Finished The Challenge: Season 7 - And the Winner is...

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Hey everyone, thank you all for submitting on time! All entries have been received, and I plan on having my husband judging them over the weekend. I'll post up results as soon as their ready and then the final team elimination will begin. Challenge 10 will start sometime next week depending on how long judging/elimination takes.
 
Official update time!

Hubby finished his judging this evening. Took a bit longer than expected, partially because I was a klutz and hurt myself Friday evening so our weekend ended up being kind of weird.

So, I know who won and who lost... but I'm going to let you all stew over it a bit because I don't have the time and/or energy to write up a full post with flavour and everything right now. It'll get posted up sometime tomorrow morning.
 
Twisted my knee. I'll be okay, it's just kind of painful and awkward to get around at the moment.
 
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The teams immediately got to work on their entries, pooling their artistic and writing talents together and working their hardest. All 3 teams felt confident in their abilities to complete the challenge on their own and no extra help was hired.

Queen Athena hovered in the background like a busy bee, watching the challengers create their entries then flitting back to her quarters presumably to discuss things with her husband before the judging was set to begin. Although not involved much in this particular challenge at all, she looked at nervous as the competitors.

Finally the deadline day arrived and the various teams came together for the final time to share their entries with the judge. The challengers shifted on their feet, uncertain of how things would proceed, but excited as well. None of them knew much at all about King Consort Gapponius. Indeed, he preferred to stay out of the public light and was something of a mystery to most Challesians.

Athena and Gapponius entered together, their arms linked. The King Consort was a younger man, with a fair smile, small trimmed beard, and blonde hair over a meter's length running down his back in a well-groomed ponytail. He smiled and dipped his head in acknowledgment of the challengers, but said nothing.

Athena gestured for him to sit in the throne of the dais and approached the teams herself. "Thank you all for being prompt about submitting your entries. I assure you that my husband is eager to see them, as eager as I am to see what he thinks. You all have done some splendid work and deserve to be proud of what you've created. Please hand your final entries to me."

One by one, the teams came forward, presenting their banners, stories, and other works to the Queen. She acknowledged them all then brought them to Gapponius. They talked for a few moments in a quiet murmur and then the King Consort went to work, opening scrolls, making comparisons. While the challengers stood awaiting their judgment, the Queen anxiously walked back and forth, looking at the comments her husband was writing, looking back at the competitors.

A couple hours passed while Gapponius deliberated. The challengers' feet were beginning to get sore, but they had not been dismissed and were content to wait for their results. Eventually, Gapponius finished recording his thoughts and handed the full feedback scrolls to a page for distribution. He and Athena exchanged a few words and a kiss, then he stepped forward to address the competitors.

"It has been an honour and a pleasure to see your creations," he said with a smile, "and I heartily thank my wife here for giving me an opportunity to take part in this event. Overall, I was pleased with the quality of your entries, and it was difficult for me to make a choice, but choosing of course, is something I must do. I hope you find my judging to be fair and that you take my criticisms to heart as cause for improvement, not for weeping."

He and Athena exchanged glances and she nodded at him to continue. "I declare the winner of this challenge to be the Amber Phoenixes and the loser to be the Palatinate Cynogryphons. I suppose this means one of you three will be leaving, and I'm sorry to see you go, but that's the nature of these things. Athena will be providing her personal prize to the Phoenixes in due time. I'm not sure if I'll be back for anything else in this challenge, but it's been a pleasure."

As Gapponius left, Athena took his place on the throne. "Indeed, the Cynogryphons will need to decide on their elimination. In the meantime, all of you should say your farewells to your teammates, for work from here on out will primarily be solo. We will meet up to discuss the next challenge once elimination is complete."

Challenge 9 Results
Create-A-Mythological-Fakemon Contest​

The final places for the teams are as follows:

Amber Phoenixes: 1st
Xanadu Taniwha: 2nd
Palatinate Cynogryphons: 3rd
​

As such, the Palatinate Cynogryphons will be facing elimination.

