[Concluded] drizzleRomanceGirl's FFR Team Tournament

[HalfStep]

This should be good. Lmfao

[Zephei]

All right then, voting for Yo Man. We've still got a great team!

[Elmerz]

I like my team...

[TC_Halogen]

Drizzle has done a pretty good job considering she can't see level ranks.

Now that we have Opkiller, our team is mega-stacked because we have two people that have level 93 AAAs, haha

I'll make a few suggestions for even teams in Advanced:

Elite Ninja, kjwkjw, j-rodd123, and Dynam0 in the first team!
~Zeta~, One Winged Angel, Lambdadelta, and Hakulyte in the second team!
alloyus, yo man im awesome, LightArrow, Zephei, and krunkykai22 in the third team!
And RagedBerserker, TC_Halogen, xXOpkillerXx, and Xx{Fallen}xX in the fourth team!

(before I go on, every team has their weakest player -- I'm not saying this in a derogatory manner, just saying it from an analytical perspective)

---

These are from public ranks only.

Team 1: Elite Ninja, kjwkjw, j-rodd123, Dynam0
Best AAAs: 81, 86, 70, 89 (respectively; av: 81.5)
Highest SDGs: 86 [Pandora], 89 [grind2, CCCP, Eclipse (Solar)], 78 [Sparkle Downer], 90 [Stinger] (respectively; av: 85.75)

Strongest player Dynam0 has a level 89 AAA, and ridiculous potential if he can hone in on his StepMania skills. With Eclipse (Solar) being the 89, it's quite easy to see that Dynam0 is very fast. kjwkjw has an 86 AAA, and a few near AAAs in the mid-80s -- certainly a lot of potential in the upper range if he has the time to practice. Elite Ninja's best AAA is only an 81, but his consistency is respectable going up to the mid-80s. He's got drive to improve, as well. j-rodd123 is the weakest team member, by far -- his best AAA is only a 70. His scoring potential dips into the 80s (12-0-0-2 on Blue Rose isn't bad at all!), but drops off VERY fast.

Team 2: ~Zeta~, One Winged Angel, Lambdadelta, Hakulyte
Best AAAs: 83, 94, 77, 74 (respectively; av: 82)
Highest SDGs: 91 [Magical 8 Bit Tour], 95 [do i smile?], 83 [Sleepmix Strikes Back], 85 [Breakbeat Acid] (respectively; av: 88.5)

One Winged Angel is certainly leading his army here with a level 94 AAA -- while that AAA might be Crowdpleaser, he still shows that he doesn't give a flying fuck what's thrown at him: out of the 15 files rated 90-95 in difficulty (excluding Crowdpleaser), OWA has SDG'd 11 of them. Within these 11 files, all skills are showcased -- he hauls ass in Slashmaid, he trashes bursts in Stinger, he mops up broken 280 BPM jumpstream in J'ai Envie, proficiently handles jacks/jump-trill walls in Husigi, and knows how to contend with extreme stream speeds in do i smile?. There's nothing he can't do.

~Zeta~ is incredibly unpredictable. While his best recorded SDG is Magical 8 Bit Tour, he's also gotten ridiculous PA on Almost There, albeit with misses. He's quite well-rounded, with top 20 or better scores on 11 of the 16 90-95 files.

While Lambdadelta has the second lowest rating for best AAA and lowest rating for best FC, don't count him out as a contender by any means. His 15-0-0-6 on grind2, 17-0-0-3 on My Half, and 12-3-0-2 on Breakbeat Acid show that he can hold his own on brutal bursts, long enduring songs, and high speeds. With a little bit of patience, he might be able to bring out some great scores.

Then, there's Hakulyte. This kid makes no sense sometimes -- everyone who's held some sort of tournament has probably sat down praying to their non-existent god asking for guidance on where to place this kid, because he's always a martyr in the top division, or a murderer in the second to the top. In a three division tournament, the placement is a lot more respectable. Hakulyte has the lowest rating out of all of the best AAAs, but his best FC isn't the worst. In addition to this, Hakulyte possesses some pretty strong scores himself -- 12-3-0-3 on My Half, 16-3-0-8 on Grist, and 23-1-0-7 on Xanthystramua are all top-40 or better. His playcounts also show that he might be willing to push himself, although you really never can tell.

