FFVII CHARACTER SMACKDOWN, ^$#& YEAH!!!

Which campaign should we play first?

  • The Goodies

    Votes: 4 33.3%
  • The Neutrals

    Votes: 7 58.3%
  • The Baddies

    Votes: 1 8.3%

  • Total voters
    12

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
FFVII CHARACTER SMACKDOWN, ^$#& YEAH!!! - MASTER THREAD

Yo.
I was bored
And I thought
‘Hey, this could be fun.’

character_battle.png

THE NEUTRAL CHAMPIONSHIP IS RUNNING!

So, anyone who’s fallen victim to my ramblings know that I’ve been juggling with this idea for a while now. I wanted to host a character battle event for the community to partake in, but I didn’t want to just list a bunch of characters and put it all to a vote because, frankly, I thought either Tifa or Cloud would win cuz it’s all a bit of a popularity contest.

I wanted to give the community an incentive to really engage and not just passively vote and drop a comment every now and then. I was initially thinking of having people debate the stats of a character and see who would could debate on who’d win on a theoretical fight. Then I was thinking of asking different questions and debating on that front.

Finally, after asking around, I’ve decided that this game is going to involve some debate elements, but the emphasis is gonna be on creativity, and the participants get to decide who the victors are.

Also, feel free to ask questions and yell at me about the rules, that's part of the reason why I'm posting now lmfao.

The Rules
The gist of the game is this: you, the player, are going to be assigned to a team at random and then given a character at random. Then, using your creativity, you, along with your teammates, will present arguments as to why the character you were given would win in a theoretical fight against the opposing character.

There are going to be 55 champions, but only one can win.

For each round of the game, we're using a randomiser to pull two champions, one location (which will be the 'arena'), and split the participants into three groups: Team Chocobo, Team Moogle, and The Spectators.

Rules for Team Players
  1. Be Persuasive
    Your job is to use your creativity and argumentative skills to persuade the Spectators why the champion you were given would win in a theoretical fight—even if you happen to dislike this character. The cleverer (and funnier) the reasoning, the better.
  2. Be Creative
    Again, this is all about creativity. Take the character you were given and the character you’re up against and really consider their profession, their surroundings, how they behaved in-game, what they’re wearing—everything! Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box!
  3. Be Cooperative
    You're typically working in teams, so do try to bounce off what your teammates are saying and build on each other's arguments. If your teammate makes a totally ridiculous statement, just roll with the silliness. DO NOT bully your teammates or try to dictate their arguments.
  4. Be Reliable
    Once you've decided to be a participant, you are making a commitment to your teammates. Don't just up and disappear and leave a teammate to fend for themselves. If you want out of the game, let me know after a round is over (best time to say something is whilst the 'Spectator Voting' period is happening).

    Participants who fail to participate after 1 round will be asked if they want to remain in the game. If they say no, they will be taken out of the pool but are free to be put back in in the future if they ask. If I get no response at all from them, they will be removed from the pool, but are free to be put back in in the future if they ask. If they say yes and fail to show up the round immediately following the one they were absent in, they will be taken out of the ‘pool’, no questions asked, but are free to be put back in in the future if they ask.

  5. Be Active (or not :P)
    Every round lasts 48 hours and you can make as many posts as you'd like in this span of time in order to drive home your advocacy for your champion. Any posts made after the time limit won't be considered.
  6. Be Communicative
    After a round (during the Spectator's voting period), you can choose to opt out by clearly stating to me that you'd like to be out of the 'Pool'. Otherwise, I'll give you another role. You can jump back into the 'Pool' at any time by, again, stating that you'd like in and I'll assign you a role in the next round.
  7. Be Adaptable
    Again, after a round, you will be reshuffled into a new group and, thus, might be given new teammates.
  8. DO NOT Be A Jerk
    This is a smackdown, but the forum rules still apply. Be respectful to other members (including your teammates—don't lambast anybody for not forming an argument in the way that you'd like), don't threaten Spectators, don't use hate speech in attacking the other champion, and just, you know, don't be a dick. (I know this won't be a problem because you're all such a cool bunch but... formalities :P).