Full entries and corresponding judging feedback can be found below:

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Name – Tietwai
Pokémon Category – The Anchor Pokémon

Types – Water/Dragon
Stage – Fully-Evolved Basic
Gender Ratio – 50% || 50%
Egg Group(s) – Water 1, Dragon
Physical Description – Tietwai are green serpentine shaped Pokémon distinguishable by its red-striped quills and its anchor affixed to its tail. As a Tietwai ages, swirled, black markings form on its back.
Height/Weight – 8’5” / 851 lbs

Pokédex Entry – It is thought to rip ships from the sea with a single grasp of that ship’s anchor. Its anchor was scavenged from such a ship.

Base Stats – 550
HP: 90
Attack: 120
Defense: 80
Sp.Atk: 95
Sp.Def: 75
Speed: 90

Regular Ability 1: Mold Breaker – This Pokémon’s attacks ignore the effects of any Abilities that would otherwise alter this Pokémon’s output damage or attack effects.
Regular Ability 2: Pressure – Any attacks used against this Pokémon cost one additional PP upon execution.
Hidden Ability: Phasing – Priority attacks lose priority when used against this Pokémon.

Signature Move: Anchor Drop – A powerful physical attack that drops an anchor on the target and has a 30% chance of causing the target to flinch.

Trivia:
- Tietwai’s anchor-like appendage can be hooked into the battlefield to maintain a foothold so all four limbs can be used at any given time.
- The name of ‘Tietwai’ is a combination of ‘water’ (wai) from Maori and ‘titanic’ as the creature is inspired by the Maori sea guardian, the ‘Taniwha’.
- Tietwai are very protective of its territory and those of it, ready to tear apart any intruding ship that is deemed threatening to its home.

Tietwai

"The Anchor Pokémon" - wouldn't it sink? It's less than three meters tall. I'm pretty sure that it can't generate enough buoyancy or force to get its tail off of the sea floor. Especially if it doesn't have webbed feet or fins or something.

It has switly skin folds in its palms. That's just asking for fungal infections.

"Anchor drop" - where does the anchor come from? Also, imagine a Pikachu. A level 100 Pikachu. This baby is the toughest, bulkiest Pikachu you've ever seen. Now imagine what happens when you drop an anchor on his head. Either you miss (I assume this is about 70% of the cases) or he's frigging dead ("flinched" indeed). Next time I squish a mosquito, I'm going to say it flinched.

Overall rating: always lynch DoubleGold day 1.

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Name: Tikonphon
Category: Tikonphon, the Cygnogryphon Pokémon
Types: Fighting/Flying
Stage: 1
Evolves from: Cygnorunt
Gender Ratio: 75% male, 20% Female
Egg Groups: Monster, Flying
Physical Description: A Medium sized Cygnogryphon with large, purple wings and light brown feathers, with a light brown body and snout. Its front paws have evolved into the Cygnogryphon equivalent of Boxing Gloves, allowing it to subdue prey easier. The back end of its body is covered with dark brown feathers, and large, purple feathers appear around the waist like a karate belt.
Height: 5'4" / 1.63 Meters
Weight: 136.5 lbs / 61.92 Kg
Dex Entry: Tikonphon, the Cygnogryphon Pokémon. Tikonphon are mostly independent and will often fight each other for territory. They are also very protective of their Trainer and will try to fight off anything in their way.
Base Stats: 72 HP / 130 Atk / 65 Def / 60 Spa / 70 Spd / 118 Spe (Total: 515)
Regular Abilities: Intimidate (Lowers the opposing Pokémon's Attack stat.) and Iron Fist (Powers up punching moves.)
Hidden Ability: Rivalry (Deals more damage to Pokémon of the same gender.)
Signature Move: Talon Crush. This Fighting-Type move has base 100 Power, 90% Accuracy, and 5 PP. It is super effective against things that are weak to the Flying Type.
Interesting Facts: 1. Tikonphon Can fly at speeds up to 130 Miles per Hour. 2. To find a mate, Male Tikonphon have been known to collect broken Poké Balls to display to Females. 3. Tikonphon's punch can shatter steel.

