[EVENT] Tournament!

[zenderael_mods]

Beginning Friday, June 3rd is the annual berserker tournament in the Undertow. Typically only berserkers participate in these, but it is technically open to all comers.

This year's tournament is a particularly popular affair, widely advertised and full of more challengers than usual. It will last one week and has two tiers: the prize-winning tier and the title-winning tier. They're not completely exclusive, and getting eliminated from one tier also eliminates you from the other. The difference between the two is that the top-performer in the prize-tier gets a reward for winning, and the top-performer in the title tier gets to fight the Ahura.

The tournament is double-elimination (one loss is a mark, second loss gets you eliminated).

Typically, the Ahura does not fight in the ranks, but given the circumstances surrounding his ascension to power, Rhys doesn't want to give anyone room to argue foul play or trickery. He's in there fighting.

For prize-tier, the winner will receive a big ol' bag o' gold along with a legendary weapon. The best berserker smiths will put together something for you out of elder dragon bone. Never defeated in battle, this dragon died of old age and its bones can only be shaped using its own teeth. It won't break in battle, and it won't go to dust at the most powerful of enchants.

[Edit] The prize tier winner is Alex!

Sign up here!

Comment to this post with which character(s) will be participating and in which tier!

Current list of competitors:
Rhys (Ahura) [title]
King Aerveas [title]
Acher [title]
Alex [title] [prize] (competing under the name "Jordan")
Chisaki [prize]
Majestica [prize]
Virelai [prize]

King Aerveas will be winning most of his matches, much to the shock and dismay of others. He doesn't even have any guild powers! The old man's just a beast of a fighter, utilizing his weaponry effectively and knowing how to use other people's momentum/skill/whatever against them. Because of what is effectively plot armour, we won't match people up with Aerveas or Rhys except by request.

Matches will be randomly rolled, winners may be decided between the players involved or by mod-roll if the players cannot come to a consensus. If you are deciding between yourselves who wins the match, please comment here to tell us who the winner is. We will be announcing brackets regularly; if you take too long to decide we will probably roll it for you.

Feel free to use this post as general plotting! Spectators are more than welcome and several guild leaders plan to be in attendance on scattered days throughout the week.

Additionally, the tournament is being broadcast online! That's right, on the regular internet. There's even a youtube channel for it set up. It's being covered by a few amateur journalists who made it into Zen with most of their equipment intact. They're pumped to be the first people live-broadcasting from inside the game! They'll also be doing interviews with some of the competitors (and maybe influential figures too), so comment here if you want that to happen for your character.

Friday Brackets:
We are throwing NPCs into the mix for this since there are a lot of people competing in this tournament. Some of them are known and have reputations (you might go up against a heel who gets booed the minute they walk into the ring, or someone very popular who gets you booed yourself), some of them are relative unknowns.

Feel free to define them for yourself, all we'll give is a name, gender, and class, and whatever headcanon you make up for that opponent should be noted in case they show up again in later brackets.

Winners bolded. (We are assuming all player characters win against NPCs unless told otherwise--you are definitely allowed to get eliminated by an NPC if you want to)

Acher vs Rhys
Aerveas vs Bernard Monroe (berserker, m)
Alex vs Herron the White (berserker, m)
Chisaki vs Damara Coldheart (druid, f)
Majestica vs Rufus Wallik (hunter, m)
Virelai vs Penelope Deats (spellsword, f)

Nobody actually expected King Aerveas to compete himself; they all expected him to send a proxy. A wave of surprise goes through the stadium when he steps into the ring, and reactions vary between shock and dismay when he defeats Bernard Monroe before the fight even has a chance to get good. Monroe has been a favourite to win in berserker circles, so his sound defeat against King Aerveas in the first round comes as a huge shock to everyone in the Undertow. People are talking about this fight all day.

Saturday Brackets:
Acher vs Herron the White (berserker, m)
Aerveas vs Felicia Ermax (rogue, f)
Alex vs Virelai
Chisaki vs Majestica
Rhys vs Mordecai (berserker, m)

There is a thread for discussion here, please comment there with your match winners. You may also provide a summary of how the match went down, but this is optional.

Sunday Brackets:
Aerveas vs Bold Teleri (berserker, m)
Rhys vs Beatrice Stone (berserker, f)
Majestica vs Zavrian Thercroz (assassin, m)
Chisaki vs Penelope Deats (spellsword, f)

Acher, Alex, and Virelai have a by (no matches Sunday).