Rules for Spectators
  1. Spectate
    During the 48 hours in which a round is going on, you can watch, but...
  2. Don't Partake
    Spectators aren't allowed to make suggestions, arguments, or post anything to dictate or 'help' one team or another. You can, however, feel free to express your appreciation for a good post.
  3. Appreciate
    Which side is making the more persuasive argument? Which side has you rolling with laughter? Which side needs to get their shit together? Take it all in.
  4. Don't Hate
    Try to keep the atmosphere lighthearted and chill and don't start tearing down people in the middle of the game for making what you perceive to be a 'weak' argument. Just Don't Be That Person™. Again, at the end of the day, this is all about fun, fun, community fun.
  5. On Voting
    After the 48 hour period of the team players making their cases, Spectators are given 24 hours to cast a vote for either Team Chocobo or Team Moogle. Any vote cast after that period of time will be discounted. If all Spectators fail to vote, I'll decide the winner. If 2 of 3 Spectators fail to vote, the one spectator who did vote will decide the winner. If 1 of 3 Spectators fail to vote (assuming the 2 voting don't come to the same conclusion) I'll step in and be the third spectator.

After all the spectators have cast their vote, the winner of the round will be announced along with the new teams and new champions in a post.

Notes
  • All spectators are voluntary. The only incidence in which someone is assigned a spectator role is when no one else is volunteering to be one.
  • There only ever really needs to be 1 Spectator at any given round, but the ideal number is 3.
  • Audience members (those who have not signed up to be spectators but plan on watching anyway) are free to cast their votes in the voting period.
  • DO NOT TRY TO PARTICIPATE IF YOU HAVEN'T VOLUNTEERED TO BE A PLAYER.
  • Picture are provided with locations. I tried to pick only the locations with visible items in them.
  • After each round, everyone’s reshuffled into new groups.


Flow of the Brackets
  1. Rounds
    I'm going to be posting a visual bracket of the first rounds that are going to happen. For now, I'm thinking after those rounds are over, I'll take a short break from the whole game for a bit before starting up again. Don't wanna burn myself out. :P

Short Version:
  • Players can either be an advocate for their champions or a spectator of the rounds.
  • Advocates have to use their creativity in order to argue how their champion would beat the other team’s champion in a fight.
  • Spectators choose who advances to the next round by either voting in the thread or PMing me.
  • A randomiser places participants in new groups and the whole thing starts all over again.
  • HAVE FUN!! Again, the whole point is to be creative and silly.


The Championships
There are going to be three champsions: The Goodies, The Baddies, and the Neutrals. The Goodies are, predictably, the heroes or the characters who take an active role in fighting the bad. So AVALANCHE, Cloud and Co., Zack Fair etc. Baddies are the opposite whilst the Neutrals are all the characters that are either actually neutral in the game or are minor, regardless of who they're affiliated with.

Feel free the make a case for a character being moved from one list to another if you feel very strongly about it. Y'all know me. :P

I've included characters from all of the Compilation except Before Crisis.

Each championship comes with its own list of characters. After taking a look at the list, please VOTE for the championship you want to play first.


The Goodies
  • Aeris Gainsborough
  • Angeal
  • Barret Wallace
  • Biggs
  • Bugenhagen
  • Cait Sith
  • Chekhov
  • Cid Highwind
  • Cissnei
  • Cloud Strife
  • Denzel (Not Washington)
  • Elmyra Gainsborough
  • Godo Kisaragi
  • Gorkii
  • Ifalna
  • Jessie
  • King
  • Knight
  • Marlene Wallace
  • Red XIII
  • Reeve Tuesti
  • Seto
  • Shake
  • Shalua Rui
  • Shelke the Transparent
  • Shera
  • Staniv
  • Tifa Lockhart
  • Vincent Valentine
  • Wedge
  • Wizard
  • Yuffie Kisaragi
  • Yuri
  • Zack Fair
  • Zangan

