2016 APCT Round 1.5 Discussion Thread: Test Your Might!

[Deviant_Mugen]

Apologies for the radio silence, folks. As you know, this year's tournament started a little differently, and the addition of the one-vote format has made for some interesting matches thus far. As interesting as the victories were, however, the losses also proved to be surprisingly intriguing, and there were quite a few characters who came close to advancing, but ultimately lost by a small margin. This year, they will get a second shot at redemption, but standing in their way will be their fellow hopefuls... and the Tournament Champions of years past!

That's right, it is my pleasure to announce Round 1.5, where the top 24 runner-ups from Round 1 will face off against the 8 Tournament Champions in 6 vs. 2 free-for-alls (single-vote only, of course). The round will be four matches long, and four characters from each match will move on to Round 2, for a total of 16 characters. It's time for both the Champs and you, the campaigners, to test your mettle. Will you support a past Champion? Or will rally behind one of the fresh faces yearning for a second chance? Let your vote decide.

The matches (as determined by a randomizer) shall be as follows:

Hidden:

Match #1

Bartolomeo—Champion of 2014
Barto Club's Granny
Caesar Clown
Cavendish and Farul
Gin
Marshal D. Teach
Monkey D. Luffy—Champion of 2009
Stelly

Match #2

Baby 5
Boa Hancock
Bon Clay—Champion of 2012
Donquixote Doflamingo
Nico Robin—Champion of 2011
Tamago
Tashigi
Wiper

Match #3

Bartholomew Kuma
Montblanc Norland—Champion of 2013
Pekoms
Straw Hat Grand Fleet
Usopp—Champion of 2004
Vito
Yonji Vinsmoke
Zeff, Patty, and Carne

Match #4

Camel
Capone Bege
Edward Newgate—Champion of 2010
Franky—Champion of 2005
Satori
Scratchmen Apoo
Whitey Bay
Wicca

The Round 1.5 matches will start on Wednesday and end on Sunday, and Round 2 will begin on Monday. And just to make this perfectly clear: No, this is not a gag, the winners of Round 1.5 will advance to Round 2, so make sure that you bring your best campaigns and build some strong bandwagons if you want your character(s) of choice to make it through.

Brace yourselves, and I'll see you folks on Wednesday.

[Kubihige]

Who thought this was a good idea?


And of course Wicca and Whitey Bay (and Camel and Satori) are in the same match. Ugh

[KaizokuJinbei]

It's a nice idea. makes things interesting.

[Wooden_Giraffe]

Who thought this was a good idea?


And of course Wicca and Whitey Bay (and Camel and Satori) are in the same match. Ugh

The champion thing or the matchup of all your favorites?

[Silverblade]

And of course Wicca and Whitey Bay (and Camel and Satori) are in the same match. Ugh

Making it in APCT always was a tall order.

[Kubihige]

The champion thing or the matchup of all your favorites?

Oh as much as t pains me to have all my favorites in one match, I know how random works and accept it.

But not giving actual byes to tournament champions, who already tend to do poorly because of some odd princile members have, and then throwing them in with characters that already have a lot of momentum going for them, is just dumb.

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

Making it in APCT always was a tall order.

Ohoho I like you.

[Wooden_Giraffe]

Oh as much as t pains me to have all my favorites in one match, I know how random works and accept it.

But not giving actual byes to tournament champions, who already tend to do poorly because of some odd princile members have, and then throwing them in with characters that already have a lot of momentum going for them, is just dumb.

Well I can see that, I'm guilty of being one of the ones that doesn't normally vote for them again. Still, why should they receive free passes if they're just going to do lousy?

[Kubihige]

Well I can see that, I'm guilty of being one of the ones that doesn't normally vote for them again. Still, why should they receive free passes if they're just going to do lousy?

Because they've earned it. Winning this tournament is an incredible feat and they deserve something as recognition for that. If even half-jokingly you can consider getting 0 votes an accomplishment, there's no excuse to do this to the champions.

Whitebeard is the prime example. He made a run the likes of which might never be seen again. He was amazing in the story at the time and it showed. Now he's likely to not appear again (at least significantly), so there's pretty much nowhere for him to go but down. Yet he made the most of his time and AP responded by dominantly sending to him to successive rounds and ultimately crowning him king. Giving him a bye is the least that could be done to respect something that was simply incredible, the likes of which we probably won't ever see again. It shouldn't be used as what amounts to a gag just to get people excited.

[C_uggs]

Sorry to ask this but, does the runner-ups from Round 1 can compete with heavy names like Luffy, Robin and Bon-Clay ? Or this will be proven by campaigns ?


Anyway, I liked the idea, some interesting matches *sees Wicca's group* Oh boy...

[Noqanky]

You didn't read the post, Kubi. This isn't a gag.