Monday Brackets:
Aerveas vs Karen Flaescher (alchemist, f)
Rhys vs Theron Thunderstrike (mage, m)
Acher vs Virelai (Virelai eliminated)
Alex vs Deadly Nightshade (berserker, f)

Chisaki and Majestica have a by (no matches Sunday).

There is a thread for discussion here. I know there aren't a lot of PC vs PC fights in these brackets, but we've got four more days to fill. While the tournament ICly has a gigantic number of competitors, we do not have a correspondingly gigantic number of PCs.

Tuesday Brackets:
Aerveas vs Nalak Joerr (berserker, m)
Rhys vs Issya Aldos (spellsword, f)
Alex vs Majestica
Acher vs Zavrian Thercroz (assassin, m) (Acher eliminated)
Chisaki vs Felicia Ermax (rogue, f)

There is a thread for discussion here. It's known that the prize tier's final watch will be on Thursday and the title tier's on Friday.

Wednesday Brackets:
Aerveas vs Ellisiel (berserker, f)
Rhys vs Rald Strystor (rogue, m)
Alex vs Chisaki (Chisaki eliminated)

There is a thread for discussion here.

Thursday Brackets:
Aerveas vs Deadly Nightshade (berserker, f)
Rhys vs Bernard Monroe (berserker, m)
Alex vs Majestica (Prize tier champion)

Friday Brackets:
Aerveas vs Rhys (Title tier champion)

There is a thread for discussion here.

Comments

[socarnivorously]

- Jordan will be there to watch. She won't be telling anyone except the Bristols to explain her absence. She will have her cloak by then, but will be wearing a mask in the likeness of a Native American jackal.

- Evelyn will be there to cheer Rhys on. She's not going to last long; the violence will make her uneasy. She'll stick around for results, but will not watch.

- Alexander will participate in both tiers as "Jordan". Of the title tier, he isn't playing to win. Assuming he ascends the ranks he'll withdraw a few matches before the final. Of the prize tier, he'll play to win, just cuz.

He'll be wearing the Christmas dress Jordan bought him oocly for the first day/however long it lasts before getting trashed. After that he'll be in more traditional berserker attire. Single polearm. He'll never fury, but use his molavvas strength under the guise of fury.

- Alessia will be there to observe Alex.

- Noelle will be watching some of the tourney on YouTube (EARTH-ALT PARTY IMO, better than the superbowl)

[senecio]

I think we may need to organize an Earth-alt party for this. >> Because that sounds awesome.

[socarnivorously]

Fuck yeah, cheetos and Earth beer

Or maybe they invade a bar for it, all these alts on barstools with their eyes glued to the screen

[senecio]

Anais will abstain from the drinking, probably, but OMFG CHEETOS. She will be perplexed and extremely interested in the crunchy cheesy snack, I swear.

Then again, maybe taking over a bar somewhere would be better? I mean, you could probably fit more people in there, and there may very well be an Earth-alt army of NPCs. I don't think that everybody is going to be able to fit into somebody's apartment.

[socarnivorously]

hell yeah mang let's take over a bar

maybe they start at someone's place bc bars aren't open that early, then swarm the nearest bar laters

if rasmus is with them maybe his girth can intimidate the owner to change the channel

[vallinar]

Maybe at one of the X-DAV alts places and then migrating to a bar? Also, I think Rasmus could easily intimidate anybody just by being there. >> Who wants to mess with a guy that big?

[bulldozer]

ALL THE CHICKEN WINGS

[socarnivorously]

excellent :3c

Likely Noelle will invite Lera, too

(And Dallen the spellsword-turned-alchemist will join them at the bar later and possibly tinker with some people's drinks if they so desire)

[bulldozer]

ALCHEMIST

THIS DRINK IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH >:|a YOUR ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED

[vallinar]

...man, this bar is going to hate them after this, won't they?

[socarnivorously]

no man it'll be good for business cuz now any alt that meets a new alt lookin for a place to chill will be like 'hey well i had a good time at so-and-so bar'

WORD OF MOUTH BUSINESS

[bulldozer]

Ras will break up fights between berserker alts and chuck them out of the bar

the owner will be like "hey I like you"

and bam

ras is a bouncer

[senecio]

At least he'll have a job? Unlike the X-DAV employed alts. >>

[socarnivorously]

ey yo, Noelle does business with Bastanites ok she has an income

probably not enough to afford rent and food for long but