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.

27 Upvotes

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1

u/Coconut-Crab Jan 30 '21

/u/Lanugo1984


Grue-Grue Fruit


I feel that this fruit is simply too good. Can you explain in what scenario Punch-Punch Luke Cage would ever be able to defeat someone identical to himself who he can't see or hear, when he "can't measure his movements very well" and when his attacks are weakened?

1

u/kat_boi_69 Jan 30 '21

I guess I'd ask, "How much darkness, projected how far?" It seems like the cloud of darkness is limited to a large room size around the user.

If this fight is outdoors, Punch-Punch still has the option to zone, and bullet-hell punches into the darkness, while avoiding the cloud. This power really only looks like a "lol, gg," type thing if the fight happens in a medium sized enclosed space that Punch-Punch can't bust a hole through (which doesn't exist in Orange town). If they get stuck in a room, Punch-Punch and simply run in one direction and bust out through a wall, or spam fist blasts until the room and building are no longer standing.

1

u/Coconut-Crab Jan 30 '21 edited Jan 30 '21

The RT suggests that he can make as much as he likes, darkness lasts 20 minutes even when unmaintained, and that he can freely move darkness he's already created. It also seems to be just as effective in open spaces as the RT says it "floods a street"

On top of this, Grue Luke could simply hide in the darkness, and I find it unlikely for Punch Luke to be able to escape darkness if he does get caught in it, since it messes with your movement and Grue Luke will be beating him up with ease.

1

u/kat_boi_69 Jan 30 '21

I mean there's no explicit feat there for "tricks someone into circling in the darkness continually." All of the illusions seem pretty minor and I don't think Luke Cage is dumb enough to face his opponent in total darkness by choice.

It seems like the fruit just needs some limitation on the amount of darkness that can be produced. Maybe minor change to ignore "flooding the street" or something.

Edit: looking at the street flooding thing, it seems like he needs to build the darkness in an enclosed space to get that kind of volume, and even then, the people outside are able to retreat. It isn't like the street is instantly and totally filled.

2

u/Cleverly_Clearly Feb 09 '21

/u/Coconut-Crab

Are you going to continue this argument?

1

u/kat_boi_69 Feb 09 '21

Going to tag /u/Lanugo1984 incase they have any thoughts.

2

u/Cleverly_Clearly Feb 10 '21

I'm calling this into the judges, because no one involved has responded for a long while.

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

1

u/Voeltz burrunyaa~ Feb 11 '21

It's a bit ambiguous exactly how much darkness can be made. This feat gives the best idea:

He didn’t get a chance to see if they listened. Darkness swelled at the bank’s entrance, then flooded into the street like water from a broken dam. In seconds, the hostages were hidden from sight and the Wards were forced to retreat several paces to keep from being swallowed up.

It suggests, at least, that Grue Luke will be able to very quickly shroud himself in darkness. Punch Luke may get a few hits off before the darkness gets going (it's also ambiguous how long it takes; some feats show it taking at least some amount of time, while others suggest it happens instantly), but either way, it's going to get going before Punch Luke beats Grue Luke. And then what can Punch Luke do? He can blindly fire punches into the dark, but the chance of hitting Punch Luke is very minimal at that point.

Either the darkness then keeps building up infinitely, eventually plunging the whole town in darkness at which point Grue Luke should have total advantage over Punch Luke, or Punch Luke is always able to stay outside it, at which point he will eventually win because Grue Luke can't attack him without leaving the darkness. The darkness can create clones:

“Heya,” his voice echoed, “I’m alright. Only a feint. Hard to tell whether it’s me or a blob of shadow shaped roughly like a person when the lights are out, yeah? Fooled her.”

But this feat states that it's only difficult to tell "when the lights are out"--suggesting that during the broad daylight of Orange Town, Punch Luke will be able to tell something is a person-shaped blob of shadow and not Grue Luke.

Overall, there are some ambiguous elements to how fast and how big the shadow can be, but based on the feats only interpretation, the fruit is too weak. Assuming the darkness can increase in size indefinitely, it's too strong. I feel pretty bad because a stealth-based fruit would be a cool addition to the Scramble, but I think this form of stealth is too binary--either it gives Grue Luke an overwhelming advantage or it gives him no real advantage at all. For that reason, I rule it Not In Tier.

/u/Lanugo1984 I'm sorry, but you'll need to ping Free with your replacement fruit. Grue Fruit has 3 judge rulings against it.

1

u/Lanugo1984 Feb 11 '21

I dont like that i only got to make one comment before judges were called, but i dont have time to appeal and stuff so

u/freestylekneepad give me the lucky lucky fruit pls

1

u/Cleverly_Clearly Feb 10 '21

I'm siding with Coco here. Luke Cage can create a huge amount of darkness around himself, completely obscuring his opponent's ability to see or hear him, and can keep this darkness up without needing to maintain it for 20 minutes. In that time, Luke can likely avoid any attack that Punch Punch Luke makes. I think this is not in tier, if he can just keep creating more darkness then Punch Punch Luke will never have the ability to sense Luke and might even be encompassed in darkness from the start of the fight.

1

u/GuyOfEvil Feb 11 '21

But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

John 11:10

The primary argument for this being in tier is just that Punch Luke doesn't have to fight in the darkness, but I don't think that really holds up. I can sort of see the argument, since it makes some amount of sense on its face, after all, Punch Luke has ranged attacks, he can just fight from range. The problem for is is if Grue Luke just waits in the darkness, and makes it big enough, Punch Luke would never know where he is to ranged attack, meaning he could really easily avoid getting hit until he can expand the darkness to a point at which Punch Luke doesn't have anywhere to go, and once they're both in darkness Grue Luke is just massively winning, and there's not really great counter play. I think I'm going to have to rule this one Not In-Tier