THE MONSTER MOVIE CONTEST
‡ Pre-Round ‡
‡ Round 1 Appeals ‡
Emerald_Gen.3 and Psycho are randomly selected to go first. Psycho uses his affinity for telekinesis to bind the Machoke zombies together and lift a tank of gasoline out from underneath the ground. It’s quite a lot of work and the strain of having to lift such a heavy object shows on his face. When at last Psycho has hurled the tank at the Machokes, thereby creating a tossed salad of zombies and gasoline, he conjures up a crackling Shadow Ball which garners a few oohs and aahs from the audience. Psycho gives his arms a swish and sends the Shadow Ball whizzing toward the zombies. Working swiftly, the Ralts then projects an inverted Protect around the zombies to create an oversized snowglobe effect. The sparks given off by the Shadow Ball ignite the gasoline and cause a contained explosion of flames and zombified body parts, which the crowd watches intensely. As the zombies combust, the crowd cheers. They seem delighted.
BTPoke and Catherine wait for the field to be reset before stepping up. The Machokes once again start lumbering forward, but Catherine stares them down fearlessly. She laces dozens of golden stars with hot flames and sends them whizzing toward the zombies, who moan in pain as their flesh ignites. As they slowly begin to burn, Catherine touches a hoof to the nearby sledgehammer and charges it with a jolt of electricity. The hammer’s steel head begins crepitating as Catherine takes the sledgehammer's handle in her teeth and tries to whip it at the Machokes. Of course, sledgehammers are incredibly heavy and since Catherine can only throw it with her mouth it doesn’t make it quite the whole distance. However, one of the flailing Machokes eventually steps on the hammer and takes the jolt, so it wasn’t a waste. When at last the Machokes are defeated by the flames, the crowd applauds.
Ash0011 and Leo take their turn once our surroundings have been once again reset. Doing what she does best, Leo begins Sketching something batshit crazy: a big ol’ vortex thing! Okay! It’s apparently supposed to look like something from Avatar: The Last Airbender which is probably a helpful reference for people who actually watch that show. Leo douses the hammer with gasoline and lights it… with… what? Not seeing anything nearby that can be used to ignite the hammer, Leo is unable to execute this portion of her commands. Then, taking inspiration from Thor, Leo swings the hammer hard and creates less of an Earth Power and more of a Fissure, which ends up working just fine. Though no molten earth springs out of the ground, the zombies do plunge into the churning pit. Fortunately, Leo manages to avoid exposing any subterranean gas tanks. She then Sketches an electric field around her body and begins to run around and tidy up whatever has been messed up, which isn’t very much. Nonetheless, the crowd appreciates the display even if it seems a little needlessly dangerous and they’re amused by the final image of Leo picking out lipgloss at the end. They applaud.
Rossymore and Eifie are the next duo to make an appeal. As the horde of undead Machokes approaches, Eifie keeps her cool and begins to glow with a soft red light. Suddenly, an assortment of Windex and Mr. Clean bottles begins to march out of the gas station Fantasia-style along with a plastic lighter. (You don’t have to be a Psychic-type in order to predict that there will be a whole lotta flames in the near-future.) Eifie then uses her telekinetic powers to fill the nearby hose with cleaning fluid and then spray it all over the oncoming zombies as well as the sledgehammer sitting a few feet away. Finally, Eifie Psychically clicks the lighter, ignites the sledgehammer and then hurls it at the oncoming Machokes. They burst into flames and begin rolling around and flailing all over the place. Eifie stands guard over the gasoline pumps to ensure nothing explosive happens. When the flailing Machoke zombies eventually go still, the crowd offers its applause.
Underscore and Meditite take to the field to finish the round. With the field once again reset, Meditite attempts to hoist the pick-up truck off the ground. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to lift something so friggin’ heavy and the little fighter almost suffers a brain hemorrhage. Eventually, he settles for merely pushing the truck toward the zombies, crushing several in the process. Meditite then tries to… copy Catherine’s resistance to Fire? The simian doesn’t know how to do something like that, so he moves on and uses Psychic on one of the gasoline pumps to douse himself with gasoline. And then the round ends. Since many of the zombies have not been defeated, they begin to lurch toward Metitite, who quivers in fear and begins to feel weary from the gasoline fumes. Uh-oh. The crowd looks on in horror before the trainer is eventually forced to recall his Pokemon. There is no applause.