Team 3: alloyus, yo man im awesome, LightArrow, Zephei, krunkykai22
Best AAA: 85, 86, 68, 82, 79 (respectively; av: 80)
Highest SDGs: 90 [Schmollbluk, Stinger], 89 [Eclipse (Solar), grind2, Scrap Syndrome], 77 [Twister], 90 [Schmollbluk], 85 [Rock Rock Rock, Breakbeat Acid] (respectively; av: 86.2)

Team 3, as it stands, has the lowest AAA average. However, this means -absolutely- nothing coming from the people that are on this team. If everyone recalls, alloyus was the winner of the last official tournament, with an absolutely dominating run on a level 94 file (13g, with one miss). Statistically, his best SDG is a 90; don't for a second think that he can't do better, though. With 3 on The Ordeal Becomes Great, Zombie Sunset, and Rage Template, and 4 on DeVouR/Phi-dentity Crisis, alloyus possesses an all-around ability to handle just about anything.

yo man im awesome follows suit, but with a slightly higher recorded AAA and slightly lower best FC. His A Quick Death score of 7-1-0-6 just barely falls outside of SDG range, but his upper 80s scores are all very strong, with many SDGs on a wide variety of styles.

LightArrow is way behind the pack, with a best AAA of only 68 (Pure Ruby) and best FC of Twister. If there's any consolation to LightArrow's position, it's that Twister is a very complex chart that possesses a little bit of everything. I personally am not sure how far LightArrow will go; it might be worth while for LightArrow to open the tournament if songs are going in ascending order of difficulty, because there are some mid 70s with respectable scores (October is one of them).

Zephei is a dangerous player in his own right. He definitely holds his own against many other top-tier players, and his scores reflect that well. 4-1-0-0 on Counter Clockwise Chant Pattern, 10-1-0-4 on Slashmaid (a 90), 17-0-0-2 on Rave7 (a 95), and near AAAs in the mid 80s keeps him in contention up through even the toughest songs. There's no real weakness to spot here -- 4 on Breakbeat Acid showcases clean speed, 2-0-0-1 showcases stream versatility, 12-0-0-1 on Rage Template showcases overall technicality, and the wicked 30-0-0-10 score on Jamais Vu showcases a great dominance on very heavy jumpstream. A few of the aforementioned scores also prove that Zephei is quite the speedy player.

krunkykai22 can hold his own pretty well, too. While his best AAA is a 79, he has some SDGs in the mid-80s, including some pretty impressive Rock Rock Rock and Breakbeat Acid scores. Also, that 8-1-0-6 on Music (For Kirby) really shows an all-around skill, because that song is chock-full of just about everything. While high playcounts are indicative of strong effort to improve, personal experience tells me that his patience could use a little bit of work. There's skill hiding a way, but it takes a lot for him to harness it to full potential. Assessing the level ranks in detail shows that his only potential weakness might be longer songs, as songs like La Campanella/Red Wings Over Baron have obscenely high scores, while extremely difficult but shorter songs like Grist and Schmollbluk have much cleaner scores with less averages/boos overall.

Team 4: RagedBerserker, TC_Halogen, xXOpkillerXx, Xx{Fallen}xX
Best AAA: 80, 93, 93, 80 (respectively; av: 86.5)
Highest SDG: 85 [Rock Rock Rock], 95 [do i smile?, Rave7], 94 [Husigi Usagi Milk Tei, Winter Wind Etude], 83 [Lawn Wake II] (respectively; av: 89.25)

While RagedBerserker's best AAA is an 80 and his best SDG is an 85, there are some very good top 40 or better scores that are worth mentioning, like 13-1-0-4 on Music (For Kirby), 15-1-0-7 on Schmollbluk (a 90), 21-0-0-3 on Chik Habit (87; rank 31) and 39-4-0-11 on do i smile? (95, rank 19!). His statistics might not be fully reflective of what he can do.

Assessing myself is difficult, but I will do so as impartially as possible. I have not played many of the newer files, but I have top 10 or better scores from RATO all the way down (excluding all of the newer files, which I can AAA if I sat down and tried). I am very proficient at longer files, and my jumpstream capabilities are incomprensible due to a relative indifference in pattern choices. Some of the highest playcounts in my level ranks correlate to struggles with wrist-jacking (see: Grist at 242 recorded plays, 279 on Almost There, or 438 on Husigi Usagi Milk Tei), which is my biggest weakness -- songs like Grist and Husigi Usagi Milk Tei are incredibly frustrating because I simply lack the speed.

