DTL Season 5-Week 4 (Set 3)

[Harlekin]

The Deadly Dozen

That was indeed exhausting to read through. The main point of contention seemed for me was the Zoom/Flash battle. Besides the fact that the vibrabullet wouldn't work on Zoom, as has been noted, I do believe that Zoom could take out this Flash. That's a pretty decisive defeat, compounded by the fact that I think Doomsday/Brainiac is more likely to take out Zatanna than vice versa.

Who?

Another toughie, but one thing that I thought was very odd in Gog's write-up was the complete and utter destruction of the Watcher's HQ. Reed Richards would never ever, ever do or agree to this. Besides that, none of the B'Wana Betters is much for wanton destruction. Since they were pretty evenly matched otherwise, it's for that reason I give the vote to Who?

 

[Aristotle]

Just for the record, as of Flash The Fastest Man Alive #10, Zoom is retconned to be able to phase.

 

[Dark Gog]

Another toughie, but one thing that I thought was very odd in Gog's write-up was the complete and utter destruction of the Watcher's HQ. Reed Richards would never ever, ever do or agree to this. Besides that, none of the B'Wana Betters is much for wanton destruction. Since they were pretty evenly matched otherwise, it's for that reason I give the vote to Who?

Who? has three technopaths in his side, one of whom happens to bes a futuristic Doctor Doom. My group wouldn't need to see the future to realize they'd need to negate as much of that advantage as they possibly can, but it helps that they will.

I'm not even sure whether the Watcher Base wound-up being a part of the battle-field, but as I mentioned earlier, Zemo can probably displace the entire compound in time if he had to, or more likely just whatever's inside, or he could retrieve them after the fact should my team win. And The Watcher could just recreate everything once he's back.

 

[Dark Gog]

I'll be doing most, if not all, of my voting tomorrow.

 

[Khellendros]

Going with Tim, even though Ari put up a good fight. I don't buy the vibrabullet thing working on Zoom, either. And, yes, Zoom is more likely to beat Flash than vice versa.

I'm going for Who?. Both were well done in their own ways, but... yeah, that whole "destroy the Watcher's base for no apparent reason" thing just threw me off big time. I also had doubts about attacking Hank's kryptonian weaknesses when the guy's got a fistful of Sinestro rings and only has a couple of chunks of Kryptonian flesh anyways.

 

[LadyVader]

Based solely on the write-ups I would've voted with Aristotle but after that monster of a debate...

XFanTim

and

Who?

 

[Catman_prb]

XFanTim and Dark Gog.

 

[wiegeabo]

Probably the toughest votes for me.

The Deadly Dozens
Who?

Both were tough matches for me to decide. And a lot of great debating. I voted for Tim because I think he handled the characters a little better. And I don't think Who?'s team would be that susceptible to some of Gog's attacks.

 

[Dark Gog]

I'm going for Who?. Both were well done in their own ways, but... yeah, that whole "destroy the Watcher's base for no apparent reason" thing just threw me off big time.

Well in the first place, I didn't actually think The Watcher's Citadel was part of the battlefield. I just threw it in there just in case, and neither Who? nor myself have otherwise paid it any real attention.

It's not like it is really that difficult to reason either - removing that technology is very nearly my team's only viable strategy that makes sense here. Post Unthinkable, Reed will stop at nothing to get rid of Doom. Zemo can retrieve or relocate it later. And it belongs to a being that can remake it with a thought in any case. What more do you need?

I could have put a line in my write-up like; "Their first act is clear from the start. It is the only logical venue available to them, given the respective capabilities of their rivals and themselves. Still, as Reed Richards studies Helmut Zemo's face, he cannot help but wonder; who was it that put their team together in the first place?" But really, why should that even be necessary?

I also had doubts about attacking Hank's kryptonian weaknesses when the guy's got a fistful of Sinestro rings and only has a couple of chunks of Kryptonian flesh anyways.

Is it really more reasonable to believe a betrayed Thunderstrike with C100 strength will overwhelm Firestorm for an entire minute? How about Vandal Savage easily doing away with Scott Free? Hardly every single aspect of our prep and strategy needs to go our way to win a match. Who's team, both in-character and as per our write-ups, clearly isn't expecting my own teams tactics, and is generally less likely to respond well to developments.

As for Cyborg in particular, it doesn't really matter how many Rings he's got. We allowed both he and Prime in under the premise that they're novices with their new powers, and that GL and Sinestro Corps Rings do not stack. And he's up against far more experienced energy manipulators, one of whom happens to be a god of light -- the very stuff Cyborg's constructs are made of -- and the other being both more powerful and quite likely capable of bypassing any shields by creating spacial warps - if not immediately, than at the first lapse of concentration, and Hank Henshaw will have a whole lot of concentrating to do here. The Bloodaxe, in contrast, is by both accounts not being used to counter energy attacks.

Those few chuncks of organic Kryptonian flesh are nontheless what grants him most of his near-Kryptonian physical powers in the first place. He is not simply faced with those weaknesses either; he's being hit with his two weaknesses while handling a massive EMP using the Moonstones as a power source, an electronic virus, and having to compensate for at-least three teammates (Doom, Savage, and Locust) being compromised, when he was intent on taking the offensive. Neither of my Ubers are less powerful then he to begin with. I can easily see Zemo doing something like intensifying gravity around Cyborg to draw all energy towards him, while Firestorm phases himself or Lightray through any shields.

 

[X]

The Deadly Dozen. Who

 

[wiegeabo]

Voting is now closed.
Final results:

The Authoritarians 0
The Deadly Dozen 7

B'wana Bet? 3
Who? 5

 

[Aristotle]

Based solely on the write-ups I would've voted with Aristotle but after that monster of a debate...

XFanTim

That's kind of what I was afraid would happen. I knew my writeup was gonna look pretty tasty on the surface, but I would have to do some unstoppable debating once a fairly well-read comics fan took a look at it. And I don't think I did bad debating, but nearly good enough. And Tim did it good enough so that MY "good enough" wasn't good enough.

 

[XFanTim]

Hell of a match, Aristotle. Don't let the final score discourage you -- often all the votes end up going one way even when everyone agrees it was close. If you put in that kind of effort every week, I think you'll have no shortage of victories.

 

[wiegeabo]

Hell of a match, Aristotle. Don't let the final score discourage you -- often all the votes end up going one way even when everyone agrees it was close. If you put in that kind of effort every week, I think you'll have no shortage of victories.

That's one thing I do miss about the old ranking system. Close matches like this one look more lopsided than they really are.

 

[XFanTim]

Yeah, but on the other hand I think assigning everyone a score out of 10 takes longer and would discourage voting. I do think it's nice when people use their comments to mention what they liked about both writeups, as well as why they ultimately picked one for the winner.

 

[Dark Gog]

The Deadly Dozen. Who

Reasons?

 

[Who?]

Reasons?

Cause I am so pretty?

 

[X]

I'll do a write-up on why I voted as I did in a few minutes.