Tikonphon

Mad props for the drawing.

"Category: Tikonphon, the Cygnogryphon Pokémon" - its name is in the category? I'm fairly certain that's not how categories work. Unless it's, like, the class of a ship. Like how the USS Nimitz is the flagship of the Nimitz class? I guess that gets a pass.

5% of them don't have a gender. Progressive.

Regarding the physical description... So... The wings are purple, but the feathers are light brown? I don't think that's how wings work. Unless it's still a chick (awww) but this dude is already evolved.

"Tikonphon's punch can shatter steel." Have you ever punched steel? I'll go with the whole Poké-world where creatures can be mad crazy strong, but steel doesn't shatter, bro. Steel totes bends. Unless it's super cold, but flying types are weak to ice, so I don't really know what's going on here. (How do scientists know this, by the way? Are they just assholes, making every Pokémon punch things to see how strong they are?)

Overall rating: yes.

Name: Heliosprey
Pokémon Category: Heliosprey, the Harvest Pokémon
Type: Fire/Grass
Stage: Stage 2
Names of Other Stages: Pyrrot, Fallbatross
Gender Ratio: 50% male; 50% female
Egg Group(s): Grass, Dragon
Height/Weight: 7'07"; 185.3 lbs.
Base Stats: 135/60/120/100/100/85 (BST: 600)

Physical Description:
A beautiful autumn-colored bird with bright emerald eyes. The bones at the stem of its wings resemble branches of small red leaves from which four glorious amber plumes extend. Its face and body are a gentle orange, and a three-feathered crown coloured a calming purple extends from its head. Green scales at the top of its neck akin to those found on a Fenghuang fade into autumnal leaves at its neck's base. Taking inspiration from the Sun Crow, Heliosprey has three wood-colored legs - the third is often used to pluck at its tail like a harp, as depicted in some art below. Its tail, a fan of cream-colored feathers with five large red plumes, is decorated both with bright green marks and small thread-like feathers that serve as harp strings. Heliosprey flocks oftentimes designate one member of the species to master the musical arts, and this Heliosprey plays tunes at many festivals.

Pokédex Entries:
When it is sighted in the wild, autumn is surely on its way. Its wings shine in every shade of orange with the setting sun.

Ancient tribes living on the plains worshipped Heliosprey as the harbinger of harvest. Legends say that its middle leg sprouts flowers whenever it touches eligible ground.

1-2 Regular Abilities: Name and Description:
Solar Replenishment:
The Pokémon gradually regains HP in sunny weather. (for reference's sake, it's 1/16 of its max HP, like Rain Dish but for sunlight).
Solar Power:
Boosts the Sp. Atk stat in sunny weather, but HP decreases.
Hidden Ability:
Flower Gift
Increases friendly Pokémon's Attack and Special Defense to 1.5× during strong sunlight.
As a note, Flower Gift will also revert back to its Generation IV state, meaning that Cherrim changes to its Sunny Form through its own means and not via the ability.

Signature Move:
Ground Sun:
In-game text:The user emits a beautiful song, tuned with Chunsheng, calling for the sun. If used twice while sunlight summoned by this attack is still active on the field, it instead tunes its song with Diri, causing permanent sunlight.
Actual Effect in English:Under normal condition, this Grass-Type move creates regular Sunny Day. When used a second time while the Sunny Day caused by the move is still in effect, the harsh sunlight is permanent and can only be overwritten by Primals being switched in. Essentially it's a very slightly more powerful version of Gen V Drought, but it's way more difficult to set up.

Trivia:
  • This Pokemon was based off of phoenixes from many cultures, such as the Fenghuang (known as the Chinese phoenix in the west) and the "sun crow", otherwise known as the three-legged crow. Its new ability and various physical features such as its snake-like neck and blue/purple crown take inspiration from the former. Heliosprey's three legs and much of its lore, including its signature move, take direct inspiration from the sun crow instead.
  • When this Pokemon raises its wings to the sky, it takes on the appearance of a beautiful golden flower.
  • Wild Heliosprey feed mainlyon mysterious herbs called Diri Leaves, not found anywhere but the highest mountain in the world.

