User blog:Silver-Haired Seireitou/Reboot of the Quincy Competition - Introducing the Human Tournament

Alright guys, Sei-san here with an important announcement. I am here to announce that I am rebooting the Quincy Competition that was held several months ago.

Now, for those of you that do not know what the Quincy Competition was, let's recap. It was a tournament of Quincy that I held back on our sister site, TBF, that allowed competitors from both that site and this site to participate. It... did not go well, mostly because users could simply not get along together long enough to actually cooperate. So, here we go, I think it's time to try and do this over again with a new group of competitors. But this time around... This tournament will include all humans with spiritual abilities and prowess, instead of just Quincy. Henceforth, the tournament will be called the...

Human Competition

The purpose of this tournament is because Human characters are far more difficult to create than spiritual beings, like Hollows and Shinigami, because they have physical limitations and require immense skill to pull off. It's a perfect thing to compete over, and to see who among everybody can create the best Human. Sadly, since I will serve as the Gamemaster for this competition, I will not be personally participating.

There will be a special prize at the end for the user that manages to win, but I'll keep it a secret for now, until we reach the last leg of the competition.

Now then, let's go into specifics.

Round 1: Popularity Contest
The first round of the tournament, once we have all of our competitors, will be a Popularity Contest.

Basically, you check out the articles and vote for the characters you believe deserve to move on in this tournament. You are allowed as many votes as you want. If you think all of them deserve to move on, then vote for all of them. However, you will be expected to explain your reasoning for why you are voting for your character. I expect at least 3 or 4 Sentences minimum for reasoning. If you do not provide a satisfactory reason, that vote will not be counted in the official score. Your votes must be approved by me before being put onto the official ballot. If you need to be briefed on what to look for when making your reasons, then just ask me and I'll tell you what to look for. Furthermore, you will not be allowed to vote for your own character. So if you are competing, you can only vote for seven at the most. But remember that all users, both those who are competing and those who are not, can vote on this.

It goes without saying, however, every user is allotted only one vote per any individual character. Now, even if users are allowed to vote for as many characters as they want, do not just vote for all of them if you think some of them don't deserve to truly move on. I can not emphasize this enough when I say provide actual reasoning.

Round 2: Character Display
The second round is a skit between groups of users that move on from round one. Hence, it is the Character Display.

Everybody will be paired into a team of two (or more, depending on how many users move on from the previous round). And each team will submit a single skit roleplay which must feature both of their characters is some sort of situation. However many users manage to get to this round, it will be set up to ensure that only four will make it to round three.

However, here's the twist!

It will be set up so that only one character from each team will move on while the other will lose, meaning no matter how many people are in the team, there will only be four teams in total.

Yes. That's right. I'm pairing you up to work together, while, at the same time, you will be competing with one another as well. Just pure evil, aren't I? Well, deal with it. Because guess what? If you thought about giving up so your partner can move on, that won't work. Because this is both a competition as much as a collaboration. The skit must meet standards in order to qualify for the round two community vote. In other words, it must pass through me before it can be put in the final stage of voting where a winner will be decided. More on that later though.

Remember that while the skit can be anything you wish, it is highly recommended that you do not attempt some sort of cookie-cutter fight scene. This should be a chance to show off your character in a highly unique manner; to demonstrate the personality indefinitely should be your primary directive.

I will be also changing the requirements a little in order to account for the newly-established partnership. The skit can literally be anything you wish so long as it meets these following requirements:
 * It can not exceed 80,000 Bytes.
 * Must focus on the leading Human characters; besides that, you may include as many side characters as you wish.
 * You may not use canon or filler characters from the Bleach manga or anime for the skit whatsoever.

Unlike the Quincy Competition, once I say how many people can be in the teams, I will allow you all to choose your own teams instead of just assigning them myself.

Get together with your partner/opponent(s) and work on the skit roleplay. Do whatever you must during the process. You will set up the page and then when it is done, you will present it on a blog that I will tell you about once you both have decided that you are done with it, in the comments below, and I will put it through the grading process. You are responsible for the page as well as all templates and pictures that you choose to put onto the page. Remember that any templates and images put onto it will count toward your bytes limit so be wary of this.

Now, this is how round two will work after the skit has been submitted. I will be the one to review it first in accordance with the below rubric. The total score I will be able to give you is 200. In order to qualify for the community vote that will follow, your skit must secure a minimum score of 140. I will post the below rubric on the individual skit talk pages along with your scores.

As I said, the total maximum score possible will be 200. Your skit must obtain a 140 in order to be sent to the final stage of round two's voting. If, when you first submit your skit and provided there is still time before the deadline, you will be allowed to change and/or create a new one and re-submit it for a new evaluation. You will have as many tries as you want until the deadline date. However, with each time you do, I will deduct five points from the final score that you would have received for it; so try to get it right the first time.

Provided that you do obtain your 140 minimum score (or higher) and move on, round two will close with a Community Vote. Just as in the popularity contest, the users of BFF (and TBF, if applicable) will vote to choose the best character from the four skits. Now, instead of looking at the skits as four skits written by four teams, those who are voting will instead choose the characters among all the participants whom they believe did the very best in the skit and an overall grand performance.

You will be allowed to vote on each of the four skits. And you will name which character you believe did the best on that skit in accordance with the rubric I set up above. The best characters from each skit will move. Which individual characters do you believe preformed the most excellently in the skits and deserve to move on to the final leg of the competition. Choose carefully and just like before, provide firm and sound reasoning as to why you chose those characters. At the end of the voting session, the top four characters and their users will move on to the third and final round of the Quincy Competition.