The Baddies
  • Argento
  • Azul the Cerulean
  • Commander
  • Don Corneo
  • Dr. Hollander
  • Dyne
  • Elena
  • Genesis
  • Heidegger
  • Jenova
  • Kadaj
  • Kotch
  • Loz
  • Mr. Coates
  • Nero the Sable
  • Palmer
  • Preisdent Shinra
  • Professor Hojo
  • Reno
  • Rosso the Crimson
  • Rude
  • Rufus Shinra
  • Scarlet
  • Scotch
  • Sephiroth
  • Sephiroth Clone
  • Shinra SOLDIER
  • Tseng
  • Usher
  • Weiss the Immaculate
  • Yazoo

The Neutrals
  • "Are Sick" Guy
  • "Old Guy"
  • Beautiful Girl
  • Big Bro
  • Butch
  • Choco Bill
  • Choco Billy
  • Chocobo Carriage Driver
  • Chocobo Sage
  • Chole
  • Cloud's Mum
  • Deputy Mayor Hart
  • Dio
  • Doctor
  • EDK
  • Elder Bughe
  • Elder Hargo
  • Ester
  • Gillian Hewley
  • Grimoire Valentine
  • Honeybee Inn Worker
  • Joe
  • Johnny
  • Kalm Traveler
  • King
  • Knight
  • Kunsel
  • Lazard Deusericus
  • Lucrecia Cresent
  • Luxiere
  • Mag
  • Man
  • Mayor Domino
  • Mog
  • Moogle Girl
  • Mr Dolphin
  • Mr Hotzoff
  • Mr Hangman
  • Mukki
  • Noppo
  • Nurse
  • Old Woman
  • Pilot
  • Priscilla
  • Professor Gast
  • Receptionist
  • Red XIII's Mum
  • Semusi
  • Sephiroth Clones
  • Shinra Manager
  • Snow
  • Staff
  • Tifa's Father
  • Time Guardian
  • Village Headman
  • Weapon Seller
  • Wizard


The Participants
This is everyone who’s volunteered to be tribute! Please note that it’s never too late to join in and that you always have the option of opting out. Just please make it clear to me so I know whether or not to assign you a role after each round.
  • BforB
  • Channy
  • ChipNoir
  • Clement Rage
  • Fancy - spectates when necessary
  • Joe - permanent spectator
  • LicoriceAllsorts
  • Minato
  • Moss
  • Mr. Ite
  • robotwarui - permanent spectator
  • solo player sab

I really want to give a special little shout-out to the ones who’ve talked over this with me and have thrown some brilliant ideas at me for this game. I couldn’t have put this together without your advice, BforB, Ghost X, Minato, and solo player sab.
 
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Ite

Save your valediction (she/her)
AKA
Ite
Eff yeah let's do this! I volunteer! *hastily dons colored shorts*
 

Joe

I KEEP MY IDEALS
AKA
Joe, Arcana
I volunteer! But for now stick me down as a permanent spectator! ^_^
 

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
I am H Y P E D already!! Thanks everyone who’s volunteered so far!

General news: I’m going to wait until after the Kupocon Event in Vancouver (happening on the 21st of April) to run the first campaign to ensure that people are actually around when this shit goes down!! This will also, hopefully, give others plenty of time to sign up and vote (fingers crossed lmao).

This is all very relaxed and I’m sorta playing this by ear, so thanks in advance for being my guinea pigs. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
Nope! Anyone can join in at any point really! Even after the campaign has started (since they’re going to last for months on end).

I’m glad you asked that cuz now’s the time to tell folks that, just as you can join at any point in the campaigns, you can drop out at any point as well. Just always be sure to let me know where you stand so I know whether or not to keep you in the pool of participants!!!! So long as you’re in the pool, you’re always gonna be assigned a role.

Excited to have you onboard, Licorice!
 

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
Hahahaha, there, there. I updated the Rules to be a little more comprehensive I think (I hope) if you want to give it another read after getting some rest. :P
 

ChipNoir

Pro Adventurer
Yeah, I totally have to represent for my gay queen Aerith. Over 20 years of dedication has all lead up to this moment.
 

