MFT2 and MFT3: Slayer's Postmortem
So with MFT3 no longer happening, I think I should say a couple of things. For as much as I had fun in last year's tournament, I think it's for the best that it doesn't come back.
I got second place with Slayer in that tournament, and I'm not really upset that I didn't take first bc I was just there to flex my combat writing muscles, but what really gets to me is how there are so many people who are chasing that high of having the Awesomest Most Coolestest Guy on the Planet™️, who view the act of scaling back their character for the sake of a fair setting as character assassination. That tournament was a mess from top to bottom, and I know some people blame how the tournament was handled itself, but me personally, I think Blue did what they could with the situation.
In the end though, all that tournament did was prove that there are very few people on this site who know how to write fights, and even fewer who know how to write them well. And unfortunately, a good few people who don't know how to write fights seem to think they're the hottest shit when it comes to it, hyping up their own characters until the cows come home because their character is untouchable.
Writing fight scenes, especially in a medium like this, is a delicate art form. There's a give and take to it that goes beyond the normal confines of a roleplay, and when it comes together, it is a beauty to watch unfold. But when you have your character just be this untouchable God and complete badass who just mogs your opponent and shoves their face into the dirt, it doesn't portray power, it shows you don't *want* a fight, you just want to have your character be the top dog. It also makes it absolutely no fun for the other person involved. That's why it's so hard to write these for most people, nobody wants their precious babies to get actually hurt, to take real, sustained damage. Because that shows weakness, something many of the problematic people in the tournament never really seemed to learn how to write.
To many of the participants in MFT2, you guys did well, even with all the drama behind the scenes causing interest to drop like flies. Many of you did very well, and I was happy to write alongside you.
To Blue, I believe your heart was in the right place for the most part of MFT2. You made a few mistakes here and there, but I can't really blame you too much with how experimental it was, and there was no way you could have predicted how volatile shit would be between contestants. I'm sorry that you couldn't make MFT3 work out, and maybe its for the best that it doesn't come back, but you can at least say you gave it an honest shot.
And to anyone who wants to look into writing fight scenes, just remember this; talk to the people you want to write these scenes with. Don't just automatically assume your character is untouchable, plan these things out at least a little bit beforehand. It will work out much better in the long run.
And as a side note, if you wanna write good fun fights, stop writing such OP OCs that can never be hurt. If you do, at least have fun with it, play it off like slapstick or something.