r/whowouldwin Jan 30 '21

Event Character Scramble Season 14 Tribunal

Here is the sign up for the email list. If you are interested please sign up, as this will keep you up to date with an email for every Scramble post that is made, making sure that you don't miss a thing.

We also have an official Discord channel, so be sure to stop by if you want to talk about the Scramble, or just to say hi.


Tribunal is officially OVER!

Click here for the post-Tribunal (unscrambled) rosters!

And click here to fill out the Veto/Opt-Out form! It closes at 9PM PST on Saturday, February 13th, so get your vetos in fast!


Refer to the following links for easy access to all the resources you need to debate cases:

Season 14 Tier Luke Cage RT

Current list of unclaimed backups

Clev’s list of un-scrambled submissions

Signup FAQ

When Tribunal is over, a link will be posted HERE for the Veto / NSFW Opt-Out form. Keep your eyes peeled!


Featured Submissions

In an attempt to help aid the review process, we will be highlighting a section of the submissions each day to focus the lens on a group of submissions. Understand that these submissions aren’t being picked due to any reasoning or bias beyond their position on the list, our goal is to help you focus on specific parts of the submission list each day in the hopes that characters that would normally pass under the radar are given proper scrutiny.

Here are the featured submissions for today.

The link will be changed each day until we’ve covered the entire submission roster or until Tribunal has ended.


Here’s how this works.

For the next two weeks, all characters are under review. If you think a character is not in tier, whether they be too weak, too strong, too nebulous, or somewhere in between, here is where you can air your grievances. We'll be going through all of the submissions during this time, all I ask is that you follow along and call what you see.

Tribunal will end in about 2 weeks, on Saturday, February 13, when all cases are closed.

Note that this deadline is subject to change if we decide that there are unresolved issues that warrant some more time. Also, yes, I know what you’re thinking, that’s a long time for arguing about Whispy Woods. If we get done early and there’s only a couple cases left a few days before Saturday, odds are good we’ll wrap those cases up and end Tribunal early. Every remaining case will be notified if that’s happening.

If you have a problem with a character:

  • Create a comment with the name of the character in question, a link to that character sheet, and the username (with /u/ to notify them - /u/FreestyleKneepad for instance) of the submitter. Then list what questions/problems you have with the character.

  • Please be respectful when calling out characters, and remember that you are probably pointing out problems with someone's favorite character/series.

  • Keep in mind that Tribunal is for judging whether a character is too strong/weak for the tier. Whether or not you personally like the character or think they’re good/well-written has no bearing on whether or not they’re in tier.

  • Please give a detailed complaint about each character a separate reply to make sure that conversations are organized. Quick thoughts on multiple characters in one post are fine as well as long as you keep each case clearly separated.

  • Starting with the initial complaint post, each person involved gets five full posts to argue their point back and forth. If a decision is not reached by that point, judges must be called in to make a decision. If that happens, the person issuing the complaint and the person whose submission is being complained about both get one closing post to argue their case to the judges before they rule on the issue. We will allow a little lenience on this when a case involves several people arguing amongst each other as that’s difficult to manage with a limited number of posts, but if it starts to get really long-winded a GM will generally step in and force a vote.

If your character is called out:

  • First, realize this is not a personal attack. We're just trying to ensure that this tournament runs smoothly for everyone.

  • Please address the concerns brought forth, either by standing firm and arguing for your character’s inclusion, or by buffing/nerfing the character. Please keep the amount of buffs and nerfs to a minimum. This isn’t a good place to redesign the character from the ground up, and you don’t get any extra Major changes at this point. If the judges determine that it would take more than one Major change to balance the character, your character can also be ruled out of tier that way.

  • If it’s agreed that a character cannot work in its current state and can’t be easily edited, replacements from the backup submissions will be issued. If one of your characters is being removed you are free to request a specific backup to replace your submission, otherwise a GM will choose for you.

If you see a problem with the roster:

  • Make a post and let us know. Odds are, you will have to resubmit the form with the correct info so if you want to just go ahead and do that and let Free know to look for the new entry, that would save time.