Artwork:
Official Artwork/Pose:
heliosprey_by_skyleaf2000-d9xvk1j.png
More stylish pose:
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TCG Card:
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Heliosprey

Props for having an easily pronounceable name.

"A three-feathered crown coloured a calming purple extends from its head" - purple is NOT calming. In nature, that shit usually means that if you lick it, you die. Which means it's poisonous not venomous. Just, you know, FYI.

It has three legs. How does it walk? Especially if flowers shoot out of its talons when the middle leg touches fertile soil. That would get in the way. Yo. But mostly I'm imagining this cute waddle where it gets confused over whether to go "left, middle, right, left, middle, right" or "right, middle, left, right, middle, left" or "right+left, middle, right+left, middle". Also, where do the genitals go? Or is that middle leg not really a leg?
You get extra points for properly reversing the green S-shaped markings on the tail in the second image, compared to the first image.

Its special abilities give it bonuses when the weather is sunny, but at the same time, it's an autumn pokémon. I want your autumns, is what I'm trying to say, I guess. Maybe it needed all summer to get energy or something, and that's why it shows up in fall? I guess you get a pass for that.

"In-game text:The user emits a beautiful song, tuned with Chunsheng," YOU MEAN POKÉMON PLAYERS ARE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT CHUNSHENG IS? I didn't know, so I googled it. It didn't give me anything. So I added "song" but that just got me a whole bunch of Chinese people whose last name is Song. This was kinda funny. Also, you do know that sunlight is decently permanent already, right? There's just this whole thing where the planet rotates and clouds get in the way and shit.

TCG art-work looks like cool glowy stained glass stuff. Aw yeah stained glass. Mmmmm.

Overall rating: More people should've asked me what my favourite Zelda art style is. Stained glass and shit, yeeeeah.

Prize!

As promised in the original challenge information, the winning team will receive "a very random prize from me". That prize was to be a fake Pokémon TCG card made by me using the winning team's Pokémon!

... So of course that winning team also decided to make their own TCG card as part of their entry and it's 15 million times better than anything I could make. *sigh* But I still made one anyway, even if Jabber already showed me up. I decided to go a bit of a different direction with it than his card so I don't look like a copycat. You can check it out in the spoiler below!

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Elimination​

  1. Each member of the losing team(s) must vote for a member of their team to be eliminated from the game. Provide your vote in an individual PM with me in the format "vote: [username]". You are of course welcome to discuss elimination with your teams if you wish, so long as all votes are sent to me privately.
  2. Elimination deadlines will always be 48 hours from the time of the results post. In this particular instance, this means that all elimination votes are due by Wednesday, April 13th at 12:30pm CEST. That is the same as 11:30pm BST, 6:30am Eastern US time, 3:30am Pacific US time, or approximately the same time as this post in your own time zone.
  3. Every team member for the losing team(s) must submit an elimination vote by the deadline. If you do not, your vote will count as a vote to eliminate yourself.
  4. All Challenge 7 participants (whether they are on eliminating teams or not) may choose to use 1 SoSMA to act as a negative elimination vote for a non-self/team player of your choice. Detailed information about can be found below in the spoiler. Any Scrolls used in this matter must be submitted to be via PM by the same 48 hour deadline as the elimination votes.
  5. Once all votes and Scroll uses have been tallied, the player from each eliminated team with the most votes will be permanently removed from the game.
  6. In the event of a tie, the winning team of the previous challenge gets to choose who of the tied candidates is eliminated.


Scroll of Summon Magical Assistant: Elimination Use

Each of you started with a number of Scrolls of Magical Assistant, a magic item that can be used to give you various advantages throughout the game. Each time a new use of the item is revealed, it will be posted about in the Update (like this section here and now), and also added to the OP for easy reference. Please Note: Each Scroll is single use only! Once you use a Scroll for any purpose it is used up and your total number of scrolls goes down by one. If you ever want to know how many scrolls you currently have available at any given point, feel free to ask.

