#wallace2k18updates

the time is here. the time is now. on a waterfall cast by his gyarados, a pillar wreathed in vines from his lurantis’ grass knot, he rises slowly from the water into the air as the contest theme plays behind him. he’s perfectly dry, surrounded by the glow of milotic’s aqua ring bubble that encases him. the waterfall wave washes ashore on a platform rising in the middle of the pool and he steps down; the aqua ring follows him, outlining his exact form and giving him a blue glow as he moves and the contest theme dims in volume. he turns to address the crowd, and as he opens his mouth to speak, the aqua ring shines even brighter. behind him, his gyarados and milotic’s necks rise out of the water and bow together in the shape of a heart, with the tiny lurantis ballerina posing with one foot on each of their heads: two water-types and one alolan pokémon to say farewell to this watery alolan contest.

❝ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for has arrived!❞ he said. ❝the scores have been finalized, and now it’s time to announce the recipients of this year’s  prizes! please direct your attention to a screen to see once again what our three winners and three honorable mentions will take home.❞

on cue, the screens to either side of him show the prizes. next to each is a blank space for the name of the person who would be taking that prize home.

❝now, who will be taking home these wondrous gifts? without further ado…❞

there’s a drumroll on the speakers, and the waves roll accordingly. the shining ring around wallace’s form disappears, allowing the names of the winners to take center stage, as this was their moment, not his. with a sweep of his arm he gestures to the board--right on cue, underneath each prize heading, the names and point values of each contestant appear in showers of dark and light blue sparks. the overall rankings of the battle segment also appear on the side.

[Bold = winner. Italic = honorable mention.]

@eiriini - 368 points

@frozenfragments - 358 points

@lukissed - 322 points

@gottamuseemall - 317 points

@astralupine-deactivated20180817 - 305 points

@pokegirlsassemble / @gabitesandkirlias - 307 points

@sparklingemeraldidol - 272 points

❝a warm congratulations to all of you for the beautiful performances you have gifted me with, but most of all to our six prize winners: kamui, antarcticite, lucas, daisy, keith and zoey. you in particular have shown great skill, and great potential to reach even more impressive heights. we here at the hano grand resort are blessed to be in the company of such accomplished coordinators--in particular, our winner. kamui, you have emerged among all the competitors here this year as the most distinguished onstage, and for that i will honor you with the AQUA RIBBON that you deserve!❞

a closed box that supposedly contains the ribbon drifts out of the water inside yet another aqua ring, an ornate white encasement inlaid with solid gold. it hovers in the air for all the crowd to admire, then makes its way into wallace’s outstretched hands. with a radiant smile he shakes kamui’s hand and pulls her into a hug, then opens the box to reveal the most important prize that she would take home today.

……………

❝WHAT?❞

the ribbon. it’s gone. and whoever took it left a bright blue lipstick kiss on the box’s side--mocking INSOLENCE, audacity the likes of which only one person he knew would dare show him--

SAWYER. SAWYER HARRIS.

sawyer harris, reborn region ace, had made off with the wallace cup ribbon behind his back…! he should’ve known something was too good to be true when the ruffian refused to cause trouble. he’d been saving it, wallace thinks, for the moment when it truly mattered, for a stunt that would get attention without completely risking sawyer’s international reputation. the empty ribbon case, the lipstick on the side, and wallace’s shocked expression would bring on a flood of mockery and memes for years to come, instead of horrified anger and shock at the body of a murdered contestant. he should have known far ahead that this would be the caliber of sawyer’s troublemaking--perhaps he is reading too much into this, but his mind, so precise in its deductive reasoning yet so blinded by his bias, can think of nothing else. that sneaky son of a…!

he isn’t gonna lie, he thought it was harley at first, but he knows his ex well enough to know that he doesn’t use that shade of lipstick.

slowly he lowers the empty case, and once again he flashes his picture-perfect smile. 

❝…so sorry about that.❞ he says, and places a hand on kamui’s  shoulder. ❝i’ll have a new one made for you shortly. but in the end, it’s only a ribbon. whether you have it in your hand or not does not change anything about what you achieved.❞

he turns to address the crowd once again. ❝and that, ladies and gentlemen, is all. thank you from the bottom of my heart for attending and participating--i declare this year’s wallace cup to be officially CONCLUDED!❞

the contest theme changes its tune and gets louder as he steps out onto thin air, hands behind his back and one leg extended in front of him. a waterfall rises to catch him as he falls. another aqua ring blooms from the pillar and surrounds him in a glowing orb as he descends into the pool and waves to the cheering crowd. with one final shock to his nerves the contest ends, and when he swims backstage he slumps against the wall, exhausted.

thank the gods that was over with.

didn’t see that coming, did you? anyway, that’s a wrap--the wallace cup is now COMPLETE! if you have the time, i’d love if you could fill out this feedback form that i wrote, since it’s for me to know what i did well and also how i can improve. also, for reference, you may continue wallace cup threads + answering wallace cup related asks for as long as you like god knows i still have a few things i need to write myself. the event may be over on paper, but it will always go on in our hearts. XD

it’s been a wonderful threeish months with you all and i’m so happy that you’ve all decided to attend. thank you to everyone who signed up--as someone who puts her entire heart and soul into her contests, it means a lot to me that so many of you are interested. i’m so proud of all of you and grateful to you for the hard work you put in, no matter what the result. hats off to you…or should i say VREPIT SA? you all rocked hard and it showed!