  • If your problem is that you don't show up in the list, it’s because you never filled out/submitted the form... just go ahead and do that NOW, assuming that you started your sign up process before this post was created. Here’s the form. If you need to make a change because you swapped things out, just make sure you’re signed into the same account you initially used and you’ll be able to update your form. Please let Free know either on Reddit or on Discord if you do this. DO NOT CHANGE YOUR FORM IF YOU HAVE TO TAKE A BACKUP REPLACEMENT FOR ANOTHER CHARACTER. We’ll handle those swaps personally when Tribunal ends.


Judges

In order to streamline the decision making process, we have selected a small panel of judges that will help make decisions on characters where a resolution cannot be reached. And they are...

[drumroll]

/u/morvis343, /u/GuyofEvil, /u/Voeltz, /u/Cleverly_Clearly, and /u/rangernumberx

Here's how the judge system works:

  • If a submission is called out and all parties involved cannot agree as to whether the submission is in tier, ping any three of the judges.

  • Once judges are being called in, the argument is effectively over. Both sides of the argument will be allowed to post a Closing Argument which sums up their stance, their argument thus far, and any other major notes they might not have been able to touch on just yet or counter-arguments that hadn’t been answered yet. Be complete on this, as this is your last chance to get your word in before the judges decide on the case and effectively close it.

  • Three of the judges or GMs involved will then each make a statement on whether they think the character is or is not in tier and why. If they're able to come to a complete consensus, then that decision is made final. If a complete consensus is not made among the judges, then the resolution defaults to the majority decision. However, in this case, the decision can be appealed.

  • To appeal a decision, respond to the post in which the statements are made explaining why you think the arguments made were wrong or inaccurate. After an appeal is made, the remaining two judges will step in and also vote. This vote out of 5 is effectively final. If the previous vote was 2-1 and the new vote is 2-3, them’s the breaks. This is also why an initial unanimous vote among 3 is final, as changing a 3-0 vote to a 3-2 vote doesn’t accomplish anything.

  • If a final decision is made, then that decision is completely final. You cannot argue it further. If that means a character is in, they won't be brought back up again. If that means a character gets removed, your options are to choose the backup you want to replace them or let a GM choose instead. /u/FreestyleKneepad is in charge of the backup list, so ping him or have a judge ping him to get any backup swaps sorted out.

  • To be clear, GMs can do whatever they want and don’t answer to you. If we want to take the place of a judge in a vote, we will. If we want to singularly decide on something, we will (note that this will be very rare and most likely only happen near the end of Tribunal to wrap things up or in cases where something is clearly un-submittable, such as a character from a literal porn series). If we say something needs to be removed for whatever reason, what we say goes. The judges will handle the majority of the Tribunal process, we’re just here to smite shit from the heavens. That takes work, though, so expect the judges to do more judging than us.

  • If a GM takes the place of a judge in a vote, they’re effectively identical to a judge for that vote. That in mind, if the vote goes 2 to 1 and gets appealed, the remaining judges can still step in on the final 2-person vote.


Veto & NSFW Opt-Out

We will be implementing an opt-out similarly to last season, wherein after Tribunal a link will be posted here letting you designate whether or not you wish to receive a character that is considered NSFW for sexual content. We may also include extreme gore as NSFW.

Additionally, in the same form you will be asked to veto any one character. If you want to, you may designate a character, and you will be guaranteed to not receive them.

A few notes on this process:

  • A link to this form will be posted on this thread in the top section after Tribunal has ended. The link will also be posted on the Scramble Discord channel. 2 days (48 hours) after the link has been posted, the form will be locked and the GMs will prepare to scramble rosters.

  • We will not be indicating in any way what characters are and aren’t NSFW. This isn’t an opportunity for you to choose to veto a specific list of characters. This is an opportunity for you to decide whether or not you want a character with NSFW content. NSFW generally only applies to sexual content- we don’t typically include violence and gore in this opt-out.

  • While we did ask in the signup form whether your submissions were NSFW or not, final judgment falls to us as GMs. We may choose to include characters in the list that weren’t marked, and vice versa.

  • Your veto can be for any character you absolutely don’t want, whether or not they’re included in the opt-out or not. If the character is included in the opt-out, you apply for the opt-out, and you also veto the character, you do NOT get to pick a second character to veto.