SoSMA 1: Negative Elimination Vote: Every time there is an Elimination, all current players may choose to use one scroll to act as a "negative" elimination vote on a player of their choice. This will subtract a vote from that player's total number of votes. If a player reaches 0 votes in this manner, they cannot be eliminated. In negative votes override all of the votes for a given team, that team becomes safe and none of their players will be eliminated.

However, there are of course some restrictions:
  1. You may never use a Scroll to give a negative vote on yourself, or even another member of your team. You may only use scrolls to save members of other teams. Feel free to communicate and work out deals with other teams, if you wish.
  2. You may never use 2 Scrolls in a row to give a negative vote to the same person. If you choose to use a Scroll as a vote for the current elimination, the next time you use a Scroll must be either for a non-elimination purpose, or used as a negative vote for a different member.

As an example, let's suppose that Team1 is voting for elimination. 2 members of the team vote for Player1 to be eliminated and 2 other members vote for Player2 to be eliminated.

Instance 1 - Player5 uses a Scroll on Player1. The score would then be 2 to 1 and Player2 would be the one eliminated.
Instance 2 - Player5 and Player6 each use a Scroll on Player1. Player7 and Player8 each use a Scroll on Player2. The score would then be 0 to 0, all votes nullified, and Team1 becomes safe from elimination.

If you have any questions about this particular use of SoSMA, please ask!

The Next Challenge?

The next challenge will hopefully go live shortly after elimination is completed but it may be delayed. Remember that teams are officially disbanded now, so prepare to go solo from here on out!
 
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I had originally seen Heliospray on DA before it got revealed here, and immediately commented on it being very nice. Jabberwock's card just won me over! <3
Though if I wasn't spending 12 hours two-way in a car without a decent computer, I would've made a FA-EX myself. >:L
Also those gold lines on the card are too yellow in the middle (is that the base colour?).
But seriously it's really <3

Seriously, nice win, my homage team!
 
I read the feedback for every team, and I must say, your husband is HILARIOUS. 10/10 would read again.
Should I answer the questions he posed for us? :p
 
Skyleaf2000 said:
I read the feedback for every team, and I must say, your husband is HILARIOUS. 10/10 would read again.
Should I answer the questions he posed for us? :p
Click to expand...

You're very welcome to! I'll be sure to share the answers with him.
 
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@mordacazir has been eliminated from the Palatinate Cynogryphons!

Thank you very much for participating! I hope you enjoyed your time in the game. Please contact me privately if you would like a link to the Dead/Spectator QT to discuss the game behind the scenes.​


And with that, the final team activity comes to a close. Due to general busy-ness and pre-made plans for today, the start of Challenge 10 has been postponed until Monday. Enjoy a relaxing weekend break!
 
Athena said:
And with that, the final team activity comes to a close. Due to general busy-ness and pre-made plans for today, the start of Challenge 10 has been postponed until Monday. Enjoy a relaxing weekend break!
Click to expand...
*flops into pillow*
*zzzzzzzzzz*
 
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The challengers shared a heartwarming moment, saying goodbye to their fellow teammates. Some promised to aid each other in the single challenges ahead, others were already looking forward to maximizing their advantages and cut off dead weight of team members that didn't contribute much. The Cynogryphons were the most sedate of the groups, deciding on which of their member would have to leave. In the end, it was a unanimous choice that Morda would be the one to leave.

On the day of the next challenge, Morda stepped forward boldly towards the Queen, bowing in the Dwarven fashion."Thank you for the opportunity to compete, my good lady. It has been a pleasure."

Athena dipped her head in the appropriate response. "As it has been a pleasure to have you in my home and sharing my hearth. Go by the will of the gods."

Morda departed and the others shuffled forward, still awkwardly remaining more or less in their teams, despite working singly now. The Queen smiled at the sight.

"I know it'll be hard to get used to work against your previous teammates," she said, relaxing back in the throne, "so I purposefully chose a more competitive challenge this time around to help you get into the spirit of things. It is... not a challenge I personally enjoy, though I have experienced success with it in the past..."

