Welcome back to the Tournament Report! It's me, QuietDove, back with another round up of the best of the action from this months tournament.
If you want me to sum this month up in one word, it would be "Long". The tournament took over two hours to complete. I came out of the womb faster than that!
Anyway, here's the report!
I am delighted to say that this was one of the biggest tournaments we've ever had, with 20 competitors taking part. And with defending champion Porku unavailable, the tournament was wide open.
After their absence last month, it was nice to see a non-bender taking part this time around, new build team member Sabb_ was the brave soul taking that role. The other elements were represented by:
Air - Vincebobogunoosh, J_L_T, mastrgamr, Cheesesandwich, radostin04, lemur68, lolcreator8000,
Water - EvieAscendant, TheSirDoc, YaguraKaratachi, Greeniac916, zcvn
Earth - martdamp, Sodie_Pops, TurboClicks,
Fire - FireLordIzumi, Creepreek
As in previous tournaments, air is the favourite choice for most competitors. It is the most successful bending style in all the tournaments so far, with two victories.
As we had 20 competitors, the tournament ran slightly differently. Rather than everyone playing the same number of matches, some played an extra round to make up for it. This resulted in four (or three in this case, but we'll get to that later) matches in the first round.
To make a change, let's start with two humble underdogs. J_L_T has barely recovered from his devastating loss to Radostin last time out. This time is up against a late replacement, the newly coronated build team leader Turbo, a man with no fighting experience what so ever! If J_L_T was going to get his first win, surely this is the best chance. The fight is not a classic display of bending prowess, if we're being honest, but both fighters showed plenty of heart and gave it their all. J_L_T does prove victorious in the end, not even a restart could stop him! Turbo, however, gave a good account of himself on his debut.
In the other fights:
There is only one place to start with the second round. The fight between Vince and Mart. Let's just get this out there, this is possibly the best fight we've ever had in these tournaments.
Vince went in as the favourite, particularly as Mart had underwhelmed in previous tournaments. Mart needed a good performance here, mainly for his own reputation, but also because Vince is one of the best benders on the server.
The fight was brilliantly tight, both fighters landed good hits on one another, and neither gave the other an inch. It was a terrific display of bending prowess, Vince showing his obvious skill, and Mart blowing away the cobwebs on his talent. As the fight came into its closing stages the tension was palpable, you could cut it with a blunt penknife. It was oh so close, Mart landed with a shockwave that nearly hit Vince, but he was wise to it and landed a perfectly aimed Air Spear that finally knocked Mart out. But how close did Mart come to victory?
5hp.
That's all that was between Mart and one of the best victories we may ever see. Well played by both, it was a privilege to watch.
Elsewhere this round:
Now, last and most certainly least, was the fight between Evie and Yagura (henceforth known as Azog). One word to describe this one, LOOOOOOOOONG. It took 25, soul crushing, minutes to complete. I would like to formally apologise to both Skeleton and Shila, I never thought I'd see a fight reach the same level of tedium as yours in the first tournament, but I was wrong...
As the minutes started to pile up, I began to wonder if I would ever see the light of day again, or would I just be locked in the inescapable trap of an all waterbender fight until the heat death of the universe. I began to consider the meaning of life and stared out of my bedroom window. I saw a spider hanging there, outside, on the pane of glass. I began to ponder what this spider could be thinking about at this moment, is it thinking about eating flies? Terrorising me? Observing the beauty of the warehouse that you can see over the back hedge of my garden? What a dull life spiders must lead, hanging there day after day. If that spider can survive that, then I could surely survive watching this fight...
HOW MUCH HEALTH?!?
Ok, fine, back to the spider. God, I hate them, too many legs. At least it was safely on the other side of my window, which will remain firmly shut until I'm certain it's left, or is dead. Yes, I know they kill flies, and that's a good thing, but I just can't help it, they're horrid! Someone change my mind, help me see the beauty within!
What's that? You want to know about the fight? Ugh, fine... The fight ends once Izumi removes their healing, and Evie wins. NEXT PLEASE!
The first semi final featured Vince, who now had momentum behind him, facing off against Sodie, who was about to take part in his first fight of the tournament! Sodie showed little sign of rustiness as he went toe to toe with Vince initially. The fight was tight once again, but Vince soon gained the upper hand and shook off that earlier close call with Mart, striking Sodie down and advancing to the semi-finals.
Cheese and Evie were the next into the ring. Evie was on top at the start of the round, landing several consecutive hits on Cheese. Cheese was unable to get a decent run of hits in, and was forced into defensive mode for much of the fight. One final flurry of hits proved to be Cheese's undoing, he was out as Evie advanced to her second successive semi-final.
The fight between Lemur and Greeniac proved to be a surprisingly entertaining affair. Both fighters were well up for it and attacked with little let up. It was certainly a long fight, there's no getting away from that, but the action was constant and it was enjoyable to watch. In the end, Lemur was just too much for Greeniac, and he prevailed.
The final quarter final was between SirDoc and Sabb. Sabb was able to keep Doc at arms length for most of the fight, preventing the waterbender from landing any significant hits. Once again, Sabb showed the benefits of non-bending in his victory.
Confession time, I had to leave about halfway through the first fight of the round, to eat dinner and to watch the Mexican Grand Prix (it was important, ok!). Izumi kindly provided me with his chat logs which give a broad overview of what happened, however, my patience only goes so far... Here's a brief summary of what happened:
Evie and Vince took ages to end their fight, but Evie won in the end. Happy with that? Good.
Lemur and Sabb took no time at all to finish theirs. Lemur seemed to win in about a minute.
Again, I was watching the Grand Prix at this time, so I can only go on what the chat logs say.
Evie won, I don't think it was a very interesting fight. But still, a waterbender won! Hooray!!!
Oh, and if you're wondering what happened in the Grand Prix, Max Verstappen won the race, but Lewis Hamilton won his fifth world championship! It was probably more entertaining than the latter stages of the tournament, let's be honest here...
Best Fighter - Normally, this award goes to the winner of the tournament, but I'm going to give it to someone else this time. Turbo! After stepping in as a late substitute, he gave an excellent account of himself. It took courage for him to come in with absolutely no fighting experience at all, and it's exactly what these tournaments are about!
Best Fight - There is only one winner here. Vince vs Mart. Will we ever see a more closely fought bout? It would take a hell of a lot to dethrone this one as the best of all time.
The Cure for Insomniacs Award - Several candidates for this one today, but let's be honest, it was always going to be Evie vs Azog.
Don't make me think about it again....
Funniest Moment - zcvn. Just him...
Once again, thank you to everyone for taking part! I hope you all enjoyed this special themed tournament. Also thanks to FireLordIzumi for organising it, MewRayquaza for building the dragon statues, and Martdamp, for making sure the server worked!
Details about the November tournament will be out in due course, so keep an eye on Discord for that.
Enjoy your Halloween. QuietDove, out!