  • You cannot veto your own submissions or backups you pick to replace a Tribunaled submission. If you do, the veto will be ignored.


Discord Rules on Tribunal Discussion

In order to ensure that every scrambler is equally able to contribute to the Tribunal, discussion of specific Tribunal cases will NOT BE ALLOWED on the Discord channel. Linking to a discussion with the intent to have a Discord user comment on that chain on Reddit is perfectly fine, but actual discussion of the cases will result in the users being warned the first time, and kicked the second time. We have a zero-tolerance policy on this situation.

26 Upvotes

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2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

/u/wapulatus also /u/inverseflash I guess

Mash

Yea, nah. Your one in-tier stat is the stat that was buffed into tier.

Durability

Good with the shield, not good without the shield.

Well it's fine if she blocks right?

Speed

Just...what?

Maybe this character is fast, but the feats provided for it are a far way from proving that. I truly have no idea what part of either of these two feats are supposed to be bullet timing, in the first one she get shot out, but she has a shield that covers literally her entire body, there is no basis that she moved after the bullet was fired whatsoever.

She can't take a hit from Luke Cage, and I don't think she's fast enough to block every hit from Luke Cage, her win condition basically comes down to "just don't get hit once while I slowly whittle down my vastly more durable opponent" and based on the stats presented I see no way for her to do that.

1

u/Wapulatus Jan 30 '21

Well, I guess I underestimated Mash's strength, but if it's fine for tier, I suppose I can swap the major change to one of your other concerns? If speed is fine it should be fixed by just moving it her non-shield durability.

I wasn't feeling very strong on this backup regardless, so I only have one point to respond to, really:

How is this bullet timing.

This is vague enough that I don't think it's worth defending so I'll just concede the point and save us both time.

What part of this exchange

The first two scans and the second album are two different feats, these two are part of the same exchange (Between Mash, Kiyo, and Drake) so I'll tackle that first.

Drake is the lady with the pirate hat, Mash is my sub, Kiyo is the chick with fans for any judges who don't care about Fate.

Reading right to left, up to down.

This reads as fairly straightforward bullet-timing to me, both Mash and Kiyo did complex actions after Drake fired bullets. Mash should at least have in-tier speed based on this feat.

supposed to be bullet timing,

This is vague enough that I don't think it's worth defending so I'll just concede the point and save us both time.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

Alright I understand the second speed feat, but is that not now too good? If bullets were fired and Mash performed several actions, including running further away from them, in that time period it seems like that's significantly faster than Luke.

This overall leads me to think that Mash seems like an extremely do or die pick depending on nothing more than speed. I don't think either of us would contest the following:

  • Mash's base strength is too low, she wouldn't be able to win with the standard amount of strength.

  • Mash's base durability is low enough that a single unshielded hit is probably the end of the fight for her.

Now my concern with these facts and with the bullet timing presented for Mash is that if she is fast enough to block all of Luke's blows then Luke can't win, but if she's not fast enough to do then she can't win.

I don't know how many scenarios exist in which these two fight for an extended period of time and Luke Cage never manages to get any hits in, Luke Cage is plenty durable in comparison to his own strength, and if Mash is fast enough that he cannot feasibly hit her then I don't see how he would ever win.

1

u/Wapulatus Jan 30 '21

Well, for starters:

As you said, I do think Mash/Kiyo perform a lot more actions, and more complex actions than Luke in their feat but the distances involved are larger and the bullet is slower. I wouldn't say it makes her unable to be tagged by Luke once.

As for the rest:

Mash's base strength is too low, she wouldn't be able to win with the standard amount of strength.

Well, I was under the impression I was missing something for Mash's strength for it to be considered my one "in-tier stat", but if my initial judgement of her being weak physically was right then yeah, sure.

Mash's base durability is low enough that a single unshielded hit is probably the end of the fight for her.

Sure.

Now my concern with these facts and with the bullet timing presented for Mash is that if she is fast enough to block all of Luke's blows then Luke can't win, but if she's not fast enough to do then she can't win.