Remember, it is also possible that your team might not even pass the first scoring session. And it may very well be possible that the final contest will not even fall to only four people but rather three or two. It all depends upon this second contest, so make sure to give it your all.

Round 3: Race to the Finish
The third and final round of the competition has been aptly named the Race to the Finish.

Here is how Round 3 will work. I've decided that since it will be between only four finalists, a simple one-on-one fight branch tournament is far too anticlimactic to end this; especially considering the build-up thus far. So, instead of a fight, I have planned a special event for the four finalists.

''Far far away, in the vast depths of Soul Society's outskirts, lies a massive labyrinth of nature's own design; composed of rock, dirt, and various degrees of foliage. Like all mazes, there are multiple starting points but only one goal: the center of the maze, where the prize of champions lies. However, there is something rather peculiar about this labyrinth. Its starting points all lead down a single road; a single path. There are no confusing alternate routes originally planned into the maze. Each route, regardless of its start, is an exact length of road from its origin to the finish. But it is far from safe. Scattered about are various obstacles that seek to hinder those who dare enter. The Soul Reapers, the Hollows, and even the normal spirits that dwell in the villages of Rukongai... All have attempted to enter this mysterious puzzle of nature. None have ever made it back to tell of its internal structures. Nor to confirm the suspicions and rumors that fuel its legend. It takes far more than strength and speed to counter the dangers of this spiritual labyrinth. And so...''

Round 3 will be a roleplay race to the finish between the four finalists in this maze of mysteries. This is how it will work. The four finalists will each be allowed a single opening post in which your character arrives to the starting point of the maze. Because the maze has different starting points, therefore different mazes, each of your characters will be at a different point.

Each maze path is exactly 1000 meters. And depending on what obstacles you manage to overcome, you will be allowed to progress a certain number of meters ahead. Therefore, the person to reach the 1000 meter mark will undoubtedly be the one to reach the end and subsequently will be declared our winner.

The fun behind this round is that each obstacle will be different and completely theorized by an opponent of yours, like so: User A will be User B's Gamemaster, User B will be User C's Gamemaster, User C will be User D's Gamemaster, and User D will be User A's Gamemaster. (but don't worry, I will tell you the actual set ups). I relinquish my role as Gamemaster for the final round and instead, the responsibility falls on your opponents. So let me explain it this way, per example.

We will assume User A posts first, to introduce his character, and then User B will post second for his own. This means User A's character will be the first to enter the labyrinth. User C and D then follow. User A is given the fifth post of the roleplay, in which he will set up the first obstacle that User B will have to overcome in order to continue forward. He will make an additional post afterwards in which he describes the nature of the obstacle that User B will be confronting. Then, User B will post in the hopes of having their character overcome it using all of his skills and abilities. If he manages to do so, then User B's character will be allowed to continue forward. Let's say, for the first obstacle, User A chooses a 30 Meter obstacle. If User B overcomes it, then that means their character will be allowed to move on 30 meters toward the finish line, meaning he'll have 970 meters left to go. The more meters involved, the harder and more difficult the obstacle will be.

When coming up with the obstacles, so long as you follow the below outline to the letter, you will have otherwise complete freedom in creation.

Clearing that specific obstacle will allow your character to progress the respective number of meters onward toward the finish. We will be following this set-up for obstacles:

Make sure to announce on the talk page of the RP, when it is made, before making your obstacle post, which of the six obstacle choices you wish to do.

Each user is allowed only a single post to overcome the obstacle. If they are unable to or have done so in a way that the judges (namely me and other users) have declared it to be unfair or a totally ridiculous and/or impossible move given that Human's abilities, then it will be marked as a Fail. This means that whatever meters they would have been able to allowed to move forward, they will instead be forced to return back. So, if User A's character fails to complete an obstacle while he is at 500 meters in, and it is a 100 meter obstacle, then he will be forced to return back to the 400 meter mark instead.

Simple enough, I believe.

In the event of a tie, both characters will be "teleported" upon reaching the center of the maze to a new location where they will commence in a winner-takes-all battle to the finish. But more on that should this even happen.

Participation Prerequisites
In order to qualify for this tournament, your character (and you are only allowed one) must meet these prerequisites:


 * Must be a character article with a minimum of 10,000 bytes of content. Check the article's history to see if it meets this quota. This excludes the following sections: "Previous Powers & Abilities", "Relationships", and "Quotes".


 * Must be a full Human. That means, no Shinigami-Human hybrids. No Zanpakutō. No Bankai. None of that shit. If they have unique items and techniques that mimic those things, that is a different story, but they can not have things that belong to other canon or fanon races. (for example, Quincy with unique situations, such as Ten's Holden Quincy which are infected by Lycanthropy, would be allowed).


 * Must be submitted in its entirety by May 10, 2014. This means that once you have officially entered your article on this blog for the competition and we have reached this date, it can not be changed or edited at all (save for grammar corrections, which will be monitored by myself). So make sure to take your time until the deadline to make your character as good as you possibly can. You can submit it in the comments section below on this blog.

Now, here's something to sweeten the pot for you guys. The character created for this, if it is a new character, will not be subjected to the RPCQE policy requirements. Meaning, if you have not yet passed the exam, I will allow you to create a Human of any power level without it being considered a violation of the aforementioned policy. But, Humans do have limitations, so be sure to be careful with it.

Final Statements
If anybody has any questions, please ask me below, including if anything above was unclear, as I basically copy/pasted a lot of stuff from my Quincy Competition blogs onto here. When the first round starts, I will make a new blog for it, but until then, this is the sole blog for the competition. I can only hope many people enter. It should be quite exciting and fun! --Silver-Haired Seireitou (talk) 06:45, April 21, 2014 (UTC)