@blightcrown @lazupokemuses @sparklingemeraldidol @dittoskull-deactivated20180729 @shadowlyheroine @eiriini @fukko @skullgruntdana @cacturnefortheworse @rebornregionace @lukissed @heuristi @frozenfragments @gabitesandkirlias @friendshauna @freedomxprincess @grimastor @thecrimsonpaladin @grimomens @reticentur-mortem @kotoyin @heirofsol @gottamuseemall @pkmncoordinatorkenny @eevee-sohma @bestwatergymleader @astralupine-deactivated20180817 @empathicleo @herstrengths @fracturedhues @oflcgcnd @holoakue @hoennbourne

@blightcrown @lazupokemuses @sparklingemeraldidol @skullgruntdana @grimastor @gottamuseemall @eevee-sohma @astralupine​ @oflcgcnd @cacturnefortheworse @pokegirlsassemble @dittoskull @eiriini @fukko @rebornregionace @lukissed @heuristi @frozenfragments @friendshauna @freedomxprincess​ @thecrimsonpaladin @reticentur-mortem @grimomens @kotoyin​ @heirofsol @pkmncoordinatorkenny @bestwatergymleader @empathicleo​ @herstrengths​ @fracturedhues​ @holoakue​ @hoennbourne​ 

holy quiznack, would you look at the time? tomorrow’s our last day of the appeals round! man, this snuck up fast--time flies faster than the plot progression in voltron when you’re having fun!

i’m tagging you all because i have an important update regarding the deadline. we aren’t doing so hot right now--so far, less than half of all total contestants have turned in a completed appeal. i wanted to have at least 12 people in the battle round via elimination of half the people who turned in appeals, but since there are only 13 people with completed appeals which would put us at a battle round of eight, that isn’t going to happen--even counting the three people who have asked for extensions. so here’s what i’m going to do. 

if the # of completed appeals has not reached 20 by tomorrow, july 11, i will be extending the deadline for ALL applicants to july 18, 11:59 PM PST. if you haven’t started yet, now would be a very good time to start--not to mention ask for an extension. if your appeal is like. halfway to or nearing completion right now, i would urge you to finish your appeals as soon as possible because if 7 other people submit their appeals (bringing the total of appeals to 20) but you don’t, you will not be scored. finishing as soon as possible will also be a courtesy to me as a judge, because then i can judge appeals more gradually instead of getting 10+ appeals on july 18 and having to judge all those over the next few days. note that under this policy those who have already requested extensions will not be able to receive another extension, as the contest will already have gone on for three weeks by then and i do not wish to extend any further. 

also, due to tumblr’s notifications system being a fuck, tomorrow i will be messaging those who did not complete their appeals individually, whether on tumblr or on discord. for my convenience, this message will take the form of a copypasta. 

we’re on the home stretch now. GO FORTH AND KICK ASS!

❝beloved members of the audience, we’ve now come to the conclusion of the appeals round of this cup,❞ he announces, immediately after his evaluation of the final appeal is over. ❝this year we truly saw some of the best--i had to make hard choices with the scoring throughout the entire event, a fact for which i thank the coordinators gathered here today. as with every wallace cup, this year’s competition was incredibly tough, bringing in the brightest and most inventive from all over the world. to every person who set foot on this stage--❞ well, not to every person, he thinks--❝thank you for gracing us with your talent. to everyone gathered here watching: i hope you all enjoyed watching as much as i enjoyed judging. now, without further ado, i present you the RESULTS!❞

he makes a grand, sweeping gesture to the screen that stands on the beach. immediately the ranks and names of all the contestants appear onscreen, with the names of those moving on to the next round highlighted in bold.