Well, there's one major change to work with. I can either:

  • Give it to Mash's strength (the original sub), giving her the ability to take Luke out through leveraging that strength with her shield, if her speed is good enough to block attacks far more often than not occasionally Luke gets a good hit on her and kills her.
  • Give it to Mash's sheildless durability, making her able to win through endurance if she continuously blocks Luke's attacks or lose through taking too many hits without her shield.

If the speed as presented is fast vs Luke, the first major change should balance the fight.

If the speed as presented is slow vs. Luke, the second major change should balance the fight.

This only really fails if Mash is slow enough to be blitzed by Luke, or she's fast enough to never be tagged ever, and I don't really get the impression of either based on her speed feat.

1

u/InverseFlash Check out Scramble season 20! Jan 31 '21

I know I'm kind of late to the party but does this feat not cover her physical durability as well

1

u/morvis343 Feb 03 '21

/u/kirbin24

Has this discussion stalled or is there more to be said?

1

u/Wapulatus Feb 05 '21

I'm personally fine calling in judges since the line of discussion stopped nearly a week ago.

If Kirb is fine with it I can post some brief conclusions outlining how I think Mash can be fit into the tier based on how her speed is interpreted.

2

u/Cleverly_Clearly Feb 08 '21

/u/Voeltz /u/Morvis343 /u/GuyOfEvil

Discussion has stalled out for a long while.

1

u/morvis343 Feb 08 '21

I think Mash's strength is in tier almost entirely off of this feat, seeing as my trusted sources tell me that Hercules is probably the same or comparable in physical ability to his incarnation in the Stay Night routes. That makes him very durable and difficult to move, so pushing him back that far with a kick is good. She has a few other things that are below tier but maybe still good enough to hurt Luke a little, but the Hercules kick is doing most of the legwork (heh) for her strength here.

As for speed, I buy Kirbin's explanation on Mash's speed when Drake's bullets are being burned away. Even if that made her a little faster than tier it'd still be close enough to fit. Also, I could almost see this being real bullet timing? How are you supposed to denote bullet timing in this format anyways, short of explicitly spelling out in the text that that's what happened. Granted, it's a little suspect and I wouldn't go with it if it's all she had, but I already buy that she has good speed, so this also seems reasonable.

Put the major change on her durability.

In tier.

1

u/GuyOfEvil Feb 08 '21

Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

Proverbs 30:5

Not gonna bother with strength, I think the confusion created here was kirbin saying "her only in-tier stat was in tier because you buffed it" and that being misinterpreted as "her strength is in tier but you buffed it anyways" I also don't know enough about Fate to really make any judgment about Stay-Night's Berserker's durability. It's buffed to tier I'll just judge assuming that is the case.

That leaves her as durable enough with feats from blocking stuff with her shield, and somewhat faster than the tier, preforming more complex actions than Luke Cage in a bullet timing window, but from further away and with a slower gun. I think this leaves a fairly in-tier conception of a character.

Mash is faster and very durable with the shield, but if Cage is able to get through the shield and hit her behind it, he can win. This is hard since she's faster, but not impossible, since she has to attack in melee and Cage could pursue some alternate win condition like grabbing the shield and pulling it away from her/holding it in place so he can punch her.

I think both sides of this fight have fairly achievable win conditions, and advantages and disadvantages that support them. I don't think this fight goes below Unlikely Victory, so I'm willing to give her an In-Tier

1

u/Voeltz burrunyaa~ Feb 09 '21

Mash is not a very good AD Carry, he definitely needed to retire a few years ago, I don't know what FlyQuest was thinking subbing him in for WildTurtle.

Mash might just be in tier, though.

Wapulatus' explanation of the Francis Drake bullet timing feat makes sense to me. I don't really understand Kirbin's argument about it being too good. Mash only performs one action I can tell (moving back), so describing it as multiple complex actions does not seem correct to me. This feat showcases bullet timing and should be in the ballpark of the tier.

Mash's durability is Captain America. She has a circle of stop that can block attacks that are bonkers over tier, but is vulnerable if attacked without her being able to block. While neither her shield durability nor her personal durability is strictly speaking "in tier," this is the kind of situation that the word "variance" is made for.

I don't really know if her strength is in tier, it's Fate so you always have to be careful with scaling, but with speed and durability in tier, you can still afford a major change buff if necessary, so no problems there.

Overall, I would consider this character In Tier.