XxOpkillerxX is the other super-power on this team, also in possession of a 93 AAA (Extratone Pirates). His speed is unrivaled by most players, holding scores like 2-0-0-0 on A Quick Death, 12-0-0-1 on Rave7, 10-1-0-3 on do i smile? and 3-0-0-0 on Jamais Vu. He also has an uncanny ability to produce very clean scores. He also is obviously incredibly resilient -- he has a rank 5 on RATO that just barely passes 100 goods, and nearly touches 2,200 recorded plays.

Xx{Fallen}xX is the weakest player, but even the weakest player on this team is quite respectable -- all players on this team have at least one FGO AAA. Fallen's Ketsarku AAA shows that he's good with control, as the presence of split-handed bursts and uncheatable rolls exists very heavily in the song. It's quite hard to pinpoint any real strengths, considering the best AAA and best SDG are only three difficulty ranks apart, and still leave a ton of room for difficulty above them. Some notables: 9-0-1-0 on Little God Ch@nnel, 7-0-0-2 on Jamais Deux, and 5-1-0-0 on Return to Fire.

Recap of statistics/notables:
TEAM 1: 81.5 / 85.75; Dynam0 has the possibility of doing more damage than his level ranks suggest, but only he can prove this correct/incorrect
TEAM 2: 82 / 88.5; ~Zeta~ is quite unpredictable and can pull just about anything out if he tries, from experience.
TEAM 3: 80 / 86.2; three out of five players on this team were top 8 or better finishers in the official; these numbers mean absolutely nothing with these guys, and are likely contenders for this tournament with appropriate adjustment to the teams.
TEAM 4: 86.5 / 89.25; two out of four players have a level 93 AAA - this team is heavily stacked and needs to be toned down.

Suggestions:
- Move Zephei to team 1, and Elite Ninja to team 3. This technically reduces the AAA / FC averages of team 3; however, LightArrow -really- bogs the team's averages down - in fact, if LightArrow wasn't averaged at all, the AAA / FC average would actually be 83 / 88.5 - a much more respectable number if Zephei is still in the picture. Moving Zephei into team 1 improves the numbers 81.5 / 85.75 to 81.75 / 86.75.
- Move LightArrow from team 3 to team 4. Putting LightArrow in team 4 balances the numbers a bit and forces team 4 to utilize a weaker player at the start to counteract the inevitable charge they will bring when the harder songs come in. Moving LightArrow to team 4 changes team 3's 80 / 86.2 averages to 82.75 / 87.5, and changes team 4's averages to 82.8 / 87.

This would make the adjusted teams:
Team 1: Zephei, kjwkjw, j-rodd123, Dynam0 [81.75 / 86.75]
Team 2: ~Zeta~, One Winged Angel, Lambdadelta, Hakulyte [82 / 88.5]
Team 3: alloyus, yo man im awesome, Elite Ninja, krunkykai22 [82.75 / 87.5]
Team 4: RagedBerserker, XxOpkillerxX, TC_Halogen, Xx{Fallen}xX, LightArrow [82.8 / 87]

This structure also leaves each team two REALLY strong players to chomp in the endgame - Zephei and Dynam0, ~Zeta~ and One Winged Angel, alloyus and yo man, and me and XxOpkillerxX. While Team 4 has an extremely powerful endgame, the makeup that might need to happen due to an extreme polarity between the lowest and highest skill players could be costly.

We'll see how it works!

(This was actually quite fun to do -- good official tournament preparation :3)

EDIT: Oh, one more thing -- if LightArrow is here in Advanced, I strongly feel like arcnmx should be Advanced as well -- he has a level 66 AAA like LightArrow, but has been SDGing (or near SDGing) lower 80s - see Tageri. EDIT2: LOL WAIT HE AAA'D EINSTEIN ROSEN BRIDGE, WHAT WHEN

[Dru0129]

I added everyone on my team as a friend so I could get to know them and I hope they get my post so we can have a plan of attack for this tournament! I am excited and hopefully able to play this time, cause I missed the MP tournament cause of work! Best of luck to all!! Oh, btw is there a set date and time you are shooting for Drizzle?

[krunkykai22]

That was a very insightful post to read, from AJ.