@astralupine and @frozenfragments - 208 points

@oflcgcnd and @blightcrown - 207 points

@kotoyin - 202 points

@eiriini - 181 points

@gottamuseemall - 175 points

@pokegirlsassemble - 173 points 

@cacturnefortheworse - 170 points WITHDRAWN IC

@lukissed - 168 points

@friendshauna - 166 points

@lazupokemuses - 164 points

@sparklingemeraldidol - 162 points

@pkmncoordinatorkenny - 160 points

@eevee-sohma - 159 points

@freedomxprincess - 155 points

@skullgruntdana - 135 points

@rebornregionace - 133 points

@holoakue - 128 points

@grimastor and @bestwatergymleader - 87 points

@thecrimsonpaladin - -12 points

that’s it, folks! the first round is over and done! thank you all for your hard work and for putting up with my constant notifications throughout these past three weeks! and as with last year, everybody give a warm thank-you to those who were interested but did not turn in appeals: @heirofsol @dittoskull @shadowlyheroine @hoennbourne @fukko @fracturedhues @empathicleo @herstrengths @reticentur-mortem. the fact that you were interested in this contest means a lot to me. thank you so much for signing up and i hope to see you at my next event!

since real life seems to be A Royal Bitch to a lot of people right now, i’m going to be extending the contest until august 31, 11:59 PM PST. this is in response to the fact that half of our battles have hardly gotten underway--i’ve been in contact with a ton of people and it seems that many are still struggling to find a place in their schedule to do this. 

will make a post with rough sketches of all possible battlefields. DONE!

will change the score system regarding disobedience to something more holistic, as per this post. DONE!

will add to the scoring rubric a provision for “exemplification of category.” DONE!

will write a short guide on how to fight in each category.

i made some significant changes to the rules and also have a few other things to add, so you all know what this means…tagging you all for the first time! XD

@blightcrown @lazupokemuses @sparklingemeraldidol @dittoskull @shadowlyheroine @eiriini @fukko @skullgruntdana @cacturnefortheworse @rebornregionace @lukissed @heuristi @frozenfragments @pokegirlsassemble

the first update is kinda small. the +5 bonus for using a pokémon matching wallace’s has been removed for the appeals round but not the battle round. also, a list of wallace’s pokémon has been added to the “scoring and prizes” section: milotic, luvdisc, whiscash, tentacruel, ludicolo, gyarados, sharpedo, swampert, starmie, gorebyss, primarina, lapras and lurantis.

the second update is somewhat bigger. on the original scoring sheet for the battle round, it says that people will be marked down if the “away pokémon” (the pokémon that you pick from another trainer) is disobedient. this has been changed to reflect a different way of viewing the performance. instead of being penalized for individual incidents of disobedience, trainers will be judged holistically on how they handle disobedience--if there is any. in other words, trainers will be evaluated more on how well they respond to misbehavior rather than on whether misbehavior exists. the only way in which disobedience is still a deciding factor in the score is that if it happens, the score cannot be perfect.

for example, if an “away” pokémon uses a strategy that is different from the one the trainer uses, but the trainer adjusts to the away pokémon’s style and prevents further disobedience, you can still get a good (though not perfect) score. however, if you don’t adjust and the disobedience continues, then your score will really sink. the trainer’s emotional reactions count too. if a ‘mon doesn’t follow orders and the trainer is calm and tactful, the score will go up. but if the trainer swears at the pokémon, complains instead of taking action, panics and does nothing useful, etc. the score goes down.

now here’s the third change, which is probably the most important thing in this update.

so far, i’ve seen 56 pokémon personality descriptions, and one thing i noticed in some of them are characteristics that can determine how pokémon react to people either for better or for worse. examples (made up): “this pokémon will only respect a trainer who spoils them with a ton of sweets.” “this pokémon is tough to control, but if you have exceptional intelligence, things should be fine.” “this pokémon is quiet and needs time to come out of their shell, so if a trainer is impatient, things will not go smoothly.”

the reason why this is relevant is that i want to urge each of you to be honest with yourself about how your muse would work with each of these pokémon over a two-week period and on the battlefield. if your muse has a no-nonsense attitude and doesn’t even give their own pokémon excess sweets, they won’t get along with a pokémon who demands it. if your muse is only average-bright, they won’t be able to fluidly control a pokémon who demands exceptional brains. if your muse is impatient and demanding, don’t make them magically soft and kind with the pokémon who needs a soft trainer to ensure their loyalty. you know your muses better than i do, so i won’t really be able to enforce this. but for the fun of this event, i would urge you to stay true to your character even when they and a pokémon may not be compatible.

thank you for reading this and happy preparations!

yooooo clever squad @sparklingemeraldidol @lazupokemuses @friendshauna @grimomens @astralupine @fracturedhues--how does this sound for a better category description:

Do you want to send a message to your crowd? Do you love Appeals steeped in not only aesthetic but also in meaning? If so, then Clever is your playing field. Symbolize lyrics or poetry with your moves. Lead your audience to expect one thing and then give them another. Challenge viewers intellectually by redefining what they imagine when they think of a “performance”--if you like, you can even go postmodern. This is the most technically demanding of the categories, as your own cleverness as the choreographer should show in every choice you make. But be wary of growing too florid; that’s Beauty’s job, whereas the Clever performer uses movements that are clean, efficient, straight to the point. This category is also the most demanding of pragmatic action in battle–you’ll have an easier time on the aesthetic component of Move and Combination Use, but you’ll be scored extra hard on Strategy and Tactics.