Her eyes misted over and took on a faraway look, remembering some distant past, then snapped back into focus as she looked at each challenger in turn. "Regardless of my own feelings, it is something of a tradition and the people expect it. In fact, I'm pretty sure many of them are anticipating it warmly, looking forward to the hoopla and the festivals, and the awarding of the winner..."

The Queen sighed and slumped back. "For the 10th challenge, and your first single challenge, you will all be competing in the traditional Challesian 'Showdown', which is something of a ritualized animal fight, and one of Challesia's most popular sporting events. The competition will be structured like a tournament, and held over the next weekend, which will give enough time for the stadium to be prepared and for everyone to get excited.

"I know that many of you have no experience in this field, but do not worry. The animals necessary for the tournament will be provided for you, and they are very good at taking orders. You can use the time leading up to the weekend to prepare and study, if you wish. Good luck, and have fun!"


Challenge 9
Showdown Random Battles​

What kind of Challenge would this be if there weren't Pokémon battling somewhere?

I was first introduced to the joys of random battling in Challenge 5 where I was basically voted in to lose against Keeper, only to somehow emerge victorious against him and went on to almost winning the whole kit and caboodle. The nice thing about random battling is that it takes away a lot of the pressure of building a competitive team, so even people who know absolutely nothing about competitive Pokémon battling (like me!) still stand a shot at winning.


Instructions:
  1. All challengers will compete in a Random Battle tournament via Pokémon Showdown. The official format used will be ORAS Single Random Battle. If you're not familiar with Pokémon Showdown, you can access their web client here. No downloads or sign-ups are necessary.
  2. The full bracket can be found below and will consist of 3 rounds. I aim to have each round completed within 3 days. Rounds will progress faster if people are quick about completing their matches. If you and your partner are having a difficult time meeting up and need an extension, feel free to ask. Because of this, there is no hard set deadline for match completion, but if people are dragging their feet, I will be forced to step in.
  3. It is up to you and your opponent to arrange your matches. Converse in this thread, PM, Skype, whatever, I don't care. You don't need to involve me in it either. However, if your opponent doesn't respond to you, please bring it up to me.
  4. Each round will be a "Best of 3". So the first person to win 2 games will progress to the next round of the competition. Post results and links to your rematches here in this thread.
  5. Players can use Scrolls of Summon Magical Assistant (SoSMA) to bring in other participants to help with battling. Please see the SoSMA section below for more details.
  6. There will be no elimination at the end of this challenge. Instead, an advantage in the next challenge will be awarded to the top 2 competitors, with the #1 challenger having a higher advantage than #2.

Official Bracket:

Round 2 information will be posted as soon as all matches in Round 1 have been completed. Hopefully this will be no later than Saturday, April 23rd. In any event, I'll keep you guys posted.


Scroll of Summon Magical Assistant: Use 6

(Each of you started with a number of Scrolls of Magical Assistant, a magic item that can be used to give you various advantages throughout the game. Each time a new use of the item is revealed, it will be posted about in the Update (like this section here and now), and also added to the OP for easy reference. Please Note: Each Scroll is single use only! Once you use a Scroll for any purpose it is used up and your total number of scrolls goes down by one. If you ever want to know how many scrolls you currently have available at any given point, feel free to ask.)

SoSMA 5: Summon Showdown Battler! (Challenge 10 only): If you cannot or don't want to complete in a particular round for any reason, you can spend a Scroll to have another person play your round for you. This may come in handy if you are allergic to Pokémon battles, or if you don't have the time to schedule a match, or you have a friend that's really good at randbats, or whatever. I don't judge.

The person you hire can be any PokéBeach member, even another player in this challenge, except for the player you are currently battling against. After all, you can't make anyone random battle against themselves; that's just way too weird.

This costs 1 SoSMA and works for 1 round only. If your chosen player wins and you want to have them battle for you in the next round, you must re-hire them and use another SoSMA.

If you have any questions about this particular use of SoSMA, please ask!


Good luck and have fun, everyone! Post or PM me if you have any questions.
 
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