[Warp Predator]

Because they've earned it. Winning this tournament is an incredible feat and they deserve something as recognition for that. If even half-jokingly you can consider getting 0 votes an accomplishment, there's no excuse to do this to the champions.

Isn't "whole round with past champions as a gimmick" is better way to send them off than simply throwing them down with the rest?

...

It's a chance to painlessly get rid of Luffy as soon as possible, so best idea ever! I should sent a fruit basket to one responsible for it!

[hosemisnuba]

This is interesting. Poor Teach though .

Does anyone have that old, hilarious Whitebeard GIF where Whitebeard beats the crap out of all his tournament opponents. I want to see it very badly.

[NateRich]

Make stupid campaigns for Wiper tomorrow or play Burning Blood? Decisions decisions...

[Kasouya]

oh man, this like pick your poison or something.

but on the bright side I can vote for the character I didn't vote before so........

[NateRich]

Match 1 has Bartolomeo vs his hero(Luffy) his rival(Cavendish) and his savior(Gambia's Granny).

Obviously I will vote for the savior.

[Kubihige]

Isn't "whole round with past champions as a gimmick" is better way to send them off than simply throwing them down with the rest?

...

It's a chance to painlessly get rid of Luffy as soon as possible, so best idea ever! I should sent a fruit basket to one responsible for it!

No, not at all. It's basically the equivalent of clickbait. "Hey, look what we're doing with THESE characters! Come vote! Wouldn't it be crazy if there was an upset?!" Which is just silly. No to mebtion that a lot of these characters have a lot of momentum rolling already, plus the gimmick.

And if spite is the best motivation to do this, that's just sad.

[Wooden_Giraffe]

Because they've earned it. Winning this tournament is an incredible feat and they deserve something as recognition for that. If even half-jokingly you can consider getting 0 votes an accomplishment, there's no excuse to do this to the champions.

Whitebeard is the prime example. He made a run the likes of which might never be seen again. He was amazing in the story at the time and it showed. Now he's likely to not appear again (at least significantly), so there's pretty much nowhere for him to go but down. Yet he made the most of his time and AP responded by dominantly sending to him to successive rounds and ultimately crowning him king. Giving him a bye is the least that could be done to respect something that was simply incredible, the likes of which we probably won't ever see again. It shouldn't be used as what amounts to a gag just to get people excited.

Well it's not like winners are the only ones who go down in popularity. Look at Cavendish, he was a runner up in the last tournament and now finds himself in this same lot. Even Zoro struggled for a while before a late surge. Plus I'm fairly certain(disclaimer, i have not actually looked, don't wanna) that the champions do get through a round or two normally, just don't make it very deep, and they are sort of getting a bye.
If AP really does respect them then they'll push them through this round at least, and like Noquanky said it's not a gag round, more of a gimmick round really.

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

And you ninja'd me, I take way to long to post sometimes.

[Noqanky]

You're overthinking this kubi.

The clickbait argument doesn't hold given that any tournament match could be seen as clickbait. "Who are the most popular pirates in one piece? Click here and find out!" "The 10 most popular characters! is your favorite among them?"
You seem to think it's a disservice to past champions while arguing that this is guaranteed to make them lose. But if that's the case, isn't it better for them to start with relatively weaker characters (as opposed to Law, Sabo, Jinbe, etc.) to build up momentum into the next rounds instead of just materializing there with the momentum of however many years ago and nothing else?
Also, all these runner ups and favorites... they still lost to staple characters even with campaigns and hype behind them. If that's the case, there's no reason to think they're just going to steamroll now. Doffy didn't survive against Law and Corazon but is now magically threatening Luffy and Barto? That doesn't hold.

Also, you assume this is something done just in the interest of lolz and to see what would happen. Not only is that technically the reality behind EVERYTHING that happens in this tournament, but Mugen also specified it's not a gag. It's a way to give favorite runner ups from this last round a second chance while having champions earn a spot that, like you say with whitebeard, may not necessarily be warranted. If they really want to proceed and earn a second title, they also have to fight for it.
Fighting characters that couldn't even win their own rounds is already a leg up as it is.

[Jabberwok]

Match 1 should be brutal. Match 3 will be pretty tough too. The other two might have a little less competition but these should all be pretty fierce.

[Wooden_Giraffe]

While I definitely agree that the champions should be earning their way same as any character. Kubi technically has a point that this round is a bit of a gimmick. It wouldn't have been difficult to make 2 more matches in round 1 out of a lot of the characters that were bunched together in groups. So this was clearly a plan from the beginning in an effort to make things more exciting and it not just be regular matches one after another. Also, some of the characters definitely have momentum, a lot of users posted how they wish they could change their vote or how if so and so wasn't in the round as well, they'd definitely vote for them because of campaigns. So it sort of does put the champions at a disadvantage cause many of these characters do have a lot of round 1 hype. I mean I know I'm not voting for a single one of them.