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
Possible Rule Changes I'm Considering

So, we've just had our first character smackdown battle! I'm delighted with how it turned out and I can't thank everyone who participated enough for playing along. I was frigging cracking up over the back and forth.

As I was observing, naturally, I was making some notes and was considering some changes. Do let me know what you think of them.


1. Assigning the Spectator's Role only when necessary.

So, I announced at the start of the neutral championship that I was going to put everyone who volunteered to play on a team so that they could debate as an exception to the rules (which is assigning at least one person to the spectator corner along with those who volunteer to spectate).

After some consideration, I think I want to try to have as many people playing on teams as possible and only assigning the spectator role to someone when there are no volunteers to be a spectator.

I would volunteer to be the spectator myself every round, but given that I'm also technically the 'game master' and control the brackets, team assignments, and annouce when the games start and end, I think it'd be a little precarious to give me the power to decide the champions as well. I trust myself to make fair judgements and not 'rig' the game as I see fit, but I would rather only do that when I absolutely have to.


2. Developing an AFK rule.

As some may have noticed, not everyone who was given a role of team-player had the chance to post an argument whilst the battle was ongoning. I am absolutely not putting anyone on blast here nor am I trying to guilt anyone, eh? Someone may fail to post for a number of reasons: from being too busy with personal life or work, to not being able to think of anything to say at the moment, to having a wifi blackout. It's all right! It's life! It happens!

That being said...

I have thought about removing persons from the 'pool' of potential team players if they are unable to post in 2 or 3 battles in a row (I'm leaning towards 3). Again, this isn't to 'punish' anyone, rather, to ensure that whoever gets put on a team will likely have active teammates/won't have to worry about facing the battle shorthanded.


I'd love to hear some thoughts on these possible changes/requirements! Thanks again everyone for playing along and helping me figure this all out. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 
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I was reluctant at first to keep posting for fear I'd be elbowing out team-mates who wanted to post but somehow didn't.

But anyway... THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

I can see scope for using this in the classroom.
 

Mother

Pro Adventurer
AKA
B
LICORICE, MAY WE BATTLE AGAIN SOON!

Fancy: That was incredible, and your newly proposed rules seem sound to me. A job well done, darling! Your tireless preparation for this event has not gone to waste :properhug:
 

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
I'm so deliriously happy to hear that folks had fun (both participants and those observing) and that we managed to pull this off. I wanted this so badly to work and I think it is. Or, at least, it'll reach a point soon where the system is pretty much 'perfected.' I'm looking forward to hosting matches in the future!

Again everyone, I cannot thank you enough for giving this a shot and participating and the like. Again, if no one was willing to post then this wouldn't have happened. Aaahh!! I wish I could give everyone a big, big hug right now!!

SpanishWeeBallpython-max-1mb.gif
 

Channy

Bad Habit
AKA
Ruby Rose, Lucy
Fancy you’re doing an awesome job and the rules are solid. May I make a proposal and suggest making the battle last 72 hrs from start? At first I thought I was good with 48 then there’s he time difference which ended while I was asleep so I was able to at least get in one post and help my team.
 

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
^I'll give the 72 hour thing a go next round! Especially considering that we're going into a Monday and folks might have work n shite. Hopefully, this means all team members will get a chance to post!
 

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
Should players be allowed to vote along with spectators?

This question was brought up in discord and I'd like to know people's thoughts on it. If folks (namely the players themselves) are fine with it, it probably won't be implemented until the third face-off.

Also, I'd like to address what folks need to consider when voting for a champion (cuz this was also brought up in discord lol). I think LicoriceAllsorts said it best—vote with your heart. If your criteria are logic and sound reasoning, then go with the team that argued with persuasion and facts. If your criteria are whoever made you laugh the hardest and excellent photoshop, then go with the team that delivered in those areas. And if all else fails, just go with your gut. This is all in good fun!

Thanks!
 
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