He's right though, I need to have more patience with this game >.<

[drizzleRomanceGirl]

@TC_Halogen, First of all, thank you for all your time and effort into putting everyone's strengths and weaknesses together! It was very informative and I really enjoyed reading all the commentary. XD I agree that the teams will be more balanced with your suggestions, and I'm going to move LightArrow from team three to team four. However, I can't move Elite Ninja to team three because both kjwkjw and Elite Ninja specifically requested to be in the same team together, and I think they'll have a lot more fun that way.

Like I said above, LightArrow is being moved from team three to four.

[TC_Halogen]

Ah, alright. Either way, the averages won't be adversely affected with Zephei/EN left alone, but Team 1 is slightly weaker statistically.

I do think that moving LightArrow is 100% required, though, because Team 4 has two batshit insane FFR players, lol

[drizzleRomanceGirl]

Originally Posted by Dru0129

I added everyone on my team as a friend so I could get to know them and I hope they get my post so we can have a plan of attack for this tournament! I am excited and hopefully able to play this time, cause I missed the MP tournament cause of work! Best of luck to all!! Oh, btw is there a set date and time you are shooting for Drizzle?

I'm glad you're getting to know your team better! I'm not entirely sure when everything will take place; it mostly depends on how long it takes for all the team captains to be decided, for the captains to decide the order of the people in their team, and for the captains to decide their team names. ^.^

Also, I've already said this, but the cycles will *not* increase in difficulty. In every cycle, rounds 1 and 5 will have the hardest songs, rounds 2 and 4 will have medium difficulty songs, and round 3 will have the easiest songs (within every division). ^.^

[yo man im awesome]

so, because there's 5 rounds to a cycle, teams like mine will have to choose someone to play twice, yes?

[James May]

Can I vote myself captain?

Props to drizzle for the placements
And AJ holy shit that analysis post haha. What do you think about the placements on intermediate?

[HalfStep]

You can't James May :C

edit:

Originally Posted by yo man im awesome

so, because there's 5 rounds to a cycle, teams like mine will have to choose someone to play twice, yes?

Yep.

[TC_Halogen]

Midigami: intermediate posts would take forever because I would actually have to dig over a larger area.

Also, interesting cycle choice -- I did not see that in the thread.

[krunkykai22]

@Yo Man

I would assume so yes.

[drizzleRomanceGirl]

Originally Posted by yo man im awesome

so, because there's 5 rounds to a cycle, teams like mine will have to choose someone to play twice, yes?

Yes; however, the extra player cannot be the same person more than once in the entire tournament.

Originally Posted by James May

Can I vote myself captain?

Props to drizzle for the placements
And AJ holy shit that analysis post haha. What do you think about the placements on intermediate?

Thank you! You cannot vote yourself captain; you must choose another person on your team.

Originally Posted by TC_Halogen

Midigami: intermediate posts would take forever because I would actually have to dig over a larger area.

Also, interesting cycle choice -- I did not see that in the thread.

Thanks! ^.^

[James May]

Doug then. Because then he'll make the other teams be devoured by pink dragons.

[TC_Halogen]

drizzle: has Fallen given you his vote for Team Captain? I have two votes and if he says yes to me being a Team Captain, then I can communicate with the rest of my team and start planning some strategy.

[Viisbyxa]

Originally Posted by drizzleRomanceGirl

*edit* I've checked your levelranks again, Viisbxya, and I've decided you're officially in Intermediate! ^.^

I don't think much actually changed since the last time I posted, but yay!

Has anyone from my team posted yet? Zak is the only one I kinda know, but I'll vote for whoever thinks they can do a good job as captain. I certainly can't, as I'm now very limited on time and I'm not good with judging people's skills and stuff.

[drizzleRomanceGirl]

Originally Posted by Viisbyxa

I don't think much actually changed since the last time I posted, but yay!

Has anyone from my team posted yet? Zak is the only one I kinda know, but I'll vote for whoever thinks they can do a good job as captain. I certainly can't, as I'm now very limited on time and I'm not good with judging people's skills and stuff.

I'm sorry, but you have to vote for a specific person for your vote to count. >.< *edit* No one from your team has voted yet.

Originally Posted by TC_Halogen

drizzle: has Fallen given you his vote for Team Captain? I have two votes and if he says yes to me being a Team Captain, then I can communicate with the rest of my team and start planning some strategy.

Yes, he voted for you too! You're the official team captain. ^.^

[krunkykai22]

If I'm not mistaken, Alloyus is our Team Captain right?