and value. Neat! Infinite money machine!

The adventure ends with the unveiling of a new monster-people: the Jermlaine, which are basically just mean little guys who sneak around and cause trouble. Not really a threat, just extremely annoying. Your guys will wanna chop them up for being assholes, but really they're just like the most petty guy at your job. It's a weird addition, but not unwelcome. On the whole, D1 is some lovely and mildly ambitious connective tissue bridging the D series together, and I'm actually kind of fond of it now. Maybe my players will visit The Depths soon…

The adventure ends on an illustration of ya bois taking care of some trolls and shit. Thanks Dave!

[nintendo-retro]

NES Open Tournament Golf (1991 - NES - Nintendo R&D2) Characters from instruction manual

[two-of-them-tournament]

Two of Them Tournament

[character-of-all-time]

ROUND 2: BARTOK (anastasia) VS KIRBY (ball)

[star-wars-tournament]

Bracket 2, round 3, poll 3:

[starburstdragon]

Guys Who Are Multiple Guys Tournament, Round 1

Crow

“THE ANGST!! Also because they're both great characters and Crow's interactions with nightmare Uldren are so good. and the themes of memory and second chances and fixing past mistakes make me go feral every time” - User submission

Aqua

“guy who died and then got reincarnated and has So Many Issues about it. has "conversations" with his past self (and his younger self but that ones less central) constantly feels split between his two identities, his past self blaming his present self for their failings and vice versa. wont allow himself to be happy because of it. he is trying to kill a guy. his slay is immeasurable." - User submission

[best-bot-tournament-2023]

FULL BRACKET DETAILS - Round 1

Thanks so much for your patience while I finalised this breakdown. My real life is busier than you might expect and doesn't leave me as much time as I'd like to devote to this.

The challengers you'll see facing off against each other in ROUND ONE are as follows:

1) Alphonze (Just Roll With It) VS P03 (Inscription)

2) Baymax (Big Hero 6) VS Marvin (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)

3) Bender (Futurama) VS BMO (Adventure Time)

4) Emily (She Ra and the Princesses of Power) VS S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

5) BOYD (Ducktales) VS Calculester (Monster Prom)

6) GLaDOS (Portal) VS Mettaton (Undertale)

7) Haiku Bot (Tumblr) VS Data (Star Trek)

8) Wheatley (Portal 2) VS Robecca Steam (Monster High)

9) Jenny / XJ-9 (My Life as a Teenage Robot) VS Hera (Wolf 359)

10) Fresh Cut Grass (Critical Role) VS Connor (Detroit: Become Human)

11) Zane (Lego Ninjago) VS WALL-E (WALL-E)

12) K1-B0 (Danganropa) VS C-3PO (Star Wars)

13) The Iron Giant (The Iron Giant) VS Queen (Deltarune)

14) Tik-Tok (The Oz series) VS Robot Jones (Whatever Happened To Robot Jones)

15) Raymond (OK K.O!) VS Rabbit (Steam Powered Giraffe)

16) Clank (Ratchet & Clark) VS Porn Bots (Tumblr)

17) A.M (I have no mouth and I must scream) VS WX-78 (Don’t Starve

18) One-One (Infinity Train) VS Sweet Cap’n Cakes (Deltarune)

19) Rodney Copperbottom (Robots) VS Gir (Invader Zim)

20) EVE (WALL-E) VS R2-D2 (Star Wars)

21) Rosie the Robot (The Jetsons) VS Mephone 4 (Inanimate Insanity)

22) Astro Boy (Astro Boy) VS Elle Eedee (Monster High)

23) Googleplier (Markiplier) VS Norm (Phineas and Ferb)

24) EDI (Mass Effect) VS Kryton (Red Dwarf)

25) T.O.M (Toonami) VS Edgar (Electric Dreams)

26) V1 (Ultra kill) VS Karen (Spongebob Squarepants)

27) Penny (RWBY) VS Laputian Robots (Castle in the Sky)

28) Sundry Sidney (Dimension 20: A Starstruck Odyssey) VS The Spine (Steam Powered Giraffe)

29) Metal Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog) VS Starscream (Transformers)

30) Momo (Stray) VS Curiosity Mars Rover (NASA)

31) Ribbot (Animal Crossing) VS Frobo (Amphibia)

32) Yes Man (Fallout: New Vegas) VS Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid)

Thanks to everyone who helped narrow down this list by voting in the preliminary polls.

If all goes to plan I'll start posting the polls for the first round on SATURDAY 18/03/23.

START YOUR PROPAGANDA NOW!

Send me an ask/submission, tag me in your posts (@best-bot-tournament-2023) or tag your posts with #bestbotpropaganda for me to find and reblog!

[disneyparksattractionstournament]

Favorite Disney Parks Attraction Showdown: Round 1 - Group D2

Videos and propaganda under the cut!

Luigi's Rollickin' Roadster: California Adventure

Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros: WDW Epcot

Propaganda:

"Most autism friendly ride be cause i like it :•)"