‡ Round 1 Scores ‡
Emerald_Gen.3 and Psycho: The crowd really enjoyed this appeal! Though it’s a little unflattering to be seen huffing and puffing while telekinetically lifting a big ol' tank of gasoline out of the ground, Psycho managed it to the best of his ability. The Shadow Ball gave the appeal a fleeting vibe of creepiness, which complemented the theme of the Contest nicely, and the Protect was both conscientious and created a unique snowglobe effect which the crowd enjoyed. Excellent work. 9.0 / 10
BTPoke and Catherine: Though there was a hiccup with this appeal, Catherine for the most part executed your commands effectively. The Starfire combo created a bright, pleasing aesthetic that nicely contrasted the dark backdrop and honed in on a critical zombie weak spot. Unfortunately, Catherine lacked the physical strength to throw a sledgehammer with her mouth, but you got sort of lucky since one of the zombies happened to step on it anyway. One thing, though: since Rapidash is so closely associated with galloping and fast, physical movement, the crowd was a little disappointed to see Catherine remaining stationary for the entirety of the appeal. They felt her strengths could have been better utilized, but ultimately, you accomplished what you set out to do, so good job. 7.0 / 10
Ash0011 and Leo: There were definitely pros as well as cons to this appeal. Cracking open the ground to stop the zombies was a unique approach; though no magma happened to bubble up, the tactic nonetheless demonstrated originality. I feel like the psychic vortex could have been better explained: if you’re going to go for a niche/offbeat appeal, you really need to make sure you describe it as thoroughly as possible (and briefly referencing a TV show the Judge may not have ever seen isn’t gonna cut it, I’m afraid). Moreover, you didn’t explain how Leo was supposed to ignite the hammer. The gas tanks were in plain sight so covering it in flammable liquid was easy enough, but if you wanted Leo to fetch a lighter from inside the store then you needed to tell her that. Finally, though the Wild Charge was a little risky in a gas station, the crowd thoroughly enjoyed the humour at the end. Many scary movies (Scream, Shaun of the Dead, Drag Me to Hell, etc.) deftly mix humour and horror, so the appeal’s silly ending definitely earned you some bonus points. Good work. 7.5 / 10
Rossymore and Eifie: An entertaining, well-executed appeal. Fetching items from the convenience store was an interesting approach and, since you were the only one to work the hose into your appeal, the crowd appreciated your originality. Though your appeal (like many of the others) was inherently risky, you were smart to tell Eifie to guard the gas pumps against the possibility of ignition. Nobody wants to see an explosion happen, after all. Ultimately, the crowd would have liked a bit more variation in the attacks you commanded, but your appeal nonetheless went off without a hitch. Nicely done. 8.5 / 10
Underscore and Meditite: Though I appreciate what you were going for, I think your appeal perhaps would have benefited from just a little bit more time and effort. You earn some originality points for being the only coordinator to incorporate the pick-up truck into your appeal, but of course telekinetically lifting something that heavy is going to be taxing if not entirely impossible. Meditite eventually got the truck to flatten some of the zombies, but not all of them. Since Meditite can’t learn any moves that copy type resistances, your second action didn’t accomplish a whole lot. Finally, I’m not certain why Meditite doused himself with gasoline at the end of the appeal. I assume you were going to get him to ignite himself and use the Fire resistance to create a “burning man” effect, but you really needed to explain this part of the appeal in greater detail for it to work. Overall, I can appreciate this appeal for its potential in what it could have accomplished and I’m sure a little more attention to detail will allow you to create an awesome appeal next time. 4.0 / 10
‡ Post-Round ‡
Notes:
> Well done, coordinators! Fortunately, you've all managed to avoid becoming fatalities of the zombie horde. Phew. The next round will draw upon an entirely different cultural reference. You find yourselves on the deck of an old galleon sailing through the moonlit ocean. Suddenly, forty yards away... colossal, boat-crushing tentacles begin to rise out of the water! It's the kraken! (Or, rather, a massive, mutated Octillery.) Your goal is to stop it from attacking the ship. Nearby, you have some items you can use: a barrel of rum, a barrel of chum, an accordion, a harpoon, a cutlass, a folded sail and some matches. Once again, you want to get out of this without causing serious damage to yourselves/the audience/the ship. This appeal will consist of three moves and you will use whichever Pokemon you did not use for Round 1. You have one week. Hop to it and good luck!
The Monster Movie Contest
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Re: The Monster Movie Contest
Originally Posted by Heald
